One of the oldest Colonial brick homes in the country still stands, with 11 rooms, built in 1650. Originally a grant from King Charles I of England of 10,000 acres, it now contains 735 acres in Middlesex County with 2 mils of Rappahannock River frontage in Urbanna, Virginia, a historic port town.
Rosegill was acquired by Captain Ralph Wormeley in the early seventeenth century, as a grant from King Charles I of England. Myriads of wild roses gave the place its name. Wormeley was one of the most influential men in Virginia. Rosegill is listed in the National Historic Register of Colonial Plantations. Eventually Rosegill included an airstrip. To wind up the long hill from the little village of Urbanna, along a shady road, and to behold the fine old mansion a way off from its double outer gates is to realize delightfully how well some Virginians planned and built. The kitchen includes a fireplace. There is a dining room, paneled in mahogany, sitting room and library in oak and white drawing room. At either end of a very large hall you will find winding stairs. Five bedrooms are upstairs.
As the international sailing vessels of the colonial tobacco trade yielded to Chesapeake Bay schooners, then steamboats, then the pleasure boats of today, one thing remained constant: Urbanna’s history and fortunes are one with the Bay. There is one huge bedroom in the attic with 14 beds for bachelors. The lawn is 5 miles wide. The green walk from the house to the river is bordered with roses its whole length.
