large settlements in Virginia, they sent over a company of men, and
these men are listed as "servants," a term used in our modern sense of
_employee_. The musters of Edward Bennett, Daniel Gookin and others
present such lists. In the Bennett muster, Christopher Reynolds,
evidently a head man in overseeing the creation of a plantation, comes
under the designation. Also, Adam Thoroughgood, who later was named a
member of the Council, is first mentioned in the colony under a list of
"servants."
[Illustration: Photo by Flournoy, Virginia State Chamber of Commerce
Adam Thoroughgood House--Princess Anne County
This house, considerably altered, an example of early
seventeenth-century architecture, located in that part of Lower Norfolk
County which became Princess Anne in 1691, was built by Adam
Thoroughgood on land patented by him, 1635. The dormer windows are a
later addition.]
True it is that many young men bound themselves, by written agreement
before departing from England to serve seven years in the colony, in
return for passage and other considerations, granted at the conclusion
of their terms. However, apprenticeship was the customary means, by
which young men acquired knowledge, and some degree of skill from their
elders. Young Robert Hallom, about 1640, was sent to England to live
with relatives and receive some training. He, forthwith, was apprenticed
to his cousin to learn the trade of a _salter_, and was described by the
family as a "prettie wittie boy." When Doctor Pott came to Virginia, in
1620, he brought as apprentices to learn the art of apothecary, young
Randall Holt and young Richard Townshend. Both youths became
dissatisfied, and sought to break their agreements through petitions to
the General Court, contending that Doctor Pott was not instructing them.
However, the Court held the young men to their agreements. Later,
Randall Holt married the heiress Mary Bayly, and became possessed of the
large plantation, Hog Island on the James River. Townshend rose to
prominence in the colony, also, having been named later a member of the
Council. Often such young men were third or fourth sons in a family, and
influence from overseas, as in Townshend's case, helped establish them
in places of honor and authority in the colony.
Youths, who agreed by indenture to serve in Virginia, were the main
source of help to the planters in the first half of the century. There
was never a sufficient number to fill the needs in the Colony, and
planters pleaded with the Company or with friends in England to send
them "servants." In letters sent to authorities in England, 1622, the
Rev. Richard Buck urgently requested that "servants" be sent to assist
him in carrying on the work of his 750 acre plantation.
Letters from Kathryne Hunlock of England to her daughter and son by a
prior marriage, Margaret and John Edwards, recorded in Northampton
County, indicate the class of young people who often bound themselves to
come to Virginia. Apparently, mother, son and daughter were educated,
for the mother refers to the correspondence with them. In 1648, Kathryne
Hunlock lists supplies she had sent to her daughter: eight yards of
snuff colored silk mohair, an ell of taffeta, silver lace, four pairs of
gloves, thread, hose, two taffeta hoods and two lace hoods with taffeta
handkerchiefs, four pairs of shoes, one hundred needles, 5000 pins and
"one green scarf for your husband." As the last entry shows, young
Margaret did not long remain an apprentice, for she was redeemed from
that status by a planter named Stephen Taylor, who, her mother wrote,
she understood, was an "honest man and gave a great price" for her.
Later, Kathryne Hunlock wrote her daughter and her son regarding the
daughter's inheritance from her deceased father. The son, incidentally,
served out his time. The correspondence indicates that these were
substantial folks, and the young people, probably having little to
anticipate in an improved status in England, sought both adventure and a
brighter future in Virginia.
Young orphans in the Colony, with no one to look to for support, were
bound out, this responsibility being accorded the vestry of the parish
church. In 1646, the York records note that Ann Snoden, an orphan seven
years of age, had no means left for her maintenance. Thereupon, she was
bound out to Captain Nicolas Martiau for nine years, with the provision
that he supply her with food, clothing, shelter, and give her a cow and
a calf and maintain both during her apprenticeship, rendering an account
annually to the court. In 1686, little William Hickman, a year old
infant, was bound out to William Dods of Isle of Wight County to be in
his care and service until he was twenty-one years of age.
