Corotoman

About this property

Corotoman was a 17th and 18th century plantation on the Rappahannock River in Lancaster County, Virginia, United States. Corotoman was the residence of Robert Carter I (1662/63 – 4 August 1732), a colonial Governor of Virginia and one of the wealthiest men in the Thirteen Colonies of North America. Corotoman was located on a point overlooking the Rappahannock River, and flanked by Carter's Creek and Corrotoman River to its east and west respectively. Corotoman was first inhabited by the Cuttatwomen Native American tribe several hundred years before the arrival of English colonists to Lancaster County, Virginia. John Carter I, the patriarch of the Carter family of Virginia, purchased and settled Corotoman between 1652 and 1653. Carter developed and improved the lands into a plantation and constructed the first structures on the property before his death in 1669. Carter's mansion, known as the "Old House", was built in the typical 17th century hall-parlor plan with a porch chamber. When his father died in 1670, John Carter Jr. inherited Corotoman, the family's main plantation, as the eldest son. John Carter Jr. died in 1690, possibly of malaria contracted three years earlier. His will also provided that his brother Robert Carter would receive the mill and other real estate if John's daughter Elizabeth did not have children—and in fact she died of measles in November 1693, shortly after her marriage to the son of Richmond County burgess (and Colonel) William Lloyd, and that estate became subject to litigation. Corotoman was then inherited by John Carter Jr.'s brother Robert Carter I (whose wealth and autocratic business methods led to his becoming known by the nickname "King") in 1690. Under Robert Carter I's ownership, Corotoman became the center of what developed into a 300,000-acre (1,200 km2) estate of 48 plantations and farms, including the settlements of Indian Town and Hills Quarters. Robert Carter began construction of the large Georgian plantation house at Corotoman around 1720. The house was completed in 1725 and introduced a new era for early 18th-century architecture in Virginia. Corotoman also set the pattern for 18th-century architectural patronage. The mansion at Corotoman rivaled the other important Colonial mansions of Virginia and affirmed Robert Carter I's status as the most powerful planter in the aristocracy of the Tidewater region. Carter's correspondence and diary reveal that the construction of the mansion at Corotoman was a lengthy, complex, and frustrating endeavor. Construction materials for the mansion included paving stones from England, lumber from his plantation saw mills and from neighboring plantations, and oyster shells for mortar. For some of the mansion's windows, Carter used iron casement frames for quarrel glass. To undertake the mansion's construction, Carter imported skilled indentured servants from England and hired local craftsmen.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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