Journal and Letters of Philip Vickers Fithian: A Plantation Tutor of the Old Dominion, 1773-1774.

Footnote_125_125

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

Footnote_126_126

At "Bushfield" on the Potomac River.

Footnote_127_127

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

Footnote_128_128

Probably Colonel John Tayloe of "Mount Airy."

Footnote_129_129

Joseph F. Lane of Loudoun County, Virginia.

Footnote_130_130

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

Footnote_131_131

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

Footnote_132_132

An American juniper or "red cedar."

Footnote_133_133

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

Footnote_134_134

Oliver Reese.

Footnote_135_135

Middleton.

Footnote_136_136

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

Footnote_137_137

Colonel John Tayloe of "Mount Airy."

Footnote_138_138

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

Footnote_139_139

Mrs. Tayloe.

Footnote_140_140

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

Footnote_141_141

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

Footnote_142_142

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

Footnote_143_143

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

Footnote_144_144

Miss Sally Panton.

Footnote_145_145

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

Footnote_146_146

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

Footnote_147_147

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

Footnote_148_148

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

Footnote_149_149

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

Footnote_150_150

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

Footnote_151_151

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

Footnote_152_152

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

Footnote_153_153

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

Footnote_154_154

Port Tobacco, Maryland.

Footnote_155_155

Piscataway, Maryland.

Footnote_156_156

Upper Marlborough, Maryland.

Footnote_157_157

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

Footnote_158_158

Marlborough, Maryland.

Footnote_159_159

Alexandria, Virginia.

Footnote_160_160

Patuxent River.

Footnote_161_161

Rock Hall, Maryland.

Footnote_162_162

Chestertown, Maryland.

Footnote_163_163

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

Footnote_164_164

Frederick, Maryland.

Footnote_165_165

Stockton.

Footnote_166_166

Port Penn, Delaware.

Footnote_167_167

Warwick, Maryland.

Footnote_168_168

A brother of Elizabeth Beatty.

Footnote_169_169

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

Footnote_170_170

Colonel John Tayloe.

Footnote_171_171

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

Footnote_172_172

A brother of Elizabeth Beatty.

Footnote_173_173

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

Footnote_174_174

Middleton, Delaware.

Footnote_175_175

New Town, Maryland.

Footnote_176_176

Stephen Reeve was a Philadelphia silversmith.

Footnote_177_177

Tyler's Ferry.

Footnote_178_178

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

Footnote_179_179

Mrs. Tayloe.

Footnote_180_180

John Dunlap had established the Pennsylvania Packet in 1771.

Footnote_181_181

Colonel Richard Henry Lee of "Chantilly."

Footnote_182_182

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

Footnote_183_183

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

Footnote_184_184

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

Footnote_185_185

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

Footnote_186_186

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

Footnote_187_187

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

Footnote_188_188

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

Footnote_189_189

Colonel John Tayloe.

Footnote_190_190

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

Footnote_191_191

Colonel John Tayloe.

Footnote_192_192

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

Footnote_193_193

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

Footnote_194_194

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

Footnote_195_195

Richard Henry Lee of "Chantilly."

Footnote_196_196

Richmond County.

Footnote_197_197

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

Footnote_198_198

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

Footnote_199_199

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

Footnote_200_200

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

Footnote_201_201

Gawin Corbin of "Yew Spring" in Caroline County.

Footnote_202_202

Apparently Randolph Carter's clerk.

Footnote_203_203

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

Footnote_204_204

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

Footnote_205_205

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

Footnote_206_206

Colonel John Tayloe.

Footnote_207_207

"Chantilly."

Footnote_208_208

Kent Islands, Maryland.

Footnote_209_209

Queenstown, Queen Anne County, Maryland.