The History of Hayfield

‘This very desirable Estate’

The history of Hayfield The History of Hayfield

The History of Hayfield

In memory of William Penn Taylor 1791-1863 who lived and died in Hayfield and was buried in its grounds.

The contents of this volume are copyright and may not be reproduced in any form or by any means without the consent of the copyright holders. Enquiries should be addressed to: James Retallack Group Resources Director Aggregate Industries plc, Bardon Hall Copt Oak Road, Markfield Leicestershire, LE67 9PJ Set in 9pt on 11pt leading in Frutiger Light and printed by: Orphans Press, Hereford Road, Leominster, Herefordshire HR6 8JT, Great Britain The History of Hayfield

‘This very desirable Estate’

The history of Hayfield in County Caroline in the Commonwealth of Virginia

RWD Fenn and JE Ellis

Bardon Hall, Leicestershire 2007 The History of Hayfield The History of Hayfield s sun. The south front of Hayfield in the winter ’ The History of Hayfield

Table of Contents

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations

Chapter 1 Hayfield and the Battailes 9

Chapter 2 Hayfield and the Taylors 43

Chapter 3 Hayfield goes back to front 69

Chapter 4 Hayfield and its restoration 87

Epilogue 104

Bibliography 109

Appendix 111

Index 114 The History of Hayfield

Foreword

‘This very desirable estate’: The History of Hayfield is largely the story of two families who crossed the Atlantic in the days when it took six weeks rather than six hours to make their home in Virginia. The Battailes came from Essex in the south of England and the Taylors came from Cumberland on the Scottish border, both settled in what became Caroline County in Virginia in the first half of the seventeenth century. The families became linked by marriage and Hayfield on the southern bank of the Rappahannock became the family home, first of the Battailes and then of the Taylors. The present Hayfield had at least two predecessors and survived the Civil War during which the dining room was often where the Confederate Campaign was planned. Hayfield’s history is a fascinating story closely related at different times to the social, political, religious, and commercial history of Virginia’s Caroline County.

When Aggregate Industries acquired Hayfield in 1997 it was almost derelict and not much thought was put into its restoration. However I visited the site in 2005 with the Vice President of Aggregate Industries Inc. Don Delano and we felt a restoration project should be undertaken as the structure was now under threat of becoming derelict.

We are indebted to the kindness of Professor Gary Stanton of Mary Washington University for sharing his profound knowledge of Virginian architecture so willingly, and to our Chaplain and Company Historian, Dr Roy Fenn, the consultant for the project who researched the lives of those who lived in Hayfield and wrote most of the text.

The final appreciation is to John Ellis, who whilst holding down his role of Management Trainee has spent many hours coordinating to make the restoration possible besides contributing the book’s last chapter.

GW Bolsover Chief Executive Officer The History of Hayfield

Preface riting for readers on both sides of the Atlantic inevitably puts a strain on the Wreadership whose patience has to be sought when the point being made appears to be obvious and explanation entirely superfluous. It is then that it has to be remembered that the complexities of pre-colonial England whilst obvious to readers in the English County of Essex are not so transparent to their counterparts in Essex County, Virginia, and vice versa. Consequently, what might at first sight seem to be an over-use of footnotes has been used to overcome this problem of balance and emphasis, leaving the reader free to continue without interruption when further explanation seems unnecessary. On the other hand it has been editorial policy to write in the English of England rather than in American English and for this the Company Historian and Archivist begs the indulgence of his American readers. Lastly, the authors would like to thank Orphans Press for so readily indulging their whims and so many changes of mind.

Abbreviations DND Dictionary of National Biography, CD-ROM, Oxford, 1995 OED Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, CD-ROM, Oxford, 1992 PRO Public Record Office, London

Acknowledgements The authors are very grateful for the help they have received from:

Graham Boyd Fiona Bengtsen and the Manuden Local History Society Biddy Bolsover Alice Cox, Assistant Archivist to Aggregate Industries Don Delano of Aggregate Industries US Liz Eny Sharon Hogan of Aggregate Industries US Professor Carter Hudgins of the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, VA. Andy Orr of Aggregate Industries Gareth Price Julia Randle, Archivist, Virginia Theological Seminary Jim Sinclair Associate Professor Gary Stanton of the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, VA. Lisa Trivett The History of Hayfield 9

Chapter One: Hayfield and the Battailes

n 1624 Virginia became a crown colony and the Virginia Company, Ifounded in 1609, lost its charter. Ten years later, in 1634, for its better administration, the colony, which by now had an estimated population of 5,000, was divided into shires on the English pattern, giving rise to the hope that:

Virginia may in time, Be made like England now; Where long-loved peace and plenty both, Sit smiling on her brow.

Emigration is popularly remembered on both sides of the Atlantic as being part of the process whereby were laid the very foundations of America. The good escaped oppression and the brave triumphed over misfortune1. Contemporary writers, however, had a poor opinion of the new American colonies and their colonists. From the first America was seen as a place to which undesirables might be sent, and the darker aspect of migration is rarely given full weight:

It is a matter of record that for the Englishman Virginia was a place where idle vagrants might be sent. It would have been inconceivable to a seventeenth-century Englishman to picture Virginia as anything but a disreputable penal colony since it was largely peopled by the scourings from English prisons, vagrants, waifs and strays, and those lured into migration by promises of land and wealth. Francis Bacon, the pre-eminent philosopher of that time, voiced much the same view in his Essay on Plantations. ‘It is a shameful and unblessed thing to take the scum of people and wicked, condemned men, to be the people with whom you plant.’ 2

1. Charles E Hatch, Jr, The First Seventeen Years. Virginia 1607-1624, Charlottesville and London, 1957, p.xi. 2. Ibid. The History of Hayfield 10

Sailing from London or Bristol, having paid £12 or so for their fares, crossing the Atlantic in a voyage lasting on average from five to six weeks, on a small overcrowded sailing vessel was a grim ordeal. Three out of every four, perhaps five out of every six, died prematurely, some during the voyage, others from disease on arrival, or later from Indian attacks.3 Most of one’s fellow settlers were either small landowners or indentured labourers who had contracted to serve a master for four or five years.It was required of the latter category, that ‘fornication he shall not commit, nor contract matrimony with any woman’ during the term of the indenture. But having completed their time, they might themselves become small landowners or hired workers.

