Hampstead Farm presents a unique opportunity to study nearly all periods of the human occupation of Virginia's northern Piedmont. The district is spread across 780 acres of beautiful rolling hills and bottomland along the south side of the Rapidan River. Indian remains, representing cultures from the Paleo-Indian, Archaic, and Woodland periods are found at forty-six identified sites. Testing on three bottomland sites has revealed buried deposits of Indian material. Historic occupation is found on three additional sites. A section of road, built by Robert Beverley in the early 1730s to span his Octonia tract, is clearly visible. An 18th-century house site, the home of Benjamin Johnson, a captain in the Revolutionary army, offers further potential for archaeological information. Johnson's daughter married James Barbour, later governor of Virginia. Three gun emplacements and a communication ditch are relics of Civil War activity.