Fewer than two score Negroes are listed in Virginia in 1625; they were
not present in numbers in the Colony until about 1660. By then, they
began to supplant white labor and were particularly useful in the
tobacco fields, the latter an ever increasing source of revenue to the
planter. Not all Negroes worked in the fields, however. In the inventory
of Mrs. Elizabeth Digges' estate filed in York County, 1691, three sets
of quarters for Negroes are listed: the home quarters where the house
servants lived, the Indian field quarters where those working in tobacco
lived, and the new ground quarters where were housed the Negroes doing
the heavy work of clearing new ground, a constant operation in Virginia
as the cultivation of tobacco quickly exhausted the soil.
As the Negroes took their places in the Colony as field-hands,
house-servants and craftsmen, the white indentured servant vanished from
the scene. As heretofore noted, the supply was never enough in the
Colony to fill the demand. Moreover, young men, at the conclusion of
their five or seven-year terms, received their allotment of clothing and
supplies, usually a barrel of corn, agreed upon in the indenture, and
joined the small-planter class in the Colony. Especially was this true
when the indenture included a clause granting fifty acres upon
completion of service.
Since Negroes were taught trades on the plantations and some of them
became highly skilled in handiwork, the white artisan had a difficult
time in establishing himself in Virginia. There was practically no white
artisan class. Small planters and their families acquired skills needed
in their daily living, the Negroes becoming the craftsmen on the larger
plantations.
THE HOUSEHOLD
The winters in Virginia, mild except for occasional freezes, with now
and then snowfall during the three winter months, proved less arduous to
the Englishmen than the two months of midsummer, when the mercury
reaching into the nineties brought discomfort, especially since the men
and women were clothed in the bunglesome garments, necessary in a cool
zone frequently overhung with fog. The many open, pleasant months in the
Colony made life out of doors a continuing pleasurable experience, when
hunting, fishing, horse-racing and games could be indulged in freely.
Yet, living indoors in Virginia in the coldest weather was always
cheerful. The land, heavily forested, yielded an ample supply of
firewood of all sorts, and the necessity of clearing the ground, for the
plantation homes and agricultural areas, kept heaps of wood at hand at
all times. The earliest open fires of the primitive shelters as well as
the great brick fireplaces later in the century, and the smaller hearths
in every room of the affluent planters' homes, always diffused that glow
of comfort instinctively sought, when the sun retreats. Before the
burning logs of hickory and oak the families gathered. There could be no
extravagance in the use of the abundant supply of wood, contrasting with
the necessity to preserve fuel in England, as the forests there, even in
the seventeenth century, were disappearing. Often, there were generous
pots of walnuts and hickory nuts to crack on the hearth, as family and
friends sipped from their pewter mugs the aging cider, pressed from
apples gathered in nearby orchards.
In addition to the flaming hearth, the soft glow of the candle, used
for illumination in the seventeenth century, lent charm to the evening
scene, as wanton shadows stood off in the room. Moreover, there was an
elusive aroma from the candles, often made from the wax of berries,
taken from the prolific growth of myrtle bushes about the Virginia
waterways. This redolence, together with the clear light which the
myrtle wax gave forth, made that candle popular in the evening;
notwithstanding, both beef and deer suet were in use for candle making,
and some candles were imported. All were held in candlesticks, made of
wire, brass, pewter, copper, or iron, the more elegant, of silver, with
snuffers of the same metals. In the very modest homes, the pine-knot
served as a means of illumination, the turpentine in the wood fibers
causing it to burn brightly until consumed.
[Illustration: From a painting for Colonial National Historical Park by
Sidney King.
A Domestic Scene at Jamestown About 1625
This representation of seventeenth-century home life was executed by the
artist after a detailed study of artifacts and archaeological remains
found at Jamestown.]
Various house furnishings have been listed in the inventories or are
listed hereafter. During the latter part of the century, particularly,
it will be seen that these furnishings were as elaborate or as simple as
in the comparable home in England.
Next to the fireplace, perhaps, the table adds more good feeling among
family and friends than any other item of the household. To "gather
around the board" was not merely a figurative expression in the early
seventeenth century when the first tables were boards laid on trestles
and set aside after meals. Table frames and planks were mentioned in a
Lower Norfolk County inventory in 1643. Later, permanent legs were
attached to the boards, and stretchers, fastened to them with pegs, kept
the table steady. However, as the English began to fashion fine pieces
of furniture, the table of various types found its way to Virginia and,
by the middle and late seventeenth century, there were serving-tables,
tea-tables as well as dining-tables. The four-times married Mrs. Amory
Butler owned a rare item in an extension table.
