Colonial Williamsburg Digital Library

COLONIAL LOT #15 — CAPT. ORR'S DWELLING.
BLOCK 12¹¹ — Lot 13 (12)
September 6, 1933.
DIGEST OF DATA

Wooden dwelling house 20' x 42', built prior to 1743. Insured in 1814, see attached policy. One story and a half with dormer windows. This house does not line with the present Duke of Gloucester Street, and may date back before 1710. The house had a porch prior to 1779, and may have had stone steps.

COLONIAL LOT #15 - CAPT. ORR'S DWELLING.
BLOCK 12 LOT 13 (12)

Hugh Orr, an early Williamsburg blacksmith, who advertised a shop in Williamsburg in 1739, was probably living in this house on Colonial Lot #15 at that time. The first county record of the property is dated 1743, when Orr mortgaged the property with "all houses, outhouses, Smith's Shop, forge, tools & Utensils" to Benjamin Waller to secure two hundred pounds to the executors of Edward Barradall. The house was doubtless purchased from Barradall.

After Orr's death his widow took lodgers in the house, until the Gazette of December 4, 1788 announced the death "in the 79th year of her age, of Mrs. Orr, widow of Captain Hugh Orr".

Catherine Orr had the following repairs made to the house, according to the accounts in Harwood's ledger.

"Mrs. Orr		B - 1.
1777	Feb. 21-	To taking down a grate 2/6
	Oct. 29-	To 75 Bricks 2/6, 5 bushels of lime 5/ Laying a harth 2/6 & fixing grate 7/6
1778	April 1-	To mortar & mending oven 4/6
	Oct. 2-	To 1 bushel of whitewash 3/ pr Joe
1779	Sept. 3-	To 9 bushels of lime @ 9/ hair @ 6/ 2½ days labor @ 2/6
		To repairing Plastering & larthing £9:0:0
	Nov. 19-	To 3 bushels of lime 45/ 200 bricks @ 55/
		To Repairing underpining to poarch & laying floor 6/
		To 1 days labor 2/6
1781
	March 19-	To 100 bricks 2/9 2 bushels of lime 1/6 & mending a back 3/9
1782	July 30-	To 8 bushels of lime 12/ & 125 bricks 6/14½
		Repairing well 28/ & 2 days labour 8/
		(Settled with George Reid- and is to be Paid by Him.)"

Reid took over the property before Mrs. Orr's death and paid the repairs to the property, and had the following repairs made to it himself:

"B 57 -	George Reid
1783	Aug. 26-	To 11 bushels of lime @ 1/ & Rebuilding store steps 15/
		To 2 days labour @ 3/ (July 5th)
1785	April 27-	To 18 Bushels of lime 18/ & building 2 pairs of steps & cuting stone & repairing underpining 22/6
		To building up cellar door & cutting out another & working in Frame 20/
		To 5 days labour @ 2/6
	May 14-	To 10 bushels of lime @ 1/ & repairing underpining and building 2 pair of steps 15/
		To labours work 5/
	June 4-	To 1 Bushel of lime 1/ & repairing the steps at Store door
	Oct. 1-	To 2 bushels of lime 2/ & contracting chimney 3/9
		To whitewashing a Room 4/6
	Dec. 3-	To 2 bushels of lime 2/ & working up 2 cellar windows 5/
1786-	July 11-	To 15 bushels of lime 15/ & rebuilding front door Steps 16/
		To 125 Bricks 3/9 & labourers work 2/6
	Nov. 25-	To 30 bushels of lime 30/ & 1 do. of hair 2/ & 8 days labor @ 2/6"

After Reid's death his wife, Eve Anderson, married James Wright who became owner of the property in 1805. Sally & Wilson Cheeks purchased the property and sold it for $1,000 to Robert Anderson on January 17, 1814. Robert Anderson insured the property this same year. A copy of the insurance policy accompanies this report.

In 1816 Anderson sold the property to Mary Ursule Gabriel Bocciardi, who sold it the next year to George Bray. In 1820 Bray sold it to Edward Teagle, who lived there several years, transferring it in trust to James Lee in 1830 for Susan Teagle and her children.

W. W. Vest, the merchant, sued Teagle's estate in 1838 and acquired a half interest in the property, which he transferred to G. W. Southall. Until 1850 the taxes charged against the property were to Edward Teale's Estate, and the property has not been traced for the next few years, when it passed to the Barlow family.