Studley was built by John Syme in the 1720s for his wife, Sarah Winston, as an impressive two-story brick house. After Syme's death, Sarah Winston married John Henry, and their nine children were born there, including Patrick Henry, born on May 29, 1736. Patrick Henry attended a local school until age ten and also received instruction from his father in classics and theology, and a childhood friend remembered his love of music and his habit of observing the natural world beside a secluded stream. Archaeological excavations and surviving insurance maps show that by 1796 the main 40-by-30-foot brick structure stood two stories high with a one-story brick wing and an attached porch, surrounded by outbuildings that included a kitchen, dairy, study, stables, barn, and granary. The house burned in 1807. Patrick Henry later became a leading Virginia statesman in defense of the rights of Colonial America, gained fame as a young lawyer in the Parsons’ Cause at Hanover Courthouse in 1763, set out basic principles of the American Revolution in his 1765 resolutions against the Stamp Act, delivered the words “Give me liberty or give me death” at the Second Virginia Convention in 1775, served twenty-six years in the Virginia legislature and five terms as governor, helped draft the Virginia Constitution of 1776 and its Declaration of Rights, strongly influenced the creation of the Bill of Rights, and was buried at Red Hill Plantation after his death in 1799. In 1995, Preservation Virginia purchased the property to ensure its protection and preservation.
