USA > Virginia > City of Virginia Beach > City of Virginia Beach > Old houses in Princess Anne, Virginia > Part 6
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As we have said, this is probably the largest of all the gambrels. There are four rooms, two on each side of a wide hall, on the first floor. In the cellar, or to be more exact basement, which extends under the whole house, there are two fireplaces. A brick wall runs from the front to the back, dividing the basement into two parts, a doorway in this wall connecting them. This partition is continuous as a
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wall on up between the hall and rooms on the main floor. Mrs. R. G. DeFrees, the present owner, discovered this while doing some wiring when modernizing the house. It was she who pointed out this feature to us.
All four brick walls are done in Flemish bond, they are 18" thick, and from the ground to eaves measure 14'7" in height. The timbers are hewn 10x10 inches, cut nails, blacksmith made, where nails were used at all, appear in the wood. The roof has been raised, windows and doors changed and enlarged, a new uncovered porch added in front, all these tend to lessen the appearance of age in the building. Also much of the interior has been renewed.
Besides being an old family, the Lands were important persons as well. A Francis Land was a Justice of the Court as early as 1728. Capt. Francis Land was a vestryman of Lynnhaven Parish in 1723-warden in 1728; Capt. Francis Thorowgood Land was vestryman in 1754-warden in 1758.
Francis Land Home
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Francis Thorowgood Land was dead by 1760, leaving a son Francis M. Mr. Perin Moseley administered on the estate. Since in 1753 we find the father, Francis Thorowgood Land, adding substantially to his acres by buying one-half of a 670-acre tract, formerly the property of Edward Land, we believe that shortly thereafter he built the big house.
In such spacious surroundings, maybe under the old elm in the yard, one can easily picture this home as the scene of lavish hospitality, taking the form of fox hunt, perhaps, followed at night by a ball. Remember that at this ball the music will be furnished by one or two "fiddlers." Perhaps the "fiddlers" will be "darkies" from the "quarters." Can you see the young folks as they dance the Virginia reel? Of course near midnight supper will be served. Tables groaning under the weight of the meat supper will be cleared away, and then the sweets appear. Life in Virginia then was beautiful ! And in some parts it still is.
In the remaining pages of this chapter we shall tell you of the homes of the Murrays, all within a stone's throw of each other, all of the gambrel type, with Flemish bonding of brick in all four walls. These houses are in the neighborhood where David Murray the first came about 1650; that is to say, on the western side of the county, close to the Norfolk County line, and south of the Elizabeth River.
This David had several sons, among them was John. It is this John Murray, we believe, who made a will in 1731, making devises and bequests
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Richard Murray Home on King's Creek
1780 The two houses Isaac Murray built for his sons 1791
Thomas Murray Home, 1791
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to certain grandsons, one of whom was a Richard. By 1777 this Richard Murray, having acquired by purchase certain acres, and evidently having built himself a home thereon, devised to his only son, Isaac, his plantation.
Although the acres are not so extensive, the location on King's, or Murray's, Creek is very, very pretty. Here is the most complete colonial estab- lishment anywhere existing today in this county ; the "Manor House," root and smoke house, quarter kitchen and warehouse. Just across the creek, on just as pretty a cove, is the home of Isaac's son, Thomas. Nearer the main road and south of the Manor House are two more houses, most probably built by Isaac. One house is generally called the home of Isaac's son, the other the quarter kitchen. Frankly we think they were both homes that Isaac the elder built for his sons, one in 1780, the other in 1791. We name these dates for the reason that they are the years etched, each on the side of a house. Accompanying the 1780 date are the letters F. D. Isaac had a son David, maybe David's wife's name began with an F.
The home tract of 276 acres, although there were three houses on it, was not divided until 1846 when Isaac the younger, who had heired the whole plantation from his father Isaac in 1814, had died. One house with 115 acres was set aside to one son, the other house with 161 acres was set aside to the other son. The sons were Elijah and Elisha. This division is made on the land books. Therefore we can only tell you that judging from the tax the division was supposedly an equality. One son
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received the Manor House with all the buildings attached thereto, the other received the tract on which were the two houses.
