USA > Virginia > Manors of Virginia in colonial times > Part 6
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RANDOLPH
SIR JOHN RANDOLPH
LADY RANDOLPH
From the paintings by E. C. Bruce at William and Mary College
TUCKAHOE
scarlet poppies ; pink sweet-william and shrinking lavender; inquisitive heart's-ease or stiff wall- flowers; gorgeous hollyhocks and columbines; larkspur, phlox, and meadowsweet. The effect is that of a huge bouquet, with green box divid- ing bright color from color. There is a subtle charm in the box-lined walks, with which it is easy to associate demure little ladies in mitts and kerchiefs keeping tryst with stately gallants in knee-breeches and powdered wigs. The Tucka- hoe garden is primly formal, and possesses the grace of gentle breeding and an aged cultivation. Wandering in and out among the blossoms, pity- ing those who must have been loath to leave their beauty years ago, and marvelling at their loyal return as season follows season and century climbs over century, we remember that some one gave words to the beautiful thought: " What a desolate place would be a world without flowers! It would be a face without a smile; a feast without a welcome. Are not flowers the stars of the earth, and are not our stars the flowers of heaven? "
The old school-house that still stands at Tucka- hoe was, so tradition claims, Thomas Jefferson's alma mater, he having received his early educa- tion from the master of the young Randolphs of
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that time. Whether this be true or not, there may yet be seen on one of the plastered walls, about three feet above the floor, the name of that master statesman written in a scrawling, boyish hand. The roof of the little frame building is now mossy with age, and the tree that might have been but a sapling when it was first built now towers protectingly above it, while the thicket in the rear of the historic walls has sprung up since the day of its distinguished pupils.
Tuckahoe, in common with most of the old landed estates, has its private burial-ground, wherein were laid to rest the lords of the manor and their families for generations. The three- foot wall surrounding the graveyard is of white- washed brick ornamented with stone; it was restored in 1892 by the descendants of the family, through the efforts of Miss Frances Dickens, a granddaughter of Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr. On the marble tablet set in the north side is in- scribed :
" Randolphs of Tuckahoe 1698-1830 Fari Quæ Admirari Church of England."
The large tablet on the east wall bears the fol- lowing family record:
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TUCKAHOE
" Thomas Randolph B. at Turkey Island 1683 Judith Churchill Middlesex County William Randolph B. at Tuckahoe 1712 D. 1745 Mary Page of Rosewell Gloucester County Thomas Mann Randolph B. at Tuckahoe 1741 D. 1793
Ann Carey and Gabriella Harvie Thomas Mann Randolph Jr. B. 1792 D. 1848 Harriet Wilson and Lucy Patterson 1st. Cor. 13th Chapt. 96th Psalm 12th Verse."
On the mural tablet of the west side is the inscription :
" Harriet Vaughan Wilson · Wife of Captain Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr. By their daughter Mrs. Margaret Harvie Dickens."
On the death of Thomas Randolph, the estate was inherited by his son William, second of the name and line, who married Maria Judith, daughter of Mann Page of Rosewell, and it was their son, born in 1741 and called Thomas, of Tuckahoe, who brought the plantation into its greatest prominence.
Thomas Mann Randolph of Tuckahoe married first Ann, daughter of Colonel Archibald Carey
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of Ampthill, and of their thirteen children Thomas Mann Randolph 2nd and Mary were the most distinguished; the former being Governor of Virginia in 1819 and the son-in-law of Thomas Jefferson, whose daughter, Martha Wayles, he married, and the latter, who married William Keith, being the grandmother of Chief-Justice Marshall.
After his first wife died, Thomas Mann Ran- dolph married Gabriella Harvie, whose father owned the estate adjoining his Albemarle County plantation. Being very young when she married, and never outliving her early love-affair with an employee of her father's, by the name of Mar- shall, whom she wished to marry, Mrs. Randolph entered into a whirl of gayeties at Tuckahoe, the stories of which have added no little to the fame and prestige of the mansion.
On the death of Thomas Mann Randolph, in 1793, Tuckahoe was inherited by his son by his second marriage, Thomas Mann Randolph 2nd, so called in contradistinction to his half-brother of the same name who resided at Edge Hill in Albemarle County. Born at Tuckahoe in 1792, Thomas Mann Randolph 2nd married first Har- riet Wilson and secondly Lucy Patterson, and was the last of the name to own the old home-
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TUCKAHOE
stead, which was bought in 1830 by Hezekiah and Edwin Wight.