There were some, however, who had little choice in their emigration. In 1617 James I had issued a proclamation whereby he hoped to achieve the more peaceful government of the Scottish border by transporting the more notorious malefactors to Virginia. Later, during the English Civil War, the same treatment was meted out to the enemies of the Commonwealth, and since it was always difficult to induce enough servants to emigrate, there was always a trade in those who had been kidnapped or tricked into crossing the Atlantic. Others were forcibly exported as a solution to London’s over-crowded prisons:

The contribution of the London prisons and penal institutions to the early growth of Virginia should not be underestimated. The Bridewell, set up under Queen Elizabeth for the education of destitute children, the care of paupers, and the occupation of vagrants, developed rapidly to become a correctional institution from which apprentices were cheaply bound. Two hundred vagrant or miscreant children (who, one suspects, were rounded up for the specific purpose) were sent over from this place of ill repute to Virginia in 1619 and 1620, and many more in later years. The ultimate fate of most has gone unrecorded but a few certainly survived to create their own dynasties. Henry Carman who came by the Duty in 1620 and Arthur

3. Godfrey Davis, The Early Stuarts 1631-1660, 2nd edition, Oxford, 1959, p.329. The History of Hayfield 11

Chandler who came by the Jonathan, both from the Bridewell, figure in the 1624 and 1625 Virginia censuses. Others such as Thomas Hecott, Thomas Fernley, Thomas Garnett, William Bullock, James Brooks, Thomas Cornish, and William Kerton in the 1624 census died, were killed, or had just disappeared by 16254.

A Calendar of prisoners in Newgate reprieved after judgment as fit for service in foreign parts of 1619 records the crimes of seventeen men for which they were transported to Virginia:

George Gascoigne for housebreaking, London. John Fyerbrasse for a stabbing, London. Nicholas Ball for stealing, London. Robert Heskyns for stealing a mare, London. John Michell for stealing, London. Roger Ward for stealing, London. John Cooke for stealing, London. John Lovett for stealing, London. William Sharpe for breaking into Lord Paggett’s house, Middlesex Nicholas Trott for plotting a robbery, Middlesex. William Clapham for breaking into Lord Digby’s house, Middlesex. Hugh Barrage for stealing a mare, Middlesex. John Peircy for housebreaking & stealing, Middlesex. George Sandes for stealing a gelding, Middlesex. William Narslake for stealing a mare, Middlesex. Maddar Julyan for stealing, Middlesex. John Robinson for stealing, Middlesex5.

On arrival the emigrants would have discovered that apart from the building of houses and a few ships, the colony had little or no industry. They would be dependent for their living upon agriculture, of which the two staple crops were Indian corn and tobacco, the former for consumption at home, and the latter for export.

4. Coldham, Peter Wilson, The Complete Book of Emigrants 1607-1660, 1987, Baltimore, pp.viii, ix. 5. PRO:SP14/111/146sp 14/111/146. The History of Hayfield 12

It is said that at the time of the French Revolution, one French émigrée asked another:

You have seen better days, dear? So have I.

The same may have been true of John Battaile ‘of the County of Essex, England’ and founder of Hayfield. By 1654, the year of his baptism6, his family appear to have seen better days and to have learned the bitterness of downward social mobility. It may be assumed that this John Battaile’s father was born at least c.1634, and that this social decline was by then well advanced. In which case, as a young adult, John Battaile could have seen emigration as a possible means of restoring the family’s fortunes.

In April 1684 a Certificate was granted, according to the provisions made in 1618 by the Court of the Virginia Company, to a certain Cadwalader Jones allowing him the importation into the colony, inter alios, of ‘John Battaile7. This measure was intended to encourage emigration to the colony by granting anyone who settled in Virginia, or paid the travelling expenses of someone else to settle in the colony, fifty acres of land. This right to receive fifty acres per person, or per head, was called a headright and the practice was continued when Virginia became a Crown colony in 1634 and the Privy Council ordered the issue of patents for headrights to continue. The procedure survived until 17798.

The fact that it was Cadwalader Jones, whoever he was9, who brought John Battaile over to Virginia on a prototype of a modern emigrant assisted passage scheme, would have been totally inappropriate were it not that

6. Mormon Family Search:Individual record: Compact Disc #7; Pin 237605. 7. Essex OB. 1683-6, p. 18. 8. ‘Headrights’, The Library of Virginia Online series on Research in Virginia Documents. 9. According to Mormon records: Cadwalader Jones, 1652-1693, lived in Essex County, son of Devonian Richard Jones, born 1631. Cadwalader married Katherine in Essex, Va c.1679. Alternatively: Coldham, op.cit., p.58. mentions a Chadwallader (sic) Jones himself who arrived at Archer’s Hope, James City in 1625, aged 22 The History of Hayfield 13 the Battailes, like the French émigrée, had indeed seen better times. But when did Battaile cross the Atlantic?10 Apparently:

patents were often issued years and even decades after the names of headrights were submitted, and the headright did not necessarily reside on the land described in the patent. Patents were often re-patented to clarify or strengthen the title11.

It is surprising that headright was granted to an impoverished John Battaile in April 1684 because if this be so, Battaile displayed an amazing feat of upward social mobility whereby;

within a few months of the time of his supposed arrival in the colony assumed a position of importance, and of command which seems, in this day, to be out of keeping with the manner of his arrival; the exact date of his coming, or by what ship, from what port, is not known12.

