Through Different Eyes: Biographies of Eighteenth-Century Residents

Department of Education Outreach

Table of Contents Residents of Eighteenth-Century Williamsburg

James Anderson ...... 2 William Ashborne...... 7 Catharine Blaikley ...... 10 Lydia Broadnax...... 18 Margaret Brodie ...... 23 Christiana Campbell...... 26 Frances Tasker Carter ...... 33 Jane Hunter Charlton ...... 37 Alexander Craig ...... 43 Martha Cripps ...... 48 Elkanah Deane ...... 52 Dennis ...... 58 Edmund Dickinson...... 64 Eve ...... 70 Gaby ...... 78 John Minson Galt...... 83 James Geddy...... 89 John Greenhow ...... 94 Thomas Gwatkin...... 100 Anthony Hay ...... 106 Thomas Hobday ...... 112 Matthew Hubard ...... 116 William Hunter ...... 121 Richard Joliffe...... 128 Judith...... 132 John Nettles...... 136 Gowan Pamphlet ...... 139 George Pitt ...... 144 Benjamin Powell...... 148 Elizabeth Randolph...... 154 John Randolph ...... 166 Catherine Rathell ...... 172 Clementina Rind ...... 177 John Rollinson ...... 185 Adam Waterford ...... 191

James Anderson

James Anderson was a successful blacksmith. He served as public armourer for the colony of Virginia and later for the Commonwealth of Virginia (both before and after independence was declared). He advertised in the Virginia Gazette to gain apprentices, and later offered their wares for sale. He was married to Hannah Tyler of Essex County and they had 8 children. He died in 1798 and is buried in Bruton Parish churchyard.

Name: Birth Date: Birth Place: Death Date: Death Place: Parents:

Siblings:

Education: Spouse(s):

Children:

Occupation:

James Anderson

January 24, 1739/40

Abingdon Parish, Gloucester, Virginia

September 1798

Williamsburg, Virginia (Buried in Bruton Parish churchyard)

William Anderson Sarah Pate Anderson

Anne (born December 26, 1737/8) Sarah (November 23, 1741–June 1, 1824) William (b. November 18, 1743) Matthew (October 6, 1745–November 1803) Mary (March 5, 1747/8–December 10, 1822) Rachel (July 9, 1756–December 6, 1825)

Anderson could read and write. He may have been apprenticed to his uncle, Thomas Pate, a Williamsburg blacksmith.

Hannah Tyler of Essex County, Virginia (December 25, 1740–January 12, 1803) married February 8, 1766, Prince George County, Virginia

William (January 2, 1767–September 1802) John Tyler (September 7, 1768–January 12, 1803 [or 5]) Leroy (December 6, 1770–November 21, 1837) Ann (Nancy) (October 24, 1772–d. after 1840) James (October 8, 1774–June 15, 1805) Julia (b. March 9, 1777) Henry (March 29, 1779–d. after 1840) Robert (October 22, 1781–1859)

Blacksmith (1762–1798) Merchant ? (1770–1773)

James Anderson

Office(s) Held:

Political Affiliation: Residence(s):

Miscellaneous:

Sources:

Bibliography:

Public Armourer, colony of Virginia (1765–1776) Petit Juror, York County, Virginia (1770, 1771, 1772) Public Armourer, Commonwealth of Virginia (1776–1782) Captain, Company of Artificers (1780–1782)

patriot

Abingdon Parish, Gloucester, Virginia (1740–1762?) Williamsburg, Virginia (1762–1767) Williamsburg, Virginia (June 1767–October 1770), southern half Lot 19

Williamsburg, Virginia (October 1770–1780?) Lot 18 Richmond, Virginia (1780?–1783), Ward 4 Williamsburg, Virginia (1783–1798), Lot 18

According to court records and government records, the households of James Anderson both in Williamsburg and Richmond included a number of apprentices and slaves.

Family Record Book of James Anderson Abingdon Parish, Gloucester County, Virginia James City County (Virginia) Sheriff Book Robert Carter account book Robert Anderson Papers Virginia Gazette & General Advertiser York County (Virginia) records

Gill, Harold B. The Blacksmith in Colonial Virginia. Williamsburg, Virginia: the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1965.

Hole, Donna C. Forge Construction in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. Williamsburg, Virginia: the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1981.

Stephenson, Mary A. James Anderson Blacksmith Shop Historical Report. Williamsburg, Virginia: the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1961.

Watson, Aldren A. The Village Blacksmith. New York: Crowell, 1968.

Weygers, Alexander G. The Making of Tools. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1973.

