Yorktown Timeline

YORKTOWN HISTORY

1634: Yorke Village on Wormeley Creek (now the U.S. Coast Guard Training Center) declared a Virginia port by the House of Burgesses.

1635: Nicholas Maritiau, a French Huguenot, receives a grant for property on the York River where he built a home and a fort.

1634: Yorke and Chiskiack Parishes become Charles River Shire; York County is established.

YorktownHistoryImage0011691: Yorktown was established by the Act for Ports of 1691. Fifty acres of Nicolas Martiau’s property was surveyed and laid out for the new town on the York River. Eighty-five lots laid out in the town of York by hired architect/surveyor Lawrence Smith of Gloucester.

X – Lot #43 was designated for the Custom House.

X – Lot # 24 was designated for the Court House.

 

1700 – 1750: Yorktown becomes the main port for the colony of Virginia.

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1720: Richard Ambler builds the Custom House, which is used to secure import and export taxes until the Revolution.

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1725: Secretary Nelson’s house built.

 

1776: Declaration of Independence adopted by Congress. Thomas Nelson Jr. of Yorktown was one of the signers.

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1781: In September and October, the combined American and French army traps Cornwallis at Yorktown. Cornwallis surrenders on October 19, 1781.

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1814: A great fire in Yorktown, beginning below the hill, destroys much of Yorktown, including the second Courthouse, which was built in 1733.

1861: Virginia secedes from the Union. Beginning of the Civil War in Virginia. Confederate forces build Fort Yorktown.

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1862: General George McClellan marches 120,000 troops from Ft. Monroe to Yorktown. Bolivar Sheilds, County Clerk of Court, hides the County records.

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McClellan’s men march into Yorktown – May 1862

1862-1865: Approximately 56,000 Confederate troops evacuate on May 3. The ensuing Battle of Williamsburg includes fighting in York County. Union forces occupy Yorktown till the end of the war.

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Union Troops and their ammunition, the largest amphibious operation seen up to that time.

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Main Street and the Custom House in 1862

February 1921: Meeting of the Yorktown Branch of the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities.

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MRS. CONWAY H.SHEILD

Directress 1921-1946

1930: Colonial National Monument established, becoming Colonial National Historical Park on June 5.

1989: Excavation of Martiau property and fort.

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May 2012: APVA/Preservation Virginia announces its intention to dissolve all of its local branches.

May 31, 2013: APVA/Preservation Virginia, Yorktown Branch, reforms as the Yorktown Preservation Society.

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