by Larry Chowning –
The Town of Urbanna, established in 1680, is one of the oldest towns in America and in celebration of that rich heritage, Friends of Urbanna Museum and Parks (FOUMP) is presenting the seventh annual Urbanna Founders Day on Saturday.
“The Urbanna Founders Day celebration which is offered annually on the first weekend in August will be greatly altered this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions,” said Nancy Fisk, president of FOUMP.
“There will be no on-site play, music or other entertainment this year,” said Fisk. “However, to keep the celebration alive, you will see articles and social media information to highlight our town history and those people who have played such a significant role in the forming of our country.”
The only planned event is for Dr. Paul Malone to give talks while costumed in colonial attire on Dr. John Mitchell and the famous Mitchell Map. He will present two lecture sessions on the sidewalk in front of the Taylor Building at 51 Cross St. at 10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. As part of his program, he will have a digital copy of the map on display in a window of the building. There will a limit to the number of people providing social distancing.
Dr. Malone has studied and researched Dr. Mitchell’s life, his map and his association with Urbanna. His talks offer unique insight into colonial life here when Urbanna and Middlesex County were part of the early English settlement of America.
The Town of Urbanna owns a framed first edition third impression of the map that hangs in the town’s museum and visitors center. The facility, however, will not be open because of COVID-19 and display renovations that are going on inside the building.
Dr. Mitchell practiced medicine in Urbanna from 1734 to 1745 and lived on “Physick Lane” on lots in town that now include the post office, town square lot and ABC liquor store. He claimed international fame as a mapmaker and is known as the man who made the “Map of the British and French Dominion” often considered the most important map in American history.
The Mitchell map was used as the cartographic document consulted by Great Britain and United States officials at Paris, France, in 1782 and 1783 negotiating the treaty that terminated the Revolutionary War and recognized the independence of the United States. It determined the official boundaries of the 13 original American Colonies.
Some years later, in 1790, Thomas Jefferson, then Secretary of State, questioned who had drawn the Mitchell map. None other than Benjamin Franklin, a longtime friend of Dr. Mitchell, made it clear to Jefferson and others that “I now can assure you that I am perfectly clear in the remembrance that the map we used in tracing the boundaries was brought to the Treaty by the commissioner’s from England and that it was the same that was published by Mitchell 20 years before.”
Dr. Mitchell published the map at the request of the British Board of Trade in London in 1755, and it was reprinted on the original scale at least 17 times before 1792 in England, France, Holland and Italy.
While living in Urbanna, Dr. Mitchell, also a botanist, discovered partridgeberry in local forest and the plant is named in his honor “Mitchella repens.” The present day Middlesex County seal includes an image of partridgeberry and his discovery was the reason Dr. Mitchell is the namesake of the local John Mitchell Garden Club.
When visitors come to town Saturday, FOUMP is encouraging them to journey down the town’s “Museum in the Streets,” a social distancing walking or driving tour. The self-guided tour starts on Cross Street at Bristow’s Store where tour guide brochures can be picked up from a box located on the main panel outside at Bristow’s.
The tour takes visitors down the town’s history lane from 1680 to mid-20th century and provides documented and anecdotal history of life here in town.
During August, weekly articles will appear in the Southside Sentinel, on FOUMP’s website and on other forms of social media, said Fisk.
At the Urbanna Town Council meeting on Thursday, July 23, FOUMP requested that the month of August be named Urbanna’s History Month to further celebrate and perpetuate the town’s living history.
At the meeting, town councilors authorized Town Administrator Holly Gailey to draw up a resolution to that effect to be considered by council at its next official meeting.
“We look forward to a more interactive Founder’s Day celebration next year on the first weekend in August 2021,” said Fisk.