Battaile’s certificate was issued in April 1684 and within a few weeks he was being sworn in as ‘Under Sheriff for the South side of the Rappahannoc’13. He was a justice of the peace for old Rappahannock County by 1690 when he was commissioned as sheriff of that county, and he was a justice for Essex after the formation of that county in 1692 and in that year he was in command of a Company of Rangers operating against the Indians14.

He was sheriff of Essex County in 1692, 1694, and 1696, and in 1695, as Captain John Battaile, he received a similar certificate to the one issued in1684, for six hundred acres of land for the importation of twelve persons.

10. The Battailes are not listed in Coldham 11. Library of Virginia on line information on headright. 12. McGroarty, William Buckner, ‘The Line of Battaile’, The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, V, 41, pp. 175-81. 13. Order Book. 6th May, 1684, Essex. 14. Virginia Calendar of State Papers The History of Hayfield 14

He was elected as one of the two Members of the House of Burgesses for Essex from 1692-715. In his election he had, as it were, arrived, for the House of Burgesses, the lower house of the colony, was the first elected assembly in the new World. It first met in July 1619 in Jamestown and moved to Williamsburg, the capital of Virginia in 1699. Only free men of the colony had voting rights, and there was a fifty acre property qualification. Indubitably John Battaile was by now a man of considerable status, and by 1704 he was a lieutenant colonel of the Essex militia. He appears by this time to have been living on the site of the future Port Royal, and to have moved by the early eighteenth century a few miles up river to the opposite bank and the plantation, which according to his will, he ‘had of John Powell’.

In these circumstances it is difficult to believe that John Battaile rose from his humble emigrant status to that of Burgess in a matter of twelve years, 1684-96, and an explanation may well be that he had been in the colony for some years before Cadwalader Jones obtained his certificate in 1684 and Battaile was entered as a headright in Rappahannock County court. This makes one grateful for the suggestion Taliaferro makes that:

he was member of a clan of Battailes established in Southside Virginia by 1653 when a Mathew Battell, cooper, made a deed in Surry County.A year later, 1654, a John Battell patented 200 acres on ‘the west branch’ of Nansemond River16.

1654, however, is the year of John Battaile’s baptism in England which makes him incredibly precocious by any standards. But it all becomes very reasonable if the John Battell of the 200 acres on the west branch of the Nansemond was John Battaile’s father and it was he who is the headright of 1684. ‘The person who obtained a patent to a tract of land under a headright might not have been the person who immigrated or paid for the immigration of another person’17.

15. The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography Vol.3, p.425. 16. Taliaferro, op.cit., p.83. 17. Library of Virginia on line information on headright. The History of Hayfield 15

The Battailes, ‘the men of battle-array’18, came to Virginia from Normandy by way of England, taking six hundred years to complete the journey. Their arms, authenticated by the College of Heralds19, depict a griffin, symbolising valour, magnanimity, and a preference for death rather than capture20, appropriate enough for a family, several members of which were militarily active in Virginia.

The Revd Arnold Harris Hord, 1867-1951, son of William Taliaferro Hord, a prominent genealogist , claimed descent from the third Lawrence Battaile21 whose wife, Ann Hay Taliaferro,had even more exotic origins22.

A combination of family tradition and crested family silver gave Hord the confidence to believe that the Virginia Battailes were ‘descended from the family of this name anciently seated in the County of Essex, England’.

However, ‘the County of Essex, England’, occupying 3598 km2, is one of the largest in the realm and is far bigger than Virginia’s Essex County, even in its pre-1721 form of 2136 km2. It is now 740 km2 . Caroline County, which has no English nominal equivalent, is 1396 km2 which is nearer England’s middle range Hertfordshire’s 1637 km2. It would be interesting to know more precisely from which part of ‘the County of Essex, England’ the Battailes came. Unfortunately, some of the evidence which would

18. Battle, Battell, Batyll, Hubert Bataile c1140 A Descriptive Catalogue of Ancient Deeds [in progress] i (Essex); William de la Bataille 1196 Curia Regis Rolls [in progress] (Northumberland); John de Labatile c.1245 GF Black, The Surnames of Scotland, New York,1946, (lnchalfray); Simon le Bate1 1327 Subsidy Rolls, Sussex [Sussex Record Society]. Old French de la bataile ‘(man) of the battle-array, warrior’, PH Reaney and RM Wilson, A Dictionary of English Surnames, Oxford, 2005. 19. Of London. The heraldic description of the arms is ‘Gules, a Griffin segreant Or’ which signifies a yellow or golden griffin displaying its wings against a red background. The griffin or gryphon was a fabulous animal usually represented as having the head and wings of an eagle and the body and hind quarters of a lion. The Greeks believed griffins inhabited Scythia and kept jealous watch over the gold of that country.OED. 20. W. Cecil Wade, The Symbolisms of Heraldry or A Treatise on the Meanings and Derivations of Armorial Bearings. London, 1898. 21. 1766-1847. 22. The Taliaferros unblushingly claimed descent from Republican Rome. The History of Hayfield 16 The main street of the village of Manuden in the English county of Essex, much as John Battaile knew it in the early 17th centur y. The History of Hayfield 17 authenticate Hord’s belief is no longer available. Heraldic stained glass, for example, having survived Puritan zeal and 18th Century neglect, has succumbed to 19th century church restoration. In 1853 the antiquarian John Nichols, 1790-1871, reported to the Genealogist that in the parish church of Clare in Suffolk ‘there was to be seen a stained-glass window in which were the Arms of Battaile23’. This church was visited in May 2006, but the glass could not be seen, though in the chantry chapel in the church the Clare arms are depicted supported on either side by a griffin, which was used by Edward III for his personal seal. Likewise, relevant stained glass has been lost from the original Battles chapel in Manuden parish church in Essex24.

