Ashland Plantation, Henderson, Vance County, North Carolina

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In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when nearby Williamsboro (now a nearly deserted village) was a lively social and political center, the Nutbush Creek area of Granville eounty, (now in Vance) was occupied by some of North Carolina's wealthiest and more influential men Notable among them was judge and colonizer Richard Henderson, who owned the Ashland tract. Ashland, one of the most impressive and best-maintained of the plantation houses in the area, is Vance County's most widely known antebellum showplace and landmark.

The present Ashland is consider by some to incorporate the house of Samuel Henderson, who moved to North Carolina from Virginia shortly after 1740. His petition for 100 acres of land, in Edgecombe County, in 1744 records his early presence there. According to one historian, Henderson was appointed one of the first justices of the county court, when in 1746, the new county of Granville was formed out of Edgecombe. Colonial records include him in "a list of Gentlemen in the Commission of the Peace for Granville County, July 6th 1756, II which means he was at this time in the post of justice of the peace. Ashland is thought to have passed from Samuel Henderson to his son Richard.

Richard Henderson was born in 1735 in Virginia but grew up at his father's home in the Nutbush area of Granville County, (now Vance County). Although there were only meager opportunities for education, he prepared himself for a legal career and after a formidable grilling occasioned by his lack of formal training was admitted to the bar at an early age In 1768, Royal Governor William Tryon appointed him associate justice of the superior court, then the highest court in the colony. Richard Henderson, best known as the organizer of what was to be an independent colony called Transylvaniac. The famous scout, Daniel Boone, explored land for him between the Kentucky and Cumberland rivers In 1774 he formed a land company and bought a tract of more than twenty million acres from the Cherokees. Henderson established several settlements, but his grand design was thwarted when Virginia and North Carolina claimed the land.

In his capacity as crown judge of the superior court Henderson ran afoul of militant farmers who called themselves "Regulators" 'and who felt justice was being denied them in the courts His letter to Governor Tryon from “Granville".

September: 29th 1770" describe s his encounter and how he thought it “more advisable to break up court hansit and be made a mock judge for the sport and entertainment of those abandoned wretches" Not long afterwards an entry in colonial records preserves the testimony of Thomas Henderson, a brother, that "on the night of the Wednesday following being the l~_ th instant a house which was lately the dwelling house of said Richard Henderson was set on fire to and consume do "It's known that Richard Henderson died in 1785 at his home on Nutbush Creek, so it can be concluded that after his house was burned, probably by "Regulators, II Henderson rebuilt what may have been the original Ashland.

Richard Henderson's will, proved in 1785, divided his vast holdings among his children.

He devised his home tract to a son, John Henderson. This property was bought in 1800 by his guardian and kinsman Archibald Henderson of Salisbury, a lawyer of great talent and note It is unclear whether the "home tract" refer:red to represents Ashland or another house in which Richard Henderson may have lived. Another plantation Richard owned, willed to his daughter Fanny, more nearly. fits the location of the present Ashland This latter tract is probably that listed in 1832 tax list as 882 acres on Nutbush Creek belonging to Archibald E III Henderson "of Nutbush" (a nephew of Archibald of Salisbury and frequently confused with him) Ashland was purchased in 1901 from the executors of Mrs. Ell

Heo Scales (a daughter of Archibald E. Henderson who had inherited it) by Adolphus Eo White. It is now the property of his son, Lieutenant Colonel Henry White.

Ashland Platation, West side of Satterwhite Point Road, Henderson, Vance County, North Carolina, 5.6 miles northwest of US 1.

Latitude 36 25 47 Longitude 78 22 16

Ashland Plantation Henderson, Vance Co., NC.