Tree

Jamestown tree

Erection date: 2/12/1987

Inscription

This oak tree, planted with soil from Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in the New World, commemorates the bicentenary of the constitution of the United States of America. It stands in acknowledgement that the ideals of liberty and justice embodied in the constitution trace their lineage through institutions of English law to the Magna Carta, sealed at Runnymede on June 15th 1215. Planted December 2, 1987, by John O. Marsh, Jr. Secretary of the Army of the United States of America.
The National Trust

Virginians seem keen on sending us their soil: in 1921 they gave us a statue of one of their great men, George Washington, along with some dirt on which to stand. 

Site: John F. Kennedy memorial - Runnymede (3 memorials)

SL4, Windsor Road

The two trees are down the bottom of the hill.  You see them as you walk between the JFK memorial and the Magna Carta memorial.

In May 1965 this acre of Crown land was given to the American people in perpetuity under the control and management of the Kennedy Memorial Trust. The Magna Carta connection made Runnymede particularly appropriate for the Kennedy memorial.

But prior to that relatively small gift, this whole hillside was given in 1963 by the local Council to the National Trust.  An American family gave the adjacent meadows to the National Trust in 1929 and we feel the two gifts are probably connected in some way. See Lady Fairhaven for more information.

This memorial was restored following damage caused by a bomb in a 1968 anti-Vietnam protest.

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This section lists the subjects commemorated on the memorial on this page:
Jamestown tree

Subjects commemorated i

Magna Carta

There are four surviving original copies of Magna Carta - two in the British ...

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United States constitution

This was partly based on Magna Carta.

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Jamestown Settlement

The first permanent English settlement in the Americas, and named by some as ...

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This section lists the subjects who helped to create/erect the memorial on this page:
Jamestown tree

Created by i

John Otho Marsh, Jr.

John Otho Marsh Jr. was born on 7 August 1926 in Winchester, Virginia, USA. H...

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This section lists the other memorials at the same location as the memorial on this page:
Jamestown tree

Also at this site i

John F. Kennedy memorial - Runnymede

John F. Kennedy memorial - Runnymede

Unveiled by the Queen in the presence of many members of the Kennedy family a...

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National Tree Week 1987

National Tree Week 1987

National Tree Week is an event which has been promoted by the Tree Council si...

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Nearby Memorials

Gyorgy Krasso

Gyorgy Krasso

WC1, Russell Square

The tree is in Russell Square garden beside the path on the north side. A small group congregate here each year in October to commemorat...

1 subject commemorated
Royal Free Hospital - Mendelsohn

Royal Free Hospital - Mendelsohn

NW3, Rowland Hill Street, Heath Strange Garden

This strangely monikered garden was named for Dr William Heath Strange who, in 1882, founded the Hampstead General Hospital that went on ...

1 subject commemorated
Clare Sculpher

Clare Sculpher

EC2, Aldermanbury

Clare Sculpher, 1948 - 1986, from friends and colleagues. Magnolia amabilis

1 subject commemorated
Admiral Duncan - 3 dead

Admiral Duncan - 3 dead

W1, Wardour Street, St Anne's Gardens

The gay pub, the Admiral Duncan, just north of this church, in Old Compton Street, was bombed in 1999. There were 3 deaths and 70 injured...

4 subjects commemorated
Reginald & Daphne Goy

Reginald & Daphne Goy

N6, Waterlow Park

When we visited in 2004 the tree was not there. The park was undergoing some major Lottery-funded work so we thought that perhaps the tre...

2 subjects commemorated, 1 creator