The Battaile connection with Manuden25, a settlement of Saxon origin, and now a prosperous commuter village 34 miles from London, began with the grant of the manor to Humphrey Battaile who is believed to have been born in Normandy c 1048-52. He also held the Essex manor of Wivenhoe on the estuary of the Colne, near Colchester and since 1964 the home of the University of Essex., whist his son William established the name in Surrey by the acquisition of the manor of Ewell. Matthew, another son, acquired the manor of Stapleford near Manuden, and his family’s occupancy is commemorated there by Batayles, or Batail’s Hall. Matthew’s grandson, William, in a rather grand gesture of piety, gave most of the tithes of Stapleford, to the priory of the Holy Trinity in London’s Aldate26. At the same time he consolidated the Bataille influence in Essex by giving the tithes of his assart27 lands in the parishes of Stapleford and Lambourn

23. The Genealogist Vol.2, London, 1853, p.399. 24. Carmichael, Christine, et al., The Manor of Battles Hall, Manuden, Essex, Manuden, 1996, p.3. Manuden, Essex, Mapelbec 1066 in Domesday., Manegedan c.1130. Probably ‘valley of the family or followers of a man called Manna’. Old English personal name +inga+denu. 25. AD Mills, Oxford Dictionary of British Place Names, Oxford, 1991. 26. Holy Trinity Priory, Aldgate, was the first religious house to be established inside the walls of London after the Norman Conquest, in 1107–8; one of the earliest Augustinian houses to be established in England; and the first to be dissolved, in 1532 27. Forest land converted into arable by grubbing up the trees and brushwood, a clearing in a forest. OED. The History of Hayfield 18 ed in 1864. estor , Manuden. Of medieval origin, it was much r The Battaile chapel, however, is original. The parish church of St Mar y The History of Hayfield 19 to their respective parish churches for, as he hoped, the good of his soul. Nigel Battaile28, another grandson of Humphrey Battaile, became rector of the prestigious Hertfordshire29 parish of Sawbridgeworth, which was at that time in the King’s gift. Clerical celibacy had yet to become de rigeur, and Nigel’s second son Richard extended the Battaile influence into Little Chishall, then in Essex and now in Cambridgeshire. Here is found John Battaile, born c.1250, a descendant of Nigel Battaile, clerk in holy orders, being described in 1295 as of both Manuden and Little Chishall. Meanwhile things continued to prosper for the Battailes at Sawbridgeworth where in the church, a fifteenth century hatchment depicts the Battaile arms as one of its quarterings.

For a century or more, from the mid-1200s, the manor of Pilton, now part of Bradwell juxta Mare, where the seventh century parish church, almost entirely built from materials derived from the third century AD Roman fort, once stood solitary on the Essex marshes, was held by the Battailes30. The king granted it to Emeric Battaile, who died in 1252. Saer Battaile, his son and heir, died in 1292; and Edmund his son; died in 1333.

In the parish of Elmstead, a few miles east of Colchester, there is further evidence of Battaile influence in Essex, where Richard Battaile purchased land which became known as the manor of Battells. Court rolls refer to it in the reign of Henry VI, 1422-71. Lastly in this survey of the Battaile connection with the County of Essex there is the manor of Ongar Park in the parish of Chipping Ongar which in 1420 went to Thomas Battaile, and when he died in 1439 it passed to his son John, whose son of the same name succeeded in 1473: Richard Battaile, his son, died in 1540.

The Battailes were not only prolific in Essex31, they were also influential. Thus, Thomas Battaile, c.1275-1332, was the King’s Mason and crenellated

28. Born c.1130 and who died before 1200. 29. Which adjoins Essex on its western boundary. 30. It is now overshadowed by the nuclear power station of 1957. 31. They also appear in Surrey, Kent, Hampshire, Berkshire, Northumberland , and Scotland. The History of Hayfield 20

the wall next to the White Tower at the Tower of London. In 1326 he was in charge of work at Caerphilly Castle in South Wales for Hugh le Despenser and is also known to have worked at Leeds Castle in Kent. It has been suggested that Battel Hall near Leeds Castle may have been built and occupied by this Thomas Battaile in his capacity as the King’s Mason. His brother, John Battaile, was Escheator32 for the counties of Essex and Hertfordshire 1352-66.

The Manuden historians have speculated that these two brothers, Thomas and John Battaile, built the Battles Chapel in the parish church of which it forms the north transept. The windows above its altar once showed the various arms of the Bataille family and families into which the Batailles married. It was discovered in 1930, when some restoration was undertaken to the chapel, that in the course of some earlier repairs stone was removed and reused which carried mason’s marks similar to those to be seen at Leeds Castle where Thomas Battaile is known to have worked. Use was made of Reigate stone at Leeds, which is not surprising for Reigate is in Surrey, a county which adjoins Kent, but it is surprising that Reigate stone was also used at Manuden, sixty miles away, in the north window of the Battaile chapel33.Were, however, Thomas Battaile involved in both buildings then the use of Reigate stone at Manuden has a rational explanation. It is also thought that members of the Bataille family were buried in this chapel from the early 13th until the 14th century.

The prestigious office of Escheator of Essex and Hertfordshire was also held by another John Battaile in 1366 and two years later, in 1368, the manor of Manuden appears as his, and his son, yet another John, born c.1354, is his successor in 1401. He made a gift that year of two acres of land in ‘payment of maintenance on some church lights’. These would have lit the chapel altar for the celebration of the eucharist, and were finally extinguished by the Reformation when the Crown took over such bequests

32. Escheators were officers appointed by the Lord Treasurer to ensure the escheats, ie uninherited property, in the counties to which they were appointed went to the King’s Exchequer. 33. Carmichael, et al., op.cit., pp. 2-5, 30, 31. The History of Hayfield 21

A hassock in use in the parish church at Manuden, woven with the Battaile arms. Note the local spelling of the surname.

