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COLONIAL
WILLIAMSBURG
VOL. 25, NO.78
WINTER 2004
The Sounds of Music .. .
brim ...
Or, the Franklin / arter
C
Connection
ted) finger upon one of them as the spindle and
glasses tum round." This arrangement allowed a
and it is from this exposed part of each
glass that the tone is drawn by laying a ( wet-
musician to play entire chords in relatively rapid
by Phil Shultz
sequence.
Phil is a training specialist in the Department of
circa 1760 and called his musical instrument the
Interpretive Training.
Armonica from the Italian for harmony. Or, as
The good doctor accomplished this invention
he said, " in honour of your musical language, I
have borrowed from it the name of this instru-
December 13, 1773
ment, calling it the armonica." ( All Benjamin
Mr [Robert] Carter is practicing this Eve-
Franklin quotes are taken from a letter written
ning on the Guittar. He begins with the
in July 1762 by Franklin to Giambatista Beccaria
Trumpet Minuet. He has a good Ear for
in Italy).
Music; a vastly delicate Taste: and keeps
This] Evening [ Dec. 22, 1773] Mr
Carter spent in playing on the harmonica
good Instruments, he has here at Home
Nomini Hall in Westmoreland County,
Virginia]
a
Harpsichord,
note the alternate spelling]; It is the
Forte -Piano,
Harmonica [ Glass Armonica],
first time I have heard the Instrument.
Guittar,
Violin, & German Flutes, & at Williams-
The music is charming! He play'd, Water
burg, has a good Organ, he himself also is
parted from the Sea. — The Notes are clear
indefatigable in the Practice. ( Philip Vickers Fithian, Journal & Letters of Philip
Vickers Fithian 1773 - 1774: A Plantation
Tutor of the Old Dominion, ed. Hunter
Dickinson Farish [ Williamsburg, Va.:
The Colonial Williamsburg Founda-
The $coh+
Pfsiol.' a>
i Colbnia1Ame ica'l!
Y E Goldsrern
tion, 1957].)
Benjamin Franklin first heard a set of water
filled glasses played musically by Dr. E. Delaval,
x
u
4iP t(rohcs;.and,the ,Y919°111. ,C9,411191: Arginia";
7
b` °Cmda"72owe .:
y
a most ingenious member of our ( British) royal
society." Never, it seems, to be of idle mind, Ben
Franklin, " charmed by the sweetness of its tones
wished to see the glasses disposed of in a
more convenient form."
j:
6,
s lvlould
e'wWoild
egeea`bles'=
by Wesryareene .. ...
13:
Franklin's new arrangement of glasses is seen
in his illustration, showing "glasses blown as near
as possible in the form of hemispheres ...
the
largest nine inches in diameter and the smallest
37 glasses sufficient for three
octaves with all the semitones. The glasses are to
three inches ...
be provided with a case and a spindle ( iron) on
which they are to be fixed." The spindle is turned
inside the case by means of a flywheel, " by the
foot like a spinning wheel ... every glass when
fixed ( on the spindle) shows about an inch of its
9:
Y113 61516 :Of Coaversatton. Decembef 1774
i
Emma L Powers .
=
16'..
ty.
ok's Comer
Whaes a assadl Lau?bs; wool?
X/
owlsht;byPClark .
i •? artheNRocIS . ,,
New
19
�The Colonial Williamsburg Interpreter
2
and inexpressively Soft, they swell, and are
inexpressively grand; & either because the
sounds are new, and therefore please me,
or it is the most captivating Instrument I
Note: Musician Dean Shostak performs on the
glass armonica periodically at the Hennage Auditorium in the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts
Museum and the Kimball Theatre in Merchants
have Ever heard. The sounds very much
Square. Check This Week for performance dates.
resemble the human voice, and in my opin-
It is an opportunity to capture the eighteenth -
ion they far exceed even the swelling Organ
Fithian, Journal).
Mr. Peter Pelham, returning from New York after
having heard Dr. Franklin play the Armonica,
must have been both impressed with the instru-
ment and persuasive with his description to Robert Carter. For it was on the strength of Pelham's
century wonder of hearing this magnificent instrument. Readers who want to know more
about the glass armonica can reference Mary
Miley Theobald, " Crystal Clear: Return of the
Glass Armonica," Colonial Williamsburg Journal
Winter 1994 -95).
glowing recommendation that Carter purchased
one, even though he had never actually heard one
played!
DECEMBER, like the fag End of a bad Market, comes Last of all, making a great Hole in that
which was gotten in the other three Months; for towards the 25th we may expect to hear of
a great Mortality among the Hogs, Sheep, Geese, Capons, Turkies, & c., especially in Farmers
Houses in the Country, who show so much Respect to those poor Sufferers that they set them
up at the Table ( after they are dead and roasted) among the best of their Guests, to make
them merry at Christmas. Much good Liquor will likewise be consumed this Month, and ( if
the Weather prove cold) a Deal of Coals and Wood, not to mention the Depravation that will
be made in the Pockets of losing Gamesters. The Weather being so cold, may induce some
Men to fall into the Pit -fall of Matrimony, not considering what Fears, Jealousies, Dangers,
Anxieties, and Troubles, attend on a married Life. War is sweet to them that know it not.
They that never endured Hardship, nor came within Gunshot more than in Contemplation,
think it an excellent Thing to be a Soldier, when they read of the Conquests of Alexander,
the Triumphs of Caesar, the Trophies of Achilles, and the like. So whilst they spend their
Time in Kissing, Toying, Fooling, and Dallying, they think themselves in Paradise, they have
strange Chimeras of the Felicities of a wedded Life, and become in Love with their Yoke, long
for their Fetters, and are mad till they have lost their Freedom and are utterly undone.
Virginia Almanack ...
1774, ed. Purdie and Dixon
�3
Vol. 25, No. 2, Fall/Winter 2004
The Scottish Pistol in Colonial America
by Erik Goldstein
Erik is curator of mechanical arts and numismatics in the Department of Collections and Conservation
terpart, as far more Scottish
The quintessential Scottish
Highlander is a colorful image
pistols
of martial ferocity combined
than English ones.
of this
period survive
with nationalistic splendor. In
Perhaps this phenomenon
the history of military costume,
few such icons have as long a
can explain why Scottish pis-
tradition as the Scottish sol-
English settlers to arrive in
dier. While Highland garb has
Virginia. A detached pistol
consistently yielded to chang-
lock, distinctly Scottish in
ing fashions over the past cen-
character, was
turies, certain elements have
remained. Since the eighteenth
the 1990s by Jamestown Rediscovery archaeologists from
century, the belted plaid has
evolved into today' s kilt, but
fill around the south palisade
the tartan has remained the
cretely dateable to having
same, just as the bonnet, too,
been deposited between 1607
has remained, along with the
legendary basket hilted sword.
and
tols
accompanied
the
first
excavated
in
of James Fort, and it is con-
1610.
Therefore,
this
little relic is one of the most
important anus " documents"
While pistols were known
to have been in the Highlands
to come to light from colonial
as early as the beginning of
the sixteenth century, the first
Virginia. Not only does it date
from the absolute beginning
of our country, but it also tells us about the arms
hard evidence for manufacture in Scotland is in
1578. In the records of the Edinburgh Incorporation of Hammermen is a note that a William
Blak paid a fee of 20 shillings for the registration
trade of the period and just how sophisticated
of his apprenticeship to David Clerk, " dag-
with a completely metal stock, as opposed to
maker." Between the mid -sixteenth century and
the end of the seventeenth, the term dag simply
one made of wood mounted with metal. During
this earliest period, brass seems to have been the
meant pistol.
choice material to stock pistols in.
Slightly post -dating this first documentary
reference
are
the
earliest
pieces
of
physical
evidence —three pistol barrels dated 1583, 1585,
and 1589 —all of which are now sadly detached
from their original locks and stocks. These three
orphaned barrels are beautifully made and embellished and suggest that, by the date they bear,
the industry that had produced them had some
degree of experience in its trade.
By the beginning of the seventeenth cen-
tury, the Scottish gun -making trade was firmly
established, and records show that significant
quantities of pistols were being shipped to
England. It seems entirely possible that
at this time, the Scottish pistol mak-
ing trade was out producing
its English coun-
those of the earliest colonists were.
This lock, in all likelihood, came from a pistol
This is not to say wooden -stocked pistols
weren't made, but they are very rare today, suggesting that the latter material suffered from a
lack of popularity with Highland dagmakers.
This early mechanism, now referred to as a
snaphaunce," appeared during the sixteenth
century, and was the first incarnation of the flintlock, which
was in use well into the nine-
teenth century.
While the snaphaunce lost
favor in Britain by the mid -seventeenth century, the Scots
continued
to
incorporate
mechanisms
pistols
1690.
into
until
such
their
about
However,
�The Colonial Williamsburg Interpreter
4
true flintlock mechanisms,
ating
an
unusual
safety
distinguished by their in-
catch below the cock and
tegral steel and pan cover
a squared pan, appeared in
a
the Highlands. A relic lock
steel" or " frizzen "), debut
of this sort was recovered
on Scottish firearms some
time in the third quarter of
from an early eighteenthcentury house site in
the seventeenth century.
