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Friends of Green Spring Newsletter

Dedicated to the Opening of a new National Park
Vol. 2, No. 2, Spring 2004

Opening Green Spring feels real at last

After more than eight years of working to open Green Spring, the Friends are entering the fun part. "The devil is in the details," is an old adage. It's also where the fun is. For example, members of the Friends board have been talking to James City County officials to get some estimates to compare with what the National Park Service says it will cost to open Green Spring and to indicate how much public and/or private money we must raise before 2007.

Green Spring Colonial National Historical Park will need water and sewer lines to service the three small buildings of the visitor contact station. Lo and behold, JCC Service Authority General Manager Larry Foster and Planning Director Marvin Sowers say water is at the north end and sewer lines at the south. How convenient! Fresh water will flow down to the visitor station from Alternate Five and wastewater will flush down to the sewer line on Route Five. Foster says the cost for both lines will be $50-60,000, depending on the size of the water pipe.

Next, to Deputy Fire Marshall Mark Hill, who explained what the Fire Department recommends. A fire hydrant serviced by an 8-inch water line is best and doesn't cost much more than a 4-inch line when the ditch is dug. The new entry to Green Spring must be at least 20 feet wide and the parking lot big enough and strong enough to turn and hold a 75,000-pound fire engine. The woods must be cut back at least 50 feet from the visitor contact station in case of a brush fire, which easily could happen during a drought, as we have seen. Lucky again, the fire station is five minutes away.

What about dangerous, narrow Centerville Road through Green Spring? Steve Hicks, Resident Engineer for V-DOT, says "traffic calming" measures will be put in place, as called for in a resolution of the JCC Board of Supervisors. Left and right turn lanes would be built at the new entry about mid-way on the west side of Centerville at a cost of about $200,000. But, there is federal transportation enhancement grant money available. And, we will need support from the JCC Board Supervisors to be included in the next 6-year road-building request plan.

Discussions with prospective contractors for the 300- foot entry, parking lot and buildings are due next. The parking lot will have to accommodate cars, busses and a 28-foot fire engine turning radius. We also expect to have an estimate from the CNHP of what it says it will cost to open Green Spring. Soon, we will have two estimates and a mutually agreed target for fund-raising. All of which makes opening Green Spring seem real, and fun.

Congresswoman Davis needs help to fund Green Spring

Congresswoman Jo Ann S. Davis again is sponsoring legislation, termed an earmarked request, for $1.5 million to fund the opening of Green Spring. A similar request in 2003 went nowhere. Keep trying, is the counsel given us. By Washington standards, it is a pittance and it would amply cover the expected costs. The request is based on an approximation given to us by the Colonial National Historical Park.

Serious help from Senators John Warner and George Allen as sponsors eventually will be needed to get anywhere. As always, the crunch is on for money in Congress, but other Members get it for their states and Green Spring is completely worthy from a historic and recreational standpoint. Friends of Green Spring will staff it, not CNHP. This is normal, since thousands of volunteers help the under-funded, under-staffed National Park Service.

All we are asking is funding for Green Spring, which Congress recognized in 1936 as part of the Colonial National Historical Monument and a unit of the Colonial National Historical Park. Addresses of our three Members of Congress are: Congresswoman Jo Ann S. Davis, 1123 Longworth House; Office Building, Washington, DC 20510; Senator George Allen, 204 Russell Senate Office Building, Washington, DC 20515; Senator John Warner, 225 Russell Senate Office Building, Washington, DC 20515.

Friend of the Friends, Alec Gould, retiring

Superintendent Alec Gould is retiring June 3 as head of the Colonial National Historical Park after 41 years with the National Park Service. Superintendent Gould agreed in 1996 to initiate the process to produce a General Management Plan for opening Green Spring. Friends of Green Spring was incorporated in February 1997 as a result of his decision and a partnership began.

Without Superintendent Gould's support, Green Spring would have no prospect of opening. Now, we have a final GMP needing only a record of decision presentation to the public, hopefully before his retirement. The National Park Service, with Superintendent Gould's guidance, put major time and money into producing the GMP. Copies were sent to many Friends of Green Spring and Green Spring Park Watchers last year.

The choice of a permanent successor to Superintendent Gould will depend on whether his position is posted nationally or is filled by non-competitive appointment.

Will Berkeley Explains How A Colony Was Lost

After Capitulating to the Cromwell Government's Fleet in March, 1652, How did Governor Sir WIlliam Berkeley Explain to King Charles II that he had "Lost" Virginia to the Commonwealth?

