_The Site, its Problem, and Preliminary Tests_
The preceding chapters have presented written evidence of Marlborough's
history and of the human elements that gave it life and motivation.
Assembled mostly during the years following the excavations, this
information was not, for the most part, available in 1956 to guide the
archeological survey recounted here. Neither was there immediate
evidence on the surface of the planted fields to indicate the importance
and splendor of Marlborough as it existed in the 18th century.
In 1954, when Dr. Darter proposed that the Smithsonian Institution
participate in making excavations, he presented a general picture of
colonial events at Marlborough. He also provided photostats of the two
colonial survey plats so frequently mentioned in Part I (fig. 2). From
information inscribed on the 1691 plat, it was clear that a town had
been laid out in that year, that it had consisted of 52 acres divided
into half-acre lots, and that two undesignated acres had been set aside
for a courthouse near its western boundary. It was known also that John
Mercer had occupied the town in the 18th century, that he had built a
mansion there, that a circular ruin of dressed lime-sandstone was the
base of his windmill, and that erosion along the Potomac River bank had
radically changed the shoreline since the town's founding 263 years
earlier. But nobody in 1954 could point out with any certainty the
foundation of Mercer's mansion, nor was anyone aware of the brick and
the stone wall system, the two-room kitchen foundation, or the trash
pits and other structures that lay beneath the surface, along with many
18th-century household artifacts. It remained for the archeologist to
recover such nonperishable data from the ground.
In August 1954 Messrs. Setzler, Darter, and Watkins spent three days at
Marlborough examining the site, making tests, and, in general,
determining whether there was sufficient evidence to justify extended
excavations. The site is located in the southeastern portion of what was
known in the 17th century as Potowmack Neck (now Marlborough Point),
with the Potomac River on the east and Potomac Creek on the south (map,
front endpaper). It is approached from the northeast on Highway 621,
which branches from Highway 608 about 2-1/2 miles from the site. Highway
608 runs from Aquia Creek westward to the village of Brooke, situated on
the Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac Railroad about four miles east
of the present Stafford courthouse on U.S. Route 1. Highway 621 takes a
hilly, winding course through the woods until it debouches onto the
flat, open peninsula of the point. The river is visible to the east, as
the road travels slightly east of due south, passing an intersecting
secondary road that runs west and south and then west again. The latter
road ends at the southwestern extremity of the Neck, where Accokeek
Creek, which meanders along the western edge of the Neck, feeds into
Potomac Creek. At the point near the Potomac Creek shore where this road
takes its second westerly course lies the site of the Indian village of
Patawomecke, excavated between 1938 and 1940 by T. D. Stewart.
[Illustration: Figure 19.--HIGHWAY 621, looking north from the curve in
the road, with site of Structure B at right.]
Beyond this secondary road, Highway 621 continues southward to a small
thicket and clump of trees where it curves sharply to the east, its
southerly course stopped by fenced-in lots of generous size (with modern
houses built on them) that slope down to Potomac Creek. After the
highway makes its turn, several driveways extend from it toward the
creek. One of these driveways, obviously more ancient than the others,
leaves the highway about 200 feet east of the clump of trees, cutting
deeply through high sloping banks, where vestiges of a stone wall crop
out from its western boundary (fig. 22), and ending abruptly at the
water's edge. Highway 621 continues to a dead end near the confluence of
creek and river.
Some 200 feet west of the turn in the highway around the clump of trees,
is a deep gully (or "gutt" in 17th-century terminology) that extends
northward from Potomac Creek almost as far as the intersecting road that
passes the site of the Indian village. This gully is overgrown with
trees and brush, and it forms a natural barrier that divides the lower
portion of the point into two parts. A few well-spaced modern houses
fringe the shores of the point, while the flat land behind the houses is
given over almost entirely to cultivation.
Since the two colonial land surveys were not drawn to scale, some
confusion arose in 1954 as to their orientation to the surviving
topographic features. However, the perimeter measurements given on the
1691 plat make it clear that the town was laid out in the southeastern
section of the point, and that the "gutt" so indicated on the plat is
the tree-lined gully west of the turn in the highway.
Bordering the clump of trees at this turn could be seen in 1954 a short
outcropping of brick masonry. A few yards to the north, on the opposite
side of the road, crumbled bits of sandstone, both red and gray, were
concentrated in the ditch cut by a highway grader. In the fields at
either side of the highway, plow furrows disclosed a considerable
quantity of brick chips, 18th-century ceramics, and glass sherds.
In the field east of the clump of trees and north of the highway,
opposite the steep-banked side road leading down to Potomac Creek, could
be seen in a row the tops of two or three large pieces of gray stone.
These stones were of the characteristic lime-sandstone once obtained
from the Aquia quarries some four miles north, as well as from a
long-abandoned quarry above the head of Potomac Creek. It was decided to
start work at this point by investigating these stones, in preference to
exploring the more obvious evidence of a house foundation at the clump
of trees. This was done in the hope of finding clues to lot boundaries
and the possible orientation of the survey plats. Excavation around
these vertically placed stones disclosed that they rested on a
foundation layer of thick slabs laid horizontally at the undisturbed
soil level. Enough of this wall remained _in situ_ to permit sighting
along it toward Potomac Creek. The sight line, jumping the highway,
picked up the partly overgrown stone wall that extends along the western
edge of the old roadway to the creek, indicating that a continuous wall
had existed prior to the present layout of the fields and before the
construction of the modern highway.
The excavation along the stone wall was extended northward. At a
distance of 18.5 feet from the highway the stone wall ended at a
junction of two brick wall foundations, one running north in line with
the stone wall and the other west at a 90° angle. These walls, each a
brick and a half thick, were bonded in oystershell lime mortar. Test
trenches were dug to the north and west to determine whether they were
enclosure walls or house foundations. Since it was soon evident that
they were the former, the next question was whether they were lot
boundaries matching those on the plat. If so, it was reasoned, then a
street must have run along the east side of the north-south coursing
wall. Accordingly, tests were made, but no supporting evidence for this
inference was found.
Nevertheless, the indications of an elaborate wall system, a probable
house foundation, and a wealth of artifacts in the soil were enough to
support a full-scale archeological project, the results of which would
have considerable historical and architectural significance. Determining
the meaning of the walls and whether they were related to the town
layout or to Mercer's plantation, learning the relationship of the
plantation to the town, discovering the sites of the 1691 courthouse and
Mercer's mansion, and finding other house foundations and significant
artifacts--all these were to be the objectives of the project. The
problem, broadly considered, was to investigate in depth a specific
locality where a 17th-century town and an 18th-century plantation had
successively risen and fallen and to evaluate the evidence in the light
of colonial Virginia's evolving culture and economy. Accordingly, plans
were made, a grant was obtained from the American Philosophical Society,
as recounted in the introduction, and intensive work on the site was
begun in 1956.