Haw Branch

About this property

Haw Branch is an historic plantation house located in Amelia County, Virginia, United States. The plantation was established by Thomas Tabb, a wealthy merchant who moved to Amelia from Gloucester County, Virginia in the mid 1730s. In 1745 he was taxed on a mansion house at Haw Branch, but actually lived at another plantation in Amelia County, called Clay Hill. Thomas Tabb represented Amelia County in the House of Burgesses and also served as sheriff, justice of the peace and Colonel of the Militia. After Tabb died in 1767, his son John Tabb inherited Haw Branch and built the current manor house, as well as increased Tabb holdings in Amelia to include eleven plantations. The younger Tabb also served in local office, as Colonel of the Militia, was one of eleven members of the Virginia Committee of Safety, and continued to serve in the Virginia House of Delegates. By Tabb's death in 1797, the total of his Amelia County holdings was nearly 25,000 acres and included Obslo, Doolittle, Grub Hill, Fairy Wood, Moulsons, Coxes, Clarks, Lortons, Wintercomack, Haw Branch and the home plantation, Clay Hill. Additionally, John Tabb owned Monk's Neck plantation in Dinwiddie County, commercial property in Petersburg, and partial ownership in a Liverpool trading firm named Rumbold, Walker, and Tabb. John Tabb's youngest daughter, Marianna Elizabeth Tabb inherited Haw Branch upon her father's death. At the time, the plantation consisted of approximately 1,780 acres. Marianna married William Jones Barksdale and in 1815 the two substantially modified the dwelling at Haw Branch to its current appearance. The remodeling was completed in 1818 and is substantiated by a date brick in the west chimney. William Jones Barksdale was the scion of William Barksdale, builder of Strawberry Bank in Petersburg. Strongly connected to England, William Jones Barksdale attended Eton and Cambridge for his education. Contemporary comments about Barksdale indicated frequent trips on business to Philadelphia, New York, London, and Paris. Furnishings from some of these trips remains in Haw Branch today including a hall table from the workshop of Duncan Phyfe. In 1827 Barksdale attempted to sell Haw Branch and leave Amelia County, for reasons unknown, but the auction was never held. At the time, the plantation included domestic (slave) houses, stables, a new threshing barn, six large tobacco barns, and 120 enslaved individuals. In 1837, William Jones Barksdale joined Abraham Warwick in a partnership to run the Gallego Mill in Richmond. The two built the largest flour mill in the south and built a fleet of 36 brigs to ship flour to foreign ports. Return cargo was primarily guano and coffee. By the 1850s Warwick & Barksdale was the nation's leading coffee importer and the second largest flour exporter.William Jones Barksdale and his wife Marianna moved from Haw Branch to the main family house Clay Hill, upon the death of her mother, Francis Cook Peyton Tabb ca. 1828. Francis Tabb was the widow of Col. John Tabb. Clay Hill remained the principle seat of the Tabb/Barksdale/Mason family until it burned in January of 1861. It is not known who occupied Haw Branch during the 1830s and 1840s but in 1852 the only Barksdale daughter, Sarah Harriet (Hal) Barksdale, married John Young Mason Jr., a purser in the U.S. Navy. The two resided at Haw Branch. John Young Mason Jr. died on November 14, 1862 at age 38. Harriet Mason continued living at Haw Branch through the Civil War. On April 5, 1865 Union cavalry rode to the plantation as part of the raid on Paineville Crossroads to locate and destroy a Confederate wagon train. According to family lore, Mrs. Mason informed the troopers she was quartering no Confederate soldiers or supplies. Before leaving, two cavalrymen backed a horse up to the smokehouse and "induced the horse to kick in the door". Taking several hams with them, the cavalry left. Sometime after the war one of the cavalrymen returned to Haw Branch to pay his respects to Mrs. Mason.

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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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