William Flora (d. by 18 January 1819), Revolutionary War soldier, was born free about 1755, probably in Portsmouth, then part of Norfolk County. Tithable records suggest that his mother was Mary Flora. Her race is not known, though she may have been related to "Peater Flura ye Spanyard" who was listed in the Norfolk County tithable records for the years 1753 and 1754. Apprenticed to Joshua Gammon in April 1763, "Will Florow" appeared in the Norfolk County tax records on 10 June 1771 in Saint Brides Parish in the household of John Fentress, and again as "Will Florror" on 10 June 1773, in the household of William Bressie. In later historical accounts his name is sometimes given as Billy Flora.
Little is known of Flora's life until the outbreak of the American Revolution. Serving as a private in Colonel William Woodford's 2d Virginia Regiment, Flora found himself as a sentry face to face with Lord Dunmore's attacking forces at Great Bridge on the morning of 9 December 1775. The bridge over the southern branch of the Elizabeth River was a critical link between northeastern North Carolina and Norfolk that the patriots' and the governor's forces each sought to control. Flora and his comrades steadily fell back across the Great Bridge, firing as they went. He fired multiple times at the advancing British, reportedly more than any other sentry. The last man across the bridge, he ripped up one of the planks to impede the British advance amid a hail of musket balls. Miraculously untouched, he fell in with the rest of the regiment.
Under orders from Colonel Woodford not to fire until the British got within fifty yards, the Virginians waited. When the British column got within range, Flora and the rest of the militia force poured volley upon volley of deadly fire into the British ranks. With about half their force of 120 men killed, the British retreated across the bridge. According to a later account of the battle, thirty-one killed and wounded British ended up in the Virginians' hands, while militia casualties consisted of a single hand wound. The battle at Great Bridge significantly crippled Lord Dunmore's position in Virginia, ultimately contributing to his withdrawal to New York in August 1776 and soon thereafter to Great Britain.
Flora enlisted in the 15th Virginia Regiment on 22 November 1776 and served with the rank of private for three years. After likely participating in campaigns at Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth, his enlistment ended in November 1779. He subsequently reenlisted and fought at the siege of Yorktown in 1781. In November 1783 Flora was due a sum of $250 for his military service. In an 1806 postwar application for a grant of land because of his military service, a commanding officer testified that "William Florey," of the 15th Virginia Regiment, "was held in high esteem as a soldier," while a regimental surgeon similarly commended "William Floray, a man of colour" who was "held in no little estimation by his officers." His bounty application was approved and based on his rank and term of service, the Land Office awarded Flora one hundred acres of land that he sold to a land agent.
Likely one of the first Black citizens to own real estate property in Portsmouth, Flora purchased a half-lot of land on King Street for £22 in December 1784. In June 1786 he purchased an adjacent half-lot on Washington Street for £35. The following year he paid taxes on an enslaved worker and a horse. The 1810 census reported six free people living in his household. Flora operated a livery stable for many years, and for the two decades prior to his death he paid taxes on one enslaved worker, as many as eight horses, three riding carriages, and a stage wagon for hauling goods around Portsmouth.
According to local tradition, following the attack by the HMS Leopard on the USS Chesapeake in 1807, Flora grabbed his old musket and volunteered for duty, briefly serving on a gunboat under Commodore Stephen Decatur. After Congress passed an act in 1818 authorizing federal pensions for Continental army service, Flora joined other veterans in appearing before the Norfolk County Court on 21 April of that year to attest to his service during the Revolution. Flora married a woman whose name is not known. She may have been born free or was freed from enslavement, perhaps by Flora himself. They had at least one daughter and possibly another child.
William Flora wrote his will on 5 November 1818, and he died on an unrecorded date prior to 18 January 1819, when his will was proved in the Norfolk County Court. His place of burial is not known. A prosperous man, Flora bequeathed to his daughter a feather bed, mahogany table, and other furniture, while providing the means for educating his grandson, to whom he left two houses and his town lot. Flora also directed the "perishable part of my Estate" as well as "my old negro woman named Milley" be sold to pay his funeral expenses and other outstanding debts. "Billy Flora Way" in Portsmouth was named for him in 2010, while local historical markers in Chesapeake and Portsmouth dramatically tell the story of Flora's exploits at the Battle of Great Bridge.
Sources Consulted:
Rayford W. Logan and Michael R Winston, eds., Dictionary of American Negro Biography (1982), 228; Luther Porter Jackson, "Virginia Negro Soldiers and Seamen in the American Revolution," Journal of Negro History 27 (1942): 247–287; Jackson, "William Flora of Portsmouth, Virginia," Norfolk Journal and Guide, 13 Nov. 1943; "The Battle of Great Bridge," Virginia Historical Register, and Literary Companion 6 (1853): 5–6; Norfolk Co. Tithables, 1730–1785; Norfolk Co. Order Book, 1763–1765, 15; Compiled Service Records of Soldiers Who Served in the American Army During the Revolutionary War … Documenting the Period 1775–1784, Record Group 93, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Washington, D.C.; Revolutionary War Bounty Warrants (first and second quotations), Executive Department, Office of the Governor, Record Group 3, Library of Virginia (LVA); Land Office Military Certificates, Virginia Land Office, Record Group 4, LVA; Norfolk Co. Minute Book, 15:120; Norfolk Co. Deed Books, 28:156, 29:246–247; Personal Property and Land Tax Returns, Norfolk Co., 1787–1818, Auditor of Public Accounts, Record Group 48, LVA; United States Census Schedules, Norfolk. Co., 1810, Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29, NARA; Benjamin Quarles, The Negro in the American Revolution (1973), 13; Paul Heinegg, Free African Americans of North Carolina and Virginia, 3d ed., (1997), 301–302; Norfolk Co. Will Book, 5:26–27 (third quotation).