THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A KNOPF, INC Copyright © 1999 by Charles Royster Maps copyright © 1999 by David Lindroth, Inc All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions Published in the United States by Alfred A Knopf, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto Distributed by Random House, Inc., New York www.randomhouse.com Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Royster, Charles The fabulous history of the Dismal Swamp Company: a story of George Washington’s times / by Charles Royster — 1st ed p cm eISBN: 978-0-307-77329-6 Dismal Swamp (N.C and Va.)—History—18th century Washington, George, 1732–1799—Friends and associates Political corruption—Virginia—History—18th century Land speculation—Dismal Swamp (N.C and Va.)—History— 18th century I Title F232.D7R69 975.5′52302—dc21 v3.1 1999 98-42773 To The Company of Players, past and present, of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival CONTENTS Cover Title Page Copyright Dedication PROLOGUE “The Lake of the Dismal Swamp” I THE LAND OF PROMISE II A SCHEME OF GREAT EXPECTATION III THE LAND OF CAKES IV THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE SLAVE SHIP HOPE 1: THE VOYAGERS PART 2: THE PARTNERS PART V THE AGE OF PAPER VI THIS ELDORADO VII TERRAPHOBIA NOTES ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Permissions Acknowledgments About the Author Other Books by This Author PROLOGUE “The Lake of the Dismal Swamp” whose beloved died He lost his mind—so people in Norfolk, Virginia, said in the autumn of 1803 In his ravings the lover denied that she was dead, insisting that she had gone to the Dismal Swamp nearby The young man suddenly disappeared and never returned He became a legend told to newcomers He had gone into the Dismal Swamp in search of his beloved “and had died of hunger, or been lost in some of its dreadful morasses.” Thomas Moore, a promising Irish poet, was twenty-four years old when he heard the legend He spent a few weeks in Norfolk as a guest of the British consul, John Hamilton, awaiting passage to Bermuda Moore followed the reading public’s fancy; tales of apparitions, ghosts, and lovers mad with grief were in fashion Sitting in Colonel Hamilton’s big brick house on Main Street, Moore wrote a forty-line ballad, “The Lake of the Dismal Swamp.” The crazed lover speaks first: THERE ONCE WAS A YOUNG MAN “They made her a grave, too cold and damp For a soul so warm and true; And she’s gone to the Lake of the Dismal Swamp Where, all night long, by a fire-fly lamp, She paddles her white canoe And her fire-fly lamp I soon shall see, And her paddle I soon shall hear; Long and loving our life shall be, And I’ll hide the maid in a cypress tree, When the footstep of death is near.” He enters the swamp and, surrounded by dangers, seeks the lake at its heart Reaching the spot, he calls to his beloved And the dim shore echoed, for many a night, The name of the death-cold maid! He sees on the water the re ection of a meteor and takes it to be his loved one’s light; he rows a boat in the direction it had moved The wind was high and the clouds were dark, And the boat return’d no more But oft, from the Indian hunter’s camp, This lover and maid so true Are seen at the hour of midnight damp To cross the Lake by a fire-fly lamp, And paddle their white canoe! During Moore’s stay in Norfolk, he and the consul rode out to see the swamp and Lake Drummond, named for William Drummond, once a colonial o cial in North Carolina, later hanged in Virginia for treason and rebellion against the Crown’s government there Moore’s ballad used the swamp’s reputation as a weird, ghostly, and threatening morass To him, the swamp was a “dreary wilderness.” He found nature hostile in Virginia A yellow fever epidemic had spread in the previous year Norfolk had been hit by “a tremendous hurricane” during the previous month Moore sailed for Bermuda without regret, taking from Virginia his ballad and a memory of dirty, odorous Norfolk, which, he said, “abounds in dogs, in negroes, and in democrats.” The poet and the consul could ride into the Dismal Swamp more easily as a result of the work of gangs of slaves, who were digging a canal to link the waters of Chesapeake Bay’s tributaries with those of Albemarle Sound Anyone could see that enterprising Virginians no longer feared the swamp Trees were felled in ever greater numbers to provide timber for shipyards, as well as other lumber, staves, and shingles Lake Drummond and the land around it belonged to the Dismal Swamp Company, founded forty years earlier to turn the swamp into farmland In those distant days, when George Washington was a young man, eminent Virginians were fascinated by land, excited by chances to acquire it The previous fty years had taught them that land, combined with the labor of slaves, was wealth To a few men the Dismal Swamp seemed to beckon, inviting them to transform hundreds of square miles into inexhaustible riches The young Irish poet need not have come to Norfolk in 1803 to nd a legend of a dead maiden, her obsessed lover, and their ghostly boat on a mysterious lake The frightfulness of the swamp, even its gloomy name, heightened the impression of the distracted lover’s desperation Still, Moore could have set his ballad almost anywhere The Dismal Swamp gave occasion for stories of conduct far stranger than the legend he heard, but he did not tarry in Virginia long enough to learn the remarkable history of the people possessed by a notion that they would recover what they had lost or nd what they desired in the Dismal Swamp I THE LAND OF PROMISE in the summer of 1803 Her husband feared for her life Too many women died in childbirth; he had lost his rst wife To distract his mind, he began a series of lighthearted, faintly satirical sketches describing Virginia and Virginians Though he came from Maryland, William Wirt tried to make himself an eminent Virginian in law, in politics, and in letters He had joined an informal college of witcrackers whose dean was St George Tucker in Williamsburg His friends wrote verse and essays So would he Wirt called his pieces The Letters of the British Spy, pretending they had been found in a boardinghouse Readers knew Wirt was the author Still, a catchy title and a pose of British condescension toward provincials helped attract notice as these sketches appeared rst in newspapers, then, before the end of the year, in a small book It was published after Elizabeth