THE PLANTATIONS
Last update on: 15 April, 2012
Benjamin Harrison's IV's
Granddaughter

Jane Pleasants Harrison Osborne
(1776-1836)

3rd Great-Grandmother

(copy of an actual silhouette)
Back view to the James River
The first official Thanksgiving was celebrated here in 1619
The good ship Margaret set sail
from Bristol England
near Berkley Castle
September 5, 1619
on the high seas 90 days. 
Arriving at Berkley
December 4, 1619.
Weight:  40 tons,
38 passengers
plus a crew of eight.
Sherwood Forest Plantation

Was contained in a 1616 land grant, and known originally as Smith's Hundred.
The Plantation  has the distinction of being owned by two US. Presidents;
William Henry Harrison, 9th President, inherited the plantation
in the late 18th century. 

The plantation had several owners until President John Tyler purchased it and
its 1600 acres in 1842.  The length of the house is 300 ft.
and has a 68-foot ballroom designed for dancing the Virginia Reel.
Berkley Plantation
Ancestral home of the Benjamin Harrison Families
Virginia's James River Plantations
are located between Richmond & Williamsberg, VA

The Berkley Hundred Plantation

Benjamin Harrison IV (5th great-grandfather), inherited Berkley
from his father and built the main house in 1726 of brick fired on the planation.
It occupies a beautifully landscaped hilltop site overlooking
the historic James River.  The initials of Benjamin IV and his wife Anne,
appear in a date-stone over a side door and can still be seen today. 
Benjamin IV had six sons and four daughters. He along with two of his daughters,
were killed when they were strucked by lighting here at Berkley in 1745.

In colonial Virginia, five successive generations of Benjamin Harrisons' (1632-1790) complied almost identical records as gentlemen of education and wealth,
burgesses, councilors, and militia colonels.

Berkley was the birthplace of the signer of the Declaration of Independence,
Benjamin V, and William Henry Harrison, (Benjamin  IV - 3rd son),
was the famous Indian fighter known as "Tippecanoe," who later became
the 9th President of the United States in 1841.

His grandson, Benjamin Harrison, was the 23rd President.
"South How I Love Thee"
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Some very
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