Jamestown, was built of brick soon after 1642, to which additions were
made at different times; recent excavations show that it was
ninety-seven feet, five inches in length by twenty-four feet, nine
inches in width. The rooms on the ground floor, overhung by a
colonnade, were in single file with an ell on the north front at the
west end. Only the foundations of the structure remain. The ever-flowing
spring, from which the plantation took its name, is maintained within a
brick enclosure.
"Bacon's Castle," in Surry County, built by Arthur Allen soon after his
arrival in Virginia about 1650, passed to his son, Speaker of the House
of Burgesses, from whom it was seized by Bacon's followers, 1676, and
garrisoned by sympathizers under William Rookings. Bacon is not known to
have visited the house, although, since its eventful occupation by his
followers, the early Allen home has been known by his name. The cluster
chimney is a unique feature of its architecture, as is the gabled end.
The bricks were laid in English bond.
Of the typical frame homes of the seventeenth century, occupied by the
average family, not one remains, which can be dated with authority.
However, from extant descriptions, it is known that these modest homes
for the most part were one-story structures, with a loft above, to which
there was access by means of a ladder-like stairway. Dormer windows,
added in the eighteenth century to some of the homes, made of the loft a
half-story, providing for more comfortable sleeping quarters for the
family. There were chimneys at both ends of these early homes, and meals
were prepared on the open hearth of the larger fireplace. The early
homes apparently had no partitions, but by the middle of the century,
some were divided by one partition on the lower floor. Cellars were not
practical in the low-lying areas, for in wet weather the water-table is
level with the ground. Inland, for the better homes, in the last half of
the century, there were cellars, though some of the more modest
structures merely had unbricked excavations below for storage purposes.
The size of the modest homes varied, in length, between thirty and forty
feet and, in width, between eighteen and twenty feet. In 1679, Major
Thomas Chamberlaine, of Henrico, contracted for a frame house forty by
twenty feet without a cellar. In 1686, Benjamin Branch's brothers built
for him "a home twenty feet long" on the family plantation "Kingsland"
in Henrico.
THE FOREST PRIMEVAL
When the English transported themselves or were transported to Virginia,
they brought with them as much of England as possible in their manners,
their customs, their pride in family and race, their laws and their
possessions. With something of nostalgia for home, they often named
their plantations for the family estates in England, and the locales, in
which they settled, for the shires or the communities near their old
world homes. They did not seek to create a new race, as did the Spanish
in settling Louisiana who designated themselves _Criollo_, but to remain
Englishmen in the new world. To this end they were willing to struggle
and overcome a wilderness. In so doing, they sharpened their native
acumen, awakened their inherent resourcefulness, and eventually in the
eighteenth century, established themselves as a free and independent
people.
Their manner of living in Virginia was determined, not so much by
design, as by force of circumstances. Available land and tobacco were
determining factors in developing large plantations along the main
waterways and small plantations in the hinterlands. Self-sufficiency was
concomitant with their way of life.
Although, in several acts of the Assembly, the first in 1680, efforts
were made by authorities to create towns, establish central warehouses,
and so bring the people together, such attempts met with only partial
success. Towns that were projected, in 1680, in expectation of
developing centers of population, were difficult to promote. Once
started, they languished, as did Warwicktown in one of the eight
original shires. Except for its ports of entry, such as Jamestown,
Norfolk and Kecoughtan, Virginia in the seventeenth century was not
adapted to urban living.
Upon arrival in Virginia, the colonists faced a vast forest. Before
them in the April sunshine was a massive wall of shimmering green in the
stately pines, cedars and holly, intermingled with the freshly unfolded
leaves of the venerable oak, walnut, hickory and beech. There were no
grassy plains, no open fields, save the garden plots of small tribes of
Indians. Clearing the land, in itself, was a tremendous task.
The choice acreage ever in demand by the colonists was, of course, the
open land found in and near the Indian villages. Many a land patent
later embraced an Indian field. The Company lands in Elizabeth City were
the fertile fields of the Kecoughtan Indians, who had been driven from
their habitations there, in 1610, after the murder of a colonist,
Humphrey Blount. Following the massacre of 1622, the natives were
relentlessly driven from their villages and fields--the Warriscoyacks,
the Nansemonds, the Chickahominies and in 1630, the Chiskiackes. Then,
the white men took over their areas of cleared land.
