Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Library Research Report Series - 1606
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Library
Williamsburg, Virginia
1990
This house, built before 1746, and remodeled many times in its varied and significant history, has sheltered an able surgeon-apothecary, a colonial governor, the treasurer of the Colony, a member of the council,an attorney, a delegate to the Convention, a clergyman and a college president. Its garden on the edge of a small stream which flowed also through the Palace garden, its terraced lawns, and its architectural character all have been influenced by these owners.
The first owner, as far as can be determined at this time, was Charles Carter of King George, son of Robert "King" Carter, who sold all his messuage, house and four lots numbered in the plan of the city 333, 334, 335, 336 to Robert Cary, a London merchant, on March 27, 1746.
Robert Cary sold the property to Dr. Kenneth McKenzie, a surgeon and apothecary, the next year, and he and his wife Joanna (Tyler) resided on Palace Street for a number of years.
Dr. McKenzie was evidently one of the leading medical men of the town and also a person of education and taste; an inventory of his library showing that he had all the best works on "physick and chyrugery" and a great many on history and literature.
Between 1749 and 1751 the Palace was unoccupied and fell into such bad repair that the Council deemed it expedient to buy a 2 temporary residence for Governor Dinwiddie when he arrived. After considering a number of available houses Dr. McKenzie's house was selected because of its size, convenience and desirable location on Palace Green.
McKenzie left his house to the Governor and moved to a house and shop on Duke of Gloucester Street where he soon died. His will contains several interesting bequests and provisions. He asked that his friends make efforts to get his son William on the foundation at William and Mary College until he was qualified to enter "some genteel business such as genius leads him to". His daughter Ann he wished to have placed under the care of Mrs. Dinwiddie, Mrs. Peyton Randolph or Mrs. Chiswell and "clothed as genteely as my estate will afford". To his good friend Dr. James Carter, who aided him through his long sickness, he bequeathed "a skeleton and injected child". His wife Joanna was given the use of his house and estate during her widowhood and after death or remarriage all was to be given to his son William.
Governor Dinwiddie remained in the house only a short time and it was sold to Robert Carter Nicholas, treasurer of the Colony and member of the House of Burgesses. He lived here for eight years and then on May 7, 1761 sold the "house, and lots to Robert Carter of Nomony Hall".
Councillor Carter had been contemplating a town house for some years; in fact as early as 1751 his intention of acquiring a town house was known and John Blair commented inhospitably in this diary, 3 "July 12, 1751; Sad news of poor wretchd Bob Carter. I hope he won't come to Williamsburg to live."
He came on May 16, 1761 with his wife, Francis Tasker, daughter of the President of Maryland, and three children. Shortly after he wrote to Governor Bladen, "I have lately exchanged my country-house for one in the city. I should rather say (to a resident in England) my desert for a well-inhabited country."
Nine of Carter's children were born in this house, and three died and were laid in Bruton Parish churchyard.
His house was opulently furnished according to invoices of his London merchants. Light from wrought brass sconces and candles in glass globes illumined furniture which had been upholstered in crimson damask by Joseph Kidd, one of Williamsburg's able cabinet makers. There was a library well filled with books and music. The Councillor played on the violin, harpsichord, flute and organ. This organ was one built in London by directions from Peter Pelham, Williamsburg's organist-jail keeper.
Robert Carter fenced in his lots and garden in developing his property and as a result became involved in a dispute with Dr. William Carter "concerning the true and just dividing line between the lots". In order to settle the controversy he paid Dr. Carter five shillings and took possession of the land he had paled.
Whether he found town life all he had imagined it is hard to say. He was certainly in the center of the social life of the Colony, but a letter written by his father-in-law, Benjamin Tasker, 4 seems to indicate a certain regret for the departure, from Nomini.
"You judge very Rightly when you say that little is to be got unless Gent: Reside on their Estates", he wrote, "& I say what with Entertaining Ones Friends & Acquaintances not much is to be Saved then."
But there were compensations. Friends and relatives were entertained at his town house. George Washington noted in his diary in 1769 that he dined and supped at Mr. Carter's.
When Lord Dunmore arrived a distinguished committee, which included Robert Carter, greeted him and dined with him at the Palace.
In 1774 Carter placed the town house in the hands of John Tazewell to sell. In 1776 Dudley Digges was given the use of it and kept a bed chamber for the use of the owner.
The Revolution prevented a sale of the house although several prospective purchasers considered it. In 1801 it was sold to Robert Saunders. He bequeathed it to his son Robert Saunders who became President of William and Mary College.
During the War Between the States the occupants of the house were absent and the place was entered by Federal soldiers. David E. Cronin, a federal officer who was Provost Marshal of Williamsburg, to 1864 wrote that undisciplined soldiers had despoiled a large library.
Letters, documents and books sere half destroyed by weather 5 which poured in through a damaged roof and the furniture bore the muddy boot marks of cavalrymen who had kicked and shattered it. A chest in the garret was opened which contained letters of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Page, Count Pulaski, Bishop Madison and a great many other important men of the Revolution. These were taken to Fort Monroe and sorted by the officers' wives who divided the priceless collection which since has been lost completely.
Who knows what records of distinguished owners of the house might have been in the confiscated chest? Where are the letters of Dr. McKenzie and perhaps of Robert Carter and other noted occupants of the house today?
Robert Saunders, whose home had been despoiled, died some years after the war and was buried under the weeping willow tree on the terrace.
Today the house has resumed its colonial appearance and its garden is once more in order. The home of the surgeon, the Councillor and the College president exists today as a tangible record of the interesting lives lead in the old Colonial Capitol.
Harold R. Shurtleff, Director
Of all the notables who lived here, Councillor Carter is probably the most interesting from the point of view of the student of Virginia social history. He was remarkably the child of his time and of Virginia--enlightened, tolerant, liberal, patriotic and cultured. A man of vast possessions and varied interests who worked assiduously at discharging the duties consequent upon them, and who was neither afraid of innovations nor of facing economic facts. He was at the same time a person who was profoundly affected by the currents of thought of the enlightened 18th century. He was an amateur musician of worth and taste, he possessed an extraordinarily fine library, and his standards of public and private life were meticulously high.
No less 18th century and no less like the Whig noblemen of that era with whom the great landed Virginians of that time seem to have so much in common was his willingness to overturn conventions in his zeal for what he thought was the truth. Born and brought up in the Anglican Church of Virginia, he dared look for an answer to his spiritual problem first in the sect of Baptists and then in the Roman Catholic faith.
Almost more is known about his household and its way of life than that of any other great landed proprietor of his time through the lively picture of him presented in the published diary of Philip Fithian, who was a tutor for two years at Nomini Hall, the family place in Westmoreland County that Councillor Carter went to after leaving Williamsburg.