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Berkeley Hundred in the Virginia Colony was comprised of about eight thousand acres on the north bank of the James River near Herring Creek in an area then known as Charles Cittie (sic). It was named for one of the original founders, Richard Berkeley. In 1619, Berkeley Hundred was the site of America's first Thanksgiving Day. It later became known as Berkeley Plantation, and was long the traditional home of the Harrison family, one of the First Families of Virginia.

Berkeley Hundred was a land grant in 1618 of the Virginia Company of London to Sir William Throckmorton, Sir George Yeardley, George Thorpe, Richard Berkeley, and John Smyth (1567-1641) of Nibley. Smyth was also the historian of the Berkeley group, collecting over 60 documents relating to the settlement of Virginia between 1613 and 1634 which have survived to modern times. [1]

In 1619, the ship Margaret of Bristol, England sailed for Virginia under Captain John Woodleefe (Woodliffe) [2] and brought thirty-five settlers to the new Town and Hundred of Berkeley. The proprietors instructed the settlers of "the day of our ships arrival . . . shall be yearly and perpetually kept as a day of Thanksgiving." The Margaret landed her passengers at Berkeley Hundred on December 4, 1619. The settlers did indeed celebrate a day of "Thanksgiving", establishing the tradition a year and 17 days before the Pilgrims arrived aboard the Mayflower at Plymouth, Massachusetts to establish their Thanksgiving Day in 1620. [3]

When the Indian Massacre of 1622 took place on March 22, which was Good Friday of that year, nine people were brutally slain at Berkeley during coordinated attacks at settlements along the James River. The massacre took a heavier toll elsewhere, killing about a third of all the colonists, and virtually wiping out Wolstenholme Towne on Martin's Hundred and Sir Thomas Dale's progressive development and new college at Henricus. Jamestown was spared through a timely warning and became the refuge for many survivors who abandoned outlying settlements.

For several years, thereafter, the plantation at Berkeley Hundred lay abandoned, until William Tucker and others got possession of it in 1636, and it became the property of John Bland, a merchant of London. By this time, the area had become part of Charles City Shire in 1634, later renamed Charles City County.

Giles Bland, son of John Bland, inherited it, but he was hanged by Governor Sir William Berkeley in 1676, after participating in the Bacon's Rebellion. Confiscated by Governor Berkeley, the land was purchased by Benjamin Harrison (III) (1673-1710), attorney general of the colony, treasurer and speaker of the House of Burgesses. He died at age thirty-seven in 1710, leaving the property to his only son, Benjamin Harrison (IV).