[Illustration: Early Dining Table
Though the first tables in the Colony were boards laid on trestles, the
above shows the adaptation of supports for permanent placing of this
article in the household.]
Even the planter with a modest household owned table-linen. As
heretofore noted, Joseph Ham possessed, before 1638, a dozen napkins
and a table-cloth. The well-to-do planters, especially after 1650,
brought with them, or sent for, a wide variety of table-linen, and both
Mrs. Butler and Mrs. Digges owned napkin-presses, that of the former
listed in 1673, and that of the latter in 1692.
Wooden trenchers and wooden spoons were the earliest tableware in
Virginia. Later, pewter-ware supplanted wood and while earthen-ware
trays and pots were mentioned, in a few inventories, and were used in
the dairy, and while earthen-ware was produced in the Colony by 1675, it
did not come into general use for dining during the seventeenth century.
Table-knives were not plentiful, nevertheless, various types of such
knives are mentioned in inventories by the latter part of the century,
black-handled, white-handled and ivory-hafted knives. The one rare item
was the table-fork, which was not common even in England during the
period. "Eating with the knife," a step beyond the use of the fingers,
gradually became an established custom, and the practice has survived
among the homely folks, despite the many varieties of forks available
and in general use today.
The bed was a prominent item and the ticking of the best beds was filled
with feathers, which assured a soft, comfortable, cosy resting place,
especially in winter. There were no springs. The flock bed so often
mentioned was less downy but comfortable, being filled with bits of
wool, rags, milkweed or cattail-fluff, the latter in abundant growth
near the fresh waterways. This was the "next best bed" which was a
sufficiently important item to be left to heirs. Thomas Gibson, in 1652,
bequeathed to his daughter his "best flock bed, with rug (used for
covering), bolster, pillow and fine pair of Holland sheets." Sheets,
variously mentioned, were of canvas or of Holland, generally, the
latter, being an unbleached coarse linen. By the middle of the century,
valances and curtains around the beds "to shut out the night air" were
in general use. As soon as practicable, the English were bringing over
their brass warming-pans with long handles. These perforated pans
filled with warm embers were run in the beds just before the retiring
hour. As the antecedent of the modern American electric blanket, they
enticed the drowsy to bed. Retreating from the cheerful hearth, the
would-be sleeper, then as now, had no fear of being aroused by the
clammy chill of frigid bed-linen.
All colonists appear to have possessed chests of one kind or another,
some plain, some carved. When the early planter obtained sufficient
credit from his tobacco crop to indulge in a luxury, he acquired an
innovation in a chest-of-drawers, where was kept the family clothing and
the supply of materials on hand. Since dress was an important matter in
the Colony, the looking-glass was indispensable. Occasionally, there was
"a great looking-glass," but for the most part, the mirrors were small
and stood on chests or chests-of-drawers.
Stools and benches were in use generally. Chairs, rare in England until
the early part of the seventeenth century, nevertheless, found their way
to Virginia about the time they came into use in England. However,
chairs were scarce, and only the master of the house or his
distinguished guest was accorded the privilege of being seated in them.
The earliest chairs were cumbersome, being fashioned of oak with solid
square backs, often panelled, and thus were known as "wainscot chairs."
The seat was of wood and the bracing beneath made this article of
furniture exceedingly substantial. Later in the century, a variety of
chairs found their way to Virginia, caned chairs, leather chairs and
Turkey-work chairs. The latter were those upholstered in hand-woven
material imported into England from the Orient and then exported to
Virginia. By the middle of the century, couches were listed and they
were for the most part of the same construction as the chairs.
[Illustration: Wainscot Chair
While stools and benches were commonly used for seats in the early
seventeenth century, a wainscot chair as shown above was in use at
Jamestown before 1623.]
Lord De La Warr, who came to Virginia in 1610, sat in the Jamestown
church in a green velvet chair. This is the first known mention of a
chair in the Colony. In 1623, a wainscot-chair, owned by John Atkins of
Jamestown, was bequeathed to his friend Christopher Davison, Secretary
of the Colony.