For more information:

James Anderson

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James Anderson House James Anderson Blacksmith Shop

The Magazine

James Anderson

James Anderson LETTER FROM GOVERNOR PATRICK HENRY TO RICHARD HENRY LEE

Saturday the 21st of March 1777. Mr. James Anderson this day agreed to do Blacksmith’s work for the Commonwealth of

Virginia at his shop in Williamsburg on the following terms for six months, and for a longer time unless he shall give the Board one month’s notice of his intention to decline the Business, or they shall give him the same notice of their intention to discontinue him via Mr. Anderson is to be allowed fifteen shillings per day for his own wages including Sundays, for the rent of his shop, six setts of Tools and eight Vices for the Gunsmiths Business at the rate of ninety pounds per annum, he is to be allowed 6 per day for boarding each work man, for his two forges and five apprentices three pounds per month each, and if he is deprived of either of them by any accident he is to supply their place with another Hand as good; He is to employ such other workmen as the public Business requires on the best terms he can, and charge the country with whatever wages he pays.

HR McIlwaine, ed. Official Letters, Governors of Virginia, Letters of Patrick Henry, Vol. I, Richmond: Virginia State Library, 1926, p. 127.

VIRGINIA GAZETTE ADVERTISEMENTS

Williamsburg; Sept. 25, 1777. GREAT wages will be given by the subscriber to journeymen GUNSMITHS, BLACKSMITHS, and NAILORS, that are good workmen. None others need apply. Six or eight boys are wanting, as APPRENTICES.

(tf) JAMES ANDERSON

Virginia Gazette (Purdie) October 3, 1777

STRAYED or STOLEN from me when at Williamsburg, about the first of February last, a mouse-coloured mare with a blaze face, about 13 hands and a half high, about 6 years old, but is not branded that I remember. Whoever brings her to mr. James Anderson, blacksmith, or to me in Louisa, shall have 10s. reward.

Virginia Gazette (Purdie) March 29, 1776

ELLYSON ARMISTEAD

JAMES ANDERSON LEDGER

Mr Henry Morse Dr to James Anderson To Cleaning 3 guns @ 3/ To Cleaning 3 Do @ 3/ To plating Chair Shafts

To mendg a spring

To a New tumbler pr lock To Mending Bridle Bitt To Mending a Chair To Altering a Spring

To Do 2 bolts To feeding 2 horses 20days@4/ To laing axletree pr Chair To3TiarNails@11/2d To pr Clamps pr Wheels To 2 gallons oats ... To a key pr lock 2/6 mendg lock 1/3

To a Nutt for Chair To 8 Dog Nails 8d Cleang a Gun 2/6

ToaKeyforalock Webb-Prentis Papers (Alderman Library, University of Virginia).

Work done for the Capitol by James Anderson 1773 May 24 To Cleaning a Stove July 26 To 4 Bars prs Statue

Octr 3 To 3 Bars prl Doors @ 2/6 To4Do@5/. 20mendga

hinge 2/6 4 To Eight hooks @ 7 1/2

15 To 2 Keys prs locks @ 3/9 To a Box prs do

1773 Country Dr Apr 25 To half a Year Salary as Armourer to

the Magazine £10 Anderson Accounts, Brock Collection (Huntington Library).

1771 Jan 22 March 22 August 28

1772 May 25 June 3

7 July 30

May 18

July 5 Decmb 7

1774 Jany 18 Augt 22

0..9..0 0..9..0 ?..?..3 0..2..6

0..2..6 0..0..7 1/2 0..2..6 0..3..9 0..1..3

4..0..0 0.15..0 0..0..4 1/2 0..2..6 0..1..3

0..3..9

0..0..7 1/2 0..3..2

0..2..6

1..0..0 2..4..5 0..7..6

1..2..6 0..5..0 0..7..6

1775 May 17

James Anderson

William Ashborne

William Ashborne was an indentured servant. Ashborne left London for Virginia in December 1773. As a cutler, he made, sharpened, and sold knives, razors, scissors, and other sharp-edged tools.

Note: In the third quarter of the eighteenth century, indentured servants were still coming to Virginia, but they tended to be highly skilled craftspersons rather than unskilled farm laborers, as had been the case in the seventeenth and earlier eighteenth centuries.

Name: Birth date: Birth place: Death date: Death place: Parents: Siblings: Education: Spouse: Children: Occupation:

Political affiliation: Residence(s):

Sources: For more information:

William Ashborne

1753

probably England, possibly London

unknown

cutler indentured servant

unknown

London, England Williamsburg, Virginia

York County records

Virginia Gazette

Geddy Foundry Blacksmith Shop Wigshop

William Ashborne

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Blacksmith Shop Foundry

Wigmaker

William Ashborne

Name: William Ashborne

Age: 28 Trade: Cutler Bound for Virginia on the Virginia Indented Servant

WEEKLY EMIGRATION RETURNS

Embarked from Port of London: 11-18, December, 1773

Residence: London Captain: Howard Eaton

VIRGINIA GAZETTE ADVERTISEMENT

WILLIAM ASHBURN,, Cutler from London, has opened Shop near the Capitol in Williamsburg, and makes and sells all sorts of Knives, Razors, Scissors, Surgeons Instruments, and Box and Spring Fleams on a new Construction, which are much approved by the most eminent Farriers in Great Britain; also grinds and repairs all Sorts of Edge Tools in the above Branch, cleans Fire Arms, and makes Springs and Screws for Do. All such as please to favour him their Custom may depend on the utmost Punctuality and reasonable Charges, and Commissions from the Country duly executed. -- Razor Strops made and dressed. --Direct to the Care of Mr. George Simmons, Peruke Maker.

