USA > Virginia > Manors of Virginia in colonial times > Part 9
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Thomas Nelson, the Immigrant, died October 7, 1745, and was buried in old Grace Church graveyard, where his tomb, with his coat of arms inscribed upon it, may still be seen. The Latin epitaph is translated as:
" Here lyeth
In the certain hope of being raised up in Christ THOMAS NELSON, Gentleman The son of Hugh and Sarah Nelson of Penrith in the County of Cumberland. Born the 20th day of February 1677 He completed a well spent life On the 7th of October 1745 in his sixty-eighth year."
The eldest son of Thomas and Margaret Reid Nelson was William, born in 1711, who was known as President Nelson, having been many times President of the Council, and of the entire Colony of Virginia at one time. In 1738 he married Elizabeth, daughter of Nathaniel Bur-
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WILLIAM NELSON
NELSON
THE NELSON HOUSE
well of Gloucester County, granddaughter of King Carter, and it was in 1740 that he began the erection of the present famous Nelson House.
This mansion was designed for his eldest son Thomas, who, born December 26, 1738, and then but a few years old, laid the corner-stone of the building by passing through his tiny hands the first brick used in its construction. The Nelson House stands to-day a splendid example of the Colonial builder's art, which cared more for honest workmanship than meretricious display. The English bricks forming the walls are laid in Flemish bond, while the quoins and window- arches are of heavy hewn stone. Hand-made dentilled cornices, which are placed just below the high, sloping roof, save the structure from absolute severity, and the condition of the entire house to-day attests its superior workmanship in every way.
There is the customary great hall on the in- terior, with double rooms on either side, and the same ample stairway seen in most Southern houses of that era. There is still much hand- some wood-work visible in the panelling and wainscoting, some of which is elaborately carved, that in the hall and about the mantels being par- ticularly fine.
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The original brick wall which enclosed the grounds has given way in the rear to a modern unsightly paling, which is in part hidden or rendered unobtrusive by a multiflora rose-vine which clings to the newness as its mother root clasped the finer wall two centuries ago. There is nothing left of the old garden, though a few stray flowers still try to bloom gayly where the little squares and circles were, and crape-myrtle bushes that gain with the years soften time's wreckage with their feathery summer pinkness. The great tree, the branches of which droop over the east end of the mansion, was planted by a renowned Nelson in happy Colonial days.
Thomas Nelson, the little lad who laid the corner-stone for the old mansion, developed into one of the most powerful men in Virginia, being a signer of the Declaration of Independence, Major-General in the Continental Army, and Governor of the state. On the twenty-ninth of January, 1762, he married Lucy, daughter of Philip and Mary Randolph Grymes of Middle- sex, the latter being the daughter of Sir John Randolph of Williamsburg.
When barely twenty-one this remarkable man was made a member of the House of Burgesses, and in 1744 was one of the first convention which
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1
NELSON HOUSE, YORKTOWN Headquarters of Lord Cornwallis during the Revolution
THE NELSON HOUSE
met at Williamsburg to consider the taxation of the Colonies by England. In 1774 he became colonel of the Second Virginia Regiment, and in May, 1776, was one of the members of the convention at Williamsburg for framing the Vir- ginia constitution. Having signed the Declara- tion of Independence in 1776, he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Virginia militia, and his troops, numbering three thousand, were equipped at his own expense. When Virginia needed $2,000,000 with which to carry on the war, Governor Nelson gave his personal property as security with that of the state. His services were highly commended in the General Orders issued by Washington the day after the surrender of Cornwallis, in honor of which his statue was included among the six placed around the Wash- ington monument in the Capitol grounds at Richmond.
During the siege of Yorktown, in 1781, the Nelson House was occupied as headquarters by Lord Cornwallis, and this being as well known as it was distasteful to General Nelson, he besought the Continentals to open fire upon his loved mansion, offering a reward for each shot that told, and saying to General Lafayette: "Spare no particle of my property so long as it affords
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comfort or shelter to the enemies of my country." The eastern gable yet shows the scars of three cannon-balls, one of which is embedded in the bricks. Another left a great hole where it crashed through the southeast corner and, enter- ing the dining-room, destroyed two panels of the wainscoting, shattering at the same time the handsome marble mantel.