A modern hassock in Manuden parish church commemorates John Bataille’s 14th centruy namesake and ancestor whose endowment provided the church with candles for the liturgy. The History of Hayfield 22

in the mid-sixteenth century. It was John’s brother, Thomas Battaile, who makes the last documentary appearance of the Manuden Battailes in 1444 when he rented land he owned at Manuden to William Fynderne who was succeeded as tenant by his son Sir Thomas Fynderne34.

It was then that the formal connection of the Battailes with Manuden seems to have ceased, for Sir Thomas Fynderne was succeeded by Sir John Heron who held the manor ‘of the king as of his Duchy of Lancaster’, not as a tenant, but as owner. Heron died in 1521 and his 17 year old son Giles inherited35. What had happened in Manuden to the house of Battaile? Had it succumbed to the Plague, or to the king’s displeasure, or had the escheators been escheated?

In 1538 Thomas Cromwell, 1485-1540, Earl of Essex and secretary to Henry VIII36, ordered each parish in England and Wales to keep a register of baptisms, marriages, and burials. At first the normal practice was to record such events on loose sheets, many of which have been lost or destroyed. In 1597 it was ordered that from the coming year each parish should keep a bound register and that older records should be entered into that register, the accuracy of the transcript being attested at the foot of each page by the minister and two churchwardens. Few parishes have records as far back as 1538; and many parishes began their copies in 1558, the

34. The Fyndernes had connections with the Derbyshire village of that name and it is considered highly probable that in the Wars of the Roses Sir Thomas fought on the Lancastrian side at the battle of Blore Heath in 1459 and survived the Yorkist victory. 35. The authority for this information is the Revd Philip Morant, 1700-1770, the Essex historian. His History and Antiquities of the County of Essex, was published in 1760-8 and ‘as a manorial history his work is most useful, but the genealogies are often defective and inaccurate; no monumental inscriptions or extracts from parish registers are given’ {DNB]. The present authors have made more use of Thomas Wright’s History of Essex, published in 1836, Based on Morant’s History, ‘Wright supplied much new topographical, historical, and biographical information’, [DNB]. Unfortunately Wright has little to say about the Battailes and one wonders if his rejection of Morant in this regard was deliberate...One wonders: was this Giles Heron the son in law of Sir Thomas More, 1478-1535 and executed for treason in 1540? 36. He is remembered as the principal promoter of the dissolution of the monasteries. The History of Hayfield 23 year that Elizabeth I came to the throne37. The Manuden registers, however, do not begin until 1561 and contain a note for the period 1641-1651 by a later incumbent that ‘during the confusion of these ten years an exact register was not kept’ which could be relevant for Battaile history. The registers as they are, in fact, make no mention of the surname Battaile, con variazioni or not. The will, however, made by George Battle, Yeoman, of the parish of Eastwood in 1634, though something of a rarity, shows the name had not completely disappeared in the county as a whole38.

We are then left with a gap of some two hundred years between Thomas Battaile’s 1444 lease and 1654 when a John Battaile was baptised in ‘Essex, England’. The actual church is unnamed, but from the foregoing account of things Manuden has a reasonable claim to have been the scene of the baptism. Then, sometime before 1684, the same John Battaile appears in Virginia.

In this period the Battailes seem to have lost their influence in Essex. Contributory factors were national disasters like the Black Death. It first appeared in 1348 and reappeared at intervals until the seventeenth century. In Essex the initial 1348 outbreak killed approximately one third of the population though mortality amongst the clergy was far higher. Some villages and hamlets were deserted and were never inhabited again.’ Its recurrence was a major cause of the Peasants Revolt in 1381 which was particularly active in Essex and in consequence the Lollards, with John Wyclif, c.1382-1430, as their prophet, flourished in the county. There were heresy trials and one who suffered was Thomas Bigley, the Vicar of Manuden, who in 1431 was burned at Smithfield for heresy, thereby achieving an entry in Foxe’s Book of Martyrs.

In 1666 the Black Death was still appearing in Essex and in nearby Bishop’s Stortford there were some 230 deaths recorded in a single year. But it was

37. Hey, David, The Oxford Companion to Local and Family History, Oxford, 1998, p. 341. 38. It has, however, by 1841, when it is completely absent from the census returns for Essex. The History of Hayfield 24

the quest for religious freedom, rather than the desire to escape disease, which led many from Essex to seek it in America. Puritans who found the Established Church still too committed to Catholic faith and practice tended to make their way there, like George Phillips, the Puritan curate of Boxted in 1615. He emigrated to Massachusetts in 163039 and helped found Watertown on the Charles river. He died in 1644.

Five years later, on 30th January, 1649, King Charles I, Defender of the Faith and Supreme Head of the English Church, was beheaded on a scaffold outside the banqueting-house in London’s Whitehall. When the bleeding head was held up, it is said the cry of horror from the crowd drowned the derisive shouts of the soldiers. During the trial and at the hour of his death Charles had behaved with a quiet courage and dignity which had won many to his side. The execution of a king sent feelings and detestation through the country which have never been forgotten. Not only did it outrage the deepest feelings of the country, it also alienated many who might have been Cromwell’s supporters, and thus made a restoration of monarchy and Church inevitable in due course. The regicides, it is said, little realized that in cutting off Charles’ head they were cutting their own throats.

From 1662 to 1859 the execution of King Charles was commemorated in the calendar of the Prayer Book and special services were held each year on 30th January. Charles thus came as near to canonization as it is possible to be in the Church of England and with his death the fate of Puritanism was sealed and the Church’s future ensured40.

