The Fabulous History Of The Dismal Swamp Company Part 10

Governor Henry and the Council could not easily find three men willing to go to the Dismal Swamp to choose a course for a ca.n.a.l. Those recommended in January 1785 declined to serve. A few months later, the Council named three friends of the Dismal Swamp Company: William Ronald, Robert Andrews, and David Meade. Meade wrote to Governor Henry, professing to believe that the governor and the councillors did not know that he was a member of the Dismal Swamp Company. Of course, he said, "that connexion evidently interests me in the question, with respect to the course" the ca.n.a.l would follow. Meade added that he had a new route in mind; he would be "obedient to your future commands." He remained a commissioner. Andrews, who had supervised the survey of the Dismal Swamp Company's boundary, said he would serve "very cheerfully," so much did he wish to increase Norfolk's trade with North Carolina. He believed the ca.n.a.l should run through the Dismal Swamp. Just before the commissioners visited the swamp, "a most tremendous gale" struck the Chesapeake on Thursday, September 22. The storm blew until Sat.u.r.day. Water in the Dismal Swamp rose and spread, convincing the commissioners a few days later that they "could not take a very particular View of the Ground."

In October, Meade and Andrews recommended abandoning the route leading into Currituck Sound, pointing out "the great Dangers & Difficulties" in navigating it. A better course ran through the eastern side of the swamp, beginning just south of Portsmouth, pa.s.sing within three and one-half miles of Lake Drummond, and joining the Pasquotank River north of Elizabeth City, North Carolina. Such a ca.n.a.l, 22 miles long, would lie near but not in the Dismal Swamp Company's tract. William Ronald presented to the House of Delegates in November a bill designating that course. The delegates deferred legislation until North Carolina was ready to pa.s.s a similar law.

Years before digging began, the prospect of a ca.n.a.l encouraged people to look differently at land in and near the Dismal Swamp. The Herberts of Norfolk County, with two a.s.sociates, announced in 1783 that their 25 acres between the eastern and southern branches of the Elizabeth River had been "laid off into lots and streets for a Town by the name of Was.h.i.+ngton." It was "likely to become a place of considerable trade." Early in 1785 the state offered at auction three hundred lots in Gosport on the opposite bank of the southern branch, telling potential buyers: "the ca.n.a.l proposed to unite the waters of North Carolina, with the Chesapeak, will greatly enhance the value of those lands." From Paris, Thomas Jefferson replied to Hugh Williamson's description of the Lebanon Company and the ca.n.a.l route: "I am glad to find you think of me in the affair of the Dismal. It is the only speculation in my life I have decidedly wished to be engaged in. The uniting the navigation of Chesapeak and the sound renders the enterprise so interesting to the public as well as the adventurers that the embarking in it can never admit a reproach." Jefferson had no doubt that the Lebanon Company and the Dismal Swamp Company would "harmonize in their operations." He asked Williamson to buy shares in the ca.n.a.l on his behalf.

George Was.h.i.+ngton wrote to Jefferson, reporting on preparations for Virginia's ca.n.a.ls. Eager for work to begin, Was.h.i.+ngton nevertheless warned that friends of the Dismal Swamp Ca.n.a.l were "better stocked with good wishes than money." Might Jefferson find "monied men" in Europe who could "be induced to become adventurers in the Scheme?" After Meade and Andrews reported their chosen route, Was.h.i.+ngton looked forward to the day when all the ca.n.a.ls would be in use: "the conveniences to the Citizens individually, and the sources of wealth to the Country generally, which will be opened thereby will be found to exceed the most sanguine imagination-The Mind can scarcely take in at one view all the benefits which will result therefrom."

Hugh Williamson and George Was.h.i.+ngton had studied the Dismal Swamp. Was.h.i.+ngton estimated that its elevation did not vary more than two feet. He was almost right, the swamp's surface of peat varying between 15 and 20 feet above sea level. The two men agreed that a ca.n.a.l would need only one lock at the Virginia end to control movement of boats into and out of tidal waters in the Elizabeth River. Williamson concluded that the expense would be "inconsiderable." After Robert Andrews suggested the need for one lock at each end, Was.h.i.+ngton disagreed with the locations Andrews chose but not with his estimate of the number. No one guessed that a successful watercourse would require eight locks. Thirty years later, directors of the Dismal Swamp Ca.n.a.l Company, looking back at its early days, regretted that "So little...was then understood of the probable expense & difficulty of cutting a Navigable Ca.n.a.l 22 miles in extent, through a heavy timbered Mora.s.s."

Early in 1783, Virginians seeking to learn whether peace had returned did not wait for slow official news. They watched express messengers come to the Rappahannock, York, and James rivers from Philadelphia and New York. Arriving daily, sometimes hourly, riders brought orders to Virginia agents representing Northern merchants, telling them to buy tobacco. The war had shown how much money could be made from Europeans' desire for tobacco and Americans' desire for manufactured goods. Merchants raced to gratify these demands as soon as peace made trade lawful. Instructions to buy tobacco came to Virginia, and vessels sailed from British ports, laden with goods no one had ordered but Americans were sure to buy.

Officially, Virginia s.h.i.+pped 68,000,000 pounds of tobacco in 1783 and an equal amount in 1784. Prices were high, as much as 65 s.h.i.+llings currency for 112 pounds of the best James River leaf. The British government knew that smugglers evading customs duties brought tobacco and other products to "every accessible part of the coast of this kingdom." In Scotland in 1783 and afterward "vessels arriving directly from Virginia" were "landing their cargoes upon the coast." British merchants appeared in Virginia-not just old faces from the past but "Strangers" coming to Norfolk from all quarters and "modern adventurers, who now crowd every house and every shed" in Richmond.

These newcomers were selling as well as buying. Before the British government proclaimed the end of fighting, "Verry large Quant.i.tys of dry Goods" left London and other cities for "every Port in America." Brook Watson went from Lloyd's to Whitehall to a.s.sure the Board of Trade that Americans would continue to buy British goods even if their new government tried to s.h.i.+ft their commerce to other countries. He was right. His fellow underwriters, John Ewer and Abraham Hake, estimated that in the winter of 178384 more merchandise went from Britain to America than in any two-year period before the war. Through wartime trade and expenditures by the French and British armies and navies, Americans had ama.s.sed gold and silver. Virginians' specie quickly flowed to Britain; their tobacco s.h.i.+pments, though large, covered less than half the cost of their purchases. British merchants marked up goods for high return, but much of the profit on their books was new debt contracted by eager consumers. A veteran merchant in London calculated in the summer of 1784 that "more real value of goods have been Exported from Britain this Season than America will be able to raise of produce for Two years to come."

One eager young merchant arriving in Virginia was a large Scotsman, Alexander Macaulay. Still in his twenties, he had made money during the war by selling British goods in New York and in Philadelphia during the army's occupation. Demand for merchandise extended far beyond British lines. By 1780, New York imported at the same volume as in the years before the war. Macaulay already had a record of success when he visited the widow of the retired merchant, Francis Jerdone, in Louisa County in 1782. Macaulay and Sarah Jerdone's daughter, Elizabeth, were married in December. The couple left for York Town two months later, carrying letters from William and Mary Anderson addressed to Samuel Gist.

