Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Library Research Report Series - 1091
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Library
Williamsburg, Virginia
1990
1744
An Act of Assembly gave Mann Page the right to dispose of entailed lands, among which were "seven hundred acres of land, or thereabouts, adjoining the city of Williamsburg in the county of York."
1749 April
A survey of the York Road and Capitol Landing sections of these lands was made in 1749 by William Waller. These sections, divided into lots, were then owned by Benjamin Waller, who had acquired them of Page. Lot #23 is shown on the plat as having an eastern boundary 8 poles (132 feet) long.
1756
By an Act of Assembly passed in 1756, as soon as any of the lots were built upon they became part of the city. Waller had sold certain of the lots but none in Block 7.
1767 Jan. 15
Benjamin Waller ran the following "ad" in the Virginia Gazette: "A TENEMENT between Mr. Lewis's store and Mrs. Vobe's, and another between Mrs. Vobe's and Mr. Benj. Powell's may be rented . …"
1770 Oct. 4
The "Mr. Lewis" meant in the above in William (John) Lewis, who, according to a notice in the Oct. 4, 1770 issue of the Virginia Gazette (Purdie and Dixon) has
"Just imported in the PEGGY, Captain ASHBURN, and to be sold by the subscriber, at the corner store a little below the Capitol, Williamsburg, KENDAL cottons .... etc.
WILLIAM LEWIS"
The corner, a little below the Capitol, was without question the northeast corner of Waller Street and York Road (Block 2 7, Lot 23) for the Virginia Gazette (Rind) of November 1, 1770 carries the following notice: "To be SOLD... THE HOUSE and LOT where Mrs. Steel formerly lived just below Mr. Lewis's store …" Mrs. Steel is known to have lived on Lot 24, just east of Lot 23 (Research Report, Lot 23, Illustration #6). William Lewis must have rented his store from Benjamin Waller who still owned Lot 23. John and William Lewis had dissolved the partnership of John Lewis & Co. in 1768 ( Virginia Gazette , Purdie and Dixon, Oct. 20, 1768). John Lewis came to Williamsburg from New Kent in 1770 and established himself in "his home in the city, which was late the property of Mr. Thomas Cobbs, and is on the street leading to the Capital Landing, has opened store…" Virginia Gazette , Purdie and Dixon, February 15, 1770). His store, at least in 1771, was "near the Post Office, in Williamsburg …" (Virginia Gazette , Purdie and Dixon, September 17, 1771). His "house in the city" was west of the Capital Landing Road as is clearly indicated in a deed given to him by Thomas Cobbs in Sept. 6, 1768 (Powell-Hallam Research Report). The Williamsburg Land Tax Records for 1785 list him as owning 1¼ lots. John Lewis was, apparently, a man of affairs who was at various times engaged in a number of different businesses -that of ordinary keeper, merchant, real estate dealer, etc. His brother, William, preceded him in Williamsburg, establishing himself there while John was still in New Kent.
Mrs. Vobe is known to have operated a coffee house and tavern on lots 21 and 22 until 1771 when she sold out and established herself at the King's Arms Tavern on Duke of Gloucester Street.
Evidently, then, one of the tenements which Benjamin Waller offered for rent was on the northern part of Lot 23, where a foundation which would answer that description has been uncovered, whereas none has been discovered on Lot 22 south of the foundations of the Coffee House.
