Every Day Life in History: Vacation in Colonial Williamsburg pt. 2

To get to the Revolutionary City, one can choose to ride the shuttle bus or...

...take the much more beautiful and very picturesque pathway to the past walk instead, which is what I normally did. And sometimes my wife did as well. In the earlier part of the morning (8:00), with the sun up and the heat still at bay, this was the perfect way to begin our day.

And then the world of the past opens up before you...the tranquil outskirts of the old city transports visitors, who quickly forget the modern day, back in time to the 1770s...

My wife Patty, a long-time historical reenactor, spins wool into yarn, dyes it naturally, and then knits or crochets scarves, mittens, sontags, etc., out of the completed work. Yes, she's a sheep-to-shawl type of girl and does the entire process of cleaning and carding before spinning.
Needless to say, she has an insatiable love for where the wool has come: sheep!
(if you look real close, you can see a sheep laying in the shade near the back fence)

I am also a long-time reenactor, and will, at times, portray a farmer from the past. Speaking to modern folk about how the everyday farming families lived in the old days helps them to understand the hardships their ancestors did just to survive.

This farm, on the edge of the city, was a welcoming scene upon moving from present to past.

As we found our way closer to the busier part of town, I was in awe at the restoration of this colonial city, not only of the very active "downtown" portion on Duke of Gloucester street (where the majority of the crowds tend to go) - which is about as historically perfect as any city can be - but given that the structures along the side street "neighborhoods" also were historically accurate just gave it that final touch of authenticity that any historian looks for. It fully made me realize how much time, effort, dedication, and, yes, money was spent to restore such an important and vital part of our nation's past - a gift for all future Americans to enjoy and, more importantly, learn.

Thank God for all involved past & present!

I am not sure the name of the house in the next couple of pictures, but it certainly did set up a perfect background for my next photographic encounter.

I very much appreciate the kindness of Williamsburg employees, and of their willingness to "play" - that is, pose 'naturally' for photographs.
I saw this young lady walking along the road and struck up a conversation, asking her what it was like to work in such a wonderful place. Like many others who are employed here, she gave a big smile and told me that it was an amazing experience and that she enjoyed it very much.
I can only imagine...

My daughter, who knows exactly what I like and look for in taking photographs, captured the encounter like a champ!

I also mentioned to the young colonial a little about Michigan's own Greenfield Village, which is another fine place to visit if you are a history buff, for Williamsburg and Greenfield are like sister open-air museums - the roots (restoration) are similar in that both began roughly around the same time and each has saved, restored, & reconstructed historic structures, and even though the outcome is different, both are excellent in their own right.
It's always good to promote the rich history America has to offer.

After a very nice visit, I continued on my way, enjoying and taking in as much of the 1770s as I could.

Even though I did have a carriage ride (see my first Williamsburg post), I did most of my traveling the way the majority of the populace did in the 18th century: by foot!

Strollinging the streets of Williamsburg early in the morning while wearing my period clothing was one of my most favorite things to do. It just felt...right...like I belonged...

Anyone who knows me personally will tell you that I like to talk. Oh, there is no question there! I'm a talker! It drives my wife crazy to walk our own modern neighborhood with me because I speak to anyone I see outside working on their lawns or sitting on their porch. I mean anyone.
"Who was that?" she'll ask me after I've struck up a conversation with someone standing at their gate a few blocks from our home.
"I don't know," comes my reply.
"Then why were you talking to him (or her)?"
"They were standing there," I reply, "I said 'hi' to them, they responded back and, well, we just started talking!"
"How can you do that?!?"
"I don't know. Just natural for me, I guess."
Yep - that's just about it, too.

Hey look! People!

One can learn so much if they only weren't too shy to speak with others.
It was during a conversation I had with the good folks here that I found out why there were ladders on the roofs of many of the houses - - they were there in case of roof or chimney fires. Yes, it's what I guessed it to be, but it was good to hear the answer from one of their historians (and not whip out an i-phone right there in public) so I knew for sure.
See what conversations can do?

I found, as I meandered throughout Williamsburg, the workers here were very friendly and happy to talk with me, which I appreciated greatly.
Questions always seemed to be happily answered.

At Greenfield Village, which I mentioned earlier, Model T automobiles are constantly riding throughout its streets, effectively giving off a strong turn-of-the-20th-century feel for the visitors watching them put-put past the many Victorian buildings.
That's what the 18th century style carriages being pulled by the clip-clopping horses do for Colonial Williamsburg: effectively helping to create the sights and sounds of the common transportation atmosphere of the 1770s/80s.

