Virginians worked hard to bring the capital city to the Potomac, speaking darkly of disunion if the nation"s most populous state were neglected and if western settlers were left remote from the seat of government. They had offered land for the District of Columbia. Henry Lee wished to place the capital upriver from the ca.n.a.l and Matildaville. He and other advocates of the Potomac a.s.sumed that the capital would become a center of commerce and that the river would become the most important channel of trade with the west. Much as Virginia politicians disliked Alexander Hamilton"s legislation for the federal government"s a.s.sumption of states" public debt, they enabled it to pa.s.s in order to get the District of Columbia on the banks of the Potomac. They achieved their purpose "with uncommon difficulty."
No one did more than George Washington to bring the city named for him to a site near his home. He appointed commissioners to oversee design, construction, and sales. He took a keen interest in all aspects of the creation of the Federal City. Surveying and marking the district"s boundaries began in February 1791. It contained a town, Georgetown, and other houses and structures, but it consisted largely of gentle hills covered with woods. President Washington visited Georgetown on Tuesday, March 28. Andrew Ellicott, the surveyor, showed him a newly completed plat. Two weeks later, Samuel Davidson, a merchant in Georgetown, wrote to Thomas Sh.o.r.e that "the Grand Federal City" had begun: "several Speculations have of late taken place on the occasion; nor have I been able to withstand the temptation, having recently made a purchase therein, to amount Six thousand pounds." Later in the year, one investor said that he looked forward to "the pleasure of viewing, in the course of a few years, the rise of the first city in the world."
In August, Pierre Charles L"Enfant submitted to the president a design for the city-a bold scheme of broad radial avenues superimposed on a grid of streets. The capitol and the presidential mansion, on eminences a mile apart, stood out as foci of the city. To pay for construction of these and other public buildings, the commissioners were to sell lots at auction. The first sale on Monday, October 17, disposed of 35 lots, each containing 5,265 square feet. A year later a second sale aroused little interest. James Greenleaf arrived on the day of the third sale, Tuesday, September 17, 1793. President Washington bought four lots, but he had few imitators. The next day the president went to Capitol Hill to lay the cornerstone of the capitol. He had to admit that matters were "in a stagnant state."
James Greenleaf brought a letter of introduction from President Washington to the commissioners of the District of Columbia. It invited them to consider Greenleaf"s proposals, which "promise to promote the growth of the City" on an "extensive Scale." Washington concluded: "I have reason to believe that if you can find it consistent with your duty to the public to attach Mr. Greenleaf to the federal City, he will be a valuable acquisition." Less than a week after his arrival, Greenleaf and the commissioners agreed that he would buy 3,000 lots at $66.50 per lot. He promised to pay in seven annual installments and to build ten two-story brick houses per year for ten years. He also agreed to lend the commissioners $2,600 per month for construction of the public buildings.
In November, Robert Morris and John Nicholson each took a 50 percent share of Greenleaf"s purchase. On Christmas Eve, Morris and Nicholson joined him in a second purchase of 3,000 more lots. They combined this contract with Greenleaf"s earlier one and averaged the different prices per lot in the two. Thus, the consortium promised to pay about $480,000 for 6,000 lots.
Within eighteen months, Morris disposed of about 1,000 lots. Among the new owners was Henry Lee. He offered $300 per lot for 150 lots-slightly more than 5 per square foot. Morris called this offer "too low" and urged Lee to buy at once, before the partners raised the price above 10 per square foot. He said that in 1800, only a few years away, "Lots and Houses in the City of Washington will command prices that will astonish those who might now buy at low rates and neglect to do it." He foresaw a price of $1,500 to $3,000 per lot. Having paid per square foot, Morris sold the best sites for 25 per square foot. Lee bought "well situated" lots.
Visitors to the inchoate Federal City were struck by the sight of Pennsylvania Avenue and other avenues-a broad, straight stretch of cleared land, where trees had been felled and removed, leaving walls of forest on either side. Three years after construction of the capitol began, about half the city remained woods. The residents were chiefly workers cutting streets and avenues or erecting buildings. Even so, an English traveler was told in the summer of 1794 that "The value of each lot is from forty pounds to two hundred pounds sterling." In the mind"s eye the Federal City looked impressive, but "were it not for the President"s House and the Capitol, you would be ignorant that you were near the spot intended for the metropolis of the United States."
James Greenleaf lingered in Philadelphia and New York through the summer of 1794, rather than sail for Holland, where the large loans he had promised to Morris were attracting few subscribers. He wrote to his agent in Amsterdam: "in case you should not have succeded in the first instance you must immediately bring forward a plan for raising from 600,000 to 1,000,000 Drs. & in the execution of which I hereby give you in our joint behalf a Carte blanche." Carte blanche." Greenleaf had not lost his gift for talking people out of their money. Though William Duer, a broken speculator, was in debtor"s prison, Greenleaf convinced him to divert as much as $80,000 into new speculations, promising him one-fourth of the future profits. In August, Thomas Law arrived in New York from India by way of London. After twenty years with the East India Company, he took his fortune to America, eager to add to it by "commercial Speculation." Using only a map and powers of persuasion, Greenleaf got Law to spend almost half his money on 445 lots in the District of Columbia. Greenleaf and his a.s.sociates had contracted to pay $80 per lot. He charged Law almost $300. Upon learning of this transaction, President Washington chided the commissioners, not because Greenleaf had duped Law but because Greenleaf stood to make "immense profit" from the city"s certain growth, while the commissioners raised too little money by their sales. One of them, Daniel Carroll, a.s.sured Washington that Law"s money would make Greenleaf and Morris more punctual in their payments and that property values would rise as a result of the 166 houses Law had agreed to build-a provision of the contract which Greenleaf had not mentioned and Law had not noticed. Greenleaf had not lost his gift for talking people out of their money. Though William Duer, a broken speculator, was in debtor"s prison, Greenleaf convinced him to divert as much as $80,000 into new speculations, promising him one-fourth of the future profits. In August, Thomas Law arrived in New York from India by way of London. After twenty years with the East India Company, he took his fortune to America, eager to add to it by "commercial Speculation." Using only a map and powers of persuasion, Greenleaf got Law to spend almost half his money on 445 lots in the District of Columbia. Greenleaf and his a.s.sociates had contracted to pay $80 per lot. He charged Law almost $300. Upon learning of this transaction, President Washington chided the commissioners, not because Greenleaf had duped Law but because Greenleaf stood to make "immense profit" from the city"s certain growth, while the commissioners raised too little money by their sales. One of them, Daniel Carroll, a.s.sured Washington that Law"s money would make Greenleaf and Morris more punctual in their payments and that property values would rise as a result of the 166 houses Law had agreed to build-a provision of the contract which Greenleaf had not mentioned and Law had not noticed.
