After the acquisition, rebranding, and merger of Tuttle Farm in Dover, New Hampshire, Shirley Plantation received the title of the oldest business continuously operating in the United States.

[6] Several years later, John Rolfe wrote A True Relation of the State of Virginia left by Sir Thomas Dale Knight in May last 1616.

[6]: 10  The younger Hill sided with Governor William Berkeley, and Bacon's rebels plundered the property, perhaps in part because the King's commissioners who later examined the rebellion found him to be "the most hated man of all the county where he lived".

When he died in 1742, his widow remarried Bowler Cocke, who represented nearby Henrico County and helped raise the heir, future burgess, and patriot Charles Hill Carter (1732–1806).

[10] Anne Hill Carter was born at Shirley, who on June 18, 1793, married Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee in the mansion's parlor.

In mid-1979 and mid-1980, teams of archaeologists from the College of William and Mary excavated the site of Hill house, the slave quarters constructed c. 1843, and indigenous settlements predating European colonization.

[citation needed] The three-story "Great House" is constructed in the Georgian style with red brick walls and white trim boards on a square foundation.

The house has no actual front door, as both the riverside and courtyard side entrances have a two-story portico with Doric columns supporting a pediment.

Inside the main hall, the house's famous carved walnut "floating" or "flying" cantilevered staircase rises for three stories without visible means of support and is the only one of its kind in America.