Colonial Williamsburg Digital Library

The idea of a governor's palace in early eighteenth-century Virginia

The motto of British Virginia read: "En dat Virginia quartum," or "Behold, Virginia contributes a fourth (realm)." In 1781, this largeness of sentiment caused Timothy Pickering of Salem, Massachusetts, to marvel "how peculiarly disposed the Virginians have been to adopt ideas of royalty and magnificence." That Williamsburg, their capital, was a small town in the country made no difference; their governor, the royal representative, must live in a mansion which expressed the leadership of Virginia in British America. Virginians paid for the elegant house out of the income from duties on imported liquor and slaves. Consider their many expenses, and the wonder is that the colonists found a way to pay £15, 284:8:0 from 1705 to 1776 for the building, furnishing, repairing, and making alterations on the Governor's Palace.

Act to build the Palace passed June 22, 1706

It was not set up at once. Long before the capital moved from Jamestown to Williamsburg the Crown instructed each succeeding governor to build a house. Not until Governor Nott's administration did the General Assembly pass an act making an appropriation of £3,000. giving specifications, and 2 appointing Henry Cary as overseer. The law specified that the house should be built of brick and measure 58' by 48', but it was later enlarged to 74' by 68'. It was to have a vault cellar, two stories, and a slate roof. Slate roofs were never common in Virginia of the early eighteenth century; but the governor's house set a precedent, and slate roofs were soon after found on building of plantation character. The provision for sash windows was especially striking. An innovation of the last quarter of the seventeenth century, sash windows placed the stamp of fashion on a dwelling in Great Britain and Virginia. The law also directed the building of a kitchen and stable suitable to this establishment. The site lay on the north side of Williamsburg, and it comprised sixty-three acres purchased from Henry Tyler in 1701. The land was mostly level where the house was placed, but partly wooded and irregular beyond. There was a decline at the west, permitting the development of a "falling garden" at a lower level.

Palladianism and architectural styles in Virginia

The Palace was built at a time when British builders were turning to ancient Rome as it came to them from Andreas Palladio (1518-1580), the great Renaissance architect. To be sure, they knew nothing of the architectural forms in antiquity, but ignorance proved no bar to their setting up a tyranny of rules. To these classicists there was only one Doric order, only one Ionic, only one standard Corinthian, and so on through the Roman vocabulary of forms. They achieved magnificent exteriors and facades, but distorted 3 common sense and experience in a sacrifice of light, air and convenience, and almost every feature that meant comfort. Builders in Virginia, however, adopted classical details for individual features, such as cornice, doorways, and windows; they changed British styles to meet new conditions, using a rigidly symmetrical arrangement but no columnar or general classical treatment. Fortunately Palladianism had no effect on the Palace, which, felicitous and livable, was marked by formality, privacy, and compactness.

Special problems of planning the Palace

Apparently no one knows the name of him who planned the governor's house. The planner was alive to its very special needs, setting a limit on size and architectural enrichment. The costs of upkeep had to be within the governor's small salary; at the same time, the house called for an impressive air. The display of buildings and gardens would underscore the governor's importance as administrator, for here he received members of the Assembly as well as colonial and foreign dignitaries. This personage must also be provided with reception rooms, great and private dining rooms, a generous sized hallway, and suites of bedrooms for family, servants, and guests.

Palace; a model in Virginia plantation architecture

The rectangular shape and balanced groupings of rooms in the Palace was typical of British dwellings for the gentry in the late seventeenth century. The high central building produced a splendid pattern; orderly in window spacing and proportional in its parts, the design developed the interior 4 plan while externally it maintained a severity of ornamentation. Using the Palace as a model, Virginia plantation architecture achieved a quality of great distinction. Westover, Roswell, Shirley, Carter's Grove, and Wilton on the James followed its example, relating the balanced arrangement of buildings to an approaching entrance on the land side, and also to the river on the garden side.

Slowness in building the Palace
November 24, 1710

In Great Britain and America many builders were amateurs who followed architecture after winning distinctions in other fields. It was, therefore, not surprising to find Mr. Edmund Jenings, president of the Council, supervising the construction with Henry Cary as overseer. The combination of Queen Anne's War (1700-1713) and low tobacco prices almost brought work to a standstill. Bricks were apparently easy to get. Under Henry Cary's direction they were burned locally, and included molded brick for watertable and ornamentation. Iron-work, glass, lead, or any other costly materials came from Great Britain; very likely they took longer time than usual in arriving, when French privateers roamed the seas. Minor delays, moreover, held up construction. Cary managed to raise the roof and cover it with planks; but because of the rough sea voyage, two-thirds of the slate arrived broken. The workmen did not know how to lay the remaining third; and meanwhile the plank roofing was clearly no protection from rain and eventual decay. Cary later reported "primeing and painting the Timber work in several parts" of 5 the house.

April 26, 1709
Henry Cary dismissed December 7, 1711

Members of the Council ordered him to shingle the roof "as soon as may be to preserve it from thos injuries he is apprehensive of." They later dismissed Henry Cary for failing to heed their warnings to be frugal. Under the pretense of "dieting his workmen" he was feeding his family "at public charge."

Spotswood assumes direction
February 8, 1711
November 27, 1712

Two expediting acts—the one passed in 1710 and the other in 1713—failed to bring the house to completion. Governor Spotswood spoke to Councilor William Byrd II of the conveniences he hoped to see installed, until examination of the building revealed such "an abundance of faults" that the governor "found great exception to the proceedings of the workmen." He warned the Assembly against letting the unfinished structure stand "a Visable Testimony of an Imprudent undertaking." Spotswood had paid the workmen from his own pocket, because it was "ill Husbandry to suffer Unfinished Works to stand long exposed." Why let an overseer's salary run on, "while nothing was doing?" The Assembly accepted the governor's offer to serve as overseer, and discharged John Taylor, who had been directing construction.

The Palace as a political football 1718

Spotswood's opponents tried to make political capital of the building costs in a move to unseat him. In their complaint to London authorities they asked whether "the Governor should have power to call for what money he pleased out of their Treasury, to be spent about his House, Gardens, Fish Ponds, &c. after he made them believe that £250 would finish all, 6 instead of which he has already called for £1600..."

Spotswood answers his critics

Spotswood put up a stout defense, pressing his accusers to explain "their general charge of Lavishing away the Country's Money about ye Governor's House." Let a court of inquiry examine him. His conscience was clear, and he was ready to show the "ungrateful Return" of his generosity, which had saved Virginians an annual £100 for an overseer. They had allowed him £250 a year for building and grounds, said Spotswood, but each year for five years he had spent little over £200. His scorn thundered forth: "A mighty sum indeed, to demonstrate that I have Lavished away the Treasur of a Province! and at such a time too, when their publick Treasury so abounds in Cash, that they have chosen to place Ten Thousand punds out at Interest for Two p^r cent yearly proffit."

The Assembly settles the dispute 1720

Spotswood got the better of his opponents, but the Assembly moved to settle the misunderstanding. It again appointed Henry Cary to finish the governor's house; it also refunded the governor the money he had advanced. Virginians gave him credit for the "beauty and conveniency" of the house, because he was responsible for its many alterations and decorations. Contemporary travelers referred to its grandeur, "beautified with gates and magnificent furnishings."

How the Palace got its name

Up to 1737 Virginians had spent a total of £ 6,600 on the executive mansion. Repairs were constant. Such an expensive establishment gave Virginians prestige, but almost 7 prevented them from keeping it. No wonder the legislature called it the "Palace" in an appropriation measure; but what began as a term of derision became its fitting title. Compared with the Palace, Lady Gooch's home in London took on a mean look. "Ye great parlor is almost as broad as our dressing room at Williamsburg and within two foot as long, ye other about ye size of my closet, we have four chambers on ye first floor and two light closets and as many garrots, and I believe they'd all stand in ye hall..."

Enlargement

By the middle of the century the Palace had fallen into disrepair. The Capitol burned in 1747; the question arose of changing the seat of government to a more central location, but the Assembly did not adopt it. Virginians built their capitol again, and marked the Palace for enlargement and further adornments. These changes marked a two year interval following Gooch's departure. Governor Dinwiddie arrived, but the Palace was not ready for him. He spent the early part of his term in what is now known as the Carter-Saunders house. Later in Dinwiddie's administration the ballroom and supper room were added to the Palace. Further accounts for repairs, however, became less frequent. From the administration of Fauquier until the Revolution, large expenditures on the Palace were exceptional.

Present day sources for our knowledge of the Palace

How does anyone know that the Palace looks as it did. Up to this date there have been the four following sources of information: 8

• (1)Thomas Jefferson left a measured drawing of the plan.
• (2)A copper plate engraving was found in the archives of Bodleian Library at Oxford University, England, in January, 1930; it showed "the principal facade of the Palace, together with its flanking offices and a portion of its gardens"
• (3)The excavated foundations with wall footings, pourings, and a quantity of building fragments provided much necessary evidence.
• (4)Ford Botetourt's inventory of 1770 listed all the rooms and itemized their contents.

Forecourt

Stand outside the Palace gates; look in at the forecourt, one of the most appealing features in Williamsburg. A shoulder-high brick wall shield's it from the street, while the Lion and the Unicorn surmount the tall gate piers, which pierce the wall in the center. Behind the painted and gilded wrought-iron gates lie the stone walks and formal beds of greenery. This walled court is playful in mood and characteristically Virginian. These battlements that serve no purpose, the narrowness of the gate, the curvilinear front wall, and the two Queen Anne six-pounders on their garrison carriages stem from the fortified yard of the planter.

Advance Buildings

Two low gabled dependencies enclose the courtyard on either side. The act of June 22, 1706, was clear and specific about building a kitchen and stable; but a kitchen was apparently set up west of the advance buildings, while stables presumably 9 stood to the southwest on the site. Strictly speaking, the two flanking structures were not outbuildings but administrative parts of the governor's house — the seat of colonial government. In the design they are a clever device for bringing the larger structure into scale with the houses along the Green. Brick walls connect the Palace with the advance buildings, which have tall chimneys within the end walls, high-pitched roofs, and five hipped dormers above the openings in the wall below. Centered beneath these dormers is the doorway. The doors are doubled with glazed transom above; they have three panels with the upper panel scrolled at the top. According to report, the original woodwork was very fine. No one knows what the original form of the trim was like, but Virginia precedents have been followed in reconstruction. Both advance buildings are more Virginian in character than the main house. They originally had central halls with a single room to the north and to the south. Apparently, in the basement of the east building was a strong room for the governor's papers; very small, it still possesses the original undisturbed stone floors and brick sidewalls.

View of the Palace as shown in the Bodleian Plate

Look carefully at the Bodleian Plate; the main building stands in sharp contrast to the two low dependencies. The engraving reveals a roof balustrade of wood, the cupola, and weather vane, and tells something of the clustered character of the two chimneys and their built-up tops. Across the high brick facade are five dormers facing south as well as additional ones facing east and west. The south dormers are arranged three in the center, while an increasing interval 10 of space separates the end ones from the center group. The Bodleian Plate gives the location and shape of the window openings, and indicates the window groupings at the facade center; it clearly represents the balcony placed directly over the entrance doorway and shows a terminal ornament or knob at each end of the balcony railing; it reveals a square headed door beneath a projecting balcony; and it indicates the steps at the front and west side precisely as excavators discovered them.

Entrance hall

Thomas Jefferson described the Palace as "a stout, square mass, with an entrance hall and a parlor on the central axis, and small rooms on the corners, separated by huge chimneys." The entrance hall was paneled in walnut. One architect has noted: "The Ionic pilasters flanking the doorways and arch rest on a richly moulded dado and support a full entablature of architrave, pulvinated frieze, and modillioned cornice." The overmantel simply paneled with the royal coat of arms ranges against it. Below the overmantel is a white and grey-green marble of conventional design. One of the features of the hall is the reproduced black and white marble floor. The grouping of the black marble squares on the white background, instead of an all-over pattern, attempts to make the floor quieter and larger in scale.

The Palace as an arsenal

The hall repeats the note of fortification previously struck at the gate and forecourt. As the seat of royal authority, the Palace took on the character of an arsenal and supplemented the military stores at the Public Magazine. In the hall 11 stood many rows of guns arranged in racks along the dark paneled hall. Symbols of protection, firearms served the governor's bodyguard.

October 9, 1711

William Byrd entered in his Diary: "I went to wait on the Governor but he was not at home and I walked after him to the new house and found him there and saw several of the Governor's contrivances, and particularly that for hanging arms." Spotswood was merely following British practice by his "contrivances." A traveler visiting Hampton Court Palace in the late seventeenth century noted: "Here you Enter the guard Chamber adorn'd with Pikes, Halberts, Brownettes, Daggers and Pistols and with Bandileers or pouches for ammunition, all set in workes and figures about the Hamscote, over the Chimney Pistolls and Daggers set like the starr in the garter."

Other rooms of the first floor

To the right of the entrance hall is a reception room, sixteen feet square and balancing it on the left a small family dining room. Both have fire places with marble mantels and little service closets. The great dining room, largest room in the main block, is paneled from floor to ceiling, while full height Corinthian pilasters flank the marble fireplace. The stair hall at the back has a coved ceiling ornamented by an oval enclosing the royal cypher of George I. The stairs with spirally twisted balusters rise under an elliptical arch to a landing. The carved baskets of fruit used as nevel finials were in vogue in houses of the Restoration (1660-1682). By secondary stairs (circular) the family avoided the inconvenience 12 of servants using the main stairs for cleaning purposes. The Palace interior fit the architectural standards of the early eighteenth century. A builder's dictionary of 1703 read: "The Genius of our Times is altogether for light Staircases, fine sash-windows, and lofty Ceilings...after the new way."

Second and third stories

The second story of the Palace contains the family bedrooms. Over the entrance hall is a sitting room, whose walls are paneled to a chair rail, but above the chair rail they are hung with tooled and gilded leather. The chief feature of the third story is a long central hall covered by an elliptical barrel vault. The circular stairs lead to a cupola where eight windows offer views of the garden, lagoon, and Palace Green.

Ballroom wing

Probably the Palace as originally planned had sufficient space for guests and townspeople; but more and more the taste of the times stressed entertainment of great numbers. In Great Britain fashionable houses grew in size and elaborateness. Even in Virginia special occasions grew increasingly popular. The governor needed a great room separate from the Palace proper but accessible to it. The ballroom wing at the north end was the answer. Probably Richard Taliaferro designed this long one-story addition, which was built about 1749 to 1751. Several present day writers have called the ballroom one of the most magnificent in Georgian architecture. Measuring 28' by 47', sets an atmosphere of splendor with [illegible] ceilings 18' in height, three crystal chandeliers, walls hung with gold-edged blue wall paper, and portraits of King 13 George III and Queen Charlotte dressed in robes of state.

Supper room

Beyond the ball room lies the supper room. Twenty-six feet square, it rises to a lofty coved ceiling with a central Waterford chandelier. Architects have reconstructed the room to the Chinese taste, pediments over the doors suggesting pagoda roofs and walls hung with a Chinese wall paper. The window casings are carved and their reveals paneled. Paneled dado and modillioned cornice complete the room.

Basement

The part of the Palace closest to the early days is the basement. Its floors are largely the original and untouched squares of Purbeck stone; its walls in part are also original for several feet above floor level. In some of the great-brick vaults the lower courses are original, and determine the height and center of the vault. Servants stored vegetables and wines in these compartments, which were common to almost all Virginia mansions. A fragment of the original wall preserved in the basement shows the brick bonding, the gouged window arch, string course, and rubbed jambs.

Interior woodwork

The woodwork of the Palace is typical of interiors for the first quarter of the eighteenth century, a time of distinct architectural restraint and severity of treatment. Builders generally left the ceiling in plain white or with occasional areas of plaster decoration, as in the coved ceilings. Mouldings were heavy, the bolection molds projecting boldly for framing panels and surrounding doorways and fireplaces. Builders wainscoted the walls to chair 14 rail height and often to the ceiling; they usually used pine or local walnut. The paneling was of the late seventeenth century with a series of narrow panels above the dado. Builders left walnut paneling natural, but painted grey such woods as pine and poplar. Before the addition of the ball room, paneling was to become wider and eventually disappear. Popular taste supplanted it with rich wall hangings in fabric, Chinese ornamentation, leathers— such as in the upper middle room—and imitations of masonry. The dado of woodwork at the wall base was more economical than over-all paneling. Most of the lesser rooms of the Palace are treated with dado and with plaster and cornice above.

Woods

Builders chose woods—such as American walnut, pine, poplar, chestnut, and cypress—for their special qualities. They used poplars to make turned balusters, cypress for window sills, cedar for shingles, pine and poplar for paneling. The local loblolly pine, an all purpose wood, served for most house framing, floors, and trim.

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Furnishing the Palace

Perhaps colonial America had no other dwelling of large size with a more complete record of its original furnishings than the Governor's Palace. Ten years before completion of the building the Assembly set aside £250 to buy the "necessary standing and ornamentall furniture," and ordered the overseer to secure them from Great Britain or "this country." (Here in 1710 was a striking recognition of the colonial craftsman.) Besides the standing furniture each governor brought his own. Gooch had "a great stock of all sorts" as well as a "large Quantity of Plate;" but ever mindful of his purse, he added that their sale was impossible without loss. The Council bought several pieces formerly in Drysdale's collection. A successor to the governorship might buy some of the possessions of his predecessors. Much that had belonged to Fauquier and Botetourt was given to the colony and left in the Palace.

Rich effect of the furnishing

A traveler observed: "The glory of the House of the Governors was its embellished interiors." Dados, paneling, bracketed cornices, marble chimney pieces, and the carved staircase called for richness of effect in furnishings. Walls painted in pearl grey and shades of blue set off the pieces of carved walnut and mahogany. Objects upholstered with needle point, damask, and moire fabrics, Dutch tile borders to fireplaces in blue and mulberry, chimney ornaments in Chelsea and Delft, and Turkey work carpets added to the splendid impression. Blues and greens were favorite colors; lesser use was made of reds, yellows, and browns.