Macaulay was in a hurry to get "home" to New York. He feared that his business affairs "may be materially injured By my absence at the present critical Juncture," as lawful trade resumed. Reaching New York in the spring, he hoped to make money by s.h.i.+pping tobacco from Virginia to Britain. Well read, with a quick wit, he had little leisure to devote to science and the arts. He wrote to a friend: "I am doom'd to act the part of a mere drudge in Business; & not a Philosopher." The departure of the British left him little reason to stay in New York. In 1784, the year he turned thirty, he moved to Virginia, settling at York Town, where Francis Jerdone long had competed with William Nelson for business. There Macaulay met David Jameson and grew interested in the Dismal Swamp Company.

The expensive carriage with painted copper panels which Samuel Gist s.h.i.+pped to Sarah Jerdone in 1784 caused comment in Louisa County. People said that "a plain one would have done equally well." Macaulay's mother-in-law was one of many Virginians whose indulgences showed their love of luxury. British merchants could always rely on "a proper Buckskin" to be "fond of a Little Tinsell." They had flooded the state with "Feathers, Powder, Umbrellas &c &c &c." Moralists denounced the spreading influence of "British debts, British goods, British deceptions." Americans had been seduced into wasting their money and running into debt. In Paris, Thomas Jefferson heard from home that "Extravagance and dissipation has seized all Ranks of People. It has become fas.h.i.+onable to import even Hay from the Northern States and Coffins from Europe." After winning independence, Americans had restored the bulk of their trade to Britain. Many Virginians resumed the habit of spending more money than they possessed; while others newly experimented with buying more than they could afford. George Was.h.i.+ngton's cousin, Warner Was.h.i.+ngton, produced 100 hogsheads of tobacco a year but claimed to be unable to pay his debts. He "squanders the whole in profuse living."

Beginning early in 1785, British merchants curtailed s.h.i.+pments of goods. By October, London warehouses were filled with Virginia tobacco. They had no room for hogsheads still in the holds of vessels moored in the river. The price of tobacco fell below 20 s.h.i.+llings per hundredweight. Merchants who rushed to s.h.i.+p goods to America at the return of peace miscalculated the extent of a rise in demand after trade again became lawful. During the war, the flow of merchandise to the usual destinations had found new channels as well as familiar ones. Peace did not suddenly reopen a long-closed door. Instead, it made easy and direct a trade which in wartime had become clandestine and roundabout. Hence, peace did not yield a fortune to everyone s.h.i.+pping goods and importing tobacco.

The Bank, Bank Buildings, Royal Exchange and Cornhill. Courtesy of the Henry E. Huntington Library. The Bank of England is on the left; the front of the Royal Exchange is on the right.

Many Virginians blamed the collapse of tobacco prices on one man: Robert Morris. Serving as superintendent of finance in the war's last years, Morris had rescued the Continental government from the threat of insolvency, using, in part, his personal credit as a merchant. For peacetime, he formed far grander designs than privateering and running cargoes through the West Indies. He set out to control the sale of tobacco to France.

In April 1785, Morris contracted to supply the state tobacco monopoly of France, the Farmers-General, 20,000 hogsheads per year for three years. The Farmers-General agreed to buy no other American tobacco and advanced Morris 1,000,000 livres, the equivalent of about 670,000 in Virginia currency. The price he charged the French, about 24 s.h.i.+llings per hundredweight, was low. To make a profit he must buy tobacco at a still lower price. His agents offered 20 s.h.i.+llings, not in cash but in Morris's notes. Though his contract in France was later changed and was not renewed, the price of tobacco remained around 20 s.h.i.+llings through 1787. Since the French were not buying in Britain, merchants there bought less tobacco from Virginians. They took advantage of Morris's price to lower theirs. Virginians had begun to learn a lesson about Robert Morris which experience already had taught Joshua Johnson, a London merchant in the Chesapeake trade: "I have long known this Mans Commercial Character & I tell you that I never wishd any concerns with him he is a dangerous Friend."

A glut of tobacco in London-twelve vessels from Virginia arrived in ten days early in August 1784-and a decline in debtors' remittances as the last gold and silver ran out were followed by a run of stoppages and bankruptcies among merchants trading to America. Several, including Frederick Pigou, Jr., stopped payment in the first week of August. Pigou's failure "very much surprizes the City in general & it is much to be fear'd many others will follow." They continued for the next two years. Throughout 1785 tobacco was a drug on the market. Merchants were "tumbling to pieces every day"; bankers looked with suspicion on every man who owed money and who dealt with Americans.

A veteran merchant and underwriter, James Dunlop, went bankrupt in November 1785. Rumor said that his a.s.sets would not yield six s.h.i.+llings for each pound of his obligations. In 1775, Dunlop had imported more tobacco than all but four London houses. He had joined Samuel Gist and other London merchants in their wartime memorials to Lord North's ministry, then to the Marquis of Rockingham's ministry, urging the government to help merchants collect debts in America. After the war he continued to s.h.i.+p "Cloaths Silks Irish Linens Muslin Hosiery Haberdashery and Millinery Goods." But remittances in crops or cash were too few or worth too little. He no longer appeared on 'Change.

Samuel Gist imported tobacco in the summer of 1784. He dispatched a new s.h.i.+p, reminiscently named the Planter Planter, to the James River in August. While she was loading for her return voyage, Philip Grymes wrote to Edmund Randolph: "What Tobacco have you for S. G[is]t or is any gone for London? The Planter takes all that can be obtained for him." Eager for his daughter and son-in-law to come to London, Gist established an income for Mary Anderson: the interest on 10,000-500 per year. In the spring of 1785, William Anderson auctioned his property in Louisa County, and he and his wife sailed for London, presumably in the Planter Planter, in July. Seventeen years after their elopement they were returning to live on Tower Hill. Gist gave Benjamin Toler instructions about the Virginia plantations the Andersons had preserved from confiscation. Judge Peter Lyons again warned that signs of his "interfering with the Estate here" produced "great clamour" in the House of Delegates, reviving the danger that the state would seize Gist's property.

While the Andersons crossed the Atlantic, a Virginian from the Eastern Sh.o.r.e sought out Gist at Lloyd's. Severn Eyre, Jr., had come to London to study medicine. His father, Severn Eyre, and his grandfather, Littleton Eyre, had known Gist in Virginia. The young man expected to derive "many advantages from such a connection" as rich Mr. Gist. To pay his way in London he had brought a bill of exchange for 400 drawn on Donald & Burton by Virginia's former governor, Thomas Nelson, Jr., who was generous but insolvent. In the crowded subscribers' room Gist told Eyre that Robert Burton would not accept the bill, and this prediction came true. Gist tried to educate Eyre by telling him that Burton's partner in Virginia, Alexander Donald, might have promised such an advance to Nelson only to obtain Nelson's crop of tobacco on consignment, without intending to honor the bill. Gist invited Eyre to dine with him the next day.