Wirt gave birth to a girl The spy’s rst letter, written in Richmond, included a short account of how that city at the falls of the James River, capital of the state, had been planned long ago by the man who then owned the site William Byrd served the spy’s purpose as a striking example of unequal ownership of property in Virginia Dead for sixty years, he was a gure of romance from past days of heroic adventure The spy described Byrd’s service in 1728 with commissioners and surveyors running a boundary line between Virginia and North Carolina Not far west of the sea their course lay through the Great Dismal Swamp, “an immense morass” of “black, deep mire, covered with a stupendous forest.” Wirt crammed his paragraph with lurid color: beasts of prey, endless labor, perpetual terror, and, wildest of all, nighttime lled with “the deafening, soul chilling yell” of unnamed hungry animals On such a night, William Byrd received a visit from “Hope, that never failing friend of man.” He planned the city of Richmond, to be erected on land he owned ELIZABETH WIRT WAS PREGNANT Great Dismal Swamp, Albemarle Sound, and Outer Banks Courtesy of the William L Clements Library Drawn by a British Army cartographer during the Revolutionary War The dividing line between Virginia and North Carolina runs through the Dismal Swamp For readers who might wonder how the spy knew all this, Wirt added a footnote citing Byrd’s manuscript account, preserved by his descendants in the family home at Westover Mary Willing Byrd, widow of William Byrd’s son, still practiced, with the help of her daughter and granddaughters, the hospitality of an earlier time A guest was welcome to read a folio volume, bound in vellum, containing the work Byrd had talked of publishing but had continued to revise and rewrite in two versions: History of the Dividing Line betwixt Virginia and North Carolina Run in the Year of Our Lord 1728 and The Secret History of the Line The volume included his accounts of two other expeditions: A Progress to the Mines in the Year 1732 and A Journey to the Land of Eden: Anno 1733 A reader could sit in the parlor on a chair covered in crimson silk damask, lifting his eyes from the page to high, wainscotted walls with portraits in black and gilt frames and to intricate, symmetrical rocaille plasterwork on the ceiling Or a visitor might stay in a guest room and glance from William Byrd’s writings to a painting above the replace, a naked Venus, lying asleep on her right side—the work of Titian, the family said Windows opened onto terraced gardens leading down to the James River, onto the walled garden where the body of William Byrd lay buried, and onto a separate library, which once had held Byrd’s thousands of volumes In hot weather a traveler from the North lay on a sofa by the curiously carved balustrade of the big staircase in the central hall, catching any breeze that blew between the ornate stone pilasters of the north and south doorways Reading the manuscript, he found Byrd to be “a sly joker,” whose work “tickled me in some of my susceptible parts.” The family at Westover also preserved other writings by William Byrd While in England, he had published A Discourse Concerning the Plague, though he had left his name o the title page, putting instead: “By a Lover of Mankind.” This scholarly pamphlet drew upon his wide reading to assemble vivid descriptions of the extent and the physical e ects of the plague since ancient times How could “this dismal distemper” be avoided? He endorsed traditional measures such as temperance, repentance for sins, and abstinence from “immoderate Venery.” But he concluded that those seeking the utmost security ought to surround themselves at all times with tobacco—“this powerful Alexipharmick,” “this great Antipoison.” He told them to carry tobacco in their clothes, hang bundles of it in their rooms and around their beds, burn it in their dining rooms while eating, chew it, smoke it, take it as snu “Tobacco being itself a poison, the e uvia owing from it, do, by a similitude of parts, gather to them the little bodies of the pestilential taint, and intirely correct them.” Virginians escaped the plague because they produced and consumed tobacco The plague had grown rare in England as use of tobacco spread It was, Byrd wrote, “our sovereign antidote.” Thus Virginians o ered a benefit to humanity, or at least to that large portion of mankind who did not get a joke Readers of Byrd’s History of the Dividing Line noticed his suggestion that “a great Sum of Money” be invested to drain the Dismal Swamp and thereby make that land “very Pro table.” Another, smaller manuscript in Byrd’s neat, square handwriting took the form of a petition to the king The unnamed petitioners sought a royal grant of the entire Dismal Swamp and all the unowned land within half a mile of any part of it, more than 900 square miles To the petition Byrd added a description of the swamp and a proposal to drain it and make it fertile, able to yield vast crops of hemp Byrd made it all sound easy Form a new company to nance the project for ten years with a capital of £4,000 Start with ten slaves to dig ditches, fell trees, make boards and shingles, render pine tar, grow rice and corn and hemp, and tend cattle With its own food and salable commodities the undertaking would partly “carry on itself.” As fast as clearing and ditching advanced, buy more slaves, thereby accelerating progress True, the swamp’s “malignant vapours” would kill some slaves, but others would “Breed” and “supply the loss.” Use pro ts from slaves’ labor to defray expenses and purchase still more slaves There could be “no doubt in the world” that, once the original capital had been invested, the Dismal Swamp would have become as good as any soil in Virginia, with at least three hundred slaves at work and “an incredible number” of cattle grazing and multiplying “From all which we may safely conclude,” Byrd wrote, “that each share 95 company’s title not good: Thomas Shepherd to John Jameson, Sept 14, Nov 23, 1798, Dismal Swamp Land Company Records, NcD 96 “bid” … “life”: Thomas Shepherd to William Nelson and John Jameson, Aug 17, 1798, Thomas Shepherd to John Jameson, Sept 14, 1798, ibid 97 “Every … Earth”: Thomas Shepherd to Alexander Macaulay, May 15, 1798, ibid 98 long had been ill: George Braikenridge to Francis Jerdone, March 15, 1799, Jerdone Family Papers, ViW 99 His trustees: Corbin Griffin to Francis Jerdone, Aug 23, 1798, ibid 100 the estate