HISTORIC PIDDLIN' IN A CORNFIELD

 

Many of you know that I have a propensity for piddlin. One of the thing I like about Piddlin’ is you never know what you might find around the bend. A few days ago, when I was out piddlin in Virginia’s Northern Neck I visited a Historical Site that not many people even know it exist.  Now, I had previously visited the more well-known historical site here, places like Stratford Hall the Birthplace of Robert E. Lee, and George Washington’s Birthplace on Pope’s Creek. 

Well, on this particular day, I didn’t really have a plan. I was just driving around looking for Brown Signs and seeing what I could find. While I was having lunch at one of the local café’s I was chatting with a couple of gentlemen sitting at a nearby table. I told them I was looking for history and they told me about a couple of local museums in Warsaw in King George. Then one fellow said, “You might want to check out the Burnt House Field. It’s off the beaten path but if you like history you might find it interesting.”

After they left, I did a little research and quickly realized that I had to check it out. So, away I went and a little over an hour later, I found myself in the middle of a cornfield. Here in this cornfield is a small graveyard protected by a brick wall and an iron gate. 

What is so special about this small cemetery in the middle of a 100-acre cornfield? Well, let me tell you. This was the site of Mount Pleasant, the ancestral home of one of Virginia’s Most prominent and historic Families. The Lee Family of Virginia. 

GRAVE OF RICHARD "THE SCHOLAR"

Mount Pleasant was built in the late 1600’s and was the home of Colonel Richard Lee and his wife Laetitia Corbin Lee. Laetitia died in 1706 while Richard Lived until 1714. Richard had one of the largest libraries in the Colony of Virginia, and he spent his entire life reading studying and writing in Greek, Hebrew, or Latin. It was because of this that he was known as "Richard the scholar" Richard and Laetitia were laid to rest here in what was the garden of their Mount Pleasant Home.

 

GRAVE OF THOMAS LEE

Their son Thomas Lee inherited Mount Pleasant and when it burnt to the ground in 1726, Thomas began construction of Stratford Hall a few miles away.  It was at Stratford Hall that Richard Henry Lee and Francis Lightfoot Lee were born and a generation or two later General Robert E. Lee was also born there. 

These two brothers, Richard Henry and Francis Lightfoot, would be leading voices in the colonies’ fight for independence. It was Richard Henry Lee, as a representative in the Continental Congress, that put forth the motion that declared our independence from Great Britain. His motion read in part, “Be it resolved, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.”  A few years later when it came time to sign the Declaration of Independence, Richard Henry Lee and his brother Francis Lightfoot Lee were

GRAVE OF RICHARD HENRY LEE

the only bothers to sign the Declaration of Independence. Richard Henry Lee went on to be elected the 6^th president of Congress under the Articles of Confederation, serving from January 11, 1785, until November 23, 1785. Richard Henry Lee died on June 19, 1794, and is buried here with his parents, Colonel Thomas Lee and Hannah Harrison Lee. Also buried here is George Lee and his first with Judith and his second wife Anne. who was the widow of Lawrence Washington, the ½ Brother of George Washington. Now one more question that you are bound to ask. Why the name “Burnt House Field.”  Well, you see after the original house burned in 1726, people began referring to this small graveyard as “The Graveyard in the Burnt House Field.” Today resting here in what was once the gardens at Mount Pleasant are several members of the Lee Family resting here including: 

Richard Lee and his wife & Laetitia Lee (Grandparents of Richard Henry and Francis Lightfoot Lee)

Colonel Thomas Lee and his wife Hannah (builder of Stratford Hall)

Richard Henry Lee (Signer of the Declaration of Independence)

George Lee, His first wife Judith and his second wife Anne (widow of Lawrence Washington) 

Wow, what a day this was. Sometimes piddlin’ really pays off and today was one of those days. Who would have ever thought that I would find so much History in the Middle of a cornfield in rural Westmoreland County Virginia.