Catalpa was an 18th-century plantation near Culpeper in Culpeper County, Virginia.[1] Catalpa is best known as the birthplace of John Strode Barbour, Jr. (29 December 1820 – 14 May 1892), a United States House Representative and United States Senator from Virginia.[1] Catalpa is also known as the scene of the first encampment of the Culpeper Minutemen.[2]
During Virginia's colonial period, the Catalpa estate was the seat of Major Philip Clayton.[2] The plantation was named after a catalpa tree that Clayton brought from Essex and transplanted on the property.[2] Clayton's tree was the first catalpa introduced to Culpeper County.[2] Philip Clayton married Ann Coleman the sister of Robert Coleman, on whose land the town of Culpeper was established in 1759, originally named "Fairfax" until the American Civil War.[2] Philip Clayton was among the town's first trustees, along with Nathaniel Pendleton, William Green, William Williams, and Thomas Slaughter.[2]
The Culpeper Minutemen organized on 17 July 1775 under a large oak tree at "Clayton's old field" on the Catalpa estate.