Hingham, Massachusetts,
now
referred
to
as
Collectors and students
and suggests that Scottish
of the Scottish pistol tend
pistols may have been as
to classify these arms ac-
popular in New England as
cording to the style of the
they were in the southern
butt stock, and the pro
colonies.
gression
like
this:
goes
Until the inclusion of
something
first came
the
distinctly Scottish troops
into the British army, all
fishtail, which was over-
lapped and succeeded by the lemo, which in tum
was overlapped and succeeded by the scroll or
ram's horn, followed by the heart, and finally the
Scottish pistols would have fallen into the cat-
lobe and the kidney. Sounds like a tasty haggis
opposed to official purchase for troop use.
recipe, eh ?!
egory of "private purchase," meaning that they
were bought by individuals for personal use, as
With the formation of the initial Highland
It is the scroll - utt, however, that persevered
b
regiments in the middle part of the eighteenth
through the centuries as the steadfast compo-
century came the first military incarnations of the
nent of the archetypical Scottish pistol. As is all
too often the phenomenon with arms studies, the
Scottish pistol. Famed units such as Fraser' s Second Highland Battalion and the dreaded Royal
origins of the scroll - utt are somewhat obscure.
b
Highland Regiment, more commonly known by
Most commonly associated with makers working
its nickname " Black Watch," were sent to North
in Stirling and Doune, the birth of the form may
America during the French and Indian War with
be tied to the arrival of one Thomas Caddell who
basic versions of the scroll -butt pistol.
The soldiers of the Black Watch are known
set up shop in the latter town in 1646.
Caddell is now acknowledged as the father
to have been issued iron -stocked pistols by such
of pistol making in Doune, having taken in
numerous apprentices, including a John Camp-
makers as Isaac Bissel of Birmingham. While it
bell. Caddell' s descendants, alongside those of
factured in the British midlands, it isn't surpris-
Campbell, dominated Doune' s output and transformed the town into the preeminent center
ing. Birmingham had long been a center for the
of the Scottish pistol- making industry for the
for the crown forces. While most privately pur-
next 150 years. Slightly post- dating Caddell's
chased pistols of the scroll butt form are covered
arrival in Doune is the earliest known scroll butt, engraved with the date 1649 on the flash
fence —the round shield- shaped guard attached
with engraving, these martial pistols have a
to the outer edge of the pan.
barrel.
Toward the last quarter of the seventeenth
century, a true flintlock mechanism, incorpo-
may seem odd to have a Highland design manu-
production of munition grade
arms
intended
minimal amount and bear the initials " RHR,"
for Royal Highland Regiment, chiseled into the
Early on the morning of April 19, 1775, an
expedition of British troops left Boston to destroy
�Vol. 25, No. 2, Fall/ Winter 2004
5
or confiscate some articles of war known to have
been stored in the surrounding countryside.
Second in command of these forces was fiftytwo- year -old Maj. John Pitcairn of the British
of all the rooms, Cabinets and private places, and
Marines. Although a Scot, Pitcairn wore the
carried off a considerable number of Arms of dif-
cocked hat, scarlet coat, and breeches the ser-
ferent Sorts, a large collection and valuable, my
vice dictated, but chose to display his heritage in
own property."
his choice of side arm —secured in the holsters
Now that we've firmly established the promi-
of his mount was a fine pair of scroll butt pistols
nence of the Scottish pistol in early American
history, let's take a close look at a pair recently
made by Thomas Murdoch of Doune.
The alarm caused by the action on Lexington
acquired as a gift by Colonial Williamsburg.
Green spread like wildfire, and the responding
minutemen forced the British to fight their way
I' m especially excited about these pistols for a
back to Boston. Pitcairns horse suffered a num-
is the fact that they are dead -ringers for those of
ber of wounds and finally threw him, somewhere
Pitcairn and Dunmore.
near Fiske' s Hill, and the major' s fine pistols fell
into American hands.
What happened to these pistols, might you
ask? They fared far better than their unhorsed,
red -coated owner. Pitcairn was mortally wounded
two months later at the Battle of Bunker Hill and
was interred in the crypt of Old North Church.
Meanwhile, his scroll butt pistols were presented
to American general Israel Putnam, affection-
number of reasons, the most obvious of which
The pair was made during the middle part of
the eighteenth century by John Campbell, the
last in a family of pistol makers who had been
working in Doune for a century. They are classic, higher end examples of the scroll -butt form.
Although very capable of firing a deadly shot,
Campbell clearly saw these pistols as a host with
which to create an item of culturally distinctive
male jewelry.
ately known as " Old Put." Putnam carried the
In sharp contrast to the attention paid to their
pair throughout the American Revolution, and
embellishment, the mechanisms are surprisingly
they are now proudly displayed in the HancockClarke House in Lexington. Today these pistols
archaic for their time. Each lock is made without
are recognized as among the most important
arms concretely linked with the beginning of the
which protrudes through the lockplate to secure
the cock, fell out of use elsewhere in Britain
Revolutionary War.
during the mid -seventeenth century. Behind the
Sir Joshua Reynolds executed his portrait of
John Murray, fourth earl of Dunmore, in traditional Highland garb
a few years before Murray' s arrival in the colonies. Conspicuous
against Lord Dunmore' s Highland
garb are his basket -hilted sword,
dirk, sporran, and scroll butt pistol,
certainly one of a pair. Although
it cannot be said for sure, these
pistols may have been lost to the
American rebels in the summer
of 1775, when in the governor' s
own
words
a
number
of colonists
entered the Governor' s Palace and
broke open every lock of the doors
supporting bridles and its horizontally acting sear,
fluted breech, inlaid silver strap work winds its
�The Colonial Williamsburg Interpreter
6
way down the back of the grip while
crude but boldly executed engraving
covers
most
of the
available
sur-
faces. Their maker' s unencumbered
signature appears ahead of the cock
below the pan on the lockplates of
both pistols.
Two of the features that define
the Scottish pistol are present. Unlike their British counterparts, Scottish pistols,
octagonal muzzles. Their iron ramrods, which
as a rule, are made without trigger guards and
bodkins with button - eads and pierced spherical
h
incorporate hollow ball shaped triggers of silver
engraved in this case with a four pedaled rose.
As an integral accessory to Highland dress,
the pistol was to be worn " front & center" across
seem somewhat impractical, resemble turned
swells.
Threaded into the butt stock is a vent pick;
its hollow silver finial en suite with the trigger is
visible between the two scrolls. Also unique to
the chest or waist. Therefore, a substantial hook
Highland pistols of the era, this tiny little tool
was attached to the inboard side of the pistol to
secure the weapon to the wearer' s baldric or belt.
was meant for use in clearing the touchhole in
order to ensure proper ignition. Further along
Even the less -visible underside and inboard sides
the butt stock on both sides are oval silver es-
of the pistols were covered with engraving and
cutcheons, which are often engraved with either
silver inlay.
The barrels have fluted breeches separated
from engraved round sections by " wedding rings"
as they are called in firearms circles), and flared
the owner' s name or crest —but in this case they
are frustratingly vacant, leaving us to wonder
just who originally carried these magnificent
firearms.
The John Campbell Scottish pistols, accession
numbers 02003- 155, 1& 2, have just been in-
stalled in the Masterworks Gallery at the DeWitt
Wallace Decorative Arts Museum, so please be
sure to go by and have a look at them. Should
you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at either ext. 8956 or egoldstein@cwf.
org.)
�7
Vol. 25, No. 2, Fall/Winter 2004
Catholics and the Vote in
Colonial Virginia
instance that we have found in which the
right of a Catholic to vote was questioned.
Robert E. and B. Katherine Brown,
Virginia 1705- 1786: Democracy or Aris-
by Linda Rowe
tocracy? [ East Lansing: Michigan State
Linda is a historian in the Department of Historical
University Press, 1964], 131.)
Research and is assistant editor of this publication.
Brent's vote for Henry Lee for the House of
In 1699, 1705, 1762, and 1769, colonial Virginia law barred certain people from voting, even
was " a Roman Catholick," but the Commit-
though they were freeholders ( landowners), the
basic qualification for the franchise. Among
freeholders not allowed to vote was the " recusant convict" as noted in this section from the
1769 Act for regulating the election of Burgesses,
for declaring their privileges and allowances, and for
fixing the rights of electors:
LN] o feme sole or covert, infant under
the age of twenty -one, recusant convict,
or any person convicted in Great Britain
or Ireland, during the time for which he is
transported, nor any free negro, mulatto,
or Indian, although such persons be free
holders, shall have a vote ( Hening Statutes at Large, 8: 307).
Burgesses was challenged on the basis that he
tee of Privileges and Elections allowed Brent' s
vote to stand. It was a technicality. Brent had
never been convicted of being a " Recusant" or
Roman Catholick," because apparently no one
had ever brought the charge against him. Hence,
although a lifelong Catholic from a prominent
Catholic family, Brent was eligible to vote in
Virginia because he had never been charged and
convicted in a court for refusing to attend the
Anglican church in the parish where he lived. It
is worth noting that Virginia officials had found
it to their advantage to tolerate earlier genera-
tions of the powerful Brent clan who had moved
into Virginia from Maryland in 1650. Even harsh
anti Catholic laws in effect from 1641 to 1662
were not enforced against them.
For perspective in this matter, keep in mind
During the colonial period, recusant convict
that at the time of the Revolution, there were
and its alternates popish recusant and popish recus-
only about 200 or 300 Catholics among Virginia's
ant convict were terms applied only to Catholics
in Virginia ( and English) law, but only to Roman
total population of 450, 000 ( white and black)
Catholics who had been convicted in a court for
and among 189, 000 Virginians of European extraction. A few, like the Brent family of Prince
refusing to attend the Anglican church. While it is
accurate to say that this legislation has an antiCatholic aspect, it is not accurate to say that
William County, Virginia, were large landholders
Virginia law prohibited all Catholics who were
author of the 1774 handbook for Virginia' s
freeholders from voting, as this excerpt from a
study of voting practices in Virginia explains:
county court justices, noted under the heading,
Recusants. Popish," that "As we have happily
very few Papists in this Colony, there is no Oc-
Few, if any, were excluded from voting in
and even officeholders, but most operated in the
obscurity of everyday life. Even Richard Starke,
Virginia because of religious beliefs. The
casion to be more particular under this Title,
laws did not mention religion except for
which perhaps might have been wholly omitted."