1776 Nov. 11 through 1780
Humphrey Harwood in his ledger records an account of "Mr. John Lewis (by Mrs. Hallam) Dr." The following work items are listed: (1776) "contracting" two chimneys, mending kitchen chimney; (1777, Oct. 9) laying hearth, mending kitchen floor and mending well; (1780, April 7 - June 7) building a chimney to store, building a kitchen chimney, "turning two trimmers" and laying a hearth, lathing and plastering, underpinning a trimmer and laying a hearth, 400 bricks and 8 bushels of lime used, building a pair of steps, repairing lathing and plastering in Store Room. 3
Foundations of what appear to have been two shops or stores were uncovered on Lot 23 as well as two kitchens and a house (see archaeological drawing). Both of these are near Waller Street and have their short sides toward the street, which was characteristic of stores but not of houses. The smaller of the two stores was, in respect to north and south, about centrally located. It seems reasonable to believe that this was the store of William Lewis and that he lived in the nearby house on the corner. The larger of the two stores was on the northern boundary of Lot 23. This was, presumably, the tenement which Benjamin Waller advertised as being for rent. It is not certain that the work done by Harwood for "Mr. John Lewis (by Mrs. Hallam)" was work done on buildings on the northern part of Lot 23. We can say, in favor of this view, however, that it would have been reasonable for John Lewis, who was involved in real estate to have cared for alterations and repairs to buildings on a lot which William Lewis, with whom he had formerly been in partnership, rented. Furthermore, the work was in part alterations made to a "Store" and/or "Store Room".
1777 Nov. 10
Benjamin Waller conveyed Lot 23 to David Morton, a tailor. The lot is described in the deed as "being in the city of Williamsburg Parish Bruton County of York and bounded on the South by the Main Road leading to York Town on the west by the Street leading to the Capitol Landing on the North by the lots of Christiana Campbell and on the East by the lot of George Jackson and all Houses ...." Jackson we know to have been on Lot 24 and Christiana Campbell on Lots 21 and 22.
1777 Nov. 17
Morton gave a mortgage to Robert Nicolson, merchant. The boundaries are listed as above. Waller's deed is mentioned as including "all Houses Palings Yards Gardens ... belonging to the same . . . ."
1778 July 16
Morton sold a portion of Lot 23 to Isham Goddin for £200, Virginia money. This is described as containing about ½ acre and as starting on Christiana Campbell's line and 4 "running South 35½ feet from thence East 119½ feet to the line of George Jackson and from thence to the line of Christiana Campbell 35½ feet and from thence along said Campbell's line 119½ feet to the place first begun at ... All houses buildings palings ...." The part conveyed to Goddin was the northern ? to ¼ of the lot.
1783 Sept. 8
Goddin sold the above property to George Jackson on September 8, 1783 and moved to New Kent County.
1785 April 18
By 1785 William Rowsay, a jeweller, had become owner of the northern part of Lot 23 for he conveyed it to James Innes on April 18 of that year. By some transaction of which we have no record, Rowsay recovered the property and he or his estate held it until ca. 1812.
5The fact that the northern part of Lot 23 was owned by five different people between 1777 and 1812 does not preclude the possibility that Mrs. Sarah Hallam, estranged wife of Lewis Hallam, Jr., "Father of the American Stage" (the two were separated for many years) actually occupied the northern part of Lot 23 continuously until her death in 1792. We have no record which indicates that any of these owners occupied the plot, whereas we do have documentary evidence which, though not conclusive, strongly suggests that Sarah Hallam lived in the tenement which Benjamin Waller advertised for rent in 1767.
The owner or owners who, because of their long ownership of it, were most likely to have used the lot, viz., William Rowsay and his estate, did not, we believe, occupy it during Sarah Hallam's lifetime (she died in 1792). Rowsay bought the Bland-Wetherburn House on Duke of Gloucester Street in 1784 and was living in this in 1786 when he died. His shop we know was "next door below Anderson's Tavern" (Anderson's Tavern was the Bland-Wetherburn House and his shop was apparently in what we now know as Tarpley's store). When, therefore, we find in Humphrey Harwood's account with him references to work done in a shop, it is more than likely that these refer to his shop in Tarpley's Store, particularly since such references are all dated earlier than the year of his death.
1780-1783
Humphrey Harwood did the following work during these years for William Rowsay and/or his estate: (1780, April 22 - May 29) "larthing & plastering up a door," repairing a pair of steps, repairing a well, repairing plaster in Dairy (This work was probably done on Lots 163, 164 and 169 which Rowsay owned at the time); (1783, January - May) bushel of lime "(at the Shop)," repairing chimney, building forge and laying hearth, repairing lathing and plastering in Shop, laying a hearth in Shop, repairing plaster "in Mr. Houstons House," laying a hearth and mending a chimney back, whitewashing two rooms, an entry and closet and 1 room "(in Shop)".