Governor Nelson's father had left him a very large fortune, consisting as it did of much land and £40,000 cash, but the vicissitudes of the times caused him to die a poor man, his patriotism hav- ing given most of his money to the Colonial struggle. In this respect he has been compared with Washington, and we must admit that the American idol does not shine by it. One of his biographers writes: "Such nobility of soul and purity of motive form a combination in character rarely seen in the history of the world, and no doubt he was conscientious in the matter; but yet how different from Washington! The latter, although he had no large family to support, magnanimously refused any pay for his services, but merely asked Congress to reimburse him for his expenses, an accurate account of which he had kept. It is needless to say that Congress promptly paid him, having the detailed accounts,
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THE NELSON HOUSE
with dates specified, to be guided by. Had Gov- ernor Nelson kept an accurate account of his expenses, no doubt Congress would have gladly paid him back also. But it appears that he had no account to present to Congress. Conse- quently his family had to be that much poorer. One may, therefore, here see the difference be- tween a patriotic man and a patriotic man who was also wise!"
The portrait of Governor Nelson which hangs in the State Library at Richmond is a copy of the original painted in London by Chamberlin in 1754. It represents him at the age of sixteen, his ruddy, boyish face framed in a wealth of light hair. His gray coat with brass buttons has a rather deep gray velvet collar, and is worn over a white waistcoat, the sleeve-ruffles and stock be- ing white also. A black tricorn hat is held under his left arm, the hand of which is not visible in the half-length portrait. Altogether, neither the pose nor the costume is particularly lively for a youthful eighteenth century Cavalier.
When Governor Nelson died, January 4, 1789, he was buried in Grace Church yard, without even a simple slab to mark his resting-place. Notwithstanding his early affluence, he left no fortune to his widow and children, who were
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forced to sell all of their property but the home- stead in Yorktown; so when Mrs. Nelson, who was an extraordinary woman, died, she left only " twenty dollars to her minister, and freedom to her servant, the only one she had."
In 1824, when General Lafayette visited Yorktown, the theatre of his youthful valor, the old house was tendered to the committee for his entertainment, and the mansion at which he had once directed his troopers to fire sheltered him as kindly as before the days of storm.
During the Civil War, when the Confederates occupied Yorktown under General Magruder, the house was used as a hospital, and for reasons of health the wonderful interior wood-work was whitewashed; and it has never been restored to its original condition, though the coloring has been changed.
The happiest days seem to have passed from this beautiful homestead never to return again, for the conditions once so filled with promise are too sadly altered now to admit of the hospitable, joyous life that was once led upon this spot. Since the Revolution Yorktown has changed in many ways; the once thriving town has grown day by day into a quieter village. The gilded coaches and gold-laced soldiers that once stood
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THE NELSON HOUSE
before the open doors of the old Nelson House are now no more than the silent tombs sinking into eternity in the churchyard.
But the beautiful river of a mile width opposite the mansion flows on serenely, regardless of years and circumstance, and the Nelson House still commands an enchanting picture at early sunrise, from its situation upon as noble a sheet of water as flows beneath the sun. " But painful is the contrast of what it now is with what it once was. It is only when we turn to the river, 'the work of an Almighty hand,' that the force of that Scripture is felt,-' I change not.'"
ROSEWELL
N the north bank of old York River, and the O east of Carter's Creek, looms the far-famed Rosewell mansion, pre- serving with dignity its centuries of grand- eur and strangely de- fying the years to come.
This ancestral home of the renowned Page family stands like some feudal castle in bold relief against a landscape which artists have said lacks neither color nor form.
About the year 1500 a Henry Page was born in Wembly, in the county of Middlesex, Eng- land. Whom he married we are not told, but one of his sons, John Page, born about 1528, is known to have married Audrey, the daughter of Thomas Redding of Hedgestown, Middlesex County.
Of the two sons of the latter, Richard moved to Uxenden, and though he was twice married, the maiden names of his wives have long since
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ROSEWELL
been forgotten, Frances being the only one to leave children. One of these ten was Thomas, who was born at Uxenden about 1597, but moved to Sudbury. In 1622 he married, but again the wife's name is not given, for in the record we only find that " John and Mary, sonne and daughter of Thomas Page, of Sudbury, were baptized at Harrow, 26 Dec., 1628." This John Page, who was destined to become the progenitor of the family in America, was born in 1627, and emi- grated to Virginia in 1650.