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Palace furnishings a standard for Tidewater plantations
April 15, 1771

As the Palace set a standard in Tidewater plantation architecture, so it offered a norm of taste in furnishing. A Virginian who was building his house would only follow "a plain neat Manner." At the Palace he had observed how Lord Botetourt "had hung a room with plain blue paper and bordered it with a narrow stripe of gilt leather..." The effect was "very pretty," said the Virginian, who also wanted some plain "Chimney Pieces of gray Marble."

How furniture reflects the times

Study the inventory prepared after Lord Botetourt's death. An index for eighteenth century design, it serves to mirror the taste of the day. The beauty of the Palace furnishings was partly the way they reflect the character of their designers. The cabinet maker who followed the traditional or classical manner related fitness to purpose; he did not hide constructional lines but let them carry through. Each part harmonized with every other part and with the whole; ornament was subordinate to structure, but set against a plain background to achieve its full effect. The traditional designer followed the principles of classical architecture. By basing the proportions of his pieces on the classical orders he gained a high level of design and excellent proportion.

Old furniture offers a key to history. Restoration gayety is all but audible in the elaborate carving and turning of chairs and the colored marquetry of cabinets, desks, and clock cases. The reign of William and Mary was a period of transition. A chair of that time usually had a tall, narrow 17 back, crowned with a boldly curved crest. The designer stressed the vertical elements and especially the axis of the structural scheme. From 1700 to 1760, Great Britain was settling down in a prosperity born of commercial enterprise and demanded comfort. Furniture for those rich enough to enjoy sedentary lives must be solid and dignified; so design received a curvilinear rather than a rectangular emphasis. Cabinet makers curved the rails, splats, and seat rails of chairs, and made cabriole legs for tables and chairs.

Fashions in materials
Walnut
Mahogany

The Botetourt inventory revealed contemporary preferences in materials. Oak had been in vogue in the medieval, Elizabethan, and Jacobean periods. Fashionable people preferred walnut from the time of Charles II (1660) to Queen Anne (1700); during the reigns of the first two Georges both walnut and mahogany adorned houses like the Palace. Englishmen of taste prized Virginia walnut for its grain, usually straight and even. Cabinet makers valued it for lathing as well as for bedsteads, chairs, tables, and cabinets; this wood was harder and smoother than Continental and English walnut. The Botetourt inventory mentions mahogany more frequently than walnut. Mid-eighteenth century has been called the age of mahogany in furniture making. The West Indies exported much of it to Great Britain and the colonies. Lord Dunmore set down "a quantity of Mahogany" among his war losses.

Oriental craze

The inventory also shows that the Palace shared in the 18 Oriental craze. It lists waiters, ink stands, cake baskets, candle sticks, and tables as "Japanned" along with Nanking, China and "8 green bamboo chairs with decked cushions in the Chamber over the Dining Room." Now the Palace houses more than antiques; it also contains a record of diverging attitudes. Ever since the days of Marco Polo travelers had expressed admiration of Far Eastern porcelain and its decoration; but by the eighteenth century the Orient was becoming better known to Europeans for lacquer, wallpaper, Chinese silks, and Indian chints. By 1750 the fondness for things Chinese had become a craze. Eastern art startled the European because it embodied ideas of beauty to which his eye was unaccustomed; yet it rapidly gained an immense popularity and gave a new direction to western taste.

Chinese porcelain

Queen Mary II intensified the vogue for porcelain. She brought a taste for Chinese things from Holland, where importations of the Dutch East India Company had long fostered an interest in Oriental art. The Chinese decorator scattered blossoms and quaint scenes on the surface of the vase with a naturalistic disregard for uniformity, but with an intuitive feeling for the balance and spacing of masses of color. Yet nothing could compensate the classicist for the absence of perspective and proportion in the representation of landscapes. No matter how perfect when judged from its own principles of design, an asymmetrical and two dimensional art had little in common with the ideals of Renaissance classic art and was, indeed in conflict with it. Although the best types of Chinese 19 porcelain came to Europe, the odd and freakish unfortunately molded western taste. Traders largely decided what should be carried West; they chose inferior porcelains, so helping to form the mistaken impression that Chinese art was grotesque and bizarre.

Chinese Lacquer

Because Catherine Braganza, queen of Charles II, brought from Portugal the finest Oriental lacquers that had ever been seen in England, British mansions soon became distinguished for the quantity and quality of their lacquer furniture. Lacquer screens, chest, and cabinets, as well as such smaller objects as trays, fans, snuff boxes, and toilet cases enjoyed aristocratic favor. The principles guiding the decoration of lacquer had nothing in common with classicism. Highly stylized, the depiction of landscape followed conventions that had been crystallizing for centuries. Since the craftsman knew nothing of perspective, he treated the features of an outdoor scene as objects in a single plane, and accordingly placed them above one another. The result was often a beautiful pattern which was all the more decorative for not being hampered by a desire for realism.

Chinese Wallpaper

Wallpapers gradually gave the interiors of many British houses an oriental cast. Here the representation of landscapes was conventionalized in accord with established traditions, while the depiction of birds and flowers was extraordinary for realistic fidelity. As in the decoration of porcelain and lacquer, the design in wallpaper was one of balance without symmetry. The gracefully bending branches of the flowering 20 shrub suggesting the spontaneity and freedom of natural growth. This treatment was a novelty to seventeenth-century Europe, when chipped and hornbeam hedges gave an architectural formality to the garden dominated by Renaissance ideas of order. Traditional English practice in paper decoration was in marked contrast to the Chinese pattern. Developed in sixteenth century England, "flock" papers had from the first the dignified designs of the Renaissance; symmetry and emphasis were their most obvious characteristics. The decoration of oriental paper consisted of a series of strips making up a large pictorial pattern, where relatively small units of design were indefinitely repeated. Because Chinese wallpaper became increasingly popular in the eighteenth century, it sometimes replaced tapestries, leather, or velvet hangings, which had previously been the principal modes of covering walls.

The chair in the Chinese style

British cabinet makers who turned out furniture in the Chinese style had no special knowledge of oriental art; they followed their fancy and hints of Chinese construction gleaned from porcelain and lacquer. What gave a chair in the Chinese style of Chippendale its character was the fret-work forming the back, the central panel of straight diagonal bars making a pattern. The axial line received less stress. This was an important change in chair design, partly indicating a reaction against Renaissance formality. The chair in the Chinese style of Chippendale had an unobtrusive dignity, an admirable stability of construction, and was not aggressively oriental.

Chinese chintz

Back in 1498, cotton goods or chintz made its dramatic appearance, when Vasco da Gama returned from India; then in the 21 seventeenth-century Europe saw an invasion of this fabric of Indian manufacture. Embellished in striking colors with exotic patterns of birds, flowers, vines, and long sprays of foliage, chintz influenced both clothes and interior furnishings of the classic era. Like the Chinese decorator, the Indian craftsman exercised restraint and did not crowd his pattern with the "sterile abundance" of detail, allowing space for the growth and display of his design. Contrast this with Italian and French brocades of the seventeenth century; here the masses of color were coordinated by the requirements of a uniform pattern repeated at regular intervals, expressing an abstract conception of beauty foreign to the imagination of the Indian textile designer. European patterns had expressed great variety, but textile design had been in the harness of a formal symmetry for centuries. The freer, more relaxed patterns of Indian chintz represented an ideal developed by another kind of civilization and a more intimate sympathy with nature. Queen Mary brought chintz into fashion in England, when she ordered for the royal apartment a "chintz bed, which, in those times, was invaluable, the chintz being of Masslapatan on the coast of Coromandel, the finest that was ever seen before that time in England." In the eighteenth century the fabric grew in popularity among all classes. Nearly every woman desired a chintz room, one to be set aside for special guests whom she wished to honor and impress.

Argument of the Classicist against Orientalism

Eastern art introduced elements of playfulness, humor, and waywardness into surroundings whose dominant notes were dignity, stateliness, formality, and order. Classicists viewed 22 it with alarm, fearing the "antic" quality of oriental decoration. Its dangerous attractions, they contended, would gradually impair the capacity for enjoying the beauties of the Italians and those who were inspired by the ancients. Good taste had to be developed; it called for constant disciplining of wayward preferences, and based its standards from long acquaintance with the great works of acknowledged masters. Admiration of the badly proportioned art of the Far East inevitably blossomed into bad taste. In the long run ethical standards would suffer, because the appreciation of art linked to morality.

Contribution of oriental art

The classical and oriental lived side by side in the Palace. The naturalistic patterns of the Far East were alien elements, but they did not jar with the formal. If there was a quarrel, it existed in the minds of men and what they thought life ought to be. Oriental art helped educate the eye and accustom it to a freer play of line and a more irregular spacing of masses. By broadening the sympathies of taste, it enabled men to find fresh satisfaction in unfamiliar expression of art.

Portrait painting

In Great Britain King William was supposedly responsible for an increased interest in painting among the nobility and men of wealth. Vanity characterized this epoch of vigor and expansion, wrote one critic, "and the personal conceit of the sitter was only equalled by the technical conceit of the artist." The British expected their artists to confine their attention to portraiture, leaving landscape to foreigners. The wealthy Virginian took pride in the portrait adorning his walls. Perhaps Sir Godfrey Kneller or Sir Peter Lely had painted him on 23 his last visit to London. John Wolaston, a wandering artist, traveled the colony, and counted Mary Ball Washington, Thomas Mann Randolph, and other prominent Virginians among his patrons.

The Evelyn Byrd portrait

Charles Bridges left portraits of Lucy Park Byrd, Mrs. Lewis Burwell, and others. The painting of Evelyn Byrd now hangs in the Palace. The appearance of a red cardinal in the upper corner of the canvas forms part of the evidence that Eridges painted this portrait in America. Evelyn Byrd wears the blue-green robe of a shepherdess; a straw hat wreathed with morning glories lies in her lap. "...she wears a knot of our same flowers in her hair, one brown lock escaping upon her shoulder, a little accrochecour (a kind of hair net) upon her brow."

Prints

Prints also enjoyed great vogue in this period. Alexander Spotswood probably owned the largest collection, composed of twenty small and forty-two large mezzotints. The inventory taken after his death showed that Lord Botetourt owned several prints.

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The Assembly authorizes a garden 1710

The great Sir Francis Bacon wrote: "When Ages grow to Civility...Men come to Build Stately, sooner than to Garden Finely." (1625). The Virginians, however, succeed in doing both with distinction. To carry out the impressions of the governor's high office the Assembly decided that he must have a garden. The act of 1710 authorized the laying out of a courtyard, whose dimensions were "proportionable" to the house. A brick wall four feet high "with Ballustrades of Wood" was to enclose the courtyard as well as a garden measuring 254 feet by 154 feet.

Spotswood beautifies the gardens 1710
February 8, 1711
April 18, 1717
1718

Governor Spotswood enjoyed the "quiet Country manner" of living. No "Crowd of Company" or "Throng of Business" anxiously pressed him; but he found an Englishman's pleasure in setting out gardens and orchard and "finishing a large House...designed (at the Country's charge) for the reception of their Governours." William Byrd brought him fifty black cherry trees. The governor wanted to make a "vista" southward through wooded land belonging to John Custis. Custis granted permission to cut firewood, but Spotswood "cut down all before him such a wideness as he thought fitt." A man of taste, Spotswood took pride in his gardens. His defence against charges of wasting the country's wealth read in part: "I often walked and freely talked with...(the Burgesses) concerning the works then in hand and offered if ye assembly did not care to bear ye expense of the Fish-Pond and Falling Gardens, to take them to myself."

Repairs and alterations
1726
1737
1749-1751
1768

The Garden like the Palace demanded continual repairs 25 and alterations. Thomas Crease, gardener of the College, "with his labourers" put the gardens in order. His services were frequent and costly. The Council paid ten pounds to Philip Fench for "laying and planting the Avenue to the Governor's House." The trees were either lindens or catalpas. According to Jefferson's notes, the two rows measured 100 feet apart.. When the colony built the ballroom wing, the old garden walls were probably demolished and new ones built at a greater distance. Diagonally set brick piers bearing ball finials regularly punctuated the brick walls. Newly arrived in Williamsburg, Lord Botetourt wrote: "My House is admirable, the ground behind it is much broke well planted & watered by beautiful Rills, & the whole in every respect just as I could wish..."

1724-1734

The Palace had one of the great formal gardens of Virginia. Whatever new plants the gardeners introduced here very likely became popular in the gardens of the gentry. Only Governor Berkeley's grounds preceded and rivaled those of the Palace in extent and elegance. The garden of John Custis in Williamsburg must have been one of the most interesting in the colonies. It gave him "more satisfaction than...anything in this world." The Palace gardeners might well have experienced the troubles Custis suffered, when his seeds and plants arrived from England ruined due to the carelessness ignorance of officers and crews. Attorney General John Randolph took great pride and experimental interest in his Williamsburg garden; for the aid of his friends he wrote the first book on gardening in the colonies.

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Forecourt
(See glossary of terms for gardening)

The Bodleian plate clearly indicates the forecourt with its four oval planting beds, stone walks, narrow entrance gate, and curved enclosing walls. Excavations proved that foundations existed for these structures. The planting design of yew and periwinkle fit naturally into the scheme. At the rear of the west flanking building the service yard contains the usual buildings for the upkeep of a large household. The builders set this noisy bustling area as far away from the living quarters as demands of service would allow.

Ballroom garden
North garden

The excavation of the wall foundations established the boundaries of the ballroom garden. The main building axis and foundations of the north gate set the line for the broad central walk. The east and west gate foundations determined the cross walks. The Bodleian engraving provided the detailed design of the diamond shaped parterres. The Botetourt inventory listed "12 leaden & six stone flower Potts." Reproductions of the latter now flank each of the three flights of stairs, although two extra ones were placed near the steps to the supper room and four on the great vista. Twelve large red cedars flank the ballroom and extend into the north garden, which continues at a slightly lower level on each side of the main central axis. Topiary, pleached arbors, and tulip beds in the Dutch manner are typical of early eighteenth-century planting. The architectural enclosure of brick wall with interspersed piers, elegant iron work of the gates, clairvoyse, steps and decorative piers with lead vases, and the corner necessary houses were set at forty-five degrees and not parallel with the walls as shown in the Bodleian engraving. Through the clairvoyse the governor 27 could enjoy the extended vista through his park. In Great Britain the lord of the manor usually reserved his park for hunting, but over here the Virginian generally used it for farming.

Gardens east and west

The bowling green lies to the east of the ballroom garden; to the west a garden is laid out in a quadrangle of squares and circles. Next to this parterre is the Revolutionary graveyard. Excavations uncovered 156 graves of soldiers. The Restoration has rededicated this plot and planted a weeping willow in their memory.

Fruit Garden
Maze
Mount

To the north a brick wall encloses a fruit garden and vineyard. Listed in the garden inventories are nectarines and figs; the gardeners have espaliered these trees against the brick wall. The mount and maze are late seventeenth century landscape features carried over into the early years of the next century. The Palace maze follows the pattern of the famous one at Hampton Court Palace, where William and Mary generally resided. Although remains were found almost intact on the east and north sides, the mount was rebuilt over the existing ice house. The landscape designers left in position the good-sized trees growing at the top; they built flights of steps and a walk at the mid-level and placed railing and seats around the top. From the top the governor possibly enjoyed a view of the garden pattern and the maze and canal. Perhaps he sat on the summit grand as an Olympian deity, delighted in the shrieks and laughter of friends caught in the maze below.

Canal and fishpond
Terrace

Today the canal measures 45 feet wide and 550 feet long, and is as nearly intact as in the colonial period. Springs 28 and a brook fill the formal canal, which widens into an informal fishpond at its northern end. The high slope on the west is probably natural. The terraces or "falls" on the east are original and conform to the indications of the Frenchman's map. The three flights of brick steps have been reconstructed at the old height, width, and slope.

A landmark in the history of gardening

The Palace presents the rare opportunity of following the course of English gardening. Here is an example of the fullest development of the garden within walls; it also points the way to the landscape garden beginning in England about 1710.

Walled garden of the late Middle Ages

English gardens of the late Middle Ages were usually square enclosures bounded by walls, wooden palisades, or thick hedges. Men originally adopted walls for safety, but later kept them for beauty and shelter. The garden generally had two entrances; the one opened from the house and the other led to the orchard and meadow. Within the enclosure the gardener made all neat and trim; he piled up banks of earth against the walls. He generally faced them with turf, but sometimes the facing was either brick or stone. The gardener planted the slope with sweet-smelling herbs, made seats or benches of turf, and set them at intervals; he covered little paths with sand or gravel, and kept them free from weeds. No garden was complete without its arbor placed either in a nook in the wall or in a part of the garden sheltered by a thick hedge. The gardener intertwined trees with climbing plants to screen any occupants of the arbor from intruding eyes.

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Sixteenth Century innovations Mount at Hampton Court

The sixteenth century brought many innovations, as the garden expanded beyond the castle wall. One of the first was a railed bed or flower beds enclosed by low fences of trellis work. The ancient art of topiary, a novelty in the early Tudor period, soon became a conspicuous garden feature. The mount gave people the added pleasure of enjoying a view. Gardeners usually made it of earth and covered the sides with planting. People ascended the mount be "stairs of precious workmanship," or a spiral path planted on either side with shrubs, out in quaint shapes, or with sweet-smelling herbs and flowers. A man could use the mount as a lookout or watchtower. If the garden or orchard happened to lie in a park, where herds of deer browsed close to its walls, a hunter found the mount a good point from which to shoot a buck. An arbor or more substantial building often crowned its top. Probably the finest specimen of this kind of ornament, the mount at Hampton Court lay at the southern end of the "King's New Garden." Laborers raised it on a brick foundation, piled up the earth, and planted quicksets and three pear trees. On the top stood elaborate arbors connected by galleries of wooden poles and trellis work; over these climbed creepers, vines, roses, and honeysuckle.

Knots or knotted beds

Another sixteenth-century feature was the knot or knotted bed. Gardeners laid them out in curious and complicated geometrical patterns; either they raised the earth in knots a little, keeping it in place by borders of brick and tile, or they lot the earth stay on the same level as the path, and then made divisions with something like box or thrift. Gardeners generally planted the beds inside their thick margins with ornamental 30 flowers or small shrubs, they frequently filled the knots with variously colored earth instead of plants.

