Historic Homes of Virginia: Patrick Henry's Scotchtown

Step inside Scotchtown, Patrick Henry’s Hanover County home during a pivotal period in colonial history. In this episode of Mutual Assurance Society of Virginia’s Historic Homes of Virginia series, we explore how Scotchtown’s size and grandeur reflected Henry’s growing social and political ambitions—and how he wrote notes here for his famous “Give me liberty, or give me death!” speech. We also look closely at surviving details of the home’s original construction, including historic moldings, pegged rafters, and chimney supports, while examining the lives of the enslaved people who were an essential part of the plantation’s history. And we discover how historic insurance policies from Mutual Assurance provided critical documentation that helped guide the restoration and reconstruction of Scotchtown and its grounds. Explore the history preserved within Scotchtown’s walls in this installment of Historic Homes of Virginia. The desk featured in the beginning of the video is on loan to the museum from the family of Patrick Henry's daughter, Elizabeth Henry Aylett.