The Cultural History of Marlborough, Virginia Part 2

No description of the courthouse has been found. The Act of 1663 seems to have required a brick building, although its wording is ambiguous.

Even if it did stipulate brick, the law was 28 years old in 1691, and its requirements probably were ignored. Although Bayley, the builder, was a carpenter, this would not preclude the possibility that he supervised bricklayers and other artisans. Brick courthouses were not unknown; one was standing in Warwick when the Act for Ports was pa.s.sed in 1691. Yet, the York courthouse, built in 1692, was a simple building, probably of wood.[31] In any case, the Stafford courthouse was a structure large enough to have required more than a year and a half to build, but not so elaborate as to have cost more than 40,000 pounds of tobacco.

FOOTNOTES:

[22] RALPH HAPPEL, "Stafford and King George Courthouses and the Fate of Marlborough, Port of Entry," _VHM_ (Richmond, 1958), vol. 66, pp. 183-194.

[23] Stafford County Order Book, 1689-1694, p. 187.

[24] Ibid., p. 122.

[25] _William Fitzhugh and His Chesapeake World (1676-1701)_, op. cit. (footnote 3), p. 241.

[26] Stafford County Order Book, 1689-1694, p. 194.

[27] Ibid., p. 182.

[28] In Virginia recurrent English fears of Catholic domination were reflected at this time in hysterical rumors that the Roman Catholics of Maryland were plotting to stir up the Indians against Virginia. In Stafford County these suspicions were inflamed by the harangues of Parson John Waugh, minister of Stafford Parish church and Chotank church.

Waugh, who seems to have been a rabble rouser, appealed to the same small landholders and malcontents as those who, a generation earlier, had followed Nathaniel Bacon's leaders.h.i.+p. So seriously did the authorities at Jamestown regard the disturbance at Stafford courthouse that they sent three councillors to investigate. See "Notes," _William & Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine_ (Richmond, 1907), 1st ser., vol. 15, pp. 189-190 (hereinafter designated _WMQ_) [1]; and Richard Beale Davis' introduction to _William Fitzhugh and His Chesapeake World_, op. cit. (footnote 3), pp. 35-39, and p. 251.

[29] Stafford County Order Book, 1689-1694, p. 167.

[30] Ibid., pp. 194, 267, 313.

[31] HENING, op. cit. (footnote 1), vol. 3, p. 60; EDWARD M.

RILEY, "The Colonial Courthouses of York County, Virginia,"

_William & Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine_ (Williamsburg, 1942), 2nd ser., vol. 22, pp. 399-404 (hereinafter designated _WMQ_ [2]).

LOCATION OF THE STAFFORD COURTHOUSE

The location of the building is indicated by a notation on Buckner's plat of the port town: "The fourth course (runs) down along by the Gutt between Geo: Andrew's & the Court house to Potomack Creek." A glance at the plat (fig. 2) will disclose that the longitudinal boundaries of all the lots south of a line between George Andrews' "Gutt" run parallel to this fourth course. Plainly, the courthouse was situated near the head of the gutt, where the westerly boundary course changed, near the end of "The Broad Street Across the Town." It may be significant that the foundation (Structure B) on which John Mercer's mansion was later built is located in this vicinity.

In or about the year 1718 the courthouse "burnt Down,"[32] while it was reported as "being become ruinous" in 1720, with its "Situation very inconvenient for the greater part of the Inhabitants." It was then agreed to build a new courthouse "at the head of Ocqua Creek."[33] Aquia Creek was probably meant, but this must have been an error and the "head of Potomac Creek" intended instead. Happel shows that it was built on the south side of Potomac Creek. Thus, the burning of the Marlborough courthouse in 1718 merely speeded up the forces that led to the end of the town's career.

FOOTNOTES:

[32] Pet.i.tion of John Mercer, loc. cit. (footnote 17).

[33] _Executive Journals of the Council of Colonial Virginia_ (Richmond, 1930), vol. 2, p. 527.

MARLBOROUGH PROPERTY OWNERS

Not only was Marlborough foredoomed by external decrees and adverse official decisions, but much of its failure was rooted in the local elements by which it was const.i.tuted. The great majority of lot holders were the "gentlemen" who were so carefully distinguished from "all other of the Inhabitants" in the order to survey the town in 1691. Most were leading personages in Stafford, and we may a.s.sume that their purchases of lots were made in the interests of investment gains, not in establis.h.i.+ng homes or businesses. Only three or four yeomen and ordinary keepers seem to have settled in the town.