[Illustration: Photo by Virginia State Library
Lee House (Chiskiac)--York County
The main building here shown was built about 1690 and was the home of
the descendants of Henry Lee, who was in Virginia by the middle of the
seventeenth century. The site, now within the United States Naval Mine
Depot, was, before 1630 the territory of the Chiskiac (Kiskiacke)
Indians. The wing attached is a modern addition.]
However, these fields were but small open spaces required by the
Englishmen who arrived in increasing numbers. There was a constant
operation, in the seventeenth century, of clearing and planting new
lands. As help in the white indentured servants was never very
plentiful, the planters, finally resorted to an available supply of
Negro labor, being peddled along the coast of the Americas, and landed
wherever the slaveships could gain entry.
The muster of 1625 shows that many goats had been brought to the Colony
by that time. Multiplying, they provided able assistance during the
early seventeenth century in thoroughly clearing away the undergrowth,
preparatory to cutting down trees and grubbing stumps. Joseph Ham, in
the colony by 1633, resorted to these omnivorous quadrupeds in clearing
his land. He lived in the New Poquoson area where growth of all kinds is
lush. The region, which has its name from the Indian term for lowlands,
had afforded the Kecoughtan Indians a rich hunting-ground. Midst tall
pines, oak, walnut, cedar, wild cherry, locust, swamp willow, holly,
myrtle and persimmon, entangled with grape vines, reaching the tops of
trees, and Virginia creeper, game found a haven. Deer, bears, rabbits,
squirrel, opossum, raccoon, foxes, weasels, mink, otter and muskrat were
sheltered in the thickets and adjacent swamps, while wild ducks and
geese made of the marshes, bordering the waterways, a rendezvous for
days and weeks on their flights southward. The Bay at hand, and its
estuaries, abounded in trout, hogfish, rock, shad, sturgeon and other
edible species in season, not to speak of soft-shell crabs, hard-shell
crabs, turtles, terrapin, clams and oysters.
Here was food in plenty, but to clear the land for a crop posed a
problem to Joseph Ham. He had married a widow with two young children
and the family had one servant only--a maid. The heavy work fell to him,
but not all of it, for he turned fifty-one goats into the thickets to
feast upon the vines and undergrowth. When he died, in 1638, he
bequeathed his herd of goats to his stepchildren and to his wife.
Although he left other possessions, including a feather bed, two
blankets, a rug, a bolster, a warming-pan, a parcel of pewter, three
iron pots, two brass kettles, a brass basin, a copper kettle, three
pairs of sheets, one dozen napkins, a table-cloth, a looking-glass, a
chest, ten barrels of corn and three shoats, along with his plantation,
yet the goats had been his first thought. He carefully designated thirty
for his stepchildren and twenty-one for his wife. The present may
measure the worth of the goats in the early seventeenth century by this
scrupulous legacy.
THE INDEPENDENT PLANTER
In establishing the colony, the Virginia Company had projected the idea
that the people who settled the land would, in a short time, be able to
supply their daily needs. In addition, they would ship to England raw
materials needed there, and absorb in return articles produced by the
English craftsmen, and such imports from foreign lands as were surplus
in England. Thus, a brisk trade was anticipated, and did develop, but
not in the direction forecast in the beginning.
As the forests were rapidly being depleted in England, wood and wood
products were among the greatest needs. Accordingly, report was made in
1624, that, by 1608 and 1609, such woods as cedar, cypress and black
walnut had been exported from the Colony, and both clapboard and
wainscoting, fashioned in Virginia, had been sent to the Mother Country,
along with soap ashes, yielding the necessary potash, an ingredient for
soap-making scarce in England. In addition, pitch, tar, iron ore,
sturgeon and glass were exported and sassafras, growing wild in
Virginia, was in demand in England for tea making. Ere long, of course,
the colonists found that tobacco was a lucrative crop, and put their
time, attention and efforts in developing a grade of tobacco, which
would bring a good price. Inspection before exportation helped in
maintaining the standard.
