VA-O43 Mount Pleasant

Marker text: MOUNT PLEASANT

Near here stood the plantation and Thoroughbred stables of Col. John Hoskins (1751-1813), one of the foremost breeders in the country. In 1800 Col. Robert Sanders, of Scott Co., Ky., bought one of Hoskins's horses, Melzar, for ten times the usual price for stallions. Melzar was considered the best example in America of the bloodline of the Godolphin Arabian (one of the five Thoroughbred foundation sires), and improved Kentucky racehorses more than any other early sire. Hoskins, a Revolutionary War veteran of the Siege of Yorktown, served as a county justice and a commissioner in the Jefferson-Adams election of 1800. He also was the father-in-law of Spencer Roane, chief justice of the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals.

Department of Historic Resources, 1994