Saturday, October 2, 2010

Adam Thoroughgood House

One of our days in Williamsburg, we took a road trip to Virginia Beach area to visit the Adam Thoroughgood House. My grandmother, in her genealogical pursuits, discovered that we are descendants of Adam Thoroughgood. (How many great-great-greats is it, Janet?) When we arrived, we were disappointed to discover that they are in the middle of doing some restoration work on the property. Armed with a picnic, and ready to state our genealogical ties and, therefore, our right to be on the property, we braved the construction fencing and meandered around back to explore a bit.


Adam Thoroughgood, the ninth son of a rector in England, came to America in 1622 as an indentured servant to pay for his passage. Upon completing his time of service, he went back to England but returned to America with a wife and 105 men. (Thank you, Wikipedia). He became a leading resident and landowner in VA Beach, and was even a member of the House of Burgess.



The grounds are really quite lovely. They are not the carefully manicured gardens of an English estate, but they have been planned out in a pleasant manner; the wildness and overgrowth of the area was not unbecoming.

4 comments:

Melinda said...

You are such an english major :) I cite as evidence your concluding paragraph of this blog post.

Love it :)

Marie W said...

Aw, thanks Lin. I love you!! And MISS you! Thank goodness Christmas is basically two months away.

Janet said...

I'm sure the Thoroughgoods appreciated your visit. Starting with you, Adam T is back 14 generations. The house was probably built by his grandson Adam abt. 1680. It will be interesting to see how they will restore it. Sarah found out that her history teacher is also one of Adam T's descendants!

David Smith said...

Thank you for this glimpse into the deep colonial background. The Google Earth label says the building dates from about 1719. You've whet my appetite to look at the museum's web-page.