Richard Starke, The Office and Authority of the
Justice of the Peace [ Williamsburg, Va.: Purdie and
the exclusion of recusant
convicts and
the provision that Quakers could make
an affirmation. Presbyterians voted ...
Land] Catholics who were not " recusants
convict" were also legal voters. George
Brent, gentleman and Roman Catholic
from Prince William County, voted in
1740 and for all we know in every election
thereafter. But in a disputed election in
1762, Brent's right to vote was challenged
Dixon, 1774], 294.) Historian Bruce Steiner (see
readings at end of article) has suggested that a
number of works on Catholics in Virginia have
focused exclusively on anti -Catholic laws in force
without examining the evidence for moderate
attitude toward enforcement of those laws.
Let's step back for a moment. Why the
Catholics at all? Christian Europe — including
a Roman Catholic. Both the Committee
England —had been Roman Catholic until the
Protestant Reformation, when a number of political and religious leaders withdrew themselves
on Elections and the House itself ruled
and their followers or subjects from the authority
that Brent had a good right to vote, for
even though he was a Catholic he was
of the Roman Catholic Church and its pope. The
Reformation in England came in stages, largely
not a " recusant Convict." This is the only
dependent upon the inclinations of the reign-
by the losing candidate, Henry Peyton,
gentleman, on the ground that Brent was
�The Colonial Williamsburg Interpreter
8
ing monarch, beginning with Henry VIII ( reign
1509 - 47) who broke with the Roman Catholic
Church in the 1530s to make himself, not the
pope, head of the English church.
He, therefore, ordered " all Magistrates, Sheriffs,
Constables and other His Majesty's Liege People,
within this colony, to be diligent in apprehending
and bring to Justice the said Romish Priests, or
During the Reformation, European nations
any of them so that they may prosecuted accord-
aligned themselves in Protestant and Catholic
camps. In England, after the Glorious Revolution of 1688 ousted the Catholic James II in
favor of William III and Mary II, Protestant
ing to law."
The few Catholics who settled in the Virginia
Church of England) succession to the throne
colony occasionally found themselves at odds
with Virginia authorities and confronted with
anti Catholic legislation —that is, anti recusant
of England was mandated. For our purposes,
then, the conceptual opposite of "Protestant" is
Catholic." England regarded most Catholic na-
convict legislation —although there is not much
evidence that these laws were enforced or that
tions as enemies, especially Catholic France with
whom it was on a war footing until the close of
the Seven Years' War ( French and Indian War in
remains difficult to identify Catholics who may
the colonies) in 1763. Until that time and perhaps later, French Canadian Catholics and their
ginia probably included attending the Anglican
Indian allies were always popping up as bogeymen whenever tensions between Great Britain
devout Catholics were regularly turned away
and France worsened.
Catholics were prosecuted in Virginia courts. It
have lived in colonial Virginia, and the " obscu-
rity of everyday life" for some Catholics in Virparish church according to law. The idea that
from the polling place or had their votes challenged cannot be substantiated.
Virginia reflected the hysteria brought on
in 1745 by Bonnie Prince Charlie' s abortive
invasion of England that ended any attempt to
Thanks to Bob Doares for certain information
based on his answers in a recent Interpreter Q& A
restore the Catholic Stuarts. In England and the
colonies, loyal Englishmen looked for plotters,
on religion.)
especially Catholics, everywhere. On April 24,
Further Reading-
1746, William Gooch, lieutenant govemor of
Virginia, heard that priests from Maryland were
Fogarty, Gerald P., S. J. Commonwealth Catholicism: A His-
coming to Fairfax County and were " endeavour-
ing by crafty Insinuations, to seduce his Majesty' s
good subjects from their Fidelity and Loyalty to
his Majesty, King George, and his Royal House."
tory of the Catholic Church in Virginia. The University of
Notre Dame Press, 2001. 5 - 22.
Steiner, Bruce E. " The Catholic Brents of Colonial Virginia."
Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 70 ( October
1962): 386 -409.
�Vol. 25, No. 2, Fall/Winter 2004
9
Bothy' s
Mould
Presenting
the latest dirt
mould) from
the gardener' s
hut (bothy).
sweet potatoes, white potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, and peanuts —are indigenous to Central
and South America. North America has con-
tributed very little to the dinner table. We have
a few nuts such as hickory, black walnut, and
pecan; plus the blueberry, the cranberry, and the
sunflower are native to North America.
Corn: This plant is more properly called maize
or Indian corn. Corn has long been the generic
name for any of the European grain crops. In
Genesis 27: 28 the Bible records " plenty of corn
New World Vegetables
and wine." This was clearly not the corn we think
of today.
by Wesley Greene
Corn is among the most ancient and impor-
Wesley is a garden historian in the Landscape De-
tant of all food crops known to man. Its domestication is so ancient that no clear ancestor has
partment. You can often find him in costume inter-
ever been found for it. Small ears of com, no
preting in the Colonial Garden across from Bruton
larger than a pencil eraser, have been found at
an archaeological site at Tehuacan, Mexico, that
date to 5000 B. C. E.
The earliest varieties of com in Mexico were
Parish Church.
Wherever man has traveled on earth, he has
brought his food plants with him, so it is not sur-
popcorns, and it was from this variety that the
prising that some of the fast imports to the Western Hemisphere by European explorers as well as
flint corn was probably developed. Dent and
the earliest exports from the Western Hemisphere
starch that shrinks as the kernels dry, giving the
were food crops. Once acquired, food plants are
characteristic indentation at the end of the kernel. Dent corn stores carbohydrates in the form of
starch, sweet corn in the form of sugar.
moved very quickly between population centers.
Christopher Columbus is credited with introduc-
ing the cucumber to Haiti in 1494.
sweet corn kernels have a central core of soft
One of the first descriptions of corn in North
Twenty-one years later, explorer Hernando de
Soto found the native people growing cucumbers in Florida, and just twenty years after that,
America is found in Thomas Hariot's A Brief and
true report of the new found land of Virginia. Harlot
in 1535, Jacques Cartier found the natives in
North Carolina, and recorded: " Pagatowr, a kind
the area of present -day Montreal growing " very
of grain so called by the inhabitants; the same in
great cucumbers!" Some historians speculate
that cucumbers might have been introduced to
the West Indies is called Mayze."
the Northeast in pre- Columbian times by Basque
fishermen who may have plied the waters off the
coast of Maine.
Traveling in the other direction, the sweet
was on the 1585 expedition to Roanoke Island,
Robert Beverley, who wrote The History and
Present State of Virginia in 1705, recorded the
types of Indian com found in Virginia as " some
being blue, some red, some yellow, some white,
and some streak'd." The " late ripe com ...
they
potato left South America in the sixteenth cen-
call Flint - orn; the other has a larger Grain,
C
tury with the Portuguese who carried it around
and looks shrivell'd with a Dent on the back of
the Grain ...
this they call She- Corn. This is
esteem'd by the Planters, as the best for Increase,
the Cape of Good Hope into India. Malay traders picked it up from there and carried it to the
South Seas. By the time Capt. James Cook landed
in New Zealand in 1769, the native Maoris had
been growing sweet potatoes for nearly 200 years,
maybe much longer.
and is [ used] universally by them for planting."
Com became an important food source in
the earliest years of settlement. William Byrd II
the sweet potato first arrived on log rafts. As we
will see, because of the early and wide dispersal of
recorded in his Natural History of Virginia ( circa
1730): " Corn is very good in this land and is
eaten by everyone, rich and poor ... most of
the inhabitants plant almost nothing but corn
for their household needs, with which they are
pleased and remain healthy besides."
As the eighteenth century progressed, corn
New World vegetables, there is much confusion
got a
in later years as to where they originated.
population as a proper fare for the poorer sort.
All of the major groups of vegetables native
to the Americas —corn, beans, pumpkin, squash,
John Harrower recorded in his diary on August
There is some evidence to suggest that Polynesians landed in South America long before
European explorers and brought the sweet potato
home with them. A Maori legend records that
reputation among the wealthier white
28, 1775, that the plantation he lived on would
�The Colonial Williamsburg Interpreter
10
gardening " that within the memory of man
they were a great rarity, although now
produce 800 to 900 barrels of corn in
a year ( a barrel holds five bushels of
corn). Of this quantity 350 barrels
was used for feeding the slaves and
a common delicate food." By 1727,
horses, the rest was sold. " As for
what the White ates of it is but trif-
cal Kitchen Gardiner: " there are more
Stephen Switzer wrote in The Practi-
diversity of species, than of any other
garden plants we have transmit-
fling for three Barrell of Corn
ted to us from foreign parts."
is rather more than any one
The French developed and
Man can use in a year let him
popularized some of the earliest
ate no other bread." To this day
many Europeans use corn only as
varieties of dwarf or bush beans
and by the eighteenth century
animal fodder.
they had already picked up the
All of the eighteenth -cen-
general appellation of French
tury Virginia corn varieties
bean. This resulted in confusion
would be classed as field corn today. The earliest reference to sweet corn came in Gen. John
over the origin of the New World bean. As late
Sullivan's military expedition to western New
as 1822 Henry Phillips recorded in his History of
York in 1779. Lt. Richard Bagnell found the Iroquois growing a sweet corn in the upper reaches
of the Susquehanna River and brought it back to
Plymouth, Massachusetts. It had a small ear of
eight rows of white kernels and a red cob. The
sweet corn, or sugar corn we know today, was not
wholesome vegetable is a native of the eastern
developed until after 1850.