Sampson Darrell, for example, held two lots, but he lived at Aquia Creek.[34] Francis Hammersley was a planter who married Giles Brent's widow and lived at "The Retirement," one of the Brent estates.[35]

George Brent, nephew of the original Giles Brent, was law partner of William Fitzhugh, and had been appointed Receiver General of the Northern Neck in 1690. His brother Robert also was a lot holder. Both lived at Woodstock, and presumably they did not maintain residences at the port town.[36] Other leading citizens were Robert Alexander, Samuel Hayward, and Martin Scarlett, but again there is little likelihood that they were ever residents of the town. John Waugh, the uproarious pastor of Potomac Parish, also was a lot holder, but he lived on the south side of Potomac Creek in a house which belonged to Mrs. Anne Meese of London.

His failure to pay for that house after 11 years' occupancy of it, which led to a suit in which Fitzhugh was the prosecutor, does not suggest that he ever arrived at building a house in the port town.[37]

Captain George Mason was a distinguished individual who lived at "Acc.o.keek," about a mile and a half from Marlborough. He certainly built in the town, for in 1691 he pet.i.tioned for a license to "keep an ordinary at the Town or Port for this county." The pet.i.tion was granted on condition that he "find a good and Sufficient maintenance and reception both for man and horse." Captain Mason was grandfather of George Mason of Gunston Hall, author of the Virginia Bill of Rights, and was, at one time or another, sheriff, lieutenant colonel and commander in chief of the Stafford Rangers, and a burgess. He partic.i.p.ated in putting down the uprising of Nantic.o.ke Indians in 1692, bringing in captives for trial at the unfinished courthouse in March of that year.[38] Despite his interest in the town, however, it is unlikely that he ever lived there.

Another lot owner was Captain Malachi Peale, whose lease of the town land from the Brents had been purchased when the site was selected. He also was an important figure, having been sheriff. He may well have lived on one of his three lots, since he was a resident of the Neck to begin with. John Withers, one of the first feoffees and a justice of the peace, was a lot holder also. George Andrews and Peter Beach, somewhat less distinguished, were perhaps the only full-time residents from among the first grantees. After 1708 Thomas Ballard and possibly William Barber were also householders.

Thus, few of the ingredients of an active community were to be found at Marlborough, the skilled craftsmen or s.h.i.+p's chandlers or merchants who might have provided the vitality of commerce and trade not having at any time been present.

FOOTNOTES:

[34] Stafford County Order Book, 1689-1694, p. 251.

[35] John Mercer's Land Book, loc. cit. (footnote 12); _William Fitzhugh and His Chesapeake World_, op. cit.

(footnote 3), p. 209.

[36] Ibid., pp. 76, 93, 162, 367.

[37] Stafford County Order Book, 1689-1694, p. 203; _William Fitzhugh and His Chesapeake World_, op. cit. (footnote 3), pp. 209, 211.

[38] Ibid., pp. 184, 230; John Mercer's Land Book, op. cit.

(footnote 12); _William Fitzhugh and His Chesapeake World_, op. cit. (footnote 3), p. 38.

HOUSING

It is likely that most of the houses in the town conformed to the minimum requirements of 20 by 20 feet. They were probably all of wood, a story and a half high with a chimney built against one end. Forman describes a 20-foot-square house foundation at Jamestown, known as the "House on Isaac Watson's Land." This had a brick floor and a fireplace large enough to take an 8-foot log as well as a setting for a brew copper. The ground floor consisted of one room, and there was probably a loft overhead providing extra sleeping and storage s.p.a.ce.[39] The original portion of the Digges house at Yorktown, built following the Port Act of 1705 and still standing, is a brick house, also 20 feet square and a story and a half high. Yet, brick houses certainly were not the rule. In remote Stafford County, shortly before the port town was built, the houses of even well-placed individuals were sometimes extremely primitive. William Fitzhugh wrote in 1687 to his lawyer and merchant friend Nicholas Hayward in London, "Your brother Joseph's building that Sh.e.l.l, of a house without Chimney or part.i.tion, & not one t.i.ttle of workmans.h.i.+p about it more than a Tobacco house work, carry'd him into those Arrears with your self & his other Employees, as you found by his Accots. at his death."[40] Ancient English puncheon-type construction, with studs and posts set three feet into the ground, was still in use at Marlborough in 1691, as we know from the contract for building a prison quoted by Happel.[41] No doubt the houses there varied in quality, but we may be sure that most were crude, inexpertly built, of frame or puncheon-type construction, and subject to deterioration by rot and insects.