During their meal Gist extracted information about Virginia planters from Eyre, while Eyre tried to persuade Gist to lend him 100. Eyre pleaded that without money he would be compelled to give up his hope of becoming a physician and take the first vessel back to Norfolk. Gist said he knew of one that would sail in about a week. Back in his rooms, Eyre wrote of Gist: "you d.a.m.ned old Jew, Turk & infidel, worth upwards of 300,000 & will not lend one hundred to the child of him you call your friend, what do you intend to do with all of your money?" Nevertheless, Severn Eyre did not return to Virginia at once. A merchant gave him an advance. Americans new to London soon saw that "Every Thing is at high Charge in this Country, no Body ashamed to take Money." Eyre swallowed his resentment and continued his efforts to ingratiate himself with Gist.

A few days after dining with Gist, Eyre went to Drury Lane Theatre to see John Home's play Douglas Douglas, with Sarah Siddons in the role of Lady Randolph. It was a command performance, with the royal family in attendance. The king and queen admired the art of Mrs. Siddons, as everyone called her, who was far advanced in pregnancy. The queen sent her a box of powders of the kind the queen herself took when in that condition. Two weeks later, Eyre returned to Drury Lane and "saw Mrs. Siddons die" in a "soul-harrowing" performance of one of her most celebrated roles, Belvidera in Venice Preserv'd Venice Preserv'd.

At the end of the American War and in the years following, Sarah Siddons established herself as the pre-eminent artist on the London stage. She appeared three times a week in a wide variety of roles. She was "the Empress of Tragedy." The king told her that he had never caught her in a false emphasis. A French traveler who recalled the greatest tragedienne of the reign of Louis XV said that Mrs. Siddons's acting reminded him of "les grands talents de l'immortelle Clairon." Drury Lane Theatre, decorated in crimson and gold, was always crowded. Her Shakespearean parts were Lady Macbeth, Rosalind in As You Like It As You Like It, Isabella in Measure for Measure Measure for Measure, and Desdemona. But audiences praised her most for her tragic heroines in more recent plays: Euphrasia in The Grecian Daughter The Grecian Daughter, and Matilda, the Lady of Saint Valori, in The Carmelite The Carmelite. After seeing her create the latter role, the playwright, Richard c.u.mberland, said: "Mrs. Siddons was divine, and crown'd with unceasing peals of applause." A member of the audience wrote: "It seems to be contrived only for Mrs. Siddon's Powers. She does more Honor to the Author than the Work itself."

Amid these years of commercial trouble and financial ruin in the City, playgoers were transported by Mrs. Siddons in the t.i.tle role of Isabella; or, the Fatal Marriage Isabella; or, the Fatal Marriage. Edward Gibbon thought it "a wretched play," but he watched her performance "with the most exquisite pleasure." She made people weep. Before the curtain rose, women in box seats spread their handkerchiefs on the front railing, in preparation for tears. Her mad scene in the fifth act was "terrifying": "she appears with the genuine pallor of death, with her hair really dishevelled and her clothing in dire disorder. Her laughter and certain tones of her voice are truly harrowing." In one audience, "Five ladies were taken out fainting in the last act, and hardly a man could stand it." Laet.i.tia-Matilda Hawkins later recalled: "Physicians forbade patients to see her in Isabella."

Mrs. Siddons and Her Son in the Tragedy Of Isabella, J. Caldwell, after William Hamilton. Courtesy of the Henry E. Huntington Library. Sarah Siddons and her son, Henry, in the opening scene of Isabella; or, the Fatal Marriage Isabella; or, the Fatal Marriage.

Lady Sarah Napier described herself as "Siddons mad." Crowds gathered in the street to watch Mrs. Siddons as she arrived and departed. People surrounded her carriage. Early in 1783 she gave the rising artist George Romney several sittings with a wreath in her hair. The Morning Chronicle Morning Chronicle said that he created a work "which Raphael would be glad of." In 1784, Sir Joshua Reynolds completed his life-size, full-length portrait, said that he created a work "which Raphael would be glad of." In 1784, Sir Joshua Reynolds completed his life-size, full-length portrait, Sarah Siddons as the Sarah Siddons as the Tragic Muse Tragic Muse. At her first sitting he said to her: "Ascend your undisputed throne and graciously bestow upon me some grand Idea of the Tragick Muse."

Early that year she and her husband and their children moved into one of the new houses that trustees for the young Duke of Bedford had built in a uniform row in Gower Street, extending from Bedford Square. This was the outer edge of northwestern London. The backs of these four-story brick buildings were "most effectually in the country, and delightfully pleasant." Strangers came to Gower Street to see the Siddonses' house, Number 14, which looked like all the others. Some only stared; others came to buy tickets for benefit performances in which the box office receipts went to her. Others, she complained, "forced their way into my Drawing-room, in spite of remonstrance or opposition." One woman who intruded into Mrs. Siddons's upstairs room told her: "I am in a very delicate state of health, and my Physician won't let me go to the Theatre to see you, so I am come to look at you here."

When Severn Eyre arrived in London, people of "the beau monde" had to see not only the acting of Mrs. Siddons but also the performance of the Amazing Learned Pig. In a building just off Whitehall near Charing Cross, gentlemen and "women of the first Fas.h.i.+on waited four hours for their turn" to enter and pay five s.h.i.+llings, later reduced to one s.h.i.+lling, for a thirty-minute exhibition. Using its mouth, a large trained pig arranged cards bearing letters and numbers to give the date and the time, to add and subtract, to tell people their names and their thoughts, and to answer questions. It enjoyed so much success in "the polite end of the town" that its owner took it on the stage in the summer of 1785. The Learned Pig became the headline act at Sadler's Wells Theatre. Skilled acrobats and tightrope dancers performing there "made great objections" to being reduced to a warm-up act for a pig. The manager did not try to keep them from leaving. He could readily find other tumblers; the Learned Pig was a star.

The Planter Planter arrived in the Thames in the first week of September; the Andersons joined Samuel Gist in his home in America Square. Gist told his daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, their husbands, William Anderson and William Fowke, and his longtime clerk, Aiskew Birkett, that he planned to retire. He was sixty years old. The City had too many merchants s.h.i.+pping to America, as daily bankruptcies proved. Two years of effort to reopen trade and collect debts in Virginia had given him more vexation than it was worth. Instead of remittances he had received whining letters, such as John Tabb's: "really sir, for want of information & other disappointments, since the conclusion of the war you have lost me more than 2000 , all was quite in your power to have prevented." Gist offered to turn over his trade, his goods, and the arrived in the Thames in the first week of September; the Andersons joined Samuel Gist in his home in America Square. Gist told his daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, their husbands, William Anderson and William Fowke, and his longtime clerk, Aiskew Birkett, that he planned to retire. He was sixty years old. The City had too many merchants s.h.i.+pping to America, as daily bankruptcies proved. Two years of effort to reopen trade and collect debts in Virginia had given him more vexation than it was worth. Instead of remittances he had received whining letters, such as John Tabb's: "really sir, for want of information & other disappointments, since the conclusion of the war you have lost me more than 2000 , all was quite in your power to have prevented." Gist offered to turn over his trade, his goods, and the Planter Planter to a new company in which Anderson, Fowke, and Birkett would be partners. It was established early in 1786. In mid-March, William Anderson & Company announced Gist's retirement and invited planters to benefit from "our knowledge, and experience in the Tobacco trade" by consigning tobacco to the new firm. With those letters to Gist's customers the to a new company in which Anderson, Fowke, and Birkett would be partners. It was established early in 1786. In mid-March, William Anderson & Company announced Gist's retirement and invited planters to benefit from "our knowledge, and experience in the Tobacco trade" by consigning tobacco to the new firm. With those letters to Gist's customers the Planter Planter sailed from the Downs on April 6. sailed from the Downs on April 6.