The interior of the Richard Murray house, in which Mr. J. A. Shumadine lives, has been much changed in plan during the passing years, although in the west end the panelling remains. The ceilings downstairs measure 9'5", upstairs they are only 6'. The old floor boards are eight and nine inches in width. There are several old doors still to be seen with the old hinges.
The combination roothouse and smokehouse is just behind the Manor House. Some one hundred feet away is the quarter kitchen with its huge chimneys and fireplaces, the stacks of the chim- neys, however, are not tall. Behind the quarter kitchen at a little distance is a slight indentation from the cove of the creek. Near this is the ware- house 45x9. At first we thought it was a tobacco warehouse. And yet, why should there be so large a one on private property? Princess Anne was never very successful in growing tobacco. While reading old records of the Murrays we accidentally stumbled on the fact that the Murrays set much store by their flax pond. From this fact, and the fact of the warehouse we evolved this theory-take it or leave it.
It would appear that the cove at this point was called the pond and it was used for retting the flax grown on the family acres. In order to separate the fibre from flax it was necessary to soak the flax thoroughly, causing maceration to the point at which a hackle could be used to remove the fibre
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Quarter kitchen and end of Manor House of Richard Murray
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Smokehouse and roothouse on Murray plantation
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Flax drying house on Murray Plantation
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from the tow. The fibre, when so removed, was then stored in the warehouse of many vents to dry. Since Norfolk has ever been the safest of harbors, and since much of shipbuilding and ship repairs have ever been a leading industry, it seems reas- onable to believe that the Murrays found a ready sale for rope, the product of the family's industry, among the shipmasters in port.
Anyhow, they had money and believed in hav- ing good homes. There are substantial witnesses to this fact in the houses as they are today.
As early as 1792 Isaac Murray bought from Dingley Grey, son of Benj. Dingley Grey, certain acres that the father Grey had devised to son Dingley in 1784. Benjamin Dingley Grey had come to Princess Anne from Northampton County about the middle of the eighteenth century. Mr. Grey was a Tory and during the Revolution was tried for treason.
The construction of the house on this tract which father Isaac left to son Thomas, is much the same as the Manor House across the creek. The interior is different in that there is a hall with a very pretty stairway. Each house is built well up from the ground before the first floor is laid ; pro- viding space for cellar. Each house is in clear view of the other across the water, although the road around is long and rough. Here were deep water and sand beach used for bathing up to twenty years ago.
Coming back across the creek to the western side and the Manor House, just south are the other two houses, built by the father for his sons. We
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feel sure they were separate establishments, cer- tainly for a time, because in the smaller, the one built in 1791, there is a hand carved mantel. This by no means was intended to be a kitchen. These two houses are now owned by Mr. J. N. Phillips. Here he makes his home. This place is splendidly preserved as is Mr. Shumadine's. All of which goes to prove what attractive homes these old places make, if one appreciates and really cares for them. Mr. Phillips' houses are smaller than the Manor House, or the house of son Thomas across the creek. It is 38' across the front, which, by the way, we think was originally the back, and 19'5" in depth. Unlike the other houses this one is built close to the ground, rising to a height of 10'8" at the eaves. These walls are 16" thick.
And so from the Murrays and their homes on the Eastern Branch of the Elizabeth River, on the south side thereof, at a creek called Kings, we turn again to the Eastern Shore of Lynnhaven Parish to hear of the Cornicks and a house they built long, long ago.
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CHAPTER VIII
HE third family of a triumvirate of early colonists whose descendants are still liv- ing in Princess Anne, is the Cornick family. Simond Cornick, or Cornix, as we find the spelling in the oldest records, did not arrive at quite as early a date as the Woodhouses and Keelings, but his generations have impressed themselves in no less prominent and vital a way on the community.
On May 16, 1653, Mr. Simond Cornix was in attendance on the Lower Norfolk County Court, so says the record in Book C of Norfolk County Clerk's Office at Portsmuth, Virginia. There are two entries made on that day which show his presence. The one on page 46 is of most interest to us, for it records the granting of a certificate for 650 acres due Simond Cornix for bringing into the Colony thirteen persons.