Far from making large profits in the Federal City, Greenleaf"s speculation was failing. He and Morris found too few Thomas Laws and Henry Lees. The Dutch loans raised only $190,000. Greenleaf diverted this money to cover his personal expenses and notes. The partnership dissolved in July 1795; Morris and Nicholson bought out Greenleaf at a price of $160 per lot. Since they had too little money to meet their obligations to the commissioners, Greenleaf was even less likely to get paid.
Thomas Law settled in Georgetown, where his neighbors and guests enjoyed his company. He was "a man of very superior understanding." On Tuesday, February 9, 1796, President Washington and his wife were surprised to receive a letter from Martha Washington"s granddaughter, Elizabeth Parke Custis, announcing that she and Thomas Law soon would be married. She was nineteen; he was forty. Her stepfather, David Stuart, one of the commissioners of the District of Columbia, wrote to George Washington: "Betsey as I suppose she informed you, made entirely her own bargain in a Husband."
During the year after his wedding, Law struggled with the consequences of his investment in the Federal City. He protested that the terms of his purchase were extortionate and suggested that Robert Morris build the brick houses Law"s contract required. Morris replied: "I cannot get the means fast enough to build what I am bound to build for myself." Since city lots were a glut on the market, Law had to compete for buyers. Rival speculators promoted different neighborhoods: Georgetown, Capitol Hill, the riverfront, and the East Branch-that is, the Anacostia River. Law"s holdings lay between the Capitol and the Anacostia River. A visitor said of him: "he has wilfully plunged himself into an abyss of cares, and all the contentions of this distracted city.... every day his obstinacy on this subject increases, continually leading him to new expences in this vexatious speculation."
Charles William Janson arrived in America from England in the summer of 1793. Thirteen years later, he realized that he had been duped at every turn. Early in 1795, "about the time he was planning his return to Europe, specious and tempting offers induced him to risk a considerable sum in a land-speculation, (a fatal snare for every emigrant)." Over the next ten years he saw much of the United States. In the streets of Norfolk he waded knee-deep in mud. He accompanied a deer hunter into the Dismal Swamp, which he later called a "vast tract of useless land." He visited Washington, D.C., and said of it: "Speculation, the life of the American, embraced the design of the new city.... How very beautiful a city Washington appeared when laid out-on paper!" Upon returning to England he published a book to warn others against Americans by the example of his sufferings: "Placing confidence in the reports of interested men, he was led to believe, that the dismal swamps, barren desarts, and pine woods of the new world, flowed with milk and honey."
George Washington had lost interest in land as a source of profit for himself. In the spring of 1794 he set out to sell his holdings and put the purchase money into safe securities. He wished to "draw the interest regularly as it comes due" so that "the remainder of my days may, thereby, be more tranquil and freer from cares." He told his former secretary Tobias Lear that the strongest motive for taking this step was his wish to free his slaves. He owned them, he said, "very repugnantly to my own feelings." He blamed his keeping them on "imperious necessity," which could be reduced or removed by selling land he had bought as an investment and by leasing his Mount Vernon farms to tenants. On the subject of slaveholding he wrote in the fall: "I do not like to even think, much less talk of it. Were it not then, that I am principled agt. selling negros, as you would do cattle in the market, I would not, in twelve months from this date, be possessed of one, as a slave. I shall be happily mistaken, if they are not found to be a very troublesome species of property "ere many years pa.s.s over our heads."
In Philadelphia early in 1795, George and Martha Washington appeared to be in "perfectly good health & spirits." True, the president"s temper had not been improved by receiving a letter concerning the Dismal Swamp Company. John Jameson reminded him of an unpaid a.s.sessment of 24 to meet an installment due on the company"s purchase of shares in the Dismal Swamp Ca.n.a.l Company. Jameson had just returned to York Town after a visit to Dismal Plantation. He explained that repeated theft of timber from the company"s land had given the managers an idea. The company ought to give up its effort to drain the swamp and instead hire slaves and "get the Timber ourselves" after clearly marking the boundary of its tract. "If the proprietors would advance one hundred pounds for each Share I am confidant it would render the Estate profitable and also pay the remainder of the Shares in the Ca.n.a.l Company."
Washington replied that the last report he had received from Jameson"s late uncle showed the company with a balance on hand. "Having never received an iota from the company for more than twenty years nor never having heard of any appropriation of the sum acknowledged to be in hand, I was in hopes of receiving, instead of being called upon to advance." Nevertheless, Washington approved of turning to timber, and he paid his portion for shares in the ca.n.a.l company. He asked Jameson to send an account of their company"s affairs and an estimate of the going price of four quarter-shares. He gave Jameson power of attorney to represent him, but he intended to sell.
Henry Lee enlisted Patrick Henry in his land schemes. Patrick Henry had not yet disposed of his worthless Green Sea tract. Lee offered to help, suggesting that the convening of the United States Circuit Court in Richmond on Friday, May 22, 1795, would be a good time to act. James Wilson of Pennsylvania, a justice of the United States Supreme Court, sat on the Circuit Court. He also speculated extensively in land.
Justice Wilson was a scholar and a teacher of law who had played a leading role in writing the United States Const.i.tution. He devoted his great powers of reasoning to const.i.tutional thought and jurisprudence. In land transactions he was a visionary. In June 1795 his imagination turned to swamps. He received a note from Henry Lee, offering him land-apparently, Patrick Henry"s tract-at a bargain price. Wilson wrote to Hugh Williamson, a well-known expert on swamps, seeking information. Williamson described the Dismal Swamp, adding that even where the soil was poor the timber was valuable. He said of North Carolina: "I am induced to believe that a great Part of our swamp land will presently become the most valuable Property in our State, because late Experience has shewn that it may be drained with more Ease than had been expected and because the Course of Nature in that Country is obviously making the Swamps dry." Justice Wilson, already overextended in his investments, borrowed money, $8,000 of it from Henry Lee, and bought land, including Patrick Henry"s in the Green Sea. While in Richmond, Lee sold the Belvidere estate to Bushrod Washington, whose law practice brought him before the Circuit Court.
George Washington did not receive from John Jameson an estimate of the value of his four quarter-shares in the Dismal Swamp Company. While at Mount Vernon in September he wrote to Thomas Newton, Jr., and to John Page, asking them to estimate the "highest price." Both told him that he could not get more than 1,000 Virginia currency. Newton enclosed a letter from Isaac s.e.xton, predicting success for the company"s lumber operations. He wrote: "the land in a few years will be very valuable far exceedg the present prices or 1000 per Share." The company, if it applied "activity," would return profits of at least 25 percent per year.
