USA > Virginia > Fairfax County > Fairfax County > Colchester Colonial Port on the Potomac > Part 6
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It was the responsibility of the ship's master to have the tobacco loaded on board. At times this might involve only the distance from the landing to the ship, but as tobacco became cultivated in fields inland from tidewater the seamen often had to roll the casks a mile or more to the landing. The hogsheads were about four feet in height, weighed nearly half a ton, and had a diameter of 2} feet at the head. 50
As production increased in the Chesapeake colonies from 20,000,000 pounds at the close of the seventeenth century to 100,000,000 by 1775, the earlier custom of loading hogsheads from individual landings became impractical. To the sailors involved the labor was unpopular. In order to alleviate this situation public warehouses were established at designated points along the creeks and rivers at the uppermost places on navigable water. For this reason the first Occoquan warehouse stood just below the fall line in order to lessen the distance that the tobacco must be transported overland. An additional advantage of processing by means of a warehouse was a better control of the quality of tobacco exported.
The Act of 1730 ordered that the inspector open each hogshead, remove and burn the trash, reprize or compress the remainder and nail the lid back on. The cask was then branded with the name of the warehouse and the net weight. A receipt was given the owner which listed his hogsheads by number and individual mark, recorded the gross
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Figure 10. Tobacco hogshead. Smithsonian Institute.
Figure 11. Tobacco being prepared for shipment. Virginia State Library.
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and net weight, and whether the tobacco was stem or leaf, sweet-scented or Oronoco. These "crop notes" were negotiable. When the tobacco was to be exported the owner gave the note to the ship's captain, who picked up the casks from the public warehouse. 5 After the ship reached Great Britain the consignee had the cargo unloaded, paid the duty, took the hogsheads to the warehouse, sorted the tobacco leaf and sold it, taking 3% of the sale price as his commission. The two shilling duty per hogshead yielded L6000 annually for the colony of Virginia between 1758 and 1762.52
When the new warehouse was set up in Colchester the lots mentioned in the Act provided to unsuitable "from the inconvenience of their situation." The structure was built on lots #7 and 29, therefore, rather than on #6 and 42.53 All these lots were owned by Benjamin Grayson. Materials used including 1,870 feet of scantling, 2, 574 feet of laths and 839 feet of 3/4 inch pine plank at a total cost of ₺20.16.3. Another item was 5,500 twenty-penny nails, 500 ten-penny nails, and some 12,000 nails of assorted sizes. These materials were listed in Henderson's ledger for December 176454
The weights at the warehouse were adjusted in 176855 under the direction of county justices Henderson and McCarty. Henderson was ordered to import a beam for the scale in May 1769 and in March 1771 William Bayly (the proprietor) was ordered to build a brick funnel to burn the trash tobacco. That year in August the court ordered the warehouse enlarged. The inspector asked the proprietor to build a house capable of holding 420 hogsheads, as there was no room in the present building. No dimensions were given. The inspector's salary was raised to 50 pounds in February 1772, and lot #8 was added to the warehouses on which to erect additional buildings. 56
The cost of having one hogshead built was three shillings in 1765, and it could cost 16 shillings or more to transport a wagonload to Colchester. Charges for inspection of seven hogsheads, in one case, were 10/6.57 Both inspectors had to be present at the warehouse, for William Bayly almost lost his position when he was sued for having con- ducted the inspection alone. 58
Because the Fairfax Court Order Books are missing for the years 1774 to 1783 there are few details concerning the tobacco market during this time. George Mason remarked in 1775 on the scarcity of tobacco plants, saying that the shortage was more severe than in the season of 1758. In April 1777 he wrote that there was smallpox at almost every tobacco warehouse, and that the price was but 25 shillings a cask. Mason also remarked that Captain Riggs ship was loading two or three hundred barrels of flour from Colchester. 59 John Regan and Edward Washington, Jr., were inspectors. 60
William Bayly tried to sell the warehouse lots in 1777, advertising them in the Virginia Gazette in December. His daughter Ann inherited them and was the proprietor in August, 1783 when the county court ordered that repairs be made. 6 The first inspectors appointed in 1782, when records were begun by the state of Virginia, were Edward Washington and Robert Boggess. Their assistant was William Donaldson. 62
The inspectors were required to submit an annual accounting to the Treasurer of Virginia showing the expense of each warehouse, the number of hogsheads processed, and the amount of the tax. These records of the Auditors' Office are at the Virginia State Library, filed under the name of the individual warehouse. A few samples of the Colchester accounts indicate that from May 1781 to May 1783 the Treasurer re- ceived L282 in revenue. The tax was five shillings per hogshead. Between May and