Emergence of a national style

During the reign of Elisabeth I many Protestants sought refuge in England. New ideas from Holland, France, and Italy consequently influenced the British garden. The resulting style suited England better than either a strict imitation of the terraced gardens of Italy or a slavish devotion to those of Holland with their canals or fish ponds. There was no breaking away from old forms and customs, no sudden change. The primitive medieval yard grew into the pleasure-garden of the early Tudors, which in the Elizabethan era became more elaborate.

Elizabethan garden

The builder generally served as designer and laid out the Elizabethan garden in connection with the house. He usually placed a terrace in front of the house; from here one could survey the layout. Flights of steps and broad straight walks called "forthrights," connected various parts of the garden as well as the garden with the house. Smaller walks ran parallel with the terrace, and the spaces between were filled with grass plots, mazes, and knotted beds. The forthrights corresponded to the plan of the building, while the patterns in the beds and mazes harmonized with the architectural details. The peculiar geometric tracery surmounting so many Elizabethan houses found its counterpart in the flower bed designs. Householders generally preferred the square shaped flower bed, because it agreed best with their dwellings.

The garden still followed the main principle of an enclosure surrounded by a high wall. Since men of taste thought the view 31 from the mount too restricted for satisfaction, the designer raised a terrace along one side of the square wall. Terraces as a rule were wide and of handsome proportions with stone steps either at the ends or in the center; either a sloping grass bank or brick or stone wall helped support them. Walks were of several kinds—those in the open part of the garden with beds geometrically arranged on either side, and sheltered walks laid out between high clipped hedges, or between the main enclosure wall and a hedge. The gardener turfed some of the walks; others he planted with sweet smelling herbs, which when crushed under foot gave out a delightful fragrance. Trees meeting in an arch formed "court walks" or "shade alleys." A "pleached alley" promised shade and coolness in summertime.

Changes after 1660

Not until the French influence made itself felt in the Restoration did the garden alter substantially. So expansive was the vogue, and so obstinately did most Englishmen oppose French ideas that smaller seats and manor houses stuck to the older fashion. The bowling-green, which had come into fashion in the sixteenth century, was part of many gardens after 1660. With each estate it seemed to vary in form and size. One authority writes: "...there was generally a raised bench or terrace on one or more sides of the open green, frequently with a pavillion, from which the spectators looked on at the game; while the bowling-alley, on the contrary, was completely hidden by overshadowing trees." By the time of William and Mary the word "knot" had yielded to the French "parterre."

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The Palace as an English garden

The visitor who wants more than the surface of things can see at the Palace the features of the English garden as they developed from the Middle Ages to the early eighteenth century. Foreign ideas are present but only as the English assimilated them. Both French and Dutch gardens, for instance, featured the canal. Absent from the Governor's Palace were fountains like those at Versailles, where jets of water or cascades fell into stone basins; absent were waterworks of quaint forms and surprise arrangements typical of the Dutch garden. The bizarre use of topiary yielded to a quiet restraint in the ballroom garden. Yet the Palace followed the Renaissance tradition of the Dutch, whose gardens were made up of one clearly confined spatial unit after another. The gratings in the gates, looking into the adjourning country, mark the beginning of the new and more open style.

Aspects of change in the English garden

The Palace garden covers ten acres. By 1688 men of taste were building larger gardens than could be kept up in a formal style. Sir William Temple in 1685 detected the danger, writing: "As to the size of the garden which will perhaps in time grow extravagant among us, I think from four to five to seven acres is as much as any gentleman need design." The garden was ceasing to be an enclosure, and was already encroaching on the surrounding country. This desire to extend the prospect resulted in planning the park and avenues to correspond with the open spaces either at the side or at the ends of walks. It would seem that years before the advent of William Kent, the landscape designer, the English imagination 33 "had leaped the fence and found that all nature was a garden."

Criticism of Topiary
The genius of the place

Men of taste were tiring of topiary. Like many an Elizabethan, Sir Francis Bacon rejoiced in horticultural pageantry, but he protested against the abuse of topiary. Bacon would allow "little low hedges round like welts, with some pretty pyramids...and in some places, fair columns." Instead of cut hedges, alleys, arbors, and a few standard trees, gardens by 1700 displayed a confusion of cut bushes. Alexander Pope, the British poet, made topiary the butt of satire. Among clipped trees listed in a catalogue of his own imagining he noted: "Adam and Eve in yew, Adam a little shattered by the fall of the tree of knowledge in the great storm; Eve and the Serpant very flourishing. St. George in box, his arm scarce long enough, but will be in condition to stick the dragon by next April, A green dragon of the same, with a tail of ground ivy for the present (N. B.—These two not to be sold separately.) Divers eminent poets in bays, somewhat blighted, to be disposed of a penny worth. A quickset hog, shot up into a porcupine, by its being forgot a week in rainy weather." Joseph Addison, the essayist, pleaded for the tree "in all its Luxuriancy and Diffusion of Boughs and Branches." Generally indifferent to foreign styles, the English gentleman delighted in flowery thickets, singing birds, and clear, winding streams. Like many of his Royalist forebears, he disliked the city, but enjoyed a moderate fortune, the seclusion of a small country estate, and leisure for reading and study.

A formal or regular garden, said critics, showed no respect for the "genius of the place." Symmetry of identical 34 masses led to dullness, and straight lines to tedium. Pope protested:

"Grove nods at grove, each alley has a brother, And half the platform just reflects the other."

To respect the genius of the place meant to show consideration for its character. The imposition of a geometrical plan or an irregular site resulted in lost opportunities, especially loss of views. Pope counseled:

"He gains all points who pleasingly confounds Surprises, varies, and conceals the bounds."

The regular garden lacked variety of parts, charged critics; it failed to be a continual series of harmonious objects with new and delightful scenes at every step.

Emergence of the landscape garden

The landscape designer made the wall his first object of attack. Since it merely divided the yard into a series of "frittered enclosures," he knocked down the wall and introduced a fosse.^.."an attempt then deemed so astonishing," wrote Horace Walpole, son of the great prime minister, "that the common people called the Ha-Ha's to express their surprise at finding a sudden and unperceived check to their walk." Leveling, mowing, and rolling followed this "simple enchantment."..The designer made the parts beyond the fence harmonize with the lawn within, while he freed the garden from regularity and let it agree with the wilder country without. The beauty of the landscape lay in its strangely changing views.

Nature and liberty in the English landscape gardens

A protest against French artificiality, the landscape garden voiced the English call to follow nature. For their part the French had always taken pride in following nature. 35 The gardens of Versailles represented the ideal or a general nature, one which had been methodized, corrected, and amended. Now the English landscape garden came into existence between 1710 and 1730, when the triumph of Whig liberalism was established. A modern authority has written: "The free growth of the tree is obviously taken to symbolize the free growth of the individual, the serpentine path and rivulet the Englishman's freedom of thought, creed, and actions, and the adherence to nature in the grounds, the adherence to nature in ehtics and politics." In the course of the century differences between constitutional monarchy and continental autocracy grew irreconcilable; statesmen like Edmund Burke commented on this link between the English constitution and "the happy effect of following nature." Englishmen liked to think that trade and not the military spirit formed their taste. The irregular, informal garden tolerated and encouraged the incongruous and the grotesque as the way of nature and liberty; it was the enemy of the monumental and the formal, because to British eyes these qualities stood for artifice and autocracy.

Artificiality of landscape gardens

But in casting off one set of artificialities the landscape garden embraced another. Vistas opening on the picturesque became the order of the day, as gardens spread over vast tracts of land. Those stung with gardening madness delighted in walks whose aesthetic effects had been closely calculated. Making nature look natural took careful planning, especially where every prospect was supposed to please. Objects themselves were not so important as the many things they brought 36 to mind. Demands for variety, concealment, and surprise ultimately meant straining for effects. Designers either imported or had built grottos, obelisks, urns, temples, ruins, and a host of other devices which became part of a ludicrous effort to evoke the emotions. Thus, the garden, freed from uniformity and balanced structure, found itself shackled to sentimentality. In an effort to recapture simplicity persons of fashion destroyed old gardens; to make room for the new vogue they frequently created the deadliness of "affectation labouring to seem simple."

Importance of the landscape gardens

But the landscape garden made a definite contribution to man's growing love of nature. One writer has observed: "...the English had invented a new environment which was sensible, not only of visual values, but also of the reactions of such an environment on all states of the human mind..." In America there seemed little reason to cultivate the wilderness, but the governor reflected British taste by setting up a landscape garden to the north.

Plantation character of the Palace

This seat of governors with gardens bright also shared the character of plantations in Virginia. The Palace had an orchard, pasture, and kitchen garden; its lands were farmed in part; its own landing stood on Capitol Landing Creek, which was joined to the York River. To repeat, its building group with mansion house and advance buildings became the forerunner of the Tidewater plantation dwelling.

Act of 1710
September 18, 1787
Tools and implements Strayed horses

May 23, 1745
Botetourt's carriage horses

The act of 1710 specified the building of "a House of Wood...for housing Cattle, &...a House of Wood for Poultry... 37 with a Yard thereto enclosed". Expressing pleasure in his new Virginia home, Governor Gooch wrote his brother: "The House is an excellent one indeed, all manner of conveniences that you can imagine, an handsome garden, an orchard full of fruit, and a very large Park, now turn'd to a better use I think than Deer, which is feeding of all sorts of cattle, as soon as I can stock it." The Botetourt inventory indicates many different kinds of gardening tools and park implements. From time to time the Virginia Gazette published ads about horses strayed from Palace land. The tone of each notification seemed to deepen in severity. One read: "Stol'n or strayed away, about the middle of April last...a large black Gelding...Whoever brings the said Horse to the Subscriber's Dwelling-house in Williamsburg, shall have a Pistole Reward, and no Questions ask'd by me." After Botetourt's death Councilor William Nelson bought his lordship's cream-white carriage horses. He probably sold them all, except a pair to William Byrd III, who transferred them to George Washington for £130.

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Passing of the gentleman
November 10, 1742

The Palace and garden were built to accommodate an English gentleman. He was more than an ordinary human being, because the concept of the gentleman grew out of Christian and aristocratic ideals of gentility. To Governor Gooch his dead son embodied all that was gentlemanly. "As a Christian, he was Pious, Just and Charitable: as a Gentleman, good natured, sober and of good manners, and besides, a great Proficient in Mathematicks, for which he had a surprising Genius, understood all the polite accomplishments, such as Dancing, Riding and Fencing, making by his Height, near Six Foot, shape and air, a very genteel appearance in any of those Exercises." We in the twentieth century have wasted few tears over the passing of this ideal that once sought to reconcile the natural man with courtly aspirations; it proved incompatible with the necessities for specialization, the scientific outlook, the creed of commercial success, and humanitarian notions of the brotherhood of man.

The gentleman's stature rested on the acceptance of inequality in mankind. Some were set apart to lead and rule as a natural and inherited right, while others were foreordained to labor in humbler stations. Mutual and obligations cemented the two orders together; but the families of wealthy merchants constantly moved into the ranks of the English gentry. This steady replenishment from the middle class helped keep aristocratic ideals alive. County families did not accept as their equal the rich tradesman who aped his "betters" and bought a manor house; but memories of his origin faded with time, and his children were received as gentlewomen and gentlemen.

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Characteristics of a gentleman

The most apparent characteristic denoting the gentleman was attention to manners. Grace and dignity of deportment at once distinguished a person of gentle breeding from the yokel. Gentlemanly manners came from awareness of a position to maintain, and an example to set. His courtesy was second nature, and he could adapt himself to any situation. As nature in the garden required editing to bring out its beauties, so did the gentleman need training to win refinement, grace of body, dignity of bearing, and a polished speech. Truth and honor were the basis of his moral code. Lying, meanness, cheating at cards, betraying a friend, and cowardice were unpardonable offenses; but sins of the flesh and occasional lapses from sobriety were not sufficient cause for loss of face. Decorum and justice, however, demanded that he not appear as the seducer of innocence and that he provide for his illegitimate children.

Golden mean

The gentleman trod a path between extremes. He stressed the worldly virtues of fortitude, temperance, prudence, justice, liberality, and courtesy; as a Christian he aspired to piety and devotion. Honor was the mainspring of his actions. By dueling he defended his good name from assault, although an increasing number of thoughtful men in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries warned against the futility of bloodshed.

The art of pleasing
The Palladian gentleman

By mastering the art of pleasing, the gentleman achieved the politer graces. He was expected to dance, ride, fence, and converse with ease. Ability in music was not an absolute. If the gentleman played an instrument, any one of the strings were 40 preferable to woodwinds, because the latter called for puffing out the cheeks and produced a vulgar appearance. The age of classical architecture desired that expressions of personality avoid the individualistic. Behavior should possess the uniformity and repose of a classical facade. A plain person could be attractive, if there was sensibility in the eyes, good humor in the face, and a slight smile about the mouth. No one expressed these eighteenth-century ideals better than Lord Chesterfield, who would build the mansion of the soul on the orders of Palladio. The Tuscan was the strongest and most solid, he said, but true adornment called for cultivation of the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian orders, if one wishes people to knock on the door.

Lord Albermarle a master of the art of pleasing

What man had mastered the art of pleasing better than Lord Albermarle, a governor of Virginia who never lived in the Palace? Lord Chesterfield thought him a model fit for an aspiring gentleman to study; for Albermarle apparently thought of people as they were, not as they ought to be, addressing the senses and weaknesses of men but rarely their reason. Chesterfield wrote his son: "...what do you think made our friend Lord Albermarle Colonel of a regiment of Guards, Governor of Virginia, Groom of the Stole, and Ambassador to Paris; amounting in all to sixteen or seventeen thousand pounds a year? Was it birth? No, a Dutch gentleman only. Was it his estate? No, he had none. Was it his learning, his part, his political abilities and application?.... Many people wondered, but I do not; for I know...It was his air, his address, his manners, and his graces. He 41 pleased, and by pleasing became a favourite, and becoming a favourite, became all that he has been since. Show me one instance where intrinsic worth and merit, unassisted by exterior accomplishments, have raised any man so high."

Stricture on laughter

The demand for symmetry and proportion in conduct, alternative names for decorum, implied disapproval of spontaneity and the free play of emotions. Chesterfield singled out loud laughter for censure. This folly occasioned a "shocking distortion" of the face and a disagreeable noise; this was the way of the mob expressing its "silly joy at silly things." True wit pleased the mind and made for cheerfulness; but it never excited the countenance into anything so ill bred as a laugh!

Sports of the gentleman

The sports of the gentleman must be in keeping with his dignity. Fence and wrestle he might with members of his own class, remembering that fair play distinguished the gentleman from the uncouth clown. As in all other encounters of life he must display courage and daring. Though mentors of deportment might deplore preoccupation with hunting, their disapproval scarcely stopped the gentry from hunting with hawks, hounds, and guns. Should the governor of Virginia leave the Palace to hunt, he would possibly seek deer. Fleet of foot, they made a fast moving target that called for instant aim and fire. Whether he went fox hunting is open to question. Defined by an English wit as "the unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable." Fox hunting had to wait another century to win social importance. The eighteenth century generally treated foxes as vermin and 42 knocked them on the head. Perhaps the governor hunted water fowl as a trial of marksmanship. Whether he went bear hunting along the frontier is doubtful.

Reading the badge of the educated gentleman

To improve his mind the gentleman made a habit of reading books. Nothing was more fatuous than to see an empty head in possession of a well furnished library. One complaint read: "...to desire to have many books, and never use them, is like a child that will have a candle burning by him all the while he is sleeping." Learning had long been recognized as one of the highways to gentility, but its possession did not always insure social success. The sign of an educated gentleman could be seen in his familiarity with writers of classical antiquity.

Botetourt's library at the Palace

Lord Botetourt's library at the Palace revealed the qualities and tastes of an eighteenth-century gentleman. The one hundred titles represent 314 volumes. A few wealthy planters had much larger libraries, but Botetourt had a greater number of books than most home libraries. In colonial libraries English literature averaged about thirteen per cent of the total. In Botetourt's library it constituted eleven per cent, the titles representing popular selections of the period. Literary men of the eighteenth century did not hold themselves down to belles lettres exclusively; sometimes they became involved in political writing. Successfully clothing Tory propaganda in wit and satire were the works of Swift. They found a place on the governor's shelves together with the popular novels, Fool of Quality, Tom Jones, and Joseph Andrews. In an era dominated by neo-classical 43 taste it was understandable that Botetourt admired Alexander Pope. Milton enjoyed little popularity, but the beauties of Paradise Lost apparently impressed the governor. A set of Shakespeare was not then as it is today the cornerstone of any well rounded library; but to Botetourt's credit he owned the edition by Hanmer and the tribute by Garrick. His love of drama may be inferred from the ten volumes of unidentified plays in addition to the identified collection of Robert Dodsley.

The governor owned nearly as many books in French as in English. These were remarkable for their spirit of tolerance, liberality, and idealism. French thought in the eighteenth century had taken a revolutionary caste; to find a royal governor countenancing so many challenging theses was note-worthy. The large number of dictionaries presented an adequate and practical philological collection. They surely contributed to the urbanity of address and ease of manner for which this statesman and nobleman was noted. Entirely absent were Greek and Hebrew dictionaries frequently found in large scholarly libraries of the time. The educated Virginia gentleman considered a knowledge of Greek and Latin essential for preserving and manifesting the amenities of a cultivated life. Lord Botetourt, however, may have known little Latin and less Greek; he possibly shunned anything that suggested the abstruse.