With the public beheading of Charles I the Church of England as the established Church was suspended and priests, bishops, and sacramental religion made way for the lengthy sermons of painful preachers. Those

39. A Thomas Battaile, though of which county is not known is believed to have settled in Massachusetts in 1635. 40. These paragraphs are a paraphrase of JRH Moorman, A History of the Church in England, London,1954, pp. 240,241. The History of Hayfield 25 clergy who by conscience were prevented from accepting the new order, were ejected and their livings were sequestrated. Dr Edward Layhill, the royalist Archdeacon of Essex, like many others, lost his living. But Puritanism in Essex could take more extreme forms than clerical ejection. Matthew Hopkins, for example, had a three year career as a professional witch finder. A native of Suffolk, and a son of a clergyman, he moved to the little Essex town of Manningtree in 1644 where he became convinced that the practice of witchcraft was a danger to the nation. Supported by the Witchcraft Acts of 1563 and 1604 he procured the condemnation of 24 local witches, and overall he caused 60 alleged witches to be hanged in Essex for which he was paid 20s each ‘for his trouble’. Hopkins’ father knew John Winthrop, 1588-1649, another fanatical Puritan who lived for some years in Essex at Great Stambridge and who later became governor of Massachusetts. Ironically there were those who later joined Winthrop from Essex for whom Massachusetts proved to be rather more of a home from home than they would have liked. Salem, where they settled, was in a district known as ‘Essex County’ and it was here that Hopkins’s Essex witch trials were duplicated in 1692. An impassioned theocracy thrived in Massachusetts, as did a legal system according to which witchcraft was formally tried as an offence against the peace.

There were now those, however, who crossed the Atlantic to escape Puritan extremes and many of those who did so made their way to Virginia where, despite the times, the use of the Book of Common Prayer was still permitted. Overall, the colony’s loyalties were royalist. Both Sir William Berkley, 1605-77, the Governor, and the Assembly condemned the ‘traitorous proceedings’ whereby the king was executed, the monarchy and established Church abolished, and England became a republic. Consequently they declared their allegiance to the exiled Prince Charles. But in 1652 Virginia surrendered to the authority of ‘the Commonwealth of England as it is now established, without Kings or house of Lords’. Oliver Cromwell, the Lord Protector, died in 1658, his son, Tumbledown Dick, resigned in 1660, and in May that year Charles II landed at Dover and on May 29th arrived in London where he was received with general The History of Hayfield 26

acclamation, The news had reached Virginia by the Autumn and Sir William Berkley resumed the governorship. The 1662 Act of Uniformity, binding on both sides of the Atlantic, required the Book of Common Prayer to be used, ‘and none other’, in public worship, the clergy and schoolmasters to swear an oath of loyalty to the king, and those clergy who were not episcopally ordained or who would not accept the Prayer Book were ejected from their livings. In England this was the fate of nearly a thousand clergymen who would not conform, thereby giving a new word to the English language, that of nonconformist.

From 1635-1658 the Revd Samuel Southen, AM, was vicar of Manuden, which means he was the incumbent for the greater part of the Commonwealth, despite his Laudian High Anglicanism. There were, however, brief interludes of Puritanism, as in 1646 and 1650 when the parish was sequestrated and Nathaniel Rawlins and Paul Clement respectively served briefly as its ministers. Somehow, however, Southen survived, despite the opposition of the churchwardens and sidemen, and this survival was largely due to the support he had from the patron of the living who supported his Laudian ideals and Catholic minded Anglicanism. He died and was buried in the churchyard at Manuden in February 1658, a few months before Cromwell’s own death in September that year.

At Manuden, Southen was succeeded by James Hellam, who was incumbent 1658-1663. His theology was a mirror image of Southen’s; and whereas Catholic Southen survived into the Commonwealth, Hellan’s Puritanism survived into the Restoration of the Monarchy and the Church of England, and his flexible convictions allowed him to subscribe to the Act of Uniformity in 1662. Thus Manuden at this significant time for the religious development of John Battaile was served by, not one, but two Vicars of Bray each singing like their namesake that: The History of Hayfield 27

In good King Charles’s golden days, When loyalty had no harm in’t, A zealous High Churchman I was, And so I gained preferment. To teach my flock I never missed: Kings were by God appointed; And they are damned who dare resist Or touch the Lord’s anointed. And this is law I will maintain Until my dying day, sir, That whatsoever King shall reign, I’ll be Vicar of Bray, sir.

It is against this background that John Battaile, his family in reduced circumstances, was christened in ‘the County of Essex, England’ in 1654, migrated as a young man to Virginia, and, as has been seen, there prospered. Indeed, such was his prosperity that c.1687 he married Catherine Taliaferro41. She was one of the daughters of Robert Taliaferro, 1625-1670/1, also an English immigrant who, in March 1666 with Lawrence Smith, another immigrant and of whom more will be heard later, patented in partnership 6,300 acres on the Rappahannock at Snow and Massaponax creeks in what is now Spotsylvania County. Catherine lived only a short time after her marriage to John Battaile, and died without issue. Battaile’s second marriage was equally prestigious, and was to Elizabeth Smith, daughter of the aforementioned Lawrence Smith, and a sister of Sarah Taliaferro, wife of Col. John Taliaferro, also prominent in Virginian affairs. There were five children by this marriage: Hay, b.1692 and died in infancy; Elizabeth 1693-1770; John, 1695-1732; Lawrence,

41. ‘Lately married Catherine, one of the daughters of Mr. Robert Taliaferro, Dec’d,’. Essex OB 1687, p. 35. The History of Hayfield 28

1698-1750; and Nicholas, b.1701 Such then is the genealogy according to conventional wisdom42.

On January 20th, 1707-8, John Battaile, ‘being sick and weak in body but of perfect sense and memory’ wrote and signed his Will, and in less than a month it was offered for probate. He makes no mention of the house wherein he lived, describing himself simply as ‘of the parish of St Mary’s, in the County of Essex’. Instead, he speaks of ‘the Plantation I had of John Powell’ which his widow Elizabeth is to enjoy for her life time, ‘with full power to clear and tend’. After her death the property is to go to his son Hay Battaile.

