The Project Gutenberg eBook of Journal & letters of Philip Vickers Fithian, 1773-1774, by Philip Vickers Fithian.

[88] John Warden was a young Scotsman. While a student in Edinburgh, Warden had been engaged by Dr. Walter Jones of Virginia to serve as a tutor in the family of his brother, Colonel Thomas Jones of Northumberland County. In the Jones home Warden had enjoyed exceptional advantages and he appears to have read law after coming to the colony. He later became a distinguished member of the Virginia bar.

[89] Both Richard Lee (1726-1795), commonly called "Squire" Lee, and his cousin, Richard Henry Lee (1732-1794), who was known as "Colonel" Lee, lived on estates on the Potomac River in Westmoreland County. "Squire" Richard Lee's manor plantation was called "Lee Hall." The home of Colonel Richard Henry Lee was known as "Chantilly." A second Richard Lee, also known as "Squire Lee," and a cousin of the above mentioned persons, lived on the Potomac in Charles County, Maryland.

[90] This schooner had been named for Carter's daughter, Harriot Lucy.

[91] Carter described the harmonica as "the musical glasses without water, framed into a complete instrument, capable of through bass and never out of tune." Quoted in Williams, ed., Fithian, p. 59, fn. 1.

[92] The Yeocomico River.

[93] Yeocomico Church.

[94] Grigg, the captain of an English vessel, often mingled with the plantation families of the Northern Neck when he was in the colony.

[95] Letitia Corbin Turberville.

[96] William Booth, who was a planter of considerable means in Westmoreland County at this time, was probably the father of this youth.

[97] "County-dances" were English dances of rural or native origin, especially those in which an indefinite number of couples stood face to face in two long lines. Country dances had been popular on greens and at fairs in England long before they were introduced into polite society. When the country dance was imported into France the name became contre-dance, and it has been erroneously assumed that "country-dance" is a corruption of the French term.

[98] Goodlet was apparently a tutor in the Fauntleroy family of "The Cliffs."

[99] Philip Ludwell Lee (1727-1775) was the eldest son of Thomas Lee, who had served as president of the Council. He had inherited his father's manor plantation, "Stratford," on the Potomac River in Westmoreland County. Like Robert Carter, Philip Ludwell Lee was now a member of the Council.

[100] Probably Elizabeth Lee, daughter of John Lee of Essex County, a nephew of Thomas Lee of "Stratford."

[101] Matilda Lee was the daughter of Philip Ludwell Lee of "Stratford." She later married "Light Horse Harry" Lee.

[102] One Joseph Lane was a prominent planter in Westmoreland County at this time.

[103] This song occurs in an opera, Artaxerxes, by Thomas Augustine Arne, which was first performed in London in 1762. The libretto of Arne was an adaptation of an Italian drama, Artaserse, by Metastasio (Pietro Antonia Domenico Bonaventura). Metastasio was born in 1698 and died in 1782.

[104] Dr. Walter Jones of "Hayfield" in Lancaster County, was known as "the luminary of the Northern Neck." He was the son of Colonel Thomas Jones, a planter-businessman of Williamsburg and Hanover County. His mother, Elizabeth Cocke, was a niece of Mark Catesby, the well-known English naturalist. Dr. Jones had been educated at the College of William and Mary and he studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh. At the former institution he became a fast friend of Thomas Jefferson and of Bathurst Skelton, whose widow Jefferson later married. Jones achieved distinction both in the field of medicine and in politics. In 1777 he was appointed physician-general of the Middle Department, but declined the office, which was later filled by Dr. Benjamin Rush of Philadelphia. Jones was made a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1774. He served as a member of Congress for a number of years. Dr. Jones' wife was Alice Flood, the daughter of William Flood, the well-known physician and turfman of Richmond County.

[105] The custom of firing powder during the Christmas season is one that persists in the South today in various forms.

[106] John Lowe (1750-1798), a Scotsman, was the tutor of the children of Colonel John Augustine Washington, a brother of George Washington, at this period. John Augustine Washington's manor plantation, "Bushfield," was located on the Potomac River in Westmoreland County, a short distance from "Nomini Hall" and "Hickory Hill." Lowe was the author of a number of ballads which are still popular in Scotland today. After serving for some time as a tutor and conducting an academy at Fredericksburg, he was ordained an Anglican clergyman, and appears to have served as minister in both St. George's and Hanover Parishes. An unhappy marriage is believed to have led to a dissipation which resulted in his early death. Cf. Meade, Old Churches, Ministers and Families of Virginia, Vol. II, p. 185; Virginia Magazine of History, Vol. 29 (January 1921), pp. 102-105.

