FIRST LANDING CROSS
Upon touching the shore of the New World on April 26, 1607, 13 years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, the first permanent English settlers from the London Company set up a wooden cross on the newly named Cape Henry shore in gratitude to God and to affirm England’s claim to the site. These settlers later traveled up the James River to Jamestown. The present-day granite cross was erected in Virginia Beach in 1935 and is a national landmark.
HISTORY OF
PRINCESS ANNE COUNTY CHAPTER, NSDAR
Early in 1951, Mrs. Rebecca Cooke and Mrs. Lillian Robertson began discussing the formation of a Daughters of the American Revolution chapter in the Virginia Beach area. By mid-year, there were 14 prospective members for the new chapter. Princess Anne County was submitted as the first choice for a chapter name with Cape Henry as the second choice.
On November 17, 1951, the Princess Anne County Chapter, NSDAR, held its organizational meeting with fifteen members and six pending. Mrs. Rebecca Cooke was the chapter’s first regent. The official National Society DAR charter was granted on February 2, 1953, with 16 organizing members.
VIRGINIA BEACH, VIRGINIA
Virginia Beach was incorporated as a town in 1906. By 1951, when the Princess Anne County Chapter, NSDAR, was founded, Virginia Beach was a sprawling seaside retreat nestled between Princess Anne County and the Atlantic Ocean. Home to more than 42,000 people, Virginia Beach was dwarfed by its neighbor, Princess Anne County: an agricultural hub for the region.
HISTORY OF PRINCESS ANNE COUNTY
Princess Anne County was created in 1691 when Lower Norfolk County, then part of the Colony of Virginia and ruled by the King of England, divided into Norfolk County and Princess Anne County.
Princess Anne County was named for Princess Anne, second daughter of James II, before her ascension to the throne as queen. As a young princess in England, Princess Anne was not expected to ever become queen. Her Catholic father was deposed during the Glorious Revolution, and as a result, her sister, Mary II, and brother-in-law, William III, became joint monarchs. Mary died in 1694. William would continue as monarch until his death in 1702.
Anne's reign as Queen of England began March 8, 1702, when she was thirty-seven years old. There are many opinions about her successes and failures as queen, but all agree she tried to govern wisely.
During her reign, the
two-party system developed in England: The Whigs, aligned with commercial interests, and the Tories, who were supportive of the church and country gentry. Anne tended to support the Tories. She attended more cabinet meetings than any of her predecessors and presided over an age of artistic, literary, economic, and political advancement.
PRINCESS ANNE - Circa 1684, painted by Willem Wissing and Jan van der Vaardt
Despite more than a dozen pregnancies, none of her children survived her. One child, the Duke of Gloucester, for whom the main street in Colonial Williamsburg is named, lived the longest of any of her children. He died one week after his eleventh birthday.
Following Anne's death in 1714, the crown fell to a German cousin, George I. Anne was the last monarch of the House of Stuart.
TODAY
In 1963, Princess Anne County merged with the town of Virginia Beach to become the City of Virginia Beach. Today, this city of 450,000 people, encompassing more than 300 square miles, is filled with reminders of what once was. Although Princess Anne County, Virginia, no longer exists, our chapter is proud to continue to honor the name and help preserve it for future generations.