All of the above work was done before Rowsay owned the northern part of Lot 23, Block 7. We know that Rowsay owned the latter plot in April, 1785 for he deeded it in that mouth and year to George Innes. We also know, however, that Isham Goddin owned it until September 8, 1783 because he deeded the plot on that date to George Jackson.
"Mr. Houston" was John Houston, nephew of Rowsay. Houston was also a jeweller. It is highly unlikely that he lived on lot 23 in 1783 because Rowsay had not yet acquired the northern part of it. Houston may have occupied the plot in 1801 for a Mutual Assurance Society policy of July 22 of that year - policy #485 of Thomas Sands - reads, in part: "My Two buildings facing the Main Street back of the old Capitol at Williamsburg now occupied by myself situated between the Lot of Thomas Dawson and that of John Houston in the county of York ..." The Sands property seems to have been the plot formerly owned by Mrs. Campbell. This agrees with the College map (1791 ?) which marks Lot 20 as "Dawson," Lot 21 as "Campbell" and Lot 22 as "Rowsay." There is no record of Rowsay having acquired Lot 22 so that it is possible that this may have been an error on the part of the mapmaker and that the Rowsay plot, on which, presumably, Houston lived in 1801, should have been indicated as the northern part of Lot 23. On the other hand, the mapmaker may rightly have designated Lot 22 as Rowsay's since, as will be seen later, it is necessary to count Lot 22 as a Rowsay lot in order to arrive at the total of five lots assigned to the Rowsay estate in 1778 and later in the Williamsburg Land Tax Records. Houston is 6 never listed in the Land Tax Records as an owner of property in Williamsburg. This makes the following item in the Records for 1806 difficult to explain: "William Rowsay Est. - 1 lot via Houston - $20"
1782 -1787
Humphrey Harwood in his Ledger (Book B, p. 48) charges the following directly to "Mrs. Sarah Hallam, dancing Mistress": (1782, Nov. 14) lime, brick, laying hearth, repairing well hole in smoke house; (1785, May 27) whitewashing of two rooms, a passage and a closet; (1786, February 21) whitewashing two rooms, a passage and a closet; (1787, April 20) corn, etc.
1788 February 16 and 28
Humphrey Harwood did the following work in 1788 for "Mr. Rowsay's Estate by Ben Powell Dr." (Powell was an executor of Rowsay's estate): Repairing plaster and chimney, whitewashing two rooms "& wash for Tenement Mervin Hallam"; "For Mrs. Rowsay," laying dairy floor and plastering, setting up a grate, taking down a grate and setting it up again, laying smoke house floor and plastering smoke house.
Marvin Hallam, an (unsuccessful) actor, was the son of Sarah Hallam and Lewis Hallam, Jr. We know from an item in the Galt Medical Account Book for 1788 that he was in Williamsburg in that year and from the Galt Ledger B for 1793-94 that he was in those years still in the city. The Galt ledger also refers to his wife.
The thesis which we have advanced and have been attempting to establish is that the tenement or store on the northern part of Lot 23 was occupied by Mrs. Sarah Hallam from 1776 or earlier until her death in 1792. The evidence supporting this is contained in the successive accounts of Humphrey Harwood recorded above:
- #1."Mr. John Lewis (by Mrs. Hallam)", 1776 - 1780
- #2."Mrs. Sarah Hallam, dancing Mistress," 1782 - 1787
- #3."Mr. William Rowsay's Estate, by Ben Powell ... for Tenement Mervin Hallam," 1788.
Account #1 is associated with the Waller tenement by virtue of John Lewis's close connection with his brother, William, who 7 ran a store on the same lot. Account #2 is connected with #1 by the assumption that Mrs. Hallam continued in 1782 to live where she had lived in 1780. We note that in the work listed in this account is the whitewashing of two rooms and a passage. This furnishes a tie with Account #3 in which the whitewashing of two rooms constitutes the work done.