Isaac s.e.xton was a partner with John Cowper in the lumber business in Nansemond County. He knew the value of the Dismal Swamp Company"s timber because he was stealing it. He had proposed to bargain for white cedar. When told that the managers "wished the Land to remain undisturbed," he cut down trees anyway. John Driver reported: "with the number of hands employed by Mr. Cowper & himself they get a very considerable quant.i.ty." The Dismal Swamp Company in 1795 had nine slaves-eight men and one boy-hired to fell trees and cut shingles.
s.e.xton developed his methods in the 1780s, using them in Norfolk County"s part of the swamp, along the North Carolina line. Professing to be resurveying Byrd"s dividing line in order to enter claims, he admitted knowing that the land already had been patented. He said the earlier t.i.tles were not good. So pleased with his own cleverness that he could not conceal it, he added "that the soil was not his object, but that the timber was his object, and that he was determined to establish his survey if he could and that if they did sue him, it might so happen that he could get the Timber off first, and then he did not care what became of the Swamp." While s.e.xton gave advice to George Washington, John Cowper surveyed new claims along the western line of the company"s tract. It was easy to see that he intended to use s.e.xton"s method of encroachment for timber. Agents and partners of the Dismal Swamp Company denounced "that bad man, s.e.xton."
Predictions of a bright future for the Dismal Swamp Company did not alter George Washington"s intent to sell. He looked back on what he called "the injury they had received by the effects of the war, and the still greater, which their inattention to their own concerns had done them." His "many attempts" to stimulate his partners had failed; he "gave up all further hopes of any thing effectual being done for their interests." With Jameson calling for more money, Washington"s share in the company was, he said, "rather expensive than productive."
To Henry Lee, Washington set the price of his four quarter-shares at a total of $20,000, or 4,000 Virginia currency. Lee took it. This was four times market price but 1,000 less than Washington had been asking. Lee hoped to make his first payment, about $7,000, not in cash but in Justice James Wilson"s bonds, payable in one and two years. Having lent money to Wilson to buy Patrick Henry"s thousands of acres of reeds in the Dismal Swamp, Lee expected to use Wilson"s debt to him to pay Washington. Lee a.s.sured Washington that he had inquired into the justice"s affairs. There was "not a doubt" that Wilson could meet his obligations. Washington retained t.i.tle to his four quarter-shares, pending Lee"s payments, but he told his former partners that Lee would henceforth "receive the profits" and "pay all unsatisfied demands upon me."
Not until he neared his eightieth birthday in the 1790s did Dr. Thomas Walker grow infirm. He and his wife, who was approaching seventy, kept a permanent guest at Castle Hill: Weston Alc.o.c.k, a former officer in the British Army who had come to Charlottesville as a prisoner of war and remained in peacetime with no means of support except the Walkers. Alc.o.c.k signed Dr. Walker"s will as a witness in 1788. He became "a dependant" and took care of Thomas and Elizabeth Walker.
Francis Walker turned twenty-nine in 1793. He had just won election to the United States House of Representatives. James Madison talked with him in April to make sure that he was "right" on political questions, that he would join the gathering opposition to any increase of the federal government"s power. Unless forestalled, they believed, the Washington administration would make the United States more and more like Britain, almost a British dependency. Three weeks before Congress convened in Philadelphia, Francis Preston called at Castle Hill on Friday, November 8, to resign as agent of the Loyal Company. He found Francis Walker drunk. The "extensive circle of acquaintances who respected and friends who loved him so dearly" could not find a reason for Walker"s drinking, unless it was "an hereditary fever in the blood or itch upon the palate."
A year later, on Monday, November 9, 1794, Dr. Thomas Walker died. His body was buried at Castle Hill. The following month Weston Alc.o.c.k and another witness proved the will in Charlottesville. Francis Walker came into his inheritance.
He was challenged for re-election to Congress by Samuel Jordan Cabell, veteran of Saratoga, Valley Forge, and the siege of Charleston. Cabell, a kinsman wrote, "was a magnificent man before the people, the greatest man on a court green, in a crowd, or on the electioneering arena that I ever met with, except, perhaps, John Randolph of Roanoke." On public questions important to Madison and Thomas Jefferson, few men were so "right" as Cabell. He denounced "the speculating monied interest growing out of banking and funding systems, &c. which I consider the two great political curses of my country." He praised "our dear and magnanimous allies the French," and he predicted a revolution in Britain to overthrow "the maddening spirit of her Ministry for coercive measures to stifle the principles of liberty."
Francis Walker "lacked ambition," as did "most of Dr. Walker"s descendants," one of them wrote. Six weeks before the election, Thomas Jefferson foresaw that Walker would lose. Cabell was "indefatigable attending courts &c. and wherever he is, there is a general drunkenness observed." A shrewd candidate kept the voters drunk, not himself. Jefferson disapproved of Cabell. He wrote of Walker"s impending defeat: "The low practices of his compet.i.tor though seen with indignation by every thinking man, are but too successful with the unthinking who merchandize their votes for grog." Walker"s career in Congress ended after one term.
Ten weeks after the election, Francis Walker"s niece, Mildred Gilmer, was married. She was the oldest daughter of the first cousins, George Gilmer and Lucy Walker Gilmer, who had eloped in 1767 and who now had eight children. Mildred"s new husband was William Wirt, an ambitious twenty-two-year-old attorney, newly arrived in Virginia from Maryland to make his fortune.
Dr. Walker was the third but not the last husband of his second wife. Elizabeth Thornton Walker had her own property in her third widowhood. In July 1795 she wrote a will, bequeathing all her estate to Weston Alc.o.c.k in grat.i.tude for "great attention and care." At her suggestion, the Walkers believed, she and Alc.o.c.k were married early in 1796. She died in August.
Elizabeth and Thomas Lee Shippen visited Virginia late in the summer of 1792, giving Elizabeth Farley Dunbar a chance to see her first grandchild. Champe and Maria Carter arrived at Nesting for a reunion of the four sisters. Mary Willing Byrd came up from Westover. Though John Dunbar was sick, all were happy to hear from Antigua that the Mercers Creek plantation promised a b.u.mper crop of sugar cane. The Shippens expected their share of the profits in 1793 to be 1,000 sterling. John Dunbar recovered his health by October, but in that month fire broke out at Nesting, destroying the house, furniture, and offices.
The Shippens, the Carters, and John Dunbar, as guardian of the two younger sisters, were defendants in Major John Simon Farley"s suit in Chancellor George Wythe"s High Court of Chancery. Farley and his sister, Elizabeth Morson, as heirs of their father Simon Farley, demanded one-half of the Land of Eden and one-third of the holdings in Norfolk County, Virginia. They a.s.serted that the defendants, Francis Farley"s heirs, held Simon Farley"s share in trust for them, as Francis had done, and they now claimed their legacy.
The Shippens, the Carters, and John Dunbar replied through their attorney, John Wickham, that Francis Farley had owned all the land as his brother"s surviving heir, that he had bequeathed it to his granddaughters, and that the law prohibited aliens from owning land in Virginia. The case had not yet been argued before Wythe. Thomas Lee Shippen and Champe Carter disliked the delay and suspense, eager as they were to divide and sell the Land of Eden. Their attorneys, however, said they could not do so while the suit was pending. Shippen had to content himself with bright prospects for sugar.