On any ol' street in Williamsburg you may see a driver with his team of horses attached to a carriage parked 'neath a shade tree for a rest from the summer's beating sun.

This is a scene from over 240 years ago brought back to life like no other place but Colonial Williamsburg can.

Sometimes moving off of Duke of Gloucester Street will give the visitor a momentary peaceful easy feeling, which adds so much to the realism.
It's like a perfect summer picture.

Even as we walked down Duke of Gloucester Street, the horses with carriages would pop out of a side street or moving across the field...it was quite a sight to see

Just as common in days of old, we also find carts being hauled by oxen.
I love this place!

As we strolled about town, taking in the beauty of colonial America, we could feel the pangs of hunger engulfing us. Yes, it was time to find another place to dine.
And with multiple taverns to choose from, we thought to give Shields a try.
Built in the first part of the 18th century by his father-in-law, James Shields took over the business in the early 1740s, attracting the "lower gentry and successful middling customers."

The line up to have lunch at the 1745 Shields Tavern

This is, perhaps, my favorite sign in all Williamsburg.

The sign from another perspective...

I suppose I could be considered a "successful middling customer."

My family chose to dress in their period attire for morning and early afternoon, but as the heat of the day rose they had changed into modern clothing, so, by the time we dined in the mid-day, I was the 'lone wolf' who remained 1770s.
Yep - - I'm that kind of guy.

Here I am with my son Miles.

And here is my wife and daughter.

The line of candles made for an interesting sight.

Since Mr. Shields died in 1750, I do not believe that's who our host was representing. But he spoke kindly to us all as his customers and gave what was, to me, a beautiful Irish toast of good health and long life:
"We drink to your coffin. May it be built from the wood of a hundred year old oak tree from a seed that I shall plant tomorrow."

Shields is another reasonably priced place to go for the mid-day meal. However, should you feel the need to enjoy a very different period ambience, the tavern, like the others in town, opens up at night to a step-into-the-past atmosphere that cannot be replicated during the day. Yes, it's a bit pricier (which is why we didn't partake), but, I hear, it's a wonderful experience.

In the evening of the day - - maybe for our next visit here...

Our bellies filled with fine food, it was off to explore another historic house.
Peyton Randolph was quite a man, and one of the true unsung Founding Fathers who deserves much more recognition than the little he has gotten outside of Williamsburg.
I took the liberty of including here a bit of what the Colonial Williamsburg website has written on this patriot:

One of the oldest and most original houses in Colonial Williamsburg, the Peyton Randolph house was built in 1715 by William Robertson. Sir John Randolph purchased the home in 1721, and later purchased the land next to it and built a second home on the east lot in 1724.

Sir John Randolph, the only Virginia Colonial to be knighted by the English Crown, was highly respected and very wealthy. When he died in 1737, the house was under the care of his wife, Susannah, until his second of three sons, Peyton, turned 24 years of age. The first son, Beverley, inherited property in Gloucester County and the third son received land in the city’s southern edge. Susannah remained in the house until her death in 1754.

The beautiful front hall staircase

Peyton Randolph was on the black list of patriots the British proposed to arrest and hang after he presided over the Continental Congress in 1775. Upon his return to Williamsburg, the volunteer company of militia of the city offered him its protection in an address that concluded:

"May heaven grant you long to live the father of your country –

and the friend to freedom and humanity!"

Dining room

If his friend George Washington succeeded him as America’s patriarch, Randolph nevertheless did as much as any Virginian to bring the new nation into the world. He presided over every important Virginia assembly in the years leading to the Revolution, was among the first of the colony's great men to oppose the Stamp Act, chaired the first meeting of the delegates of 13 colonies at Philadelphia in 1774, and chaired the second in 1775.

Dining room

Dining room in background
Lindsey *tried* to teach me the proper way a gentleman should stand, but I don't believe I have it down just yet.
But I will get it, mark me!

Word of Parliament's intended Stamp Act brought Virginians and their burgesses into conflict with the Crown itself in 1764. Peyton Randolph was appointed chairman of a committee to draft protests to the king, the House of Lords, and the House of Commons maintaining the colony's exclusive right of self-taxation.

Guest bedchamber

This responsibility put Peyton Randolph at odds with Patrick Henry, the Virginian most noted for opposition to the tax. At the end of the legislative session in 1765, Henry, a freshman, introduced seven resolutions against the act. Peyton Randolph, George Wythe, and others thought that Henry's resolutions added nothing to the colony's case and that their consideration was improper until the colony had a reply to its earlier protests.

