The Governor's Palace in Williamsburg was the home of five Royal Lieutenant-Governors, two Royal Governors, and the first two Governors of the Commonwealth of Virginia, Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson. An act by Virginia's General Assembly in 1706 authorized construction of a residence there for the Governor. Completed in 1722, the Palace was destroyed by fire in 1781 while being used as a hospital for Americans wounded at the battle of Yorktown. It was reconstructed on the original foundations and furnished to represent the home of Virginia's last British Royal Governor, John Murray, the fourth Earl of Dunmore, and his family.