By May of 1652 Sir William Berkeley found himself in early retirement, the Governorship of Virginia having passed to Richard Bennett, one of Parliament's three Commissioners. He also faced the unpleasant prospect of telling his Sovereign, young Charles II, why he had been forced to retire. In the following remarkable letter, Berkeley offers a rambling and obsequious apology for his failure to preserve Royal control of the Colony of Virginia.

GOVERNOR SIR WILLIAM BERKELEY'S APOLOGY TO KING CHARLES II FOR DELIVERING UP THE COLONY OF VIRGINIA TO THE REBELS (May 4TH, 1652)

May it please your Sacred Majesty

I must humbly throw my self at your Majesty's feet imploring your Majesty's pardon for delivering up your Majesty's Colony into the hands of your Enemies; which pardon I should never have the confidence to beg if there had been the least possibility of resistance: yet may it please your Majesty most confessedly true it is, that I could have destroyed the country with those forces I had, but preserve it I could not, for your Enemies took advantage of such a fatal conjuncture as animated all those who before were inclined to charge disheartened the Loyal party and made those that were indifferent fearfully and furiously cry out for any accommodation. This added to the uncertainty of where or in what condition your Majesty's Person was, which then we had not the least knowledge of, though since to out inexpressible joy we hear God has miraculously preserved from the hands of your Enemies and undoubtedly rescued your Majesty for most glorious fortunes, this uncertainty, may it please your Majesty, made the Council even petition me to consent to Articles of Surrender, lest as they said by destroying it your Majesty might lose those great businesses you will have from it when please God to restore your Majesty to your other Kingdoms: Because I am yet alive I dare not say twas in my wish rather to die than deliver up any thing your Majesty hath committed to my trust into the power of the Enemy but this I will most humbly and everlastingly profess that I will rather fly to your Majesty's justice for punishment if I have offended beyond pardon than live under or within the power of your Majesty's Enemies. Colonel Lovelace, who long and faithfully served your glorious father was an actor in and assistant to me in my last necessity. He will not dare to tell your Majesty any thing for or against my justification but what is of manifest truth: to his relation, I refer my innocence or guilt, ever praying God to preserve your Sacred Majesty, to give you Victory over your Enemies, to restore you to your Kingdoms and give you more in recompense of those your Majesty hath been so long kept from by your Enemies, thus ever prayeth

Your Majesty's most humble
Most faithful
Most obedient servant,
Subject, and Creature

Will Berkeley
Virginia, May the 4TH, 1652

*The original copy of this document is in Oxford University's Bodleian Library, and is available via microfilm from the Library of Virginia's Colonial Records Project (SR07379/Reel 636/Fikui 111)

Sir William knew that this letter would be personally delivered to the "Late King of Scots" now exiled in France by the Colonel (Francis) Lovelace mentioned in its text. A distant cousin and political ally of Berkeley's, Lovelace had been sent to Virginia by the King two years earlier to foment resistance against Cromwell's demands for the Colony's surrender. Berkeley undoubtedly believed that Lovelace, who would later serve as the second Royal Governor of New York (1668-1673), would provide Charles the Second with both credible and favorable first-hand testimony.

First Baptist Church guides Friend's tour

Among its many historic laurels, Green Spring is believed by First Baptist Church members to be the site of the first African-American Christian congregation in North America. Slaves were forbidden to hold Christian worship in the 18th century, so they met secretly at Green Spring Plantation.

Teachings of the Bible that all people are children of God, therefore, co-heirs with Christ, condemned ownership of one people by another. To slave owners that was revolutionary and unacceptable - and downright dangerous.

In January, five members of the Friends board of directors took advantage of a new tour program offered by the church under the direction of Deacon Robert Davis and Trustee Charles Purnell. Members welcome everyone to worship at the church and see its historic displays.

Early Explorers

Early explorers scratched the surface of Green Spring, but secrets remain

Installment Three of a report by CNHP archaeologist, Dr. Andrew Veech, reveals deposits from the Ludwell manor house, trash from the late 17th century and more about the terraced garden that fronted the manor.