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October 1783 volume increased and rose for 1784-1785 to a total of $34. 12.18.63 In order to provide for the immediate functioning of the new government after the war, enabling legislation had been passed in November 1781 stating that money, tobacco and other commodities such as flour and hemp could be borrowed. 64 An agent was appointed in September 1782 to dispose of government stores of tobacco. He was instructed to ask no less than 16/8 per hundredweight for that stored on the Potomac at Colchester, Alexandria and Dumfries. By November the minimum price had risen to 20 shillings for Potomac tobacco. The Treasurer was to deliver nearly 145,000 pounds of that commodity kept there and on the Rappahannock River to the credit of Simon Nathan, a Philadelphia merchant. At the end of the year the Agent of Commutables was to pay the United States $25,000 in tobacco from Virginia ware- houses. 65 One such payment, made in 1787, shows that Colchester warehouse paid L251 .8.0 "To Raise a supply of Money for the United States in Congress Assembled." There were in 1780,73 public warehouses in Virginia, of which 15 were on the Potomac and Wicomico Rivers. From these two rivers 9, 500 hogsheads were shipped that year, yet they stood third in production: the Rappahannock River warehouses exported 15,000 and the James River and its branches 25,000 hogsheads. Virginia tobacco that year totalled 57,000 hogsheads, slightly more than a 1766 estimate of 50,00066 exported from Virginia and 30,000 from Maryland. 67
The lesser production from the Potomac reflected the shift in that area from tobacco to wheat. As this trend increased and less tobacco passed through the ware- houses, the time arrived when revenues were barely enough to meet the salaries of the inspectors. In Alexandria, for instance, two of the warehouses were surplus in 1793 and rented out until December 1795. They were then discontinued, although legis- lation was passed in 1799 to revive inspection for the town. At that time Fairfax County and Alexandria were to share one inspection station; the location was not given. Warehouses in Falmouth and Dumfries were discontinued in 1793. The tobacco remaining at Dumfries was to be sent to Quantico warehouse, probably located closer to the Potomac in an effort to overcome the silting of Quantico Creek. 68 Records in the Virginia Archives indicate that the warehouse at Aquia was in use until 1809 and that Quantico continued until 1811.69
As early as 1788 George Mason had complained of the inferior yield:
The crop of tobacco this year in Virginia is a common one, neither very great or small - the Quality bad, and I think the price in our Country will be rather low; not more than eighteen or twenty shillings Virginia Currency per hundred on Potomac. 70
Five years later one of the inspectors at Colchester stated that only 274 hogsheads had been received in the preceding year, that the Alexandria warehouse contained 148 hogs- heads although its capacity was 2, 500. At Colchester the gates were down and some of the fence posts were missing. 71
Judging by the absence of inspectors' bonds in the Fairfax County Deedbooks, and by the lack of accounts in the Auditor's records in Richmond, it may be concluded that the tobacco warehouse in Colchester was discontinued after 1805.72
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1
Flour Inspection
Flour was also one of the commodities which was requisitioned by the State of Virginia in 1781 to obtain cash for the use of the Federal government. Inspectors were appointed in both Alexandria and Fredericksburg, but "for the convenience of millers and shippers who live inconvenient to public inspection" the towns of Dumfries and Colchester were also assigned inspectors. Barrels were required to have 12 hoops and to contain 196-204 pounds. In order to earn his 2¢ fee on each barrel the inspector examined it, marked the name of the miller, the place where it was inspected and the quality of the flour on the exterior. 73
These directions differed only slightly from the ones in force since 1762. The earlier law paid the inspector a penny more and required him to have a stamp made which gave the first letter of his county name, a V for Virginia, the first letter of his own Christian name and his whole surname. Additional information on the barrel included its weight and whether the flour was of first or second fineness. A warning against mixing meal, Indian corn or peas in with the flour was part of the law. 74
The cultivation of wheat was brought into the Valley of Virginia by settlers from Pennsylvania and spread into Loudoun and Fauquier Counties by 1760.75 Two years later Benjamin Grayson of Colchester and John Ballendine of Occoquan became partners in a bakery and wheat-manufacturing76 operation located near the falls. Henderson's ledgers mention large quantities of bread purchased by the ships in port at Colchester. In August 1764 the Jeanie loaded 1,495 loaves, for which her captain paid E11.4.4. The bread was sometimes packed in linen bags to be carried to the ships. In 1765 the Jeanie bought 867 ship's bread in March, the Ann got 850 in August, and in October 1,002 more at 12/6 were loaded on board the Jeanie.78
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Henderson kept a "Wheat Account" between October, 1767 and April 1768; during this time he handled 2382 bushels. Most of this went to John Semple, who ran the mills at Occoquan. 79 Many of Henderson's customers had the notation "wagoner" after their names.
