from The Leland Family of Virginia, 1740-1940
"It was named for the Cypress trees bordering the drive. The house,
built after the war of 1812 to replace a finer one destroyed by the British
when they bombarded the shores of the Potomac and Washington, D.C., is
32 x 60 with a hall extending through the width of the building, and a
circular stairway leading from the first to the third floor. It is
one of the few houses in Virginia with a circular stairway. There
were ground floor and second story porches butthey have disappeared along
with the shutters. The slave quarters are gone but the smoke house
is still in a good state. The Cowart family lived there after the
Lelands left in 1836 and Miss Virginia Cowart and her brother, born there
in the 1840's were still living in the vicinity in 1922."
"Baldwin Mathews Leland was a lawyer and a planter. He furnished
supplies for the United States Army in the War of 1812. He and his
first wife are buried in unmarked graves in the burying ground on the farm.
Her mother Mary Jamieson Haggoman is also buried there. The graveyard
is badly overgrown but two slabs are visible, Thomas Banks died 1684, and
William Keene died 1697. They both married the same woman. She evidently
outlived her two husbands and was not given a stone."
Additional research:
Elizabeth Rogers, daughter of Capt. John Rogers was the wife of
William Keene & Thomas Banks. Baldwin Mathews Leland bought Cypress
farm about 1806 from Lettice Lee, who had inherited from her father Richard
Lee. He had purchased the land from William Keene.
Baldwin did not file a claim for the damage by the British until
1828, the claim was never approved, the last mention I could discover was
in December of 1831.
|
|