Rich Neck is an important early chapter in the history of Williamsburg. One of the founding plantations of the area known as Middle Plantation, the community that preceded Williamsburg, Rich Neck's architectural sophistication and elaborate layout set it apart from nearly all of its colonial neighbors. Started in 1636 by Richard Kemp, the Secretary of the Colony, the plantation had grown in size to over 4,000 acres by the middle of the seventeenth century. Richard Kemp and his wife Elizabeth built a dwelling (35' by 20') and a separate kitchen/quarter (19' by 24') sometime around 1643. The dwelling was a lobby entrance hall and parlor house that contained a central fireplace that divided the two downstairs rooms. Made entirely of brick, this house would have certainly stood out in 1640s Virginia. The kitchen/quarter, also made entirely of brick, contained a large hearth, a bake oven, and a large root cellar located in front of the hearth. This building appears to have had an earthen floor. Located between the house and kitchen was a formal space.

Richard Kemp died in 1650. In his will, he ordered Elizabeth to sell the plantation and return to England. She did neither, instead marrying Sir Thomas Lundsford, a refugee from the English Civil War.

After Thomas Lundsford's death, Elizabeth remarried and sometime around 1665, the property passed to the Secretary of the Colony, Thomas Ludwell who completely renovated the existing brick buildings and added several post buildings. Ludwell ripped out the central chimney in the dwelling, replacing it with matching end chimneys. He replaced the earthen floor with a wooden one, and added two rooms to the north side of the structure. The dwelling now measured 35' by 30'. Ludwell replaced the roof with one made of earthenware pan tiles.

At the same time he nearly tripled the kitchen/quarter in size (46' by 24'), adding matching wings to the north and south sides. These wings (14' by 24') each contained full cellars that employed a combination of bricks, glazed tiles, and clay in the fabrication of their floors. Each cellar was subdivided into three rooms - a large main room used mainly for storage, a smaller dairy, and a landing for stairs connected to the first floor. The cellars employed their own waterproofing/drainage system, with the eastern cellar containing two small brick-lined, tile-floored processing pits.

In addition, to the two brick structures, we have identified five post-in-the ground structures. Four of these structures appear to have housed slaves. Located north and west of the kitchen/quarter, these post structures measured 16' by 16', 16' by 20', 16' by 16', and 20' by 48'. The fifth structure dates to the Kemp period, measured 13' by 14', and appears to be an agricultural shed.


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