After the fire at Nesting, John Dunbar settled in Williamsburg. Shippen accompanied him from Berkeley plantation to choose a home. In the former capital uninhabited houses were falling to ruin, covered with moss and mildew, among the neat dwellings of its remaining residents. About 1,300 people, half of them blacks, lived in the city-fewer than at the end of the war ten years earlier. Politicians and merchants no longer gathered from all parts of Virginia. Gra.s.s grew in some streets. The brick college building looked ill kept. The governor"s palace had caught fire and burned down on Christmas Eve, 1781. Some ruins still stood on the site; people had stripped the grounds of timber. The capitol was slowly crumbling, especially the part where the House of Burgesses once sat. The old chamber in which the Council sat as the colony"s General Court was used as a courtroom; another part had become a grammar school. The wooden pillars of the portico were twisted awry. Among them stood the marble statue of Lord Botetourt, much defaced, its nose broken off, a hand missing. During the Terror in France, college students decapitated it. The Dunbars moved to what William Nelson, Jr., called "the peaceful city of Wmsburg." It was so peaceful that to visitors it seemed near death.
Upon getting married, each of the Farley sisters convinced her husband that her stepfather, John Dunbar, had been looting her legacy for his own benefit while acting as her guardian. At the time he came to Virginia and so quickly got married to their mother, it was a matter "of public Notoriety" that he had "no Property." Their mother received an annuity of 300 sterling from Francis Farley"s estate. Yet John Dunbar lived "in all the Comforts and Luxuries of Affluence-he purchased Farms, Houses, Slaves-he remitted large sums of money to Great Britain." Thousands of pounds sterling came from Henry Benskin Lightfoot, their representative in Antigua. At Mercers Creek two hundred slaves worked 165 acres; a good year yielded 140 hogsheads of sugar and 80 hogsheads of rum. Rents from the Land of Eden were $1,500 to $2,000 per year, and the plantation agent at Saura Town paid more than 1,200 Virginia currency to Dunbar"s order in a five-year period. Yet the old debts of James Parke Farley"s, which Francis Farley"s will ordered to be paid, remained outstanding on the books of Dinwiddie, Crawford & Company. No wonder John Dunbar could walk away from the ruins of Nesting and take a house in Williamsburg.
Chancellor Wythe heard arguments in the case of John Simon Farley and Elizabeth Morson against the Shippens, the Carters, and Dunbar on Tuesday, March 18, 1794. His decision awarded the plaintiffs everything they sought. The evidence was clear: Francis Farley always had acted as trustee for his brother"s children; their right to the land had accrued to them before Virginia law prohibited aliens from owning land-indeed, before they were "aliens." Wythe ordered the defendants, "at their costs," to convey half of the Land of Eden and one-third of the Farley property in Norfolk County to the plaintiffs and to pay the plaintiffs the appropriate share of rents and profits received since the suit had begun. Just as the four sisters were coming into their legacy, they lost half of the Land of Eden. John Dunbar was in failing health at this time, and died in October 1794.
A few weeks later, Elizabeth Dunbar"s third daughter was married. Rebecca Parke Farley-known as Parke-took as her bridegroom Richard Corbin, namesake and twenty-three-year-old grandson of the last deputy receiver general of the king"s revenue in Virginia. Corbin"s father had died in April, and he avoided his mother, who lamented her widowhood at every opportunity, talking and writing about herself at length. She was the daughter of Benjamin Waller, Speaker Robinson"s right-hand man. She was distressed by the prospect of a life as "a Hermitess with a bare Subsistence," scrimping in the largest house in King and Queen County. She wrote to her son just before his wedding: "How then my Beloved Richard can you invite or wish such an object as I now am to your gay City-Such a Visitor could only Damp your good Spirits and throw a Gloomy Sadness over your bright and fair Prospects." Elizabeth Dunbar strove to cheer Richard"s brothers and sisters during their visit to Williamsburg for the festivities. She wrote a "polite Letter" to his mother after the wedding on Sat.u.r.day, November 15.
Richard and Rebecca Parke Corbin lived in the mansion at Laneville plantation, 2,400 acres in King and Queen County. The two-story brick house, with its single-story wings, presented a front almost 200 feet long on a hill overlooking the Mattaponi River and a terraced front lawn descending to the water. About seventy slaves worked on the plantation.
Within three months of his wedding, Richard Corbin had learned to suspect that his wife had not received and was not receiving the full amount of her one-fourth of the profits of the Mercers Creek estate. John Dunbar was dead, but Thomas Lee Shippen and Elizabeth Shippen had corresponded with Henry B. Lightfoot for years, receiving payments and sugar from him, perhaps more than they were ent.i.tled to. The Corbins wrote to Thomas Lee Shippen, asking how much money they could expect.
Shippen suffered from consumption-tuberculosis. He dosed himself with opiates and spent much time brooding. His wife unfailingly helped him and tried to cheer him, but he saw around him false friends and real enemies. A few days after receiving the Corbins" letter, he wrote his will. By law, his wife"s property was now his. He bequeathed to her for her lifetime the proceeds of the Mercers Creek plantation and the Land of Eden. He left the quarter-share in the Dismal Swamp Company and the interest in Norfolk County land to their sons. To his wife and each son he bequeathed one share in the Dismal Swamp Ca.n.a.l Company. His younger son was to inherit his lot in the District of Columbia.
Richard Corbin refused to quarrel with Shippen. They shared a wish to sell the Land of Eden and the Antigua estate. Finding that his wife was a partner in the Dismal Swamp Company, Corbin wrote: "what has been done with this Land I know not, nor do I know who are in actual possession at present." The four sisters appealed Chancellor Wythe"s decision to the Court of Appeals. Even if they lost the case they would each own one-eighth of the Land of Eden. Corbin and Shippen planned to divide half the tract among the sisters so that they could get some money by sale at once.
John Dunbar had not lived a life of affluence alone. Accusing him implied censure of his wife. Elizabeth Dunbar was pained by the preoccupation of her daughters and their husbands with lost Farley riches. She believed Francis Farley"s estate, in other words, her daughters, owed her, rather than the reverse. She wrote to Elizabeth and Thomas Shippen: "be that as it may, my sons and Daughters must and shall love me, and whether creditor or debtor, We will be forever friends." In the summer of 1795 the Shippens moved to their retreat in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, called Farley. Their "finely situated" large house on a hill above Neshaminy Creek impressed visitors with its elegance and neatness. Elizabeth managed it while Thomas, an invalid, spent much of his time reading and devising ways to extract cash from the Farley bequest. At the end of the summer Richard and Rebecca Parke Corbin received their first remittance from Henry B. Lightfoot: a bill of exchange for 100 sterling.
The Farley heirs in Virginia compromised with John Simon Farley and Elizabeth Morson, ending their appeal in the courts early in 1796. The sisters and their husbands gave up the land Chancellor Wythe had awarded to Francis Farley"s nephew and niece. John Simon Farley and Elizabeth Morson gave up their claim to arrearages of rents and profits. Unlike the Corbins and the Shippens, Champe and Maria Carter had not devoted themselves to pursuing John Dunbar, Henry B. Lightfoot, a larger share of the Land of Eden, and the riches of the Dismal Swamp. They got rid of their right to a portion of the Land of Eden at once, without waiting for North Carolina courts to order surveys and a division. Champe Carter sold it in June for $2 per acre.
