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Historical Archaeology in the Twenty-First Century

University Press of Florida

Florida A&M University, Tallahassee
Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton
Florida Gulf Coast University, Ft. Myers
Florida International University, Miami
Florida State University, Tallahassee
New College of Florida, Sarasota
University of Central Florida, Orlando
University of Florida, Gainesville
University of North Florida, Jacksonville
University of South Florida, Tampa
University of West Florida, Pensacola
 Historical Archaeology
in the Twenty-First Century
Lessons from Colonial Williamsburg

Edited by
Ywone D. Edwards-Ingram and Andrew C. Edwards
Foreword by Jack Gary

University Press of Florida

Gainesville · Tallahassee · Tampa · Boca Raton
Pensacola · Orlando · Miami · Jacksonville · Ft. Myers · Sarasota
Copyright 2021 by Ywone D. Edwards-Ingram and Andrew C. Edwards
All rights reserved
Published in the United States of America

26 25 24 23 22 21 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Edwards-Ingram, Ywone, 1961– editor. | Edwards, Andrew C., editor. |
Gary, Jack, author of foreword.
Title: Historical archaeology in the twenty-first century : lessons from
Colonial Williamsburg / edited by Ywone D. Edwards-Ingram and Andrew C.
Edwards ; foreword by Jack Gary.
Other titles: Historical archaeology in the 21st century : lessons from
Colonial Williamsburg
Description: 1. | Gainesville : University Press of Florida, 2021. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021027302 (print) | LCCN 2021027303 (ebook) | ISBN
9780813069050 (hardback) | ISBN 9780813057934 (pdf)
Subjects: LCSH: Archaeology and history—Virginia—Williamsburg. | Colonial
Williamsburg (Williamsburg, Va.)—History. | Colonial Williamsburg
(Williamsburg, Va.)—Antiquities. | Colonial Williamsburg (Williamsburg,
Va.)—Social life and customs—History. | BISAC: SOCIAL SCIENCE /
Archaeology | SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / General
Classification: LCC F234.W7 H57 2021 (print) | LCC F234.W7 (ebook) | DDC
975.5/4252—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021027302
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021027303

The University Press of Florida is the scholarly publishing agency for the State University System
of Florida, comprising Florida A&M University, Florida Atlantic University, Florida Gulf Coast
University, Florida International University, Florida State University, New College of Florida,
University of Central Florida, University of Florida, University of North Florida, University of
South Florida, and University of West Florida.

University Press of Florida

2046 NE Waldo Road
Suite 2100
Gainesville, FL 32609
http://upress.ufl.edu
 Andrew Carlton Edwards
August 18, 1949–January 19, 2021

Andy on holiday in Prague,

Czech Republic, September 2013.
Photograph taken by his hus-
band, Robert T. Lyon, and used
with permission.

This book is dedicated with great appreciation to Andrew Carlton Edwards,

who saw the volume in its final form before he had to leave. His inspirations
and insights shine throughout its pages as clear and vivid statements of his
life, service, and contributions to historical archaeology and to the spirit,
fruits, and possibilities of collaboration, diversity, and inclusion.
Andy, as he was affectionately known, was “always there” in any weather
and in any situation: steadfast, reliable, yet flexible, showing unwavering
empathy and understanding in the most difficult circumstances. He was
well known and loved in many circles, both professional and personal.
Andy always came through and worked tirelessly. His achievements in Wil-
liamsburg, especially at Colonial Williamsburg, but also for the City as a
member of its Architectural Review Board and its Planning Commission,
are heralded as invaluable contributions to the fields of archaeology, public
history, and historical reconstruction.
 Contents

List of Figures ix
List of Maps xi
List of Tables xiii
Foreword xv
Acknowledgments xvii
A Word about the Maps xix
Introduction 1
Ywone D. Edwards-Ingram and Andrew C. Edwards

Part I. Historical and Archaeological Overviews

1. From Middle Plantation to Modern Metropolis: Evolution and
Change 11
Martha W. McCartney
2. Town and Gown Archaeology in Eighteenth-Century
Williamsburg 28
Mark Kostro
3. Discovering What Counts: Ninety Years of Archaeology at Colonial
Williamsburg 42
Meredith M. Poole and Patricia M. Samford

Part II. Environmental, Biological, and Economic Studies

4. Domesticating the Chesapeake Landscape 67
Joanne Bowen
5. “To be SOLD, for ready money”: Reconstructing Patterns of Human
Predation, Marketing, and Oyster Exploitation 95
Dessa E. Lightfoot, Stephen C. Atkins, and Irvy R. Quitmyer
6. “Useful Ornaments to His Cabinet”: Analysis of Anatomical Study
and Display in Colonial Williamsburg 116
Ellen Chapman
 7. Architectural Reconstruction and the Importance of a Name 135
Andrew C. Edwards

Part III. Community, Neighborhood, and Identity

8. From Household to Neighborhood: Toward a Community-Oriented
Archaeological Approach in the Plantation Chesapeake 151
Jason Boroughs
9. Reconstructing the Landscape of African and African American
Burials and Commemorations in Williamsburg, Virginia 172
Ywone D. Edwards-Ingram