Although the wagon traffic generated by the wheat trade was an important part of Colchester's economy, the milling and bakery operations took place upstream and are not a direct part of the story of the town itself.
The Vineyard
Across from the market place, lots #18 and 26 were the location of the vineyard planted by Morris (Maurice) Pound, a native of Germany. He began his venture about 1756. Two dry summers impeded the growth of his grapes. Concluding that he could only succeed in his enterprise by obtaining enough capital to make the required im- provements on his lots, Pound went to George Mason for advice.
He had already built a structure conforming to the minimum 20 foot square size on one of his lots; now he needed backing to build a winepress and get needed equip- ment. Failure to make the necessary construction on the other lot would result in the loss of his title to the property. Morris Pound told Mason that he proposed mortgaging the land to a group who would supply the needed capital. Mason, knowing that this
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was an "honest, industrious man" who had put a great deal of work into his vineyard, and believing that he could succeed, enlisted the aid of the Graysons, George Washington, Daniel French, Reverend Green and George William Fairfax. These gentlemen subscribed L118 and a loan agreement was drawn up. 80
Grayson and Green held the mortgage. 81 Lot #18 was deeded to Grayson in 1762 by the trustees of Colchester, which would indicate that the enterprise did not succeed. 82 When Graysons's assets were taken over by creditors in 1765 #18 was again for sale. 83 As Pound and his heirs later paid taxes on both lots from 1782 to 1799 they must have regained control, although no deed is indexed under Pound's name.
There remains of his dream only the name of the street which fronted Pound's property (Wine Street); like other efforts in Virginia to develop vineyards this attempt failed. In 1760 an Act was passed to encourage arts and manufactures in the colony, which offered a premium of L500 for the best wine produced. The yield had to be at least ten hogsheads. 84 Subscriptions were collected to make up this amount and William Ellzey, a Colchester trustee, contributed £2 but the soil and climate of Virginia was not conducive for cultivating vineyards.
The Taverns
Nor on the Sabbath day suffer any person to tipple or drink more than is necessary.
Hening, Statutes, VI, 74
The sale of various liquors, and other matters pertaining to "good, wholesome and cleanly lodging and diet," were closely regulated. Prices were set by the county court twice a year for rum, claret, red and white wine, English strong beer or porter, Virginia beer and cider. In 1763 a "hot diet with small beer or cider" cost one shilling, threepence. For a cold meal, one shilling would suffice. 85 Rates were to be posted in a public room and "be placed not more than six feet above the floor, "86 an indication that the price list was often posted in a remote spot.
The keeper of an ordinary was licensed and bonded annually. He could not sell to sailors on credit, though "all soldiers on his majesties service paying ready money for liquor shall have one fifth part deducted. "8" Illegal gambling was frowned upon: cards, dice or billiards were not to be used in the tavern, its outbuildings, or under the bushes. 88 Should the innkeeper fail to furnish the court with the names of violators, his license could be revoked.
Overcharging was punished by a fine. If there were no clean sheets on the bed, the six shillings for lodging could not be collected. As if these rules were not enough, the court often appointed an inspector of ordinaries to guard further against misde- meanors. Were one to judge by the number of violations - 25 men presented at one session of the county court for selling liquor without a license - it would seem that the inspector must have been a busy man. 89
The term "ordinary" referred to an eating house where meals were served to all customers at a fixed price. Nicholas Cresswell, an English traveler, explained their function:
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.
Breakfasted at ... a Public House, but in this Country called Ordinaries, and indeed they have not their name for nothing, for they are ordinary enough. Have had either Bacon or Chickens every meals since I came into the Country. If I continue in this way shall be grown over with Bristles or Feathers. 90
The first mention of a license granted for a tavern in the town of Colchester was that obtained by Charles Tyler in January 1757. Court order books of the early years of Fairfax County are incomplete, however, and it is probable that there had been an ordinary at the landing long before Tyler arrived. At ports and ferries where travelers often had to wait for good weather or for cargo to be landed there was usually more than one ordinary. George Mason's ferry was frequently delayed by bad weather, so that at one time or another most of the inhabitants applied for licenses. Without a license, no charge could be made for food. Virginians could not afford free hospitality toward strangers who might be forced to stay for several days.