In Spring 2002, a small excavation block was dug atop the Ludwell manor house's southwestern corner, at the junction of the manor house itself and several of the plantation's garden wall's. Several important observations were made as a result of this excavation:

1. Intact archeological deposits sill exist in this area of the site, despite the earlier extensive diggings by both Dimmick and Caywood. This means that there is still potential for important archeological insights to be made near to the manor house itself.
2. A layer of domestic trash was found directly atop the construction debris for the initial Ludwell manor house wing. This trash dates to the 1680s and 1690s, placing the construction of the manor house wing at a point just prior to that time. A likely scenario is that this manor house wing was built jointly by Frances Berkeley and Philip Ludwell I — shortly after their marriage and before their departure for Rich Neck plantation.
3. The northernmost, terminal pier of the grand, curlinear garden wall was found to abut, rather than adjoin, the colonnade of the Ludwell manor house wing. If we assume the colonnade to have been the brainchild of that wing's initial creators (i.e., Frances Berkeley and Philip Lubwell I), then the curvilinear garden wall must have been the product of some subsequent generation living at the estate. This strengthens assumptions that the grand, enclosed terraced garden described above was created by Philip Ludwell II, sometime between 1697 and 1727.

New members and renewals needed to fund $45K budget for 2004

Operating expenses for 2004 and a request from Dr. Andrew Veech to fund another William and Mary primary archaeology field school remind us that renewals and new memberships in the Friends of Green Spring are needed. Budget requirements for the year total $45,000.

One hundred supporters gave $35 to $2,000 for memberships in 2003. The gifts enabled the Friends to publish four newsletters reaching more than 500 on its mailing list, employ an administrative assistant, retain grant writing counsel, hold two major events and meet everyday expenses associated with opening Green Spring.

This year, our focus in on estimating the cost of opening Green Spring, raising the necessary money, obtaining cooperation from local, state and federal officials and supporting the final step in the General Management Plan for the park. As always, the Friends will attempt to broaden support for opening Green Spring by 2007.

News Briefs

Sign raises same old questions

As few have noticed, a historic sign at Richmond Road and Centerville reads: "On this road, five miles south, is Green Spring, home of Governor Sir William Berkeley. Bacon, the rebel, occupied it in 1676. Cornwallis, after moving from Williamsburg by this road on July 4, 1781, was attacked by Lafayette near Green Spring on July 6, 1781. Anthony Wayne was the hero of the fight." All of which raises the question: Why isn't Green Spring open to the public?

True believer continues support

When Friends of Green Spring had scarcely any money, Mrs. Lucretia Ottaway, national president of the National Society Colonial Daughters, stumped chapters throughout the nation to fund primary archaeology at Green Spring. She raised, and the Colonial Daughters sent, the Friends more than $31,000! The money later was provided to Dr. Andrew Veech and matched by the National Park Service. Mrs. Ottaway, who lives in Wichita, sent the Friends her personal check in February to continue the work at Green Spring.

Historic Route 5 Association and motherhood

Friends of the National Park Service for Green Spring, Inc. was born in February 1997 as an offspring of HR5A and drew its early sustenance from the association. This February the organization's Council sent a check for $250 to the Friends, representing a significant part of its small bank account. Friends board members and others also sent checks in January and February to supply 2004 operating money.

Riverside Health System support is crucial to recent HGS public relations initiatives

With the technical and financial support of Riverside Health System, the Executive Committee of The Friends of Green Spring is developing two long-anticipated fund- raising and outreach resources. The first of these is an 8 to 10 minute videotape to be shown to potential corporate and private donors, and the second is a professionally-designed "Historic Green Spring" website which will contain basic information about our project, as well as unique digitized data and "links" that will be of value to teachers and students of Virginia's history. During March and April a subcommittee of HSG EXCOM will be reviewing the draft of a videotape script prepared by Riverside public relations specialist Ron Reid, and will hold meetings with the managers of WebXemplar, the local firm that will be designing the HGS website.

Board of Directors:

OFFICERS
Daniel D. Lovelace
President
Randy Smith
Vice President
Donald S. Buckless
Treasurer
Robert W. Hershberger
Secretary
BOARD MEMBERS
Professor Warren M. Billings
Winnie Bryant
M/G Archie S. Cannon, Jr. (Ret.)
Rol Collins
Roger Guernsey
John Hamant
Loretta J. Hannum
Trist B. McConnell
Gayle K. Randol
Marc B. Sharp
Randy Smith
Richard G. Smith
Robert Taylor
Carol D. Tyrer
Jane Yerkes
ADVISORY COUNCIL
Clifford R. Williams
Chairman
David Ball
Sean K. Fitzpatrick
Hon. Jay T. Harrison, Sr.
Dr. James Horn
Julie Leverenz
Martha McCartney
Mary Minor
Hon. Thomas K. Norment, Jr.
Douglas Pons
Hon. Melanie L. Rapp
Timothy Sullivan

Friends of the National Park
Service for Green Spring, Inc.
P.O. Box 779, Williamsburg VA 23187
Phone: (757) 564-0255
Email: greenspring2@aol.com
Daniel Lovelace
Clifford R. Williams
Co-Editors

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