Wood’s Mill: an Overlooked Chapter of Gloucester Hall’s History

Gloucester County is home to many remarkable sites in Virginia’s history. One of these is Gloucester Hall, the 17th-century seat of the Pate family. It was here that Nathaniel Bacon the rebel and instigator of Bacon’s Rebellion (1676-1677) was said to have died. Although the boundaries of the 1650 patent for this property are known, archaeological study coupled with analysis of the historical record has yet to locate the site of this home. Fairfield Foundation has been investigating the historical landscapes of this section of the county in the hopes of picking up clues on the whereabouts of Gloucester Hall.

Over 100 years later, parts of the former Pate lands were owned by Lewis Wood, the namesake of Woods Crossroads. A mill on this property known as Wood’s Mill has recently been of interest. Due to the proximity of Wood’s Mill to Bacon’s Fort (believed to be the location of Gloucester Hall), we have considered this the logical location of Pate’s Mill. The Pate family of Gloucester Hall are believed to have managed a mill and landing at the southwestern extent of their lands. Historically, mills were not just used for grinding grains into flour or sawing wood, but were hubs of social activity. We are interested in any clues to suggest when this mill was first operated, when and why it ceased operating, and who worked at this place.

Above is a part of an application found in the Mutual Assurance Records. We stumbled upon this one by accident as it was nested within the VCRIS (Virginia Cultural Resources Information System) entry for Wood’s Ordinary at Woods Crossroads. See the original map just above a “remastered” version for easy reading.

In early November 2024, Fairfield staff had the opportunity to conduct a shoreline survey of the Poropotank River. In a fleet of canoes and kayaks, we followed the shoreline upstream and downstream, covering as much water as possible with the objective of recording the locations of archaeological and historic resources. Two of us ventured as far north as Woods Mill Swamp with the hopes of reaching the site of Wood’s Mill. Although we encountered a beaver dam and several fallen trees necessitating some traversing over land, we made it all the way up to the old mill.

The old mill pond is now brushy swampland with several channels of water flowing through.

Staff Archaeologist Evan Cabral standing atop the largest of the existing dam structures at the mill.

Old Woods Mill Road looking north towards Adner.

Wood’s Mill Swamp just below the dam.

Previous attempts to understand the anatomy of the mill were hindered due to the poorer quality of LiDAR imagery available at the time. We are now aware of a hillshade layer provided by the USGS which gives us a much clearer vision of the ground surface. Also, having boots on the ground allowed us to better interpret this data from a real-world perspective. Our crew readily identified an earthen dam structure crossing the ravine formed by Woods Mill Swamp. It seems that parts of the mill dam may have been washed out as seen in the below map as the existing three dam structures are non-contiguous. It is conceivable that the actual mill house as shown in the aforementioned Mutual Assurance Record may have been located in between two of these mounds of earth. Why were there so many openings in the dam? Watermills typically allowed two channels of water to pass through the dam. Firstly, a mill race was accompanied by a sluice to control the flow of water led to a wheel to turn the millstone. Secondly, an overflow channel or spillway was often necessary to ease pressure on the dam from the mill pond. We hope that more research may give us a better picture of how this mill ran, and perhaps even clues to the potential Pate management of the site.

Although there are many gaps in the historical record and we have not established a method to track this mill back to the Pate years, we have a fairly clear tale of who owned the mill after the Wood family. Below is a history of Wood’s Mill through Gloucester County’s Land Tax Books.

Although there are many gaps in the historical record and we have not established a method to track this mill back to the Pate years, we have a fairly clear tale of who owned the mill after the Wood family. Below is a history of Wood’s Mill through Gloucester County’s Land Tax Books.

John Wood
1803-1811 8.00 ac. [no description]

John Wood, dec’d/Estate
1812-1830 8.00 ac. “Mill Tract”

John Howlett
1831-1836 8.00 ac. “Mill Seat”

Falls & Elliott
1837-1839 8.00 ac. “Mill Seat”

William Chapman
1840-1845 8.00 ac. “Mill Seat” (6.25 ac. recorded in 1840)

Despite the mill’s apparent disappearance from the Land Tax Books after 1845, it very well could have been active for decades. One line of evidence is in the census. The 1860 census lists a neighbor of Dr. Thomas C. Clopton, owner of Bacon’s Fort in the mid-1800, as James H. South, whose occupation was “Mill Wright”. Furthermore, an 1885 map of schools in Petsworth Parish of Gloucester County depicts “Wood Mill” along with just enough squiggly lines to indicate a dammed body of water.

1885 Map of Petsworth School District by Robt. H. Franklin, Supt. We are holding out hope that maps of the other school districts of Gloucester County are out there somewhere!

An 1844 plat for a sale to Dr. Thomas C. Clopton (owner of Bacon’s Fort) uses a “Birch near mill race” as a point of reference (Plat Book 1, page 229).
This is located south of Old Woods Mill Road just south of the old mill.

This wonderful image of old shows what the Pates, Woods, Howletts, Cloptons, and countless others would have encountered while traversing this road. From the February 6, 1962 edition of Glo-Quips (Vol. 3, No. 3). Although there is much history left to uncover at this place, it was an exciting moment to stand atop the dam and consider its significance.