Part IV. Standards, Practices, and Goals in Conservation and

Reconstruction
10. Framing the Questions That Matter: The Relationship between
Archaeology and Conservation 195
Emily Williams
11. A Diachronic Study of Window Leads from Williamsburg 206
Kelly Ladd-Kostro
12. A Virtual Williamsburg: Contextualizing Archaeological Data within
a Virtual Environment 221
Peter A. Inker
Afterword 239
Ywone D. Edwards-Ingram and Andrew C. Edwards
Appendix: Colonial Williamsburg Conserved Window Leads,
1997–2019 241
Works Cited 271
List of Contributors 313
Index 317
 Figures

1.1. William Peirce’s house lot 12

1.2. Conjectural map of Middle Plantation 13
1.3. Redrawn map of Secretary Kemp’s holdings in 1643 14
1.4. John and Alice Page House cartouche 15
1.5. Plan map of Rich Neck Plantation 16
1.6. Theodorick Bland map of Williamsburg 18
1.7. Detail of Rochambeau map of Williamsburg and environs 23
2.1. The Brafferton during excavation 35
2.2. Glass tool recovered from the base of the Brafferton 37
2.3. Brick out-building foundations at the Bray Site 39
2.4. Slate pencil fragments from the Bray Site 41
3.1. Archaeological cross-trenching 49
3.2. Aerial view of 1981 excavation of the Public Hospital 53
3.3. President Richard Nixon examining artifacts 55
3.4. Guests watching excavations at the Public Armoury 61
4.1. Chesapeake and archaeological sites 69
4.2. Meat consumed at Jamestown Fort 75
4.3. Consumption of fish and game 78
4.4. Swine slaughter ages, rural sites 85
4.5. Swine slaughter ages, Williamsburg 85
4.6. Cattle slaughter ages, rural sites 88
4.7. Cattle slaughter ages, Williamsburg 88
4.8. Size of Chesapeake cattle 92
5.1. Williamsburg and its Hinterland 96
5.2. Oyster shell height and human population 104
5.3. Concentration of oxygen and carbon isotopes 108
5.4. Population chart of Virginia 1630–1860 112
6.1. Trade card of Nathaniel Longbottom 122
x · Figures

6.2. Gilmer mandible showing wiring hole 124

6.3. Phalanx from Charlton’s Coffeehouse and radiograph of same 126
6.4. Completed replica of skeleton 133
7.1. Reconstructed Tin Shop 137
7.2. Before and after Armoury construction 139
7.3. Archaeology of the Gillett House/Tin Shop 143
8.1. Plan view of the Quarterpath domestic complex 153
8.2. Quarterpath neighborhood 159
8.3. Spatial bounds of sweeping activity 163
8.4. Harvesting wheat with mechanical reapers 165
9.1. Map of Williamsburg and environs 1782 173
9.2. Map showing burial location 176
9.3. Cartouche of Joshua Fry and Peter Jefferson map 181
9.4. Memorial honoring Mammy Sarah 184
9.5. Tombstones of Robert F. Hill and Lucy Ann Dunlop 188
9.6. Bird’s-eye-view map of Market Square area 190
10.1. Early display of artifacts recovered 197
10.2. A bone fan guard 201
10.3. Watering can from Mathews Manor 202
10.4. X-ray of watering can from Mathews Manor 204
11.1. Glazier’s vice 209
11.2. Turned lead 210
11.3. Drawing of 1766 turned lead from Charlton’s Coffeehouse 216
12.1. Virtual Garden with guides 224
12.2. Virtual reconstruction of Crichton Store parlor 229
12.3. Reconstruction of the Charlton Coffeehouse topography 232
12.4. Reconstruction of William & Mary’s Wren Yard 233
12.5. Reconstruction of Williamsburg’s environs 234
 Maps

1. James–York peninsula 4
2. The Frenchman’s Map of Williamsburg 5
3. Williamsburg sites outside of the Historic Area 6
4. Williamsburg Historic Area East portion 7
5. Williamsburg Historic Area West portion 8
 Tables

4.1. Archaeological sites from lower Chesapeake 72

8.1. Seasonal agricultural tasks by locale 164
9.1. African and African American burials 189
 Foreword

I am honored to write the foreword to this volume. As the newest director

of archaeology for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, I am daily in
awe of this institution’s legacy of research. The body of work that constitutes
this volume is no exception, and while these case studies were conducted
before my tenure began, I am proud to be associated with them. This vol-
ume comes at the beginning of another phase in the history of archaeology
at Colonial Williamsburg and helps to provide the context for a vision of
where this department and archaeological research can go in the future.
Throughout, the reader will encounter references to the length of time that
archaeology has been conducted by the Colonial Williamsburg Founda-
tion. From employing an Egyptologist in the 1930s, to Ivor Noël Hume’s fo-
cus on material culture, to more recent innovative regional environmental
analyses and involvement with descendant communities, the progression
of archaeological research at Colonial Williamsburg mirrored—and influ-
enced—the development of the modern field of historical archaeology. This
compilation of case studies continues to reflect the advancement of the field
in general and more specifically the work conducted in Williamsburg and
the tidewater region of Virginia.
Another thread that runs through this volume is the assertion that ar-
chaeology at Colonial Williamsburg, for a long time, has not been just
about reconstruction. No doubt this is true, however, it could just as easily
be said that it is about a different type of reconstruction—one that ad-
dresses and attempts to reconstruct the full range of human experience in
this town. Many of these works also convey that Colonial Williamsburg
stewards not just the physical resources of the past, but also has an obliga-
tion to steward the memories and histories of the diverse range of Wil-
liamsburg’s past residents. The history of Williamsburg, which the volume
draws on, is covered by Martha McCartney in her chapter. Her work pro-
vides a framework for the historical analyses of the other chapters. Mark
Kostro’s work specifically highlights the importance of holding ourselves
accountable to our stakeholders and descendant communities, while the
works by Andrew Edwards, Ywone Edwards-Ingram, and Jason Boroughs
remind us that archaeological research provides a means to move beyond
static “snapshot” interpretations of a single group’s past. The attention to
xvi · Foreword