Bed chamber for niece Elizabeth

In the final days of the session, after many opponents had left the city, Patrick Henry introduced his measures and made the famous speech in which he said “Caesar had his Brutus, Charles the First had his Cromwell, and George the Third...” prompting cries of treason from the remaining burgesses present. Peyton Randolph, though not yet Speaker, was presiding. When Speaker John Robinson resumed the chair the following day (May 30), Henry carried five of his resolves by a single ballot. A tie would have allowed Robinson to cast the deciding "nay." Jefferson, standing at the chamber door, said Peyton Randolph emerged saying, "By God, I would have given one hundred guineas for a single vote."

Hall stairway window - simply beautiful!

Peyton Randolph is considered to be the first President of the United States, as he was the President of the First and Second Continental Congresses and played an important role leading up to the American Revolution. He chaired the meeting during Patrick Henry’s fiery “Give me liberty or give me death” speech, negotiated the return of the gunpowder to the Colonial Magazine from Governor Dunmore, and his home served as a meeting place for other revolutionaries like George Wythe and Thomas Jefferson, who was also his cousin.

Peyton & Betty Randolph's bedchamber

Following Peyton’s death in Philadelphia in 1775, his body was pickled in a barrel and sent back to Williamsburg. Today, he is one of few buried under William and Mary’s Wren Chapel, in the Wren Crypt, with his father Sir Randolph, and brother John Randolph, a Tory. The books willed to Peyton from his father were given to his cousin Thomas Jefferson, who added the large collection to his own library. These books would later become the first in founding the Library of Congress. After Peyton’s death, his wife, Elizabeth “Betty” Harrison, resided in the home until her death in 1782.

Peyton & Betty Randolph's bedchamber

The Peyton Randolph House is featured on every ghost tour in Williamsburg and boasts title of most infamous structure, next to the Public Gaol and Wythe House, as the most haunted houses in Williamsburg. Since its construction in 1715, about 30 people have died in the house, from children to adults, due to freak accidents, murders, war, to mysterious natural illnesses.

Looking below stairs

Presenter/interpreter Lindsey & I:
This young lady did a remarkable job in her presentation/tour of the Peyton Randolph house. Through her words and expressions, she brought those who once lived here alive again.
Thank you for such a wonderful tour!

As I mentioned in my first installment, one of the daily events I made a point to see were the interpreters presenting as our Founding Fathers & Mothers. Now, there are over a dozen of these "Nation Builders" (as Williamsburg calls them), so considering that my stay there was for less than a week, I could not be in the audience to see each one - I was at the mercy of their schedule.
But those who I did see were remarkable in that their knowledge of who they were portraying was mind-boggling - they became the Founder through 1st person interpretation and were able to easily answer whatever question came their way with comfortable and accuracy. I believe what impressed me the most was their willingness to even take questions from the audience.

My friend Larissa and I as Paul Revere & Sybil
Ludington presenting at a local middle school.

I know this as a personal fear, for I, just this year, began presenting as Paul Revere at reenactments, and being new to this sort of thing scares the daylights out of me.
So, now that I've taken the steps in my own historic interpretation, my admiration for folks who 'become' an actual historical person goes without saying. And this admiration I have is not only for the interpreters in Williamsburg, but to the folks I know here in Michigan who's knowledge and sincerity in their accurate portrayals are every bit as strong: Fred Priebe as Abraham Lincoln, Bob Stark as Benjamin Franklin, Dave Tennies as Senator Jacob Howard (1860s), and, more recently, Larissa Fleishman as Sybil Ludington (considered to be the female Paul Revere).
You may recall in my previous Williamsburg post of my encounter with the 'elder' Thomas Jefferson.
Today's meeting happens to be with Patrick Henry, which was a perfect segue after visiting the Peyton Randolph House.

Patrick Henry was a lawyer, patriot, orator, and willing participant in virtually every aspect of the founding of America.

In 1760, he appeared in Williamsburg to take his attorney's examination before Robert Carter Nicholas, Edmund Pendleton, John and Peyton Randolph, and George Wythe.

Henry’s words were considered by many to be to the point of treason in defending his resolutions against the Stamp Act in the House of Burgesses May 30, 1765.

As mentioned earlier (and I repeat it here due to its importance), Henry was so carried away by the fervor of his own argument, the plainly dressed burgess from Louisa County exclaimed that "Caesar had his Brutus —Charles the First, his Cromwell — and George the Third — " At this point, cries of treason rose from all sides, but with hardly a pause, Henry neatly "baffled the charge vociferated" and won the burgesses for his cause. Five of his resolutions approved, the new leader in Virginia politics saddled his lean horse and took the westward road out of Williamsburg. (After his departure, one of the resolutions was overturned.) Henceforth, Patrick Henry was a leader in every protest against British tyranny and in every movement for colonial rights.