Passing through various other hands, it was sold in 1850 to Joseph Allen, remaining in the possession of that family until 1898, when it went by purchase to Mr. J. Randolph Coolidge of Boston, who brought the historic estate back into the original line of owners, his mother having been Ellen Wayles Randolph, daughter of Thomas Mann Randolph of Edge Hill. Mr. Coolidge, being a grandson of Martha Jeffer- son, is the oldest living male descendant of Thomas Jefferson, while his five sons, who own the property with him, are the great-great-great- great-great-grandsons of William Randolph, the Immigrant.
Day-dreams and reveries must always be a part of the life at Tuckahoe, for it was near here that Nathaniel Bacon lived, and fancy pictures easily the haughty Cavalier rebel who dared to solve the same problem just one century before the Revo- lution. Sighs are born of knowledge of the out- come, and the most hardened heart flutters in sympathy for the early patriot, whose homestead and rolling acres were confiscated by the Crown, the 1230 acres being bought by William Ran- dolph, in 1698, for the paltry sum of 150 pounds of tobacco.
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It is over such historic ground that the twen- tieth century visitor to Tuckahoe looks, from its commanding situation on the high bank of the James, that beautiful plantation belt, instinct with the social prestige and historic romance of an era unfortunately irrecoverable. And it is with a sense of deep gratitude that one appreci- ates the domestic associations which cluster about the rare estate like a garland of fragrant flowers, and which lured back to the early homestead a patriotic son.
SHIRLEY
HAT the old home- steads of James River stand preeminent among the magnifi- cent estates of Col- onial times is a fact undisputed both in America and abroad, for the early planters of this section of Virginia left their records to live immortally under hal- lowed associations of historic legend and tradi- tional romance.
Just four short years after the settlement of Jamestown, in 1611, Sir Thomas Dale, then Governor of the Virginia Colony, laid out and gave title to the plantation of Shirley, supposed to have been named for Sir Thomas Shirley, of Whiston, England.
In 1622, the year of the fearful Indian massacre, Shirley is spoken of as one of the best fortified places on the James, and here many of the survivors took refuge in the old block-house still to be seen. Some years after that, the lands
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came into the possession of the Honorable, often called "Sir " Edward Hill, a member of His Majesty's Council and Speaker of the House of Burgesses in 1654. Colonel Hill also held the offices of Treasurer of Virginia, Judge of the Admiralty Court, and Commander-in-Chief of Surry and Charles City Counties.
On the death of Colonel Hill, in 1700, the estate of Shirley, which had become prominent as his country-seat, was inherited by his son, Edward Hill, who, dying without heirs, left it to his sister Elizabeth, a noted wit and beauty, who married John Carter of Corotoman, in 1723, since when it has remained in the possession of the Carter family.
John Carter, known always as the Secretary, having been appointed to that high office in 1722, was the eldest son of King Carter of Corotoman, whose father, John, the first of the name in Virginia, came from England about 1649 and is said to have married five times, which well ac- counts for the great number of Carters in the country to-day.
The handsome portrait of Secretary Carter, painted by Sir Godfrey Kneller, which still hangs on the drawing-room wall at Shirley, shows the high-bred features of a man in early life. His
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CUROTOMLA
CARTER
"KING" CARTER
JOHN CARTER
From the paintings by Sir Godfrey Kneller
SHIRLEY
velvet coat is set off by silver braid and buttons, and the silver-trimmed Continental hat is held easily in his right hand, leaving his flowing white wig uncovered.
That of Elizabeth Hill, which hangs near him, represents a young girl with large, soft eyes and fair hair. A mantle is thrown carelessly about her shoulders, and in her plump arms she carries a cluster of roses and jessamine and other old- fashioned flowers.
After the death of Secretary Carter, in 1742, his widow married Bowler Cocke, who held Shirley until he died in 1771, when the estate re- verted to Charles Carter, the eldest son of the Secretary, who was the first of the name to live there.
Charles Carter, born in 1732, received his edu- cation at William and Mary College. He was in the House of Burgesses in 1758, and filled other important positions. He married first Mary W. Carter, his cousin, the daughter of Charles Carter of Cleve, his second wife being Ann Butler, daughter of Bernard Moore of Chelsea, King William County, and grand- daughter of Governor Spotswood. Anne, the daughter of Ann Butler and Charles Carter, married General Henry Lee of Stratford,
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" Light Horse Harry," of Revolutionary fame, and was the mother of Robert E. Lee.