We have every reason to believe that the tenement in Account #3 is on the northern part of Lot 23, since we know that this plot remained in the possession of the Rowsay estate until 1812. In 1788, the year of this account, the Williamsburg Land Tax Records list the Rowsay Estate as owning five lots. Rowsay's administrators, we know, sold three lots (163, 164 and 169) on the Palace Green sometime before July 2,1788 but Rowsay himself in 1785 had bought two lots, which included the Bland-Wetherburn Tavern, from Henry Nicholson and the Tarpley lot west of these from Samuel Beall about the same time, apparently. If to these three lots we add Lot 22 which is designated as Rowsay's on the College map and the northern part of Lot 23 we would have the total of five lots listed in the Land Tax Records for 1788, assuming that in these Records the part of Lot 23, which was ½ acre only, was counted as a full lot. The above enumeration seems reasonable in view of the fact that we have no knowledge of other properties in possession of the Rowsay estate at that time. Mervin Hallam, of course, could have been living either on the northern part of Lot 23 or on Lot 22 but since no foundations have been discovered on Lot 22 which could have been those of his house, we must assume that he was occupying the tenement on the northern part of Lot 23. It should also be noted that there is no overlapping of dates in the three accounts and that they are almost continuous between 1776 and 1788.
In believing that Mrs. Hallam resided in the tenement or store until her death in 1792 we are assuming that she was either living with her son, Mervin, and his wife or that Mervin was living elsewhere and seeing to the upkeep of his mother's place. The former assumption seems a very reasonable one since the first United States census (taken in 1782) lists Sarah Hallam as head of a family with a household of three whites and one black. Mrs. Hallam's name, by the way, does not appear in the city Land Tax Records as owner of property in Williamsburg. The fact that the tenement is designated as a "store" would signify merely that it had been used as such prior to Mrs. Hallam's residence in it. "Stores" in eighteenth century Williamsburg were usually houses in which one or more rooms were converted to business uses.
The circumstance that the so-called Powell-Hallam House (now on a Francis Street site to which it was moved from a location on York Road east of Lot 23) was for many years 8 associated with Sarah Hallam is readily explained. Mrs. Harrison, an old resident of Williamsburg, recalled that as late as 1839 an aged lady named Hallam, "wife of an ante-Revolutionary comedian," lived in the house and a Mrs. Martha Vandergrift who visited Williamsburg in the 1840's also speaks of her, saying that she was an English lady, the widow of an actor. This lady could not possibly have been Sarah Hallam since the latter is known to have died in 1792 (see The Virginia Herald and Fredericksburg Advertiser for Dec. 6., 1792). The lady, on the other hand, might well have been the wife of Marvin Hallam, who was an "ante-Revolutionary comedian" or even possibly, the second wife of Lewis Hallam, Jr., whom the latter married in 1793 (he died in 1808).
Before closing this treatment of Sarah Hallam and her probable dwelling place it should be pointed out that it would have been very reasonable for her to have chosen to live close to the theatre (Lots 21 and 22) where the Hallam family had appeared for two widely-separated engagements --first, in 1752 when Lewis Hallam, Sr. had played there with his wife, the first Sarah Hallam, and their son, Lewis, Jr. who was then 12 years old, and a second time in 1771 when Lewis Hallam, Jr. returned with his wife, Sarah (the lady who remained in Williamsburg). At this time his cousin, also Sarah Hallam, was his leading lady, She later returned to England. It should be mentioned that Lewis Hallam, Sr. had passed away long before and his wife, the first Sarah who had remarried, died in 1774.
1782
The Frenchman's Map shows five buildings on what is presumably Lots 23 and 24. There is a pair of buildings on the western boundary, the larger of which is very close to the southwest corner of lot 23. This is in the approximate location of the house foundation uncovered on the lot. The smaller of the two buildings lies to the north of the larger, and is so close to the latter that the two seem contiguous. This might be the shop or store the foundations of which were discovered north of the house foundation, except that on the map the two structures are much closer together than are the foundations.