[107] Dr. Henry Francks of Westmoreland County.

[108] Dr. Moore Fauntleroy (1743-1802) was the son of William Fauntleroy of Naylor's Hole in Richmond County. Fauntleroy, who had studied medicine in Aberdeen and Edinburgh, practiced in Essex County after his return to Virginia in 1770.

[109] Richard Lee of "Lee Hall."

[110] The account books of Robert Carter show that William Taylor was at this period overseer of three of Carter's plantations or "quarters," called Dicks, Morgans and Rutters.

[111] Thomas Thompson was a well known physician of Westmoreland County. Robert Carter retained the services of Thompson for the blacks on his plantations for a number of years.

[112] Probably James Balendine of the firm referred to in the Carter account books as "Messrs. James Balendine & Co."

[113] "Dotterell" was an English blooded horse that had been bred by Sir John Pennington. He was regarded as the swiftest in that country with the exception of one, called "Eclipse." Dotterell had been imported into the colony in 1766 by Philip Ludwell Lee of "Stratford" in Westmoreland County.

[114] Miss Sarah Stanhope was the housekeeper at "Nomini Hall."

[115] Colonel Henry Lee of "Leesylvania."

[116] Apparently George Fairfax Lee of "Mount Pleasant."

[117] Parson Giberne was not so fortunate in escaping criticism on other occasions. Fithian, himself, notes his gambling several times, and the Reverend Jonathan Boucher, Landon Carter and Robert Wormeley Carter all comment upon it in their journals.

[118] See this valentine in Appendix, pp. 230-233.

[119] Francis Lightfoot Lee (1734-1797) of "Menokin" in Richmond County was the fourth son of President Thomas Lee of "Stratford." His wife was Rebecca Tayloe, a daughter of Colonel John Tayloe of "Mount Airy." Lee served as a member of the House of Burgesses from Loudoun County and later from Richmond County.

[120] Frances Ann Tasker Carter died in 1787 and was buried in the family graveyard at "Nomini Hall." Her husband, who died seventeen years later, was buried in Baltimore.

[121] Samuel Griffin Fauntleroy (1759-1826) was the son of Moore Fauntleroy of "The Cliffs" in Richmond County.

[122] Leedstown was a thriving center of trade and shipping. It had been incorporated in 1742.

[123] John Murray, Earl of Dunmore, served as Governor of the colony from 1771 to 1775. Lady Dunmore did not arrive in Virginia to join him until the latter part of February of 1774.

[124] The Virginia Gazette was founded by William Parks at Williamsburg in 1736. This journal continued to issue until 1778. In 1766 a rival sheet bearing the same name was established and was published in Williamsburg until 1776. In 1775 a third Virginia Gazette had been established which continued to issue until 1780.

[125] John Bracken served as minister of Bruton Parish Church at Williamsburg from 1773 to 1818. He also served for a period as master of the grammar school at the College of William and Mary, and for two years as president of the college. At this time Bracken had just incurred the bitter enmity of Samuel Henley, professor of divinity and moral philosophy at the college, who had hoped to secure the appointment given his rival. The two men aired their grievances in a long and acrimonious controversy carried on in the columns of the Virginia Gazette. Henley, a Tory, left the colony for England in 1775 and never returned. He later became principal of the East India College at Hertford.

[126] At "Bushfield" on the Potomac River.

[127] James Gregory was employed at various seasons to assist and instruct the colored gardeners at "Nomini Hall."

[128] Probably Colonel John Tayloe of "Mount Airy."

[129] Joseph F. Lane of Loudoun County, Virginia.

[130] Phillis Wheatley had been brought from Africa to Boston as a slave in 1761. Educated by the daughters of her owner, John Wheatley, Phillis manifested remarkable acquisitive powers and soon attracted attention by the excellent character of her verse. Her first bound volume, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, was published in 1773.

[131] James Waddell (1739-1805) was an outstanding Presbyterian minister in the colony. His gentle manner and forceful sermons did much to advance the cause of his church. At this period he was the pastor of a congregation in the Northern Neck, composed of families of Northumberland and Lancaster Counties. He later exerted a strong influence in the Shenandoah Valley and Piedmont sections. After 1787 he was blind for a number of years and was later celebrated as "The Blind Preacher" in William Wirt's The Letters of the British Spy.

[132] An American juniper or "red cedar."

[133] William Felton (1713-1769), an English clergyman, was well known in the eighteenth century as a composer, and performer on the harpsichord and organ. "Felton's Gavot," which was long highly popular, had been introduced into Legrenzio Vincenzo Ciampi's opera "Bertoldo in Corte" in 1762. The music was written for the gavot, a lively dance of French peasant origin, in which the feet were raised in the step instead of being slidden.