Charles Tyler operated the Colchester Tavern, owned by Peter Wagener and probably located on lot #1/36. Subsequent advertisements referred to it as the tavern "at the waterside."9 Tyler bought provisions from Henderson's store, using large quantities of barley, corn, flour and rum. Luxuries such as nuts were purchased by the half-ounce, flour by the hundredweight.92 Ducks, geese, turkeys, venison and partridge implemented the diet of chicken and pork.
In October 1759 Alexander Henderson's ledgers show that four chairs, a Dutch oven, and a box iron with heaters were obtained for the tavern. Tyler also needed a teapot, a blue and white mug, six flat pewter plates, a quart bowl and a supply of wine glasses, tumblers, and a gross of corks. These were a heavily used commodity: Tyler bought half a gross on October 11, 1760, another half gross on November 11th, a gross on the 20th and another half a month later. As rum was imported in 119-gallon hogsheads and decanted into smaller containers, vast quantities of corks were needed. 93
The Colchester Tavern did not enjoy a lengthy monopoly. William Bayly was licensed to operate an ordinary in his house in 1758, Elizabeth Fallon in 1759, and William Linton in 1761. The most prominent seems to have been Wagener's, however, advertised in 1762 as that "commodious and well accustomed tavern, with convenient, out houses, situate at the ferry landing at the town of Colchester;, on the Post Road between Alexandria and Fredericksburg. "94
After Charles Tyler's death about 1768 the tavern was operated by William Courts, who had moved across the Potomac from Charles County the previous year to operate the ferry running between Hallowing Point on Mason Neck and the Maryland shore. Courts obtained a tavern license in October 1769 and renewed it in 1770 and 1773. "Dined at Courts in Colchester," wrote George Washington in 1771, "and went to Dumfries afterwards and to the play of the Recruiting Officer. 195
In 1775 Charles Tyler (perhaps a son of the previous tavernkeeper) stated his intention to taking over the management:
Acquia. - I intend to move on September 25 from where I now live to Colchester. I propose to open tavern in the house formerly kept by Mr. Courts, known by the name of the Stonehouse. Many additions have been added to this house of late, which now makes it very convenient for travellers ... 96
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and Quan 8 mill
Jindy Plus
hand to the DOC. A.f.
Long Branch
Colchester
A
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Realice
Occoquan
Pohich Creat
Doug Ck
High Point
Figure 12. Excerpt from George Washington's sketch of roads and country between Little Hunting Creek and Colchester c. 1768. Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union Annual Report, 1964. Mount Vernon, Virginia.
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Files" Run
andrea
If Courts did, as this notice implies, depart from the Stonehouse, he was back in business in 1784 when J.F. D. Smyth visited the town. "If the accommodations were good at Dumfries," Smyth complained, "they were proportionately bad at Colchester at a house kept by one Coates, whom we found to be equally disagreeable with the entertainment we had met with. "97
Tavernkeepers, like their modern counterparts, moved from one hostelry to another as the opportunity offered. In 1792 William Ward, who ran the tavern at Princess and Union Street in Alexandria, advertised in the Dumfries newspaper that he
begs leave to inform his old friends and the public in general, that he has re- moved from Alexandria to Colchester, where he has opened tavern in that commodious House on the waterside for many years occupied as an INN. And being supplied with wines and liquor of the first qualities, and every other necessary article for the accommodation of travellers, he solicits a continuance of those favors with which he was honoured before his removal. 98
"The Stone House" was mentioned in the will of Peter Wagener and was bequeathed to his son Peter in 1798. When offered for rent by the executors of the estate, the tavern was described as "that noted stand, the Stone Ordinary. "99 No further reference to this establishment appeared in the Alexandria paper (up through 1816) and it is not known how long this tavern continued to function.
