Prior to the arrival of the first white settlers, Native Americans of the Algonquin tribes hunted and fished on the grounds and waters bounding the Club property.

In the mid-eighteenth century the property was inherited by a relative in the then prominent Brooke family, who built a home thereon and named it Smithfield in honor of the original owner of the land.

Captain Jones, a citizen of Fredericksburg, appointed Laurence surgeon of the Bon Homme Richard and both participated in the famous engagement with the Serapis.

He escaped via Scotland and France, returned to Virginia, joined a volunteer troop of cavalry and was captured again at Westham, seven miles above Richmond.

In December 1862, Union troops crossed the Rappahannock near what is now the Spotsylvania County Industrial Park, and marched down the Richmond Stage Road (now State Route 2) toward what is now the Country Club.

A young Alabamian, Major John Pelham, CSA, in a daring and unorthodox move, brought a battery of artillery down from Hamilton's Crossing to a point near the intersection of what is now Tidewater Trail and Benchmark Road, just south of the clubhouse.

Many who fought over this ground, including Lee, Jackson, Longstreet, Burnside, Hooker, and Sumner, had a clear view of the mansion that is now the clubhouse.

In 1905, Captain Reginald Henley Conroy Vance, of New York, purchased Smithfield and added the current wings and white columns to the house.

The historic Mannsfield mansion, located on the current North Club subdivision, had burned to the ground January 1863, when southern troops mistakenly built their fire on a hardwood floor.

In 1925, after Captain Vance's death, the property was purchased by a group of Fredericksburg area citizens, who incorporated it as the Mannsfield Hall Country Club.

Unfortunately, with the advent of World War II, gasoline rationing, the shortage of supplies, and the departure of many young men and women to the military, circumstances required the corporation to be dissolved and the property sold at a public auction.

In 1961, another nine holes were added to the course, several greens relocated, new bunkers built, approaches contoured, and extensive landscaping enhancements undertaken.

On August 23, 2011, a 5.8 magnitude earthquake hit the central Virginia region damaging the 4 main chimneys of the original plantation house.