Q 01/05

Which planter commissioned the original town grid of Richmond in 1737?

A) Robert Carter

B) Thomas Jefferson

C) Patrick Henry

D) William Byrd II

Answer · why

D) William Byrd II

He named it after Richmond upon Thames because the view of the James at the fall line reminded him of Richmond Hill in England.

Q 02/05

Richmond, Virginia, took its name from an English town on which river?

A) The Severn

B) The Avon

C) The Mersey

D) The Thames

Answer · why

D) The Thames

That English Richmond is now part of London; the Virginia settlement was incorporated as a town in 1742.

Q 03/05

Where in Richmond did Patrick Henry deliver 'Give me liberty or give me death!' in 1775?

A) Monumental Church

B) The Capitol

C) Tuckahoe Plantation

D) St. John's Church

Answer · why

D) St. John's Church

The church stands in Church Hill, the neighbourhood that takes its name from it.

Q 04/05

Richmond replaced which city as the capital of Virginia in 1780?

A) Jamestown

B) Norfolk

C) Alexandria

D) Williamsburg

Answer · why

D) Williamsburg

The move came on 18 April 1780; a year later Benedict Arnold's Loyalist troops raided and burned the new capital, sending Governor Jefferson fleeing.

Q 05/05

Thomas Jefferson modelled the Virginia State Capitol on which ancient Roman temple?

A) The Pantheon in Rome

B) The Temple of Vesta at Tivoli

C) The Temple of Portunus

D) The Maison Carrée at Nîmes

Answer · why

D) The Maison Carrée at Nîmes

Designed with Charles-Louis Clérisseau, it was completed in 1788 and is one of only twelve US capitols without an external dome.