Richard Schumann interprets the character of Patrick Henry for The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.

In March 1775, Patrick Henry urged his fellow Virginians to arm in self-defense, closing his appeal (uttered at St. John's Church in Richmond, where the legislature was meeting) with the immortal words: "I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death."

Henry's call to arms was carried over the protests of more conservative patriots and was one of the causes of the order for Lord Dunmore, the royal governor, to remove some gunpowder from the Magazine. Henry, "a Quaker in religion but the very devil in politics," mobilized the militia to force restitution of the powder. Since Henry's action followed the British march on Concord by only a few hours, it is said to mark the beginning of the American Revolution in Virginia.

Mr. Patrick Henry and I.
It was an honor to meet another of our Founding Fathers.

Henry played a prominent role in the fifth Virginia convention, which convened on May 6, 1776, and on June 29 was elected the first governor of the Commonwealth under its new constitution, adopted the same day. Patrick Henry served five terms as the first and sixth governor of Virginia.

He died in 1799 at his home on Red Hill Plantation in Campbell County.

Amazing...first Thomas Jefferson and now Patrick Henry.
Which of our Founding Fathers will I meet next?
I suppose you'll have to wait until the third installment of my Williamburg adventure to find out...

Another tour we took was at the "R. Charlton Coffee House," located in the prime area very close to the Capitol Building on the east end of Duke of Gloucester Street.

A sign of the times~

In the early 1760s Richard Charlton was a local wigmaker and barber, and included Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, and George Wythe among his clients. It was around this time that he also became proprietor of a newly converted coffeehouse near the Capitol.
(photo by Mike Karp)

I enjoyed the hospitality shown to me inside Mr. Charlton's Coffee House.
During our tour, visitors were offered coffee, tea, or hot chocolate.
I chose...

...hot chocolate - - real colonial hot chocolate.
Thick and rich and v-e-r-y chocolate-y.
And very good, I might add.

When chocolate arrived in English North America, it was available as chocolate nuts, as shells, and in processed “chocolate cakes,” lumps of grated powder and sugar ready to be stirred into boiling water, mixed with whatever ingredients one preferred, and frothed with the little hand mill. In pre-Revolutionary Williamsburg, unsweetened chocolate went for about two shillings sixpence per pound, slightly more than a free unskilled laborer or sailor earned in a day. Obviously, few of those men drank chocolate.

Ben Franklin, in 1785, wrote in a letter to John Adams: “The superiority of chocolate, both for health and nourishment, will soon give it the preference over tea and coffee in America which it has in Spain.”

One of a number of fireplaces inside Charlton's.

During the ten years the coffeehouse was open, many important political figures frequented its rooms, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Lieutenant-Governor Francis Fauquier, as well as many merchants and gentry.

Richard Charlton’s Coffeehouse is also significant because of the role that it played in the town’s history. Beyond its list of famous patrons, the Coffeehouse served as an important center of social, political, and business activity within the town, due in part to its proximity to the Capitol.

A gentry establishment that permitted no women, its sequestered rooms provided a place to conduct confidential business, or to host exclusive gatherings.
I was happy to be/play a part!

Perhaps more important to history than these private salons was the front porch, a simple shelter spanning the building's face. Here, Williamsburg's objection to England’s Stamp Act of 1765 manifested as a vicious mob.
The story goes that George Mercer, a stamp agent just sent from England, was chased down Duke of Gloucester Street by an angry crowd which protested the tax. It was on the porch of R. Charlton's Coffeehouse where Mercer took refuge, protected by no less a person than Governor Fauquier.

Spying the Capitol from a Charlton window.
Wait---is that a mob coming toward the coffee house?

The Stamp Act was challenged. George Mercer arrived in Williamsburg to take his post as Virginia’s distributor of the stamps. The town had swelled to capacity with the General Court in session. A hostile crowd confronted Mercer as he arrived, demanding his immediate resignation.
Mercer was befuddled. He was in England when the Stamp Act was passed and wasn’t expecting so much opposition. He protested that if he were to resign, it shouldn’t be because he feared for his safety.
The crowd—or was it a mob?—followed him to the Coffee House, where he found Virginia governor Francis Fauquier and several members of his Council.