Beans: Along with corn and squash, beans
Cultivated Plants that it was known that the bean
is not a native of France as was formerly believed
but rather " we may conclude this excellent and
extremity of Europe, or that part of Asia now
belonging to the Turks."
All eighteenth- century bush bean varieties
would be considered shell or dry beans today, the
formed the " three sisters" of the Native Ameri-
pods being too tough to snap. Snap beans were
cans. The beans were allowed to climb the corn
stalks, and squash and pumpkin vines carpeted
acquired from pole varieties, most notably, in
Virginia, from the white Dutch runner bean, or
the land beneath. This is a common agricultural
system, particularly in the tropics, in which the
what is known as the caseknife bean today. John
Randolph, writing in Williamsburg, probably in
ground is entirely covered with foliage. This
the 1760s, recorded: " The Dutch sort are not
system helps to control weeds, shades the soil
so apt to be stringy, which the dwarf sort are."
to
The first stringless varieties of dwarf beans were
prevent
excess
evaporation,
and
prevents
erosion. The Europeans, coming from a cooler
introduced early in the nineteenth century.
climate, had developed an agricultural system of
Pumpkin and Squash: Pumpkins and squash
widely spaced rows that allowed the soil to warm
are members of the very large Cucurbita family,
although only two species were known to the
quickly in the spring.
The bean is equally as ancient as corn. Ar-
natives of eastern North America when the Eu-
chaeological sites in Peru have dated beans to
ropeans first landed. Curcubita pepo is the most
8000 B. C.E. and they had reached the southwest-
ancient of the squash species and its use has been
dated to 8000 B.C.E. in southern Mexico. This
ern United States by 5000 B.C.E. The bean is
an excellent dietary companion to corn in that
beans contain lysine, which is lacking in corn.
Lysine helps the body digest protein. The name
bean was applied to our New World plant because
of its similarity to the Old World broad bean or
group includes the pumpkin and what became
known as the cymbling squash. Cucurbita mixta,
most commonly represented by the cushaw
squash, was grown by the Pueblo peoples as early
as 5000 B. C. E. and was noted by Beverley in The
fava bean. Hariot observed in 1588 that " called
History and Present State of Virginia ( 1705) as
by us beans, because in greatness and partly in
shape they are like to the beans in England saving they are flatter, of more divers colours, and
grown by the Indians.
some pied" ( two or more colors in blotches).
While corn was not widely adopted in Europe, beans became an important kitchen garden
plant by the end of the seventeenth century.
John Parkinson wrote in Parodist in Sole paradisus
terrestris ( 1629) that beans were found " oftemer
on rich mens tables" but by 1683 John Worlidge
recorded in Systema horti- culturae, or, The art of
What we call
the pattypan or scalloped
squash today was known as the cymbling squash
in eighteenth- century Virginia and was far and
away the most popular member of this group
with the colonists. It was so named because of
its similarity in shape to the English simnel cake,
traditionally consumed for Lent.
The old yellow cymbling ( spelled many different ways) was a trailing vine. The modern
pattypan is an upright bush squash. This trans-
�Vol. 25, No. 2, Fall/
11
nter 2004
Because of the pepper' s early
and wide distribution, its place
formation in growth habit may have
occurred in the eighteenth century.
Thomas Jefferson, in a 1801 let-
of origin was confused for many
ter to Philip Mazzei, differenti-
years. It was often listed as the
ated between the cymbling and
squash by growth habit, observing: " The seeds I sent you are of
Guinea pepper in eighteenth -
the Cymbling & Squash the lat-
Africa. The pepper was, at best,
ter grows with erect stems; the
of minor importance to colonial
former trails on the ground al-
Virginians. John Randolph gave
together. The Squash is the best
tasted. But if you will plant the
Treatise on Gardening. Jefferson
century Virginia in the mistaken
belief that it was a native of
it only a single sentence in A
recorded planting cayenne pepper
cymbling and pumpkin near to-
equivalent of the squash, and I am persuaded the
on the very first page of his Garden Book in
1767, and it is occasionally found in garden
squash was originally so produced."
diaries of other Virginia gentlemen but remained
Pepper: When Columbus first sighted land, he
a somewhat obscure crop throughout the eigh-
was expecting to find a realm of exotic spices.
teenth century. Some would say that the English
have not learned to use the pepper to this very
day.
gether, you will produce the perfect
While we know he did not find the country he
was looking for, he did find a very important
are so named because of their pungent proper-
Potato and Sweet Potato: Before 1750, when
a Virginian talked about the potato, he was
ties, in some ways similar to the Indian pepper.
The various species of New World peppers
referring to the sweet potato. It is a native of
South America but along with com, beans, and
are native to both Central and South America
squash had made its way to North America by
the time the first colonists arrived. Curiously,
spice in the capsicum peppers, and indeed, they
and were being used by South American Indians
as early as 5000 B. C. E. and probably represent
the first spice used by humans anywhere on the
the white potato went by the name of Virginia
potato in England by the late sixteenth century
planet. On Columbus' s second voyage to the
even though it was not known in Virginia. The
New World in 1494, Dr. Diego Alvarez Chanca
described the native use of the pepper, writ-
Reverend John Banister recorded in Natural His -
ing: " They use to season it, a vegetable called
agi [ Pepper], which they also employ to give a
I mean those you call Spanish ones) as for the
tory ( 1681): " We have potatoes, white and red
sharp taste to the fish and such birds as they can
Virginia kind, I have not seen it in this country,
nor can I hear any news of it, though it be com-
catch."
mon in your European Gardens."
very circuitous path. The Portuguese took the
The white potato was first discovered by a
Spanish raiding party at the headwaters of the
Rio Magdalena in Colombia in 1537 where they
found stores of corn, beans, and what they originally called truffles. The English word potato is
pepper into the Near East and India where it
derived from the Indian word for sweet potato,
quickly became a staple crop and from there
batata.
The pepper was probably introduced to northem Europe and England on several occasions
through several routes, but it is interesting that
the one route that can be documented takes a
moved to the Far East ( can you imagine Thai
cookery without pepper ?).
The white potato was introduced to Ireland
in the sixteenth century, and there are more leg-
The Ottoman Turks acquired the pepper dur-
ends about how it fast arrived there than could
ing the siege of the Portuguese settlements at
possibly be covered in a paper of this size. At
Ormuz, Persia ( 1513), or perhaps at Diu, India
1538). The Turks then carried the pepper with
them into the Balkans and from there it made its
first it was of minor importance to the Irish but
way to Germany where it was first illustrated by
because the English troops would steal or bum
the German herbalist Leonhart Fuchs in 1542.
Fuchs called it the Indian or Calicut pepper.
the wheat crop, but leave the potato crop with
which they were not familiar, unharmed.
became a staple crop during the Irish rebellion
in the middle of the seventeenth century partly
The pepper was not used by the Native Amer-
The white potato was first introduced to
icans and had already traveled throughout the
North America by Irish immigrants in 1719
at Londonderry, New Hampshire. From there
known world before it reached North America.
In 1622, the ship Elizabeth docked at Jamestown
with a package of presents from the governor of
Bermuda that included pepper seeds.
it gradually spread south, generally under the
name of Irish potato. Because of this designa-
tion it was generally considered to be an Irish
�The Colonial Williamsburg Interpreter
12
native by colonial Virginians. It quickly became
The tomato first came to North America as
a staple crop throughout North America and, by
a culinary crop right here in Williamsburg with
the nineteenth century, was often identified as a
Dr. John de Sequeyra around 1745. It is interest-
North American native. In 1809, Jefferson wrote
a letter to a Mr. [Horatio Gates] Spafford to correct this bit of misinformation that Spafford had
ing that de Sequeyra introduced the practice of
eating tomatoes to America. John Hill, in his
Eden, or a complete body of gardening published in
published in his General Geography and correctly
England in 1757, recorded for the " Love Apple"
identified the white potato as a native of South
that " anyone who has dined with the Portuguese
Jews knows the value of this fruit." De Sequeyra
was born of Portuguese Jewish ancestry in Lon-
America.
Tomato: The tomato is a native of the coastal
mountains of Peru but apparently was not used
by the Incas. By unknown means it migrated to
don in 1712.
Central America where it was adopted and im-
the tomato started to appear in garden books and
proved by the Mayans. The wild tomato is a two -
recipes. The earliest recipe seems to come from
celled fruit, and the Mayans, through selection,
Harriot Pinckney Hory in South Carolina who
included an entry titled " To keep Tomatoes for
produced the multicelled fruit we know today.
From Central America it migrated to Mexico
By the last quarter of the eighteenth century,
Winter Use" in a collection of recipes she copied
where it was adopted by the Aztecs, and it was
for home use in 1770.
there that the Spanish explorer Hernando Cor-
The tomato was originally used only as a
sauce and does not seem to have been used as
tez first found the tomato in 1513. The Franciscan priest Bernardino Sahagun recorded in 1529
a ripe fruit. This may be a bit of culinary evolu-
that the Aztecs combined " xitomatl" ( tomatoes)
tion that we see in our children today. They will
with chilies and ground squash to make a sauce
put ketchup on anything. They adore pizza and
spaghetti, but they pick the tomatoes out of their
that sounds very much like the world' s first salsa.
The Spanish adopted the word tomato from the
Aztec tomatl, which was actually their term for
the husk tomato, a very different plant.
salad. We, as a society, may have undergone the
same " seasoning" to the ripe fruit that we see
children go through.