the most minute details of the archaeological record, as seen in the works
of Ellen Chapman, Dessa Lightfoot, Stephen Atkins, Emily Williams, Irvy
Quitmyer, Joanne Bowen, and Kelly Ladd-Kostro, proves that the process
of trying to reconstruct the past can answer questions more complex than,
“What did it look like?” and “How much did ______ cost?”
Meredith Poole and Patricia Samford as well as Peter Inker conclude
their chapters with the acknowledgment that much work is still before
us. With a foundation of research as strong as that published here, we are
prepared to enter a new era of archaeological endeavor. This next era will
be one marked by increased public interaction, a continued commitment
to the stewardship of the collection, increased involvement with descen-
dant and stakeholder groups, and research that continues to address the
intersection of human actions, the environment, and the communities that
arose out of colonial encounters.
At the time of this writing, we have begun a project to explore the site
of the First Baptist Church of Williamsburg. One of the oldest black con-
gregations in the country, the church traces its beginnings to 1776, and
a congregation of the present church still worships in Williamsburg to-
day. Initiated as a joint project between the extant Church and Colonial
Williamsburg, our research is designed to uncover the earliest building in
which the congregation worshipped and to better understand the experi-
ence of this community of enslaved and free blacks from the late eighteenth
through the twentieth century. The church has also had white worshippers
among its different congregations over the centuries.
The descendants of this community are still here, and we look to them,
along with other African-descendant groups, to help guide this project.
While the expected in-ground signatures and material culture resources
excite archaeologists, it is the collaboration with descendants, the modern
congregation, the black community, and other stakeholders on how those
resources are interpreted that gives the project its true purpose—further
empowering the community to tell its history.
I have the privilege to direct a program with an amazing legacy and
a bright future. It keeps me up at night, not out of fear of what could go
wrong, but out of excitement at the potential. Colonial Williamsburg is
known for many things, and archaeology should always be at the top of the
list.
Jack Gary
Director of Archaeology, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
 Acknowledgments

Many people were integrally involved in the writing, mentoring, and finally
getting this volume to press. The editors would like particularly to thank
the authors of the various chapters for their patience through several years
of uncertainty and two rounds of edits by our faithful readers: Dr. Audrey
Horning and “Reader #2,” both of whom offered encouragement and sage
advice throughout the process. Dr. Horning invested more of her time and
effort in indexing the chapters, adding to her other invaluable contribu-
tions. We are thankful for her dedication to the project. Joanne Bowen and
Ellen Chapman graciously helped with the volume, beyond working on
their chapters.
From the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Edward Chappell, Direc-
tor of Architectural and Archaeological Research from 2008 until 2016 was
encouraging and supportive of our efforts, as were former vice president of
research Cary Carson and senior historian Linda Rowe. Several of the sites
discussed and many of the authors, including the editors, were archaeolo-
gists working for the Colonial Williamsburg’s Department of Archaeologi-
cal Research when directed by Marley R. Brown III between 1982 and 2008.
Much of the scholarship owes credit to his mentorship.
Additionally, from Colonial Williamsburg, the editors would like to
thank Marianne Martin of the Visual Resources Collection for providing
copies of many of the images and the permission to use them. Gerald “Jay”
Gaidmore, Marian and Alan McLeod Director of The Special Collections
Research Center, William & Mary, graciously provided images and permis-
sion, too. We appreciate the time he spent doing so.
The editors would also like to thank University Press of Florida acquisi-
tion editors Meredith Babb and Mary Puckett, managing editor Marthe
Walters, and other involved staff whose guidance and patience have been
exemplary. The volume benefited tremendously from the hard work of our
copy editor, John Wentworth. We hope that our gratitude is felt and ac-
cepted by many others we have not named here individually, including our
immediate family members, former and present administrators and other
staff at Colonial Williamsburg, colleagues at William & Mary, and other
friends, and well-wishers. We know you were rooting for this book project.
Thank you.
 A Word about the Maps

Some of our chapters require subject-specific maps to elucidate details in-

cluded in the narrative. Those maps are placed within the respective chap-
ter text and have figure numbers as reference. Several chapters refer to the
same locations within Colonial Williamsburg’s Historic Area so that indi-
vidual maps within the chapter would be cumbersome and redundant. So
many sites are located within the Historic Area that it was divided into two
halves for clarity, East and West. We placed several maps at the beginning
of the volume that show the locations, or in some cases the approximate
locations, of places mentioned in the various chapters. These are
• The Peninsula area of the Chesapeake Bay
• The Frenchman’s Map, 1782, a well-known billeting map drawn by
an unknown French cartographer
• The Greater Williamsburg area
• The Eastern half of the Historic Area
• The Western half of the Historic Area with the Middle Plantation
sites mentioned in the text
 Introduction