Quoting from this entry we find the following names of persons whose passage was paid by Mr. Cornick: Jane, Martha, William and Thomas Cornix, Jane Simons, William Patreme, George Lawson, Plummer Bray, John Jennings, John Sealy, Thomas Gregory, John Turner and John Brock.
A most diligent search has failed to reveal a patent for these acres in the name of Simon, nor have we been able to find any conveyance to or from him, to or from any person. However, we did find that son William and his wife Elizabeth
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made a deed in 1671 to Robert Bray for 500 acres which had belonged to his (William's) father Simon, so the deed says. This tract was in Little Creek, bounded by Maj. Adam Thorowgood, Capt. William Moseley and the "dammes" of the said creek. The land had originally been granted to Robert Hayes and Rowland Morgan and by them sold to Simon Cornick.
We do not know whom Simon married; Wil- liam, Martha and Thomas were his children. (Jane may have been his wife). William is the only child whose record we have. So it is really from this William, we suppose, that the future generations came.
In 1657 William Cornix patented 500 acres called "Salisbury Plains." And thank heaven it is still so called even today! It does seem too bad that we have lost, and continue to lose, so many of the old names-names which really had a sig- nificance. In this instance we are assured that the Cornick family came from Salisbury in England.
The patent does not record on what ground William's grant was made. There is a difference of 150 acres in the certificate of Simond and the grant of William. It may be that three persons died, did not remain in the colony, or some other eventuality cut the count from thirteen to ten, and William actually received 500 acres on his father's account. This is merely a suggestion as a solution of what happened to Simond's certificate and on what ground William received his grant.
William married Elizabeth Martin, probably a daughter of John Martin, who was a brother of
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Joel. Notice the names of William's and Elizabeth's children : Martin, John, Joel, Elizabeth, Barbara, William and Simon. With the exception of the name Barbara, the others are easily placed in the immediate family group.
We believe we are warranted in telling you that William Cornick was a loving father in spite of making no gift to his daughter Elizabeth Cannon or her children. This is the basis for the statement. In 1683 we find him making a deed to his son William and to his son Simond, each for a tract of land. William was seated on his at the time. A few years later in 1692 he makes a deed of gift to son Joel for a part of the "Salisbury Plains" patent of 1657, and again he makes a similar deed, this time to his daughter Barbara, wife of Capt. Francis Morse, for about 300 acres of his 1692 patent. This deed was made in 1692/3. The deed says the Morses are then seated on this tract.
Before the father William died in 1700 dispos- ing of the remainder of his property by will, his wife Elizabeth Martin was dead, and he had mar- ried Alice Ivey, widow of Thomas Vicisimas Ivey. Of this union there was one child, a daughter Alof. Of Alof we find no mention in the will. Also sons William and Simond were dead and son Martin was dead in 1701. Daughter Elizabeth, wife of Thomas Cannon, was dead in 1684. This left Joel and John, surviving sons, and Barbara Morse, surviving daughter, as heirs.
By the will, the home tract of 530 acres was divided by an east and west line, the northern portion being devised to son Martin, and in event
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of his death, to son John. John was the youngest son. To John was devised the other half of the home tract, the town lot at Lynnhaven and the Poplar Ridge tract of 230 acres. In the will Chincopin Ridge was divided between Joel and Barbara, Joel's part lying toward the south. Joel was also to have the young orchard and the land adjoining.
Joel married Elizabeth Woodhouse. Their chil- dren were Endomion, Nimrod, William, Joel, Henry and Prudence. Now in 1701 Joel sold his half of Chincopin Ridge to Barbara and Capt. Morse. We do not find that he made any purchases of land. Therefore when he makes a will in 1727, devising to his son Joel his plantation, the plantation must have been the "Salisbury Plains" given him by his father in 1692. With this devise the father Joel imposed on the son Joel the responsibility of ". . . finishing the house I am now building." We believe this very definitely places the builder and the time of the building of the house now standing on Salisbury Plains, near Eastern Shore Chapel. This property remained in the Cornick family until after the death of Capt. John Cornick (son of John Cornick and Amey Keeling Cornick) in 1859, when under his will, the place was sold. And so after two centuries only the burying ground remained in the possession of the Cornicks.
