Eltham, Virginia

Captain William Bassett[1] (1630 to August 28, 1671) was from the Isle of Wight in England, and was given a contract to build a fort at Jamestown, Virginia.

His son was George Washington Bassett, and his wife, Bettie Carter Brown, then inherited the plantation.

[6] Eltham Plantation was owned by William Burwell Bassett and his wife, Anna Maria Dandridge, the sister of Martha Washington.

Martha's husband, General George Washington galloped from Yorktown to Eltham on November 5, 1781, to the bedside of his stepson, John Parke Custis, who had contracted camp fever during the Yorktown Campaign and subsequently died at the Pamunkey River plantation.

Eltham Landing played a prominent role for Union forces as a port during the 1862 Peninsula Campaign of the American Civil War.