Ywone D. Edwards-Ingram and Andrew C. Edwards

This edited volume provides a unique opportunity for the reader to take an
in-depth look at the comprehensive reach of historical archaeology in one
place—Williamsburg, Virginia, but especially at Colonial Williamsburg. At
the same time, it presents analyses that go beyond Williamsburg to con-
nect other local places, some comparative cities, and even faraway com-
munities in the Atlantic World such as the Caribbean, Africa, and Britain.
Archaeologists and associated scholars have coalesced around powerful
topics and themes to provide in-depth insights about Williamsburg not
only during the time it was the eighteenth-century capital of Virginia, but
for earlier and later centuries of the town’s history as well. The volume il-
lustrates how Williamsburg has remained a significant site in the practice
and development of historical archaeology. Williamsburg is indeed a place
where archaeology has delivered lessons of consequence about the past and
the present.
Archaeology in Williamsburg is reconstruction “or it is nothing.” This
adaptation of Gordon R. Willey and Philip Phillips’s powerful adage that
has intertwined American archaeology with anthropology (Willey and
Phillips 1958, 2) also aptly describes this body of work on the buried and
other physical remains of Williamsburg’s past in a broad narrative covering
aspects of the tangible and intangible in America’s history and culture. This
collection of essays deals with the theories, methodologies, and results of
many decades of interdisciplinary studies of this tidewater town in south-
eastern Virginia as well as its surrounding areas of Jamestown and York-
town. Many of the volume’s chapters focus on the historic area of the town,
now the living-history museum of Colonial Williamsburg, to highlight the
development of archaeology as well as architectural reconstruction. As a
body of work showcasing the dexterous and applied nature of historical
archaeology and reconstruction, the volume explores how various projects
2 · Ywone D. Edwards-Ingram and Andrew C. Edwards

and practices, both individual and collaborative, have strengthened this

field of anthropology with many lessons learned over the years.
The archaeology of Williamsburg is uniquely linked to educational
goals, especially in public history and reconstruction. Nowhere is the
power of research and its public consequences more evident than at the
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Historical archaeology has a long, var-
ied, and pivotal role in the institution’s mission and achievements. Many
leading scholars in anthropology, material culture studies, and history rose
to prominence through their work and association with the practice and
results of archaeology in Williamsburg, and especially at Colonial Wil-
liamsburg and the College of William & Mary. This is clearly the case for
most of the contributors of this volume, who are veterans in the field of
archaeology or architecture with many years of their work histories spent at
Colonial Williamsburg. All share affiliations through William & Mary and
the Society of Historical Archaeology. This group of accomplished scholars
is joined by others who have started working more recently and, together,
they bring new perspectives to topics and themes in archaeological field
and laboratory techniques, landscape analyses, environmental studies (in-
cluding zooarchaeological and botanical), architectural research and re-
construction, historical research, conservation, collection management,
digital history and virtual applications, artifacts and material culture stud-
ies, bioarchaeology, and public archaeology.
The book uses a four-part division to group the chapters by main themes
and important topical areas integral to an understanding of American life
and culture, changes in the society through times, as well as diversity of
people and cultures in different centuries. Part I provides the historical
underpinnings, covers earlier sites, and connects early and later periods of
Williamsburg, Colonial Williamsburg, and the practices in the discipline
of historical archaeology, as well.
The chapters in part II group similar topics on people, animals, and their
physical and cultural environment. This section also deals with reconstruc-
tion of artifacts and sites in the interpretations of the past. The two chapters
of part III share a focus on community, neighborhood, and identity; they
reflect on the differential experiences of Williamsburg populations who
were not white, within specific sites as well as broader neighborhoods of
slavery and freedom. Part IV houses chapters on conservation, preserva-
tion, and different types of reconstruction. The book’s four sections de-
lineate soft boundaries, serving more as hermeneutic devices rather than
hard separations. They interconnect themes and issues that each chapter
 Introduction · 3