Just here, while relating the disposition the first Cornicks made of their lands, it may be pertinent to add that we have not been able to find record of any deed by which a part of Salisbury Plains was conveyed to the parish. Undoubtedly the Eastern Shore Chapel is built on a part of this
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tract, but we hesitate to believe that William was the donor of the land to the parish for the reason that in making land gifts to his own sons and daughters he so meticulously makes record of the transaction. It would seem that he would carry out the same policy in his gift to the church. Also we doubt whether the chapel was built prior to 1700, which year William died. Previously we have told you that in 1724 the parish register notes the new wooden chapel at Eastern Shore. From this we believe that either John or Joel, or both, sons of William, gave the land. However, we have not been able to find any court record of the gift.
To return to the house on Salisbury Plains that we believe Joel Cornick was building in 1727, the time of his death. About this time most writers on colonial architecture date the beginning of the first period of Georgian architecture. Our observa- tion has been that Princess Anne builders generally were just a few years behind the rest of the colonists in adopting a change in building design. May this be accounted for by the fact the people for the most part were not extremely wealthy, they had built in the beginning very substantial homes, many of them of brick. Therefore they were content with the home as it was, and were not eager to outdo each other in the elaboration of the dwellings. For this reason the new fashions in buildings were slow to reach the county.
"Salisbury Plains" house is an unique style of architecture. Today there is one brick end of Flem- ish bonding. It is a moot question what the other end was at the time of building. There is strong
Salisbury Plains, 1727
Hall and front door, Salisbury Plains, built 1727
Parlor at Salisbury Plains
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evidence in the foundation in the cellar that the two ends were originally identical. On the front the house presents an English type of gambrel roof. The interesting and unusual feature is the rear of the roof. It starts out on a gambrel line, but is extended to cover a shed. The picture will give you a good idea of this feature, should our description fail.
The stairway is a Queen Anne; the front room downstairs on the north, or left of entrance, has very handsome panels and cornice, as has also the hall and room to the rear of the parlor. There still remain several old doors and hinges. But on going into the cellar comes a great thrill! For here is a sill, hewn of course, 12x12, or thereabouts, measur- ing forty feet in length. Picture to yourself that pine, for so it is, as it towered in the nearby woods at the turn of the century in 1700! Truly it must have been a giant to have yielded a timber of that size. But in those days the pine woods of old Princess Anne did much in the way of producing a revenue for the people.
In the new series, number two, of the William and Mary Quarterly, volume 3, page 209, we ran across an article which seemed of interest. Among the British transcripts in the Library of Congress is a report by E. Jennings to the "Right Honorable Her Ma'tyes Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations" in the colony. The report is an answer to a question of the Lords Commissioners relative to production of pitch and tar in Virginia. The report in substance is: Annually in Virginia was produced near 3,000 barrels of pitch and tar, com-
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ing from Princess Anne and Norfolk Counties. This was 1704. There were 97,891 acres of patented land in Princess Anne and a part of Norfolk County. There were about 50,000 acres of low pine land, not "agreeable" for tobacco. This low land was of the "worst esteem and so little value" the people were forced to clothe and maintain themselves by the manufacture of woolens and leather, by rais- ing stocks, cattle and hogs.
The report goes on to tell that the tar was made of knots and pieces of fallen trees, the selling price was ten to twelve shillings. Pitch was stored in "double barrels" containing thirty gallons. The Swedish barrel at that time contained from thirty to thirty-six gallons. Some of the tar and pitch were used for the houses and boats, some was sold to ship masters, some was transported to Barbadoes, Jamaica, and Seward Islands. Mr. Jennings rec- ommends as a means of encouraging the produc- tion of these commodities, that no custom be charged, that an allowance for each last that came from the plantation be made, there be no restraint or contract on account of the uncertainty of the voyage, that England use Virginia tar and pitch in her own navy in preference to the Swedish product. From this we get a pretty clear vision of how a living was being made in the county in the early days. Today we find conditions much changed as to the source of revenue.
The Mary Washington House in Fredericks- burg, Virginia, has a roof very similar to the roof of the house we are about to discuss. In Princess Anne there are two houses now standing which do
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not conform to any other style of building left in the county-Salisbury Plains is one, the Henley House is the other.
