by Holly Horton
Providence, one of Middlesex County’s early architectural treasures, stands along the Piankatank River in the eastern part of the county. It is a fitting location for the Middlesex County Museum and Historical Society’s spring fundraiser, which is set for 2-4 p.m. Sunday, May 21. It will be an exciting and insightful educational opportunity.
Built around 1760, the original aspects of the one- and a half-storied colonial house include hand-hewn beams held together with wooden pegs, massive brick walls and five chimneys standing over an English basement. It is a testament to the achievements of early 18th-century architecture and colonial Tidewater Virginia.
The home has weathered the dangers of two wars. “During the Revolutionary War, British soldiers under Lord Dunmore camped on nearby Gwynn’s Island, raided the place but did no damage to the home,” reads a passage from “Historic Buildings in Middlesex County, Virginia 1650-1875.” “However, during the War Between the States it was shelled by a Union gunboat and a cannonball remains in a kitchen wall.” The speaker for the event, the Rev. Dr. Robert W. Prichard, will deliver a talk entitled “The Political, Economic and Religious State of Virginia in the 1760s.”
Middlesex County was at an important point of transition in the 1760s. Tobacco prices were in flux, owners of large plantations were losing the longtime hold that they had over political and economic life, a leading native of the country who had attained high political rank was embezzling large sums, the clergy of the established Church of England were at odds with their vestries over salaries, and some of their fellow clergy elsewhere in the colony were turning to courts for a resolution to their complaints. A growing number in the colony were becoming unsettled by the rising population of enslaved persons in the colony. An economic crisis and war against Britain were a decade away.
The Rev. Dr. Robert W. Prichard, professor emeritus of church history at the Virginia Theological Seminary is the current vice president of the Middlesex County Museum and Historical Society. Prichard is a graduate of Princeton University, Yale Divinity School and Emory University and has deep family roots in Middlesex County. He is a former president of the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church and is author or editor of 10 books, including “A History of the Episcopal Church” (1991, 1999, 2014, 2022 Spanish edition) and “A History of Church Schools in the Diocese of Virginia, Vol. 1” (1999).
The gathering will include appetizers and a cash bar. Providence is located at Two Bland Point Road, Deltaville. Tickets may be purchased on the website at middlesexmuseum.com or by emailing info@middlesexmuseum.com. The tickets are $35 for adults, $30 for members and $25 for students and will also be available the day of the event. All proceeds benefit the operation and educational outreach of our local museum that focuses on the history of Middlesex County.
Sponsorships are available for this event ($250) and provide inclusion to a private museum thank-you event in 2024 at another historic Middlesex home.
(Holly Horton is director of the Middlesex County Museum and Historical Society. Email her at Info@middlesexmuseum.com.)
