Kingsmill Plantations, 1619–1800. Archaeology of Country Life in Colonial Virginia

252 Pages·1984·17.66 MB·English

by  William M. Kelso (Auth.)

Archaeological sites at Kingsmill, Virginia
KINGSMILL PLANTATIONS,
1619-1800
Archaeology of Country Life
in Colonial Virginia
William M. Kelso
1984
ACADEMIC PRESS, INC.
(Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers)
ORLANDO SAN DIEGO NEW YORK LONDON
TORONTO MONTREAL SYDNEY TOKYO
Figures 8 and 59 are reprinted from The Mansions of Virginia, 1706-
1776 by Thomas Tileston Waterman. Copyright 1944 The
University of North Carolina Press. Used with permission of the
publisher.
Figures 9 and 11 are reprinted with permission from Winterthur
Portfolio 16, (2/3). Published by the University of Chicago Press.
© The Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum.
COPYRIGHT © 1984, BY ACADEMIC PRESS, INC.
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ACADEMIC PRESS, INC.
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United Kingdom Edition published by
ACADEMIC PRESS, INC. (LONDON) LTD.
24/28 Oval Road, London NW1 7DX
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Kelso, William M.
Kingsmill plantations, 1620-1800.
(Studies in historical archaeology)
Includes index.
1. Kingsmill Plantations Site (Va.) I. Title.
II. Series: Studies in historical archaeology (New York,
N.Y.)
F234.K56K45 1984 975.5'425 84-6337
ISBN 0-12-403480-2 (alk. paper)
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
84 85 86 87 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Studies in
HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY
EDITOR
Stanley South
Institute of Archeology and Anthropology
University of South Carolina,
Columbia, South Carolina
ADVISORS
Charles E. Cleland
John L. Idol, Jr.
Mark P. Leone
Kenneth E. Lewis
Cynthia R. Price
Sarah Peabody Turnbaugh
John White
ROY s. DICKENS, JR., (Ed.) Archaeology of Urban America: The Search for Pattern
and Process
ROBERT PAYNTER Models of Spatial Inequality: Settlement Patterns in Historical
Archeology
JOAN H. GEISMAR The Archaeology of Social Disintegration in Skunk Hollow: A
Nineteenth-Century Rural Black Community
KATHLEEN DE AG AN Spanish St. Augustine: The Archaeology of a Colonial Creole
Community
KENNETH E. LEWIS The American Frontier: An Archaeological Study of Settlement
Pattern and Process
JOHN SOLOMON OTTO Cannon's Point Plantation, 1794-1860: Living Conditions
and Status Patterns in the Old South
WILLIAM M. KELSO Kingsmill Plantations, 1619-1800: Archaeology of Counry Life
in Colonial Virginia
To JCH and INH
LIST OF FIGURES
Frontispiece Archaeological sites at Kingsmill, Virginia. vi
Figure 1 Location of Kingsmill, Virginia. 2
Figure 2 1972 excavation of brick-lined well. 4
Figure 3 Pewter porringer recovered from Harrop well. 5
Figure 4 Iron hoe blades. 5
Figure 5 Artist's conception of early seventeenth-century settlement at
Martin's Hundred. 10
Figure 6 Sir William Berkeley. 12
Figure 7 Robert "King" Carter of Corotoman. 15
Figure 8 Conjectural view of Rosewall Plantation, Gloucester County,
Virginia. 16
Figure 9 Reconstruction drawing of the "ordinary beginners"
house. 20
Figure 10 Reconstructed yeoman's house. 21
Figure 11 Timber framing at Cedar Park, Maryland. 22
Figure 12 Solitude, late eighteenth-century hall-parlor,
lè-story frame house. 24
Figure 13 Monticello, circa 1809. 24
Figure 14 Bird's-eye view of the Palace grounds. 25
Figure 15 A rare view of slave life at an unknown plantation. 27
Figure 16 First-quarter nineteenth-century southern plantation
buildings. 28
Figure 17 Two-room Yoruba house in Nigeria, 1974. 29
Figure 18 Slave quarters at Bremo Recess Plantation,
Fluvanna County, Virginia. 30
Figure 19 Negro house near Richmond, Virginia. 32
IX
χ LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 20 Seventeenth-century place names at Kingsmill,
Virginia. 34
