Red, white and blue bunting draped on the fence around the historic Thoroughgood House in Virginia Beach last week as a group gathered for the unveiling of a plaque commemorating events of the Revolutionary War.
The unveiling was part of VA250, a commission honoring Virginia’s role in the nation’s history leading up to the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Under a tent on the lawn, historian Jorja Jean delivered a lecture to women wearing glittering pins and Sunday hats, many of them members of Daughters of the American Revolution. Four local chapters of the organization commissioned the plaque to recognize the members of the Thoroughgood family who participated in the Revolution.
Other attendees wore period costumes: the sun caught in the synthetic white hair of a woman’s wig curled in a Colonial style. A man in a three-cornered hat filled the air with the percussive tones of the hammered dulcimer, an 18th century string instrument. Another man leaned a musket against a tree.
The plaque was based on new research compiled by Jean that confirmed brothers who lived in the house, John, Mitchell and Thomas Thorowgood, served in revolutionary militias. Their cousins John Jr. and Lemuel led militias and, along with another cousin William, were imprisoned by the British.
The family’s name is spelled Thorowgood in some historical records.
“Three of the men who lived here were patriots, and Princess Anne County was a Loyalist stronghold,” said Florence Reese, past regent of a local Daughters of the American Revolution chapter. “It was very dangerous to be a patriot.”
The main membership requirement for Daughters of the Revolution is to be descended from someone considered a patriot — a person who participated in the cause of American Independence. The organization promotes history, public service and patriotism.
The plaque also commemorates eight people enslaved by the Thorowgoods who escaped after Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation, which freed enslaved people and servants willing to fight for the British.
A display in the Thoroughgood House Education Center — a small museum built next to the house — featured a reproduction of a 1775 Virginia Gazette report that said Dunmore recruited about 2,000 men from Norfolk and Princess Anne counties. Members of the “black regiment” wore shirts stitched with the phrase “Liberty to Slaves.”
George Wise was one enslaved Black man who escaped the Thorowgoods around 1775. He and his family later boarded a ship to Nova Scotia in 1784, where the British allotted Black Loyalists 40 acres of land instead of the 100 acres given to white Loyalists. Wise’s son joined the British in the War of 1812 and eventually immigrated to Liverpool.
Wise would have been enslaved around the same time vestry records indicate Lynnhaven Parish, now known as Old Donation Church, sold a woman named Rachal. She was possibly purchased and later freed by the Thorowgoods. The Thorowgoods also helped establish the church. Old Donation Church recently created a scholarship in Rachal’s name as reparations.
Bracketed by magnolia trees, the Thoroughgood House is a National Historic Landmark as one of the oldest surviving colonial homes in Virginia Beach. It was likely built in 1719 by Argall Thorowgood II and later finished by his son John. The house and museum are open to visitors.