auction: Elizabeth Macaulay to Francis Jerdone, May 6, 1799, ibid 101 his two quarter-shares: Extracts from Minutes, Dec 22, 1798, Anderson-Macaulay Legal Papers, BR Box 50 (1b), CSmH; Charles Young to Thomas Swepson, Sept 5, 1799, Dismal Swamp Land Company Records, NcD 102 “excellent pine”: Thomas Swepson to John Brown, Aug 31, 1798, Dismal Swamp Land Company Records, NcD; Extracts from Minutes, Jan 18, 1809, BR Box 50 (1b), CSmH; Nansemond County Land Book, 1799, Nansemond County Land Tax Lists, Vi 103 “a very” … “incendiaries”: Thomas Shepherd to John Brown, Jan 13, April 11, Aug 17, 1799, John Brown to Thomas Swepson, May 6, 1799, Dismal Swamp Land Company Records, NcD; B Henry Latrobe to Luke Wheeler, Dec 16, 1803, Correspondence of Latrobe, ed Van Horne and Formwalt et al., I, 394 104 from Edward Rushton: Edward Rushton, Expostulatory Letter to George Washington, of Mount Vernon, in Virginia, on His Continuing to Be a Proprietor of Slaves (Liverpool, 1797), 9–11, 13–14, 23–24, 3; Fritz Hirschfeld, George Washington and Slavery: A Documentary Portrayal (Columbia, 1997), 192 105 “To sell” … “afloat”: George Washington to Robert Lewis, Aug 18, 1799, Writings of Washington, ed Fitzpatrick, XXXVII, 338–339 106 “A mind … composure”: George Washington to Jonathan Trumbull, Aug 30, 1799, ibid., 349–350 107 wrote a new will: Ibid., 275–303; Eugene E Prussing, The Estate of George Washington, Deceased (Boston, 1927); Brenda E Stevenson, Life in Black and White: Family and Community in the Slave South (New York, 1996), 209–212; Robert F Dalzell, Jr., and Lee Baldwin Dalzell, George Washington’s Mount Vernon: At Home in Revolutionary America (New York, 1998), 129–149, 212–217 108 “5$ is … land”: “Estimate of Property belonging to the Estate of Genl Geo Washington unsold by the Executors,” Washington Family Letters, ViU 109 Walter Jones: Walter Jones to Thomas Jefferson, Nov 25, 1813, Papers of Thomas Jefferson, DLC 110 “He” … “projects”: Thomas Jefferson to Walter Jones, Jan 2, 1814, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, ed Paul Leicester Ford (New York, 1892–99), IX, 448–449 111 emancipation remained rare: Winthrop D Jordan, White Over Black: American Attitudes Toward the Negro, 1550– 1812 (Chapel Hill, 1968), 347, 353; Tommy L Bogger, “Slave Resistance in Virginia during the Haitian Revolution, 1791–1804,” HIJES, V (April 1978), 86 112 “endeavour” … “unavoidable”: St George Tucker to Jeremy Belknap, June 29, 1795, The Belknap Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society, Collections, 5th ser., II–III (1877), II,406 113 his proposal: St George Tucker, A Dissertation on Slavery; with a Proposal for the Gradual Abolition of It in the State of Virginia (Philadelphia, 1796); St George Tucker to Jeremy Belknap, Nov 27, 1795, Belknap Papers, II, 418–422; Jordan, White Over Black, 558–560; Douglas Egerton, Gabriel’s Rebellion: The Virginia Slave Conspiracies of 1800 and 1802 (Chapel Hill, 1993), 13–15 114 “The calamities … stand”: St George Tucker to Jeremy Belknap, June 29, 1795, Belknap Papers, II, 406 115 “the smallest … argument”: St George Tucker to Jeremy Belknap, Aug 13, 1797, ibid., 427–428; Journal of the House of Delegates of the Commonwealth of Virginia; 1796 (Richmond, 1796), 52; Ludwell Lee to St George Tucker, Dec 5, 1796, Virginia Silhouettes: Contemporary Letters Concerning Negro Slavery in the State of Virginia, comp Mary Haldane Coleman (Richmond, 1934), 4–5; Thomas Jefferson to St George Tucker, Aug 28, 1797, Writings of Jefferson, ed Ford, VII, 167–168 116 A petition: Remonstrance and Petition of the Free Inhabitants of Mecklenburg County, Legislative Petitions, Mecklenburg County, Vi 117 Prosser’s slave Gabriel: James Sidbury, Ploughshares into Swords: Race, Rebellion, and Identity in Gabriel’s Virginia (Cambridge, 1997); Egerton, Gabriel’s Rebellion; Tommy L Bogger, Free Blacks in Norfolk, Virginia: 1790–1860 (Charlottesville, 1997), 26–27; Philip J Schwarz, “The Transportation of Slaves from Virginia, 1801–1865,” SA, VII (Dec 1986), 220–223; Jordan, White Over Black, 393–394 118 “we … property”: Gervas Storrs and Joseph Selden, Communications made … by Solomon, Sept 15, 1800, William P Palmer et al., eds., Calendar of Virginia State Papers (Richmond, 1875–93), IX, 147 119 “The conspiracy … thoughts”: Letter from Richmond, Sept 20, 1800, Felix Farley’s Bristol Journal, Nov 29, 1800 120 “Is … people?”: Chapman Johnson to David Watson, Jan 24, 1802, VMHB, XXIX (July 1921), 280 See also Alexander McCaine to Robert Roberts, Sept 29, 1802, Calendar of the Ezekiel Cooper Collection of Early American Methodist Manuscripts, Garrett Biblical Institute, Evanston, Illinois (Chicago, 1941), 27–28; entry of Jan 13, 1805, “Diary of Hon Jonathan Mason,” Massachusetts Historical Society, Proceedings, 2d ser., II (March 1885), 19 121 “for his” … “other”: William Wirt to Dabney Carr, Dec 30, 1827, William Wirt Letters, Vi; Joseph C Robert, “William Wirt, Virginian,” VMHB, LXXX (Oct 1972),398 122 Bushrod Washington: B Henry Latrobe to Thomas Jefferson, Sept 22, 1798, Correspondence of Latrobe, ed Van Horne and Formwalt et al., I, 96 123 John Page: John Page to Henry Tazewell, [1798], Tazewell Family Papers, Vi; Henry Tazewell to John Page, June 28, 1798, ViRHi; John Page to St George Tucker, Feb 25, 1801, Tucker-Coleman Papers, ViW; John Page to Thomas Jefferson, June 21, 1798, Papers of Thomas Jefferson, DLC; James Roger Sharp, American Politics in the Early Republic: The New Nation in Crisis (New Haven, 1993), 192–193 See also John Marshall, An Autobiographical Sketch by John Marshall, ed John Stokes Adams (Ann Arbor, 1937), 14–27 124 the Buchanan Spring Barbecue Club: George Wythe Munford, The Two Parsons (Richmond, 1884), 327–328 125 William Nelson, Jr.: William Wirt to Elizabeth Wirt, Oct 13, 1804, and Obituary for William Nelson, Jr., in Unpublished Literary Works, William Wirt Papers, MdBHi 126 “The Americans … drink”: “A Journal of the Cruise of the Fleet of His Most Christian Majesty, under the Command of the Count De Grasse-Tilly, in 1781 and 1782,” in [John Dawson Gilmary Shea], ed., The Operations of the French Fleet under the Count De Grasse in 1781–2 (New York, 1864), 87 127 “The Republican … Governments”: John Page to Thomas Jefferson, April 19, 1802, Papers of Thomas Jefferson, DLC 128 in the governor’s house: John Page to St George Tucker, May 21, 1804, Tucker-Coleman Papers, ViW 129 “for … discarded”: William Wirt to Ninian Edwards, Dec 16, 