HOW It all began

Aboard the “London Merchant,” a ship commissioned by the Virginia Company, Christopher and his wife Mary arrived in Jamestown, VA in the spring of 1619.  While the precise location of their first home is indeterminate, it was known as the College Land, a rather extensive tract set aside by the company for the purpose of educating the native population.  They were among a small number of residents to survive the Great Massacre of 1622.

A successful tobacco farmer, Christopher enlarged his modest tract until he had acquired a large plantation, Kingsland, in Chesterfield County. His name occurs in the few surviving records of the time and the many honorable offices which he occupied.

The earliest American ancestor of record of Thomas Jefferson, Christopher Branch was born around 1600 in England, the only son of Lionel Branch (1566 – 1605) and his wife Valentia Sparkes. 

Three hundred years after Christopher Branch’s arrival in Jamestown, VA, John Kerr Branch—a direct descendant—completed his splendid Tudor Revival residence in Richmond, VA.  The house, which bears an entablature honoring his ancestors journey to America, was designed by John Russell Pope and inspired by a large 16th-century country house in Warwickshire, England known as Compton Wynyates.   Now a National Historic Landmark, the Branch House was built to showcase John Kerr Branch’s Renaissance art collection.