William Nelson, Jr., became a judge of Virginia"s General Court at the same time that Henry Lee was elected governor. The new position suited him. In his law practice, he said, "neither my profits nor my reputation equal"d my wish, tho" they at least equal"d my abilities." The judges sat for three weeks in Richmond twice a year, then rode circuit, taking about half of Nelson"s time. This schedule left him "more time to read, & to enjoy domestick tranquillity." When not on the bench he lived at Westover, where Abby Byrd Nelson stayed with her mother and sisters. Each year she had another pregnancy and a new baby-all girls.
Nelson"s friend John Page brooded about the movement of Federalists in Congress toward Britain and toward British political repressiveness. His health remained fragile, and none of his efforts freed him from debt. He refused in October 1793 to give John Hatley Norton"s representative a deed of trust for slaves worth the amount of his debt, but in December he relented and signed. Noah and Betty and their children, Bob and Bridget and their children, and Will and Hannah would leave Rosewell if Page could not raise almost 260. Fifteen months later, his predicament had grown worse, and he feared that he would have to sell Rosewell. At best, he might keep the mansion and 500 acres around it. He resigned his post as commander of the Gloucester County militia, traditionally held by the county"s leading citizen.
Serious illness struck Abby Byrd Nelson in November 1795. A violent cold gave way to a debilitating disease, depriving her of the use of her lower legs. She could cross a room only with a person on each arm, holding her up. While her husband, her mother, and her sisters at Westover watched over her anxiously, at Rosewell, John Page sold some of the deeded slaves to Norton"s representative to pay part of his debt. Page did not attend the opening of Congress in Philadelphia because he had promised a creditor that he would not leave the state until he paid in full. By early December, Abby Nelson knew that she lay on her deathbed. She said that she wished her daughters reared in the Christian faith. She told her sisters which daughter should receive each of her most prized rings, her watch, and other mementoes when the girls became young women. Not long afterward, she died. William Nelson, Jr., went into mourning for his second wife. Sarah Meade crossed from Mayc.o.x to spend time with Mary Willing Byrd. A "feeling letter" to Mary Willing Byrd arrived from her stepdaughter, Elizabeth Dunbar. Sarah Meade carried a message in reply from Westover to Williamsburg. Nelson asked St. George Tucker to convey his thanks and love to Elizabeth Dunbar. Nelson"s daughter by his first marriage was now a ward of George Wythe"s. At Westover, Mary Willing Byrd, "honored grandmama," looked at an infant and girls aged two, three, four, and five.
The crisis kept Nelson away from the December session of the United States Circuit Court in Richmond, where he formerly had practiced and sometimes still listened to arguments as a spectator. He was absent when the court announced verdicts in Samuel Gist"s four suits for debt against his onetime agent, John Tabb. In years long past, Tabb had loaded Gist"s vessels with tobacco and had waited for the Hope Hope to arrive from the Gold Coast with slaves for him to sell. Gist won all four cases. Since the start of the suits, Tabb had been in "a state of mental derangement." to arrive from the Gold Coast with slaves for him to sell. Gist won all four cases. Since the start of the suits, Tabb had been in "a state of mental derangement."
John Page reached Philadelphia later in December. The day after New Year"s he tried to sell his gold watch for $60. The treaty with Britain approved by Washington"s administration and by Federalists so distressed him that he contemplated not seeking another term in Congress. He was not reelected. He later wrote: "John Adams and A. Hamilton shut me out." Page saw both his country"s fortunes and his own in decline. His financial straits had forced him to sell for too little the interest in the Dismal Swamp Company given him by his father. "No doubt," he wrote, "the Value of Shares must have en-creased" in the eighteen months after he left the company. He would not benefit, but the company"s bright prospects must be obvious to "all who know anything respecting the Dismal Swamp & the intended Ca.n.a.l." William Nelson, Jr., one of the managers, believed that he and his partners at last had found the way to succeed: lumber.
Visiting Westover to console Mary Willing Byrd, Sarah Meade knew that she and her friend must soon part. David Meade took stock of his finances in the fall of 1794, "by which enquiry I discover," he wrote to John Driver, "that I cannot provide even a decent subsistence for my large family beyond the Spring of 95, unless money is raised by a very disadvantageous Sale of more property, & that what Estate yet remains to me is so reduced in quantum that no kind of application of it within my power can be nearly adequate to that purpose." He preferred to sell all his property in Virginia, then move to Kentucky, where he could live comfortably at less expense. Much of 1795 he devoted to arranging his affairs, preparing to go west in the spring of 1796. He said: "there has not been a time for some years past that I have been free from care." Kentucky promised fewer cares, perhaps freedom.
Meade had sustained his interest in the Dismal Swamp Company as one of its managers. He voted all four quarter-shares once the property of his wife"s father, William Waters. Two now belonged to his brother, Richard Kidder Meade. After service as one of Washington"s aides during the war, Richard settled on 1,000 acres in Frederick County. David Meade had not made the Dismal Swamp Company profitable for himself and his brother. In June 1795, John Driver gave him an advance of 30 from the company"s small reserve of funds. The slaves working in Meade"s intricate pleasure gardens at Mayc.o.x ate rice grown by slaves working on Dismal Plantation.
Hoping to close the forty-year-old debts contracted by his father and John Driver"s father, which with interest had mounted to 4,500 sterling, Meade negotiated with Benjamin Waller in Williamsburg, agent and attorney for Wakelin Welch & Company. Each man brought in another lawyer: Joseph Prentis and Littleton Waller Tazewell. Meade offered to clear the debt by conveying land at a valuation of 10 per acre and by covering the balance with his bond and Richard Kidder Meade"s. He thought Waller had accepted this arrangement. Yet, after several meetings and much discussion, Waller and Tazewell"s version of the terms differed from Meade and Prentis"s version. Each side accused the other of bad faith. Meade paid nothing.
Richard Kidder Meade kept his two quarter-shares in the Dismal Swamp Company and remained in Virginia. He felt constant anxiety that his wife would learn why her brother was confined in the Lunatic Hospital in Williamsburg. Mary Grymes Meade and Benjamin Grymes were children of Elizabeth Fitzhugh Grymes and Benjamin Grymes, a partner of Anthony Bacon"s in Fredericksburg from 1756 until 1758. The younger Benjamin had shown "a derangement of his brain" since childhood, worsening in adulthood with "the inflammation brought on by the use of ardent spirits." Richard had "long since" told Mary that her brother was in the Lunatic Hospital but dreaded that she would find out about "the murder, & trial" which had put Grymes there. He said he shuddered at the thought that Grymes might be released. "My earnest Prayer," he wrote, "is, that it would please Heaven to put an end to his his miserable existence." miserable existence."