1802, in Ninian W Edwards, History of Illinois, from 1778 to 1833; and Life and Times of Ninian Edwards (Springfield, 1870), 407 130 “a hearty … fellow”: William Wirt to Peachy Gilmer, Aug 9, 1802, Letterbook, Wirt Papers, MdBHi; Robert, “William Wirt,” VMHB, LXXX (Oct 1972), 402–403 131 “gay and extravagant”: Chapman Johnson to David Watson, Dec 19, 1799, VMHB, XXIX (July 1921), 266; William T Barry to brother, Jan 30, 1804, “Letters of William Barry,” WMQ, 1st ser., XIII (Oct 1904), 109–110 132 “Williamsburg … days”: [St George Tucker], A Letter, to the Rev Jedediah Morse, A M (Richmond, 1795), 15n 133 Statue of Lord Botetourt: Henry St George Tucker to St George Tucker, Aug 8, 1801, Tucker-Coleman Papers, ViW; Henry Howe, Historical Collections of Virginia (Charleston, 1856), 326; [George Tucker], Letters from Virginia (Baltimore, 1816), 124–125 134 “Goddess of Dullness”: [Tucker], Letters from Virginia, 122 See also Weld, Travels, I, 61, 166–169; William Hodgson to Samuel Thorp, Oct 4, 1803, William Hodgson Letterbook, Vi; William Prentis to Joseph Prentis, July 26, 1801, Webb-Prentis Papers, ViU 135 “Williams[bur]g … Rouge”: Evelina Skipwith to St George Tucker, May 15, 1811, Tucker-Coleman Papers, ViW 136 moving to Kentucky: William Wirt to Dabney Carr, March 28, June 6, 1803, Wirt Papers, MdBHi; William Wirt to Dabney Carr, Jan 16, 1804, Wirt Letters, Vi; William Wirt to Ninian Edwards, March 2, 1803, Sept 17, 1805, William Wirt to Benjamin Edwards, March 17, 1805, Jan 10, 1806, in Edwards, History of Illinois, 409–410, 413, 420, 457, 465 137 “through … Norfolk”: William Wirt to Benjamin Edwards, March 17, 1805, Jan 10, 1806, in Edwards, History of Illinois, 456, 417–418; William Wirt to Dabney Carr, June 6, 1803, Wirt Papers, MdBHi; Norma Lois Peterson, Littleton Waller Tazewell (Charlottesville, 1983), 27 138 “on Law … general”: William Nelson, Jr., to St George Tucker, Sept 11, 1804, Tucker-Coleman Papers, ViW; William Nelson, Jr., to William Short, Aug 16, 1804, William Short Papers, DLC 139 “that many” … “damages”: Agreement, July 22, 1803, Kilby Family Papers, Vi 140 a British spy: A modern edition is William Wirt, The Letters of the British Spy (Chapel Hill, 1970) 141 “was exceedingly angry”: William Wirt to Dabney Carr, Dec 30, 1827, Wirt Letters, Vi 142 “lives” … “cash”: William Wirt to Ninian Edwards, Sept 17, 1805, in Edwards, History of Illinois, 415 On Wirt’s book, see also Richard Beale Davis, Francis Walker Gilmer: Life and Learning in Jefferson’s Virginia (Richmond, 1939), 270–271, and Davis’s introduction to the 1970 edition of The Letters of the British Spy, vii–xxii 143 “every … cases”: William Wirt to Benjamin Edwards, Jan 10, 1806, in Edwards, History of Illinois, 417 144 a fee of $100: Martha Turberville to Gawin Corbin Turberville, Feb 27, 1806, Papers of Cazenove G Lee, Jr., DeWintM 145 “a most … library”: William Wirt to Benjamin Edwards, Jan 10, 1806, in Edwards, History of Illinois, 417 146 “All … dainties”: George Tucker to St George Tucker, Jan 19, 1806, Tucker-Coleman Papers, ViW 147 the plantation Tuckahoe: Horace Holley to Mary Holley, April 17, 1818, Holley Papers, MiU-C 148 “manners … societies”: Thomas Moore, Epistles, Odes, and Other Poems (London, 1806), 151n 149 wrote periodically to Gist: A file of copies of these letters is among the papers of Anderson’s Heirs &c v Gist’s Exors et al., 1824, USCCVD(EC), Vi 150 more than $7,500: John Wickham to Samuel Gist, June 16, 1803, T 79/115, pp 308–313, Samuel Gist to Thomas Macdonald, Henry Pye Rich, and John Guillemard, Oct 5, 1803, T 79/31, PRO; Samuel Gist v Samuel Shepard and Philip N Nicholas, May 31, 1803, Escheated Estates, Records, Proceedings, Entry 658, Auditor of Public Accounts, Vi 151 filed a memorial: T 79/31, PRO 152 “assiduity and intelligence”: The Parliamentary Debates from the Year 1803 to the Present Time (London, 1812–20), XXVI, 1211 153 rejected almost 80 percent: Bradford Perkins, The First Rapprochement: England and the United States, 1795–1805 (Philadelphia, 1955), 138–143; American Loyalists’ Petition, Jan 22, 1812, Parliamentary Debates, XXI, 281–286 154 William Waller Hening: Reports, Aug 22, 1801, T 79/73, f 306, Reports on the claims of Samuel Gist, T 79/90, pp 153–154, T 79/92, pp 83–84, T 79/94, pp 64–65, PRO 155 “very” … “were”: Mary Pearkes to Thomas Massie, June 17, 1805, Massie Family Papers, ViRHi 156 Leighton Wood, Jr.: Samuel Gist to Thomas Macdonald et al., June 18, 1806, T 79/31, PRO On Wood’s earlier services, see Leighton Wood to St George Tucker, Sept 7, 1787, Tucker-Coleman Papers, ViW 157 “time” … “come”: Samuel Gist to Thomas Macdonald et al., Dec 31, 1806, April 23, 1808, T 79/31, PRO 158 to testify: T 79/31, PRO 159 Gist and the commissioners: Samuel Gist to Thomas Macdonald et al., May 16, July 6, 18, 21, 1808, ibid 160 a report from their agent: Report, Oct 21, 1808, T 79/39, ff 245–247, PRO 161 “it would … you”: Samuel Gist to Thomas Macdonald and John Guillemard, July 31, 1810, T 79/31, PRO Henry Pye Rich died on July 18, 1809 See John Preston Neale and John Le Keux, Views of the Most Interesting Collegiate and Parochial Churches in Great Britain (London, 1824), I, St Albans, Hertfordshire, 162 the commission awarded: Katharine A Kellock, “London Merchants and the Pre-1776 American Debts,” Guildhall Studies in London History, I (Oct 1974),125 163 Mary Byrd Farley: Robert Colin McLean, George Tucker: Moral Philosopher and Man of Letters (Chapel Hill, 1961), 9; George Tucker to St George Tucker, May 8, 1797, Tucker-Coleman Papers, ViW; Thomas Lee Shippen to Alice Lee Shippen, April 20, 1797, Shippen Family Papers, DLC 164 had begun a suit: Salisbury District Superior Court, Equity Minute Docket, 1788–1798, p 177, DSCR.207.314.3, NcAr See also James Taylor, Affidavit, Sept 28, 1797, and Summons to George Tucker and Mary Tucker, Sept 19, 1796, in Rowan County, Estates Records—Farley, Francis, 1796, Nc-Ar 165 supervise a division: A copy of the report on division of the Saura Town tract, Feb 2, 1798, is in the Richard Corbin Papers, ViWC 166 The Corbins: Accounts of William Shermer and William Sisson, Corbin Family Ledger, Vi 167 a deed of trust: March 27, 1799, in Davidson County, Estates Records—Henry, Patrick, and Francis and Simon Farley, 1803–1822, Nc-Ar 168 Henry Benskin Lightfoot: Henry Benskin Lightfoot to George Tucker, July 21–24, Nov 27, 1799, Dinwiddie, Crawford & Co v Henry Skipwith and Elizabeth Hill Skipwith et al., 1819, USCCVD(EC), Vi 