Colonial Williamsburg - History of Williamsburg

History of Williamsburg

The statehouse (capitol building) in Jamestown, Virginia burned on October 20, 1698. The legislators found themselves meeting at Middle Plantation. In 1699, in a meeting held by the colonists, a group of students from The College of William & Mary submitted a proposal to move the capital to Middle Plantation, to escape malaria and mosquitoes that plagued the Jamestown Island site. The capital of the Virginia Colony was relocated to Middle Plantation. Middle Plantation was renamed Williamsburg by Royal Governor Francis Nicholson, proponent of the change, in honor of King William III. The new site was described by Nicholson as a place where "clear and crystal springs burst from the champagne soil" and was seen as a vision of future utopia. He had the city surveyed and a plan laid out by Theodorick Bland taking into consideration the fine brick College Building and Bruton Parish Church. The main street was named Duke of Gloucester after the eldest son of Queen Anne.

At the time the main street was rechristened after the Duke of Gloucester, it was a simple horse path that veered through a set of swampy ravines and was obstructed at one point by houses and an oven. On April 27, 1704, Francis Nicholson asked the House of Burgesses to allow purchase of four old homes on the site so they could be demolished. On May 5, Henry Cary and his workers tore the homes down, and gave the owner of the property, Col. John Page, £5 and let him have the bricks from the razed homes. The transaction may be the first documented condemnation proceeding in American history.

For most of the 18th century, Williamsburg was the center of government, education and culture in the Colony of Virginia. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, James Monroe, James Madison, George Wythe, Peyton Randolph, and others molded democracy in the Commonwealth of Virginia and the United States here. During the American Revolutionary War, in 1780, the capital of Virginia was moved to Richmond, about 55 miles (90 km) west for security reasons, where it remains today.