Buckingham Houses: Locust Dale, Part III

Dwelling house at Locust Dale, 1930.  Courtesy Ruby Agee.

Need to catch up?  Click here: Buckingham Houses: Locust Dale, Part I

In 1799, when Locust Dale was sold to James Ramsey, Peter Guerrant, Jr. (1737-1819) was likely the owner. By 1813/1814, Pierre Guerrant, Jr. was a non-resident of Buckingham County. He died in Kentucky in 1819. He also had a son called Peter, who might have owned or resided on the Locust Dale property.

The land left to Peter Guerrant, Jr. by his father was described as “lying and being on Hunts Creek, one of the branches of Slate River,” which is the rough location of Locust Dale.

Ramsey did not own the property long and it was the Brooks family, beginning with Vincent Reid Brooks, who would become the long time owners of Locust Dale and the historic house. In 1937, when Elizabeth McCraw surveyed the property for the Virginia Historical Inventory, she described the house as follows:

Just back from the highway in a grove of locust trees is the story and a half house. A narrow flagstone walk leads from the front gate to the house. The unpainted beaded weatherboarding on the house is noticeable as one approaches. Through a one story porch one enters a large front room which is about twenty square feet. The side walls are ceiled with planks fourteen inches wide. The ceiling is unfinished, that is, the sleepers are left showing. The ceiling is twelve feet high. From a small hall in the back of the house a narrow cased-in stairway leads to the second floor. The two rooms here are half story ones, lighted by gable windows. On several of the six panel doors the original hand latches are to be seen.

Mrs. McCraw continued, “The present owner says she always understood from her father V. R. Brooks, Jr., that the house was built by either Guerrant or Ramsey. The house is about as it was when her grandfather bought it from Ramsey in 1804.”

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As with so many early Virginia families, names were often repeated by the Guerrants. This line included several men named Pierre or Peter. Can anyone knowledgeable about the Guerrant family further untangle these Peters? I descend from Magelene (Guerrant) Moseley, daughter of Pierre Guerrant Sr. and his wife, Magdalene Trabue, and am particularly curious!

Coming Next: Buckingham Houses: Locust Dale, Part IV