169 “I … ever”: George Tucker to St George Tucker, Oct 23, 1799, Tucker-Coleman Papers, ViW 170 for £20,000: John Browne Cutting to Richard Corbin, Oct 25, 1800, Corbin Papers, ViWC; Account of Henry B Lightfoot, Corbin Family Ledger, Vi 171 “fair” … “sobriety”: George Tucker to St George Tucker, Feb 24, 1801, Tucker-Coleman Papers, ViW 172 for £500 currency: McLean, George Tucker, 15; Commissioner’s Report, Oct 1804, Dinwiddie, Crawford & Co v Henry Skipwith and Elizabeth Hill Skipwith et al., 1819, USCCVD(EC), Vi 173 “a numerous” … “resort”: Joshua Francis Fisher, Recollections of Joshua Francis Fisher, ed Sophia Cadwalader (Boston, 1929), 271–273 174 using “flirtations”: Entry of Oct 2, 1815, The Diary of Harriet Manigault, 1813–1816, ed Virginia Armentrout and James S Armentrout, Jr (Rockland, 1976), 118 175 “fine … manners”: Fisher, Recollections, ed Cadwalader, 271–273 176 forcing Izard to choose: George Izard, “Memoirs of General George Izard, 1825,” ed Charlton de Saussure, Jr., SCHM, LXXVIII (Jan 1977), 47–50; entry of June 23, 1802, Philadelphia Merchant: The Diary of Thomas P Cope, 1800– 1851, ed Eliza Cope Harrison (South Bend, 1978), 127 177 “which … June”: Izard, “Memoirs,” ed de Saussure, SCHM, LXXVIII (Jan 1977), 54 178 “that … husband”: Entry of Dec 7, 1804, “Diary of Mason,” Massachusetts Historical Society, Proceedings, 2d ser., II (March 1885), 13; Fisher, Recollections, ed Cadwalader,271 179 at Farley: Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, Under Their Vine and Fig Tree: Travels Through America in 1797–1799, 1805, trans Metchie J E Budka (Elizabeth, 1965), 289–290 See also Manigault, Diary, ed Armentrout and Armentrout 180 Henry in his will: Morgan, True Patrick Henry, 457–459 181 “I think … law”: July 27, 1801, Note by Dorothea Henry on Henry Lee to Dorothea Henry, Oct 16, [1800?], Stan V Henkels Catalogue No 1021 (Dec 1910), Item 377 182 “concluded … him!”: Judge Spencer Roane’s Memorandum, in Morgan, True Patrick Henry, 452–453 183 “The Question … Reimbursement?”: George Izard to John Wickham, Jan 12, 1807, Dinwiddie, Crawford & Co v Henry Skipwith and Elizabeth Hill Skipwith et al., 1819, USCCVD(EC), Vi 184 the Virginia Resolution: Journal of the House of Delegates of the Commonwealth of Virginia [1799, December Session] (Richmond, 1799 [1800]), 72 For an earlier vote, see Journal of the House of Delegates of the Commonwealth of Virginia [1798, December Session] (Richmond, 1798 [1799]), 33 185 “the patrons … quarter”: James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, April 27, 1800, The Republic of Letters: The Correspondence Between Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, 1776–1826, ed James Morton Smith (New York, 1995), II, 1134 186 “A … Walker”: John Brown’s marginal note on William Nelson, Jr., to John Brown, Oct 9, 1800, Dismal Swamp Land Company Records, NcD 187 a new board of managers: Minutes, Jan 9, 1801, ibid 188 “extensive … reflection”: [William Wirt], “Obituary of Mrs Jane B Walker,” Literary Papers, Wirt Papers, MdBHi 189 “the affairs … loosely”: James Henderson to Benjamin Oliver, Jr., May 25, 1809, BR Box 52(14), CSmH 190 the Dismal Swamp canal: Report of Presidents and Directors, in Thomas Newton, Jr., to John Page, Nov 16, 1804, Executive Papers, Gov John Page, Vi 191 Francis Walker’s death: William Wirt to Elizabeth Wirt, April 5, 9, 1806, Wirt Papers, MdBHi 192 brought severe drought: Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, Aug 25, 1805, Republic of Letters, ed Smith, III, 1381 193 “the great … 1806”: Norfolk Gazette and Publick Ledger, May 5, 1806; Charles William Janson, The Stranger in America, 1793–1806, ed Carl S Driver (New York, 1935), 339; William Wirt to Benjamin Edwards, May 6, 1806, Wirt Papers, MdBHi; Ebenezer Pettigrew to James Iredell, Jr., April 18, 1806, The Pettigrew Papers, ed Sarah McCulloh Lemmon (Raleigh, 1971–), I, 384–385; Edmund Ruffn, “Observations Made during an Excursion to the Dismal Swamp,” Farmer’s Register, IV (Jan 1, 1837), 519–520 194 rain began to fall: William Wirt to Elizabeth Wirt, May 15, 1806, Wirt Papers, MdBHi 195 “I … Rosewell”: Mary Willing Byrd to Abigail De Hart Mayo, Jan 5, 1806, ViRHi 196 “Poor … support”: Lelia Tucker to Frances Coalter, [Jan 1806], Brown-Coalter-Tucker Papers, ViW 197 $500 in a year: Margaret Page to St George Tucker, Oct 16, 1809, Tucker-Coleman Papers, ViW 198 a strong Christian faith: John Page to St George Tucker, June 29, 1806, ibid On Wythe, see Julian P Boyd, The Murder of George Wythe (Philadelphia, 1949); Imogene E Brown, American Aristides: A Biography of George Wythe (Rutherford, 1981), chap 16; Munford, Two Parsons, chap 28 199 “Rosewell … it!”: John Page to Thomas Jefferson, Sept 13–17, 1808, Papers of Thomas Jefferson, DLC 200 “I” … “unhappy”: Ibid.; Margaret Page to St George Tucker, May 30, 1808, Tucker-Coleman Papers, ViW 201 Page’s memories: John Page, Memoir, Virginia Historical Register, III (July 1850), 142–151 On Sir Gregory Page, Bart., see George Edward Cokayne, ed., Complete Baronetage (Exeter, 1900–06), V, 24, 77–78 On John Page’s career, see T B McCord, Jr., “John Page of Rosewell: Reason, Religion, and Republican Government from the Perspective of a Virginia Planter, 1743–1808” (Ph.D diss., American University, 1990) 202 “To clear … Object”: Margaret Page to St George Tucker, Jan 8, 1809, Tucker-Coleman Papers, ViW 203 “I know … Future”: Margaret Page to St George Tucker, March 22, 1817, ibid 204 the big brick mansion: Bennie Brown, Jr., “Rosewell: An Architectural Study of an Eighteenth Century Virginia Plantation” (M.A thesis, University of Georgia, 1973), 11–13 205 “two” … “have”: Robert Morris to Henry Lee, Aug 27, 1801, ViRHi 206 “You … granted”: John Wickham to Henry Lee, Dec 28, 1799, Henry Lee v Hanbury’s Exor, 1804, USCCVD(EC), Vi 207 “he … insolvent”: Jonas Clapham to John Lloyd, July 19, 1804, T 79/38, PRO 208 “the situation … land”: Alexander Moore to Henry Lee, March 14, 1798, Charles Campbell Papers, ViW 209 “as all … so”: Charles Blackburn to William A Washington, April 30, 1805, Tracy W McGregor Collection, ViU 210 from William Hodgson: William Hodgson to Richard Bland Lee, May 7, 1805, Hodgson Letterbook, Vi 211 “I … Fairfax”: Nathaniel Pendleton to George Deneale, July 18, 1805, George Deneale Papers, ViRHi 212 “I … jail”: Henry Lee to James Breckinridge, March 4, 1809, James Breckinridge Papers, ibid 213 was willing to return: Bushrod Washington and Lawrence Lewis to William A