The tomato was first described in Europe by
Peanut: The peanut is native to southern Bo-
Pietro Andrea Matthioli in 1544 as the mala
livia and northwest Argentina and has been
aurea or golden apple, suggesting that the first
tomatoes brought back to Europe were yellow.
The French called it the pome d' amour or love
cultivated in Peru since at least 1500 B.C. E. By
apple, and this was the term the English adopted.
The name probably derives from the similarity of
Central, and South America.
The Portuguese brought the two- seeded pea-
the time the Spanish arrived in the New World,
the peanut was being grown throughout Mexico,
the fruit to the mandrake plant, another member
nut to Africa where it quickly became a staple
of the Solanaceae family with a long history as an
crop. It was then brought from Africa with
aphrodisiac.
the slave trade to North America. The slang
While the tomato was used as a culinary
term goober is a corruption of the Congolese
plant by the southern Europeans from a very
early date, northern Europeans regarded it with
word nguba, and for many years the peanut was
thought to be a native of Africa.
Until recently there was no evidence for the
some suspicion. Parkinson wrote in Paradisi in
Sole ( 1629) that southerners used it to " coole
peanut, or groundnut, in Virginia before Jeffer-
and quench the heate and thirst of the hot
son's listing of "peendars" in 1794. Archaeology
stomaches" but observed that it may be harmful
done at the Richneck slave quarters uncovered
to northern people.
peanut shells dating to the early years of the
In 1728, Richard Bradley recorded in Dic-
eighteenth century, so they were likely found
tionarium botanicum that it " makes an agreeable
Plant to look at, but the Fruit of most of them
exclusively in slave gardens in pre -Revolutionary
is dangerous." Historic folklore has long held
that the English, and by association, colonial
Virginians, did not eat tomatoes because they believed them to be poisonous. This is probably an
Virginia.
The peanut was not used to any extent by
exaggeration. That they believed the cold, wet
the white population until it was adopted by
both Southem and Northern troops during the
Civil War. Peanut butter was invented by Dr.
John Kellogg ( of comflakes fame) in 1890 as a
properties of the tomato might be unhealthful is
dietary supplement for his patients who had lost
probably correct; that they believed them to be
their teeth.
poisonous is an overstatement.
�Vol. 25, No. 2, Fall/ Winter 2004
13
the main food source for the silkworm. In the
mid- 1600s, some of the Virginia gentry, includ-
ing Gov. Edward Digges and Sir William Berkley,
imported white mulberry trees for silkworm pro-
duction. Although the silk industry never took
off in Virginia, the tree itself did and has since
naturalized in America.
Although the silkworms seemed to prefer
white mulberry leaves, records dating to 1839
from a Philadelphia silk company comment that
red mulberry, Morus rubra, made a silk " stronger
and finer than that of France." Better known for
its dark reddish purple fruits that resemble black-
berries, the red mulberry tree attracts a variety of
Q& A
Question: What is the earliest known reference
to crape myrtles in Virginia? What is the future
for these trees in the Historic Area as they die
off or are destroyed by severe weather?
songbirds and small animals. Even though birds
can make quite a mess when eating the fruit, the
red mulberry is less weedy and more discriminate
of where it grows than the white mulberry.
Although in the mulberry family, the paper
Answer: The crape myrtle, Lagerstroemia indica,
mulberry, Broussonetia papyrifera, is not a true
mulberry and the leaves are of no interest to
is an Asian, medium sized tree that catches the
silkworms. Native to China, the tree is widely
eye of our guest with its bright pink, crinkled,
cultivated in Japan where the inner bark is used
crape -like flowers and exfoliating bark. A favor-
to make paper lanterns and umbrellas. Its intro-
ite of Mr. Rockefeller' s, it was planted through-
duction into America, along with the introduc-
out the Historic Area during the Restoration.
tion of the crape myrtle, is associated with Andre
Historic documents date the crape myrtle in
Michaux. ( See " Q &
Charleston, South Carolina, by 1780. Documentation also exists that references the ship George
Barclay arriving in Philadelphia in April 1799
with seeds and plants for George Washington, in-
cluding seed of Lagerstroemia indica. A few of the
Williamsburg gentry may have had crape myrtles
in their gardens by 1780; however, it is doubtful
A," Interpreter [ Spring
2003]: 36 for more on the mulberry.)
Question: What is with those " fists" on some
of the Historic Area trees? What is that type of
pruning called, why is it done, and is it eighteenth century?
that it would have been grown throughout the
Answer: The " fists" seen on some of the Historic
Historic Area as seen today.
Area trees are the result of a type of pruning
When a tree dies in a garden in the Historic
Area, its replacement is decided by several factors, including the plant's appropriateness to the
interpretation of a particular site. However, there
are no restrictions on a plant's introduction date
at Colonial Williamsburg's hotels and business
properties. Therefore, our guests can enjoy mod-
called pollarding. Simply defined, pollarding is the
annual removal of the previous year's growth.
When a tree is wounded, or in this case
pruned, the tree will cover the wound with bark
and new wood as a means of healing and protection from bacteria. ( One could compare this
process to how a scab forms on our skin.) This is
ern cultivars of crape myrtles with a broad range
a natural process called callusing. If pollarding is
of bloom color at these properties.
done repeatedly over several years, a swelled area
of tissue or callusing forms that looks like a fist.
Pollarding will cause a tree to develop sprouts
Question: What are the various types of mulberry trees in the Historic Area? Are any of
them native to the New World, and are they all
yummy" in the eyes of silkworms?
Answer: The white mulberry tree and the paper
shoots of leaves) down the tree below the cut.
For this reason, pollarding has been used for
centuries to provide firewood, building materials,
and food for animals. Historically, farmers would
cut the newly formed sprouts from the pollarded
mulberry tree are native to Asia and can be seen
trees and feed them to their animals to strip the
throughout the Historic Area. Ironically, the na-
bark and foliage. The remaining wood would
tive red mulberry tree is not as abundant in the
then be used for firewood or woven into fences.
Historic Area today.
The white mulberry, Morus alba, has been
cultivated for centuries for its leaves, which are
Another form of pruning, known as coppicing,
was done for similar reasons. Coppicing is the
cutting back of an entire tree to the ground to
�The Colonial Williamsburg Interpreter
14
provide a fresh crop of wood to be cut again.
Whereas coppicing took up pasture area
by producing thickets of new wood, pollarding
increased grazing area because the new shoots
were at least head height. At this higher level,
new shoots were less likely to be damaged by
grazing animals.
in -depth treatment of town planning in colonial
Virginia and Maryland, see John W. Reps, Tide-
water Towns: City Planning in Colonial Virginia and
Maryland [ Charlottesville, Va., 1972]).
Perhaps the most notable post- Revolution-
ary example in America is the 1791 design of
the District of Columbia by French American
Large pollarded American sycamore trees can
engineer Pierre Charles L' nfant. His plan feaE
be seen behind Market Square Tavern and across
the street from the Public Hospital. Pollarded
tured a network of wide streets converging on
chaste trees ( Vitex) can be seen throughout the
on public structures such as the Capitol and the
Historic Area including at the Colonial Garden
and Nursery.
White House, ideas we can observe on a much
major parks,
Thanks to Laura Viancour, Landscape Depart-
Question: Williamsburg was a planned city.
How common was city planning at the time
Williamsburg was created? ( Submitted by an
orientation interpreter)
Answer: City planning, or the unified development of cities and their environs, has been
around since ancient times, as revealed by ar-
and other open spaces and
smaller scale in Williamsburg itself. The ideas
of public
ment, for answering the above questions.)
malls,
grandeur
and
radial,
circumferential
streets continued in the nineteenth century,
exemplified in the plan for the reconstruction of
Paris ( 1850 - 74) by French administrator Baron
Georges Eugene Haussman.
Adapted from Encarta Encyclopedia)
Question: What was the life expectancy of
people in eighteenth -century Virginia?
Answer: In the years from 1750 to 1775, free
Virginians who made it to the age of twenty- one
chaeological excavations. The Greeks and Ro-
lived, on average, into their early fifties. To be
mans broadened emphasis on city planning,
precise value, this figure was worked out several
organizing religious and civic citadels so as to
give a sense of balance. Streets were arranged in
a grid pattern, and housing was integrated with
cultural, commercial, and defense facilities.
Centuries later, the emulation of Greco -
Roman classicism during the Renaissance re-
vived city planning efforts along classical lines.
In sharp contrast to the narrow, irregular streets
of medieval settlements, Renaissance planning
stressed wide, regular radial and circumferential
streets that formed concentric circles around
a central point with other streets radiating out
from that point like spokes of a wheel.
Sir Christopher Wren's plan for rebuilding
London after the Great Fire of 1666 was one
example of this approach. Many European cities,
understood as a broad suggestion rather than a
years ago by Anne Willis, training specialist in
the Department of Interpretive Training, and
Kevin Kelly and Lorena Walsh, historians in the
Department of Historical Research. Developed
from relatively small samples used in particular
population studies for the colonial Chesapeake,
it is subject to revision as more research is done.
No comprehensive figures are available for enslaved Virginians.