In addition to the standard pieces of furniture aforementioned, luxury
articles were imported during the latter part of the century. Mrs.
Elizabeth Digges owned five Spanish tables, two green carpets and a
Turkey-work carpet; Mrs. Elizabeth (Mason) Thelaball, of Lower Norfolk
County, had among her possessions a small desk and a writing-slate. In
the goods consigned, 1694, by Perry and Lane of London to Mrs. Elizabeth
Woory, of Isle of Wight County, was a drugget.
The size of the homes varied from the simple one-room structures
characteristic of the early part of the century to the Bridger home
previously described, and Mrs. Digges' home of six rooms, hall, cellar,
garret and detached kitchen.
In looking over the inventories of the seventeenth century planters,
observation is inevitable that the kitchen area alone maintained its
distinct character. Even among the well-to-do, beds were everywhere,
irrespective of the number of rooms in use. Guns, swords, pistols,
saddles, bridles, steelyards (scales) cluttered up the hall in the
Bridger home.
Bathing facilities were meager. Copper and pewter basins were in general
daily use, and also were employed for sponge baths occasionally taken in
winter before the open fires. The chamber pots, frequently listed,
served other necessary functions.
In the summer months, much of the cooking was done out-of-doors in huge
pots slung from a tripod. The food for the servants went into a single
pot, and their fare in "pap" was eaten in the open also, when the
weather permitted. In the winter and during the cooler months, cooking
was done on the hearth of an ample fireplace which customarily took up
the greater part of the end of a room. If the family was of modest
means, the kitchen area was the heart of the house. Here, in winter, was
warmth, food and companionship. As the planter acquired numerous
servants and preparation of food became an all-day matter, every day,
the kitchen with its companion room, the buttery, was divorced from the
house. Under this arrangement, the mistress of the household merely
directed the preparation of food, the care of the dairy products, the
salting of the meat, and the rendering of the lard.
Before the fire on the great hearth, meat on joints and fowl were
trussed on spits, and to some small boy fell the task of keeping the
spit turning. A drip-pan placed beneath caught the juices. Bakestones,
griddles and clay ovens were at hand to stand on the hot embers, and
later, ovens were built into the fireplaces. From cranes, simple at
first and later with convenient arrangements for tipping, hung the pots
for boiling. Bellows were at hand to enliven dying embers. On a rough
table stood the brass mortar and iron pestle for mixing, the flesh-hook
for handling meats, brass skimmer, rolling-pin, and other handy cooking
utensils. Besides, in an adjoining space, there were pans, butter-pots,
tubs and trays for the milk and milk products.
[Illustration: Courtesy of the artist, Sydney R. Jones from _Old English
Household Life_ by Jekyll and Jones, published by B. T. Batsford, Ltd.,
London.
Photo by Thomas L. Williams
Seventeenth-Century Kitchen and Cooking Utensils]
Water, which had to be drawn by hand from wells, except for an
occasional windmill, was not a plentiful commodity. Therefore, the
washing of clothes was not the semi-weekly operation carried on today
with labor-saving devices. For the most part, it was carried on
out-of-doors in clear weather, either at a nearby stream, or in the huge
pots or tubs possessed by every family. Soap was brought into the
Colony, and also was compounded from the animal fats available and the
soap-ashes, which were plentiful. After soaking, the clothes were laid
on boards and the grime driven out with "beetles" or paddles; then, the
garments were hung up or laid out to dry or bleach in the sun. The few
housewives, who owned napkin-presses, had the table-linen carefully
folded, and placed, when damp, in the press in a pile. The board,
screwed down firmly, eliminated the wrinkles, and the linen in some
hours was smooth and ready for use. Also, various smoothing-irons and
goffering (crimping)-irons, heated on the hearth were applied to
garments. In all, however, laundering was a laborious process. Perfume,
therefore, was a popular item in milady's toilet.
[Illustration: Courtesy of the artist, Sydney R. Jones from _Old English
Household Life_ by Jekyll and Jones, published by B. T. Batsford, Ltd.,
London.