[136] Mundy's Point is located on the Yeocomico River near the mouth of that stream.

[137] Colonel John Tayloe of "Mount Airy."

[138] Mrs. John Tayloe of "Mount Airy" was the former Rebecca Plater, daughter of Governor George Plater of Maryland.

[140] This manor plantation has remained in the possession of Carter's descendants to the present time. The original manor house was destroyed by fire in 1850. A wooden structure erected shortly after that time still stands. Carter's daughter, Harriot Lucy, married a well-known lawyer, John James Maund. A daughter of Harriot Lucy and John James Maund became the wife of Dr. John Arnest. "Nomini Hall" is today the residence of Dr. Arnest's grandson, Mr. T. M. Arnest, who is the great-great-grandson of Councillor Robert Carter. The only known representation of the original manor house is a crude water-color sketch done by an amateur artist "E. Maund," a relative, who visited the family and made the sketch shortly before the house burned in 1850. One obtains a clearer understanding of the imposing character of this manor house from Fithian's comments regarding it. This is especially true of his observation made when spending an evening once at "Mount Airy," the "elegant seat" of Colonel John Tayloe in Richmond County. "The House," he said, referring to "Mount Airy," "is about the size of Mr. Carter's...."

[141] A merchant mill was a mill in which flour was manufactured and packed for sale. The owner of such a mill customarily purchased wheat for manufacture. In Virginia it was a common practice for the owner of the mill to pay for the wheat in flour. A mill used exclusively for grinding grain for local consumption was called a grist or custom mill. A portion of the grist was usually allowed the owner for his services.

[142] The Heale family was a well-known one in Lancaster County where they lived on "Peach Hill" and other manor plantations. The name was apparently pronounced Hale all through the eighteenth century. Priscilla Heale was the daughter of George Heale of Lancaster County. Heale had served as a Burgess from that county.

[143] Dr. George Steptoe of "Windsor" in Westmoreland County had been graduated in medicine at Edinburgh in 1767.

[144] Miss Sally Panton.

[145] Lowe was apparently not licensed as a Presbyterian minister at this time for he shortly afterwards appears as an Anglican clergyman in St. George's and Hanover Parishes in Virginia.

[146] Thomas Willing (1731-1821) was associated with Robert Morris in the house of Willing and Morris. He was later president of the Bank of North America and the Bank of the United States.

[147] Mrs. Charlotte Belson Thornton was the widow of Colonel Presley Thornton (1722-1769) of Northumberland County. Mrs. Thornton had been born in England and she returned to the mother country with her children just prior to the outbreak of the Revolution. Her three sons served in the British forces during the War. At the conclusion of hostilities two of them, Presley and John Tayloe Thornton, returned to Virginia.

[148] Perhaps a member of the Corbin family. Elizabeth Tayloe, sister of Colonel John Tayloe, had married Richard Corbin of "Laneville," in King and Queen County.

[149] Dr. John Morgan was one of the founders and most eminent professors of the medical school at Philadelphia which is now a part of the University of Pennsylvania. Morgan later served as director-general of hospitals and physician-in-chief of the American army from 1775-1777.

[150] Samuel Leake, Jr., of Cohansie, New Jersey, was at this time a student at Princeton. Leake apparently did not accept the position in Mrs. Thornton's home.

[151] Mattox Bridge was some eighteen miles from Westmoreland Court House, and twenty-eight from "Nomini Hall."

[152] Round Hill Church was the "upper church of Washington Parish" and stood at the site of what is now the town of Tetotum.

[153] Tyler's Ferry in Westmoreland County, Virginia, was opposite Cedar Point on the Maryland side of the Potomac River.

[154] Port Tobacco, Maryland.

[155] Piscataway, Maryland.

[156] Upper Marlborough, Maryland.

[157] The Digges family was a well known one in both Maryland and Virginia.

[158] Marlborough, Maryland.

[159] Alexandria, Virginia.

[160] Patuxent River.

[161] Rock Hall, Maryland.

[162] Chestertown, Maryland.

[163] Wall gave a lecture on electricity in Williamsburg, Virginia, the following year. He is doubtless identical with the comedian and "Mental Physician," Dr. Llewellyn Lechmere Wall, who was described as "of Orange County," North Carolina in 1797. He appeared in numerous comedies in Newbern that year. Cf. Virginia Gazette (Pinckney, ed.), January 5, 1775; original playbill in Department of Research, Colonial Williamsburg, Inc., Williamsburg, Virginia.