addresses. These points are further underscored by how the chapters ex-
plicitly study changes in the town but use different approaches and data.
The individual and collaborative projects have largely an eighteenth-
century emphasis of America’s history. This concentration, however, does
not limit diachronic perspectives and references or inclusions of materials
from earlier and later periods to enrich the analyses. While the range of
the volume chapters are diverse, they coalesce around the key questions of
how did demographic changes, some tied to large-scale events, impact the
social, material, and cultural life of the town? What can the environmental
data tell us about humans, animals, and their occupations of and interac-
tions within Williamsburg and its surrounding areas? What were the ur-
ban and rural dynamics in the town’s development, provisioning, and land
management? How is the landscape reflective and constitutive of social
and political changes? What are some of the main ways of understanding
strategies and spaces important to identity and inequality? And how can
these be read from the archaeology and the reconstruction of the historic
landscape?
While dealing with the specifics of their research data and topics, the
contributing writers address larger theoretical and ethical questions about
archaeology and reconstruction. For example, the issues of significance:
whose heritage is strongly represented on the built historic landscape of
today and why? What does reconstruction conceal as well as reveal? Some
of these scholars rely on access to materials from a number of sites; some
count on the reservoir of information from previous work for reconstruc-
tion data and include artifacts, human remains, buildings, and images
for the digital layout of the town; and others focus on recent excavations.
Whether using data from single or multiple sites and excavations, these re-
searchers seek to break new ground. These studies also presage the increas-
ing orientation of historical archaeology as a discipline willing to address
the often uncomfortable and unresolved legacies of early modern colonial-
ism. Several of the projects described in this volume highlight the value
of engaging with contemporary communities—work that has materially
aided the process of challenging and overturning traditional narratives of
early Virginia’s history in favor of more inclusive and more honest histo-
ries. In this effort, the longstanding motto of the Colonial Williamsburg
museum remains highly relevant: “So the future may learn from the past.”
The result is a body of work that promises to innovate, making significant
contributions to the discipline in ways that count.
Map 1. James–York peninsula, Norfolk to Richmond and Chesapeake Bay. Based on
map created by Heather Harvey as part of Provisioning Early American Towns, The
Chesapeake: A Multidisciplinary Case Study (Walsh et al. 1997). Historical Research and
Digital History. The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
Map 2. The Frenchman’s Map of Williamsburg, 1782. Courtesy of the Special Collections Research Center, William & Mary Libraries.
Map 3. Williamsburg sites outside of the Historic Area. Courtesy of the City of Williamsburg.
Projected Coordinate System: NAD 1983 State Plane Virginia South, FIPS 4502 Feet. Author:
City of Williamsburg GIS. Historical Research and Digital History. The Colonial Williamsburg
Foundation. Annotated by Peter Inker, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
Map 4. Williamsburg Historic Area East portion. Map by Peter Inker. Historical Research and Digital History. The Colonial Williams-
burg Foundation.
Map 5. Williamsburg Historic Area West portion with Middle Plantation Sites. Map by Peter Inker. Historical Research and
Digital History. The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
 I
HISTORICAL AND
ARCHAEOLOGICAL OVERVIEWS
 1
From Middle Plantation to Modern
Metropolis
Evolution and Change

Martha W. McCartney

The First Capital

In 1607 when the first European colonists came ashore on Jamestown Is-
land, they landed in the heart of the Powhatan Chiefdom, a dynamic politi-
cal entity whose home was Virginia’s coastal plain. The culturally sophis-
ticated Powhatans relied on the region’s wealth of natural resources that
included game, fish, oysters, and other shellfish (Davidson 2000:8–9). As
soon as the colonists had adapted to frontier living and secured their capi-
tal city, they began advancing into the Natives’ territory. Archaeological
research by the Jamestown Rediscovery team led by William M. Kelso care-
fully documented the cultural features associated with James Fort (Kelso
2006).
The discovery that tobacco was a highly marketable commodity fueled
rapid expansion and brought an influx of new immigrants. African captives,
brought to Virginia involuntarily in 1619, possessed numerous useful skills,
gained in a largely agrarian society. They were familiar with the hill-and-
hoe agricultural techniques that the colonists had learned from the Indians,
and many Africans knew how to raise tobacco. A growing need for labor
eventually culminated in Africans’ enslavement. Currently, Jamestown Re-
discovery archaeologist David Givens is searching for evidence of Angelo,
one of the first Africans, a member of Captain William Peirce’s household
in urban Jamestown. Predictably, the Powhatans resented the European
colonists’ intrusion into their homeland, and in 1622 they attacked, killing
12 · Martha W. McCartney

Figure 1.1. Captain William Peirce’s house lot as described in the 1625 muster. Courtesy
of the Jamestown Yorktown Foundation.

more than a third of the settlers. This interrupted, but did not curb, expan-
sion into Native land.

The Settlement and Development of Middle Plantation

By 1633, Virginia’s burgesses had decided to build a palisade across the

James–York peninsula to secure the colonists’ territory. The structure
erected in 1634 traversed the broad ridge connecting the heads of Queens
and College Creeks. Virginia’s governing officials adopted policies intended
to promote settlement within the area the palisade delimited, and soon a
small community took root, the Middle Plantation. To its east were siz-
able plantations owned by prominent government officials such as coun-
cilor George Menefie and one-time governor, Dr. John Pott, along with the
homesteads of people of considerably more modest means.
After a second Powhatan attack in 1644, the colonists undertook re-
taliatory raids against the Powhatans and constructed primitive forts or
checkpoints intended to control the Natives’ access to the peninsula. They
also rebuilt the decade-old Middle Plantation palisade whose trajectory is
shown on a plat made for Secretary of the Colony Richard Kemp in 1643.
During the 1990s, Colonial Williamsburg’s archaeologists unearthed
sections of the Middle Plantation palisade, whose subsurface features sur-
vived despite three centuries of development (Metz et al. 1998).
In 1645, the Indians of the Powhatan Chiefdom, whose ranks were weak-
ened by disease and the colonists’ relentless attacks, suffered the loss of
their elderly and charismatic paramount chief, Opechancanough, who was
captured and subsequently killed while incarcerated at Jamestown. The
Powhatans signed a peace treaty in October 1646, ceding much of their
Figure 1.2. Conjectural map of Middle Plantation. Archaeological Research, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
Figure 1.3. Redrawn map of Secretary Kemp’s holdings in 1643, Archaeological Research, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
 From Middle Plantation to Modern Metropolis: Evolution and Change · 15

Figure 1.4. John and

Alice Page House car-
touche, 1662, Archaeo-
logical Research, The
Colonial Williamsburg
Foundation.