However, in cultivating tobacco, the Virginia planter also promoted
assiduously a program of self-sufficiency for his plantation, so that
what was needed in daily living was at hand or could be had from a
neighbor. Practically every plantation, both large and small, had
livestock and produced milk and butter. Sufficient quantities of corn,
barley and wheat were grown to supply year-around needs. Very soon the
Englishmen abandoned the Indian method of pounding grain into meal for
bread-making and established mills on the fresh-water courses and on
tidal waters where the dammed streams and the tide furnished
water-power. Mill stones were among early shipments to the colony and
locations of some of these seventeenth-century mills remain landmarks in
Virginia today. Denbigh, on Waters Creek in Warwick County, Chuckatuck
in Nansemond, and the headwaters of the Poquoson in York County are
among the sites of early mills. John Bates of Skimeno in Upper York
County, a large land owner, operated two mills, one on his plantation
called "Pease Hill creek mill" and the other, "Okenneck," a
water-grist-mill.
Brandy for family use often was distilled on the plantation. While
Philip Fisher of the Eastern Shore bequeathed both his mill and his
still to his son Thomas, he directed that his son John should have the
use of both, the mill to grind his corn and the still "to still his own
drink." Beer was made from malt, and cider was produced from apples
grown on the plantations.
The remains of an icehouse uncovered during excavations at Jamestown,
and dated about the middle of the seventeenth century, is evidence that
the colonists cut ice from the ponds nearby, during a freeze, and stored
it for use in summer. These cylindrical structures, usually of brick,
erected in a shady spot and reinforced at the base with the cooling
earth, were packed ten, fifteen or more feet deep with ice, depending on
the supply available. In between the layers, straw and reeds were laid,
and the arrangement in general preserved the ice even into the very warm
months.
Thomas Cocke, of "Pickthorn Farm" and "Malvern Hill," carried on
enterprises established by his father, operating at the latter a flour
mill, tanneries and looms for making both woolens and linen. For a
specimen of linen five ells in length and three-fourths of a yard wide
of the first quality, he received an award, in 1695, of 800 pounds of
tobacco, offered by the Assembly in 1692. Both Virginia-made stockings
and Virginia-made cloth are listed in the Bridger inventory of 1686.
A pottery kiln, uncovered at "Greenspring," and in operation prior to
1675, shows the interest of the Virginia Governor in having earthenware
fashioned in the colony for domestic uses. Morgan Jones of Westmoreland
County is mentioned as a "potter" in 1674. At the same time, Joseph
Copeland of Chuckatuck, in Nansemond County, was fashioning pewter. The
handle of a spoon bearing the hallmark of this earliest American
pewterer, of whom there is a record, is extant and may be seen at the
museum at Jamestown.
Some of the earliest of the colonists were skilled in boatbuilding, the
shipwrecked passengers on the _Seaventure_ having constructed, on the
Bermuda Islands in 1609, two pinnaces in which they sailed the 700 miles
to Virginia in 1610. The Hansfords maintained a boatyard on Felgate's
Creek in York County, where they both built and repaired small vessels.
On 17 November 1675, John Allen, Augustine Kneaton and William Hobson of
Northumberland County agreed to build a sloop of twenty-four feet by the
keel for Andrew Pettigrew and deliver it to his plantation, the sloop to
be able "to floor [lay flat] nine hogsheads complete."
These brief mentions by no means complete the story of the independent
Virginia planter, who acquired the luxuries shipped from England as the
proceeds from his tobacco crop permitted, but who generally had at hand
the necessities of life regardless of the times.
PART II
THE VIRGINIA PLANTERS AND THEIR MANNER OF LIVING
A YOUNGER SON IN VIRGINIA
The progress, from the status of a younger son in England, to that of a
landed proprietor in Virginia, is illustrated in the typical case of
Christopher Calthrope, third son of Christopher Calthrope Esq. of
Blakeney, Norfolk, England. The seniority of two brothers was a
limitation upon opportunity for him in England. As a youth of sixteen
years of age he was sent to Virginia, in 1622, in company with
Lieutenant Thomas Purefoy, the latter named later Commander of Elizabeth
City Corporation.