Washington, May 13, 1809, Washington Family Collection, Box 3, DLC 214 “right … interest”: Prussing, Estate of George Washington, 282 215 “the Body … Lee”: Thomas Hicks, Receipt, May 13, 1809, N Pendleton v Henry Lee, 1811, USCCVD(EC), Vi 216 “prison bounds”: Peter J Coleman, Debtors and Creditors in America: Insolvency, Imprisonment for Debt, and Bankruptcy, 1607–1900 (Madison, 1974), 203–205 217 “The fame … desolate”: George Washington Parke Custis, Recollections and Private Memoirs of Washington, ed Benson J Lossing (New York, 1860), 363 218 a list of his holdings: Henry Lee’s Schedule quoted in John James Chew to William Selden, Aug 8, 1835, BR Box 5, CSmH 219 Thomas Newton, Jr.: Thomas Newton, Jr., to James Monroe, Sept 27, 1802, Executive Papers, Gov James Monroe, Vi; Thomas Newton, Jr., to John Page, Sept 27, 1804, Palmer et al., eds., Calendar of Virginia State Papers, IX, 418 See also Report of the Dismal Swamp Canal Company, in Thomas Newton, Jr., to John Page, Nov 16, 1804, Executive Papers, Gov John Page, Vi 220 Workers in the swamp: Ruffin, “Observations,” Farmer’s Register, IV (Jan 1, 1837), 518; Frederick Law Olmsted, A Journey in the Seaboard Slave States (New York, 1856), 151–156; Jack Temple Kirby, Poquosin: A Study of Rural Landscape and Society (Chapel Hill, 1995), 154–161 Compare William Dusinberre, Them Dark Days: Slavery in the American Rice Swamps (New York, 1996) 221 “The Negroes … sold”: Summary of minutes, Dismal Swamp Land Company Records, NcD 222 they made 1,285,900: James Henderson to Benjamin Oliver, Jr., May 25, 1809, BR Box 52(14), CSmH 223 “it is” … “valuable”: A copy of Nelson’s will is in the Dismal Swamp Land Company Records, NcD 224 “should … refusal”: Charles C Page to James Henderson, March 7, 1813, ibid 225 Nelson, Jr., almost missed: St George Tucker to Joseph C Cabell, March 13, 1810, Bryan Family Papers, ViU; William Nelson, Jr., to St George Tucker, April 12, 1810, Tucker-Coleman Papers, ViW 226 “direct” … “indecision”: James Henderson to Benjamin Oliver, Jr., May 25, 1809, June 18, 1811, BR Box 52(14), CSmH 227 paid steady dividends: Estate of George Washington, Executors’ Accounts, Washington Family Collection, DLC 228 “The handsome … committed”: Bushrod Washington to James Henderson, Feb 20, 1811, Bushrod Washington Papers, NcD See also Minutes of Meeting, May 2, 1811, Anderson-Macaulay Legal Papers, BR Box 50, CSmH; Thomas Swepson to Benjamin Oliver, Jr., March 26, 1811, Benjamin Brand Papers, ViRHi 229 “Among … Interest” and report: James Henderson to Benjamin Oliver, Jr., June 18, 1811, BR Box 52(14), CSmH 230 “Our … getting”: Robert Douthat to Bushrod Washington, Aug 13, 1824, Washington Family Letters, ViU 231 death of Nelson: Lelia Tucker to William Short, April 13, 1813, William Short Papers, DLC; St George Tucker to Joseph C Cabell, Feb 8, Mar 13, 1813, Bryan Family Papers, ViU 232 obituary: March 23, 1813 233 Anne Byrd: Biographical Sketch of Mary Willing Byrd, BR Box 274(57), CSmH 234 “the deepest dejection”: William Wirt to Elizabeth Wirt, Nov 4, 1813, Wirt Papers, MdBHi 235 “poor … beggars!”: William Wirt to Elizabeth Wirt, Nov 18, 1813, ibid 236 “if 100 … bubble”: William Wirt to Dabney Carr, Jan 15, 1814, Wirt Letters, Vi 237 the first vessel: Alexander Crosby Brown, “The Dismal Swamp Canal,” AN, V (1945), 212–215 238 “chain-gangs” … “devil”: Louise E Catlin, “A Day in the Great Dismal Swamp,” Magazine of History, II (Nov 1905), 341, 343 See also Richard Blow to Samuel Proctor, Jan 21, 1806, Richard Blow Letterbook, ViRHi; Fillmore Norfleet, Suffolk in Virginia (n.p., 1974), 117 239 “brought … unsuspected”: Ruffin, “Observations,” Farmer’s Register, IV (Jan 1, 1837), 517–518; Joseph Martin, A New and Comprehensive Gazetteer of Virginia, and the District of Columbia (Charlottesville, 1835), 41, 237–238 240 Dismal Plantation lay unused: Lease, Oct 11, 1813, Dismal Swamp Land Company Records, NcD 241 for the Dismal Swamp Land Company: Journal of the House of Delegates of the Commonwealth of Virginia (1814, October Session) (Richmond, [1814]), 104, 108, 120, 124,129 242 an average annual dividend: Estate of George Washington, Executors’ Accounts, Washington Family Collection, DLC; Fielding Lewis Accounts, Douthat Family Papers, ViRHi 243 Lake Drummond Hotel: Jesse F Pugh and Frank T Williams, The Hotel in the Great Dismal Swamp (Old Trap, 1964), 14–21 244 the dividend in 1810: John Bracken to Thomas Jefferson, Aug 13, 1811, in “Charles Bellini, First Professor of Modern Languages in an American College,” WMQ, 2d ser., V (Jan 1925), 16 245 “sought … property”: Gentleman’s Magazine, LXXXV, Part I (Feb 1815), 182 246 Josiah Sellick: William Matthews, Matthews’s New Bristol Directory, for the Year 1793–4 (Bristol, [1793]), 73 247 Gist bequeathed: For Gist’s will and for the disposition of Gist’s estate, see the documents in C 117/335, PRO For the codicils, see the copy of Gist’s will in Hanover County Legislative Petitions, 1815, Vi On the East India Company, see also Huw V Bowen, “The East India Company and Military Recruitment in Britain, 1763–1771,” reprinted in Pierre Emmer and Femme Gaastra, eds., The Organization of Interoceanic Expansion, 1450–1800 (Aldershot, 1996), chap 16; P J Marshall, East Indian Fortunes: The British in Bengal in the Eighteenth Century (Oxford, 1976), chap For Josiah Sellick’s change of name, see W P W Phillimore and Edward Alexander Fry, comps., An Index to Changes of Name Under Authority of Act of Parliament or Royal Licence (London, 1905), 128 248 at Queen Elizabeth’s Hospital: John Latimer, The Annals of Bristol in the Nineteenth Century (Bristol, 1887), 61–62; F H Towill, “Bristol Charities, Past and Present,” in C M MacInnes and W F Whittand, eds., Bristol and Its Adjoining Counties (Bristol, 1955), 299 249 received £500 per year: Petition by Martin Pearkes, Mary Pearkes, William Fowke, and Elizabeth Fowke, Hanover County Legislative Petitions, 1815, Vi 250 after 1806 Virginia law: Benjamin Joseph Klebaner, “American Manumission Laws and the Responsibility for Supporting Slaves,” VMHB, LXIII (Oct 1955), 448–449; Robert McColley, Slavery and Jeffersonian Virginia, 2d ed (Urbana, 1973), chap 251 freeing slaves: Chap CXXIX, Acts Passed at a General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia [1815–1816] (Richmond, 1816), 240–243 252 These three quarter-shares: Account of William F Wickham with the Estate of Samuel Gist, Wickham Family Papers, ViRHi 253 more than $17,000: Anderson’s Heirs &c v Gist’s Exor et al., 1824, Jos Smith’s Admr et al v Gist’s Exor et al., 1825, USCCVD(EC), Vi For other documents on this litigation, see Wickham Family Papers and John Minor to Dabney Minor, March 6, 1811, John Minor Letterbook, ViRHi 254 Gist’s freed former slaves: Michael Trotti, “Freedom and Enslaved Soil: A Case Study of Manumission, Migration, and Land,” VMHB, CIV (1996), 455–480 See also William Buckner McGroarty, “Exploration in Mass Emancipation,” WMQ, 2d ser., XXI (July 1941), 208–226 255 visited the church: Glynne, Gloucestershire Church Notes, ed Phillimore and Hall, 112–113; Verey, Buildings of England: Gloucestershire, II, 2d ed., 412–413 256 “Sacred … Years”: Bigland, Historical Collections of Gloucester, ed Frith, IV, 1517–1518 257 arms of the House of Gist: F Were, “Heraldry,” Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, Transactions, XXV (1902), 208, XXVIII (1905), 264, 396–397 See also Return of Owners of Land, 1873 (London, 1875), I, Gloucester, 19, II, Oxford, 9; G E Mingay, English Landed Society in the Eighteenth Century (London, 1963); Nicholas Rogers, “Money, Land and Lineage: The Big Bourgeoisie of Hanoverian London,” Social History, IV (1979), 437–454; Roy Porter, English Society in the Eighteenth Century (Harmondsworth, 1982), 72–93; F M L Thompson, “Life After Death: How Successful Nineteenth-Century Businessmen Disposed of Their Fortunes,” EcHR, 2d ser., XLIII (Feb 1990), 40–61; Hancock, Citizens of the World 258 “whose” … “Philadelphia”: David Meade to Anne Randolph, [1800], William Bolling Papers, NcD; Robert Morris to [?], July 20, 1798, Stan V Henkels Catalogue No 1042 (Nov 1911), Item 251; Charles Willing Byrd to Timothy Pickering, Mar 30, 1800, Clarence Edwin Carter et al., eds., The Territorial Papers of the United States (Washington, 1934–75) , III 81 259 Arthur St Clair: Charles Willing Byrd to Thomas Jefferson, May 27, Oct 15, 1802, Carter et al., eds., Territorial Papers, III, 226–227, 251–253; Charles Willing Byrd to Nathaniel Massie, Sept 24, Nov 26, 1800, May 20, 1802, in David Meade Massie, Nathaniel Massie: A Pioneer of Ohio (Cincinnati, 1896), 163–165, 205–206; Jonathan J Bean, “Marketing ‘the great American commodity’: Nathaniel Massie and Land Speculation on the Ohio Frontier, 1783– 1813,” Ohio History, CIII (1994), 164–165; Donald J Ratcliffe, Party Spirit in a Frontier Republic: Democratic Politics in Ohio, 1793–1821 (Columbus, 1998), 39–43 260 Byrd and family: Stephen J Stein, ed., Letters from a Young Shaker: William S Byrd at Pleasant Hill (Lexington, 1985), 1–46; Nelson W Evans, “Charles Willing Byrd,” Old Northwest Genealogical Quarterly, XI (Jan 1908), 1–8; Nelson W Evans and Emmons B Stivers, A History of Adams County, Ohio (West Union, 1900), 526–532; W H Burtner, “Charles Willing Byrd,” Ohio Archaeological and Historical Publications, XLI (1925), 237–240 261 at Chaumière des Prairies: Henry J Peet, ed., Chaumiere Papers, Containing Matters of Interest to the Descendants of David Meade (Chicago, 1883), 53–57; Horace Holley to Mary Holley, May 27, 1818, Holley Papers, MiU-C; [Terhune], More Colonial Homesteads, 77–78; Oppel, “Paradise Lost,” FCHQ, LVI (April 1982), 206; Kornwolf, “David Meade,” Journal of Garden History, XVI (1996), 254–274 Compare the description of Sturton Park in entry of April 20, 1779, Journal of Peter Van Schaack, in Henry C Van Schaack, The Life of Peter Van Schaack (New York, 1842), 139–141 262 “the son” … “County”: David Meade to Joseph Prentis, Jr., Sept 26, 1826, Webb-Prentis Papers, ViU; Stephen J Stein, “The Conversion of Charles Willing Byrd to Shakerism,” FCHQ, LVI (Oct 1982), 395–414 See also Powel T Byrd to Evelyn T Byrd, June 14, 1830, R Baylor Hickman Collection, KyLoF; Peet, ed., Chaumiere Papers, 79 263 “my dismal … been”: William S Byrd to Charles Willing Byrd, June 22, 1826, and William S Byrd, Will, Nov 4, 1828, Letters from a Young Shaker, ed Stein, 51–52, 125–126 On Pleasant Hill, see also Earl Gregg Swem, ed., Letters on the Condition of Kentucky in 1825 (New York, 1916), 56–67; Clay Lancaster, Antebellum Architecture of Kentucky (Lexington, 1991), 88–99 264 moved to Richmond: Anya Jabour, Marriage in the Early Republic: Elizabeth and William Wirt and the Companionate Ideal (Baltimore, 1998), chaps 1–3 265 “in 1762 … later”: Thomas Jefferson, Memorandum, in Thomas Jefferson to William Wirt, April 12, 1812, Writings of Jefferson, ed Ford, IX, 339; William Wirt, Sketches of the Life and Character of Patrick Henry (Philadelphia, 1817), xi–xii; William Wirt to Peachey Gilmer, n.d [1806?], Wirt Papers, MdBHi 266 “business … truth”: William Wirt to Dabney Carr, Aug 20, 1815, Wirt Letters, Vi 267 “these crude sketches”: Wirt, Henry, xiv 268 “a discourse … morals”: William Wirt to Thomas Jefferson, Jan 18, 1810, Papers of Thomas Jefferson, DLC 269 “you … etc.”: William Wirt to Ninian Edwards, Nov 26, 1808, Edwards, History of Illinois, 436 270 “Were … pigmies”: [William Wirt et al.], The Old Bachelor (Richmond, 1814), 138, 141–142 271 In Williamsburg: Wirt, Henry, 39 272 “in easy … colony”: Ibid., 273 “It … proceeded”: William Wirt to Francis Gilmer, Letter I, n.d., William Wirt and Elizabeth Washington (Gamble) Wirt Papers, NcD 274 was Thomas Jefferson: Thomas Jefferson to William Wirt, Aug 5, 1815, Writings of Jefferson, ed Ford, IX, 473–474 275 “the descendants … aristocracy”: William Wirt to Thomas Jefferson, Oct 23, 1816, Papers of Thomas Jefferson, DLC 276 “the old … principles”: Jefferson, Memorandum, Writings of Jefferson, ed Ford, IX, 340–341 See also Jack P Greene, “Society, Ideology, and Politics: An Analysis of the Political Culture of Mid-Eighteenth-Century Virginia,” in Richard M Jellison, ed., Society, Freedom, and Conscience: The American Revolution in Virginia, Massachusetts, and New York (New York, 1976), 14–76; Thad W Tate, “The Coming of the Revolution in Virginia: Britain’s Challenge to Virginia’s Ruling Class, 1763–1776,” WMQ, 3d ser., XIX (July 1962), 323–343 277 “the spirit” … “birth”: Thomas Jefferson to William Wirt, Aug 14, 1814, Papers of Thomas Jefferson, DLC 278 “genuine” … “Aristocrat”: Francis Lightfoot Lee to Ludwell Lee, Nov 23, 1796, The Rosenbach Company, The History of America in Documents: Part Two (Philadelphia, 1950), Item 227 For Jefferson on aristocracy, see Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, Oct 28, 1813, Lester J Cappon, ed., The Adams-Jefferson Letters (Chapel Hill, 1959), II, 387–392 279 Spencer Roane: Roane, Memorandum, in