Another Colchester inn was in operation in 1761, kept by William Linton. He rented lot #23 from Benjamin Grayson. Together with two acres adjacent to the town purchased from Travers Waugh, Linton's holdings were known as "Linton's Inclosure" and may have included the structure known today as the Fairfax Arms. The complex of Grayson's three lots (#19, 21, 23) was advertised in 1767 as containing "a dwelling house suitable for an ordinary . "100
Linton bought iron candlesticks and sugar from Henderson's store in July 1761 but the bulk of his purchases probably came from Grayson, his landlord. Linton's tavern was the meeting place of a club. Henderson recorded on one occasion the expenditure of two shillings, sixpence for two bowls of toddy. Perhaps this was the tavern described in a letter which appeared in a Philadelphia paper about that time after a visit to Colchester:
I dined at the Essex House, a commodious tavern or ordinary near the ferry, built partly of stone and partly of wood, with great outside chimneys of stone having capacious fireplaces. The dinner was of smoking venison and fish taken from wood and water that morning, and supplemented with tempting cakes of maize and a pitcher of excellent cider. The rate was one shilling and sixpence which I did not demur at for so good a repast. 101
Linton apparently was still in business in 1769, for on May 15th he was brought into court for selling liquor without having license.
The property, after owner Benjamin Grayson became an insolvent debtor, passed into the hands of his creditors. It was bought in 1772 by the merchant Hector Ross and
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sold again the following year to Alexander Henderson. These Lots (#19,21,23) occupied by Henderson had "a good dwelling, storehouse, and all convenient stores" 102 and were held by him for six years. He also owned the adjacent lots #25 and 39, as well as a strip running behind the five parcels. With these holdings Henderson con- trolled the northwest corner of the intersection of the Ox Road (Route #611) and Essex Street (Route #825, or Colchester Road).
Between 1779 and 1811 Captain William Thompson and his wife owned the group of lots. His advertisement in the Virginia Journal & Alexandria Advertiser on July 15, 1784, described the buildings in this fashion:
A large and convenient dwelling with excellent cellar, four rooms on a floor with a fireplace to each, and three rooms above. Good kitchen with oven adjacent to the fireplace, a room at one end with a planked floor, lathed and plastered, glass windows, was intended for a housekeeper or white servant; stable for eight horses and a meathouse, garden, and about one acre adjacent in grass, well inclosed. Also a convenient storehouse and counting room, with good cellar. Cash, tobacco, or bills of exchange taken in payment .
Again, these lines fit the physical appearance of the surviving structure owned by the Duncan family. There was no sale in 1784.
Through a circumstance unfortunate for William Thompson but a boon to present historians, many of the furnishings were mortgaged in order to meet security on a bond in 1799. 103 The deed to Lawrence Washington of Belmont, who was Mrs. Thompson's uncle, includes a comprehensive list of the contents of a tavern of this period and of the livestock in its outbuildings:
13 beds
4 brass candlesticks
11 bedsteads
4 finv candlesticks
25 blankets
1 spinning wheels and 2 pairs cards
3 suits of curtains
1 desk
23 pair sheets
1 chest of drawers
8 bedquilts
9
tables
9 callico counterpains
5 looking glasses
7 homespun counterpains
24 setting chairs
18 pillow cases
3 carpets
1 mattrass
6 trunks
6 pewter basons
1 spyglass
1 pewter bedpan
3 earthen pans
26 towels
25 stone potts
19 tablecloths
12 stone juggs
12 silver tablespoons
3 pairs tongs and shovels
26 silver teaspoons
3 pairs handirons
18 knives and forks
6 tin cannisters
8 dozen plates
1 tin kettle
3 tureens
6 japan'd waiters
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2 dozen dishes
9
potts
12 bowls
6 pair potthooks
8 muggs
3 flesh forks
4 tinn panns
1 ladle and skimmer
8 tinn plates
3 iron spoons
3 dozen tea cups and saucers
2 tea kettles
9 coffee cups
1 griddle and gridiron
2 tea pots
3 frying pans
4 coffee pots
1 shovel and 2 pairs tongs
4 sauce boats
1 brass skillet and brass mortar
9 salts-rimm and castors
1 pair wareful irons
8 decanters
6 flatt irons
12 tumblers
6 racks and hangers
18 wine glasses
2 iron basons and cullenders
1 riding chair
1 egg slice
1 horse
1 fish kettle and 2 ovens
3 cows and 2 yearlings
1 small rowboat
After Thompson died, Zachariah Ward operated the tavern in 1800. When it was offered for rent, the advertisement praised the structure as "an eligible stand for a tavern, and ... remarkable for its beauty and healthful situation." 104 In 1802 Mrs. Thompson referred to "that well known property in the town of Colchester occupied for many years as a tavern and now in possesion of Dr. Blake."105 When Thompson's estate was settled in 1811 lot #21 and 23 were sold to Peter Wagener (grandson of the founder of the town) and remained in that family until 1833.
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