Young Calthrope had been well supplied by his family before leaving
England, even bringing with him a quantity of "good liquor" which, while
it lasted, added considerably to his popularity. In the name of the
family attorney, the young man shortly was assigned land on Waters
Creek, in the area now the site of the Mariners Museum of Warwick. In
1628, he also owned land in a choice area near Fort Henry and adjacent
to Lieutenant Purefoy in Elizabeth City.
These tracts, however, provided but small plantations, and so when the
area along the York River was opened for settlement in 1630, Christopher
Calthrope sought land available in large tracts in the adjacent
territory, patenting some 1200 acres on the New Poquoson (now Poquoson)
River, which flows into the Chesapeake Bay just beyond the mouth of the
York. He called his new plantation "Thropland" after the family estate
in England. By 1635, a church had been built on his land and New
Poquoson Parish (later Charles Parish) was established, the records of
which are the earliest extant Parish records in Virginia. As the Parish
then embraced the areas on the west side of the river, the Chismans and
other families who had settled on Chisman's Creek, sailed over in their
sloops or came in their shallops, to worship there on Sundays.
Captain Christopher Calthrope, the Virginia planter, served both York
and Elizabeth City in the House of Burgesses during the period,
1644-1660, and also was one of the Commissioners for York County. He was
replaced in the latter office, 1661, since he had gone _Southward_, the
designation then for the area, which lay on the southern border of
Virginia and the northern boundary of the present state of North
Carolina. Vast tracts of land were available there, and Calthrope, still
land hungry, acquired acreage in the Nottoway region, on which his great
grandson was living in 1756.
Shortly after Calthrope's demise, his widow Anne petitioned the York
County Court to grant her administration of his estate, and on 24 April,
1662, she gave bond with very good security in return for her
appointment. Six months later the inventory estimated the estate, with
several items not then accounted for, at "30,480 pounds of tobacco and
casks." The widow, a son and three daughters shared in the estate, which
not only included land in York and at the _Southward_, but possessions
in a considerable number.
Both tobacco and corn were raised on the Calthrope land, hives of bees
were kept, and a dairy was in operation. To aid the family enterprise
there were nine indentured servants, one of whom, Thomas Ragg, later
became the husband of Elinor Calthrope.
Four draught oxen did the hauling on the low-lying plantation. Also
there were six steers, thirteen milch cows, five heifers, four yearlings
and seven calves, the cows obviously supplying the dairy equipped with
ten milk trays, a tub and earthenware pan. Three sows, two barrows and
four shoats completed the list of livestock.
All other possessions are listed in the "outer room, the chamber and
the shedd." These three areas constituted the Calthrope home. In the
chamber where the family apparently lived and slept, there were two
feather beds, with the usual appurtenances of bolsters, sheets,
blankets, valances and curtains, and also a couch bed and a couch. In
the outer room, apparently a storeroom, there was, in accordance with
the practice of planters to keep a supply of materials on hand, a
quantity of piece-goods in dowlas, lockram, dimity, coarse Holland, fine
Holland and tufted Holland, osnaburg and kersey, and seventeen ells (45
inches in English measure and 27 inches in Dutch measure) of sheeting,
as well as yarn stockings. A limited supply of colored calico, East
Indian stuff and Norway stuff are evidence that the English merchantmen,
tramping to all parts of the world, brought some of their cargoes from
remote areas to Virginia.
Cooking was carried on in the shed, probably a thinly enclosed area,
equipped with a large fireplace and attached to the house. Here, there
were andirons, racks, a spit, hooks and bellows. Utensils for preparing
food included an iron pot, a gridiron, frying-pan, dripping-pan, two
brass kettles, a skimmer, a mortar and pestle, and a grater. Pewter-ware
and a supply of three dozen napkins and six tablecloths made meals
something of an occasion for the family.
Evidently, the Calthrope family had little fear of enemies in their
area, from which the Indians had previously been driven away, for they
owned but one gun and that was "unfixt," that is, not equipped with a
firing mechanism.
James Calthrope, only son of Christopher, inherited his father's
plantation, served as Justice of York County and, in his will, proved
1690, bequeathed land to New Poquoson Parish, which evidently was that
upon which the church had originally been erected.