[164] Frederick, Maryland.

[166] Port Penn, Delaware.

[167] Warwick, Maryland.

[168] A brother of Elizabeth Beatty.

[169] James Lyon, a graduate of the College of New Jersey, had compiled and published a large collection of church music, Urania, or a choice collection of Psalm-Tunes, Anthems and Hymns.

[170] Colonel John Tayloe.

[171] "All-fours," derived its name from the four chances involved, for each of which a point was scored. The game was later renamed "seven-up."

[172] A brother of Elizabeth Beatty.

[173] Israel Evans had been graduated at Princeton in 1772, and had afterwards studied theology under Dr. Witherspoon there.

[174] Middleton, Delaware.

[175] New Town, Maryland.

[176] Stephen Reeve was a Philadelphia silversmith.

[177] Tyler's Ferry.

[178] See this catalogue of Carter's library in Appendix, pp. 221-229.

[180] John Dunlap had established the Pennsylvania Packet in 1771.

[181] Colonel Richard Henry Lee of "Chantilly."

[182] This Betsey Lee was perhaps Elizabeth, the daughter of John Lee of Essex County, a nephew of President Thomas Lee.

[183] This Elizabeth Lee was the daughter of the late George Lee of "Mount Pleasant" and his first wife Judith Wormeley of "Rosegill" in Middlesex County. She died unmarried.

[184] A trill, or rapid reiteration of two notes comprehending an interval not greater than one whole tone, nor less than a semitone.

[185] James Marshall, Fithian's predecessor as tutor of the Carter children, had formerly been an usher at the College of William and Mary. Marshall had inherited a plantation in Orange County. The Virginia Gazette of April 18, 1773 had announced the death of Marshall, at "Nomini Hall" and had corrected the error in its next issue.

[186] The Gaskins family lived in Northumberland County. Elizabeth Gaskins, daughter of Colonel Thomas Gaskins of that County married Edward Digges of "Bellfield" in York County in 1775.

[187] The Taliaferro family was a prominent one in Tidewater Virginia. While the name is pronounced "Tolliver," it is believed to be of Italian origin.

[188] Richard Parker (1729-1813) of "Lawfield" was a distinguished lawyer in Westmoreland County at this time.

[189] Colonel John Tayloe.

[190] The Beales were a prominent family in Richmond and Westmoreland counties. Several members of this family had intermarried with the Carters. Robert Carter's uncle, Landon Carter of "Sabine Hall," had taken Elizabeth Beale as his third wife in 1746. Landon's son, Robert Wormeley Carter, married Winifred Beale, and Robert Wormeley's sister, Judith, married Reuben Beale.

[191] Colonel John Tayloe.

[192] Archibald Ritchie was a prominent merchant of Hobb's Hole.

[193] The Edmundsons were a prominent family in Essex County. Thomas Edmundson, whose will was proved in 1759, had a daughter named Dorothy Edmundson.

[194] The Brockenbrough family had been a well-known one in Richmond County since the beginning of the eighteenth century. William Brockenbrough (1715-c.1778) had married Elizabeth Fauntleroy, whose sister Mary was the wife of Parson Giberne.

[195] Richard Henry Lee of "Chantilly."

[196] Richmond County.

[197] Richard Buckner (1730-1792) of "Albany" in Westmoreland County was a planter who sometimes had business dealings with Robert Carter. Members of the Buckner family had been prominent planter-merchants in Tidewater Virginia since John Buckner had emigrated from England and settled in Gloucester County shortly after the middle of the seventeenth century. John Buckner had imported the first printing press into the colony.

[198] John Duffield was graduated at Princeton in 1773. He served as a tutor there during the next two years.

[199] Dr. William Shippen (1736-1806) was a distinguished physician of Philadelphia. He was at this time professor of surgery and anatomy at the medical school of the College of Philadelphia. Shippen had married Alice Lee, a sister of Richard Henry, Arthur, Frances Lightfoot, and William Lee.

[200] Thomas Sorrel owned a plantation near "Nomini Hall" in Westmoreland County.

[201] Gawin Corbin of "Yew Spring" in Caroline County.

[202] Apparently Randolph Carter's clerk.

[203] There were frequent references in the Virginia Gazette during the previous year to the arrival in Williamsburg of "Dr. Graham, the celebrated oculist and aurist, at Philadelphia."

[204] Probably Benjamin Harrison of "Berkeley" in Charles City County, who attended the Congress in Philadelphia in 1774.

[205] In 1771 William Rigmaiden was the master of a free school in Richmond County that was supported by Landon Carter. William and Mary College Quarterly, Vol. XIII, series 1, p. 158.

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