Providing precise answers to questions about
life expectancy and other traits is very difficult
when the population in question lived in an
era for which vital statistics, such as we modern
Americans understand them, do not exist.
such as Edinburgh, Scotland, contain an older,
Question: What kind of pets did Virginians keep
medieval
in the eighteenth century?
town center with irregular warrens
of streets side by side with a later " new town"
Answer: Colonial Virginians kept a wide variety
planned and constructed in the eighteenth cen-
of animals for service, pleasure, and companion-
tury and characterized by broad, regular street
ship. The word pet does not come into general
grids.
usage in the English language until the nine-
These themes of Renaissance planning were
teenth century, yet the keeping of animals for
transplanted to the New World in British and
Spanish colonial cities settled in the sixteenth,
companionship was widely accepted
seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, among
cats, and other domestic animals performed
valuable services but were still named and en-
them Savannah, Georgia; Mexico City; Lima,
Peru; and, of course, Williamsburg, Virginia, and
Annapolis, Maryland. The Virginia and Maryland capitals were both designed by the govemor
they had in common, Francis Nicholson. ( For an
Among the less wealthy households dogs,
joyed. The eighteenth century foreshadowed a
more widespread practice of pet keeping and the
establishment of the humane movement of the
nineteenth century.
�Vol. 25, No. 2, Fall/ Winter 2004
15
Dogs mentioned in the Virginia Gazette ineranians. Students at the College of William and
ley Carter noted the death of his father's " old
cat Coorytang" at almost seventeen years old.
Wealthy Virginians kept herds of tame deer that
Mary brought their dogs in such large numbers
sometimes were allowed to run in and out of the
that the college issued an order " forbidding Dogs
house, as was the case at Alexander Spotswood's
home in Germanna.
clude bulldogs, mastiffs, pointers, and Pom-
to be kept at the College," first in 1752 and again
in 1772.
John Locke, whose views on education were
Thanks to Allison Harcourt, Coach and Livestock
popular among enlightened Virginia parents,
advised giving children " dogs, squirrels, birds or
Department, for answering the above question. For
any such things as young girls use to be delighted
see Allison's article " Mungril Dogs and Tame Deer,"
with." Native birds such as cardinals and mockingbirds were kept and, when possible, taught to
sing.
John Norton was given an
order for " a very Small Organ
for teaching Birds" on behalf of
a more in -depth look at pets in the eighteenth century
Interpreter [ Fall 1996], 20- 23. You may also call
ext. 7621 or email Nancy Milton [ nmilton @cwf
org] for a copy of this article)
Q & A was compiled by Bob Doares, training specialist in the Department of Interpretive Training.)
Lord Dunmore. Robert Worm-
WINTER
This being the Last and worst Quarter of all the four, like a Dish of Chubs [ fish] at the
latter End of a Feast, brings up the Rear.
Now Hyems binds the Floods in Silver Chains,
And hoary Frost hath candied all the Plains.
Now Days are very short, and Nights premontiposterous long; consequently now is the
properest Time for the tearing of Sheets and begetting of Bantlings, by Reason lazy Lubbers
have an Opportunity to lie long in Bed, without the Disturbance either of Daylight or hot
Sunshine.
This Quarter used to be welcome to poor People, when good House -keeping was in Fash-
ion, because it always brings Christmas along with it; but now Pride, Gaming, and Whoring,
have turned good House -keeping out of Doors.
Yet here and there some yet remain, that will
Uphold good Orders, and keep Christmas still.
Virginia Almanack ...
1774,
ed. Purdie and Dixon
�The Colonial Williamsburg Interpreter
16
Topics of Conversation in
December 1774
by Emma L. Powers
Lou is a historian in the Department of Historical
Research.
The birth of a daughter to Lady Dunmore and
the Governor on December 3, 1774, called for
congratulations. The gentlewomen of the town
looked forward to calling on her ladyship in the
late stages of her lying in. They were doubly
pleased to learn that the baby was to be named
Virginia. Another subject much discussed among
the gentry and would -be gentry centered on the
upcoming wedding of James Cocke' s daughter
Patsy to Beverley Randolph of Chatsworth.
Nothing is now to be heard of in conversation, but the Balls, the Fox hunts, the fine
entertainments, and the good fellowship
which are to be exhibited at the approach-
ing Christmas.
This is how Philip Vickers Fithian characterized
the gentry' s excitement about the holiday in
of imported foodstuffs. A shortage of salt could
forward to the Christmas season. Townspeople
be especially critical. Even the youngsters of the
families wondered if innocent socializing, such as
dancing, ran afoul of the Association's provision
attended local social events, went to church on
against extravagance.
1773 on the Northern Neck.
Here in Williamsburg in 1774 everyone looked
the twenty fifth, and savored the quiet domestic
The voters of Williamsburg also had to decide
celebrations that marked the Christmas season.
whom to elect to the city' s Committee of Inspec-
Slaves, Christian and non Christian alike, also
tion and Observation on December 23. One
had reason to enjoy this time of year. Those
owned by townspeople could expect a few days
off work, and slaves hired to people in the city
issue under discussion was whether to broaden
were allowed to travel to their home plantations
until the first of the new year when, if rehired,
they would return to Williamsburg.
membership on the committee beyond the usual
political leaders of the city. Neighboring James
City County voters had done that when they
elected twenty-eight citizens to their commit-
tee on November 25. Either at the urging of the
topic of conversation
traditional leaders or because of their conserva-
in many, if not most, Williamsburg families in
tive bent, the town's freeholders voted only two
December 1774, was the Continental Association, which went into effect on the first of the
novices onto the committee.
The main political
month. Few members of the household remained
untouched by its provisions. Tradesmen had to
assess how the prohibition on British imports
would affect their livelihoods. Merchants in
particular needed to calculate how the loss of
profits on any shipments of goods received in
Even before the election, those who saw
themselves as future committeemen held conversations about how the committee was to be
organized. The committee' s duties were considerable: the Association's provisions had to be
enforced, prices set on essential items like salt,
and home manufacture encouraged.
the next two months could be offset. Artisans
Yet even as they readied themselves for the
inventoried their stock to see if they had supplies
worst, many of Williamsburg's white residents
enough to last the length of the nonimportation
were hopeful that word would come that Great
Britain had backed down. When news that the
agreement.
On the other hand, some artisans, such as the
tanner William Pierson, anticipated increased
demand for their products. Housewives explored
their larders to see if they had a lasting supply
British ministry prohibited the export of gunpowder to the colonies reached Williamsburg in late
December, those hopes were dashed. The Wil-
liamsburg committee had its work cut out for it.
�Vol. 25, No. 2, Fall/ Winter 2004
17
What' s a Wassail? Lambs -wool? Beer Bowls?
greeting to denote feasting in general and in the
by Frank Clark
Frank is a journeyman and supervisor in Historic
Foodways in the Department of Historic Trades.
Here we come a- wassailing
Among the leaves so green,
phrase wassail bowl to note the particular spiced
ale with which the bowl was filled."
Bickerdyke later gives a description of how
the beverage was prepared: " The chief ingre-
dients were, without a doubt, strong ale, sugar,
So fair to be seen.
spices and roasted apples." He then gives us a
particular recipe from Oxford: " A silver bowl
Love and jay come to you,
given to the college in 1732 is partially filled with
And to you your wassail, too,
this admirable composition and passed round the
And God bless you, and send you
festive board. Into the bowl is first placed a half
Here we come a- wand'ring
A Happy New Year,
And God send you a Happy New Year.
Traditional)
a pound of Lisbon sugar, on which is poured one
pint of warm beer; a little nutmeg and ginger are
then grated over the mixture, and four glasses
of sherry and five pints of beer are added to it.
Every year during the holiday season thousands of us sing a carol about wassail, yet few
Three or four slices of thin toast are then added
know what it is and probably none of us have
then goes on to say that in other places roasted
crab apples —which burst open to look like
actually had it. Wassail is one of the hundreds
of beer -based punches drunk by our English
to the mixture and the wassail bowl is ready." He
lamb's wool —replace the toast. 1
Now that we know what goes
ancestors.
These concoctions seemed to be quite popu-
into the wassail bowl, let's look
lar from medieval times up to the nineteenth
at some of the British customs
century
associated with it. The Saxon cus-
and were
referred to
collectively as beer bowls. The
om of drinking wassail at feasts
term wassail refers to activities
changed after the introduction
associated with the consumption of a wassail bowl, the actual
beverage. The origins of this
custom come from Saxon _
mythology.
The best description of
this heritage that I have found
of Christianity. Soon it became
associated with the Christmas season. The tradition developed
that the wassail bowl should
be consumed on Christmas,
New Year' s Eve, or Twelfth
Night.
was written by John Bickerdyke
in his book The Curiosities of Ale & Beer, pub-
Frederick Hackwood, an early
twentieth- century historian of drinking cus-
lished in 1889. Bickerdyke relates the following
toms, gives us this account of the evolution of
story: " Rowena, the daughter of Hengist, on
being presented to Vortigem at a feast which her
father had prepared for him, kneeled before him
wassailing: " The ancient custom was for the
wassail bowl, filled with spiced ale, to be carried
about by young women on New Year' s Eve, who
and offered him a bowl with the words Loured
went from door to door singing a few couplets
king woes hoeil that is ` lord king your health.'