To dispose of his quarter-shares in the Dismal Swamp Company, David Meade turned to George Keith Taylor, agent for Justice James Wilson. Wilson desired more of the Dismal Swamp than the Green Sea land he had bought from Patrick Henry. He contracted with Taylor to buy on his behalf. Taylor asked repeatedly: "are you certain that your funds will enable you to go through with this contract?" Wilson led him to believe that "immense" resources backed his purchases, an a.s.surance pa.s.sed on to sellers. Meade sold Wilson two quarter-shares and 1,450 other acres in and near the Dismal Swamp for 1,200 Virginia currency. Meade received no cash. He gave Wilson a deed, and Wilson gave him a mortgage on the land and on the shares as security for future payment. Even before the deed and the mortgage were exchanged, Taylor began to have doubts. The first bill of exchange he drew on Justice Wilson for $1,000 was returned protested.
In May 1796 the Meades, their children, their slaves, and George Royster headed for Kentucky. David and Sarah Meade were two years short of the thirtieth anniversary of their wedding. He predicted a bright future for the region: "in less than twenty years there will not be a tree left on the banks of the Ohio but such as are left for ornament-in half a century the population will equal any part of the world except (perhaps) China."
David Meade"s prediction had no advocate more ardent than Robert Morris. With his partners John Nicholson and James Greenleaf, Morris devised a land scheme embracing 6,000,000 acres in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia. If successful, it would repay Morris"s creditors and recoup his fortunes. The financing was tricky, but the idea was simple: make contracts for huge swaths of unoccupied land, then sell in bulk, at a large profit, to European investors who believed with Adam Smith that in America "purchase and improvement of uncultivated land is there the most profitable employment of the smallest as well as of the greatest capitals." The population of the United States doubled every twenty years; people moved westward over snow and ice; they sought small farms; each new farm raised the value of property near it. Who could decline an opportunity to make so sure a profit from America"s growth?
Between 1793 and 1795, Morris and his partners bought land. They committed themselves to pay almost $1,250,000 for 6,000,000 acres. More than 2,300,000 lay in Georgia, which then extended to the Mississippi River. Almost 1,000,000 lay in western Virginia, and more than 400,000 were in Kentucky.
Morris"s purchases attracted the attention of Thomas Blount, a new member of Congress from North Carolina. After talking with Dr. John Hall, a veteran land speculator and "a genteel, respectable & polite man & my friend," Blount saw how North Carolinians could benefit. From the state Dr. Hall would obtain grants in unclaimed regions, then sell them to Morris. Blount explained Hall"s plan to his brother, John Gray Blount: "it is calculated to afford to the State, at present the advantage advantage of Selling her worst Lands, which in reality have no value at all, for ready Money at the price of her best." Hall offered John Gray Blount one-eighth of his profits in return for help in North Carolina. Another speculator, David Allison, followed the same course in cooperation with Blount. Almost all the 700,000 acres Morris and Nicholson bought in North Carolina came from these two men. of Selling her worst Lands, which in reality have no value at all, for ready Money at the price of her best." Hall offered John Gray Blount one-eighth of his profits in return for help in North Carolina. Another speculator, David Allison, followed the same course in cooperation with Blount. Almost all the 700,000 acres Morris and Nicholson bought in North Carolina came from these two men.
Hall sold the partners 200,000 acres of swamp in Beaufort and Hyde counties, west of the Outer Banks and south of Albemarle Sound and the Dismal Swamp. As soon as Morris was ready to sign in June 1794, Hall wrote to Blount: "I wish you would engross all the Swamp in North Carolina-a little Marsh would answer." He added a warning: "every thing had better be kept a Secret."
Morris"s purchase would not become final until October, allowing him time to learn about the swamp. Blount a.s.sured the partners that the land was of "good quality." When drained, it "will become the garden spot of North Carolina." Morris"s agent, William Swansey, went to North Carolina to check this description. Dr. Hall wrote ahead to Blount: "you had better prepare the Gentlemans mind Who is employed to inspect the Land." Blount smoothed Swansey"s visit to the forks of the Tar River and the swamp. Morris afterward was told "that fully one half of it was worth Ten Guineas P Acre & could be reclaimed for one Dollar P Acre."
Morris and Nicholson contracted to pay $40,064 for 200,320 acres. The flaw in Hall"s plan to dupe the partners lay in the form of payment he accepted. Neither Hall nor John Gray Blount received "ready Money"; instead, Hall was to be paid in installments spread over twenty-two months. For half of the sum, Morris drew a bill of exchange on Nicholson, which Nicholson accepted and promised to pay. For the other half, Nicholson drew a bill on Morris, which Morris accepted. Thus Dr. Hall and David Allison joined the many holders of an "amazing quant.i.ty" of paper issued by Morris and Nicholson.
Morris hoped that war in Europe would soon end and that capital would flow to America. One of the London firms he had in mind as investors was Bourdieu, Chollet & Bourdieu. James Bourdieu and David Chollet had been among the founders of New Lloyd"s. Bourdieu was the "positive and peremptory" partner; Chollet was the "vastly civil" partner. Unlike Samuel Gist, Bourdieu had stood by the Americans during the Revolutionary War. The British government had intercepted his mail. But unpaid debts soured the partners" opinion of the United States. Independence had created a country that attracted the kind of people they knew all too well, such as a bankrupt French hatter seeking to make a fortune in trade: "he seems full of projects, and having nothing to lose, runs no risk in the event. He faild at Paris, and went to America as to the Land of Canaan." Even the obliging Mr. Chollet had to tell a visiting American not to bother trying to get a loan in the City because "the Name of America terrifies the mercantile Part of the Community." Bourdieu and Chollet looked at Morris"s activities with the same skepticism that all American schemes provoked in them. The partners wrote about merchants in the United States: "While they were subject to our laws their salutary force impressed a character of honesty, which the said merchants have abandoned in their revolution to return to their natural habits of ruse to attack the welfare of others.... Unless we had surplus money which could await the progress and advantages of a natural population growth, it would not be in these distant wilds that we would place it." The partners foresaw that in wartime European investors would lend their money to belligerent governments, not hand it to Robert Morris to enable him to redeem his notes and bills.
By January 1795, Morris had trouble raising money. He borrowed "at a dreadful interest," looking more and more like "a desperate gambler." That month he sent an agent to Kentucky: Charles Willing Byrd, twenty-four-year-old son of Mary Willing Byrd and nephew of Morris"s longtime mercantile partner, Thomas Willing. A few years earlier, a visitor at Westover had found him "a very pretty youth Lounging at home." Morris instructed him to secure t.i.tle to the large tracts the partners had agreed to buy for 25 per acre. Morris had to learn the same lesson that experience taught others: "a purchaser in Kentucky buys a lawsuit with every plot of unoccupied land he pays for there." He ordered Byrd to scrutinize closely any claims to t.i.tle competing with his.
Five years before Byrd went west, Kentucky held about 74,000 people; five years after he arrived in Lexington, the new state had 221,000. A traveler saw people walking "hundreds of Miles, they know not for what Nor whither, except its to Kentucky," a place they deemed "the Promised land...the Land of Milk and Honey." Once in the state, many turned to the practice of its "two princ.i.p.al Evils"; they began "to Quarrel about religion" and "go to Law about Land."