territory to the colonists and agreeing to allow Virginia’s governing officials

to choose their leaders (Hening 1809–1823:I, 324). This signaled the disin-
tegration of the Powhatan Chiefdom but not the Natives’ disappearance.
During the mid-seventeenth century, while the Commonwealth govern-
ment was in power, many of the smaller farmsteads near Middle Planta-
tion were purchased by the elite and absorbed into their larger plantations.
Astride the undulating horse path that passed through Middle Plantation
was acreage that John Page, a member of the governor’s council, began ac-
cumulating during the mid-1650s. Archaeological excavations undertaken
near the Bruton Heights School unearthed the remains of John and Alice
Page’s brick dwelling. A brick cartouche found at the site likely graced the
building’s lintel. It bears the date 1662, a heart-shaped image, and the Page
couple’s initials. By the time the Page home was built, the rights of people
of African descent had begun to erode (Hening 1809–1823:I, 208–209,
16 · Martha W. McCartney

Figure 1.5. Plan map of Rich Neck Plantation, Archaeological Research, The Colonial
Williamsburg Foundation.

239, 290; McIlwaine 1924:277, 296, 501; Metz et al. 1998:73; Patent Book
7:280–282).
At nearby Rich Neck, on the road to Jamestown, Secretary of the Colony
Richard Kemp and his successor, Philip Ludwell I, had an upscale home.
During the mid-1640s the Rich Neck tract, which earlier had belonged
to counselor George Menefie, encompassed more than 4,300 acres. It ex-
tended along the west side of the palisade and traversed the horse path
that became a focal point of development at Middle Plantation (McCart-
ney 2000b:10–11, 17–23; Muraca et al. 2003). Excavations at Rich Neck
unearthed human burials and evidence of structures that housed inden-
tured servants and slaves, as separate spaces or within the same units, and
other outbuildings on the plantation (see Edwards-Ingram, chapter 9 in
 From Middle Plantation to Modern Metropolis: Evolution and Change · 17

this volume; Muraca et al. 2003). The recovered artifacts, botanical data,
and documentary records associated with the John Page house site and the
Rich Neck plantation are important to understanding the lives of free and
enslaved people in Williamsburg during the colonial period.
In 1676–1677 Indian attacks on the colony’s frontier and frustration with
government policy led to a popular uprising, known as Bacon’s Rebellion,
which reached Middle Plantation. Ringleader Nathaniel Bacon and his fol-
lowers plundered Colonel John Page’s house and seized his wife, Alice, us-
ing her as a human shield while building a defensive trench at the entrance
to Jamestown Island. Later, Bacon and his men took control of Middle
Plantation, making the home of Captain Otho Thorpe their headquar-
ters. After Bacon’s death from natural causes, Governor William Berkeley
gained the upper hand, and William Drummond, a Bacon partisan, was
hanged at James Bray I’s Middle Plantation home.
In February 1677, Jamestown residents William Sherwood and Thomas
Rabley were authorized to construct a guardhouse, a storehouse for pow-
der, and a large warehouse on their seventeen acres in the heart of Middle
Plantation. On May 29, 1677, public officials and Indian leaders met at the
new guardhouse and signed the Treaty of Middle Plantation. This mon-
umental agreement governed relations with the Natives for more than a
century (McCartney 2006:246; McIlwaine 1905–1915, 1660–1693:71–73, 140,
178, 256; 1925–1945:I, 13, 25).

The College of William & Mary

Middle Plantation’s population continued to grow, and in 1678 Colonel
John Page donated the ground on which Bruton Parish’s centrally located
brick church was built. In 1693, King William and Queen Mary granted
a charter to the College of William & Mary, whose officials acquired 330
acres of land just west of the parish church. Within months, the college’s
grammar school opened “in a little School-House,” and two years later, the
main building was ready for use. By 1699, Middle Plantation had a church,
an ordinary (tavern), several stores, two mills, and a smith’s shop (Bever-
ley 1947:266; Hartwell et al. 1940:71; Hening 1809–1823:III, 122; Kornwolf
1989:35–36, 67; Meade 1966:I, 147).

Town and Gown: The Establishment of Williamsburg

In April 1699, after a fire destroyed the colony’s statehouse at Jamestown,
the assembly convened at the college. A group of students, who urged the
burgesses to make Middle Plantation the colony’s new capital city, proffered
Figure 1.6. Theodorick Bland map of Williamsburg, 1699, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Library, The Colonial
Williamsburg Foundation.
 From Middle Plantation to Modern Metropolis: Evolution and Change · 19

that the site was well suited for trade and that the college and nearby com-
munity would attract skilled workers (Chandler and Swem 1930:323–337).
With relatively little deliberation, the burgesses passed “An Act Direct-
ing the Building of the Capitoll and the City of Williamsburgh,” which was
named for King William, the Duke of Gloucester. The new capital city was
carefully planned, unlike Jamestown, which National Park Service archae-
ologists J.C. Harrington and John Cotter and Colonial Williamsburg Foun-
dation archaeologists Audrey J. Horning and Andrew Edwards found had
developed in a piecemeal fashion. The 220-acre town site at Middle Planta-
tion straddled the boundary line between James City and York Counties,
enveloping a substantial portion of Colonel John Page’s 280-acre patent.
Duke of Gloucester Street, which ran along the ridge back separating the
James and York Rivers’ drainages, formed the central axis of the new town,
which was to be laid out into half-acre lots. Williamsburg was to have two
public landings: Queen Mary’s Port on Queens Creek in York County
and Princess Anne’s Port on Archer’s Hope (College) Creek in James City
County. By the 1730s, the tandem ports had become known as the Capitol
and College Landings. Theodorick Bland, who in 1699 was commissioned
to lay out Williamsburg and its ports, produced a detailed plat.
Notations on that survey suggest that the roads leading to both land-
ings used well-worn paths that predated the establishment of Williamsburg
(Bland 1699; Hening 1809–1823:III, 197, 419–432; Reps 1972:141–142).

