Eltham, Virginia

Eltham is a small unincorporated community in New Kent County, Virginia, United States. Located along state routes 30, 33, and 249 in modern times, it is slightly west of the town of West Point. It was named for Eltham Plantation, across from West Point on the nearby Pamunkey River. 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.^[1]

Eltham Landing played a prominent role for Union forces as a port during the 1862 Peninsula Campaign of the American Civil War. The manor house was destroyed by fire in 1876. The New Kent - Charles City Chronicle is published here.^[2]

References

Municipalities and communities of New Kent County, Virginia, United States
County seat: New Kent
CDP	New Kent
Unincorporated communities	Barhamsville Bottoms Bridge Browns Corner Carps Corner Chickahominy Shores Crumps Mill Cumberland Landing Eltham Hampstead Holly Forks Lanexa Mountcastle Orapax Farms Osborn Landing Ozenic Plum Point Poplar Grove Potaucao Providence Forge Putneys Mill Quinton Slaterville Talleysville Tunstall Walkers Waterloo White House White Oak Landing Wrights Corner

Coordinates: 37°31′26″N 76°49′34″W / 37.52389°N 76.82611°W / 37.52389; -76.82611