HISTORY

Elsing Green is believed to be named for Elsing Hall, a  small country manor house in Norfolk, England, has a rich and diverse history traversing a span of three centuries.  Although many of the records concerning Elsing Green, were destroyed during the War Between the States, the following  is believed to be an accurate account of the history of  this Pamunkey River plantation.

In the seventeenth century the land was acquired by Colonel John West.  West was the family name of Lord Delaware, and the town of West Point  was  named for Colonel West.  The fine, small brick Jacobean lodge, now the East dependency of the manor house, was built by Colonel West before 1690.  Upon his death in 1692 Colonel West’s son Captain Nathaniel West, inherited  Elsing Green.  Captain West’s only child, Unity West, received Elsing Green as a Dower upon her marriage to Captain William Dandridge.  Dandridge, a member of the same family  as George Washington’s spouse, Martha Custis, was a captain in the British navy and  fought at Cartagina, St. Augustine and Savannah.

The Dandridges resided in  the Jacobean lodge until Captain West’s death at which time Unity, the sole heir, inherited her father’s fortunes.  It is believed that the Dandridges built the stately Queen Anne manor house and flanking kitchen with Unity’s inheritance sometime between 1715 and 1720.

Upon Unity’s death in 1753, Elsing Green was  sold to Carter Braxton who had been born at nearby Newington on the Mattaponi River.  Braxton served as a Burgess in Virginia’s General Assembly, attended the Revolutionary Convention, and was a signer of  the Declaration of Independence.

In the late eighteenth century, the plantation was sold to William Burnett Brown who is buried in the old family cemetery at Elsing Green.  Brown gave the property to his son-in-law William E. Claiborne, upon the condition that he change his name from Claiborne to Brown which  was accomplished by a special act of the General Assembly.  On December 16,1820, it was sold to William Gregory.  The Gregory family owned the plantation for over a century, eventually selling it to Beverly D. Causey in the mid-1930s.  By this time, however, the manor house and flanking buildings were in a deplorable condition, and the restoration efforts of the  Causeys  saved Elsing Green from  absolute ruin.

In 1950, Edgar R. Lafferty, Jr., and his wife, Margaret, purchased Elsing Green from Mr. And Mrs. Causey.  The Laffertys also brought to Elsing Green previously acquired, additional acreage substantially increasing the size of the plantation.  At great personal effort and expense, the family continued the restoration work initiated by the Causeys and are continuing to restore Elsing Green to its original, simple elegance.  This restoration is being done to preserve Elsing Green as a monument to America’s heritage and the founders and in honor of our nation’s past as well as its future.

The family is determined to permanently protect and preserve Elsing Green, its buildings and its furnishings.  To accomplish this purpose the family created The Lafferty Foundation to hold and preserve Elsing Green following Mr. Lafferty’s death.  The Lafferty Foundation maintains Elsing Green as an  historic Virginia plantation and wildlife refuge.  In addition, Elsing Green is  listed on the Virginia Landmarks Register and in the National  Register of Historic Places.  The Secretary of the Interior has designated Elsing Green as an  National Historic landmark.

In 1980, Mr. Lafferty granted a preservation easement on Elsing Green, and 2,454 acres of farmland, forest and  marsh land surrounding Elsing Green, to the Virginia Historic Landmarks Commission and the Virginia Outdoors Foundation.  These historic preservation easements not only  protect the property from demolition,  inappropriate change,   but  also  subdivision and commercial development in perpetuity.