Gist remained available in the subscribers' room at Lloyd's. He was there on Monday, January 2, 1786, when a panic-stricken Severn Eyre, Jr., approached him to relate a long, complicated story about his former landlord in London. Though he had moved out of those lodgings after a short stay, the landlord was demanding payment of six months' rent, threatening him with a writ and daring him to go to court. He feared that he would soon be thrown into Newgate Prison. After hearing Eyre out, Gist laughed and said that Virginians "were not smart enough to live in London." He advised Eyre to see an attorney. After making inquiries and receiving more threats, Eyre paid in full. He then was visited by the wife of his hairdresser. Her husband had been apprehended while committing highway robbery. She asked Eyre to settle his account.

Seeking "a transitory respite to my depressed spirits," Eyre turned to the theater. After paying his hairdresser's wife on the last Sat.u.r.day in February, he went to Covent Garden to see Mrs. Siddons a second time as Belvidera in Thomas Otway's Venice Preserv'd Venice Preserv'd. No longer pregnant, she appeared in a benefit performance for the widow of an actor, John Henderson. The boxes and the pit were "lined with people of rank." In the first gallery Eyre was so tightly wedged among "an innumerable mob" that his hips were sore. But in the last act, during the mad scene, after Belvidera sees the ghost of her husband, who had killed his friend and himself on the scaffold rather than die at an executioner's hand, Eyre felt his tears on his cheeks as Belvidera says: My love! my dear! my blessing! Help me, help me!

They have hold on me, and drag me to the bottom.

Nay, now they pull so hard-farewell- Belvidera's death looked so convincing that Eyre heard a man near him say that Mrs. Siddons was certainly dead and would never rise again. Later that year she played the t.i.tle role in Robert Dodsley's tragedy Cleone Cleone. As Cleone in the third act walks with her child through a wood, the corrupted servant Ragozin, masked, attacks with a dagger. Mrs. Siddons cried "Help! Mercy! Save! Kill not my infant! Murder!" in "such a note of unison to the feelings of the house that in an instant everyone cried 'Murder' too, and ladies screaming and fainting were carried out by dozens."

Less than six months after William Anderson & Company went into business, Anderson learned that Samuel Gist's retirement consisted, in part, of second-guessing his son-in-law. Gist opposed an investment he thought too risky, and he told Joshua Johnson that he feared Anderson was "going too fast." Johnson said of Gist: "he is a tight hand."

A new system of tobacco duties announced by the British government in the spring of 1786 confirmed the wisdom of Gist's decision to quit the trade. In the old days, merchants made an extra profit of about 3 per hogshead on tobacco intended for the British market by charging planters full duties while taking advantage of a discount allowed by the government for payment in cash. The new system allowed no discount. The "old Merchants" of Gist's generation spoke of "giving the Business up" and predicted more smuggling.

After a few years of contending with a glutted market for tobacco in Britain and a market in France obstructed by Robert Morris's deal with the Farmers-General, Anderson had warehouses filled with unsold tobacco. He had to offer bargains, and he admitted to Joshua Johnson that William Anderson & Company had "lost a great deal of money."

In retirement, Samuel Gist frequented Lloyd's rooms and appeared in the Virginia Walk on 'Change, "a spruce little man." Meeting any new arrival from Virginia, he was "polite & particular" in his inquiries. In the summer of 1786 his onetime mentor in the slave trade, John Shoolbred, was elected to the governing committee of the Company of Merchants Trading to Africa. Shoolbred also was forming an alliance with James Hennessy and John Saule, brandy merchants of Bordeaux and Cognac, in their rivalry with the House of Martell.

Despite reverses in business, William and Mary Anderson lived well in America Square. They entertained visiting Virginians. While staying in London, Lewis Littlepage, newly appointed royal chamberlain to Stanislas II Poniatowski, last king of Poland, heard about his Virginia relatives from Mary Anderson. The younger Carter Braxton called after Gist spotted him on 'Change. The Andersons laid out an "elegant" dinner, with "fine wines, & pleasant fruits." After meeting Gist and dining with the Andersons, Braxton went to Drury Lane Theatre to see Sarah Siddons as Mrs. Beverley in Edward Moore's The Gamester The Gamester, one of the roles in which "she outdid all description." He was struck by the "invariable stillness & attention" of her audiences. "We forget that she is Mrs Siddons, but believe her Mrs Beverley, Belvidera, Isabella." Seeing the "misery & anguish" to which the heroine was reduced by the gambling of her husband, played by Mrs. Siddons's brother, John Philip Kemble, Braxton said: "no person with a particle of love or pity in his composition can refrain vowing, eternal abstinence from gaming."

Samuel Gist decided to leave the Andersons in possession of his house and counting room in America Square. His business address in the City remained Number 16, America Square, but for his residence in retirement he leased from the Duke of Bedford's trustees Number 37, Gower Street, and became Sarah Siddons's neighbor.

Crossing the Atlantic from Virginia in 1785, William Anderson took with him the Dismal Swamp Company's power of attorney, authorizing him to borrow 5,000 sterling on the company's behalf. The partners made this request at their first meeting in ten years. Anderson attended it a few weeks before he left Virginia.

By a newspaper advertis.e.m.e.nt George Was.h.i.+ngton summoned the partners to gather in Richmond on Monday, May 2. The company's affairs, he said, were "in a deranged state." The partners ought to take "some decisive measures." Reports from Dismal Plantation were gloomy: the company had only "a few old worn out Negroes," four of whom were retired, "incapable of labour." In wartime Jacob Collee had worked the plantation "without ever touching a Ditch." Drainage ditches begun before the war were "much broke & require a deal of Work"; the "Remnant of old Negroes" could not do it. Collee had not hired slaves to replace those who left with the British. While the partners worried about ways to drain the swamp, heavy rains flooded Dismal Plantation.

Near noon on Monday, May 2, members of the Dismal Swamp Company, walking through a cold east wind, entered the ugly capitol and a.s.sembled in the Senate chamber. George Was.h.i.+ngton had come from Mount Vernon. He had a dinner engagement with the Sons of Saint Tammany after the meeting. David Meade had come upriver from Mayc.o.x to represent both the Meade family's share and the share owned by the four young granddaughters of the late Francis Farley. John Page had come from Rosewell. From York Town, David Jameson represented himself and Samuel Gist. William Nelson, Jr., represented himself and his brother, Nathaniel. Neither Dr. Thomas Walker nor his son-in-law, Joseph Hornsby, was present, but Dr. Walker had sent from Albemarle County another son-in-law, Reuben Lindsay, to act on their behalf. Secretary Thomas Nelson, Anthony Bacon, and the estate of Robert Tucker had no one attending the meeting for them.