Though the first house at Shirley was built by Colonel Edward Hill in 1650, it was his grand- son, Charles Carter, who made extensive altera- tions after his second marriage in 1770. The roof he had changed from the quaint hipped style to a mansard relieved by dormer windows, thus giving it somewhat the appearance of a French château. He also added the porticos on both fronts of the mansion, and to him are accredited the beautiful cornices and panelling seen throughout the interior.
The large square structure, the bricks of which are laid in Flemish bond, stands on a high bluff about two hundred yards from the river, towards which the thickly turfed lawn slopes gently. It is set in the midst of forest trees, the grounds being lavishly adorned with here a gnarled and ivied yew and there an old elm or linden, while close to the water a superb clump of oaks shields the grand old homestead from the eager curiosity and prying eyes of those who pass up and down the river.
The garden on the south side of the house, which is entered through a curious gateway, was laid off by Mary Carter in early 1800. Broad
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SHIRLEY Built by Colonel Edward Hill in 1650
SHIRLEY
box-edged walks extend at right angles through the garden, where many rare plants and shrubs grow among the simpler flowers. Not only the garden but the entire rear lawn is enclosed with a wonderful box hedge, one of Shirley's most notable landscape features. And beyond, in a grove of tulip poplars, is the ancient graveyard wherein lie buried the many generations of Hills and Carters, the oldest tomb being that of Colonel Edward Hill, which was placed there in 1700.
From the land side, the approach to the estate is through woodland, picturesque in the gentle greens of early April or the more fantastic color- ing of the autumnal months.
One of the chief features of the mansion on the interior is the richly carved mantel in the draw- ing-room, which shows the emblematic pineapple design. The doorway between drawing-room and dining-room has a heavily moulded casement surmounted by an exquisitely carved pediment, in which the pineapple is again seen. Upon the walls are rich old portraits, and the first to attract the eye is the likeness of John Carter, which is placed near that of Elizabeth Hill. The gentle, kindly face of Charles Carter looks from the can- vas half reprovingly at his saucy-faced sister
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COLONIAL MANORS of VIRGINIA
"Betty," who as Elizabeth Byrd met such a shocking fate. In another part of the room the light falls upon the features of the beautiful Welsh lady, Miss Williams, who came to Amer- ica as the bride of Colonel Edward Hill. It falls again upon the dimmed face of Colonel Hill him- self, the builder of the mansion, which hangs near that of Spotswood's granddaughter, Ann Butler Moore, wife of Charles Carter of Shirley.
The three notable St. Memins are of William and Robert Carter, the sons of Charles, and Mary Nelson, the wife of Robert, who first planted the old garden.
The square hall is one of unusual size, with heavy panels. The quaint desk that sits beneath the famous stairway is the one upon which Charles Carter wrote many important despatches and the letters which are preserved to-day. In this hall hangs a portrait of renowned King Car- ter, as he appeared in middle life, the other being of Judith Armistead, his first wife.
In the dining-room the crested silver of the first Carter is still used and carefully watched over, showing to advantage against the antique mahogany furniture. The principal portrait in the dining-room is that of George Washington, by Charles Wilson Peale, which represents the
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THE DRAWING-ROOM AT SHIRLEY
THE HALL AT SHIRLEY
SHIRLEY
life-sized figure of the gallant General in all his brave toggery.
Two other celebrated portraits among the col- lection at Shirley are of Peter Randolph and his wife, Lucy Bolling, whose mother, Jane, was the daughter of Thomas Rolfe, the son of Poca- hontas.
In the midst of a busy public life Charles Carter found time to do much charity, generosity to the poorer classes being one of his most promi- nent characteristics. That he was an excellent man of business is proven in the fact that when he died, in 1806, he left 35,000 acres of land as well as £12,000 sterling. He was an ardent devotee of agriculture, and did much towards the furtherance of that pursuit. Some one has written of him: " His long life was spent in the tranquillity of domestic enjoyments. From the mansion of hospitality his immense wealth flowed like silent streams, enlivening and refreshing every object around. In fulfilling the duties of his station, he proved himself to be an Israelite indeed-in whom there was no guile."
Nor could a better insight into his true char- acter be given than to quote the following letter, written by Mr. Carter to his old pastor in Lan- caster County, the Reverend Mr. Currie:
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" SHIRLEY, May 12, 1790.
