Below is the official press release regarding the dedication of the Gloucester Hall historical highway marker. The release was sent to the Associated Press and many media outlets in the state and local area. To date, a total of $450 has been donated toward the cost of the marker by 10 contributors. Two of the contributors gave very generous donations of $100 each, comprising almost half of the total receipts. I am grateful to all the contributors for their generosity. For any who plan to attend the dedication, please send me an email giving me the names of those in your party with their city/state and cellphone numbers. By October 21, I will send a list of all attendees, with the above information, to those who will be at the dedication. A. J. Pate __________________________________________ Department of Historic Resources (www.dhr.virginia.gov) For Immediate Release October 10, 2012 Contact: Randy Jones Department of Historic Resources 540.578-3031 (cell) Randy.Jones@dhr.virginia.gov. State Historical Highway Marker “Gloucester Hall” To Be Dedicated —Marker commemorates the plantation where Gloucester Hall once stood, the first Virginia residence of Royal Governor Francis Howard, and where Nathaniel Bacon died in 1676 — —The marker’s text is reproduced below— RICHMOND – A state historical marker issued by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources to commemorate the now-vanished 17th-century manor house Gloucester Hall will be dedicated in Gloucester County later this month. The dedication and unveiling of the new “Gloucester Hall” marker will begin at 1 p.m., Friday, October 26, at the sign’s location near the intersection of US 17/Va. 14 (George Washington Memorial Highway) and Bacons Fort Road, about 7.5 miles northwest of the Town of Gloucester. Keynote remarks during the ceremony will be provided by Dr. Warren M. Billings, a visiting professor at the College of William & Mary, and a historian, author, and editor of several books on early colonial Virginia history including The Papers of Francis Howard, Baron Howard of Effingham, 1643-1695 and Virginia's Viceroy, Their Majesties' Governor General, Francis Howard, Baron Howard of Effingham. Others speakers will be David Brown and Thane Harpole, archaeologists and co-directors of The Fairfield Foundation; A. J. Pate, sponsor of the marker; the Rev. Theodore H. McConnell, interim rector of Ware Episcopal Church in Gloucester, and a representative of the Department of Historic Resources (DHR). Gloucester Hall was built around the 1660s by Col. John Pate on his 2,100-acre plantation, which he inherited in 1672. In 1676, Nathaniel Bacon, the leader of an uprising of colonial frontiersmen and planters against Native Americans and the colony’s authorities, which came to be known as Bacon’s Rebellion, died at Gloucester Hall of a fatal illness that “effectively ended” the rebellion, according to the marker. The house also served in 1684 “as the first Virginia residence of Royal Governor Francis Howard, baron Howard of Effingham, whose wife, Lady Philadelphia Pelham Howard, died there in 1685,” in the marker’s words. Virginia’s historical highway marker program, which began in 1927 with the installation of the first historical markers along U.S. Route 1, is considered the oldest such program in the nation. Currently there are more than 2,200 official state markers, most maintained by the Virginia Department of Transportation, as well as by local partners in jurisdictions outside of VDOT’s authority. Text of the marker: Gloucester Hall Near here stood Gloucester Hall (built ca. 1660s), where Bacon’s Rebellion effectively ended with the fatal illness of its leader, Nathaniel Bacon, in 1676. In 1684, this house served as the first Virginia residence of Royal Governor Francis Howard, baron Howard of Effingham, whose wife, Lady Philadelphia Pelham Howard, died there in 1685. Col. John Pate, a member of the Council of State, built the house on his 2,100-acre plantation, including 1,141 acres that his uncle Richard Pate had patented in 1650. Col. Thomas Pate inherited the plantation in 1672. Both Richard Pate and Col. Thomas Pate represented Gloucester County in the House of Burgesses. ###