We wish actual architectural surgery were with- in our power, for then by removing the little frame kitchen on the Henley House the whole length of the slope of the rear roof would be entirely visible. However, by an imaginary cutting away try to vis-
Henley House
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Interior of Henley House
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ualize the roof as extending at the same angle for about the same length as appears between the two chimneys ; or until it bisects a perpendicular at the height of 8 feet from the ground at the eaves.
This house, we judge, was built soon after 1720; Salisbury Plains, the other house in this group was being built in 1727. The Henley house is neither so large nor so pretentious as Salisbury Plains.
The interior view shows the high mantel with very narrow shelf; the little door goes into a cubbyhole by the chimney side. It is evident that originally the stairway was in this front room, the partition then, probably, was behind the stairs, cutting off the back room under the shed.
At the present time Mr. Fitzhugh Brown, a grandson of the late Carey Brown, lives here and manages the farm for his mother. To most of the older persons in this section the place is still called the "Henley Place," Mr. T. C. Henley having bought the property about 1859 and made it his home for a number of years. Here, from 1795 to 1815 lived William James, father of an Emperor James to whom, by will, he devised the plantation. In his will father William says he purchased this home from Tully Moseley. In Moseley's deed he sells 198 acres with house. Thomas Reynolds Walker sold approximately the same acreage, with the same description, as near Pungo Chapel with the house in 1777 to Moseley. Thomas Reynolds Walker was county surveyor, member of the vestry, and escheator of the county. Col. Thomas Reynolds Walker bought this tract with the house from James Mason and wife in 1767. Fourteen years prior
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Robert Mason willed to his son James his (Rob- ert's) home. About 1720 Robert Mason bought the land. From these facts we know the house was not here in 1720, but, that when Robert Mason died in 1753 he had raised to legal age a son, James, to whom he devised the home. In every deed mention is made of the house on the property.
As a matter of fact the farm is several miles from the old chapel site. We can think of no land- mark other than the chapel by which, at that time, relative location might be fixed in this area. Pungo seemed to cover a vague stretch of territory be- tween North Bay on the Seaside, and North River on the west. Remember that the present Princess Anne Court House did not come into being until 1824, when the geographic center of the county was sought for the county seat. This locality was not developed at so early a date as the sections on Lynnhaven and Little Creek.
From the "Henley House" to a house on the West Neck road near Princess Anne Court House, is not far in a straight line to the westward. This house on the West Neck road is known as the "Zachariah Sykes" home. It was built in 1777, so a brick on the chimney indicates.
More than seventy-five years elapsed between the building of the home and the time that Mr. Sykes bought it from Noah Simmons and his wife Franky. Mr. Simmons bought this as the estate of J. C. Butts, deceased, three hundred acres, with house. Mr. Butts had purchased two 150-acre tracts, each a home plantation, each adjoined the other, each being described as being on the West
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Neck road. The first one purchased was the place whereon Batson Murden died, it being then in the possession of a son Zachariah Murden. This was 1835. Two years later Mr. Butts bought the John Woodhouse estate of the same number of acres.
Batson Murden had bought land from Joel Simmons, which Simmons had purchased from Joshua Whitehurst. Mr. Whitehurst had purchased the land from John and Richard Land and Edward Frizzel. The Woodhouse tract came to Mr. Butts by purchase from Philip and John Woodhouse, sons of John Woodhouse. In the first land book in Princess Anne (1800-1811) this place is charged to John Woodhouse from the estate of his father Wm. or W. N. (writing is rather difficult on book) Woodhouse.
There are several lines of reasoning that come to the mind as to why, and why not, the house was built by each of the gentlemen more remotely (in point of time) connected with the plantation. We have no prejudice in the matter. It may be that Mr. Woodhouse built this home; it may be that Joshua Whitehurst built it. We do know that the building was done in 1777.
Originally this gambrel roof house had two brick gables of Flemish bond with front and rear of weatherboard. Years ago one end fell out, how- ever, the panelling did not. The panels in both rooms were of the narrow boards, running all the way in two sections to the ceiling, forming an arch for the fireplace, instead of the usual straight line across the chimney breast.
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