The family of Sir Gregory Page, baronet, of Greenwich, in the county of Kent, the father of Sir Gregory Page, last baronet of Wrinkle- marsh, who left his fortune to Sir Gregory Page Turner, and the families of Major-General Sir John Page and Sir Thomas Hyde Page bear much the same arms. Dr. Richard Channing Moore Page, in his valuable genealogy of the family, states: "The arms of all these Page families bear a resemblance to each other, and doubtless they were all descended from the same ancestor. The origin of the name of Page, as a family cognomen, may be found in Rymer's Fodera (Acts of the Kings of England) in 41st, Henry III., A. D. 1257, where it appears that Hugo de Pageham, of Ebor (York), was a
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bearer of dispatches from Edward, King of England, to the King of Spain, and thus being Letter Bearer, or Page, he became known as Hugo Page de Pageham."
Colonel John Page, who came to Virginia in 1650, married Alice Luckin and settled in Wil- liamsburg, where he was a member of Their Majesties' Council. That he was a man far above the average is shown in the following letter to his son, which is still preserved:
"To My Loving Son, Capt. Matthew Page.
" SON MATTHEW: I herewith present you a New Year's gift, wherein you may observe the excellency of Scripture learning, which I desire that you may read, mark, and learn, that you may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life which God hath given you in the Gospel of our Saviour Jesus Christ. You will in this little book see what you are by nature-born in sin, having in you an original pravity, indisposition to do good, and proneness to evil. There is also taught you that Christ by His death vanquished death, as Himself saith (John xi. 25), ' I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.' There- fore endeavor that Christ's death may become effectual to your soul, that you may rise from the death of sin to the righteousness of life. Keep yourself from
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ROSEWELL
sin, and pray for God's spirit to establish faith and sanctification in your heart, that you may live in heavenly conversation on earth; that, after death, eternal glory may be your portion. Set not lightly by my gift, but esteem those fatherly instructions above earthly riches. Consider the dignity of your soul, and let no time slip whereby you may, with God's assistance, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. I pray God bless you and give his blessing to what I have written, for your everlasting happiness, which is the prayer of your truly loving father,
" JOHN PAGE. "January 1st 1688."
The little book to which the letter refers was a manuscript in the handwriting of Colonel Page, and though the fate of the original is not known, there are a number of printed copies still in exist- ence among the various branches of the family.
The superb portrait of Colonel Page, which is familiar to all antiquarians, was painted by Sir Peter Lely in 1660. It is a very beautiful work of art, representing a young man in the where- abouts of thirty-three, with grave blue eyes and wavy brown locks parted directly in the middle. The dark robe he wears is enlivened with a white collar from which two white tassels depend.
The original stone that was placed over the
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COLONIAL MANORS of VIRGINIA
grave of Colonel Page is now in the vestibule of Bruton Church, at Williamsburg. On it the family arms are emblazoned-a fesse dancetté between three martlets, a middle chief crescent. Crest-a demi-horse forcené. Beneath the arms is the inscription :
" Here lieth in hope of a Joyfull Resurrection the Body of COLONEL JOHN PAGE of Burton Parish Esquire. One of their Majesties Council in the Dominion of Virginia. Who departed this life the 23 of January in the year of our Lord 692. Aged 65."
The date is partly obliterated, but is supposed to have been 1692.
In 1878 a granite obelisk was placed over the grave by one of the descendants of Colonel Page.
Matthew Page, the second son of John and Alice Luckin Page, was born in Williamsburg in 1659, but moved to Gloucester County, where he died January 9, 1703. His wife was Mary Mann, the heiress and daughter of John and Mary Mann of Timberneck, Gloucester County, and through her he came into possession of the Rosewell lands. This estate, which originally belonged to the Barbour family, was won by one of Mary Mann's relatives at a game of push-pin about the middle of the seventeenth century. In
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ROSEWELL
1700 Matthew Page took up his residence at this place, which a well-authenticated tradition claims to have been the site of Werowocomoco, the vil- lage of Powhatan. Whether this be true or not, Indian relics in great quantities have been found at Rosewell; which points to the belief that it might have been the headquarters of the Indian chieftain.
On the death of Matthew Page the estate went to his only son, Mann Page, who, through his mother, inherited vast possessions in Frederick, Prince William, Essex, Spottsylvania, James City, Hanover, King William, and Gloucester Counties, besides the 5000 acres left by his father.