Urban Planning and Subsequent Development

In 1705, the year that enslavement of people of African descent was codi-
fied and the college’s main building was destroyed by fire, members of the
colony’s assembly passed the third in a series of town-founding acts. They
reaffirmed the 1699 legislation that formally established Williamsburg and
included provisions that controlled how the town would be developed.
Trustees were authorized to sell Williamsburg’s lots, which had to be
developed within twenty-four months of the date of purchase, with restric-
tions placed on the dimensions, character, and placement of the buildings
that property owners could erect. Structures built along Duke of Gloucester
Street had to conform to height and setback rules. Lots in the city’s twin
ports were to be no more than sixty feet square, and “a sufficient quantity
of land at each port or landing place” was to be reserved for a common,
an area of community use. Governor Francis Nicholson and other high-
ranking officials made plans for the construction of an imposing brick
20 · Martha W. McCartney

statehouse, intended to accommodate the House of Burgesses and the

Governor’s Council, whose members also convened regularly as justices
of the General Court. Plans were made to build a suitable governor’s resi-
dence and, later, a brick powder magazine (Hening 1809–1823:III, 419–431;
Lounsbury 2000:31–35).
In 1716, the college’s main building was replaced, and in 1723 the Braf-
ferton, a school in which young Indians could be educated, was erected,
thanks to scientist Robert Boyle, whose philanthropy some scholars de-
scribe as paternalistic. A brick residence was built for the college’s president
in 1733. Over the years, archaeological excavations have been undertaken
near all of these buildings, which collectively delimit a courtyard replete
with evidence of landscape features (Archer 2014:16–27; Hening 1809–
1823:III, 419–431; Kostro, chapter 2 in this volume; Lounsbury 2000:31–35;
Moretti-Langholtz and Woodard 2019).

A Small but Flourishing City

Merchants, planters, artisans, and ordinary-keepers were among those who

owned and developed lots in Williamsburg and its sister ports, and some
people invested in lots in more than one location. Between 1715 and 1721,
the seat of James City County’s monthly court moved from Jamestown to
Williamsburg and a county courthouse was built. The fledgling city be-
gan to thrive, and its ports became ferry-landings and hubs of commercial
activity. In 1730, tobacco inspection warehouses that operated in tandem
were built at both of Williamsburg’s landings. The community continued
to grow, and in 1749 Benjamin Waller purchased land contiguous to Wil-
liamsburg’s corporate limits and subdivided it into numbered lots that were
annexed in 1759. They quickly developed, as did land along the roads ap-
proaching Williamsburg. Near Capitol Landing, but beyond the city lim-
its, was the Bruton Parish poorhouse, a church-run workhouse eventually
converted into a cloth-making facility (Hening 1809–1823:IV, 267–269; Mc-
Cartney 1987:287–303; York County Deed Book 5:334).
During Public Times, when the assembly and courts were in session,
throngs of people, some accompanied by their slaves, converged on Wil-
liamsburg. They patronized the city’s stores and shops, shared the latest
news, and socialized. Free black people visited the capital city regularly, as
did Native Americans, often as tribal emissaries fulfilling their obligations
as tributaries. Although the Capitol burned in 1747, it was quickly rebuilt
and Williamsburg remained the focal point of the colony’s political life.
 From Middle Plantation to Modern Metropolis: Evolution and Change · 21

Urban Life

Eighteenth-century Williamsburg’s elite and the city’s more prosperous

entrepreneurs, using slave labor, built fine urban residences, where they
could nurture social, commercial, and political relationships. Many of the
well-to-do also owned plantations outside of the city, where enslaved work-
ers produced food crops and tended herds of livestock. For example, James
Southall, the Raleigh Tavern’s proprietor, owned a large plantation that
bordered the south side of the city. There, his enslaved people raised the
food stuffs and livestock that provided table fare for the tavern’s clientele.
Archaeological excavations conducted by the College of William & Mary
uncovered evidence of Southall’s slave quarters and a diversity of artifacts
that further our understanding of plantation life and culture (Pullins et al.
2003).
Some city dwellers could supplement their income by having their slaves
produce surplus agricultural crops and other marketable commodities. Suc-
cessful planters also could profit handsomely by selling grain crops, fodder,
straw, and even firewood, harvested during the winter months when slaves
were shifted to other areas of work and draft animals were underused.
Some of these agricultural commodities were sold in the city’s centrally
located Market Square off Duke of Gloucester Street (Bowen, chapter 4 in
this volume; Lightfoot et al., chapter 5 in this volume). Williamsburg resi-
dents of middling means often owned a slave or two and enjoyed a measure
of self-sufficiency by keeping a cow and growing some food crops in their
kitchen gardens or perhaps in small orchards. Nonetheless, most urban lots
were so small that they allowed only limited agricultural pursuits.
Enslaved people living in Williamsburg and outside the city grew or had
access to produce from small gardens, and also raised poultry. As the eigh-
teenth century wore on, middlemen such as merchants and butchers be-
came increasingly important in urban provisioning. One of the city’s more
successful butchers was Benjamin Hanson, a free black entrepreneur whose
clientele included the College of William & Mary (Walsh et al. 1997:11, 13,
23, 49, 67, 139).
One prominent feature in Williamsburg’s cultural landscape was Amer-
ica’s first health care facility for the mentally ill, the Public Hospital, built
in 1773. Also present was James Wray’s carpentry yard, where workers, en-
slaved and free, toiled as joiners, glaziers, carpenters, and cabinetmakers
(Edwards et al. 2013; Lounsbury 2000:36–37). A more subtle feature was
22 · Martha W. McCartney