FOOTNOTES:

[39] HENRY CHANDLEE FORMAN, _Jamestown and St. Mary's_ (Baltimore, 1938), pp. 135-137.

[40] _William Fitzhugh and His Chesapeake World_, op. cit.

(footnote 3), p. 203.

[41] HAPPEL, op. cit. (footnote 22), p. 186; Stafford County Order Book, 1689-1694, pp. 210-211.

FURNIs.h.i.+NGS OF TWO MARLBOROUGH HOUSES

Like George Mason, George Andrews ran an ordinary at the port town, having been licensed in 1693, and he also kept the ferry across Potomac Creek.[42] He died in 1698, leaving the property to his grandson John Cave. From the inventory of his estate recorded in the Stafford County records (Appendix A) we obtain a picture not only of the furnis.h.i.+ngs of a house in the port town, but also of what const.i.tuted an ordinary.[43]

We are left with no doubt that as a hostelry Andrews' house left much to be desired. There were no bedsteads, although six small feather beds with bolsters and one old and small flock bed are listed. (Flock consisted of tufted and fragmentary pieces of wool and cotton, while "Bed" referred not to a bedframe or bedstead but to the tick or mattress.) There were two pairs of curtains and valances. In the 17th century a valance was "A border of drapery hanging around the canopy of a bed."[44] Curtains customarily were suspended from within the valance from bone or bra.s.s curtain rings on a rod or wire, and were drawn around the bed for privacy or warmth. Where high post bedsteads were used, the curtains and valances were supported on the rectangular frame of the canopy or tester. Since George Andrews did not list any bedsteads, it is possible that his curtains and valances were hung from bracketed frames above low wooden frames that held the bedding. Six of his beds were covered with "rugs," one of which was "Turkey work." There is no indication of sheets or other refinements for sleeping.

Andrews' furniture was old, but apparently of good quality. Four "old"

cane chairs, which may have dated back as far as 1660, were probably English, of carved walnut. The "old" table may have had a turned or a joined frame, or possibly may have been a homemade trestle table. An elegant touch was the "carpet," which undoubtedly covered it. Chests of drawers were rare in the 17th century, so it is surprising to find one described here as "old." A "cupboard" was probably a press or court cupboard for the display of plates and dishes and perhaps the pair of "Tankards" listed in the inventory. The latter may have been pewter or German stoneware with pewter mounts. The "couch" was a combination bed and settee. As in every house there were chests, but of what sort or quality we can only surmise. A "great trunk" provided storage.

Andrews' hospitality as host is symbolized by his _lignum vitae_ punchbowl. Punch itself was something of an innovation and had first made its appearance in England aboard s.h.i.+ps arriving from India early in the 1600's. It remained a sailor's drink throughout most of the century, but had begun to gain in general popularity before 1700 in the colonies.

What is more remarkable here, however, is the container. Edward M. Pinto states that such _lignum vitae_ "wa.s.sail" bowls were sometimes large enough to hold five gallons of punch and were kept in one place on the table, where all present took part in the mixing. They were lathe-turned and usually stood on pedestals.[45] George Andrews' nutmeg graters, silver spoons, and silver dram cup for tasting the spirits that were poured into the punch were all elegant accessories.

Another resident whose estate was inventoried was Peter Beach.[46] One of his executors was Daniel Beach, who was paid 300 pounds of tobacco annually from 1700 to 1703 for "sweeping" and "cleaning" the courthouse (Appendix B). Beach's furnis.h.i.+ngs were scarcely more elaborate than Andrews'. Unlike Andrews, he owned four bedsteads, which with their curtains and fittings (here called "furniture") varied in worth from 100 to 1500 pounds of tobacco. Here again was a cupboard, while there were nine chairs with "flag" seats and "boarded" backs (rush-seated chairs, probably of the "slat-back" or "ladder-back" variety). Eight more chairs and five stools were not described. A "parcel of old tables" was listed, but only one table appears to have been in use. There were pewter and earthenware, but a relatively few cooking utensils. An "old" pewter tankard was probably the most elegant drinking vessel, while one candlestick was a grudging concession to the need for artificial light.

The only books were two Bibles; the list mentions a single indentured servant.