For three hours that afternoon and for another six hours on Tuesday, while a steady rain fell, the partners conferred. On Monday, they discussed paying for the survey of their 40,000 acres and paying Samuel Gist for tools and supplies. They voted to call Jacob Collee, who was leaving their service, "to a speedy and accurate settlement of his accounts." They discussed the possibility of dividing their 40,000 acres in proportion to the number of quarter-shares each partner held, a step that would end the dream of draining the swamp, but they voted that the work should still "be carried on jointly."

On Tuesday morning, the partners were joined in the Senate chamber by Nathaniel Nelson and William Anderson. They approved a change in operations in the swamp, one Was.h.i.+ngton wished he could make on his plantations: "get quit of Negroes," as he put it. In lieu of slaves the company ought to hire "German Redemptioners" or other laborers in Baltimore. If that effort failed, the company must hire slaves temporarily until the managers found as many as three hundred "Labourers acquainted with draining and other branches of agriculture" to be imported from Holland or Germany "or other parts of Europe." This scheme required money. For months David Jameson had urged his partners to borrow. Despite ten years of felling cedar trees for s.h.i.+ngles before the war, the company's sector of the Dismal Swamp looked little changed from its appearance in the days when the dividing line's hungry surveyors rushed through it almost sixty years earlier.

Was.h.i.+ngton recommended skilled European workers, and Jameson's proposed loan seemed the best way to pay for them. Jameson and Anderson knew that Samuel Gist, though unwilling to lend, would question them closely to learn what they had done to make the Dismal Swamp Company profitable, especially since it owed money to him. The partners asked Anderson to borrow 5,000 for them when he reached London. They made themselves liable for repayment.

A few more matters remained to be settled before Was.h.i.+ngton left to dine with Governor Henry. The company's managers were to investigate strangers' encroachments on the company's property and get legal advice. They were authorized to purchase adjacent land or mills to support the company's operations. And Reuben Lindsay said that Dr. Walker was too old and infirm to continue in the management. George Was.h.i.+ngton also asked to withdraw. John Page took Was.h.i.+ngton's place, and Joseph Hornsby was appointed to the place of his father-in-law. Then the partners walked out of the capitol into the rain.

Back at Mount Vernon, Was.h.i.+ngton repeated that "reclaiming" the Dismal Swamp would make it "invaluable." In the following months he wrote letters and inquired in person about a loan and the possibility of getting someone "to deliver 300 able labourers, Germans or Hollanders, not more than eight women, at Norfolk" as indentured servants of the Dismal Swamp Company. He did not receive satisfactory replies. Once William Anderson settled at Number 16, America Square, and established William Anderson & Company, the partners of the Dismal Swamp Company heard no more about a loan in London.

To replace Jacob Collee as the company's resident manager in Suffolk, the partners chose John Driver, son and executor of John Driver, partner of David Meade's father. The firm of Meade & Driver, though defunct for decades, still owed more than 7,600 sterling to British merchants. The sons, unlike many other Virginians, acknowledged the debt after the war. With his second wife, a minister's daughter, Driver still lived in his father's house on the outskirts of Suffolk, surrounded by apple and peach orchards and "a good garden." He operated a store in Suffolk, priding himself on being "punctuall" in paying his debts. But neither he nor David Meade contrived to pay their fathers' debts.

Nansemond County and Suffolk revived from the damage done by British invasion. Buildings increased so rapidly and the price of land rose so fast that in the autumn of 1785 inhabitants of Suffolk pet.i.tioned the General a.s.sembly to add 16 acres of lots and streets to the town, giving more room for "mechanics and tradesmen." The General a.s.sembly made Driver one of the trustees laying out new lots. This prosperity induced three "pirates" armed with muskets and cutla.s.ses to board a schooner in the James River and sail off with her and her cargo of dry goods. They were soon "apprehended in the County of Nansemond, where they intended to open a store."

John Page urged David Jameson and Nathaniel Nelson to visit Dismal Plantation to "look into the Affairs of the Co. on the Spot & see what the Carolina Co. will be willing to do towards opening the Ca.n.a.ls." Hugh Williamson of the Lebanon Company rea.s.sured his fellow physician and fellow native of Pennsylvania, Dr. Thomas Ruston, that the Dismal Swamp property in Virginia which Ruston had acquired was valuable, worth 1,500 sterling. And one could buy adjacent parts of the swamp at a price of $750 for 1,000 acres.

Dr. Ruston, after taking his degree at the University of Edinburgh, had lived in England for twenty years. Upon his father's death he decided to return to America. If he wished to continue "taking a slice at Physic," as Williamson put it, he might do so, but he expected to make a fortune by land speculation. In the spring and summer of 1785, Ruston took leave of England. At Drury Lane Theatre he saw Sarah Siddons in her last performance of the season, playing Rosalind in As You Like It As You Like It. Ruston took most interest in watching the royal family. Later, he prevailed upon George and Sarah Fairfax to write a letter of introduction to George Was.h.i.+ngton. And he stopped at Number 16, America Square. He gave Samuel Gist power of attorney to manage his investments in England.

In the months after the company's meeting, Driver resumed production of s.h.i.+ngles at Dismal Plantation. He could do little to repair drainage ditches. David Jameson still hoped that the company eventually would get "some white servants." He told Driver "to continue to manage as well as you can." He apologized for his partners: "I am truly sorry that the necessary steps have not been taken to put the Company's affairs on a better footing."

During John Page's stay in Richmond in May he paid Alexander Donald 300 for a thoroughbred stallion, a "beautiful bay" named Sampson. Page had just offered another "fine blooded stud Horse" for sale. His finances remained desperate. "Duns and Sheriffs" often called at Rosewell. He tried to sell "several young Negroes" and two tracts of land: 800 acres in Gloucester County and 1,300 acres in Loudoun County, inherited from his father-in-law, Robert Burwell.

For several months before the company's meeting, William Nelson, Jr., spent most of his time in Williamsburg, preparing to take over the law practice of Henry Tazewell, who became a judge of the General Court in Richmond. They advertised the change in June. Among Nelson's clients were John Norton & Son, still striving to get Virginians to pay for goods s.h.i.+pped them before the war, and Otway Byrd, executor of the estate of his father-in-law, Robert Munford. Byrd and Nelson paid as many of Munford's debts as his insufficient estate permitted. William and Polly Nelson enjoyed Williamsburg. They had met in the governor's palace while Thomas Jefferson lived there and William attended George Wythe's law lectures. Their happy return to the "peaceful city" lasted a little more than six months. Early in 1786, Polly Nelson died, apparently in childbirth, leaving a baby son, who did not live long, and a young daughter. William felt "a vacuum."

The health of William's brother, Nathaniel, was failing. He left the House of Delegates in January 1786 and wrote his will in March, bequeathing his interest in the Dismal Swamp Company to his son, William. If his children left no heirs, Nathaniel's half-share was to go to his brother, William, and their three brothers. Hoping to recover, Nathaniel sailed for Bermuda in April to visit St. George Tucker's father. He "seem'd very anxious to Live," but his condition grew worse. He died in June.