'Among the ancestral portraits of the Page family there is one of a winsome child of five years, catalogued as Mann Page, the first of that name. The little fellow, with great brown eyes, holds closely in his arms a gay-plumaged cardinal-bird, the wings of which spread out against the quaint blue frock he wears. This little aristocrat, born with a golden spoon in his mouth, was brilliantly educated at Eton, and on his return to America began the erection of the great manor-house of Rosewell in 1725, the build- ing of which was destined to impair so sadly one of the largest fortunes of the day.
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The square brick structure, completed about 1730, towers into the air three high stories above the basement, and was erected by workmen im- ported just for that purpose, much of the ma- terial also having been brought from Europe. Originally the central building was connected by covered corridors with wings on either side, the whole enclosing a semicircular courtyard. In proportion, the huge high-ceilinged rooms are cubes, and the great hall, which occupies the centre of the mansion, is a faultless specimen of Colonial architecture. In its days of extrava- gant pristine splendor the hall was wainscoted with San Domingo mahogany, the stairway and balustrade, which are as they were in 1730, being of the same wood hand-carved in a flower and scroll design. Up the steps of this grand stair- way eight persons can comfortably walk abreast, and it has responded to the click of many a beauty's high-heeled slipper, as well as to the tread of America's most eminent men.
Owing to his prominence in all the higher branches of life, the friends of Mann Page were counted among the distinguished of two coun- tries, and the grim old walls of Rosewell have sheltered many whose names are written boldly in the history of the country. A favorite tradi- tion is that in this fine old mansion Thomas
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ROSEWELL Begun by Mann Page in 1725
ROSEWELL
Jefferson, a guest there en route to Philadelphia, first drafted the immortal Declaration of Inde- pendence.
Mann Page, the reckless spender of a princely fortune, was a member of the Colonial Congress from 1714 to 1730. Marrying twice, his first wife was Judith Wormeley, daughter of the Honorable Ralph Wormeley, Secretary of the Colony in 1712. In 1718 he married Judith Carter, daughter of King Carter of Corotoman, President of the Colony, whose portrait shows a strong Carter likeness. Her lace-trimmed gown of blue-green satin shows to advantage against the red velvet of her chair, which has as a back- ground a rich curtain of the same material and color.
In the old graveyard at Rosewell, on the tomb of Mann Page is inscribed:
" Here lie the remains of the Honourable MANN PAGE
One of His Majesties Council of this Colony of Virginia Who departed this life the 24th Day of January 1730 In the 40th year of his Age.
He was the only Son of the Honourable MATTHEW PAGE EsQ.
Who was likewise a member of His Majesties Council.
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His first wife was JUDITH daughter of RALPH WORMELEY EsQ. Secretary of Virginia ; By whom he had two Sons and a Daughter. He afterwards married JUDITH daughter of the Honble. ROBERT CARTER EsQ. With whom he lived in the most tender reciprocal affection For twelve years : Leaving by her five Sons and a Daughter. His publik Trust he faithfully Discharged with Candour and Discretion Truth and Justice. Nor was he less eminent in his Private Behaviour For He was A tender Husband and Indulgent Father A gentle Master and a faithful Friend Being to All Courteous and Benevolent Kind and Affable. This Monument was Piously erected to His Memory By His mournfully Surviving Lady."
Mann Page 2nd, eldest son of the Honorable Mann Page, Esq., and Judith Carter, was born in 1718 at Rosewell, where he always lived. In 1743 he married Alice Grymes, daughter of John Grymes of Middlesex, and their son was the celebrated Governor John Page.
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ROSEWELL
In 1777 Mann Page 2nd was a member of the Continental Congress, which is about all that is known of his public life, beyond the fact of his having declined the Council of Virginia in favor of a younger brother. That he bore a strong resemblance to his grandfather is evidenced in the handsome portrait credited to Sir Godfrey Kneller, in which he appears as a true Colonial grandee in all the glory of red velvet coat and long curling wig. The portrait of Alice Grymes shows a slender, sweet-faced young woman in a pale-gray satin gown. Against her knee leans confidingly a little lad clad in crimson velvet, looking squarely into the world under the pro- tection of his mother's arm. Both of these por- traits, with others of the Page family, hang in the library of William and Mary College, at Williamsburg. His first wife dying in 1746, he married Anne Corbin Tayloe in 1748, she being the daughter of Colonel John Tayloe of Mount Airy.