" MY DEAR FRIEND :- Your letters, the one by Mrs. Carter, and the other enclosing your amiable daughter's to that good lady, are both come safe to hand, and you may rest assured that nothing could give my family a greater pleasure than to hear and know from yourself-that is to say, to have it under your own signature-that you still enjoy a tolerable share of health; and your friend, Mrs. Ann Butler, begs leave to join with me in congratulating both you and Mrs. Currie upon being blessed, not only with dutiful, healthy, and robust children, but clever and sensible. We rejoice to hear it, and pray God they may prosper and become useful members of society.
" As you are of Caledonian race, you may yet out- live a Buckskin; should it so happen, my will has directed five hundred acres of my land at Nantypyron to be laid off for the use of Mrs. Currie for and during her natural life. In the meantime, no power that I know of can deprive you of your right to the glebe. Our best wishes attend you and yours, and believe me when I subscribe myself, dear sir,
" Your affectionate friend and servant, " CHARLES CARTER."
Of the twenty-three children of Charles Car- ter, Dr. Robert Carter, who married Mary, daughter of General Thomas Nelson of York- town, fell heir to Shirley. From him the estate
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SHIRLEY
was inherited by his eldest son, Hill Carter, an officer in the United States Navy in 1812, who married Mary Braxton, daughter of Colonel Robert Randolph. Shirley next fell to his son, Robert Randolph Carter, U. S. A., who married Louise Humphreys, and their daughter, Mrs. Alice Carter Bransford, the present owner, is sixth in a direct line from Charles Carter of Shirley.
This estate suffered less from the wars than most of the old homesteads, and has since been kept in perfect repair, only needful restorations having been made, in accordance with the first owner's design.
The old dove-cote in one of the meadows shel- ters a large family of pigeons, many generations removed from the ancestors first taught to build there for the pleasure of a youthful Carter in the good old days.
Everywhere in this historic region are met places and people closely identified with the inci- dents and events marking our very dramatic be- ginning as a world-power, and no estate holds a greater store of history and romance than proud old Shirley, living to-day to tell the tale of what life used to be.
WESTOVER
HASTELLUX, who, during his travels in the eighteenth cen- tury, was particularly impressed with that section of Virginia lying along the lower James, wrote: "We travelled six and twenty miles by a very agree- able road with magnificent houses in view at every instant, for the banks of James River form the garden of Virginia." And doubtless the most impressive among these mansions and estates which so attracted the Frenchman was Westover.
In the year 1638 Captain Thomas Paulett, a kinsman of Sir William Berkeley, patented 2000 acres, which he called " Westopher," supposedly in honor of the West brothers, the Lords Dela- ware, who were the first settlers of this particular locality. On his death the lands went to his brother in England, Sir John Paulett, who in 1665 sold part to Otho Soutcoat and the rest to
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WESTOVER
Theodorick Bland. Bland, whose tomb may yet be seen in the plantation graveyard, left the estate to his sons, Theodorick and Richard, from whom it was conveyed to William Bird in 1688, for £300 sterling and 10,000 pounds of tobacco, and it was under the Byrd regime that its fame was established.
William Bird's descent is traced from the family of that name of Brexton, or Broxton, England, who, according to Holme's " Heraldic Collections for Cheshire," were heard of in Charl- ton in the twelfth century, Hugo Le Bird being the first known ancestor.
John Bird, of London, father of the Immi- grant, married Grace Stegg, daughter of Cap- tain Thomas Stegg. In the will of Thomas Stegg, brother of Mrs. Bird, dated March 31, 1670, his nephew, William Bird, is left his Amer- ican estate, which lay on both sides of the James River.
William Bird, born in London in 1653, came to Virginia in 1674, where he at once assumed a prominent position in the Colony, and he it seems to have been who changed the orthography of the family name to Byrd. When barely twenty years old he married Mary, the daughter of Colonel Warham Horsemanden of Ulcombe, a
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COLONIAL MANORS of VIRGINIA
Kentish Cavalier descended in a direct line from Edward III. of England.
To his hereditary possessions Colonel William Byrd continued to add until his total holdings were 26,231 acres, making him one of the largest land-owners in the country. He also built the first Westover dwelling, about 1690, but it re- mained for his son, the renowned Colonel William Byrd, to develop the unlimited possibili- ties of the broad acres.
William Byrd 2nd was born in 1674, and married in 1706 Lucy Parke, daughter of Colonel Daniel Parke, aide-de-camp to the Duke of Marlborough and a close friend of Queen Anne. From this union there were two chil- dren, the beautiful Evelyn, who died unmarried, and Wilhelmina, who married Thomas Chamber- layne of Virginia.
