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The dominant voice at last night’s hearing came from those wanting to see the two-story cannery building preserved for its potential historic significance.
Mount Pleasant was one of the earliest sites of English settlement in Piedmont Virginia. Located in what was then Spotsylvania County and later Orange County, the estate was part of a 4,675-acre parcel of land that had originally belonged to Colonel James Taylor, the surveyor of King William and King and Queen counties. In 1723 Taylor gave it to his two sons-in-law, Ambrose Madison and Thomas Chew, who cleared and built on it as the law required. In March or April 1732, Madison—the grandfather of the future U.S. president—moved his family into the overseer’s house, constructed around 17...
SUMMARY Ambrose Madison was a merchant and planter. The grandfather of President James Madison, he was murdered by three enslaved people shortly after moving to the estate that would become Montpelier. Born in King and Queen County, he acquired land and dealt in large sums of money from a young age. His father-in-law, a surveyor, had long been interested in the Piedmont region of Virginia and acquired land in the part of Spotsylvania County that later became Orange County. In 1723 he gave 4,675 acres to his two sons-in-law, including Madison, who sent a team of mostly enslaved people west to ...