Virginia Gazette (Purdie & Dixon) April 14, 1774

William Ashborne

Catharine (Catherine) Blaikley

Catharine Blaikley served as a midwife and keeper of a boarding house. Upon notice of her death in 1771, the Virginia Gazette claimed that Blaikley had “brought upwards of three Thousand Children into the World”. Blaikley’s position of a midwife would have brought her into contact with people of all sorts—slaves, the poor, middling folk, and gentry—for women of all classes experienced the joy (and pain) of childbirth. Blaikley’s husband William, a merchant, died in 1736 and bequeathed his entire estate to Catharine. As the sole inheritor of her husband’s estate, Blaikley owned 50 acres in Powhatan County, land in Brunswick County, horses, slaves, goods and chattels, and her house and lot in Williamsburg. Blaikley never remarried. She died on October 24, 1771 and was buried in Bruton Parish churchyard, where her stone may be found today.

Name:

Birth date:

Birth place:

Death date:

Death place:

Parents:

Siblings:

Education:

Spouse: Children:

Occupation:

Political affiliation: Residence(s):

Catharine Blaikley 1695 York County, Virginia October 24, 1771 Williamsburg, Virginia William and Martha Kaidyee John Kaidyee

literate married by 1718 to William Blaikley (died 1736)

William James Mary (married Griffin Stith) Janet Carson Elizabeth

midwife boardinghouse keeper

unknown Williamsburg, Virginia

Catharine Blaikley

Miscellaneous:

Catharine Blaikley

Catharine Blaikley was the executor of her husband’s estate. William bequeathed “unto my loving wife Catherine Blaikley, all my whole estate of lands, houses, negroes, goods, and chattels.” His estate included houses and a lot in Williamsburg, 50 acres “in Powhattan,” plus “Brunswick County land.

Blaikley was also the executor of her brother John Kaidyee’s estate upon his death before 20 June 1742.

During a smallpox epidemic in Williamsburg, six members of the household of “Katherine Blaikley” are listed as having had the disease and recovered.

Blaikley owned several slaves, including Lucy, Sall (who bore a son, John Beck) and/or Sally (who bore a son, Anthony Gabril, and several of her slaves are listed as attending the Bray School in Williamsburg in 1767 and 1769.

Virginia Gazette

Bruton Parish Church gravestones York County Records William and Mary Quarterly

Bruton Parish Churchyard and Church: A Guide to the Tombstones, Monuments, and Mural Tablets. Williamsburg, Virginia: Bruton Parish Church, 1980 [1976].

Gibbs, Patricia. Research Query. 29 June 1994.

Tyler, Lyon G., editor. “Notes and Queries.” William and Mary College Quarterly, First Series. Volume 2 (3), January 1894, p. 212.

Apothecary

Sources:

Bibliography:

For more information:

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Catharine Blaikley House

Catharine Blaikley

Catharine Blaikley Tombstone

INVENTORY OF WILLIAM BLAIKLEY Inventory of Estate of William Blaikley 1736 September 20

A true Inventory of the Estate of William Blaikley Deceased of whats Lying on this side of James river

in the great Chamber up Stairs two beds with all furniture one Large black trunk & one white table with a muslin twilite upon it five rush bottom Chairs with red fraims two pr. of old white windows Curtains one Stone Chamber pot one small Japan box

in the Little Chamber up Stairs one bed with all furniture one Stone Chamber pot one Japan tea table five rush bottom Chairs with black wallnut fraims six Small pictures with gilt fraims two hair trunks one red Chest with a parcel of books one pair of white window Curtains

in the Closett up Stairs one old deal box with no Lid one Childs wicker Cradle and baskett broke a Little

in the passage up Stairs & upon the Stairs one Large Quilting fraim one Small Dito one hair trunk one deal Chest two old pictures one Eight day Clock

in the Chamber below Stairs one bed with all furniture five rush bottom Chairs with black wallnut frames one Cain Elbow Chair one ovell table one pair of white window Curtains one Corner Cubbard one pair of Iron Dogs one old fire Shovel one pair of Iron tongs one Stone Chamber pot one Large picture black fraim four Small Dito one Looking Glass one Earthen Sillibub pot

in the Chamber Closett one Copper tea kettle a Copper chacolet pot one Come pot one old Coffee mill a Small Stone jar a Copper pot a warming pan three Indan baskets one meal barrell one old arch

in the parlow below Stairs one bed and all furniture Six rush bottom Chairs black fraims one blackwallnut dressing table one Small Chest of drawers a Dressing glass black fraim one Duch table a pair of white window Curtains a Stone Chamber pot a Small red trunk five pictures

in the hall one Large oval table one Small Dito nine Chairs blackwallnut bottoms one Desk one japan tea table & one tea bord one pair of bellows a pair of iron dogs a fire Shovel and tongs one Iron trevet one pr. of old green window Curtains a Large pickture & fourteen small Dito one Large

