Claymont Court - Washington Family Era

Washington Family Era

In the 1700s, the 300-acre (1.2 km2) plot of land on which Claymont stands was owned by John Augustine Washington, the brother of George Washington. George Washington had established the Bullskin Plantation, the first property he ever owned, a few miles southwest of the Claymont property. In 1811, George Washington's grand-nephew Bushrod Corbin Washington inherited this land at the age of 21. Bushrod built a thirty-four room mansion here using ninety slaves. Bushrod's brother, John Augustine Washington III, subsequently built the Blakeley mansion 600 yards away facing Claymont. The two brothers married daughters from the Blackburn family and started their own families directly across from each other in the Blackeley and Claymont mansions.

Bushrod finished building Claymont in 1820 for $30,000; a massive sum at the time that became known as "Bushrod's folly." After completion, it was the largest house in the area. With later additions to the home, it would become the largest house in West Virginia at 16,000 square feet (1,500 m2) with 59 rooms and 25 fireplaces. Claymont may also be the northern most example of the Virginia Plantation Style mansion with wings, courtyards, and dependencies. Claymont burned down in 1838 during Bushrod's first week working in Richmond as an assemblyman in the Virginia House of Delegates. The central part of the mansion was completely rebuilt and the remainder restored. It is thought the fire started in the fireplace of the mansion's basement kitchen. Bushrod died in 1851 leaving Claymont to his son Thomas Blackburn Washington. Thomas died in 1854 leaving the estate to his eldest son Bushrod Corbin II.

The Civil War was devastating to the Washington family, many of whom had taken refuge at Claymont. During the war, two of the young men of the house, including Thomas Blackburn Washington's youngest son James Washington, were officers in the Confederate Army under John Singleton Mosby. Both of the boys were captured in Claymont Court during Christmas furlough (holiday leave) by Union Army troops led by George Custer, who had been a roommate of one of the boys at West Point military academy. The Washington boys were taken to a Union prison camp where they both died. As punishment to Claymont estate for "harboring guerillas", General Sheridan ordered all of the cattle driven off the land (except for one milch cow) and every fence surrounding the estate's Clay Mound farm burned down.

After the Civil War, the reconstructionist government demanded payment of back taxes for all of the years that the Washington family had paid taxes to the Confederacy rather than the Union. The Washington family could not pay, and by 1871 the family was forced to sell Claymont estate for the modest sum of $10,000 (a third of what it cost to build). Most of the family then moved to Washington State.

After the Washingtons vacated Claymont, the property changed hands a number of times. The mansion and larger estate was actually uninhabited for a few years at a time and subsequently the property began to deteriorate and the farming operations halted. Claymont operated as a self-sustaining farm, differing from plantations further in the American South. Claymont produced almost everything the inhabitants used. The property was farmed and maintained by nearly a hundred slaves as well as a couple dozen free workers. Because of Claymont's size, it was an expensive operation to keep up and later owners of the property would not have the resources or dedication to keep the estate operational.