Philosophical works consisted of the stoicism of Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius Antonius, the experimentalism of Bacon, the 44 materialism of Locke, and the skepticism of Voltaire. Twenty titles indicated Lord Botetourt's interest in history, travel, and biography. Titles on law, political science, and history made up the governor's professional library. The largeness of this group suggested a conscientious desire to administer as wisely as possible. Lord Botetourt was vitally concerned with the strained relations between England and its colonies. Burke's Account of the European Settlements in America might have served him as a guide to bring about conciliation and peace. Burke supported the right of Parliament to legislate for the colonies but realized it was sometimes impractical; he understood that the use of military power to enforce the laws would be more disastrous to Great Britain than to the colonies. His concern was more with the advisability of making people happy than with the right to make them miserable. Botetourt could have held similar opinions, when he dissolved the Assembly on May 17, 1769, after it had passed resolutions denouncing the royal order to transport persons accused of treason to England. As governor, Botetourt could not countenance such an expression, but he sympathized with the Virginians even in this trying situation.

For books on the philosophy of political science Lord Botetourt drew on liberal French writers, Montesquieu and Mirabeau. Infrequently found in colonial Virginia libraries, these volumes would indicate a recognition of the problems of civilisation, government, and politics of the time; they revealed a preoccupation that went beyond the colonies themselves 45 in the search for first principles.

Botetourt had been sent to America to conciliate the people and increase the popularity of the king. But the five titles on military science show that he was still commander-in-chief in Virginia. The library fell below the average in religion and the practical arts. The Charter, Transfer, and Statutes of the College of William and Mary indicate another of the governor's official duties; for participation in the affairs of the royal college was one of his obligations. Botetourt served as a member of the Board of Visitors and as Rector. His interest and pride in the college, however, seemed to have been genuine and above mere duty. The library contained a few books on gardening and agriculture. An enthusiasm for subjects of this kind distinguished the man of parts, especially if his garden and farm were as remarkable as those of the Palace. Falconer's Universal Dictionary of the Marine might have served the governor in his capacity as vice-admiral of Virginia. To find Stephen Hales' Treatise on Ventilators was unusual, because the colonist knew little of the work of this English scientist. Only wildest speculation can account for the sixteen copies listed in the governor's inventory. Botetourt's interest in natural science was slender and apparently satisfied by Pliny's Natural History. Books on physics, chemistry, astronomy and mathematics were beyond his interest. For current information and latest statistics he depended on newspapers and the Virginia Almanack for the colony and the Gentleman's Magazine and the Court and City 46 Register for England.

Botetourt's library suggested a well-informed, actively interested reader. The books belonged to a man of affairs, discriminating, and of an inquiring mind; in nor respect did they suggest the scholar who loved learning for its own sake. The titles of English literature suggested popular books of the period; those of French literature were dramas, romances, and comedies. Philosophical works stressed the political and economic rather than the metaphysical. Political unrest and social consciousness and questioning were characteristic of the group as a whole. With Virginians thinking about colonial rights, passing resolves against exportation of prisoners to England for trial, joining in associations for non-importation of English manufactures and holding secret meetings in the Raleigh Tavern, Lord Botetourt had little time and probably less heart for solitary reflection on abstract matter. His contemporaries spoke of him with praise, John Page Jr., noting: "...He is universally esteemed here for his great assiduity in his office, condescension, good nature, and true Politeness." From the books in his library we today can catch a glimpse of the man, an active, educated social person, interested in and concerned with the realities of government and statesmanship and a wide reader for his own enjoyment and knowledge.

The Virginian as a reader

Perhaps the Virginian did more purposeful reading than Lord Botetourt. With the help of religious books, the planter tried to lead a good life and prepare for the next world. The classics set an example of patriotism and statesmanship; they provided models of literary style and a source of moral inspiration. 47 The Virginian turned to British and colonial laws for the settlement of local disputes. Books on accounting had direct practical importance. Mechanical treatises gave advice on how to care for the sick. A society intent on keeping the heritage of a gentleman had read of books of etiquette. No library in colonial Virginia could match William Byrd's collection of 3,438 volumes.

Gentleman as amateur

To become too expert in any skill or particular field of knowledge would destroy the nice balance and symmetry so much praised by writers on aristocratic education; the gentleman must rest content with being an amateur. His familiarity with architecture should not necessarily include a thorough knowledge of practical problems; these must be left to masons and bricklayers.

Spotswood as gentleman in architecture
Fauquier as gentleman in science

Governor Spotswood was an example of the gentleman as architect who won a reputation for taste and skill in interior design as well as exterior architecture. To him goes the credit for the final appearance and interior architecture of the Governor's Palace. Skilled in drawing and the selection of his material, Spotswood used his knowledge of mathematics as the "basis of his skill in architecture, & in the laying out of grounds to best advantage." One of Spotswood's first works was the Public Magazine. The designer of Bruton Church, he also assisted in the rebuilding of the College of William and Mary. The gentleman in science found a model in Governor Fauquier. A "curious" observer of natural phenomena, he delighted in discussions of current philosophical problems. On 48 an unusually hot day in July a strange hailstorm descended on Williamsburg. In a letter to the Royal Society Fauquier described the size and shape of the hailstones with scientific precision. The storm broke every pane of glass on the north side of the Palace and wrecked the garden. The next day Fauquier cooled his wine and froze cream with some of the ice. Perhaps the governor taught young Jefferson his first ideas about recording of winds and temperature; because Fauquier kept a diary of the weather in Williamsburg during Jefferson's college days. Under the governor's patronage was founded the Society for the Advancement of Useful Knowledge. Formed in imitation of the Royal Society, it devoted itself to the stimulation of the arts, manufactures, and science.

The social ideal and departures from it

The minuet expressed the social ideal of the time in its measured movements, its ceremonious formality, and its dignity tempered by grace. The same habit of thought, the same regard for repose and restraint, created a code of etiquette that was in harmony with the architectural environment. But in Great Britain and Virginia grand manners often went hand in hand with the worst coarseness. Gooch tried to legislate men into virtue but signally failed. Drinking and gambling on horses so shocked Governor Dinwiddie that he asked the Assembly to take action against these forms of immoderation. But with his love of learning and magnificence of manner Fauquier was everything a gallant Virginian could wish. To the Palace came the great landholders, who thought him the "compleat gentleman." Because of his own gambling, Fauquier had a 49 part in making it a fashionable vice; but recklessness was in the air, as men found few great things to do in the early 1760's.

Reproduction of the gentlemanly ideal in America
July 20, 1733

Planter aristocracy reproduced the pattern of the British gentleman. Gooch paid the Virginians a supreme compliment, when he wrote that they were "perfectly well bred, not an ill dancer in my government." The wealthy hired tutors for their sons, and later sent them to the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg or to Oxford University in England. Each year the College managed to present the governor with two Latin poems required as quit rent. Governor Gooch noted: "My son...is not fond of Greek and Latin, tho' I keep him to them, but is a Dab at Mathematicks." This loving father could scarcely bear the thought of separation, when his child must return to complete his education in England. But by 1770 a planter was writing: "I believe everybody begins to laugh at English education; the general importers of it nowadays bring back only a stiff prigishness with as little good manners as possible."

Colonial modifications of the gentlemanly ideal

Colonial conditions were clearly modifying the Pattern of the English gentleman. Abundant lands meant a rapid adding of new members to the gentry. The attitudes of Virginians were more practical than those of Englishmen. Because he gave close attention to business affairs, the British colonial was less given to disparaging trade and commerce. To guard against a generation of boors and country bumpkins the Virginian possibly placed more stress on education than the English. According 50 to the Reverend Hugh Jones, the early eighteenth century planters of Virginia were "generally diverted, by business or inclination, from profound study and prying into the depth of things" and "more inclinable to read men by business and conversation, than to dive into books." An intelligent Virginian found instruction in pleasure. Evening dinners at the Palace with Fauquier and his friends brought delight and enlightenment to Thomas Jefferson.

Servants
February 7, 1711

Slavery modified the gentlemanly ideal, introducing a note of harshness. Governor Gooch noted: "Some masters use their Negroes no better than their cattle and I can see no help for it, tho' for the greater number the masters here are kinder than those the labourers in England serve." In the governor, planters usually found a model plantation master. Governors and servants knew jolly times. They must have followed the old English custom of celebrating January 6, or Twelfth Night with revelry. Drinking cider and drawing the Twelfth Cake were part of the evening's fun. The cook frosted the large cake and ornamented it with a bean or coin. The one who received the ornament became the "king" or "queen" of the feast. Governor Spotswood let his servants get drunk on any other day as long as they stayed sober on the Queen's birthday. "They observed their contract," wrote William Byrd the second, "and did their business very well, and got very drunk today...but the cook in that condition made a shift to send in a pretty little dinner. I ate some mutton cutlets."

To Gooch the task of providing the Palace with suitable 51 servants was not easy. One who came with good recommendations suffered from lovesickness, an excuse which he used to the neglect of all interests but his own. Another with a taste for tippling badgered the governor for money. A convict serving as overseer of slaves and servants not only confessed ignorance of his duties but displayed a love of idleness, extravagance, and drink.

Fauquier went to his grave hoping he had been a merciful master. He gave his slaves six months to choose their own masters, and provided that the women and children were not to be parted, charging the cost of maintenance to his estate. Fauquier left one servant an unspecified amount for her faithfulness and care during his last illness. So ably had she managed kitchen expenses that she had saved him "several hundred pounds," whereas she could easily have defrauded him of the same amount.

Lord Botetourt brought over many white servants, but soon he "found it convenient and necessary to purchase and hire Negroes to assist in the business of his family, and do the Drudgery without Doors." On the death of the Governor, William Marshman and Thomas Fuller were singled out as devoted servants. For his reward Marshman received "all Lord Botetourt's wearing apparall and body Linnen."

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Opinion of travelers

The Governor's Palace belonged to the world of appearance and change that men call history. It took on importance as Williamsburg grew in prestige. The Reverend Hugh Jones noted: "...at the Governor's House upon Birth-Nights, and at Balls and Assemblies, I have seen as fine an Appearance, as good Diversion, and as splendid Entertainments in Governor Spotswood's Time, as I have seen anywhere else." During Spotswood's administration the colonists set up the important public buildings and private houses; they also had the streets levelled and much improved. Governor Nicholson was generally regarded as the founder of Williamsburg, but credit for its development belonged to Spotswood. Yet his architectural triumphs failed to attract some travelers, who thought that art stopped short in the Georgian court of Virginia. "Williamsburg is a most wretched contriv'd affair..." said one observer. "There is nothing considerable in it, but the College, the Governor's House, and one or two more, which are no bad Piles..." The Reverend Andrew Burnaby remarked: "...There are few public edifices that deserve to be taken notice of; those which I have mentioned...are far from being magnificent. The Governor's Palace indeed, is tolerably good, one of the best upon the continent..." Burnaby at least granted that Williamsburg had the advantage of being free from mosquitoes and a pleasant seat of government, although its unpaved streets made for a lot of dust in warm weather. During sessions of the Assembly and General Court the country gentry crowded into Williamsburg from the country. After they dispatched public business they returned home, and the town appeared deserted.

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Palace as the center of social life

With the dawn of the French and Indian War when Virginia assumed leadership in meeting the French threat, Williamsburg grew in importance in official and unofficial life. It became the focal point for the wealth, elegance, and culture of Virginia society, No other American colony could compare with it in this respect. Virginians modeled their society as closely as possible on the court life of London. They allowed neither the terrors of Indian invasion nor the fires of the non-conformist's Hell to dampen their cheer or dim their brightness.

The annual ball

At the Palace the annual ball held on the king's birth-night was the outstanding social event of the season. To accommodate some two hundred guests Governor Spotswood borrowed chairs from the Capitol. Strong social distinctions had never bound Virginia, but competition for precedence gave an added zest to the ball. Everyone sought recognition from the governor as the royal representative. In 1774 appeared "Rules of Precedency" for the men and women in America; here set down was the precise social position of colonial officials. At any function the governor and his wife held the place of honor; next came the President of the Council with his wife, then the Councilors and their wives, followed by the Speaker of the House of Burgesses, the Chief Justice, the Treasurer, the Attorney General, and so on down the line.

November 3, 1738
October 31, 1771
May 15, 1727

One description of the day's festivities read as follows: "In the Morning the Publick Flag was hoisted on the Capitol; at Noon the Cannon at the Governor's House were trebly discharged; and at Night most of the Gentlemen's and Other Houses of Note were illuminated. His Honour the Governor was pleas'd 54 to give a handsome Entertainment for the Gentlemen and Ladies together with a Ball..." Thirty-three years later social events apparently broadened their scope to include the people. The Virginia Gazette read: "The Raleigh Tavern...by direction of his Excellency, was opened for the Entertainment of such as might incline to spend the Evening there; Plenty of Liquor was given to the Populace..." After the death of Governor Drysdale the leadership in celebrating the royal birthday fell on Robert Carter, President of the Council. Carter noted: "... W(ha)t ever sorts of drink Coll Drysdale had I would have ye Same and in all respects keep pace with him. My Salary is as large and I thank God I have as little reason to be Sparing of it." In contrast Governor Gooch disliked the expense of the occasion, saying: "I have little reason to expect to make a fortune, or enough to keep me when I grow old, unless my stars are favorable."

Dress

Virginians who called at the Palace on the royal birthday wore "the best of clothes according to their station; nay, sometimes too good for their circumstances." The men generally put on "handsome, full-dress silk clothes;" and carried a dress sword. The citizens celebrated victories and public holidays gaily. Observance of the death of members of the royal family took on an air of display. The governor and officials appeared in deep mourning; flags flew at half mast, and minute guns were fired.

Governor Gooch as gentleman and host

Sir William Gooch has provided an excellent domestic picture of the governor in his letter to his brother, the Bishop of Norwich. Visitors first came to the Palace to pay their respects, 55 then they knocked on the door to be admitted for business. Gooch wrote: "Ever since I arrived I have been in the midst of company and hurry..." To be well respected meant more guests and additional expenditures, besides the heavy outlay for "buying Horses, Cows, and Slaves, and a constant great expense of House keeping." The serious behaviour of young Lewis Burwell proclaimed him to the manner born, said Gooch, but Virginians did not understand his refined way of living; They thought it "too much upon the reserve" and were 'apt to construe it unto Pride."

Guests: Lord and Lady Baltimore
July, 1733
April 4, 1728
Dean George Berkeley

The entertainment of important men at the Palace was no trial. Gooch received Lord and Lady Baltimore, who stayed one week "well pleased with the Reception and Entertainment." Held up for sixteen weeks by contrary winds and bad weather, a vessel carrying the philosopher and churchman, the Very Reverend George Berkeley, Dean of Derry was forced to anchor in Virginia for provisions. Berkeley's was one of the finest philosophical minds of the eighteenth century. Matter in itself was unknowable, he said; our only knowledge of it comes through our mind or our ideas of matter. Gooch showed no concern for metaphysical subtleties, but entertaining an eminent reputation was of great moment to him. Berkeley had come to America hoping to found a college in Bermuda for the conversion of American Indians. This, said Gooch, was "the oddest project that ever people proceeded so far in, and as such I endeavored to divert him from it..." Berkeley, however, proceeded to Rhode Island, where he waited two years vainly expecting government aid. Gooch had reason to think his guest a fine gentleman. "When we parted...he told me that 56 he should be proud to be esteemed in the number of my friends, adding that the first opportunity he had he should write to the Bishop of Bangor, and would let him know in the midst of his misfortunes how happy he had been."

The Reverend George Whitefield, who with the Wesleys began the Methodist Movement, arrived in Williamsburg and dined at the Palace. Gooch left a favorable impression on William Byrd the second, who frequently called at the Palace; "...dined with the Governor's lady and ate roast pigeon. After dinner we talked and drank Burgundy till the evening..." Gooch found agreeable friends among the various ship captains visiting Virginia. While winter weather laid up his Majesty's Ship Hector in 1740, Sir Yelverton Peyton, Baronet, was a guest at the Palace. Actively engaged in the Virginia trade, Captain Charles Friend sailed the ship to Gooch from York River to London with a typical cargo of tobacco, 8,000 staves, skins, and wine. Gooch thought highly of him, and on occasion intrusted Friend with "a Pott of Sweetmeats," a present for his Lordship the Bishop of London. The governor sometimes used a Captain Wilson as agent from Virginia to London.

Men without reputations for success
1735 May 26,

After men of distinction came those who had not yet achieved recognition. Gooch heaped civilities on Charles Bridges, the artist, but he felt it a little odd for a gentleman and a governor to wine and dine a painter at the Palace. Gooch generously consented to sit for his portrait, and by this act he recommended Bridges to the Virginians. It was at this time that the artist painted the portrait of Evelyn Byrd, 57 which hangs in the Palace today. To the Palace also came a Dr. Potter with claims to be related to the Bishop of Oxford, a graduate of Cambridge, and a student of the Boerhaave, the great physician, in Leyden. Gooch explained: "...he was recommended to nobody, but put himself under my Protection, and having travelled thro' France, Germany, and Italy talks the languages and understands all sorts of Musick, even to composing, a Writer of Plays, and a very merry pleasant fellow." The Governor's patronage brought Potter success; but, said Gooch, "the country think him too dear and too Proud, for they don't like those Qualities in any but themselves."

The meddlesome fellows

Next came those who set a strain on all that was gentlemanly. Unable to forget that he had once been governor, Alexander Spotswood was of a meddlesome disposition. Gooch refused to "covet such a neighbor" and would not be troubled. Robert Fitzwilliam was aiming for the governorship, but Gooch felt he could not be disturbed by one who rarely told the truth. He kept up the appearance of friendship with Commissary Blair, but in private called him "a very vile old fellow." Blair wanted to be cock of the walk. The best way to handle this "unaccountable spark," said Gooch, was to kill him with kindness.

The Boor

With infinite patience the governor felt obliged to suffer knaves and fools. Good manners were alien to the young Mr. Cannon. His excellency wished he had been spared this canker of insolence "to say nothing of his prophane Jests against Religion and things sacred, or of his lewd and unnatural Lust of which he Boasts." Because they were "rallying him upon his manner of Behavior," he gave affront to the 58 ladies of the Palace. Gooch reproved Cannon, who promised to men his ways; "...but...when things were upon the Table, and they were call'd to Dinner...he was like a statue, as stiff and immoveable, and when we were satt down, tho' my wife, who I had prepared for this interview, carved for him, desired to know what dish of Meat he liked best; yet he continued silent, and at last calling for Drink, 'tis true he drank my health, took no notice of either my Wife or Sister..." Virginians despised fops and boors, befriending them long enough to take their money at cards. Mr. Cannon, concluded Gooch "...is so self conceited and humoursome, such a Valetudinarian and so tender of himself, that he is not, by Indolence, fitt for any manner of Business, for nothing will serve him but a Coach or Chair, which because such Conveniences are not to be hired here, he declares the Country is not fitt for a Gentleman to live in, and...that he...shall [never] have his Health in it."