Kentuckians called Morris"s purchases "the speculating lands." At a price of 25 per acre, he could hardly expect to get good soil. Since a "Barren mountain would command as much as a fertile valley," sellers furnished chiefly the former. Only later did one of Morris"s partners learn that "almost every large tract then sold, was generally generally of land of land then then intrinsically worth nothing, & will be worth very little to the Resurrection." Sellers cheerfully gave a general warranty that they were conveying a secure t.i.tle "when they knew the t.i.tle was either not good, or at least doubtful." These were the men whom good-looking young Charles Willing Byrd went from Westover to Lexington to outwit. intrinsically worth nothing, & will be worth very little to the Resurrection." Sellers cheerfully gave a general warranty that they were conveying a secure t.i.tle "when they knew the t.i.tle was either not good, or at least doubtful." These were the men whom good-looking young Charles Willing Byrd went from Westover to Lexington to outwit.
On Friday, February 20, 1795, Robert Morris, John Nicholson, and James Greenleaf created the North American Land Company. They announced that investors could join them in "extreamly profitable" resale of property they had ama.s.sed. Their 6,000,000 acres were held by the company"s trustees. Capitalized at 50 per acre, 30,000 shares would sell for $100 each. Dividends were to come from profits on sales of land. The founders guaranteed 6 percent per year. Their security for paying dividends was the 9,000 shares they held. They a.s.sured potential investors that the company"s t.i.tle to its land was secure. Its agents would fan out to survey farms, lay out towns, erect mills, make roads, and establish stores to sell tools and stock. The first settlers would "readily agree" to pay $2 per acre. As farms multiplied and land values rose, shareholders" dividends would exceed 6 percent, and the value of shares would grow to "four or five, or more likely ten times" the original purchase price. All this, Morris said, "without either Risque or trouble."
The North American Land Company at once attracted critics and satirists. In Paris, newspapers published warnings from France"s minister to the United States, Jean Antoine Joseph Fauchet, naming Morris as the archvillain of fraudulent land sales. In Baltimore a satirist signing himself "TIM. BROADBACK "TIM. BROADBACK"-a play on the name of Morris"s a.s.sociate Daniel Brodhead, surveyor general of Pennsylvania-proposed a mock scheme to rival that of the North American Land Company. He would get claims to 20,000,000 acres at twopence per acre, then capitalize his land company at two shillings per acre. Although he would have a nominal capital of $5,333,333.33, he calculated that $50,000 cash would be enough to make a start sufficient to attract subscribers, who would buy shares to keep him afloat because they already held so many of his notes. "Thus, with a little address we may make a South Sea SCHEME SCHEME of it." of it."
Morris scattered copies of his company"s prospectus and blocks of 1,000 shares among merchants on the other side of the Atlantic, calling his plan "the best that ever was devised in America." He told London merchants: "the uncultivated Lands in the U States now afford the safest and most profitable speculation of any thing in this world." People in Britain who picked up a pamphlet ent.i.tled London Considered as the Metropolis of Europe for the Operations of Commerce and Finance London Considered as the Metropolis of Europe for the Operations of Commerce and Finance gradually realized as they read that its chief purpose was to encourage investment in American land. The author conceded that speculations might "miscarry" but added: "European speculators, properly guided by men of judgment and integrity, can wish for no more rapid means of enlarging their property." As an example of the rapid rise in value, the author told a story of Francis Farley"s purchase of the Land of Eden from William Byrd. Farley had paid 1,000 guineas, then eleven years later had refused an offer of 28,000 guineas for the tract. Through his investment, "his capital had been placed at the compound interest of 25 per cent.... Many fortunes, which could be considered as immense in Europe, have been acquired there through similar speculations." gradually realized as they read that its chief purpose was to encourage investment in American land. The author conceded that speculations might "miscarry" but added: "European speculators, properly guided by men of judgment and integrity, can wish for no more rapid means of enlarging their property." As an example of the rapid rise in value, the author told a story of Francis Farley"s purchase of the Land of Eden from William Byrd. Farley had paid 1,000 guineas, then eleven years later had refused an offer of 28,000 guineas for the tract. Through his investment, "his capital had been placed at the compound interest of 25 per cent.... Many fortunes, which could be considered as immense in Europe, have been acquired there through similar speculations."
Four months after the North American Land Company was established, bills of exchange James Greenleaf had drawn on Dutch financiers began to come back protested. Greenleaf could not keep his commitments to Morris and Nicholson for District of Columbia lots or the North American Land Company. Morris"s notes and bills drawn in 1793 and 1794 were, he said, "daily falling due." His only recourse was quick resale of land.
To this end Morris sent his son-in-law, James Marshall, younger brother of John Marshall, to London. Morris had interested the Marshall brothers in purchasing 160,000 acres, the residue of the Fairfax proprietary, from the Fairfax heir in England. Those negotiations had included Henry Lee. Morris turned to Lee again as James Marshall prepared to leave for London in October 1795. Lee was just about to buy George Washington"s share in the Dismal Swamp Company. If he could afford $20,000 for that venture, he could afford to help Morris. Although Morris and Nicholson already owed Lee $21,500 for land in and around Matildaville, Morris asked Lee to lend him $40,000 in cash. Morris would draw bills of exchange for that amount on William Temple Franklin, his agent in England for the sale of New York land. Marshall would take them to London, where they "would be duely paid." For the safety of this loan Lee could rely "on the promises of Judge Wilson." Lee produced the cash. Morris drew up bills, payable to Lee, and entrusted them to James Marshall.
Morris wrote letters of introduction for Marshall to Bourdieu, Chollet & Bourdieu, as well as to other merchants in London, Amsterdam, and Leipzig. To William Temple Franklin, he wrote: "The Lands are daily increasing in Value, there is no possibility of Loss, on the Contrary immense profits are certain." Morris drew up instructions for selling North American Land Company shares and tracts. Marshall was to investigate the Amsterdam and Rotterdam loans that Greenleaf had promised for lots in the Federal City. Morris gave Marshall a packet of papers: copies of deeds, testimonials about Georgia land, a copy of William Swansey"s report on North Carolina swampland, and "a description of Kentucke Lands." Armed with these, Marshall sailed for London. The men he went to meet did not need the warning a young Englishman sent from Virginia to his friend in Lancashire: "Let every man beware of those who go to England to sell land."
VII.
TERRAPHOBIA.
ON NEW YEAR"S DAY, 1796, Alexander Macaulay, merchant of York Town and a manager of the Dismal Swamp Company, signed an agreement with Thomas Shepherd of Nansemond County. Shepherd contracted to make the company"s affairs his sole occupation for five years as agent and business manager.