The fourth generation of Calthropes in Virginia maintained title to a
portion of the York County grant, more than a century and a quarter,
after the progenitor of the family came to the colonies. Thus, did the
Englishmen reach out across the seas, and plant branches of their
families to carry on in the English tradition in the new world.
ROYALISTS IN VIRGINIA
By 1644, conditions in England had become difficult because of the Civil
Wars. In a correspondence with Daniel Llewellyn of Charles City, William
Hallom of England wrote: "if these times hold long amongst us we must
all faine come to Virginia."
The message sent by Hallom was prophetic, for by 1650, many well-to-do
Englishmen, loyal to the Crown, fled to Virginia to escape the wrath of
Cromwell's men. Some were so deeply involved politically that they
assumed aliases. This was the case of Captain Francis Dade, who, until
the Restoration, was known in Virginia as Major John Smith. Many, who
came to Virginia during this period, remained. Mrs. Anne Gorsuch, whose
husband, a Royalist, was pursued and killed in England, brought seven of
her children to Virginia, but on returning to see to her affairs there,
died. The children remained and established families in Virginia and
Maryland. Daniel Horsmanden later returned to England and died there;
however, his daughter Ursula married, as her second husband, William
Byrd I and established the well-known Virginia family of that name.
Also, representative of the Royalists who migrated to Virginia was
Colonel Joseph Bridger of Isle of Wight County. The date of his coming
is unknown, but he appeared in the records as a member of the House of
Burgesses, 1657; thus, apparently, he had been in the county several
years prior to that time. His tombstone, uncovered at the site of his
home plantation, "White Marsh," was removed in the late nineteenth
century and placed in the chancel of the Old Brick Church (St. Luke's)
in the county.
Colonel Bridger established in Isle of Wight a large mercantile
business, trading Virginia tobacco for commodities needed by the
colonists. In addition, on several plantations, aggregating in total
over 12000 acres, he raised tobacco and cattle, the latter apparently to
supply ships departing for England. As a successful business man he
shortly rose to prominence in the colony; he was a member of the
Commission to adjust the boundary between Maryland and Virginia, 1664, a
member of the Council, 1675, and sat on Governor Berkeley's court at
"Greenspring," which condemned to death leaders of Bacon's Rebellion. In
1680, he was commander-in-chief of the militia of Isle of Wight, Surry,
Lower Norfolk and Upper Norfolk (Nansemond) Counties, with the title of
Major General. Evidently, he maintained a close association with
Governor Berkeley, for he was a witness to the latter's will, 2 May
1676. His own will, dated 3 August 1683, with a codicil attached less
than two months later, together with the inventory of his extensive
estate, taken in 1686, provides interesting information as to the manner
of living of the Virginia merchant and planter of the latter half of the
seventeenth century.
In the settlement, Colonel Bridger's holdings were shared by his wife
Hester (Pitt) and six of his seven children. The eldest son was excluded
from his inheritance as Colonel Bridger, evidently a martinet with his
family as well as in his official capacity, added in the codicil a
directive cutting him off with 2000 pounds of tobacco because Joseph Jr.
had been disobedient to him and had gone out in "diverse ways." In
friendly suits with his brothers, after his father's death, the
disinherited son gained possession of a large portion of his rightful
heritage.
The family lived on the 850 acre plantation which Colonel Bridger had
purchased from Captain Upton. There was on the place a brick house when
the Bridger inventory was taken. There were four rooms on the first
floor, including the children's chamber and the dining room, with two
rooms in an upper story. Also a "new house" is listed in which there
were the hall, the parlor and the lower chamber on the first floor, and
on the upper floor three rooms and a "gallery" (hall). All rooms and
the halls in both houses were fully furnished. In the cellar beneath the
new house the family supply of drink was kept. The kitchen with two
additional chambers was probably separate from the house.
The mercantile business was carried on from a store, with an outer room,
a supply room in the rear and a storeroom above. Also, there was a brick
store, probably a warehouse, with storage space above. Merchandise
brought from England was unloaded at the landing, where an unusual item
of 800 "painting tiles" is listed. These imported tiles became popular,
in the latter part of the century, for facing fireplaces and other uses.