Figure 21 Signature of James Bray II as Justice of the Peace. 37
Figure 22 Plan of the Williamsburg area by Desandrouin, 1781. 41
Figure 23 One version of Lt. Simcoe's map of the capture
of Burwell's Landing, 1781. 42
Figure 24 Map prepared for French General St. Simon, 1781. 43
Figure 25 Signature and Naval Office seal of Lewis Burwell IV. 45
Figure 26 Sale advertisement for Lewis Burwell's
Kingsmill Plantation. 48
Figure 27 Detail from another version of Lt. Simcoe's maps. 49
Figure 28 Early seventeenth-century tenant settlements at
Kingsmill. 59
Figure 29 Cross-section through main structural posthole of earthfast
timber, "second stage" house, Littletown tenement. 60
Figure 30 Posthole-postmold and rootcellar pattern of two periods of
seventeenth-century earthfast houses and two eighteenth-
century slave quarters. 61
Figure 31 Coarse earthenware bowl from Littletown tenement. 62
Figure 32 "De Pannenkoekenbakster," Pieter Roestraten. 63
Figure 33 Tie-beam earthfast construction at St. Mary's City,
Maryland. 64
Figure 34 Artist's reconstruction of "second stage" earthfast house,
Littletown tenement. 66
Figure 35 The "manner house on the Clifts," an earthfast house site
excavated at Stratford Hall, Westmoreland County,
Virginia. 67
Figure 36 Posthole patterns of early seventeenth-century house sites and
eighteenth-century slave quarter at the Kingsmill Tenement
and Kingsmill Quarter site. 68
Figure 37 Archaeological plan and artist's reconstruction of "first stage"
earthfast house. 69
Figure 38 Archaeological plan and artist's reconstruction of "second stage"
crossplan earthfast house. 70
Figure 39 Archaeological plans of Colonel Thomas Pettus's Littletown,
circa 1641-1700. 73
Figure 40 Overhead view of Utopia earthfast house. 74
Figure 41 Archaeological plan and artist's reconstruction of Utopia house,
circa 1660-1710. 75
Figure 42 Archaeological remains of Colonel Thomas Pettus's Littletown
manor and quarter. 77
Figure 43 Pettus manor house, east wing. 78
LIST OF FIGURES Xt
Figure 44 Archaeological plan and artist's reconstruction of Pettus Manor,
Littletown. 79
Figure 45 Remains of casement window glazing and fluted delft bowl,
Pettus's Littletown. 80
Figure 46 Archaeological plans of Bray's Littletown, BurwelTs Kingsmill,
and Burwell's Landing ordinary. 81
Figure 47 Aerial view of Littletown section of Kingsmill. 82
Figure 48 Mansion ruins at Bray's Littletown. 83
Figure 49 Archaeological plan and artist's reconstruction of Bray mansion
at Littletown. 84
Figure 50 Burned English pearlware bowl-saucer, octagonal creamware
plate, and polychrome Chinese export porcelain
saucer. 86
Figure 51 Open basement and kitchen at Burwell's Kingsmill before
excavation, 1974. 87
Figure 52 Aerial view of excavations at Kingsmill Plantation,
November, 1975. 88
Figure 53 Burwell mansion and kitchen after excavation,
November, 1975. 89
Figure 54 View of Burwell mansion ruins. 90
Figure 55 Hand-wrought ground rod for eighteenth-century
lightning-rod system. 91
Figure 56 Voluted section of mansion step. 92
Figure 57 Fragment of curved stone step. 92
Figure 58 Elevation of Powhatan, James City County. 93
Figure 59 Plan of William Byrd's Westover. 94
Figure 60 Conjectural first-floor plan of Burwell's Kingsmill
mansion. 95
Figure 61 Remains of recent wharf, landing beach, and site of ordinary at
Burwell's Ferry Landing, Kingsmill. 97
Figure 62 Overhead view of Burwell's Landing ordinary. 98
Figure 63 The foundation of the central section of
the Burwell's Landing ordinary. 99
Figure 64 Archaeological plan and reconstruction of
Burwell's Landing ordinary, circa 1775. 100
Figure 65 Late eighteenth-early nineteenth-century tavern,
Powhatan County, Virginia. 102
Figure 66 Archaeological plans of fieldhand slave quarters,
Kingsmill. 103
Figure 67 Earthfast servant's quarter at Bray's Littletown. 105
Figure 68 Archaeological remains of unusual eighteenth-century earthfast
