Introduction > Name Index > Place Index > Martin's Brandon

Martin's Brandon (see also Merchants Hope)

Martin's Brandon was formed from the parish of Weynoke where Charles Sparrow and Richard Tye received land for headrights grants including John Blackard in 1650. Prince George County was the part of Charles City County south of the James River before 1704.

"William Barker was a mariner and one of the proprietors of "Martins Brandon" now Prince George Co. Virginia. "

"Robert Lucy was married to the Sarah Barker the daughter of William Barker who founded Merchant's Hope plantation"

"Prince George is also the home of the oldest Episcopalian church still standing and still being used as a house of worship in America. Merchants Hope Church was completed in 1657 and was named after the Merchants Hope Plantation which was located west of Martin's Brandon."

"The lower section of Weyanoke Parish was cut off to form the Parish of Martin's Brandon…"

"The final establishment of Martin's Brandon as a separate parish was brought about by a Charles City court order of 4 June 1655, issued under authority of the General Assembly. The order read: "'… according to a former order of the assembly that Martin's Brandon Neck vidzt from Ward's Creek to Chepokes Creeke and the inhabitants therein shall henceforth be an absolute pish (parish) of themselves with all of the immunities and privileges of a pish without relacon toWeynoke pish or any other pish.'

"Martin's Brandon also had a church building about the time Merchant's Hope was built, but it must have been in poor condition because two substantial bequests for its repair were made. John Sadler, one of the owners of the plantation, in a will dated 11 December 1658, left 20 pounds to Master Charles Sparrowe 'and one of the chieftest of the parishioners' of the parish of Martin's Brandon to repair the church and parsonage. John Westhope, also, left a large sum of money and tobacco for the same purpose.'

"The last known Martin's Brandon church stood in the present village of Burrowsville, about three-eighths of a mile east of Ward's Creek on the south side of Route 10, nearly opposite the existing Brandon Episcopal Church. A field still called Church Pasture, about 100 yards southeast of the road leading into Brandon Plantation and less than one-fourth mile southeast of a small branch of Upper Chippokes Creek is believed by many students of Colonial history to have been the site of the original church."

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