First called John Lewis's Ordinary and then Fox's, Burnt Ordinary received its name in Jan. 1780 when, according to the Virginia Gazette, Fox's Ordinary burned to the ground. Later, in Oct. 1781, when the French army's wagon train passed by, Alexander Berthier wrote that "two old chimneys" stood here in the fork of the road. Also in 1781, Samuel DeWitt, George Washington's cartographer, noted the site of the "Burnt Brick Ordinary" on one of his maps. Elements of Lafayette's army camped two miles south of here at Chickahominy Church after the Battle of Green Spring on 6 July 1781.
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The heritage of the western part of James City County, which includes Lightfoot, Norge and Toano, is exceptionally rich. First, it was home to Native Americans and by the 1640s, European settlement had taken root. In time, primitive pathways evolved into major roads. One such early conduit of transportation was the road that led from Middle Plantation (later, Williamsburg) toward the seat of New Kent County, established in 1654.
This early thoroughfare followed portions of today’s Richmond, Mooretown, and Old Stage Roads. From 1699 to 1780 the colony’s burgesses traveled this route on their way to the capital city, as did the wagon train of Rochambeau’s Army in 1781, when en-route to Yorktown.
Scattered along the forerunner of this early transportation corridor were several taverns or “ordinaries.” At the crossroads
that became Lightfoot was the Six Mile Ordinary, an inn that was popular with the traveling public. It was located where a McDonald’s restaurant now stands. A few miles to the south, at the intersection of modern Centerville and Longhill Roads, was Spencer’s Ordinary, which figured significantly in a Revolutionary War battle that occurred in late June 1781. The Forest Glen development is situated upon the site of Spencer’s Ordinary. Just west of “downtown” Norge, near Olive Branch Christian Church and Farm Fresh, was Rhodes Ordinary, a small establishment comparable to a tourist home or B&B. At the intersection that eventually became Toano were a couple stores and Fox’s Ordinary, which, according to a contemporary issue of The Virginia Gazette, was destroyed by fire in January 1780. In time, the community became known as Burnt Ordinary.
Further west, near the entrance of the modern Stonehouse development was an ordinary known successively as Forneau’s, Chiswell’s, Doncastle’s and Bryd’s. It was there that Patrick Henry brought the Hanover militia in response to the April 21, 1775, Gunpowder Incident. In Spring 1781 Cornwallis and Banastre Tarleton paused for the night at Byrd’s Ordinary and Lafayette was a guest there during the early nineteenth century. This important site, worthy of being added to the National Register of Historic Places, has been discovered by archaeologists and plans are made for its preservation.
Source: "Gone but not forgotten" by Martha W. McCartney, Toano-Norge Times, August 28th, 2009
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