In those months William Lee contracted to buy John Page's Loudoun County land for 1 currency per acre. In subsequent weeks Lee changed his mind, believing he had offered too much, but Page held him to the bargain. Then Page reconsidered the sale. Lee held him to the agreement, paying 676 sterling, but Page needed more. He asked Lee to lend him money, offering to pay 10 percent interest per year, twice the customary rate. Lee said he would not do so even if he were a moneylender. Such loans, he wrote, had "almost in every instance been followed by the ruin of the borrower and the disgrace of the lender."

After more than two years of practicing law in Williamsburg, making little money, William Nelson, Jr., took stock of his career at the age of twenty-seven: "Every day's experience the more confirms me in the opinion that I shall never be eminent at the bar, & shall not go beyond the line of mediocrity except by attention & length of standing." Still, he could read widely, one of his chief pleasures. And he found a new wife: Otway Byrd's half sister, Abby Byrd, fifth child of Mary Willing Byrd and William Byrd. She was twenty. Nelson began to spend more time at Westover.

At Nesting, upriver from Westover, the widow Elizabeth Farley lived with her four daughters. She was, a visitor said, "a very handsome woman." She looked at the youngest partners in the Dismal Swamp Company, ranging in age from six to eleven, and wrote: "I am Mother of four homely Girls.... They really are by no means pretty & I am silly enough to be sorry for it." She could not help having a discriminating eye, like that of her grandfather, old Colonel Byrd.

The five relied for support partly on the yield of the Saura Town plantation in the Land of Eden, where the slaves sent from Antigua still worked. After the return of peace she also received from Antigua rum and sugar worth 300 sterling per year, the annuity provided in Francis Farley's will. She and her daughters were served by four slaves borrowed from Westover. In December 1784, though she did not know him yet or know that he was coming, her second husband was crossing the Atlantic in search of a woman such as she.

John Dunbar was "an Irish minister." Sailing from London, he did not seek a parish in Virginia. He told a fellow pa.s.senger that "he was determined to have some of the rich Virginia widows." He went ash.o.r.e at York Town in December or early in January. He struck people as "a genteel man." He and Elizabeth Farley were married on Sunday, February 27, 1785. Dunbar moved in with his wife and stepdaughters, Elizabeth, Rebecca-known by her middle name, Parke-Maria, and Mary. One of the people calling on the couple on the first anniversary of their wedding said that John Dunbar "seems to be very happily situated here."

Francis Farley's will stipulated that his daughter-in-law act as executrix only as long as she remained an unmarried widow. John Dunbar took steps to get courts in North Carolina and Virginia to make him administrator of Farley's estate within their jurisdictions. That estate and the Mercers Creek plantation in Antigua belonged to the four girls, subject to payment of their late father's debts. Farley's executors in Antigua had not yet begun to send them the profits of the plantation. Dunbar visited Antigua and arranged to get remittances. Only as administrator could he lawfully raise money to pay the estate's debts by selling some of the land the girls had inherited in Virginia and North Carolina. Only as administrator could he lawfully sell any of the slaves at Saura Town or buy more slaves with money from the estate. He retained St. George Tucker, a friend of Elizabeth Farley Dunbar's, as his attorney.

In the spring of 1786, Dunbar obtained an authenticated copy of Francis Farley's will. In the autumn the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions in Rockingham County, North Carolina, made him administrator of the Farley estate. Virginia law required a person seeking appointment as administrator to exhibit the original will, but Antigua law prohibited removal of the original will from Antigua. St. George Tucker drafted a bill for the General a.s.sembly, authorizing Dunbar to administer the estate. He submitted it to the House of Delegates with a pet.i.tion, which was referred to the Committee for Courts of Justice, apparently never to emerge. Dunbar turned to a new attorney: Patrick Henry.

At the beginning of this process, Dunbar published an advertis.e.m.e.nt, giving notice that he would apply to the General a.s.sembly. Having applied, he acted as if his request had been granted, signing doc.u.ments "Jno Dunbar Admr." A few years later he broke up the community of Antiguan slaves at the Land of Eden. Leaving about thirty people at the Saura Town plantation-most were either children or "old & infirm"-he brought thirty-eight people to Charles City County. He held a slave auction, buying some of the slaves for himself. They stayed with the Dunbars and the young heiresses.

More than a year after the Dismal Swamp Company's meeting and John Page's attempt to sell property, he still held land and slaves he had advertised. He owed money to John Norton & Son in London, to Alexander Donald in Richmond, and to tidewater merchants. Large obligations fell due on October 31, 1786. Page hoped that Robert Carter of Nomini Hall, heir to part of King Carter's Frying Pan Company tract, would buy the portion Page had received from his father. Page wrote that he had heard "there is a good Copper Mine thereon." Carter replied that his attorney, John Taylor, handled all such matters.

Page advertised for sale one-fourth of his interest in the Frying Pan tract, his Loudoun County land which William Lee was or was not buying, his 400 acres of the Green Sea in the Dismal Swamp, and one of his two quarter-shares in the Dismal Swamp Company. He a.s.sured the public that the company's land and the Green Sea tract were "equal in soil and timber to any lands in the State." He offered to sell thoroughbred mares and colts, as well as the stallion Sampson. He planned to have slaves taken from Rosewell to Petersburg to be auctioned, beginning on the first day of the racing season.

Too much Green Sea acreage came on the market. Patrick Henry tried to sell some to Mary Willing Byrd. She was suspicious. In 1784, Henry had written: "I have many offers for this land," but he still owned it. She replied: "as I understand your offer I should be making an absolute purchase of land, which there is no certainty of my selling for cash." She had struggled with her late husband's debts for almost ten years. She needed to make money, not lose it in paying more taxes. She felt "encircled with Difficulties," and she did not buy. Nor did anyone buy Page's holdings in the Dismal Swamp. A few months later, winter storms caused "overswelling of the swamps," flooding roads and breaking causeways. The Green Sea reeds stood in deeper water than usual.

John Page entered a long period of grief in January 1787 over the death of his wife, Frances Burwell Page. They had enjoyed twenty-two years of "sweet domestic Happiness," during which she had given birth to twelve children. For Page, the ensuing months "pa.s.sed off like a Dream." He wrote to St. George Tucker in June: "Rosewell which was once my Paradise, is now less grateful to me than would be the Desarts of Arabia." Yet for the sake of his children, and the hope of keeping the estate and its grand mansion in his family, he must find money to pay his debts.

In March, Page placed his affairs in the hands of trustees: Matthew Anderson, his neighbor, and Mann Page, Jr., his son, who was twenty-one. Anderson and the younger Page advertised an auction at Gloucester Court House, to begin on Wednesday, May 1. They offered more than sixty-"probably 90"-slaves, including smiths, carpenters, sawyers, hostlers, spinners, "and an excellent laundress." They again offered Page's tracts of land, adding a few more. They failed. Their efforts produced 55 cash. John Page wrote: "I was disappointed cruelly in my Expectation." He said that his struggle with his money troubles distracted him from his grief. In June he advertised the property again, adding to it Claybank, a plantation adjoining Rosewell.