The Cherokees at "Othello" November 1752

The birthday of George II coincided with the visit of the Emperor and Empress of the Cherokee nation, who had come to Williamsburg to renew the treaty of friendship. As guests of Governor Dinwiddie they attended the theatre with their son, the prince, and several of their warriors. At the new playhouse Lewis Hallan and his London Company had already made their debut in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, but for royalty the players presented Othello. The violent encounters stemming from Iago's malignity startled the Indians. The Empress, especially disturbed, ordered "some about her to go and prevent ...[the actors'] killing one another."

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Outacity's visit 1762

In the days of Governor Fauquier, Outacity, a Cherokee chief arrived with at least 165 Indians from the Holston country in what is now East Tennessee. Both Governor and Council doubtlessly received Outacity at the Palace and granted him permission to visit King George III. The evening before he sailed the Cherokee leader delivered a farewell oration to his people, praying for his own safety on the voyage and for that of his people on his return. Silent Indians sat round campfires, while their chief's resonant voice created a mood of awe. In London Outacity created a sensation, and Sir Joshua Reynolds painted his portrait.

Fauquier's dinner parties about 1764

The Palace provided a social and intellectual setting for the young Jefferson, where he became a fourth at the dinners of Francis Fauquier, William Small, and George Wythe. The party had been dining frequently at the Palace ever since the Governor's family had returned to England. Jefferson was a good conversationalist, especially for men with an appetite for ideas and a tireless curiosity about human nature, history, and science. This marriage of true minds had a formative influence on the young man, whose life would be spent among troops of brilliant people. The aged Jefferson was to look back lovingly on those evenings at the Palace, when he heard "more good sense, more rational and philosophical conversations" than at any other period of his life.

William Small

Professor William Small was apparently Jefferson's only regular teacher for half his course at the College of William and Mary where Small presented the young man with his first 60 views of the "expansion of science." Jefferson credited his teacher with fixing the "Destinies" of his life. Small specifically roused his pupil's interest in mathematics. Unmarried and lonely, he made Jefferson his companion, and taught him no less through informal talks than by lectures.

George Wythe

Small, said Jefferson, "filled up the Measure of his Goodness to me, by procuring for me, from his most intimate friend George Wythe, a Reception as a Student of Law, under his Direction..." Hook-nosed, Wythe was about thirty-five years old, and noted for his courtly bow. One of the most distinguished members of the General Court, Wythe had more learning than most of the Virginia Lawyers; certainly his greater range and liberality of mind were important for one like Jefferson. Wythe lacked Small's enthusiasm and Fauquier's sophistication, but for the budding statesman he was probably the wisest counselor of the three.

Francis Fauquier and his musical evenings

Governor Francis Fauquier, wrote Jefferson late in life, was "the ablest Man who ever filled that Office." The Governor's skepticism and love of inquiry very likely appealed to Jefferson. Fauquier also loved music, and included the young Virginian in the musical evenings at the Palace. There were twelve years before the Revolution when music was Jefferson's "favorite passion," and he practiced at least three hours a day. At the Palace he found musical opportunities he would never know again. Jefferson probably chose the second violin part or even the cello, while John Randolph, the attorney general, very likely played the first violin. Councillor Robert Carter, a neighbor and close friend of 61 Fauquier, played the harpsichord and German flute. Perhaps Jefferson's friend, John Page, with his violin shared in those evenings, when these amateurs made music together in the Palace ballroom.

Absence of women from the musical evenings

Noticeable was the absence of women at their Palace parties. They usually lived for their household duties, families and friends, clothes, and religion and celebrations. With few intellectual advantages, women seemed unequal to any "interesting and refined conversation." That a woman had a fortune generally took precedence of other considerations. Governor Gooch thanked his brother for his congratulations on the marriage of young Gooch to a "Fortune of better than five thousand pound, much the greatest in this part of the World." That she was "very agreable in her Person and of good Behaviour" seemed of secondary importance.

Insult at the Palace
August 10, 1759

For all its amenities the Palace could become a setting for insult, if it had to. The Reverend John Camm of the College had gone to London, where he used his influence against certain laws passed by the Assembly and signed by the Governor. Camm met with success, and the King appointed him official messenger to deliver the proclamation of disallowance and repeal as well as a written rebuke to Fauquier for having signed the objectionable legislation. Instead of going at once to the Palace in Williamsburg, Camm stayed in England seven or eight months longer. Arriving in Virginia in June, 1760, he spent several days before journeying to the colonial capital. At last he entered the Palace and presented the communications to the Governor. Why, asked Fauquier, had Camm 62 failed to deliver these papers immediately? He accused the divine of having told lies to persons in high places; then calling all his Negro house servants into the room, he ordered them never to let this man enter the Governor's Palace again. So Fauquier delivered one of the deepest insults that a gentleman in Virginia could offer another.

Palace as a shelter October 30, 1765

During the Stamp Act controversy the Palace became a shelter for one oppressed. Mr. George Mercer, the chief distributor of stamps, arrived from London, when Williamsburg was "fullest of Stranger." Most gentlemen and merchants were in no mood to accept the stamps. Fauquier gave Mercer the protection of his own person and company. Safe in the Palace after walking through "the thickest of the People" without molestation, the two men discussed the propriety of Mercer's assuming office. Fauquier was all for it, but Mercer announced that he would not undertake the distribution of stamps without the consent of the Assembly.

Lord Botetourt at the Palace

Lord Botetourt apparently brought high noon to the brilliance of the Palace. Having out-distanced his servants, he arrived to find it "unprovided with everything;" but this dandy who enjoyed a "very independent fortune and...one of the prettiest seats in England" found the setting to his liking. He made plain his fondness for Virginians, saying: "I like their stile exceedingly & augur well of everything that is to happen."

The coach

Full of pride, pomp, and circumstance, Lord Botetourt summoned the General Assembly. With greater ostentation than 63 any of his predecessors this "man of parade" appeared in a light red coat decorated with gold braiding. A glittering coach and six cream colored Hanoverian horses in silver harness, all presents of the Duke of Cumberland, drew Botetourt from the Palace to the capitol. Rich ornamentation, gilded wheels, and the Virginia coats of arms painted on every side of the equipage spoke magnificence. A Puritan like Timothy Pickering would consign it to Hell before this symbol of expense and prerogative had a chance to drive humanity there. He stripped the coach of its pageantry, observing: " 'Tis a clumsy machine and enormously heavy— perhaps equal to two common wagons..."

A former inhabitant of Yorktown remembered how Lord Botetourt "conciliated the affections" of the townsmen "by attentions that then were considered vastly condescending; he frequently visited our uncle Nelson who was President of the Council; and on his return from one of these visits sent down a leader box containing a delicious Gloster cheese." As a borrower and lender of books the governor showed himself a good neighbor. Such notes in his inventory as "16th at Mr. Carter's," "all missing," and "2nd vol lent out and not returned" point up his generosity.

Incident at the John Blair House

Lord Botetourt's urbanity distinguished the gentleman and man of the world. His courtesy made him pleasant and agreeable company to all kinds of men. He had long ago put away childish things but without a loss of spontaneity. Miss Anne Blair and her friends enjoyed his ease and naturalness one 64 evening in August, 1769.

...Mrs. Dawson's Family stay'd ye Evening with us, and ye Coach was at ye Door to carry them Home, by ten o'Clock; but everyone appearing in great Spirits, it was proposed to set at ye Steps and Sing a few Songs which was no sooner said than done; while thus we were employ'd, a candle or Lanthorn was observed to be coming up the Street...no one took any Notice of it— till we saw, who ever it was, stopt to listen to our enchanting Notes—each Warbler was immediately silenced; whereupon, the Invader to our Melody, call'd out in a most rapturous Voice, "Charming! proceed for God Sake, or I go Home directly" —no sooner were those Words uttered, than all as with one Consent sprung from their Seats, and ye Air eccho'd with "pray, walk in my Lord;" No—indeed he would not, he would Act on the Step's too; so after a few Ha, Ha's, and being, told what all know—that it was a delightfull Evening, at his desire we strew'd the Way over with Flowers, & till a full half Hour was elaps'd when all retir'd to their respective Homes...

Botetourt as social leader

For all his dash and eclat Botetourt's sojourn at the Palace did not seem noteworthy for visitors of importance. According to the Virginia Gazette, his Excellency William Tryon, Governor of North Carolina, spent four weeks "with ease and satisfaction" at the Palace. Botetourt as a person drew public attention. He told Lord Hillsborough: "...52 dined with me yesterday, and I expect at least that number today." Robert Carter Nicholas once told the governor that of all men he should be most unwilling to die; for Lord Botetourt was social by nature, well-liked and surrounded by a number of good things ministering to his whims and comforts. As he lay upon his death bed in the palace, the Governor summoned Nicholas to his side, saying: "...I resign those 65 good Things which you formerly spoke of with as much Composure as I enjoyed them." Like the Gilbertian peer in Iolanthe Lord Botetourt as a governor "did nothing in particular and did it very well."

Lord Dunmore in the Palace: The domestic setting

The Earl of Dunmore's arrival touched off a fresh round of festivities. His entrance into the Palace marked the end of Botetourt's bachelor rule, as the Countess of Dunmore and her six children made it their home on March 3, 1774. The College of William and Mary counted George, Lord Fincastle, and the Honourable Alexander and the Honourable John Murray among its scholars. Lady Catharine, Lady Augusta, and Lady Susan Murray enhanced the picture of homelife at the Palace. These social and educational ties with the family of their Governor pleased Virginians. In December, 1774, came news of the birth of a daughter to the Earl and Countess of Dunmore. They christened her Virginia in honor of the colony and celebrated the occasion by holding a ball at the Palace.

Former governors, however, had enjoyed more favorable times; they did not have to face the upheaval confronting Lord Dunmore. The Assembly set aside June 1, 1774 as a day of fasting in protest against the closing of the Port of Boston, whereupon Dunmore dissolved the legislature. Virginians like Washington openly sent supplies to Boston at the same time remaining on friendly terms with the governor. On the evening after the Assembly had been dissolved Washington dined with Lord Dunmore at the Palace. The following morning he "rid out with the Govr. to his Farm and Breakfasted with him there." To be sure they talked of crops, but undoubtedly they discussed 66 conflicting attitudes of Parliament and colonies. Virginia also set aside political antagonisms for hospitality and polite usage, when the Burgesses gave a great ball in honor of Lady Dunmore. As gentlemen, and at £ per capita, they bowed low to the woman whose husband had dissolved their House.

Whatever Virginians may have thought of Dunmore in the deepening crisis, their dislike did not extend to his lady and children. After the governor had ordered the powder removed from the Magazine his family took refuge on a war ship, only to return when excitement around Williamsburg had abated. The Virginia Gazette remarked on May 12, 1775: "This day about two o'clock, the Right Honourable the Countess of Dunmore, with the rest of the Governour's family, who have for some time past been on board the Fowey man-of-war, arrived at the palace in this city, to the great joy of the inhabitants, and, we make no doubt, of the whole country, who have the most unfeigned regard for her Ladyship, and wish her long to live amongst them."

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Governor-in-chief and lieutenant governor

The Palace, the seat of royal authority, was the executive center of British Virginia. From 1704 to 1768 there were four governors-in-chief who remained in England while their deputies administered colonial affairs; from 1768 to 1775 the governors-in-chief resided in Virginia at the Palace. In all practical matters there was no difference between the governor-in-chief and the lieutenant governor. The governor received a salary of £2,000 and perquisites of at least £400 a year. In addition to the use of the Palace, he was favored after 1736 by the exemption of his Madeira wine from customs duty.

Duties of governor

The governor's powers of office were as real as they were numerous. He convened, prorogued, and dissolved the General Assembly; he could veto its bills, or direct the insertion of a clause suspending the operation of a new law until the "king's pleasure" was known. The governor could also pardon all crimes, except treason and wilful murder. His were the powers to commission the Justices of the County Courts and appoint many officers. He shared with the General Assembly the right to regulate all fees. With the assent of his Council the governor made the land grants and authorized the issuance of patents. Through his hands passed all addresses, petitions, and reports to the British ministry. A judicial officer, he sat on the General Court and had the right to act as judge of piracy. As commander-in-chief he appointed all militia officers, except those of lowest rank; but his was not the power to declare war. The care of the church and the seal of the colony rested in his hands. He recommended Virginians who wished to take orders, and submitted to vestries the names of clergymen 68 sent over by the Bishop of London.

The balance of interests

The governor had also to please the Virginians, who were proud of their self-governing ways. He could not afford to become too often or too deeply involved in quarrels of the General Assembly. To please London authorities and colonial interests was no easy job. The successful governor usually saw that Virginia kept up a prosperous trade with Great Britain, and so increased royal revenues and furnished the British merchants a lucrative return for their investments; in a prosperous state of affairs the British government said nothing about the royal prerogative or the popular spirit of the colonists.

Edward Nott

In 1705 Edward Nott was the first case of a lieutenant-governor appointed under a governor-in-chief resident in England. Francis Nicholson had managed to irritate the Virginians, but they showed only friendship for Nott. A special committee revised the laws of the colony. The General Assembly willingly appropriated £3000 to build the governor's house. Nott did live to see the results of his administration; but when he died in 1706, he had given "ease to the country, by a mild rule." Edmund Jennings, the president of the Council, served as governor between the death of Nott on August 23, 1706, and the arrival of Spotswood, June 23, 1710. Colonel Robert Hunter had been appointed governor on August 14, 1707, but on his way to Virginia he was captured by the French.

Alexander Spotswood 1676 to 1740

First of the governors of Virginia to live in the Palace at Williamsburg was Alexander Spotswood. He was a native of 69 Tangier, where his father was a physician to the English garrison. In 1693 he became an ensign in the Earl of Bath's regiment of foot. During the War of Spanish Succession (Queen Anne's War 1701-1713) Spotswood served under Lord Cadogan and rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. At the battle of Blenheim he was wounded; and at Oudenarde the enemy apparently captured him, because a month later the Duke of Marlborough was negotiating his exchange.

Spotswood the bachelor

On June 23, 1710, Spotswood assumed office as lieutenant-governor of Virginia. He arrived unmarried, noting: "I am a...Batchelour...not from any Distrust I had either of my own Humour or Ability to content a Wife: but partly from a Consideration of the inconveniencys that attend a Married Soldier, & partly from a caution of encreasing the Family with such as might be more likely to Discredit than Honour it by the Meanness of their Condition..." Spotswood's courtesy was all that an exacting observer like William Byrd the second could wish. The president of the Council together with an "abundance of people" met him outside of Williamsburg. "The Governor," wrote Byrd in his diary, "made a courteous speech and told the Council that he was come with a full disposition to do the Queen and country service and hoped we should all concur with him in that good design."

Spotswood in Williamsburg

Williamsburg had neither the diversions nor "perplexitys" of London, but Spotswood found country life to his liking. Virginia, he said, had nothing that could compare with an English village, "every one living disperst up & down at their Plantations, possessing there all food necessary for humane life 70 (nay & luxury too) & procuring their Raiment by the returns which their Tobacco makes in Great Britain." Such was his popularity that a year after his arrival Spotswood could write: "...my Mind is...very much at ease by the good agreement which is between these People & My Self." Bachelorhood in no way blunted his courtliness. At the Capitol Spotswood opened a ball dancing a French dance with the wife of William Byrd. Following an hour of country dances, both Governor and company retired to another room, "where was a fine collation of sweetmeats." At two in the morning the ball came to an end. Rather than see the ladies soil their garments, Spotswood lifted each one in his arms and carried her over the driveway to her coach. Byrd noted the Governor's failings as well as his civilities. Spotswood was easily satisfied with his own opinions, and when crossed he could be obstinate. His anger expressed itself in coolness and pomposity.

Spotswood as administrator

Spotswood entered upon his duties with a vigor disconcerting to Virginians, because they were inclined to reduce governmental activity to a minimum. But opposition from the Assembly disappeared by 1712. At that time the lawmakers did more than he expected. They paid most of the colonial debts, when Spotswood demonstrated that the standing revenues had been so defective during the past twenty-two years as to require £7,000 from the monarch's private purse to meet expenses. His abilities impressed Virginians; his orderliness and methodical ways made for impatience with their lack of system. A loyal servant of the crown, Spotswood took the royal instructions for his lodestar. He kept London authorities well posted on colonial 71 matters; but if their policies seemed ill-advised, he did not hesitate to warn them. Subordination to the crown did not keep him from embarking on his own comprehensive policies. His dealings were frank and straightforward for the most part, but he could be devious whenever it suited his purpose.

Spotswood's achievements
1714
1713
1715

Spotswood tried to regulate and stabilize the fur trade at the same time that he financed an enlightened Indian policy. With the Assembly's approval he set up the monopolistic Virginia Indian Company with headquarters at Fort Christana on what was then the frontier. His success in securing the passage of the first Tobacco Act created heated discussion. The measure required inspection of all tobacco designed for export or use as legal tender. The producer and marketer of cheap tobacco joined debtor and taxpayer to declare it anathema. In their minds they linked the tobacco law with the Indian Act. Mutual irritation brought on a violent quarrel between Spotswood and the House of Burgesses, one that continued after the crown had repealed both acts. Spotswood's land policy aimed to encourage the actual settler as opposed to the speculator, to make quit rents as profitable as possible for the crown, and to bring completeness and order to public records. The colony accepted many of his proposals with good grace.