Catharine Blaikley

looking glass & one Chimney glass a Large blackwallnut Bofett which is a movable whats in the bofett six Chaine plates ten delf plates six Chine Cups & seaven Saucers one Chine Slop bassen one puter teapot a Stone tea pot a cract Stone milk pot a Stone Slop basen two glass Salts one glass decanter two glass cruetts one Salver three Silver Casters Six Large Silver Spoons twelve Silver tea Spoons one Silver Cup a pair of Silver tea tongs a Cork Scrue a wine glass a Earthen punch bowl & some broken Stone ware a punch Ladle one dozen of Case knives & forks

in Mr. Blaikleys Closett one hamburg Chest one old Clock a looking glass a little box one old box three new hilling hoes a new hachet a tin Lamp two mens Saddles & bridles one pr. pistills & holsters Sword & gun two baskets a parcell of wachmakers things an iron Crow with other Lumber & a mans Cain in the desk some raisers and other Small things

in the Little room by the hall one Small bedsteed & bed bolster & green rug and four old Chairs

in the back passage one Cract Stone tea pot a Stone drinking mug a butter Dish two hair brooms a Scrubing brush a Childs Chair a white poronger without a handle

in the Kitchen four Iron pots with hooks one Large brass Kettle a Copper Scellett a Copper Sauspan a tea kettl two Iron pot racks three Spits one iron travet one grid iron Seaven Scures one old Jack a hominy morter & iron pestle a Large pr of iron Dogs wth. hooks an iron firing pan an old frying pan two pr of Small Smoothing Irons two box irons & three heaters five brass Candlesticks one pr of brass Snuffers one pr of iron Dito a pair of tongs an iron flesh fork & brass Scimmer a tin basting Ladle two pails one Stone jugg a woden Chair two knives & some old forks thirteen pewter Dishes two old pewter bass four Dozen & half of pewter plaites some earthan pots a meal Sifter a basket a old brass kettle to put Ashes in a mush Stick a pewter Cheese plait and pewter pey plate

in the Kitchen Loft a Small Ladder a pewter Still a Childs go Cart a pr of old fellows three old spining wheals a Small iron Curtain rod a beefs hide a garden rake tow old hoes and a parcel of old iron and other Lumber

in the Seller two Stone jugs three old tubs a bear Cask som buttes pots & three earthan milk pans a little pan to rost Coffee an old table a little box a Candle box a parcel of bottles & vials

in the Stable a hors rack a broken Chest that holds ashes and tow Split plank

in the hen house tow old Chests

Catharine Blaikley

Negroes about the house Nanny Lucy and hannah a Cow a horse some Corn a parcel of old books a new suite of Duroy mans Closs and Mr. Blaikleys Linning & Closs that he wore and another parcel of old Close and Shoes

the household LinningSix pair of Sheets 14 pair of pillow Cases 14 table Cloths 13 towels and Six brown ozenbrigs towels

a Suite of white Cotten bed Curtains and two ozenbrigs wallets two Counterpains not finished of a fiddle and bow a parcel of old gimp Lace and two side Saddles a pr of hand mill Stones a Large basket a pr of old Garden Sheers

this Inventory Sent to york Court by Catherine Blaikley August the 20 Day 1736

At a Court held for York County September the 20th 1736 This Inventory of the Estate of william Blaikley decd. was presented in Court and order'd to be Recorded

ExamTest Matt Hubard Cl Cur

York County Wills & Inventories 18, 1732-1740, pp. 312-316

VIRGINIA GAZETTE ADVERTISEMENTS

WILLIAMSBURG, August 8, 1769. LOST A RED Morocco POCKET BOOK, containing about seven or eight pounds in paper money, chiefly in 40 and 20 s. bills some small silver, and sundry receipts, and other papers and memorandums. The book has a common clasp, and was tied round with a piece of narrow red tape. The paper money was folded up in a piece of paper, on which was a memorandum about some drugs; and in the book there was a minute made of some pork, viz: three hogs and a half, that I lent some years ago. Whoever brings the book and its contents to me, shall have TEN SHILLINGS reward. CATHERINE BLAIKLEY.