Photo by Thomas L. Williams
Wash-day in the Seventeenth Century
The women soak the clothes in hot water dipped from the nearby kettle
heated over the open fire, beat out the grime with paddles, rinse the
articles in the shallow stream and hang them out to dry.]
HOSPITALITY
From time immemorial, the traveller, in sparsely settled areas in need
of food and shelter at the end of the day, has always been made welcome,
whether he was known or unknown. Moreover, there were no questions
asked. Famed Virginia hospitality had its roots in this age-old custom,
particularly as the early seventeenth-century traveller, often from
overseas, could be sheltered nowhere else save at the homes of the
planters. Although there were few inns, some taverns and ordinaries by
the middle of the century, accommodations were poor and the well-to-do
gentlemen preferred the warmth of the planters' hospitable homes to
meager public accommodations. Nor was the entertainment of the
unexpected guest a one-sided proposition, for visitors broke the daily
routine of plantation life, bringing news from beyond and reports of
what was happening in other parts of the Colony or overseas. Upon
departure, the guest was sped on his way by his host or some member of
the family, who accompanied him part way on his journey. In case he came
by water, he was bade a final farewell from the planter's wharf.
Peter deVries, the Dutch sea-captain and trader, has left some early
accounts of hospitality in Virginia. Although he recorded that the
Englishmen in Virginia drove a close bargain in trade, and their acumen
in that respect could not be surpassed, he was ever warm in praise of
their hospitality. On his arrival in Virginia, 1633, he anchored off
Newport News and visited there the Gookins. Later, when his ship sailed
up the James River, he recorded that he stopped at "Littletown," the
plantation of George Menefie, an early Virginia attorney, a prosperous
planter and, said deVries, "a great merchant, who kept us to dinner and
treated us very well."
When young Christopher Calthrope, aged sixteen years, came to Virginia
in 1622, George Sandys, Treasurer of the Colony, proffered him the
entertainment of his home and offered him his own room to lodge in.
Although the young man declined, having other friends, Sandys saw to it
that he was adequately cared for in the Colony.
The hospitality of Captain Samuel Mathews of "Denbigh" was widely known,
even in England, where several, who had visited in Virginia, recorded
the welcome they had received at his extensive plantation at the mouth
of the Warwick River. In 1648, a writer, who signed himself Beauchamp
Plantagenet, recounted his visit to Virginia where, upon arrival at
Newport News, a few miles below "Denbigh," he was welcomed at the home
of Captain Samuel Mathews and given "free quarter everywhere."
Virginia proved a haven to numerous Royalists as previously mentioned.
Many who found it expedient to flee from England, about 1649, sought
refuge in Virginia. Their coming was often kept secret, but they were
accorded a warm welcome. Furthermore, when it was safe to make their
presence generally known, they were received into official life in the
Colony.
Among those who came and received welcome on the Eastern Shore at the
home of Stephen Charlton were Colonel Henry Norwood, Major Richard Fox
and Major Francis Moryson. Later they joined Colonel Mainwaring Hammond,
Sir Henry Chicheley, Sir Thomas Lunsford and Colonel Philip Honeywood at
Captain Ralph Wormeley's, on the Rappahannock River, and joined in the
"feasting and carousing."
[Illustration: Photo by Flournoy, Virginia State Chamber of Commerce
Rosegill--Middlesex County
The first Ralph Wormeley, who died in 1651, at the early age of
thirty-one, cordially welcomed refugee royalists to Rosegill. Sir Henry
Chicheley, Deputy Governor, made his home at Rosegill and died here
Dec. 1, 1682. In 1686, the second Ralph Wormeley was host to the
Frenchman Monsieur Durand of Dauphine, who sought in the Colony a haven
for the Huguenots, his forlorn compatriots.]
Governor Berkeley, a staunch Royalist, made the Cavaliers from across
the seas particularly welcome, and as Colonel Norwood recorded, "house
and purse were open to all such." Incidently, the term _Cavalier_
loosely applied at times to all gentlemen who came to Virginia in the
seventeenth century, irrespective of date, was a designation strictly
applicable to those of a political party, loyal to the cause of Charles
I, and it came into use during the Civil Wars in England nearly
thirty-five years after Jamestown was settled.