Mann Page 2nd, who came into life burdened with the debts incurred in the building of the Rosewell mansion, asked leave to sell off most of the contingent lands in order to let his sisters and brothers have their rightful inheritance.
The homestead and a large tract of land he left
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to his son, John Page, who was born April 17, 1744, and is known in history as the renowned Governor. The portrait done by Benjamin West in 1758 shows the embryo statesman as a sportsman at the age of fourteen, with flintlock musket and powder-horn. The snuff-colored small-clothes are fastened with silver buckles, which, with those on his shoes, add a note of dandyism.
John Page, Jr., as he was called in contra- distinction to his uncle, John Page of North End, was with Washington in one of his expeditions against the Indians, and later was a member of the House of Burgesses. During the Revo- lution he contributed freely to the cause from his private purse, and even robbed the windows of Rosewell of their sash-weights, which he had made into bullets. He also rendered important services as Lieutenant-Governor of the Common- wealth and a member of the Committee of Public Safety. He was one of the first Representatives from Virginia in Congress, and was made a Presidential elector in 1800, being chosen Gov- ernor of Virginia in 1802.
In 1789 John Page married Margaret Low- ther, daughter of William Lowther of Scotland, his first wife, Frances Burwell, having died a few years previously.
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GOVERNOR JOHN PAGE at the age of 16
From the painting by Benjamin West at William and Mary College
Francis Page of chess Jnnel Imple Elig 17039
ROSEWELL
The following panegyric written shortly after his death in 1808 is an excellent summary of the life of this distinguished man:
" Hon. John Page was, from his youth, a philosopher and a Christian. From the com- mencement of the American Revolution to the last hour of his life, he exhibited a firm, inflexible, unremitting, and ardent attachment to his coun- try, and rendered her very important services. His conduct was marked by uprightness in all the vicissitudes of life-in the prosperous and calamitous times through which he passed-in seasons of gladness and of affection.
"He was not only the patriot soldier and politician, the well-read theologian and zealous churchman-so that some wished him to take orders with a view to being the first Bishop of Virginia-but he was a most affectionate domes- tic character."
Rosewell, which was inherited by his son, John Page, was but little lived in after his death, and was sold in 1838 to Thomas Booth, of Gloucester County, who paid but $12,000 for the historic plantation, which he sold a short while later to John Tabb Catlett, also of Gloucester County, for $22,500. When Rosewell became the prop- erty of Mr. Catlett, the mansion was in sad need
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of repair; the wings were in such condition that the new owner, by the advice of his architect, had them pulled down, and at the same time restored perfectly the massive central portion.
In 1853 the famous estate again changed hands, going then to Mr. Josiah Lilly Deans, of Midlothian, Gloucester County, and though it had been the scene of unlimited Colonial grandeur, under Mr. Deans' régime it counted some of its years of greatest splendor. Mr. Deans did much towards the perpetual preserva- tion of both mansion and plantation, for, without changing the original effect, he restored all that was necessary with a true love and understand- ing. In his grand old home he entertained with a royal hand, causing the hospitality of Rosewell to be famed from coast to coast.
During the pitiable war which followed all too closely upon this gala period of Virginia, the mansion was fired at many times from Federal gunboats lying in York River, and but for the timely interference of some appreciative naval officers who had once been honored guests of Mr. Deans, the staunch walls of the old manor-house would undoubtedly have been but a pile of ruins.
After the death of Mr. Deans, in 1881, Rose- well was sold for division among the heirs, and
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passed again into the Page family, through Philip Page, of South America. Some years later the estate was bought back by the Deans heirs, and when a subdivision was made, the mansion and acres fell to Mrs. Fielding Lewis Taylor, daughter of Mr. Josiah Lilly Deans. Through Judge Taylor's connection with the Waller family, Rosewell is still in the possession of the descendants of celebrated Mann Page.
The superbly constructed mansion stands to- day as firmly as when it was completed in 1730, and happily gives promise of outliving many centuries to come. In the old garden, lying be- tween the house and river, boxwood hedges and old-fashioned blossoms grow in memory of Colonial days.
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