This apparently became a popular greeting in
of homely verses composed for the purpose,
and presenting the liquor to the inhabitants of
Saxon times when two people met —one would
the houses where they called, expecting a small
gratuity in return for a proffered drink of their
say Wacht heil and the other would respond drink
Neil. The words eventually changed from being a
slabby stuff."2 The tradition of carrying the was-
�The Colonial Williamsburg Interpreter
18
sail bowl from house to house continued to the
ale. A version of it —
capon ale — appears in the
end of the seventeenth century.
manuscript books of recipes, which date back to
Elizabethan and Jacobean times, passed down to
Wishing health to crops and animals was also
grouped under the name of wassailing. In the
Martha Washington ( then Martha Dandridge)
villages of Devonshire, England, for example,
in 1749, the year she married Daniel Parke
on the eve of the Epiphany the farmer and his
Custis: " Take an old capon with yellow legs,
workmen went into the orchard with a pitcher of
pluck him, and crush his bone but keep the skin
cider to toast one of the best bearing trees .3
whole. Then take an ounce of caraway seeds and
an ounce of anise seeds and two ounces of harts
hom and one handful of rosemary tops and a
The Oxford English Dictionary shows that
the word fell into disuse during the eighteenth
century, only to reappear in the nineteenth cen-
tury as nostalgia for traditions from bygone eras
lemon peal. Sow all of these into the belly of the
capon and put him into two gallons of strong ale
restyled Christmas customs. After describing the
when it is working, let it stand two or three days
large stock of wines and ale at Fairfax House in
Fairfax had a Wassail bowl at his Christmas table
and then drink it." Fanciful though it is, just for
a moment, picture our first First Lady crushing
a chicken on the back porch at Mt. Vernon for
this mixture! I forgot to mention that both cock
during the 18th century is open for debate. "4
ale and egg ale were recommended as highly
York, England, in the eighteenth century, food
historian Peter Brown noted: " Whether Lord
Today, most of us find the concept of warm ale
with spices and sugar a tippler' s nightmare, pre-
ferring mulled wine instead.
nutritious and healthful beverages for the sick.
Personally, I think if you weren't sick when you
drank these beverages, you would be afterwards!
Mention of wassail in colonial Virginia is rare
and then only in literary references harking back
1 John Bickerdyke, The Curiosities of Ale 67 Beer: An
to earlier times, but an incredibly large number
Entertaining History ( 1889; reprint, London: Spring Books,
of beer - ased punches were very popular with
b
our colonial forefathers. This tradition makes
1965), 234; Peter Brears, Traditional Food in Yorkshire ( Edinburgh: J. Donald Publishers, 1987), 181.
more sense when you realize that during medieval times ale was made without hops and was
2 Frederick William Hackwood, Inns, Ales, and Drinking
Customs of Old England ( London: Bracken Books, 1985),
142.
already rather sweet.
A beer punch that was quite popular during
this period was flip. Bickerdyke provides a common recipe for flip: " Place in a saucepan one
quart of strong ale together with lump of sugar
which have well rubbed over the rind of a lemon,
3 Gentleman's Magazine ( 1791), in Robert Chambers,
The Book of Days ( London: W. & R. Chambers, 1869).
4 Peter Brown, The Keeping of Christman England's
Festive Tradition, 1760 - 1840 ( York, Eng.: York Civic Trust,
1992), 29- 30.
and a small piece of cinnamon. Take the mixture
off the fire when boiling and add one glass of cold
ale. Have ready in a jug the yolks of six eggs well
beaten up with powder sugar and grated nutmeg.
A Very Rich Twelfth Cake
Pour the hot ale from the saucepan on to the
pounds of nicely pricked and cleansed cur-
eggs, stirring them while doing so. Have another
jug at hand and pour the mixture from one vessel
rants; with two large nutmegs, half an ounce
to the other until a white froth appears." At this
point you would put a poker that was heated red
hot in the fire into the mug of ale and it would
foam over the top.
Despite the addition of raw eggs to beer, these
drinks might taste good if done properly. That
and a pound of loaf sugar, all finely beaten
and grated; sixteen eggs, leaving out four
cannot be said about recipes of some of the more
pound of almonds, mountain and orange -
bizarre beer punches I have found. The win-
flower water, and put in a pound and a half
ners for all -time most disgusting beer bowls are
egg ale and cock ale. To make egg ale combine
twelve eggs, the gravy of eight pounds of beef,
a pound of raisins, oranges, and spice in a linen
of candied orange, lemon, and citron peel.
Put into seven pounds of fine flour, two
pounds and a half of fresh butter, and seven
of mace, a quarter of an ounce of cloves,
whites; and a pint and a half of the best
yeast. Warm as much cream as will wet this
mass, and pour mountain [ Malaga] wine to
make it as thick as batter; beat, grossly, a
Mix the whole well together; and put the
cake into a hoop with paste under it, to save
the bottom while it is baking.
sack. Suspend the sack in twelve gallons of ale
Family Receipt -Book, London, circa 1811,
for three weeks and then add two quarts of sack
cited in Louise Conway Belden, The Festive
wine. Last, bottle it up.
Now if just reading this doesn't make you
sick, then perhaps you would like some cock
America, 1650 - 1900 ( Winterthur, 1983).
Tradition. Table Decoration and Desserts in
�Vol. 25, No. 2, Fall/Winter 2004
0 RU
19
M HIEEMITS
UPDATEg
New at the Rock
Becoming Americans Story
life in England. While in Virginia, Small' s rela-
Lines: New Titles in the
tionships with Thomas Jefferson, Robert Carter,
Rockefeller Library
entific, and moral thought for the rest of their
lives.
and John Page influenced their political, sci-
The titles are listed alphabetically rather than
by story line because some fit more than one cat-
Heat - oon, William Least. Columbus in the
M
egory.)
Americas. Hoboken, N. J.: John Wiley &
Sons,
2002. [ E118.H43 2002]
Berlin, Ira. Generations of Captivity: A History
of African-American Slaves. Cambridge, Mass.:
Christopher Columbus, a product of the medieval world, was the unexpected agent to open
Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2003.
a new world. In this small book, the author criti-
E441. B47 2003]
cally describes Columbus' s voyages to the Carib-
Based on the premise that "slaves' history was
made not only by what was done to them but
also by what they did for themselves," the author
tells the story of how slaves refused to surrender
their humanity. The slave- master dynamic could
and did shift to adapt to political, economic,
bean with the intention of replacing popular
myth with solid history of the good and evil done
consciously and unconsciously by Columbus.
Juster, Susan. Doomsayers: Anglo- American Proph-
and household changes, sometimes to the slave' s
ecy in the Age of Revolution. Philadelphia, Pa.:
University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003. [ BR520.
benefit. Berlin interprets statistics, primary docu-
J87 2003]
ments, and published scholarship
to explore
these possibilities.
The revivals of the Great Awakening in the
middle of the eighteenth century opened the
way for creative thinking about man and God in
Carlisle, Nancy. Cherished Possessions: A New
England Legacy. Boston: Society for the Preserva-
America during the years 1765 - 1815. Prophets
tion of New England Antiquities, 2003. [ NK810.
C37 2003 Oversize]
heard the voices of angels and demons and were
This beautifully illustrated book explores the
arose; they dreamed dreams, saw visions, and
impelled to interpret and publish them to the
world.
personal and cultural meaning of objects prized
by their owners and their descendants. One
family prized two biscuits and a corncob that
was purportedly brought from England in the
Maps: A Cartographic Reconstruction, 2 vols. to
date ( 3 projected). Pullman, Wash.: Washington
Plamondon, Martin, II. Lewis and Clark Trail
1630s; another, a five -foot trompe l' oeil figure of
State University Press, 2000 —. [G1422. L4P5
a servant girl painted in the eighteenth century.
2000 Oversize]
Ceramics, silver, furniture, jewelry, and textiles
are all featured in this attractive and informative
For nearly two centuries, William Clark's invaluable survey data remained untapped in the
exhibit catalog.
expedition's annals. Martin Plamondon has accomplished the cartographic reconstruction that
Clagett, Martin R. " William Small, 1734 - 1775:
Clark expected by using the daily measurements
Teacher, Mentor, Scientist." Ph.D. diss., Virginia
and notes, the maps and sketches,
Commonwealth University, 2003. [ LD6051.
pertinent information in the journals. In addition
W518S53 2003]
and other
to presenting key geographical and historic fea-
Clagett explores Small's education in Scot-
tures, Plamondon's maps compare the modern
land, his experiences with and influence on the
beds of streams to their courses at the time of
College of William and Mary, and his scientific
the exploration.
�The Colonial Williamsburg Interpreter
20
Stabile, Susan M. Memory' s Daughters: The Material Culture of Remembrance in Eighteenth -Century
America. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press,
New Items in the John D.
2004. [ F158. 44.S73 2004]
The author introduces five women from the
Special Collection
Delaware Valley who kept manuscript commonplace books between 1760 and 1840. In these
books, they copied and preserved meaningful texts
and wrote thoughtfully about their feelings inspired
by the familiar —a portrait, a garden, a desk.
Van Ruymbeke, Bertrand, and Randy J. Sparks,
eds. Memory and Identity: The Huguenots in
France and the Atlantic Diaspora. Columbia,
S.C.: University of South Carolina Press, 2003.
BX9454.3. M46 2003]
The exodus of nearly 200, 000 Protestants
from France made an impact first on Europe and
later on America, where the Huguenots were
readily accepted in the British colonies. They
married into British and Dutch families; joined
Anglican, Presbyterian, and Baptist churches;
and soon became leading merchants, landown-
Rockefeller, Jr. Library' s
Benezet, Anthony. Observations on the Inslaving,
Importing, and Purchasing of Negroes. 2nd ed. Germantown, Pa.: Christopher Sower, 1760.
The author was born a Huguenot in France
and became an educator /
reformer in Pennsylva-
nia, having close affiliations with the abolitionist
cause. The work is a concise history of slavery
from ancient times through the trade in the
American colonies. Biblical injunctions against
the
practice
are
cited,
together
with
extracts
from an epistle published by Quakers in London
in 1758. ( Bound with Fenelon volume)
Fenelon, Francois de Salignac de La Mothe -].
The Uncertainty of a Death - ed Repentance. GerB
mantown, Pa.: Christopher Sower, 1760.
This work, thought to be by the celebrated
ers, and local government officials.
French prelate and writer Fenelon, recounts the
life and last moments of the fictional " Penitens .
