Dorothy Roy

Dorothy Roy, daughter of Richard and Elizabeth Buckner and widow of Charles Smith, married John Roy in 1719. John Roy owned a tobacco warehouse at Port Royal, Virginia, where local planters brought tobacco to be shipped abroad from Port Royal's harbor on the Rappahannock. In 1731, Dorothy Roy used her influence with the Virginia Court to have a 20-mile rolling road built so planters could haul 900-pound hogsheads of tobacco to the warehouse; this road later became U.S. Route 301. After John Roy died in 1734, she became the first woman in Virginia to own a chartered tobacco warehouse, obtained a license to operate a ferry across the Rappahannock, another first for a Virginia woman, and also owned a tavern. She was recognized as the doyenne of the thriving commercial hub of Port Royal and was widely sought for business advice. She died in 1746, two years after the town of Port Royal, which had grown up around the Roy tobacco warehouse, was chartered. The two large chimneys on the west side of Route 301 are all that remain of her residence.

Port Royal, Virginia · United States