After the death of his first wife, in 1716, he spent some time in England, but, marrying Maria Taylor, an English heiress, in 1724, he returned to Virginia in 1726, when his son, William, 3rd, was born, and at once began the erection of the manor-house which is seen to-day, notwithstand- ing the fires and strifes of the bitter wars that have passed over and about it.
The most superb river location was chosen for the site of the brick mansion, modelled in many
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THE RIVER FRONT OF WESTOVER The most famous country-seat in America
WESTOVER
respects after Drayton Court, in Northampton- shire, England, then the home of the Earl of Peterborough and now the property of Stock- ville Sackville, M. P., a cousin of Lord Sackville- West. This residence, which crowns the summit of the bluff rising steeply from the river, is generally believed to have been built in 1737, but this seems unlikely for two reasons, the first being that Colonel Byrd, owing to pecuniary embarrassments, at that time thought of selling the estate. Secondly, as it is known that he had a chart of the grounds made in 1735, showing them to be completed, it is hardly credible that the mansion should have been erected at a later date.
The generous proportions of the manor-house leave the impression of a substantial appearance combining the effects of comfort and age. The three-story central building, with its high, sloping roof, is flanked on either side with smaller wings showing gambrel roofs, the east of which, having been razed by troops during the Civil War, has only lately been rebuilt. The entire house is underrun by spacious cellars, beneath one of which is a hidden room. Tradition tells many weird and curious tales of these eight-foot square rooms placed at a depth of fifteen feet, which are supposed to have connected with the subterranean
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passage that led to the river in by-gone years. Two other underground rooms, which also served as hiding-places from the Indians, are reached through a dry well. Curiously enough, one of these rooms connects directly with a chamber in the third story, where Mary Willing, second wife of the third William Byrd, was locked while the Continental soldiers ransacked her private papers, suspecting her of treason during the Revolution. Being a cousin of Benedict Arnold through his marriage to Peggy Shippen, Mrs. Byrd was accused of trying to aid him in his James River campaign.
Running the full depth of the house is the great eighteen-foot hall, from the rear of which ascends the graceful stairway, with its twisted balustrades of solid mahogany brought from England. The walls and ceilings of many of the rooms show the same decorations which adorned them two centuries ago.
In the drawing-room the panelling is a little more ornate, and here is placed the famous black marble mantel, the mirror of which is framed in exquisitely wrought white Italian marble, the pediment and other ornamentation being of the same. For this one decoration, which Colonel Byrd brought over from Europe, £500 was paid, a sum equivalent to $2500.
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THE HALL AT WESTOVER
WESTOVER
One of the greatest prides of Colonel Byrd's life was the library, harboring as it did four thousand volumes collected by him, but which unfortunately were sold after the death of his son. One can easily fancy the first gentleman of Virginia sitting there writing to a friend in England: "A library, a garden, a grove, and a purling stream are the innocent pleasures that direct our leisure."
In the beautiful old home there is a wealth of rare furniture brought from England and the Continent, some of which was at Westover in the time of the second William Byrd, the choice Hepplewhite sideboard in the dining-room being the most conspicuous among the latter. But per- haps the finest antiques which adorn the house are two superb carved and gilded wood torchères bearing the hall-mark of that master craftsman, Chippendale.
The approach to the mansion from the rear is through the handsome wrought-iron gates brought from England by William Byrd, and the finest examples to be seen in America to-day. These far-famed gates, into which the monogram W. B. is skilfully worked, swing from huge stone columns surmounted with massive balls upon which perch life-sized leaden eagles, repre-
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senting the family crest. The sloping lawn, with its incomparable turfing, is enclosed by a low, ivy-hung brick wall broken by gateways, bearing the Byrd arms, through which are entered the avenues leading to the boat-landings, the terrace being protected from the river wash by a substan- tial wall of masonry rebuilt upon the old foun- dations.
Just in front of the mansion, as it faces the river, is a magnificent row of tulip poplars, which rear their proud crested heads in loving protec- tion over the old dwelling. The smooth and verdant sward is dotted with ancient trees of marvellous size, and in the midst of these native forest monarchs is a perfectly symmetrical yew pronounced by Professor Sargent the finest specimen in America. Robins, wrens, and mock- ing-birds, the gay plumed cardinal and the sombre thrush, sing their morn and even song from among the trees and hedges, flashing as they flit from branch to branch glimpses of bril- liant color from a background of restful green.
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