Since the days of John Page's grandfather, Rosewell and other Page estates had never produced enough to sustain the plantation above the York, its slaves, its owners, and the expense of building and maintaining its elegant mansion. In the spring of 1787, Page almost lost even the tobacco he s.h.i.+pped to London in the brig Jolly Tar: Jolly Tar: on June 10, sailing along the southern rim of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, she struck a large iceberg. Though it broke away her bowsprit and foremast, the brig sailed on, arriving in the Thames on July 7 with Page's tobacco, consigned to William Anderson & Company. on June 10, sailing along the southern rim of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, she struck a large iceberg. Though it broke away her bowsprit and foremast, the brig sailed on, arriving in the Thames on July 7 with Page's tobacco, consigned to William Anderson & Company.

As John Page grew more desperate, George Was.h.i.+ngton began efforts to sell some or all of his land in the west. Mount Vernon had not made ends meet since his departure for the Continental Army. He said he felt "exceedingly anxious" to clear himself of debt. He almost conceded that his terms for leases were too high. To a Frenchman considering a settlement of immigrants in the west he offered his tracts on the Ohio and Kanawha rivers, more than 32,000 acres, for 31,500 sterling. He believed, he wrote, his holdings were worth twice this sum, but he abated the price to sell everything at once. He knew his land would rise in value more rapidly than 5 percent per year, the amount the purchase price could earn if instead put out at interest. Was.h.i.+ngton also offered for sale Pennsylvania tracts reclaimed from squatters.

Early in 1787, Was.h.i.+ngton received a letter from Henry Emanuel Lutterloh, a former Continental Army officer living in North Carolina. Describing himself as "a German, and well-acquainted with all the different Princ.i.p.alities," he tendered his services in bringing Germans to Virginia as tenants, workers, miners, ca.n.a.l diggers. Was.h.i.+ngton at once thought of the Dismal Swamp Company. He consulted John Page, who wrote: "The Members are too Lukewarm to advance Money if they had it, & too indolent to attend to the Execution of any Plan which requires any Attention on their Part." Page agreed that the company ought to offer part of its 40,000 acres as payment for procuring such workers. Was.h.i.+ngton then told Lutterloh that the company's portion of the swamp was "capable of being made as valuable a tract of Land as any in the Country." Regretfully, Was.h.i.+ngton admitted that his partners were "in a manner, inattentive to the business." He knew they would not advance money, but they might give Lutterloh a portion of the company's holdings, which "would be highly advantageous to the Settlers" brought to the swamp. Upon receiving a good proposal, Was.h.i.+ngton wrote, "I would in that case use every endeavor to convince the Company that an agreement might be entered into." In reply, Lutterloh made clear that he sought a contract or subscription, payable in cash. He suggested that he visit Virginia to sell his idea to the partners in person, but Was.h.i.+ngton knew that his coming would do no good.

The summer of 1787 brought severe drought to Virginia. In the first week of April, Edmund Pendleton heard that "the good old women" in Caroline County were terrified by a report from Gloucester County, where "a Speaking Cow" had predicted a "dry, b.l.o.o.d.y & fatal" summer. London had a learned pig; Virginia had a clairvoyant cow. Pendleton thought this was an April Fool's joke that had taken on a life of its own. The cow turned out to be partly right. By the first week of July, the heat in and around the Dismal Swamp was "intollerable." A traveler doing no heavy work felt "almost Sweated to death." The rest of Virginia suffered similar dryness. George Was.h.i.+ngton's corn crop was "an almost total loss." At Dismal Plantation the greater part of the rice was "entirely blasted," and the corn looked "very indifferent." John Driver reported to David Jameson: "the place is getting much out of order."

Neither George Was.h.i.+ngton nor John Page found buyers for his land. The fall of tobacco prices, overextension of credit ending in unpaid debts, and great reduction of circulating gold and silver meant a commercial depression. The times did not favor selling good land for a high price with prompt remittance. Nor did Was.h.i.+ngton get many payments from his debtors. After the drought of 1787 and Was.h.i.+ngton's return from presiding over the convention which drafted a new Const.i.tution for the United States, he said that those months "have caused me more perplexity and given me more uneasiness than I ever experienced before from the want of money."

Ten days after the meeting of the Dismal Swamp Company in Richmond, Anthony Bacon, at the age of sixty-seven, wrote his will in his home facing the Cyfarthfa blast furnace across the River Taff from Merthyr Tydfil. His wife, Elizabeth, lived with him. His and Mary Bushby's youngest son, William, was fourteen months old. In his will Bacon acknowledged that he was the father of all five of Bushby's children, four sons and a daughter named Elizabeth. A month later he signed and dated the will in the presence of witnesses, including Richard Crawshay, his partner managing operations at Cyfarthfa.

Across the Atlantic, the government of North Carolina advertised an auction of three tracts, totaling 660 acres, which the state had seized from Bacon by law the previous year. Before the war he acquired this land from Aquila Sugg, a merchant and justice of the peace in Tarboro, who owed him more than 3,380 sterling. Bacon's records showed more debts due from North Carolinians than from citizens of any other state: about 19,180 sterling. Virginia law prohibited foreigners from owning land in the state. Still, the partners of the Dismal Swamp Company treated Bacon's share as his property, though they had not heard from him in years. Bacon's debtors owed him more than 6,000 in Maryland and almost 5,400 in Virginia. Nearly half of the Virginia sum was due from the estate of Fielding Lewis.

Bacon's will disposed of his three ironworks-those at Cyfarthfa, the Plymouth furnace south of Merthyr Tydfil, and the Hirwaun furnace in the Cynon Valley just west of the Taff-by dividing them among his first three sons. The oldest, Anthony, was sixteen, attending school in Gloucester under the name William Addison. He was to receive the Cyfarthfa furnace and forge, with the land leases at Merthyr Tydfil. Thomas was to receive Plymouth, and Robert was to receive Hirwaun. The daughter, Elizabeth, who suffered from "lameness," and the baby, William, were to be supported by a fund consisting of profits from all his holdings. To Mary Bushby, Bacon bequeathed 1,000 and an annual payment of 50 for support of each of the four youngest children as long as they lived with her. To his wife he left an annuity of 700 per year and the use of his house, offices, and gardens at Cyfarthfa, later to go to his oldest son after her departure or death. She was also to receive his coach and the furniture and plate in his homes other than Cyfarthfa.

Bacon's bequest to his cousin and former partner, Anthony Richardson, was the unpaid money their partner Gilbert Francklyn owed Bacon. After a visit to England during the war, Francklyn had returned to Tobago in 1779 and lived there until 1789, when he moved to London. There he began a new career with the Society of Planters and Merchants. He wrote pamphlets defending slavery and denouncing humanitarians, egalitarians, and reformers.