As the growing crowd called for Mercer’s answer, the governor took the stamp collector by the arm and escorted him safely away. They headed to the Governor’s Palace to discuss Mercer’s dilemma.
(picture courtesy of Colonial Williamsburg)

Virginians were leaders of the opposition to the Stamp Act from the beginning. Patrick Henry led the passage of the Virginia Resolves in May 1765, leading Gov. Fauquier to dissolve the House of Burgesses, but also igniting opposition across the colonies.

Okay, so when I was there we had no angry mob, just a man and woman conversing.
But back in 1765...

It was mainly the force of Fauquier’s personality that saved the day for both men on this porch confrontation:

"It was growing dark and I did not think it safe to leave Mr. Mercer behind me, so I again advanced to the Edge of the Steps, and said aloud I believed no man there would do me any harm, and turned to Mr. Mercer and told him if he would walk with me through the people I believed I could conduct him safe to my house, and we accordingly walked side by side through the thickest of the people who did not molest us."

The next day, Mercer resigned his Stamp Act commission and announced he was returning to Great Britain.

Charlton's wife, Jane Hunter, with her sister Margaret operated a millinery shop known as...

...Margaret Hunter's Millinery.

Go ahead and laugh if you wanna, but I had nearly my/our every move documented. Hey! I don't know when and if I'll ever be back to Williamsburg, you know? This just may be a once-in-a-lifetime trip.

In the 18th century, millinery shops were almost always owned by women, and upon walking in, we were greeted by Mrs. Hunter herself!

Today at Colonial Williamsburg's Margaret Hunter Shop, interpreters portray the millinery business as the Hunters and include the ever-changing 18th-century fashions, their importance in colonial society, and the economics of importing.

From fabric sold in the shop, milliners would make items such as:

shirts
shifts
aprons
neckerchiefs
caps
cloaks
hoods
hats
muffs
ruffles
trim for gowns

"In a word, (Millinery shops) furnish everything to the Ladies that can contribute to set off their Beauty, increase their Vanity, or render them ridiculous."

In addition, interpreters practice using the accurate trade methods and technologies appropriate to the various trades of millinery, mantua making, tailoring, and stay making.

Milliners sewed and sold – among other things – cloaks, mantles, hats, hoods, caps, gloves, petticoats, hoops, riding costumes, and dresses for masquerades – all in the latest fashion.

By offering many goods, the 18th Century millinery shop attracted a wide range of customers. A Colonial Williamsburg milliner probably served every class from the plantation owner to his slaves, who needed pins, needles and thread.

The best customers, though, were people with money. That meant the upper class and the middle class – planters, tradesmen and shopkeepers. Modern Americans frequently are surprised to learn that these groups had clothes made for them by others.

“An impression we often encounter is that people in this period commonly made their own cloth and clothing,” an interpreter said. “The truth is that very little of this was done at home. There simply wasn't enough time for one family to make its own cloth and clothing.”

In addition, clothing producers knew then -- as they do now -- that one way to keep sales humming was to keep styles changing. The whirl of fashion during the 1700s was endless and often contradictory.

Consider these facts: during the 18th Century, ladies' skirt styles changed five times. It was not unheard of for hat styles to change 17 times during a 2-year period.

Do you see the color sketch of the bonnet in the photo above this one? Well, the Margaret Hunter Shop milliners replicated it.
Here's the front - -

- - back - -

- - and side.

Mr. James Slate, was a tailor from trained in London. He catered to gentlemen customers in need of new fashions. Tailors constructed men's clothing from the measure of the man. He adjusted a basic paper pattern to fit the measurements. In the early 1770s there were more tailors than any other trade in Williamsburg.

No, I am not standing next to Mr. James Slate. This here is Mr. McCarty, one of the resident tailors who work at Mrs. Hunter's shop. I've known Mike and his wife for a number of years now, from back in the days when they lived in Michigan while reenacting the Civil War.

All of the clothing trades are practiced and preserved in Mrs. Hunter's store, including tailors who "cut to measure and construct clothing for citizens of every station; the gentleman's fine suit, the lady's practical riding habit, the slave's utilitarian jacket and trousers were all made bespoke (or custom."

Here is a waistcoat Mr. McCarty pointed out to me.
The size of the button holes were more for fashion than practicality.

Clothing was viewed as an outward sign of prosperity, and they did admit that a person might be judged by their clothes in a place where they were not known, but one truly and accurately could not be judged by his or her clothes alone. A lady who was dressed as a poor person and a poor person who dressed as a wealthy one never really became the station that they were appearing to be dressed. A lady would always be a lady no matter how she was dressed; because it was her deportment, manner, civility, fine bearing and speech that would betray her station. Only by looking at the appearance and the manner could one really see who was wearing what.
For one who has so little 21st century fashion sense, I found this fascinating.