Virginia Indian Company as an instrument of policy

The Virginia Indian Company had a two-fold purpose; it was set up for (1) trade and (2) to place race relations on a basis of order and justice. Company expenses were to be borne by those traders who gained financially from the Indian. Independent traders could hardly be made to pay, nor could 72 their activities be supervised. The company foundered on British antipathy to monopoly, but its misfortune did not diminish Spotswood's reputation as an empire builder. Westward the star of settlement was taking its way, and Spotswood saw that the native must yield. He repeatedly emphasized the need for keeping faith with the Indians. So scrupulously did he abide by this belief that he won their confidence.

Spotswood and the frontier
September 15, 1716

No sooner had Spotswood arrived in Virginia than he actively identified himself with frontier problems. His name still calls to mind the picture of a governor leading a company of gentlemen, rangers, Indians, and servants over the Blue Ridge and down to the waters of the Shenandoah, then an area beyond the line of settlement. Naming a tall peak Mount George, he and his party drank liberally to the king's health. To each gentleman who accompanied him Spotswood later presented a miniature horseshoe of gold; it was set with diamonds, and on it was inscribed a Latin motto ("sic juvat transcendere montes" which roughly translates, "then let him rejoice who crosses the mountains.) By founding the Transmontane Order of the Golden Horseshoe he cultivated an interest in the West among Virginians and so joined policy with romance. A more tangible and important result of this venture was the creation of Spotsylvania County to serve as a buffer against the French and Indians. For protection against the Iriquois Spotswood tried to establish compact communities of friendly Indians. He would have them powerful enough to resist attack and convenient for the work of missionary and schoolteacher. 73 But since the repeal of the Indian Act left him unable to finance his scheme, the Governor negotiated a treaty with the Six Nations at Albany, New York. By its terms the Iroquois agreed to keep north of the Potomac and west of the Blue Ridge. Attacks from Tuscaroras on North Carolina (1712) and the Yemasees on South Carolina filled him with apprehension, because their success would have placed Virginia in a serious position. Spotswood chose to fight the Indians on Carolina soil and thereby keep his own borders free from bloodshed.

Spotswood's claim to greatness

As an empire builder Spotswood was ever watchful of France and Spain. He urged British authorities to take possession of Florida and the Appalachians. A lack of precise geographical knowledge handicapped him, some of his proposals proving impractical. More practical, however, was his policy of fostering frontier settlements by exempting inhabitants from taxes and quit rents. This encouragement of the westward movement might well have been Spotswood's chief claim to greatness.

Spotswood's quarrels

Spotswood's reforms embroiled him in quarrels with the receiver-general, William Byrd, and the deputy auditor, Philip Ludwell. They resented interference, and had little taste for the additional labors thrust upon them. A majority of Councillors soon found themselves at odds with Spotswood in what was basically a struggle for power; they claimed sole right to compose the newly created courts of oyer and terminer. In ecclesiastical matters the issue arose regarding the governor's right to induct ministers and involved him in a contest with Commissary James Blair. Spotswood by 1718 was faced with influential enemies in assembly and church. Public life in Virginia 74 could only suffer from this situation. At Commissary Blair's instigation English authorities brought pressure to bear, and two years later came restoration of harmony.

Spotswood in retirement

The closing years of his administration saw Spotswood more understanding about colonial self-assertion. Provincial pride taught him the futility of contention, especially after he had decided to make Virginia his permanent home. Like other settlers he too was bitten by land hunger. Before the expiration of his term in 1722 Spotswood had acquired an estate of some eighty-five thousand acres in Spotsylvania County. Here to Germanna he retired and actively engaged in mining and melting iron. His claim to so vast an estate did not pass unchallenged. Hoping to adjust his land titles, he went to England in 1724. Here he married Anne Butler Brayne, by whom he had four children. Six years later he returned to Virginia as deputy postmaster-general for the American colonies. He extended the regular postal service as far south as Williamsburg. When war broke out with Spain in 1739, Spotswood proposed recruiting a regiment in the colonies. He was engaged in this task when he died at Annapolis.

Spotswood associated with good times

Spotswood's name became synonymous with good times. He found Virginia suffering from economic depression, a condition which continued for about four years of his administration. Under his direction the frontier of the colony was no longer subject to the inroads of Indians; the expenses of government had been cut to one-third of what had previously been required; and Virginia advanced more rapidly in commerce, population, and wealth than the other colonies. That Virginians should associate 75 Spotswood's administration with prosperity was therefore understandable; but the true cause of economic revival was to be found in the restored peace of Europe and the consequent opening of markets for tobacco.

Hugh Drysdale
1723
1726

Hugh Drysdale succeeded to the governorship on September 8, 1722. A mild man, he maintained friendly relations with the Assembly. To guard against slave insurrection Drysdale urged the passage of more stringent laws for punishing slaves who attempted revolt. He left to the Assembly the correction of "gross frauds and abuses" in the tobacco trade. The Governor tried to follow his instructions as closely as possible, but colonial conditions determined his actions. Drysdale returned to England for his health. The Assembly expressed the following appreciation of his services: "He hath made it his business altogether, with a singular zeal for your majesty's person and family, to encourage peace and justice in this your majesty's government, without any sinister views of self-interest." Drysdale's administration was one of peace, general prosperity, and quiet, constructive work. Between the departure of Drysdale (July 11, 1726) and the arrival of Gooch, Robert Carter, president of the Council, served as governor.

Sir William Gooch 1681-1751

The next lieutenant governor from England to occupy the Palace was William Gooch. A native of Yarmouth, England, he entered the army at an early age. He served with distinction under Marlborough and was present at the battle of Blenheim. Gooch assumed his duties in Virginia on September 8, 1727. Colonial hospitality pleased him. The Council showed its 76 favor by awarding the governor £300 from the quit rents, while the Burgesses gave him £500 from the revenues. Still this generosity was not enough. Would he have enough for his old age? Gooch observed: "I have tenn times the business and am double the expence of any of my Predecessors, such is the encrease of Inhabitants without any additional Perquisites, that should I be called Home, I should bring with me little besides a good reputation for nine years Drudgery."

Achievement of Gooch

Gooch's letters to his brother, the Bishop of Norwich, show him solicitous of colonial and imperial interests, ambitious for himself and his family, the responsible head of the Palace and the welcoming host. In him Virginians found a champion. When British merchants opposed the building of a lighthouse at Cape Henry, because of the tax on ships which would be imposed to pay for it; when they petitioned the Board of Trade for repeal of the law imposing a tax on imported liquors and slaves; and again when they petitioned the same body for a law which would make land in the colonies liable for all debts, Gooch staunchly defended the Virginians before the Board of Trade. He was especially emphatic in urging the repeal of the act of Parliament prohibiting the importation of tobacco stripped from the stalk, since it involved shipping unnecessary but taxable bulk. For the convenience of Virginians he also urged the use of inspector's notes on tobacco in warehouses as a form of currency. When some of the planters objected to the law of 1730, requiring the inspection of tobacco and the destruction of "trash," he wrote A Dialogue Between Thomas Sweet-Scented, 77 William Oronoco, Planters, both men of good Understanding, and Justice Love-Country, who can speak for himself...By a sincere Lover of Virginia (1732). This homely fable set forth in simple terms the economic benefits of a tobacco which would bring better prices and higher value to inspector's notes.

Gooch in Carthagena

In 1740 Gooch raised four hundred men in Virginia to assist the British forces in their attack on Carthagena, New Granada, on the northern coast of South America. On the death of Spotswood, Gooch was placed in command of the battalions. During the campaign he was badly wounded on the left leg and also contracted fever; the effects of the wound never left him. No Hotspur, Gooch was nevertheless jealous of honor. At the siege of Carthagena he reminded Brigadier-General Wentworth of the deference due to the governor of Virginia. "The General hearing and finding I was better received at Jamaica than himself, and being proud and stingy, tried all ways he could think of to lett the People know, that though I was a Governour, yet he was the greater man, and indeed some orders he might have been spared, however, I submitted, and was all obedience, resolving that if military subordination was carried to slavish subjection he should not tire me." In contrast Admiral Edward Vernon showed Gooch respect. The commander of the British fleet was "an excellent man, regular in his duty to God, no swearing on board his ship, nor getting Drunk." Vernon saw that his men took their rum mixed with water. This drink they dubbed "grog," a nickname derived from Vernon's grogram cloak. (So favorably did the admiral impress young 78 Lawrence Washington that he named his estate "Mount Vernon.")

Developments under Gooch
July 1744

Early in Gooch's administration the threat of servile insurrection was brought home to Virginias. Negroes newly imported from Africa made a concerted rush for freedom in 1729, carrying weapons and ammunition with them into the Blue Ridge Mountains. But their efforts proved futile, and they again soon found themselves in bondage. Not until 1831 did a similar outbreak occur. During the governorship of Gooch the line of settlement advanced to the foot of the Appalachians. To defend the frontier he negotiated the treaty of Lancaster with the Six Nations. By this stroke the governor insured protection of Virginia's northern and western borders. Under his direction the colonists enjoyed increasing material prosperity. Centers arose that were logically and naturally fitted for business, trade and commerce. The Assembly incorporated Norfolk in 1736; it established Richmond in 1742, Port Royal on the Potomac in 1744, and Petersburg in 1749. Interested in the Anglican Church of Virginia, Gooch made regular reports to the Bishop of London, whose ecclesiastical jurisdiction extended to the American colonies. He urged the Assembly to pass legislation for the promotion of religion and morality; he gave careful thought to the character of those he recommended for ordination. To his brother, the Bishop of Norwich he wrote: "I wish you would recommend some honest sober clergymen to this country; upon my word they may live mighty well here." His letters to the Bishops of London and Norwich were accompanied by Barbados sweetmeats, Madiera wine, " much improved by paseing through this hott Climate, " and promises 79 of Virginia "Hamms."

Retirement of Gooch
June 20, 1749

Throughout his twenty-two years in office Gooch enjoyed the popular goodwill and loyalty. Able and energetic, he tempered force with tact. During his administration Virginians enjoyed an increase in trade and more prosperity than they had ever known before. In these years they knew no taxes of an oppressive nature. Many times the legislature made him the subject of eulogy, the speaker of the House saying: "You have not been intoxicated with the Power committed to you by his Majesty; but have used It, like a faithful Trustee, for the Public Good, and with proper Cautions...You never proposed Matters, without supposing Your Opinion subject, to the Examination of Others, nor strove to make other Men's Reason blindly and implicitly obedient to Yours. " On November 4, 1746 Gooch was created a baronet in the following year promoted major-general in the British army. Declining health caused him to resign the governorship and return to Great Britain. Between the departure of Gooch and the arrival of Dinwiddie, three Councillors, John Robinson, Thomas Lee, and Lewis Burwell, as presidents of the Council, served successively as acting governor. Gooch died in Bath, England, and was buried at Yarmouth. William, his only son had died in Virginia, but Rebecca, Lady Gooch survived her husband. In her will she left to the College of William and Mary a large folio Bible, bound in four volumes, and a gilt sacrament cup, subsequently transferred to the Bruton Church.

Robert Dinwiddie 1693-1770
The Pistole Fee

Born at "Germiston" near Glasgow, Scotland, Robert 80 Dinwiddie worked while young in his father's accounting house. Later he apparently became a merchant. On December 1, 1727 the British government made Dinwiddie collector of customs for Bermuda; by 1730 it had placed him upon the regular establishment at £30 a year. So satisfactory was his work that on April 11, 1738 he became surveyor-general for the Southern Part of America with jurisdiction over the Carolinas, Virginia, Maryland, Bahama Islands, and Jamaica. In the same year he visited Barbados, where he uncovered many revenue frauds. That Dinwiddie was painstaking and ingenious none could deny. He explained his plan to collect duty on colonial sugar to imperial authorities on June 29, 1743, the year that Dinwiddie uncovered more glaring frauds in Barbados. Here he dismissed several officers, charging them with false entries, fraudulent sales, and embezzlement. Their complaints to London probably resulted in his spending much time on his own defense in England. As surveyor-general Dinwiddie took up residence in Virginia. His commission entitled him to membership in the councils of the southern colonies. The Council of Virginia refused him a seat and sent a remonstrance to the king. Governor Gooch supported the prerogative of the crown. In May, 1742 the British government settled the dispute in favor of the surveyor-general, and resisted the claims of the Council as new and dangerous. Dinwiddie received his appointment as lieutenant-governor of Virginia on July 20, 1751. About fifty-seven years of age, he had blue-gray eyes and looked bulky and benevolent. Landing at York on November 20 with his wife and two daughters, he was escorted to Williamsburg. At the Palace Dinwiddie "produced his commission 81 with a happy speech." His knowledge of Virginia did not keep him from the mistake of provoking a quarrel with the House of Burgesses. It had long been the practice in the colony for tobacco planters to secure a certain number of acres, and to occupy them for years before obtaining a patent; in this way they escaped payment of quit rents. Dinwiddie ordered all landholders to take out patents at once; he also charged the fee of a pistole ($3.60) for his signature and use of the seal. The Burgesses objected violently, declaring: "The rights of the subject are so secured by law that they cannot be deprived of the least of their property but by their own Consent." Dinwiddie persisted in his course, little dreaming that twenty-two years later the American colonies would rebel against the crown in support of this principle. The Burgesses laid the matter before the Board of Trade through the attorney-general Peyton Randolph. The Board directed that no fee should be charged for patents on lands west of the mountains or upon lands surveyed before April 22, 1752. This spelled victory for the Burgesses, and Dinwiddie reluctantly agreed. But the dispute was settled only after it had done untold harm; it prevented the cooperation of governor and Assembly at a time when the French were threatening the very existence of British America.

French in the Ohio

Dinwiddie was deeply interested in the Ohio region. Upon arrival in 1751 he brought generous gifts for the Indians in hope of binding them to British interest. He gave approval and support to the Ohio Company. To counter French claims he ordered the construction of a fort on French Creek, because the 82 success of France on the Ohio would cut off the English from the entire western country. In 1753 Dinwiddie dispatched George Washington, then a young officer in the Virginia militia, to warn the rival to withdraw. When Washington returned with the report that the French were preparing to descend the Ohio, Dinwiddie tried to anticipate them. In February, 1754 he sent men to the site of Pittsburgh to erect a fort, but the French drove them away, attacked Washington at Fort Necessity, and pushed him back over the mountains. Dinwiddie's strenuous efforts to form a new expedition failed in the Assembly. Some of his troops deserted, and the Governor was compelled to abandon his plans.

Braddock's defeat

Hope revived when news arrived that the British ministry had ordered that two picked regiments under General Braddock be sent to Virginia. During the spring of 1755 Dinwiddie was busy gathering stores of food, recruiting Virginians, urging colonial governors to give aid, seeking Indian allies, and pleading with the Assembly for funds. When Braddock led his force into the wilderness, the Governor spoke confidently of success. After the crushing defeat at Great Meadows Colonel Dunbar, the British officer in command, marched the rest of Braddock's men to Philadelphia " leaving the fort and frontier to be defended by four hundred sick and wounded and the poor remains of our provincial forces. " Now came the Indians, robbing, pillaging, burning, murdering. Alone, Dinwiddie faced the task of defending hundreds of miles of exposed frontier. He sent out companies of rangers, raised a regiment and placed it under Washington, sent for friendly 83 Indians, and built forts at points of greatest danger; but his efforts, however, did not put an end to the terror in western Virginia; more than once the Governor had to call out the militia to meet unexpected raids. Dinwiddie's relations with Washington were not always pleasant. The Governor issued inconsistent and impractical orders; his letters to the young colonel were often abrupt and even discourteous. An expedition to the Shawnee country failed because of rain, snow, and swollen rivers. At last in the spring of 1757 some four hundred Cherokees, Catawbas, Saponees, Tuscaroras and Nottaways gathered at Winchester, and for the time being the frontier was comparatively safe.

Dinwiddie as a colonial administrator

From the outbreak of war until his return to England Dinwiddie was constantly seeking inter-colonial cooperation. In April, 1755, he went to Annapolis for a conference of governors, and two years later he met the Earl of Loudoun at Philadelphia to discuss plans for defense. His discouraging experiences with assemblies led him to suggest that to finance the war Parliament should impose upon the colonies a poll tax of a shilling and a land tax of two shillings for each hundred acres. He added: "I know our people will be inflamed if they hear of my making this proposal. " Constant exertion told upon his health. On March 22, 1757, he wrote William Pitt, the prime minister, asking for leave of absence to visit Bath. Dinwiddie left Virginia on January 12, 1758. Vision, strength, attention to detail, and untiring energy marked his career as colonial administrator. The Virginians ran up against his irritable obstinacy and a lack of generosity. As the man who precipitated the struggle 84 which brought about the downfall of New France, he was a figure of the first importance in the early history of the American continent. He died at Clifton, Bristol on July 27, 1770. Between Dinwiddie's departure and Fauquier's arrival John Blair, president of the Council, served as governor.

Francis Fauquier 1704(?)-1768

Francis Fauquier was the eldest son of Dr. John Francis Fauquier, a director of the Bank of England. A director of the South Sea Company in 1751, he was elected fellow of the Royal Society in 1753. Early in the Seven Years War he published An Essay on Ways and Means of Raising Money for the Support of the Present War without Increasing the Public Debts (1756), which ran into three editions. Appointed lieutenant-governor of Virginia in 1758, Fauquier assumed his duties when the colonies were in the thick of the French and Indian War. He worked harmoniously with Washington and the General Assembly to bring the fighting to a successful end. He noted the signs pointing to independence. In 1760 Fauquier warned Pitt that if Great Britain was to continue its oppressive policy and impose additional taxation, the colonies would certainly offer resistance.

March 3, 1768

From the very beginning of his administration he tried to carry out instructions so as not to interfere with a practical, peaceful conduct of affairs. Fauquier was explicitly instructed to prevent the speakers of the House of Burgesses from serving any longer as treasurer of the colony. To execute this instruction would have deprived him of Speaker John Robinson, an influential man and an invaluable ally. Rather than 85 risk conflict, Fauquier agreed to work with Robinson for the best interests of Virginia, and so informed the Board of Trade. His relations with the Burgesses were generally friendly, because he was clever enough to know when to grant requests. The House also desired harmony, and in its relations with the executive endeavored to accomplish its ends without open conflict. Fauquier did not hesitate to exercise his power over the Burgesses, when he thought his position demanded it. In 1765, for example, he dissolved the House of Burgesses for passing Patrick Henry's resolutions against the Stamp Act. Even at this critical period his action seemed not to make him unpleasant to Virginians. Under Dinwiddie the House had assumed much power in directing military affairs, but it did not interfere with Fauquier in matters of this kind. The death of Fauquier at the Palace in Williamsburg after ten years of service deprived Virginia of a governor who appreciated colonial conditions, So ably did he administer the government that the people raised no complaint against him in moments of tension. Virginians always considered Fauquier a friend. Between his death and the arrival of Botetourt, John Blair, president of the Council, acted as governor.