the philanthropically funded Bray School, where during the early 1760s
enslaved children received a rudimentary education (Ackermann 2009;
Meyers 2009).
Williamsburg, as the colonial capital, was at the hub of cultural life and
during the mid-to-late eighteenth century had three theaters in succession.
When prominent planter Landon Carter, who took a dim view of theatrics,
attended performances in Williamsburg in April 1752, he declared that he
was surfeited with “Stupidity and nonsence [sic] delivered from the mouths
of Walking Statues.” By 1760, the city’s second theater had been replaced
by a third playhouse, the Douglass Theater, on a lot bordering the Duke of
Gloucester Street extension, just east of the Capitol and directly across from
the Blue Bell Tavern. This third theater was still in existence in 1775 but
was gone by 1780, when a lot was identified as the land “whereon the Old
Play House lately stood” (Carter 1962:I, 103; McCartney 1996; York County
Deed Book 5:497; 6 [1777–1791]:94).

A Seat of Government

In November 1769, the House of Burgesses authorized the court justices

of Williamsburg and James City County to build a new brick courthouse
for both jurisdictions’ use. Because the preferred site was on the north side
of the Duke of Gloucester in York County, a small plot of ground was an-
nexed to James City County. Williamsburg was authorized to build a mar-
ket house and to hold an unlimited number of market days. Revolutionary
War cartographers’ maps indicate the market house stood near the Powder
Magazine (Anonymous 1782; Dewitt 1781; Hening 1809–1823:VIII, 420;
Lounsbury 2000:36–37).

Williamsburg and the American Revolution

During the early 1770s, the relationship between Great Britain and her
American colonies gradually deteriorated. When a detachment of royal
sailors and marines slipped into Williamsburg before dawn on April 21,
1775, and seized the gunpowder stored in the city magazine, it became
clear that the British intended to assert their authority. After war broke
out, Virginia officials became increasingly concerned that Williamsburg,
as the capital city, was vulnerable to attack. By that time, a Public Armoury
and a tin shop had opened for business, a facility that employed free and
enslaved workers (Edwards, chapter 7 in this volume). Also present was
Figure 1.7. Detail of Rochambeau map of Williamsburg and environs. Library of Congress,
Geography and Map Division.
24 · Martha W. McCartney

the Commissary’s Store, which supplied the Allied Army. Its workforce in-
cluded James Lafayette, an enslaved man who volunteered to become a spy
and eventually was freed for his service. On June 12, 1779, Richmond was
designated Virginia’s new capital. That transition occurred in April 1780.
When the Chevalier d’Aucteville, a French military officer, visited Wil-
liamsburg in 1781, he declared it, “a handsome American town.” He added:
“It is traversed from East to West also by a broad street and from North
to South by several other transverse streets.” He noted that at each end of
the main street were “two handsome edifices, the College at the West and
the Capitol at the East.” Also present were “the house of the Governor, a
church, a government House and a good many other handsome private
residences built of brick and crowned with domes and peristyles.” He noted
“a great many” other houses “constructed of wood and of planks en recou-
vrement” and “built with taste and propriety,” adding that “some even have
colonades [sic]” (Bonsol 1940:502–503).

Aftermath

The relocation of the capital to Richmond had a profound effect on Wil-

liamsburg, which was no longer at the center of Virginia’s political, social,
and cultural life. The Tidewater region’s population dwindled as westward
expansion took hold, but Williamsburg, as the seat of city and county gov-
ernment, attracted numerous visitors whenever court was in session. In
1835, one man commented that Williamsburg, which then had a popula-
tion of around 1,600, had a college, an asylum, a courthouse and jail, three
churches, sixteen stores, three tanyards, a saddlers’ shop, and four nearby
merchant mills, but that the city’s older public buildings evinced “decaying
grandeur.” Years later, an African American woman, Eliza Baker, born in
1845, recalled the trauma of witnessing slave auctions held on the court-
house green. She also mentioned a whipping post nearby, in the ravine
near the corner of Francis and South Henry Streets (Baker 1933:3, 5; Carson
1961:99).

The Civil War

In 1861, when war broke out between North and South, Confederate mili-
tary leaders acknowledged that the Union military’s presence at Fort Mon-
roe posed a serious threat to Richmond, the Confederacy’s capital city.
They thus decided to fortify the lower peninsula to slow their adversary’s
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