The Peruke Shop
[405 Prince Street. Owners: The Moore Family.]
This house is completely surprising. Many years ago the owners put on a
new pressed-brick front and changed the sash from the usual small lights
to two single lights of large dimensions. The transition from this 1890
front to an eighteenth century interior in a perfect state of
preservation, produces upon one crossing the threshold the sensation of
walking straight through the looking glass. And whither does the looking
glass lead? Right into the parlors of Mr. William Sewell!
The stairway rises on the far side of a fine arch in the entrance hall.
Halfway up, it becomes obscured from view, leaving one gazing at a
paneled ceiling, as it makes an abrupt about-face. The rooms on the
second floor are quaint. Low-pitched, sloping ceilings, off-center
mantels with odd panels and chimney closets and six-paneled doors with
H&L hinges, are amusing as well as charming.
Two parlors on the ground floor, opening off the hall, are formal and
elegant. Fine paneled chimney breasts dominate these rooms. Dentils and
fret trim cornices and mantels. Chair rails, six-panel doors, wide board
pine floors, and double doors opening flat against the walls, making the
two rooms into one, are found here. In the front room the interesting
feature is a Franklin stove set in the fireplace--quite the last word in
comfort in the 1780s.
On July 14, 1749 the Reverend John Moncure bought lot No. 61 for L5
_9s._ On March 28, 1752, the deed for this property was filed at Fairfax
Court House and described as lot No. 61, a half acre of land on Royal
and Prince Streets, as surveyed and platted by John West. Two years
later, June 15, 1754, the Reverend John Moncure, along with other
gentlemen of prominence in the colony, lost his lot for having failed to
comply with the directions of the assembly to build thereon within three
years. The following September there took place an auction of these
forfeited lots, and No. 61 passed to William Sewell for L5 7_s._ 6_d._
At a court held at Fairfax, on April 18, 1759, with five gentlemen
justices presiding; _to wit_, John Carlyle, John West Jun., John Hunter,
Robert Adam, and William Bronaugh:
William Sewell brings into court his servant Elizabeth McNot for
having a base born child. Ordered that she serve for the same one
year and she agrees to serve her said master six months in
consideration of his paying her fine.[120]
Thus out of the mist of one hundred and ninety years emerges again the
dim figure of William Sewell. And who, pray, was William Sewell?
Peruke-maker! So called in a deed of trust dated 1766, "William Sewell
Peruke Maker," and Elizabeth, his wife. The same Elizabeth?
Nearly two hundred years have passed since William dressed a wig or
powdered a head, but if these parlors were his shop, and certainly they
were, all the gentry in the town waited his pleasure here. Visitors who
came to Alexandria and took part in the balls testified to the elegance
of the ladies' apparel (almost always) and a lady to be elegant must
have a well dressed head. It was rare, too, to see a gentleman without
his peruke. William must have had a very large business. One likes to
think that Major Washington dealt with Sewell, and it is not difficult
to imagine on ball evenings Mrs. Carlyle's maid rushing in, making a
hasty curtsy and breathlessly demanding Madam's wig; or perhaps Mrs.
Fairfax's maid presents Mrs. Fairfax's compliments and "Please, will Mr.
Sewell come at two o'clock to dress Mistress Fairfax's hair?" Nor, is it
difficult to picture William, when the shop day is over, with his
apprentices bent over the fine net, meticulously crocheting, by
candlelight, the white hair into a lofty creation that will, in about
six months time, take a lady's breath away.
Alas! Alack! Peruke-making and hair-dressing were not all they ought to
be. Poor William owed a lot of money. He was indebted with interest to
John Carlyle and John Dalton for L42 15_s._ 7_d._; William Ramsay for
L83 14_s._ 4_d._; John Muir for L23 7_s._ 9_d._--all merchants of
Alexandria. But that was not all; the Kingdom of Great Britain was
concerned. He owed one Henry Ellison, of White Haven, merchant, L62
10_s._ 7_d._, and Joshua Pollard of Liverpool, shipmaster, L17. Poor
William put up for security lot No. 61, with all buildings thereon,
water rights, watercourses, etc., which led, eventually, to a sheriff's
sale. By due process of law, and to satisfy and pay sundry mortgages,
lot No. 61 fell to William Ramsay.
[Illustration: Mantel in home of William Sewell, peruke-maker]
Ramsay sold a part of this lot on Prince and Royal Streets in 1785 to
Colin McIver, and the property was described as bounded today:
"Beginning 24 feet 6 inches west of Royal and running West on Prince 24
feet, 6 inches, thence 88 feet North to a six foot alley, etc., for
L225, with all houses, buildings, streets, lanes, allies, profits, etc."
In 1795 Colin McIver's son, John, sold the property to a Philadelphia
merchant named Crammond for L450 and Crammond agreed to give up the
house and land within a stated time to anyone paying more, or to pay the
difference.
After twenty-three years the property was bought by another merchant of
Philadelphia, Thomas Asley, for $750.00, and within two years Mr. Asley
sold it to John Gird of Alexandria, in the District of Columbia, for
$1,300. In September 1819, John Gird had a note endorsed for $4,100 by
Isaac Entwistle, and mortgaged some of his personal possessions which
were listed as "one clock, one sideboard, two mahogany dining tables,
two tea ditto, one pair card tables, one secretary, two bureaus, one
writing desk, one dozen rush bottom chairs, one ditto with settee to
match, one sofa, two looking glasses, carpets, brass andirons, two
fenders, shovel, tongs, window curtains, three bedsteads and beds,
chair, wash stand, chest, house linen, one set gilt tea china, four
waiters, one half dozen silver teaspoons, one set plated castors, sundry
glass and earthen ware, kitchen furniture, etc."[121]
Six years later this debt was not cleared up and John Gird secured the
debt with his house and lot. Thus ended Gird's tenure and the property
passed on through other hands for twenty-four years to the Miller
family; thence to Isaac Rudd, until the Moore family purchased the house
about 1892.
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