The map shows a sizable, elongated building along the southern boundary of the lot or lots (the draftsman has apparently combined 9 Lots 23 and 24. This structure seems to correspond fairly closely in shape and location with the house foundations discovered on Lot 24.
Two smaller, squarish buildings are shown on what corresponds with the northern part of Lot 23. These may be a representation of the shop or store and kitchen, of which foundations were discovered on that part of Lot 23, except that their relative positions in respect to north and south have been reversed. The larger of the two buildings is on the western lot line, as is the foundation, but it is somewhat south of the smaller building while the larger foundation is north of the smaller foundation, at the northwest corner of the lot. The smaller building on the Frenchman's Map is east of the larger and close to the northern boundary while the smaller foundation, though it is in about the same east-west relationship to the larger one, is on the south boundary of the northern subdivision of Lot 23.
1777-1790
To return to the southern two-thirds of Lot 23 held by David Morton -- Humphrey Harwood did work for the latter almost every year between 1776 and 1790: (1776) altering grate; (1777) repairing plaster and turning arch, "mending kitching back," whitewashing three rooms and a passage; (1783) 13 bushels of lime, 300 brick, rebuilding steps and repairing cellar "cap" (bulkhead), repairing plaster; (1784) whitewashing one room, closet and passage, whitewashing two rooms; (1785) repairing lath and plaster "to dormant windows", whitewashing three rooms and a passage, six bushels of lime and 250 brick; (1786) rebuilding chimney top, 40 bushels of lime and 334 brick, building cellar wall and digging 10 the same, 26 bushels of lime, 3264 brick, 866 brick, building chimney, "turning" trimmer and laying hearth, 2100 lath, lathing and plastering 137 yards, eight bushels of lime and 140 brick, laying hearth in house and one in kitchen and laying kitchen back; (1787) four bushels of lime and 100 brick, setting up a grate with "rul'd Bricks" (rubbed bricks?), mending kitchen chimney; (1788) various items having nothing to do with building; (1789) two bushels of lime, "taking in yr Back" and mending plaster; (1790) 24 bushels of corn.
1776
We know little of David Morton beyond the fact of his having been a tailor. His name appears only once in the Virginia Gazette in the Alexander Purdie issue of June 7, 1776, when he inserted the following notice in the paper:
"JOURNEYMEN tailors will meet with good encouragement by applying to
DAVID MORTON"
1801
David Morton must have died in 1800 or 1801 because his estate appears in the Land Tax Records in the latter year as owner of his lot. Since he bought the lot in 1777 he held it personally for nearly a quarter century. He lived in the house, presumably, and had his tailoring establishment in the store on Lot 23. We have no proof of these assumptions but they would be reasonable ones to make.
1828
1812
1865
Morton's estate sold his part of Lot 23 to Richard Coke, Jr. in 1828: "1 lot ----- $500 buildings & lot; $450 buildings Heretofore taxed on the estate of David Morton." Meanwhile the northern part of the lot had passed from the Rowsay estate into 11 the possession of Benjamin Waller, grandson of the Benjamin Waller who originally bought the tract from Mann Page and subdivided it. This later Benjamin Waller held the northern part of Lot 23 until his death in 1865.
1921
1939
From these two dates (1828 for Morton's part of the lot and 1865 for the northern part) the two portions of Lot 23 passed into the hands of a succession of owners until in 1921 they were both acquired by Lucy Lamb Kelly. Colonial Williamsburg, Incorporated purchased the entire Lot in 1939. There is nothing in connection with these changes in ownership which throws any light on the eighteenth century condition of the property, so they will not be listed here. It is barely possible that the statement concerning a house on Lot 23 made in 1928 by John S. Charles, an aged resident of Williamsburg, may have some interest to us. Mr. Charles described the house which in his day stood on the lot as follows:
"The first house on this street, and located at the north east corner of York and Waller Streets, was a two story frame house, with vine-clad porch, facing on Waller Street, with basement or cellar with steps down to it from York Street. This house was known, as the 'Taylor' or "Pendleton' house and was burned sometime after the [Civil] War."