About the town » Eltham, New Kent County, Virginia, United States

Eltham is a small unincorporated community in New Kent County, Virginia, United States. Located along State Routes 30, 33, and 249 in modern times, it is located slightly west of the town of West Point. It was named for Eltham Plantation, across from West Point on the nearby Pamunkey River. Eltham Plantation was owned by William Burwell Bassett and his wife, Anna Maria Dandridge, the sister of Martha Washington. Martha's husband, General George Washington galloped from Yorktown to Eltham on November 5, 1781, to the bedside of his stepson, John Parke Custis, who had contracted camp fever during the Yorktown Campaign and subsequently died at the Pamunkey River plantation. Eltham Landing played a prominent role for Union forces as a port during the 1862 Peninsula Campaign of the American Civil War. The manor house was destroyed by fire in 1876. The New Kent - Charles City Chronicle is published here.