The History of Rock Spring Farm

William Pilkinton arrived in Virginia in 1697 as an indentured servant of Thomas Tinsley; seven years later he had paid his debt and began saving his money. In 1726, William bought 100 acres of property from Robert Brooke of St. Anne's Parish and named his property Rock Spring Farm. For the next 22 years he lived the life of an yeoman farmer. He had a good-sized farm and no slaves.

William died in 1748 leaving everything to his wife, Appilonia. His estate included eight cows, 11 sheep, 14 geese, 20 pigs and hogs, two old horses with saddles and bridles, earthenware, three beds, carpenter’s tools, one gun, clothing, 38 yards of Virginia cloth, old books, lumber, pots and pans, cards for wool, and a parcel of other things. 

By 1790, William’s grandson, Parmenas Pilkinton, had built a house described as having a high English basement. The house was frame with a center hall and two rooms on the main floor. There were three dormers across each side of the roof. A porch ran across the front of the house. Unfortunately, the house burned in 1917 and was replaced in 1920 by a two-story frame home that the present owners of Rock Spring Farm demolished in 1995. Land had been bought and sold throughout the years, and at one time Rock Spring Farm encompassed more than 400 acres of fertile soil and hardwood trees. By 1995 the farm consisted of 35 acres - 10 acres of open land and 25 acres of hardwoods. 

The current dwelling, built in 1996, is a three-story, four-bedroom brick-and-frame home with three full bathrooms and two half bathrooms. A porch runs across the front of the house. One of the farm’s previous residents visited in 1997 and said the house has a strong resemblance to the house where she grew up – the house that Parmenas built – and sits nestled among a grove of Osage Orange trees, shrubs and flowers on the almost identical footprint. Researchers from the College of William and Mary confirmed the existence of the 1790 home’s foundation.