The inventory of John Battaile’s estate reflects a sophisticated standard of living which in some respects outshines that of Mr and Mrs Bennet in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Jane, it will be recollected, has to go on horseback when calling at Netherfield because her father Mr Bennet needs the carriage horses for work on the farm. John Battaile has ‘cart horses’ for that kind of work and a stable full of horses for the lighter duties with names like Smoaker, Fryer, Brimstone, Fire, Strawberry, and Snip. Mr Bennet however had a library wherein he found refuge from Mrs Bennet and her nerves. Hayfield’s predecessor, with its nineteen leather chairs, was

42. As set forth, for example, by WB McGroarty, ‘The Line of Battaile’, The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, V.41, pp.175-81. An alternative exposition is offered by HG Taliaferro, ‘The Wives of Colonel John Battaile of Virginia’, The Virginia Genealogist, pp.83-88. Taliaferro argues for John Battaile having had three wives. The second wife was ‘of the surname Smith and whose Christian name is unknown, and who died shortly after 1700’. By this wife was born John and Lawrence. The third wife was a total newcomer, ie Elizabeth Hay, by whom Hay, Nicholas, and Elizabeth were born. However, though Taliaferro buttresses his argument with substantial support, the verdict to at least one of the present authors remains open. This is for two principal reasons: 1). Whilst suggesting a birth order,Taliaferro does not offer any dates of birth. Elizabeth would seem to have been named after her mother Elizabeth Battaile née Smith, whose birth seems to have been in 1693. For Taliaferro Elizabeth has to be named after Elizabeth Hay, and her date of birth, for which there is at least some evidence moved to the dislocation of the dates of her sublings, for which there seems to be none.2) In the 17th and 18th Centuries the gentry were as preoccupied in America as in England with their pedigrees. The Battailes traced their roots back to the Normans and the Taliaferros to the Romans, and it is inconceivable that an all important Christian name would have been forgotten. The History of Hayfield 29 probably too small for such scholarly refinement, and there is no mention of books amongst John Battaile’s bequests. The Bennets had no sons, but had it been otherwise it would not have entered Mr Bennet’s mind to bequeath to one of them, as John Battaile did to his son Lawrence Battaile ‘an iron pott, frying pan, & pestle’. Nor in the English quiet of Hertfordshire would Mr Bennet have much need for Battaile’s domestic arsenal of ‘3 guns and 2 carbines, & 1 Buckanere gun’. The Battailes had but three white servants which would have been quite inadequate for Mrs Bennet’s household needs, but then she had nothing with which to match Mr Battaile’s eighteen slaves, all of whom he bequeathed to different members of his family. The inventory was valued at £591.2.0.

Elizabeth did not endure the deprivations of widowhood for long and she married William Woodford43, ‘within a matter of months’. The marriage, whereby her connection with the plantation John Battaile ‘had of John Powell’ ceased, was not without its frictions and in the early 1720s William Woodford was disputing with John Battaile, junior the terms whereby Elizabeth inherited some slaves under the provisions of her late husband’s will.

Nicholas Battaile, like many Virginians, found the Atlantic a means of contact and communication with, rather than a cause of separation from Europe. The garden gate, as it were, of his new Hayfield opened on to the tidal Rappahannock and gave him direct access by sea to Bristol and London where he is found in 1725. William Woodford, junior was there, too, perhaps with his wife, the widow of the late John Battaile, senior. Nicholas was staying with an uncle ‘in order to be more convenient for his further Improvement in learning’, and Woodford wrote to John Battaile, junior about other plans his brother had in mind:

Your brother Nick says after he’s of age to dispose of land; & should then have a mind to Sell….. You’d be kind to send him an estimate of & Value of his Estate wh[ich] he much wishes to know44.

43. Born c.1664, in Gloucester County VA. 44. London, 17th December, 1725, William Woodford to John Battaile, Jr., cited by Taliaferro, op.cit., p.88. The History of Hayfield 30

Such travel, of course, despite its doorstep to doorstep convenience, was not without its hazards which were not restricted to the elements. In 1655 the Rappahannock was seized, perhaps by a Royalist warship, on her return passage to Britain and later recaptured by a Commonwealth ship. Her name suggests she was built in Virginia and that she was one of the vessels using the river from which she was named. In 1694 the Truelove had the ill-luck to be seized by pirates. Both vessels could have made use of the riverside facilities at Hayfield45.

Nicholas Battaile was twice married: firstly, in 1726, a year after his visit to London to be polished, to Mary Thornton, daughter of Col Francis and Mary Thornton. and secondly, at a date unknown, to Hannah Taylor, though his son by this second marriage, Hay, was born c.176046. Thus, it would seem that it was as an elderly new husband, for he was in his middle fifties, that Nicholas Battaile built Hayfield as grand manor house, for his new wife.

Back in 1707, a few months before his death, Nicholas’s father, John Battaile, had purchased from his contemporary Thomas Merriwether47, another immigrant, now living in the parish of South Farnham, 1,631 acres ‘in the freshes of the Rappahannock, known as Solomon’s Garden’, which he bequeathed to his sons Hay and Nicholas ‘to be equally divided to them & their heirs forever and if either of them die before they come of age the survivor to enjoy it’. Hay, it will be recollected, died before coming of age and so Solomons Garden became entirely the property of Nicholas, whereon, according to Fall48,‘Flintshire & Hays (or Hayfield) estates were built on adjoining parcels, as identical mansions’. Flintshire no longer exists

45. Coldham, op.cit.,p.291. 46. The Revd RE Fall, People, Post offices and Communities in Caroline County, Virginia 1727-1969, McDonough, Georgia, 1989, p.181.Fall, op.cit.,p.181. 47. c.1659-1708. 48. Fall, op.cit. p.181. The History of Hayfield 31 but its foundations have been said to be of the same dimensions as Hayfield which Nicholas named after Hay his late brother49.

