Page 73 [73]
OCR
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 generations, 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 abandoned. 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 ]