Weaver, John C. The Great Land Rush and the
a busy notable tradesman, and very prosperous
in his dealings, but died in the thirty-fifth year of
Making of the Modern World, 1650 - 1900. Montreal, Canada: McGill- Queen's University Press,
his age." The moral given is that lives should be
2003. [ JV105.W42 2003]
Weaver describes the European conquest and
dedicated to beneficence and good works.
reshaping of the world according to European
standards of religion, law, political organization,
land use, and knack for warfare. Their rationalizations of " improvement" and " advancement"
for these new lands masked a voracious appetite
for property.
led without vanity or self seeking motives and
Loyall Family Ledgers, 1810 - 84.
These two items associated with the Loyall
family of Louisa and Hanover Counties include
numerous references to the Shelton and Dandridge families. The earlier account covers the
years 1810 - 70 and appears to have begun ex-
Webb, Willard J., and Anne C. Webb. The Glebe
Houses of Colonial Virginia. Bowie, Md.: Heritage
Books, 2003. [ BX5917. V8W43 2003]
The Webbs describe the glebe system, which
attracted Church of England clergy to and supported them in colonial parishes. They examine
surviving glebe houses in Virginia, thus providing
a glimpse into the home life of colonial Anglican
istence as a mathematical exercise book. It also
contains records of the estate ofJohn Loyall, who
died circa 1822. The larger volume covers the
years 1830 -84 and was originally a ledger kept
by blacksmith Thomas Loyall. Intervening blank
spaces in both books have been filled in with records of receipts, work, and business agreements
later in the century.
ministers.
O'Neal, David L. The Albert H. Small Collection
Submitted by Juleigh Muirhead Clark, public services librarian, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library.
Christmas being gone, a good New Year
I wish to all my Readers dear
Both Health and Wealth, good Meat,
strong Beer,
And all Things else the Heart to cheer.
Virginia Almanack ... 1774,
ed. Purdie and Dixon
Boston: no publisher, 1996).
This is a catalog of Small' s extensive assemblage of materials concerning the Declaration
of Independence, its signers, and its history. It
includes reference to William J. Stone' s printing
on parchment of the Declaration in 1823 at the
order of John Quincy Adams, then secretary of
state. The Rockefeller Library Special Collections section contains an original copy of this
facsimile.
�Vol. 25, No. 2, Fall/ Winter 2004
21
Newspaper: Virginia Gazette ( Hunter), April 25,
Alexandria, Va., January 7. Last night I
1755.
This newspaper includes a memorial or re-
went to the Ball ...
a large rich cake is pro-
quest from American merchants involved with
vided and cut into small pieces and handed
whale fishing and asks for continuance of Parliament's bounty awarded to encourage the
round to the company who at the same time
industry.
merry wrote on it. He that draws the King
Newspaper: Virginia Gazette ( Hunter), July 17,
1755.
This issue contains detailed reports, reprinted
draw a ticket out of a Hat with something
has the Honor of treating the company with
a Ball the next year, which generally costs
him six or seven pounds. The lady that
draws the Queen has the trouble of making
from the Pennsylvania Gazette, concerning devel-
the cake. Here was about 37 ladies dressed
opments in the French and Indian War, together
with foreign and domestic developments.
don, wine merchants in Madeira, January 15,
and powdered to the life, some of them very
handsome and as much vanity as is necessary. All of them fond of dancing, but I do
not think they perform it with the greatest
elegance. Betwixt the country dances they
have what I call everlasting jigs. A couple
1765.
gets up and begins to dance a jig ( to some
Letter: Jonathan Riddell, merchant in Norfolk,
Virginia, to Francis Newton and William Gor-
This correspondence concerns various co-
Negro tune) others comes and cuts them
mestibles from the American colonies being
shipped to Caribbean islands. Concerning wine,
out, and these dances always last as long
as the Fiddler can play. This is sociable, but
the letter mentions that " Principal People of the
I think it looks more like a Bacchanalian
Collony [ sic]" had stopped drinking due to the
prices paid for wheat, corn, pork, and beef in
dance than one in a polite assembly. Old
Women, Young wives with young children
in the lap, widows, maids and girls come
Virginia.
promiscuously to these assemblies which
expense of the new tariffs. Also included are
generally continue till morning. A cold supLetter: Greg, Cunningham & Co., provisioning
agents in New York, to Messrs. Newton and
Gordon, wine merchants in Madeira, December
18, 1774.
This letter offers insight into the difficulties of
conducting business during the early days of the
per, Punch, Wines, Coffee and Chocolate,
but no Tea. This is a forbidden herb. The
Men chiefly Scotch and Irish. I went home
about two o' clock, but part of the company
stayed, got drunk and had a fight."
Journal of Nicholas Cresswell, 1774 - 77
Revolutionary War. It discusses importation of
goods into the colonies and reflects the prominent
social position of many merchants at the time.
Evergreen-Decking at Christmas
Submitted by George Yetter, associate curator for
From every hedge is pluck'd by eager hands
the architectural drawings and research collections,
The holy branch with prickly leaves replete
John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library.
And fraught with berries of a crimson hue;
Which, tom asunder from its parent trunk,
Is straight way taken to the neighboring
London, December 25 [ 1771] ..
His Royal Highness the Duke of Cum-
berland is to keep Christmas at Windsor
Lodge, in the old English solid Way; being
determined to keep open Table for the
Country People, for three Days, covered
with Surloins of roast Beef, Plum Puddings,
and minced Pies, the rich and ancient Food
of Englishmen.
towns,
Where windows, mantels, candlesticks,
and shelves,
Quarts, pints, decanters, pipkins, basons,
jugs,
And other article of household ware,
The verdant garb confess.
John Brand, Observations on the
Popular Antiquities of Great Britain
His Royal Highness the Duke of Cum-
London: Bohn, 3rd ed.,
berland bids fair for being the greatest Pa-
1849; first ed.,
triot that ever was in England.
Virginia Gazette, ed. Purdie and Dixon,
19 March 1772
1777), 519.
�The Colonial Williamsburg Interpreter
22
Publication of
this issue of the Interpreter
was made possible
by a gift from
James H. and Sherry P. Hubbard
of Severna Park, Maryland
The Colonial CPU iamsburg Interpreter is published
three times a year by the Historic Area
Division.
Editor:
Nancy Milton
Copy Editor:
Mary Ann Williamson
Assistant Editor: Linda Rowe
Editorial Board: Cary Carson
Ron Hurst
Betty Leviner
Emma L. Powers
Planning Board: Laura Arnold
Harvey Bakari, Bertie Byrd,
Bob Doares, Jan Gilliam,
Wesley Greene, Noel Pokier,
John Turner, Ron Warren,
Pete Wrike
Production:
The Print Production
Services Department
Diana Freedman
2004 The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. All rights
reserved. All images are the property of The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, unless otherwise noted.
��
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Colonial Williamsburg Interpreter
Description
An account of the resource
<p><em>The Colonial Williamsburg Interpreter</em> was a newsletter published July 1980-September 2009 by the education and research departments of Colonial Williamsburg and authored mainly by staff researchers and interpreters. Its purpose was to disseminate information germane to the current interpretive focus of the Historic Area uniformly across the various departments involved with historical interpretation. Some of the articles sprang from the need to impart new research or interpretive information to staff while others were inspired by employee questions or suggestions. In the earlier issues, standard sections include “The King’s English” which explained various words or terminology encountered in 18th century life, “Occurrences” which noted different programs and events of interest to employees and visitors, and “The Exchange” which was a guest column that offered the perspective and knowledge of non-research department employees on various subjects. Later issues had regular columns about historical subjects, archaeology, gardening, new books at the Foundation library, “Cook’s Corner” about foodways, “Interpreter’s Corner” concerning issues of interpretation, and a Q & A section. The number of issues published per year varied as did the length of the newsletter.</p>
<p>Several supplemental publications sprang from the Interpreter including <em>Fresh Advices, Questions & Answers</em>, and A<em> Cultural Time Line & Glossary for Williamsburg in the Eighteenth Century</em>. Fresh Advices offered discussions of recent research conducted by the Foundation and opportunities for applying it in the Historic Area. It was published infrequently from 1981-1987. <em>Questions & Answers</em> began and ended as a column in the <em>Interpreter</em>, but also existed as a supplemental publication from 1980-1989. It functioned as a means to answer common interpreter questions to the research department about eighteenth-century history and culture, Williamsburg area history, and Colonial Williamsburg itself. The one-time 1990 publication <em>A Cultural Time Line & Glossary for Williamsburg in the Eighteenth Century</em> consisted of a oversize poster-sized timeline and a glossary booklet. The time line included notable events in the Age of Enlightenment in the categories of politics, philosophy and religion, education, science and technology, fine arts and architecture, and performing arts and literature. The glossary was an expansion on selected entries from the time line to give more information on people and events that directly or indirectly influenced the development of colonial Virginia society.</p>
<p>An index to the <em>Interpreter</em> and its supplemental publications may be found here: <a href="http://research.colonialwilliamsburg.org/library/_files/Interpreter.pdf">Colonial Williamsburg Interpreter Index, 1980-2009</a>.</p>
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The Colonial Williamsburg Interpreter, volume 25, number 3, Winter 2004
Description
An account of the resource
The Sounds of Music…Or, the Franklin /Carter Connection -- The Scottish Pistol in Colonial America -- Catholics and the Vote in Colonial Virginia -- The Bothy’s Mould: New World Vegetables -- Questions and Answers -- Topics of Conversation in December 1774 -- Cook’s Corner: What's a Wassail? Lambs-wool? Beer Bowls? -- Bruton Heights Update: New at the Rock: Becoming Americans Story Lines: New Titles in the Rockefeller Library -- New Items in the John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library's Special Collection