Williamsburg became the capital of the Virginia colony in 1699. When Virginia declared independence from England in 1776, Williamsburg became capital of an independent state... for three years. In 1780, the capital of Virginia moved to Richmond. Williamsburg slowly faded into obscurity, except for historic recreations. (For example, Governor Kaine was inaugurated at the old Capitol in Williamsburg on January 14, 2006, when the State Capitol in Richmond was under construction.)
Because Williamsburg lacked economic vitality after the capital was moved, old buildings were preserved rather than torn down and replaced. This "mothballing" of the colonial capital facilitated restoration, once Reverend Dr. W. A. R. Goodwin convinced John D. Rockefeller to commit the financial resources. As Goodwin described it:1
Williamsburg may have been a "better" location than Jamestown, but as Virginia's population moved inland and north, efforts to move the capital from Williamsburg increased. A 1980 article in Virginia Cavalcade by Alonzo T. Dill and Brent Tartar described proposals to move to alternative locations in detail:2
In 1738, Speaker of the House John Randolph (from Williamsburg) died and was replaced by John Robinson (from King and Queen County). Northern Neck members renewed the effort to move the colonial capital from Williamsburg to "a more convenient place" in the York or even the Rappahannock watershed. Williamsburg supporters skillfully blocked any shift by forcing a decision on a specific new location, splitting the opposition to remaining in Williamsburg. First, the do-not-move-from-Williamsburg burgesses joined with advocates of moving to a location on the York River and blocked a proposed move to Bermuda Hundred on James River. Then the do-not-move-from-Williamsburg burgesses united with Bermuda Hundred advocates, and blocked a proposed move to West Point on the York River.
In 1747 the Capitol building in Williamsburg burned. Gov. Gooch asked the General Assembly to appropriate funds for rebuilding in Williamsburg, but burgesses approved relocating to a site on the Pamunkey River in New Kent County (next to lands of William Gray and New-Year Smith). Gov. Gooch supported a move, initially, but the House of Burgesses specifically rejected a moving to Newcastle in Hanover County or to a location on the James River. The Upper House of General Assembly, appointed by King of England, rejected any move because "most of them lived in Williamsburg or within a day's carriage ride."
After the House of Burgesses rejected rebuilding plans, in 1748 it had to reconsider what to do. The burgesses considered Cumberland, on the Pamunkey River downstream from Newcastle, where a ferry provided access to Williamsburg from the north , but ultimately voted to stay in Williamsburg. Then the House reconsidered and voted for Newcastle, but the other have of the General Assembly (the appointed Council) split 4-3 and rejected the change. The supporters of moving the capital argued for Newcastle that "it is much more central being Fifty miles higher upo the Country, consequently so much nearer the bulk of the people," but lost.
In 1752, the Northern Neck burgesses tried again. Once again the burgesses approved a shift to Newcastle, and once again the Council killed it. Landon Carter said rejection came because the Council members lived "all in a Neck."
In 1761, a bill to move the colonial capital from Williamsburg came within one vote of succeeding in the House of Burgesses. A 1766 effort also failed in the House. In 1770 the customhouse for District of the Upper James River was moved from Williamsburg to Bermuda Hundred, but in 1772 the Council blocked a proposed move of the capital further inland. That same year, the General Asembly approved a canal to connect Williamsburg to the York River and the James River, a maneuver that may have preserved Williamsburg as the capital - if the canal had been built.
As described by Dill and Tartar in 1980, "[s]ince the 1750s the population of Virginia had grown most rapidly south of the James River and beyond the Blue Ridge Mountains, giving added weight to the argument that Williamsburg was too far from the center of the colony. The creation of new counties in those regions and the consequent election of more burgesses from the southern and western parts of the colony strengthened the James River faction." Also, the appointed Council was replaced with elected Senate members after 1776, "giving representation in the upper house of the legislature for the first time to the southern, western, and central Piedmont counties and increasing the number of representatives from the Northern Neck and central Virginia."
In 1776, Thomas Jefferson introduced yet another bill to move the capital inland. The shift was finally approved in 1779, in fear that Williamsburg was too exposed to attack by the British forces during the Revolutionary War. Richmond was the final winner in the contest to move the capital inland to a location on the Pamunkey or James rivers. "Tobacco production north of the James River had already begun to decline prior to the Revolution, reducing the importance of the warehouses at Newcastle and diminishing the commercial importance of the place, and during the next half century the Pamunkey would begin to silt up, so that deep-water vessels could not reach that far upstream." ultimately, Newcastle was abandoned and is now a cornfield.
Richmond may have been a "winner," but it was also exposed; British forces twice entered Richmond in 1781. However, the General Assembly twice rejected efforts to move the capital back to Williamsburg (in 1780 and again in 1783).
"It is a staple of Virginia political lore that a warm contest was waged in the House of Delegates to determine whether the name of Newcastle or that of Richmond would fill the blank that Jefferson had left in the bill, and that Richmond prevailed by a very narrow margin. Contemporaneous records neither verify nor disprove the story. Considering the long-standing contest between the partisans of the Jamesand York River valleys, it is possible that in 1779 Newcastle was again in the running. Less probable is the assertion that Hanover Town, about three miles upstream on the Pamunkey from Newcastle, was in the 1779 competition. Local historians have long given Hanover Town the honor of rivalling Richmond, but no evidence has been found to verify this."