Norborne Berkeley, Baron de Botetourt c 1718-1770

Norborne Berkeley came from the family which already had given Virginia a governor in Sir William Berkeley. Not until 1764 did he become Baron de Botetourt after serving as a colonel in the Gloucestershire militia and as a member of Parliament. Appointment to the governorship of Virginia came in 1768. He went out to the colony in person instead of sending a deputy to perform his duties. Lord Botetourt disembarked 86 at Hampton and journeyed overland to Williamsburg, where on the outskirts the citizens received him. The town was illuminated at night, a grand banquet was given in his honor, and a eulogistic poem was composed and published in the Virginia Gazette.

Botetourt promptly summoned the General Assembly. Dressed in a light red coat decorated with gold braid, he drove to the Capitol, his glittering state coach and his Hanoverian horses in silver mounted harness—the whole a counterpart of King George's equipage at the opening of Parliament. Spectators also observed that in delivering the address the governor imitated the mannerisms of his royal master on reading the speech from the throne. This resplendence failed to overawe the Virginians. In marked contrast to lordly magnificence stood Andrew Sprowle, spokesman of the merchants and traders. William Nelson noted: "The old Fellow wears his own Hair...white...with a pigtail to it...and cuts as droll a Figure as ever you saw...in a silk Coat & two or three Holes in his Stockings..."

May 17, 1769
Non-importation agreement

The Burgesses passed resolutions upholding colonial rights, which the British had recently violated by transporting Americans overseas to be tried by English juries. So frankly did they express themselves that Lord Botetourt summoned the lawmakers to the Council Chamber. Here he rebuked them for their boldness and dissolved them as a body. But most of the Burgesses met again at the Raleigh Tavern, where they adopted a resolution drafted by George Mason and presented by George Washington; they agreed neither to import nor buy any article that was subject to 87 a parliamentary tax. When Parliament repealed the general tax, except the one on tea, the merchants and Burgesses gathered at Williamsburg to form an association. It bound its members to purchase no tea, no British manufactures, and no slaves, until all regulations subjecting colonial imports to a tax had been revoked. In December, 1769, the members of the General Assembly held a memorable ball at the Capitol. When his lordship arrived, he received the greetings of "near a hundred" women dressed in homespun. That the beauty of Virginia adorned whatever it wore was patent to the Governor, but the correspondent of the London Chronicle noted:

"Not all the gems that sparkle in the mine Can make the Fair with so much lustre shine."

According to one unlikely story, Botetourt was so much mortified by his inability to restore good feeling between Virginia and Great Britain that he sank into a fever and died. Botetourt's instructions directed harsh measures against any lessening of British influence; but wise and patient, he succeed in getting some relief of the colonial grievances from Great Britain and in temporarily calming the mood of resistance among Virginians. The colonists made allowances for the difficulties of his position, and remembered only his good intentions, setting up a marble statue in his honor. This still stands today in the quadrangle of the College of William and Mary. Botetourt's administration saw a fresh effort at wine making in Virginia. It failed much in the way the attempt to cultivate silk worms had come to no productive end. William Nelson, president of the Council served as governor until the arrival of Lord Dunmore.

88

John Murray Earl of Dunmore 1732-1809

John Murray, Earl of Dunmore, also held the title of Viscount Fincastle, Baron of Blair, of Moulia, and of Tillymount. A native of Scotland, he was accustomed to life in the open; yet he lacked neither the social amenities nor a wide acquaintance of the men of his day. 1761 saw him married to Lady Charlotte Stewart, daughter of the Earl of Galloway and elected to the British Parliament as one of the sixteen representative peers from Scotland. Most of the next nine years he passed in London among statesmen and such eminent men as David Hume, the Scottish philosopher. Re-election to Parliament came in 1768, and in 1770 the Earl of Hillsborough appointed Dunmore governor of the royal colony of New York. This position promised both honor and profit, since British law provided that the governor's salary would not be dependent on the whims of the colonial legislature but would be paid from the duty on tea.

Dunmore and his family reached New York on October 15, 1770, where they were quartered at the castle, part of the Battery fortifications. He entertained lavishly and was entertained by the elite of the city. About eleven months passed, when promotion came to Lord Dunmore as governor of Virginia. The idea of leaving New York was little to his liking; to be separated from his family in a land where there was "little or no society" would be insupportable.

February 10, 1772

But such was his popularity that Virginians made him the object of their special courtesies. When, at last, the Governor's family arrived, the people singled out his wife and 89 children for admiration, adopted a new born daughter named Virginia, and named two new counties Fincastle and Dunmore. In the Palace the gentry came willingly to dine with his lordship, George Washington among them as well as other leaders of the patriot cause. His inaugural address before the General Assembly made a favorable impression, because Dunmore was not without the graciousness of Fauquier and Botetourt in his initial acts. He ignored ministerial restrictions put on western settlement; in this respect he was carrying out his promises of cooperation "in opening new sources of wealth." Even more significant was his desire to promote the interdependence of colony and mother country, the first expression of its kind to be formally stated by an appointee of the crown. In addition, he voluntarily surrendered fees his predecessors had collected from various county commissions. Dunmore also enjoyed personal relations with George Washington as well as with merchants and planters who wanted to develop Virginia's agricultural, industrial and commercial resources. Both Assembly and Governor approved the development of inland waterways, the construction of new roads, and improvement of old roads.

Dunmore's first clash with the Virginians took place in 1773, when he dissolved the House of Burgesses for proposing a committee of correspondence on colonial grievances. The next year he followed the same procedure, when the Burgesses set a day of fasting and mourning over the closing of the port of Boston. In the midst of these disagreements the Governor issued a call for the colonial militia to put down hostile Indians on the frontier.

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Battle of Point Pleasant October 10, 1774

Some writers have accused Lord Dunmore of inciting an Indian war to divert the minds of Virginians from their grievances, but there is evidence that the Governor was sincere in his efforts to protect outlying settlements from hostile raids. In 1773 he visited the colony's northwestern frontier, where he ordered the building of Fort Dunmore at the forks of the Ohio; he was also preparing to have surveys made and claims entered, when the Shawnee Indians became hostile. A division of Virginians under Colonel Lewis defeated the natives under their leader, Cornstalk, at Point Pleasant. Lord Dunmore arrived to find them humbled and subdued, when on the plains of the Scioto they sued for peace. In after years American soldiers charged Dunmore with treacherously attempting to lead the militia into a trap, but no proof of such a purpose has yet turned up. Officers at the close of the campaign expressed appreciation of Lord Dunmore's conduct, and the legislature offered him thanks for his defense of the frontier.

Lexington-Concord April 19, 1775
Magazine incident April 20, 1775

Most of the colonial militiamen soon entered the continental army. For this reason some historians have called the battle of Point Pleasent the first engagement of the American Revolution. While the revolutionary movement was gathering force, Lord Dunmore found himself increasingly in basic opposition to the people. As news of Lexington and Concord moved southward, the Palace at Williamsburg witnessed its last days as a stronghold of royal brilliance and prestige. The key to the Magazine was in the governor's possession, but he feared that the populace would go to the arsenal and break down the door. Obeying a crown directive to put arms and ammunition out of general reach, Lord Dunmore summoned forty sailors and marines. They did not 91 march through the street, but they arrived at the Palace by way of the governor's park. They slipped out long before dawn on April 20, when entering the Magazine they seized and carried off a quantity of powder in the governor's wagon. The news of what had happened burst upon Virginians as an act of aggression. The local militia turned out in defiance of the Governor. Only the persuasion of the more conservative patriots kept them from advancing on the Palace and seizing Dunmore himself. Men in arms threatened to descend from the Piedmont counties until the powder was paid for in pounds sterling. According to Dr. William Pasteur, mayor of Williamsburg, Lord Dunmore said he had "two hundred muskets loaded in the Pallace" ready to use against attackers; he threatened that if any harm came to himself or his affairs he would "proclaim liberty to the slaves and reduce Williamsburg to ashes." Assurances of safety from his attorney-general gave him no comfort, for in his thoughts danger lurked everywhere. He placed his family on board the Fowey at Yorktown for protection and set about fortifying the Palace. One of his followers remarked: "No man can, I believe, make a better shift than ours on such an occasion." Dunmore placed guns at the windows, and cut loopholes in the walls, and drew up the cannon on the front lawn. The small arms in racks in the entrance hall would probably serve the Negroes who came to offer their services; but arming the slaves was a last resort. His lordship turned away those who came to the Palace and bade them "go about their Business."

The Governor pronounced Patrick Henry, leader of the 92 Hanover militia, an outlaw after Henry's small army had dispersed. His anger made clear his helplessness, for Lord Dunmore could muster only a few naval reserves besides arming his slaves.

The omens of nature were scarcely propitious, when late in May great hailstones broke between three to found hundred window panes in the Palace. The longer the Governor stayed, the more the Palace came to embody the House of Pride to Virginians. An intercepted official dispatch revealed that Dunmore had charged Virginians with rebellion against British authority. Early in June a crowd pillaged the Magazine. The House of Burgesses immediately inquired into the event. A special committee called at the Palace asking permission to visit the Magazine. Lord Dunmore received them in the hall with good grace, and promised the key as soon as he could secure it; but when the committee had left the Palace, he withdrew his consent. Now "shirt men" were filling Williamsburg. Since they did not come under his authority, they caused the Governor much foreboding. The visitors "dressed with an Oznaburg shirt over their cloaths, a belt round them with a Tommyhawk or Scalping Knife." To a loyalist they looked like "a band of Assassins." On no occasion did the Virginians insult Lord Dunmore; but threat of personal injury seemed possible and even probable to one who faced a hopeless situation. About two o'clock on the morning of June 8, 1775, his lordship left the Palace and went on board the H. M. S. Fowey. The Palace never housed a British governor again.

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Lord Dunmore refuses to return to the Palace

In vain did the Burgesses plead: "My Lord...We... earnestly entreat your Lordship that you will be pleased to return, with your Lady and family, to the Palace..." Again "...your Excellency's Removal from the Palace...has deprived us of the necessary and free Access to your Lordship which we conceive the Constitution entitles us to. There are several Bills of the last importance to this County, now ready to be presented to your Excellency for Assent." Dunmore, however, seemed to know when he was safe. According to testimony given the Burgesses he left the Fowey only to visit the house of attorney-general Randolph, a distance of a quarter of a mile from the Palace. On July 14 the Virginia Gazette reported that his servants and slaves had retired to Dunmore's farm at Porto Bello about six miles from Williamsburg. Not until June 25, 1776 were his slaves and personal estate put up for auction.

Removal of arms from the Palace

On June 25 arms stored in the Palace were taken away, but not by the governor's order. A patriotic Virginian saw a party of twenty-four gentlemen remove 310 arms, besides broad and small swords. In the daylight hours they carried out their purpose; their action was free from any suggestion of secrecy. Lord Dunmore saw only malignance in this, reporting: "...a considerable body of men violently forced into the Governor's house, bursting open a window by which one part entered who then forced the principal door by which the rest entered, and they carried off all the arms they could to the number of between two and three hundred stand, which had always been kept in the 94 hall of the house." A later wave of intruders, said Lord Dunmore, "broke open every lock of the doors of all the rooms, cabinets and private places, and carried off a considerable number of arms of different sorts, a large collection and valuable, my own property..." Colonial troops, he added, had taken possession of a considerable piece of land belonging to the Palace for their cavalry, where they wantonly maimed and cut his cattle.

Battle of Great Bridge December 9, 1775

Lord Dunmore continued to oppose the Virginians by sea, thus, blackening his name among those he should have won over. In November he proclaimed martial law and incited the slaves to desert. Defeated on land at Great Bridge, he again took to his ships and bombarded Norfolk on New Year's Day. Dunmore's reputation suffered for this blunder, but colonial troops were also responsible for much of the destruction. Dunmore left Virginia in July, 1776, after a military engagement at Gwynn's Island.

Back in Great Britain the Earl of Dunmore again sat in Parliament. From 1787 to 1796 he served as governor of the Bahamas. His death took place at Ramsgate, England. Dunmore was not fitted for times of revolution. A forthright man with a single-track mind, he needed greater vision to understand the colonists' cause. He met the emergency by force rather than by finesse. Had he lived in quiet times, he might have been counted among Virginia's popular and successful governors. Personally brave, he showed weakness in crisis, and by harsh measures brought about his own downfall.

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General Charles Lee in the Palace

The early part of 1776 found General Charles Lee of the Continental Army living in the Palace. Apparently this act savoured of the monarchial to General Horatio Gates, but most Virginians did not object. The Committee of Safety appointed a committee to see what pieces of furniture General Lee required. Lee's orderly book told more about caring for the park than the Palace. By his orders fences were repaired, cattle protected, trees safeguarded from "Tom Hawk throwing;" and sheds were constructed to protect sentinels in damp weather. Lee seemed careful to preserve military appearances. For April 1, 1776 his orderly book read: "The General has observed that detachments of troops march into and out of town without the least ceremony...the adjutant-general is therefore to post sufficient number of sentinels in the avenues of the town to prevent irregularities..." On April 8 soldiers on parade stood before the Palace, where General Lee endeavored "to give them some Idea of the General arrangement he designs for the Battalion of this Provence."

Patrick Henry in the Palace

In the dawn of the American republic the Palace again became the seat of the governor. The Convention chose Patrick Henry governor of the state of Virginia, and ordered that £1000 be laid out in furniture for the Palace. This spectacular politician, whom Dunmore denounced as "A certain Patrick Henry" was enjoying the handsomest house and park in America. He who had once ridden into Williamsburg on a lean horse and in mean attire now sported a fine black suit, a scarlet cloak, a and a wig, whose size seemed commensurate with his position. 96 The Palace shared with the Capitol and the Courthouse one of the great moments in American history, when the Declaration of Independence was proclaimed from those places at four o'clock on July 25, 1776.

In May, 1777, forty Cherokee Indians arrived in Williamsburg. At the Palace Oucanastota, the Little Carpenter, and other chiefs talked with Governor Henry and Council, "promising, in the future, the most inviolable friendship to this and the other United States." In the same year Patrick Henry sent troops under George Rogers Clark into the Illinois country of Virginia. In the winter of 1779 Clark captured Fort Vincennes and Henry Hamilton, the British governor of the Northwest, The Americans called him "Hair-Buyer," because Hamilton reportedly paid for the scalps of frontiersmen killed by Indians allied with the British cause. Taken to Williamsburg, he apparently failed to meet Palace standards. Hamilton, of course, held different ideas of his own importance, writing: "The Officer went in [to the Palace] to give Account of his Mission, and we remained on Horseback before the Door expecting the Civilities naturally to be looked for from a Man in the first Place in the Province. In half an Hour not finding our Expectations answered I flung myself from my Horse fatigued and mortified to be left a Spectacle to a gazing Crowd." The state of Virginia seemed to think that the gaol would be a more suitable lodging for such a personage, and there an officer conducted him.

Thomas Jefferson in the Palace

Thomas Jefferson, second governor of Virginia, noted: 97 "The Palace is not handsome without, but it is spacious and commodious within; is prettily situated, and, with the grounds annexed to it, is capable of being made an elegant seat." Jefferson was a leader in the agitation to move the capital to Richmond; yet this did not keep him from studying ways to remodel the Palace. His drawings belonged to the realm of what might have happened, showing how he wished to enlarge the parlor, to furnish independent access to the corner rooms from the private stairway; at the same time his plans made clear that Jefferson wanted to keep the plan regular. Preliminary studies showed elaborate additional features, such as a veranda with eight columns. The final drawing, however, closely followed the line of the building as it stood, though with successful solution of the problem of the interior. An octagonal projection enlarged the parlor, and access to the sides was gained by a narrow lateral corridor pierced through the heart of the great chimneys.

Decay of the Palace

Whether for good or for ill, the Jeffersonian metamorphosis did not take place; and the Palace was left to enter the limbo of stately pleasure domes, when Jefferson moved the servants and furniture to Richmond in March, 1780. Its last bright social moments were few, but they were neither sentimental nor dull. Present were such rising lights as John Marshall, the great Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. An observer noted: "The entertainment in itself was like most of the entertainments of the present time, simple and frugal as to its viands, but for the brilliancy of the company too much cannot be said; it consisted of more beauty and elegance than I had ever witnessed before, and 98 I was transported with delight at being considered a distinguished personage." French and American officers agreed that the Palace was suffering the fate of most abandoned houses. The rooms still showed the traces of the rich and costly, but these qualities were vanishing with defacement. To Timothy Pickering the Palace presented a decent exterior but nothing magnificent; but to the Baron Gromot du Bourg the base of the building was superb in spite of decay and neglect.

Palace as a hospital

During 1781 British troops appeared in Williamsburg only to be followed by the Continental Army. Along with several other houses the Continental Army converted the Palace into a hospital. Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown in October, 1781. Although the fighting stopped, about one hundred miserable, sick and wounded lay in the Palace. The Medical department needed blankets, shirts, overalls, and clothing for the patients, but it had no money to pay for food or nursing care. The medicine supply was dwindling, and the rate of small-pox rising.

Destruction of the Palace

The Palace had become little more than a charnel house, one that fire consumed on the night of December 23, when all but one patient reached safety. For those three hours pandemonium reigned. What walls remained after the havoc soon tumbled, their bricks going for sale. The fire did not touch the outhouses, but they fell into decay.

