Stranica 73 [73]
HisToric GARDENS OF -VIRGINIA
— ie — a
—— oe = e = — ee a ee ee
and we have the old paper of 1636, in which it is repatented to
her by Governor John West. She later became Lady Harvey.
Its next owner was the picturesque William Barker, mariner, who
sailed the seas in the Merchant s Hope, and was one of a company
to found the old plantation, courthouse and church of that name,
along with one Quiney, whose brother, Thomas, married Judith
Shakespeare—not uninteresting are these links with Old England.
Barker’s descendants divided the land into three parts, and
one of these corresponds to the site of the present house. It was
described in 1673 as the share falling to his daughter, Sarah
Lucy, “with houseing, fenceing, buildings and all other profits,
vantages and priveledges whatsoever to the same belonging —
surely this includes a garden!
Joshua Poythress I bought Flower de Hundred in 1725 and
1732 from the various heirs of John Taylor, and it is still the
property of his direct descendants of the seventh and eighth genera¬
tions, that part on which the house and garden stand being owned
by Dr. William Willcox Dunn, of Richmond, Virginia.
The Poythress house is thought to have been on a bluft near
the river, close to the burying ground. Certain it is, that here
one still finds old brick and clumps of blue flags and traces of other
garden flowers. This brick house was burned and its site aban¬
doned. Susannah. Peachy Poythress, only daughter and sole heiress
of Joshua Poythress III, was born at Flower de Hundred in
1785 and was buried there in 1815. She married John Vaughan
Willcox, of Charles City County and Petersburg, in 1894, at which
time they built the present house—a white wooden structure—on
a rolling bit of ground, back from the river and, as has been said,
doubtless already an old site and homestead.
It was never their home, but was often visited; the plantation
was under full cultivation, and she must have known and loved
the present garden. Later, her son came to live here and added
wings to either end of the house. His children, in turn, built other
wings. His wife was the moving spirit in making the garden a
[44 ]