Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Library Research Report Series - 1381
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Library
Williamsburg, Virginia
1990
Shop: One story with dormers, 32 x 32 feet on corner of Botetourt and Duke of Gloucester Streets nine feet from house on West. Kitchen South of building on Botetourt Street. May have been built 1709-1736, determinable by excavation; is at least prior to 1786.
obsolete
An apothecary shop may have been built on this lot between 1709 and 1736. In 1736 William Parks had established his printing office in the block which made this area an important one.
The shop was advertised in the Gazette:
June 17, 1737.
All Sorts of Balsams, Decoctions, Electuaries, Elixirs, Emplaisters, Extracts, Infusions, Liquors, Magisteries, Oils,..., faithfully prepared and Sold by Robert Davidson and Thomas Goodwin, Chymist, at Williamsburg. (Virginia Gazette - William Parks, Ed.)
When Robert Davidson died he bequeathed his property to his wife Mary. He had a large house on the lot and it is only possible to determine by archaeological examination, whether Davidson's shop was in the house or in a separate building. The assumption, since a separate building was on the site at a later date, is that it was this early apothecary shop.
The property transferred, with the western portion of its lot, and with lot # 49 on the west through two owners to William Waters. His wife Sarah, and daughter Sarah next owned it, and it was Sarah Waters who sold a shop on the 2 eastern portion of lot # 50 to William Cowan.
The building shows on the Frenchman's map of 1786 so it had been built prior to that date even if it was not the Davidson shop of 1736. Cowan insured the shop in 1809, a tracing of the insurance policy accompanies this report.
Harold R. Shurtleff, Director
Department of Research & Record.
Report by: Helen Bullock
HB/vbl
cc: P. S. & H., Wmsburg and Boston
Dr. W. A. R. Goodwin
A. A. S.
enc:
Robert Davidson, a physician and mayor of Williamsburg, died in 1738, [Virginia Gazette, Parks, February 2, 1738]. Whether his apothecary shop was a separate building or part of his house is not known.
May 20, 1737.
All Sorts of Chymical and Galenical Medicines, faithfully Prepared, and Sold by Robert Davidson and Thomas Goodwin, Chymists, at Williamsburg. [Virginia Gazette, Parks]
June 10, 1737.
All Sorts of Balsams, Decoctions, Electuaries, Elixirs, Emplaisters, Extracts, Infusions, Liquors, Magisteries, Oils, Ointments, Pills, Powders, Powers, Salts, Spirits, Syrups, Tinctures, Troches, Waters, with all other Chemical and Galenical Medicines now in Use, faithfully prepared and Sold by Robert Davidson, and Thomas Goodwin, Chymist, at Williamsburg.N. B. At the same Prices as Sold in England.
In the first quarter of the eighteenth century, Dr. Robert Davidson kept an apothecary shop here, where he sold "all sorts of Balsams, Decoctions, Electuaries, Elixirs, Emplaisters, Extracts, Infusions, Liquors, Magisteries, Oils, Ointments . . ." Dr. Davidson was one of the early mayors of Williamsburg, after its incorporation in 1722. William Waters acquired the property and leased it to a number of merchants. At the beginning of the nineteenth century the property was owned by William Cowan, who insured it in 1806. From this insurance record, and other documents, it was possible to reconstruct the shop which had burned in 1896.
Harold R. Shurtleff, Director
By: H. Bullock
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