Lands once part of the Palace went to the College of William and Mary; but after 1784 they were held by Edmund 99 Randolph, who repaired the offices and other outbuildings for his own use. Various persons used the flanking buildings for dwellings; not until the Civil War were these destroyed. Williamsburg in 1795 impressed a French traveler as a deserted hive now that the government had flown to Richmond. The College alone retained some importance. He noted: "The Capitol, the Palace, a certain regularity in the streets and the buildings, add to the sadness of this depopulated city." The long night had set in. The Governor's House seemed to fade from the common memory, while the imagination seized hold and translated it to the realm of cloud-capped towers and gorgeous palaces. One writer exclaimed: "On that spot where you see these ruins, formerly stood the Palace which far exceeded the Temple of Diana at Ephesus, or that of the Sun at Palmyra."

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CONCLUSION

The word, "palace," originally meant a dwelling on the Palatine Hill of Rome, where the imperial Caesars built their mansions. Other rulers adopted it when speaking of their place of residence. The rulers of Venice lived in an establishment of dazzling splendor, and the kings of Europe copied the palace of Versailles, France, in hopes of adding something to their lustre. Yet the Governor's Palace has qualities that quite offset European grandeur. It is singularly free from sinister overtones; it never appears as an evil communication to corrupt good manners. History does not record that Virginians thought the Palace an execrable symbol of oppression; we rather associate it with the best in our past. For seventy-six years the Palace witnessed British rule in Virginia, which ended when Virginians standing before its gates proclaimed American independence. The Palace also saw the United States take its place among the nations.

Today the Palace looks back on the aristocratic tradition in our heritage. According to this point of view man tends toward evil, unless he is obliged to exercise restraint and serve order, reason's first law. Nature does not endow men equally; some are therefore gifted with greater capacities than others, and to them belongs the right to rule. The able are not the mass of men but the few. 101 They preserve their privilege to lead first by birth and second by capacity and character. The Palace stands in contrast to the Capitol, which looks back to the founding of English democratic traditions in America. Democracy rests on the premise that men are potentially good and are capable of indefinite improvement. It admits change and strives to achieve the better. It cannot wholly deny the natural inequality of men, but it stresses equality of opportunity. The aristocratic and democratic outlooks still claim our attention; we may emphasize one of the two, but we cannot close our eyes to the other.

Architects of stature have always known that experiment was more essential than imitation of antiquity with its dogmas of style, order, and proportion. Architectural doctrines mislead when they suggest that the essence of architecture is outward appearance rather than human needs and inner realities. The Governor's Palace fortunately embodies the reasonable and common sense attitude of the neo-classic period. Its manner combines simplicity with elegance and the unobtrusive with the engaging. It may have an artificial air but it is never false. The Palace blends the British with the Virginian experience; it sets the pattern for the old colonial mansion and typifies the early eighteenth century British house in style and taste.

The axial arrangement gives unity to house and garden. The clear perception of some ideal of order governed the 102 Palace layout. In the gardens the design of the ordering of materials gives historic interest; planning receives more emphasis than planting. Within the predominately classical setting, however, are non-classical elements. Walls hung with Chinese wallpaper and rooms embellished with porcelain and lacquer furniture imply a protest against the principles of symmetry and proportion, which give the art of the Renaissance its distinguishing character. The protest is not conscious but nevertheless real; if barbed, it is never loud and raucous. Alien elements lend charm without upsetting balance; they introduce a divergent note, one which indicates an approval of other civilizations and welcomes novelty and wider experience.

Adorned with false hair and grandiloquence of manner, the gentleman fitted an age that liked splendor and a symmetrical garden with clipped hedges. The bearing of George Washington has something of this majesty, as Governour Morris learned when he once playfully slapped Washington on the back. Ideals by nature are unattainable; perhaps in any period men honor then more in the breach than in the observance. The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries saw frequent lapses from gentlemanly standards. A glass or two of spirits could early crack the veneer of manner and set in relief the boor and even the brute. Lord Chesterfield was shallow, cynical, and hypocritical in his undue stress on appearances; but the eighteenth century also knew him for his wide range of reading, artistic 103 taste, and ability as a statesman.

The frivolous is a deceptive aspect of those times, when the growing British Empire set new lands and strange customs before the gentleman. His world was changing because of developments in science, industry, and commerce. Neo-classicists, however, rarely approved of experimental science and the popularity of books of travel. Indiscriminate reading of voyages filled heads with marvels, falsehoods, and extravagances; they destroyed a taste for the Greek and Roman as well as the master pieces that contributed a dignified record of those civilizations. But these were not the only dangers. Moralists deduced sophistical ethical theories from the customs and practices of the semi-civilized and barbarous; from the same source "atheists" fetched their abhorrent creeds. Free-thinkers lost their faith in doctrines of Hebraic origin only to replace them with conceptions derived from India, China and Japan. By these standards Lord Botetourt ought to have been rebuked for his interest in travel literature and neglect of the classics.

In the history of taste the Palace provides a setting of revolt. It is on the side of authority, but it contains signs of growing freedom. Because order and degree, symmetry and proportion failed to satisfy the emotions, the eighteenth century witnessed an outpouring of emotions that classicism had repressed and starved. By 1800 strangeness was added to beauty. Landscapes of the mind flowed with sinuous rills ans blossoms with many an incense bearing tree. Chesterfieldian 104 decorum was held up to scorn. The spontaneous, undisciplined child of nature could not stop to hide his laughter but burst out in "a glorious convulsion."

The mood of the American Revolution expressed hostility to the idea of palaces. "Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built up—on the ruins of the bowers of paradise," wrote Tome Paine in 1776. Destroying fire removed the Governor's Palace from blighting alterations in the next century. Virginia's public buildings lacked elegance, wrote Jefferson in 1781. The Palace was "not handsome without;" the College and Hospital were "rude, misshappen piles, which, but they have roofs would be taken for brick kilns." Jefferson mourned: "The genius of architecture seems to have shed its maledictions over this Land." The idea of a palace meanwhile cheapened, as it moved down democratic vistas, burlesque theaters taking over the name and saloons becoming "gin palaces."

When the Capitol and Palace rose from their ashes in the 1930's, they opened up fresh avenues to the eighteenth century. The Capitol leads us back to the world of political decisions. The Palace takes the way of taste to the neo-classical climate. House, gardens, furnishings, and manners are important for what they reveal about choice. The Capitol tells of men in their willingness to accommodate; the Palace tells us of men in their qualitative judgments. Both inextricably share in the life of human freedom.

GLOSSARY OF ARCHITECTURAL TERMS

ARCHITECT

- In the first part of the eighteenth century the master workman designed the model, drew up the plan, and determined the methods of construction. The ability to draw up plans was also considered the accomplishment of a gentleman. The law of June 22, 1706 refers to Henry Cary as "gentleman" as well as "Overseer." Not until the 1750's did a trained architect appear in Virginia. Thomas Jefferson and Richard Taliaferro were gifted amateurs.

ARCHITRAVE

- see entablature

BALUSTER

- An upright support of a rail, in the railing of a staircase, balcony, etc.

BASE

- The lower part of a wall, pier, or column, when treated as a separate feature, or especially ornamented. It may consist of the following divisions:

(1) SURBASE:

A molding or series of moldings at the top of the base of a pedestal, podium, or wall.

(2) DADO:

In interior decoration the lower part of the wall of an apartment when specially decorated.

(3) BASE:

The lower part of a complete architectural design.

BARREL-VAULT

- A continuous arched roof over an oblong spare, resting on the side walls.

BATTLEMENT

- The termination of a parapet in a series of indentations, called embrasures, while the intervening solid parts are called merlons.

BOLECTION

- Mouldings which project before the face of the work they decorate, as a raised moulding round a moulding.

BOND

- "in Masonry and Brick-laying, is when bricks or stones are, as it were, knit and interwoven; and when they say make good bond, they mean that the joints are not made over, or upon other joints; but reach at least six inches, both within the wall and on the surface, as the art of building requires." (Chambers Cyclopaedia)

BRICKWORK

- The brick bond at the Palace was Flemish; the pointing of joints consisted of a grooved line struck at the center of all morter joints. The morter was made of oyster shell lime. The brick sizes average 9¼ " x 4¼" x 2 5/8". 2 About fifty per cent are 2 5/8" thick; about forty per cent 2¾" thick; about ten per cent 2½" thick. The Palace brick shows a fair range of color; pink-red, red-tan, and purple-grey. About a third of the headers indicate a glazed surface.

RUBBED BRICK

are oversize and slightly softer brick rubbed down to a smooth face so as to conform to a typical brick size.

GAUGED BRICK

are a tapered shape, as for a flat arch above a window or for rounded arches.

CANTILEVER

A projecting beam or member supported only at one end.

CAPITAL

See column.

COLUMN

A vertical member, consisting of the following divisions:

(1) CAPITAL:

the uppermost member.

(2) SHAFT:

the cylindrical pillar between capital and base.

(3) BASE:

the resting place of the column. In classic architecture the function of the column is to support the entablature, and in Gothic, an arch.

CORNICE

See entablature.

COURSE

A continuous horizontal layer of stones or bricks.

COVE

Specifically, the concave surface that may occur between the top of an interior wall and the flat of the ceiling.

CUPOLA

A small done, or spherical roof over a circular, square or polygonal space rising like an inverted cup.

DADO

See base.

ENTABLATURE

The horizontal member of a classic or columnar order. It rests on the abacus of the column and consists of the following members:

• (1)CORNICE: The horizontal member (typically molded and projecting) which crowns the composition, as a facade; hence the top course or courses of a wall when treated as a crowning member.
• (2)FRIEZE: That part of an entablature between architrave and cornice, sometimes enriched by sculpture.
• (3)ARCHITRAVE: The lowest division of an entablature, resting on the column. Also the moulded frame which bounds the sides as well as the head of a door or a window opening.

FACADE

The outside elevation of a building that faces a spectator.

FINIAL

The ornament that forms the upper extremity of a pinnacle, gable 3 or the like. Hence, any crowning ornamental architectural detail.

FRIEZE

See entablature.

GABLE

The upper part of the wall of the building, above the eaves; triangular in shape, conforming to the slope of the roof.

HALL

"a large room at the entrance of a fine house and palace. In the houses of ministers of state, magistrates, etc., it is the place where they dispatch business, and give audience." Builder's Dictionary, 1774 .

HIP-ROOF

A roof that rises from all the wall-plates and, accordingly, has no gable.

LIGHTS

The medium through which light is admitted, as a window, or a pane in a window.

LINTEL

The horizontal beam supported on two uprights or posts, covering an opening and supporting weight, e.g. the top member of the frame of a doorway or window.

MEMBER

Any component part of a structural design that has a specific function to perform.

MODILLION

An ornamental block or bracket under the crown of the cornice in the Corinthian and other orders.

MULLION

One of the vertical stone bars dividing a Gothic window into two or more "lights", The horizontal bars are called transoms.

NEWELL POST

The shaft around which a spiral staircase is constructed; also the principal post supporting the handrail of a staircase.

ORDER

Specifically, in classical architecture, the combination of column and entablature.

PEDASTAL

The support or foot of the column.

PEDINENT

Originally the triangular space forming the gable of a two pitched roof; hence, a similar form used as a decoration over porticoes, doors, windows, etc.

PIER

A vertical supporting member, other than a column or pillar.

PILASTER

An upright architectural member, rectangular in plan, structurally a pier, but architecturally treated as a column with capital, shaft, and base.

PORTICO

An open space covered by a roof, supported on columns, forming a porch.

4

PULVINATED

Swelling or bulging, especially applied to a frieze having a convex face.

REVEAL

A side of an opening or recess which is at right angles to the face of the work; especially the vertical side of the doorway or window, opening between the door or window frame and the arris.

SURBASE

See base.

WEATHERCOCK

A weathercock (weathervane) was the topmost feature of public buildings, such as the Palace and the Capitol. Before setting out on a journey by river a traveler watched the weathercock for wind direction. The weather-conscious farmer found it an indispensable aid.

GLOSSARY OF TERMS FOR GARDENING

DESIGNER

One who makes an artistic design or plan of construction; a draughtsman, specifically one whose business is to invent or prepare designs. The gardener or the person who takes care of a garden is not to be confused with the designer.

ESPALIER

(From the Italian spalliera `Wainscot work to lean the shoulders against,' hence, stakes of shoulder height.) A kind of lattice-work or frame-work of stakes upon which fruit trees or ornamental shrubs are raised.

FOSSE

Ditch or trench.

HA-HA

A boundary to a garden of such a kind as not to interrupt the view from within, and not to be seen till closely approached; consisting of a trench, the inner side of which is perpendicular and faced with stone, the outer sloping and turfed; a sunk fence.

PARTERRE

A level space in a garden occupied by an ornamental arrangement of flower-beds of various shapes and sizes.

PLEACHED

Comes from the French "plesser" meaning to plait and weave.

PLACE

Refers not to the great acreage of the plantation or farm, but to the relatively small space of enclosed ground embracing the site of the yards and buildings.

TRELLIS

A structure of light bars of wood or metal crossing each other at intervals and fastened where they cross with open space between. Fruit trees or climbing plants are trained on this structure.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Palace Book.
• The Governor's Palace: An Architectural Report.
• B. Sprague Allen, Tides in English Taste 1619-1800, (1937) two volumes.
• M. P. Andrews, The Old Dominion, (1937).
• The Honorable Mrs. Evelyn Cecil, A History of Gardening in England, (1910).
• H. E. Clark, The English Landscape Garden, (1948).
• M. Curtis, The Growth of American Thought, (1943).
• L. Dodson, Alexander Spotswood, Governor of Colonial Virginia 1710-1722, (1932).
• P. S. Flippin, Royal Government in Virginia 1624-1775, (1918).
• D. S. Freeman, George Washington, Volume I, (1948).
• Letters of Governor William Gooch 1727-1751 (typescript in possession of Colonial Williamsburg).
• R. Goodwin, Williamsburg in Virginia, (1914).
• A. L. Kocher and H. Dearstyne, Colonial Williamsburg, Its Buildings and Gardens, (1949).
• L. K. Koontz, Robert Dinwiddie, (1940).
• D. Malone, Jefferson the Virginian, (1948).
• H. Morrison, Early American Architecture, (1932).
• L. Morton, Robert Carter of Nomini Hall, (1945).
• J. A. Osborne, Williamsburg in Colonial Times, (1935).
• U. B. Philips, Life and Labor in the Old South.
• R. W. Symonds, English Furniture from Charles II to George II, (1929). 2
• T. J. Wertenbaker, The Golden Age of Colonial Culture. (1942).
• M. H. Woodfin (ed.), Another Secret Diary of William Byrd of Westover 1739-1741, (1942).
• L. B. Wright, The First Gentlemen of Virginia, (1940).
• L. B. Wright and Marion Tinling (ed.s), The Secret Diary of William Byrd of Westover 1709-1712, (1941).

Periodicals

• L. J. Cappon (ed.), "Correspondence of Alexander Spotswood to John Spotswood of Edinburgh," The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, (April, 1952), Volume 60, Number 2.
• N. Pevsner, "The Genesis of the Picturesque," The Architectural Review, (November, 1944).
• A. A. Schurcliff, "The Gardens of the Governor's Palace, Williamsburg, Virginia," Landscape Architecture, Volume XXVII, (January,1937), Number 2.
• G. Yost, "Reconstruction of Lord Botetourt's Library," The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, Volume 36, Second Quarter, (1942), pp. 97-123.

Attached is a basic interpretation paper on the Governor's Palace, as prepared jointly by Interpretation and Presentation. In it are set forth the important historical concepts and information which appear minimum for any visitor to the Palace.

Rather than using an outline form, the paper is presented in the form of a script. This has been done so that our suggestions are entirely clear. There is no inference that this should be memorized in part or in full, because each hostess will wish to work from the paper in her own way.

By studying this paper, hostesses at various stations will realize the basic information which will have been given the visitor prior to reaching her station. Thus, she can avoid duplication, and build on a continuous story which will already be partially developed.

The paper is based on a careful selection of Williamsburg history relating specifically to the Palace, and on a list of aspects of eighteenth-century life which can best be conveyed to the visitor in this particular building.

An effort has been made to introduce warm anecdotal and human interest material wherever possible, so that the rooms can actually become inhabited again for visitors with any imagination. We realize that this approach is one which is always recognized by hostesses, but we believe that further concentration on this approach will be helpful.

Also, rather than avoiding mention of objects which always excite the interest and questions of the visitor, an attempt has been made to work through such objects to the points of history or personality or everyday life which they can illumine effectively.

This paper is obviously of primary importance during stationing. However, it may also be useful as offering general guidance to hostesses when groups are escorted through the Palace by a single hostess.

Finally, it should be noted that this paper and succeeding papers on other buildings will be revised as new research becomes available and as we have in hand the suggestions and criticisms of hostesses who have made use of it.

1

Attached is a basic interpretation paper on the Governor's Palace, as prepared jointly by Interpretation and Presentation. In it are set forth the important historical concepts and information which appear minimum for any visitor to the Palace.

Rather than using an outline form, the paper is presented in the form of a script. This has been done so that our suggestions are entirely clear. There is no inference that this should be memorized in part or in full, because each hostess will wish to work from the paper in her own way.

By studying this paper, hostesses at various stations will realize the basic information which will have been given the visitor prior to reaching her station. Thus, she can avoid duplication, and build on a continuous story which will already be partially developed.

The paper is based on a careful selection of Williamsburg history relating specifically to the Palace, and on a list of aspects of eighteenth-century life which can best be conveyed to the visitor in this particular building.

An effort has been made to introduce warm anecdotal and human interest material wherever possible, so that the rooms can actually become inhabited again for visitors with any imagination. We realize that this approach is one which is always recognized by hostesses, but we believe that further concentration on this approach will be helpful.

Also, rather than avoiding mention of objects which always excite the interest and questions of the visitor, an attempt has been made to work through such objects to the points of history or personality or everyday life which they can illumine effectively.

This paper is obviously of primary importance during stationing. However, it may also be useful as offering general guidance to hostesses when groups are escorted through the Palace by a single hostess.

Finally, it should be noted that this paper and succeeding papers on other buildings will be revised as new research becomes available and as we have in hand the suggestions and criticisms of hostesses who have made use of it.

1