Anthony Bacon bequeathed his share in the Dismal Swamp Company to his half brother, William Bacon. William's residence, Number 26, Thavies-Inn, was Anthony's last business address in London. Thavies-Inn was a street running south from Holborn just east of Hatton Garden, between St. Paul's Cathedral and the Inns of Court. On the site occupied until 1773 by ruins of an Inn of Chancery from the time of Edward III had risen a range of "handsome" new houses. Like Samuel Gist, William Bacon preferred to live in modern comfort. Anthony also left him a bequest of 500 and the proceeds of any North American debts he collected. Anthony asked him to pay one-fourth of that money to their nieces, the two daughters of the late Reverend Thomas Bacon. Rachel Bacon Harwood and Mary Bacon Pa.s.sapae lived in Maryland.

Seven months after signing his will, Anthony Bacon died at Cyfarthfa on January 21, 1786. In an obituary the Bristol Gazette Bristol Gazette praised him: "Go to the mountains of Wales, and view his deeds-what roads, what industry, what civilisation, what sources of comfort and improvement he has opened in the once dreary and inaccessible district." praised him: "Go to the mountains of Wales, and view his deeds-what roads, what industry, what civilisation, what sources of comfort and improvement he has opened in the once dreary and inaccessible district."

After Bacon's chosen executors declined to undertake the vast task, his estate was left in the administration of the Court of Chancery. William Bacon became receiver in Chancery for it; Richard Crawshay and William Stevens, a rich hosier in London, posted bond for him. The ironworks were leased until Bacon's sons each came into their inheritances at the age of twenty-four. For a rent of 1,000 per year the Cyfarthfa works went to Richard Crawshay, William Stevens, and James c.o.c.kshutt in partners.h.i.+p. c.o.c.kshutt managed production. For 650 per year, Richard Hill, Mary Bushby's brother-in-law, took a lease on the Plymouth furnace. Crawshay began to speak of Bacon's sons as "our young Landlords." Not long before the oldest turned twenty-four, he changed his name from Anthony Bushby to Anthony Bacon.

Richard Crawshay was an ambitious, peremptory man. His partners.h.i.+p at Cyfarthfa lasted only five years, after which he took sole control. He cultivated the heir. After the younger Anthony Bacon came into his inheritance, he turned the Cyfarthfa works over to Crawshay by lease or deed in return for an annual payment of 5,000. Bacon bought an estate overlooking the River Cynon and became a country gentleman. Crawshay and Stevens's capital expanded operations in Merthyr Tydfil; Crawshay said that in his first six years he put almost 50,000 into new facilities at Cyfarthfa. In the ten years after 1786, production of pig iron in South Wales rose from 12,500 tons per year to 34,000 tons per year. Of the latter, about 7,200 tons came from the furnaces at Cyfarthfa. Crawshay boasted to visitors "that at present he made more iron than probably any person in the world." world." Merthyr Tydfil had three furnaces when the elder Anthony Bacon died. Twenty-five years later, it had seventeen. Merthyr Tydfil had three furnaces when the elder Anthony Bacon died. Twenty-five years later, it had seventeen.

In 1791, William Bacon's son, James, visited Dismal Plantation to get for his father "what information he can respecting the place." John Driver seemed chiefly concerned with raising money to pay the company's annual tax bill. The price of corn and rice had fallen so low that the plantation had not produced enough to meet an a.s.sessment of 101 currency. Driver said: "the Sheriff will be anxious to get his money." He sent Bacon to York Town to learn more from David Jameson. William Bacon later divided his share of the Dismal Swamp Company: two-thirds to his son, James, and one-third to Gilbert Francklyn.

One of Virginia's last living ties to its old royal government fell away with the death of Secretary Thomas Nelson late in 1787, at the age of seventy-two. Forty-five years had pa.s.sed since his father had bought for him the office of deputy secretary. Since leaving York Town during the siege, he had lived in quiet retirement in King William County, not far from Hanover Court House. He was surrounded by his sons, grandchildren, nieces, and nephews, as well as by good books in English and French. No longer making the careers of rising young men or overseeing land grants, he was "generally revered and esteemed," a tall, "n.o.ble figure" with white hair. After his death his share in the Dismal Swamp Company was divided evenly among his three sons: William, Thomas, and John, all former officers in the Continental Army. William and Thomas lived in Hanover County, John in Mecklenburg County. The Dismal Swamp Company was twenty-four years old. Only three of the original partners still held a share or part of a share: George Was.h.i.+ngton, Thomas Walker, and Samuel Gist.

After the Const.i.tutional Convention in Philadelphia offered its new structure of government to the states for ratification, members of the Dismal Swamp Company differed in their opinions of it. Visitors to Mount Vernon heard George Was.h.i.+ngton say that he was "very anxious" to see all states ratify the Const.i.tution. Alexander Donald wrote: "I never saw him so keen for any thing in my life, as he is for the adoption of the new Form of Government." Conversations at Mount Vernon touched on demagogues winning state elections to pursue "their own schemes," on the "impotence" of the Continental Congress, and on the danger of "Anarchy and civil war." Was.h.i.+ngton concluded: "it is more than probable we shall exhibit the last melancholy proof, that Mankind are not competent to their own government without the means of coercion in the Sovereign." By "sovereign" he meant not the people but the national government. Without a new, stronger government, he said, America faced "impending ruin."

Secretary Nelson's nephew, William Nelson, Jr., attorney in Williamsburg, did not support ratification. Nor did William's brother, Thomas, former governor of Virginia. John Page at first agreed with William that the Const.i.tution should be amended before ratification to guard more effectively against too much power in the hands of the federal government. Page soon changed sides and supported ratification, though voters in Gloucester County pa.s.sed him over to send stauncher Federalists to the state convention in June. Neither Nelson brother sought election. Instead of going to Richmond, William Nelson, Jr., got married to Abby Byrd, who soon was pregnant. Thomas Nelson, Jr.'s, daughter, Elizabeth, and John Page's son, Mann, were also married in June. This was the third wedding to join one of Nelson's children to one of Page's.

Voters who lived near the Dismal Swamp, as well as many others south of the James River, chose opponents of ratification as their delegates to the convention. After the new Const.i.tution was adopted, these people still sent Antifederalists to the General a.s.sembly and to the United States Congress. Outsiders often called the residents of Nansemond County stubborn and uncooperative. The flat terrain, tall trees, and scattered peach orchards for brandy-making struck visitors as "a long, dull, and insipid scene." Travelers could easily get lost but only with difficulty get directions from local people, who received them "with an ill grace." During the war, the Virginia authorities had thought Nansemond people were Tories, while the British had considered them rebels. Electing delegates to the ratifying convention, they did not expect impending ruin and anarchy in the absence of the new Const.i.tution, or they did not care.

Writing from Richmond during debates over ratification, Archibald Stuart, a Federalist, reported: "The whole core of opponents to the paymt of British Debts are against us." The alignment was not so stark, but the man most hostile to paying British merchants, Patrick Henry, was also the leading critic of the Const.i.tution. The merchants calculated that Virginians' debts to them contracted before the war had reached, with interest, a total of 2,305,408 sterling. A state law enacted in 1782 closed the courts to them. The treaty of peace overthrew that law, but Virginians, unlike debtors in other states, persisted in evasion. James Madison said that everyone knew "foreigners