Morgan, True Patrick Henry, 442, 450, 452–453 See also Spencer Roane to Philip Aylett, June 26, 1788, Emmet Collection, NN 280 “aberrations” … “imitation”: William Wirt to Thomas Jefferson, Oct 23, 1816, Papers of Thomas Jefferson, DLC On Wirt’s book, see also Maxwell Bloomfield, American Lawyers in a Changing Society, 1776–1876 (Cambridge, 1976), 173–176; Robert P Sutton, “Nostalgia, Pessimism, and Malaise: The Doomed Aristocrat in Late-Jeffersonian Virginia,” VMHB, LXXVI (Jan 1968), 41–55; William R Taylor, Cavalier and Yankee: The Old South and American National Character (New York, 1969 [orig publ 1961]), 78–89 281 “it is … work”: Notes of Mr Jefferson’s Conversation 1824 at Monticello, 1825, The Papers of Daniel Webster: Correspondence, ed Charles M Wiltse et al (Hanover, 1974–86), I, 373 282 “I have … fustian”: John Randolph of Roanoke to Francis Scott Key, Feb 9, 1818, in Hugh A Garland, The Life of John Randolph of Roanoke (New York, 1851), II,96 283 Spencer Roane: Spencer Roane to William Wirt, 1816, Wirt Papers, NcU 284 The public attention: John P Kennedy, Memoirs of the Life of William Wirt, rev ed (Philadelphia, 1856), II, chap 285 “Who” … “friend”: St George Tucker to William Wirt, April 14, 1813, Wirt Papers, MdBHi 286 Gothic novels: Ian Duncan, Modern Romance and Transformations of the Novel: The Gothic, Scott, Dickens (Cambridge, 1992), chap 1; Paul Ranger, “Terror and Pity reign in every Breast”: Gothic Drama in the London Patent Theatres, 1750–1820 (London, 1991) 287 “on … grave”: William Byrd, Will, July 6, 1774, VMHB, IX (July 1901), 88 288 “there … meditate”: Curtis Carroll Davis, The King’s Chevalier: A Biography of Lewis Littlepage (Indianapolis, 1961), 21 See also Constance Cary Harrison, “Colonel William Byrd of Westover, Virginia,” Century Magazine, XLII (June 1891), 171 289 “I have … Spy”: William Wirt to Elizabeth Wirt, Nov 8, 1803, Wirt Papers, MdBHi See also [Samuel Jackson] Pratt, Gleanings in England (London, 1801), I, 251–255 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I owe many debts of gratitude to those who helped me with this book I can acknowledge these obligations, though I remain in debt I thank the archivists of the libraries mentioned in the Notes, both for their assistance and for permission to quote from manuscripts in their keeping I am especially grateful to George Stevenson of the North Carolina Archives and to Susan Berg and her colleagues in the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Library For the privilege of time spent at the Henry E Huntington Library I thank Robert C Ritchie, and I salute all the Huntington regulars, whose names and kindnesses have grown too numerous to list Louisiana State University generously supported my research and writing I have had the bene t of readings and suggestions by James Boyden, William J Cooper, Jr., Michael Edwards, Gaines Foster, John Kushma, Burl Noggle, Lewis P Simpson, Frank S Smith, Victor Stater, Thad Tate, and Paul Zall Jill Ker Conway gave me a piece of valuable advice not long after I started work Early in my research, Dan Frost helped me gather material I owe many thanks to Peggy Seale, who went through these pages repeatedly My colleague Stanley Hilton helped me read documents and scholarship published in Portuguese David Barry Gaspar shared valuable sources with me To no one I owe more gratitude than to Paul Pasko in his capacities as friend, chief, and historian Jane Garrett, exemplary editor, befriended the project from the start I dedicate this book to a company which has paid incalculably large dividends since I first invested in it, buying a ticket to A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 1955 PERMISSIONS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Special thanks go to the following for permission to reprint material from their collections: Department of Manuscripts, The British Library, London; William L Clements Library, Ann Arbor, Michigan; Special Collections, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Library, Williamsburg, Virginia; Archive Service, Cumbria Record O ce, Kendal; Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina; Jesse Ball duPont Memorial Library, Stratford, Virginia; Special Collections, Edinburgh University Library, Edinburgh; The Filson Club Historical Society, Louisville, Kentucky; Henry E Huntington Library, San Marino, California; Liverpool Record O ce, Liverpool Central Library, Liverpool; Maryland Historical Society Library, Baltimore; James Monroe Museum and Memorial Library, Fredericksburg, Virginia; Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney; New-York Historical Society, New York, New York; Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Department of Manuscripts & Special Collections, Hallward Library, University of Nottingham, Nottingham; Public Record O ce, Kew; Manuscripts Division, National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh; Scottish Record O ce, The National Archives of Scotland, Edinburgh; Special Collections Centre, Toronto Reference Library, Toronto, Ontario; Virginia Historical Society, Richmond; Special Collections, Alderman Library, University of Virginia, Charlottesville; Manuscripts and Rare Book Department, Earl Gregg Swem Library, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia; State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison CHARLES ROYSTER Charles Royster is Boyd Professor at Louisiana State University He lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana Books by Charles Royster The Fabulous History of the Dismal Swamp Company: A Story of George Washington’s Times A Revolutionary People at War: The Continental Army and American Character, 1775–1783 The Destructive War: William Tecumseh Sherman, Stonewall Jackson, and the Americans Light-Horse Harry Lee and the Legacy of the American Revolution ... Cataloging-in-Publication Data Royster, Charles The fabulous history of the Dismal Swamp Company: a story of George Washington’s times / by Charles Royster — 1st ed p cm eISBN: 978-0-307-77329-6 Dismal Swamp (N.C... Our Lord 1728 and The Secret History of the Line The volume included his accounts of two other expeditions: A Progress to the Mines in the Year 1732 and A Journey to the Land of Eden: Anno 1733... of their old campsites along the dividing line They found a beech tree in the bark of which North Carolina’s commissioners had carved their names Byrd worked on the bark “to add to their Names