house with interior root cellars. 106
Xtî LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 69 Revolutionary War pewter regimental button of the 80th Royal
Edinburgh Volunteers. 107
Figure 70 Burial of black female (?) with English clay tobacco
pipe. 109
Figure 71 Archaeological plan and conjectural reconstruction of quarter at
Tuttey's Neck. Ill
Figure 72 First-floor plans of brick dependencies flanking BurwelPs
Kingsmill mansion. 113
Figure 73 Excavated root cellars, south room kitchen dependency at
BurwelPs Kingsmill. 115
Figure 74 Original stairway, office dependency,
BurwelPs Kingsmill. 116
Figure 75 One of four heating fireplaces in second floor, half-story of
kitchen and office. 117
Figure 76 Partially intact foundation for brick "storehouse" near "kitchen"
dependency, BurwelPs Kingsmill. 118
Figure 77 View of Kingsmill Quarter house remains. 119
Figure 78 Excavated root cellar, Kingsmill Quarter. 121
Figure 79 Pewter military button with the initials of the Royal Provincials
under a crown. 122
Figure 80 A representative collection of coinage from Kingsmill
Tenement/Quarter site. 123
Figure 81 Overhead view of excavated house site at North
Quarter. 125
Figure 82 Computer-drawn map of North Quarter house site and
excavated yard. 126
Figure 83 Cross-section through backfilled cellar,
North Quarter. 127
Figure 84 Collection of buttons recovered from North Quarter. 128
Figure 85 Plan of timber building at Hampton Key. 129
Figure 86 Map of Williamsburg area, 1781(>). 130
Figure 87 Plan of Littletown, showing outbuilding sites and
boundary ditches. 132
Figure 88 View of earthfast smokehouse with remains of
brick firebox. 133
Figure 89 Archaeological plans of earthfast barns at Littletown. 134
Figure 90 Earthfast tobacco barn, St. Mary's City, Maryland. 136
Figure 91 Tobacco-barn interior, St. Mary's City, Maryland. 136
Figure 92 Surviving south and west wall foundations of dairy,
BurwelPs Kingsmill. 137
Figure 93 Cross-section through drainage tunnel,
Kingsmill dairy. 138
LIST OF FIGURES xiii
Figure 94 The BurwelPs Landing warehouse foundation during
excavation. 139
Figure 95 Conceptual reconstruction of landscape design of Bray's
Littletown, circa 1740. 145
Figure 96 Page from 1736-1744 Bray Littletown Ledger. 147
Figure 97 Granite steps on terraces south of BurwelPs Kingsmill
mansion. 149
Figure 98 Forecourt garden area, BurwelPs Kingsmill mansion. 150
Figure 99 Brick drain for garden path and brick
garden pillar base. 151
Figure 100 Carved portland stone pedestal found at
BurwelPs Kingsmill. 152
Figure 101 Conceptual reconstruction of landscape design at
BurwelPs Kingsmill, circa 1760. 153
Figure 102 Cross-section through wellshaft at Utopia. 155
Figure 103 The partially dismantled and backfilled well at
the Landing ordinary. 156
Figure 104 Bucket from BurwelPs Landing ordinary well. 156
Figure 105 1735-1750-style "wine" bottles from Bray's
Littletown well. 157
Figure 106 Intact "wine" bottle found in brick vault of
Littletown well. 158
Figure 107 Burwell well, beneath kitchen window. 159
Figure 108 Cross-sections through five wells excavated at Kingsmill,
1972-1975. 162-163
Figure 109 Mid-seventeenth-century copper tobacco can. 164
Figure 110 Pewter spoon bearing the name DAV[I]D
MENETR[IE?]. 165
Figure 111 North—south cross-section through one of six storage pits,
Kingsmill Tenement. 168
Figure 112 Cross-section through pit backfilled with domestic refuse and
debris. 169
Figure 113 Wine bottle and seals bearing anagrams. 170
Figure 114 Domestic waste at BurwelPs Kingsmill,
south of the kitchen. 171
Figure 115 Cooking pan (?) handle bearing the logo LB. 172
Figure 116 Octagonal bottle with the seal of the merchant John
Greenhow. 173
Figure 117 Computer-drawn map of North Quarter site, showing ceramic
fragments. 174
Figure 118 Computer-drawn map of North Quarter site, showing bone
fragments. 175