SANKOFA'S SLAVERY DATA COLLECTION
Pleasant Hill Plantation
Location: Nottoway Co., VA
Constructed: 1780
History: In 1780 William Irby moved to Nottoway County, Virginia, from Sussex County and built the house at Pleasant Hill. William Irby was married twice; first to Jane Edmunds, and later to Elizabeth Williams, daughter of Thomas Roper Williams, of Nottoway. His son by the second marriage, William Blunt Irby, married Sarah Washington Stith, daughter of Major John Stith, a soldier of the Revolutionary War, who served on General Lafayette's Staff. She was the granddaughter of Lawrence Washington, of Chotank, King George County, Virginia, a cousin of General George Washington. They had ten children, five sons, John, Freeman, Edward, George and Walter, and five daughters, Elizabeth Anne, Sarah, Virginia, Mary Frances and Minerva. Two of the sons, John and Edward were physicians and went south to practice their profession.
In January, 1852, Dr. Burke (husband of sibling Sarah) wrote his brother-in-law, Dr. John W. Irby in Mississippi. "The Southside Railroad which you know is to be run from Petersburg to Lynchburg is getting on very well and is now in full operation from Blacks and Whites to Petersburg, and will be by the first of February completed to Nottoway Court House." William Blunt Irby was 61 years of age when the War Between the States began. A son, Freeman Irby served in the Mississippi Legislature during this period. Dr. John Irby married Martha Taylor, Nov. 24, 1843, and moved to Panola County, Mississippi, in 1848. William Blunt Irby was a very methodical man; he directed his servants and affairs of the plantation with military exactness. His farm account is still in existence (according to the book: Old Homes & Families of Nottoway).
Associated surnames: Irby
Associates Plantations: (Freeman) Irby's Place (Panola Co., MS)
Associated Free White Names
Associated Black Slave Names
Slaves of Pleasant Hill Plantation
Contributed by Leslie L. Lester
- Big Lou
- son E.W. Irby
- son Edwin Irby
- other children
Agriculture
Description of Associated Architecture
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