Macaulay, now forty-one, had grown heavy in ten years in York Town. He looked prosperous, but he was not. For the preceding four years he had drawn large bills of exchange which were returned to his creditors, protested. He "suffered greatly" by the financial panic in London in 1793. In the following year, John Jameson, fellow manager of the Dismal Swamp Company and fellow resident of York Town, consented to Macaulay"s drawing on the company"s funds for "his own use." By the time Shepherd signed, Macaulay had taken $2,000. In 1796 he drew much more. One entry in his accounts showed that he paid "Self per receipt $8040.34."
Macaulay wished 1795 to be the year he freed himself from debt. Instead, he lost a suit in the United States Circuit Court. He heard from John Wickham, acting on behalf of people stuck with his bad bills. In August his brig Helen Helen, laden with a valuable cargo, ran aground near York Town during a hurricane. Another brig, homeward bound from Madeira, he lost to a British privateer. He thought it best to send his daughter, Helen, and his son, Alexander, to Scotland for education because the teaching of boys and girls in Virginia was contaminated with "French principles." But he could not afford a proper education for them. In January 1796 he had not yet paid for 280 barrels of corn purchased two years earlier. He must soon stop pretending that he was going to repay the money he had taken from the Dismal Swamp Company.
Thomas Shepherd was "an intelligent young gentleman," who owned a broken-down sawmill and a gristmill near the northeastern margin of the swamp, not far from the unfinished Dismal Swamp ca.n.a.l. He was to lead the company in its new direction-profits from lumber. The Dismal Swamp Company bought a half interest in his mills and shared the expense of repairing them. At the joint charge of the company and Shepherd a ca.n.a.l was to be cut in the heart of the swamp to connect the eastern boundary of the company"s land with the Dismal Swamp ca.n.a.l, as well as another feeder to run from the Dismal Swamp ca.n.a.l to Shepherd"s mill pond. After getting approval from the company"s managers, he could cut roads and ditches into its tract to bring out timber and transport it by water to the sawmill. There the logs would be cut into boards or shingles. If he and the company did not renew their agreement in 1801, the company could buy his interest in the mills.
The partners had largely abandoned both of William Byrd"s proposals: draining the swamp and making the enterprise self-supporting by farming. Only a few slaves remained at Dismal Plantation. A member of the Ridd.i.c.k family acted as overseer. Making shingles would require hiring slaves, and the price of shingles was so low that Shepherd did nothing but "hold possession." By allowing others to take trees in return for half the profits, the company in 1795 and 1796 cleared 219 6s. 7d. Virginia currency. The sum would have been 519 if Alexander Macaulay had not withdrawn 300 in cash. The company"s new plan for a water route to the sawmill met difficulties. The Dismal Swamp Ca.n.a.l Company had cut off water to Shepherd"s pond. The mills needed repair partly because they had been idle since 1795. Shepherd soon learned that holding possession required much effort to ward off timber thieves.
David and Sarah Meade, their seven children, and about forty slaves paused on their way to Kentucky to spend time at Richard Kidder Meade"s plantation in the Shenandoah Valley near the foot of the Blue Ridge. As they prepared to leave, David Meade saw that three slave men had run away. He was not surprised by the "defection" of his postilion Syphax and of Boddow, but the departure of the elder Billy, he said, "vexes my spirit." Meade a.s.sumed that they would return to the vicinity of Mayc.o.x. If caught, they were to be sold. Billy was taken at the Shenandoah ferry, trying to cross the river. Once he was back with the Meades, he expressed "much contrition," and he was not sold. The next day, June 8, 1796, the Meades" coaches and horses, accompanied by the slaves, followed their three hired wagons full of baggage to Winchester on their way to Pittsburgh.
Nine days later their wagons and coaches rolled over the unmarked grave of General Edward Braddock, whose body had been buried in the road so that Indians and Frenchmen could not find it. From Pittsburgh they went down the Ohio River by boat. The last leg of their journey took them overland from Limestone on the Ohio to Lexington, 60 miles southwest. They reached their destination a month after leaving Richard Kidder Meade"s plantation.
About 1,600 people lived in a growing town of frame houses, log houses, some stone structures, and new two-story brick homes. Charles Willing Byrd welcomed the Meades to Lexington. He had just told Robert Morris that he was fixed there for life. He helped them find lodging. The first person to call on them was a granddaughter of Speaker Robinson"s. She came with her husband, "Mr. West an Irish Man, who proves a very attentive, friendly & agreeable acquaintance." Otway Byrd visited his half brother in the summer. Returning to Virginia, he could report to Mary Willing Byrd that her son and her friend Sarah Meade were doing well.
David Meade bought about 550 acres at the mouth of Jessamine Creek nine miles southwest of Lexington. He designed a comfortable house and pleasure gardens far more extensive and elaborate than those at Mayc.o.x. In the summer and early fall the family remained in Lexington while slaves and a few white workmen began a one-story cl.u.s.ter of rooms Meade called "our Cottage." Its centerpiece was a square dining room, 20 feet on each side, wainscotted in black walnut, with deep window seats. In the last week of October, after the leaves in his "n.o.ble" stands of sugar maple had turned yellow, the family moved from Lexington to the estate, living in a small log house through the winter while work continued, even in snow. They occupied their unfinished five-room house in April. Meade was eager to add new rooms, some frame, others stone and brick. The house spread into a villa.
Meade began his gardens in the spring. His imagination saw a stone fence with red and white roses, hedges covered by honeysuckle, with an outer gate that opened to a winding road through a park, opening onto a broad, sloping expanse of smooth bluegra.s.s in front of his house. He designed vistas leading the eye into the distance, as well as bowers, nooks, and alcoves concealing a comfortable bench or a small Chinese temple. Except for corn, which almost every Kentucky farm seemed to produce in abundance, Meade did not work food crops. Any farming was done by others, who rented some of his land. He did experiment with growing hemp. Above his gate Meade put the name he gave his new home: Chaumiere des Prairies-Cottage in the Meadow.
On Easter Sunday, April 16, the Meades" oldest daughter, Sally, was married to Charles Willing Byrd. Growing up at Mayc.o.x and Westover, the bride and bridegroom had known each other all their lives. David Meade said that the match "adds one more to our family." Before the summer pa.s.sed, Sally Meade Byrd was pregnant.
In 1796, John Tyndale Warre, executor of the estate of the Bristol firm Farell & Jones, sued David Meade in United States Circuit Court in Richmond for an old unpaid debt of 115 sterling. Warre"s attorney won a verdict, and a writ of execution against Meade"s property was given to the United States marshal. Richard Hanson, Warre"s agent in Virginia, reported this outcome but added that Meade had moved 800 miles away. The distance in a straight line was about half that, but with a large number Hanson conveyed his disappointment. At the end of 1797, Meade wrote to his largest creditor in Britain, Wakelin Welch, accusing Benjamin Waller of "extreamly faithless" conduct in their negotiations for clearing the old debt. If Welch and Waller imitated Warre and Hanson by pursuing Meade in federal court, he warned, "I will avail myself of the vicinity of a foreign government and avoid unjust persecut