Colonial Williamsburg Digital Library

COLONIAL LOT # 262 .
Block 28, #3.
"Elizabeth Coleman" House.
January 23, 1933.

DIGEST OF DATA: Small house on site built between 1715 and 1717. Some development of the property between 1740 and 1745. House greatly enlarged and improved between 1744 and 1752 by Benjamin Waller, and in the next seven years by Dr. James Carter who sold it to the Honorable John Tayloe for £600, one of the highest prices on record for a wooden house. For about 45 years the home of Samuel S. Griffin.

COLONIAL LOT # 262 .
Block 28, #3.
"Elizabeth Coleman" House.
January 23, 1933.

In November, 1715, the Trustees for building the city of Williamsburg deeded lot #262, on which the present building stands to Francis Tyler, with a clause requiring that one or more good dwelling houses of certain standards be erected within twenty four months, or the lots would escheat.

Some small dwelling was evidently built before 1717, for in 1720 Tyler deeded the lot "with all houses" to James Roscoe (Roscow) for £80. In May, 1740, William Roscow, James' brother, deeded the lot to John Collett for £25, indicating that the building had somewhat depreciated in value. Collett sold it to Waller in 1745 for £45.

Collett died in 1750 and his estate was sold publicly in 1751. An account of this sale from the York records gives a clue to the rather handsome furniture Collett must have had in his house. Among other items listed were: 23 pictures, a black walnut table, 1 great arm chair, 6 leather chairs, pewter and earthen ware, several pine tables, 3 corner cupboards, several looking glasses, several beds and bedsteads with curtains, a desk, and fire dogs.

Between 1744 and 1752 Benjamin Waller evidently enlarged the house extensively, for in that year he sold it to James Carter, the surgeon, for £200. In 1757 the city of Williamsburg granted to Dr. Carter and additional lot, #232 just north of his home lot.

This deed further provided:

"Also that part of the street marked with the letter M in the plan of the said city which bounds the west side of the above granted two lots 262 and 231, so as to leave open on the west side of the aforesaid street M 14 feet in breadth and making the same passable for carriages and sloaping and turfing the West side or such part thereof as he shall cull, dig, and carry away for making level the ground on his said lots &"

Dr Carter did not complete the street, but deeded his house and the two lots to the Honorable John Tayloe in 1759 for £600 , and the conditions that Tayloe complete the street. From the price of the house it is obvious that it had been still further extended or improved during Carter's tenure.

Dr. Carter was one of Williamsburg's leading medical men. He attended the family of Robert Carter of Nomini while they were in town. Dr. Kenneth McKenzie in his will in 1755 provided:

"My good friend Doctor James Carter having behaved in a very kind manner to me in my sickness I give and desire he will accept of my skeleton and injected child as an acknowledgement of the regard I have for him &"

Tayloe must have used the house as a town house, living there at intervals, as he continued to be mentioned in the diaries of James Gordon during the next few years as being in Lancaster county. Tayloe was certainly in Williamsburg part of every year, as he attended the sessions at the Capitol, and also regularly entered his famous horses in the Williamsburg races.

There is a gap in the title to the property after its purchase by Tayloe in 1759 until December, 1801, when it was owned by Littleton Waller Tazewell of Norfolk. It is possible that Cyrus Griffin owned it during that interval, but his name does not appear in the Williamsburg tax lists from 1782 to 1787. In 1792 Cyrus Griffin is listed as a tithable of Williamsburg, with 6 in his family, but that is the only tax list containing his name.

In 1801 Littleton Waller Tazewell sold the house and lots to William Tazewell. In 1815 Sarah Madison is charged with 6 lots in the Williamsburg tax lists, "Via Wm. Tazewell and Mary Page his wife, a certain house and Lotts of land in the City of Williamsburg and County of York on the north side of the Street leading from Palace Street to the Jail".

Samuel Griffin is next charged with 7 lots in the tax lists of 1819, "Via Robert G. Scott- a certain house and lot where the said Scott formerly resided, and which stood charged to Sarah Madison". Dr. Samuel S. Griffin continued to own the lots for the next few decades, and from him the house probably became known as the Griffin house, rather than from Cyrus Griffin who died in 1810.

In 1843 Griffin's financial difficulties became extremely acute according to his correspondence with George W. Southall, the attorney. In fact in February of that year he finally mortgaged the house and lots to Southall.

Mr. Charles in his "Recollections of Williamsburg" wrote:

"The lot on the east side of Queen Street and facing on Nicholson street was known as the "Griffin" lot (now owned and occupied by Miss Coleman). Time has wrought little change in the appearance of the buildings on this lot in the last sixty-five years or more. When the War began, old Dr. Sam Griffin lived there. He was a leading spirit in all the affairs of the city. He died in 1864 and was interred in Bruton church yard."

Research in Tayloe family papers and printed records of the Tayloe family might be productive of further information on the house and the Tayloe's residence there.