That Nicholas Battaile’s plantation was known as Hayfield implies a measure of ordered agriculture50. But first the wilderness had to be tamed and this was part of the process whereby the frontier of colonial Virginia shifted west out of the coastal plain, and the plantation is remembered as one of the three that led to the foundation of the town of Fredericksburg on land which was part of a tract of land patented in 167151.

However, be that as it may, it is known that Nicholas’s new Hayfield house was 53 feet long and 35 feet wide, and was built in brick under a roof of wooden shingles52. It was two storeys high, with an attic, and had a cellar of the same dimensions as the ground floor. It stood. adjacent to the Rappahannock and was bordered to the north by Flintshire53. The road from Fredericksburg to Port Royal passed to the west. A second building

49. James S Patton, Gay Mont, Port Royal, Virginia, ‘Hayfield’. If this be so, the house on the plantation John Battaile ‘had of John Powell’ where it would seem John and Elizabeth Battaile lived in 1707 when John made his will, cannot be the site of the present Hayfield. This makes the insurance of a wooden kitchen, no longer extant, serving a brick house in 1816 difficult to understand, whereas it makes better sense to suggest the wooden kitchen was the original 17th century house of the Taylor period. An archaeological examination of the kitchen site may elucidate this difficulty. Likewise when the foundations of Flintshire are said to be identical with those of Hayfield there is more ambiguity: is this Hayfield as shown on the 1816 insurance policy, or as the house now stands with a pair of 19th C single storey wings? It would be interesting to know of other 18th examples of architectural identical twins being built on adjoining estates. Lastly from whence came the name Flintshire? Hayfield had a family origin, Flintshire in North Wales is the former smallest of the Welsh counties, and PW Coldham’s The Complete Book of Emmigrants, 1607-1660, for example seems to list none from Flintshire. 50. On the other hand the place name Hay on Wye on the Breconshire side of the border between English Herefordshire and Welsh Breconshire commemorates a hedge or boundary rather than hay-making, and is locally refered to in this sense as The Hay. Such an interpretation would be compatible with a frontier society. 51. The two other plantations were Belvedere and Mansfield. Belvedere is 4 miles from Hayfield and Mansfield was some 7 miles away. Unfortunately Mansfield was destroyed in a fire. 52. Policy 129, Mutual Assurance Society Against Fire on Buildings of the State of Virginia. Archives of the Virginia Library. In the 1796 account the valuation of the house was $4500. 53. In 1796 this was the property of his kinsman John B Fitzhugh, and that of George Turner on South. The History of Hayfield 32

N

Hayfield c.1760 Lower level [Basement]

N

Hayfield c.1760 Main level [Ground floor]. It is likely that the stair cases were, at this time, against the opposite wall and faced the opposite direction, the main entrance being on the side of the house facing the river. The History of Hayfield 33

N

Hayfield c.1760 Second level [First floor]

N

Hayfield c.1760 Attic. Though not shown in the plan there were probably also dormers in the south wall of the attic. The History of Hayfield 34

stood 47 feet away from the house and was of a single storey. Constructed of wood, it was 32 feet long and 16 feet wide. Kitchens were built apart from the main building because of the fire hazard, but it seems strange that it was constructed of wood, and therefore far more susceptible to fire than the brick built house it served54. An explanation for this incongruity may be that what became the kitchen was the original timber built Hayfield. The building no longer exists, but its site is known with some precision from insurance policy plans, and there is a flag stoned walk that leads to nowhere today roughly in the place and at the distance that the kitchen would have been, so an archaeological solution could be at hand55. There was also a brick meat house, 12 ft square, standing 66 ft north of the main house, and a brick dairy, which was 12 ft square as well56. Finally, to the east of the dairy, and 45 ft from the kitchen there was an old diary, all wood, and 58 ft east of the kitchen there was a wooden turkey house.

Professor Gary Stanton of Mary Washington University has shown that Hayfield built by Nicholas Battaile is, in its central two storey portion, fundamentally the same Hayfield that stands today, 53ft by 35ft. He demonstrated this by comparing these dimensions given in the 1796 Mutual Assurance Policy with those he and his colleague took in January 2006. They were found to be virtually the same.

The attic measurements that my colleague and I took measured the out-to- out brick work at the top of the walls as 52 feet 9 inches by 34 feet 11 inches57. That is the same building. What is more conclusive is the use of a principal rafter roof, hand made nails, board cornice, and the particular way that the joists are framed into the girders in squares that is no longer employed after the 1770s. In my opinion the current house was begun somewhere between the 1740s and the early 1760s.58

54. In 1796 it was insured for $200. 55. We are indebted to Professor Stanton for this suggestion. 56. In 1796 only the house and the kitchen were insured. 57. Private correspondence from Professor Gary Stanton. 58. Ibid. The History of Hayfield 35

But to whose design was the new house which Nicholas Battaile built and to which the second Mrs Nicholas Battaile came to in the late 1750s? The most illustrious candidate was Richard Taliaferro, 1705-1779, a contemporary kinsman by marriage, and remembered as the much esteemed Virginian gentleman architect who designed c.1750 Wythe House, in Williamsburg, Taliaferro’s son-in-law, George Wythe, was the first law professor at Williamsburg’s College of William and Mary and with whom Thomas ]efferson spent five years reading the law as his mentor and friend. Later Wythe was one of those who signed of the Declaration of Independence.

Jefferson could find little aesthetic appeal in the domestic architecture of Virginia:

The private buildings are very rarely constructed of stone or brick; much the greatest proportion being of scantling and boards, plaistered with lime. It is impossible to devise things more ugly, uncomfortable, and happily more perishable. There are two or three plans, on one of which, according to its size, most of the houses in the state are built59.

Nicholas Battaille’s Hayfield, built in brick and with both south and north facing fronts with similar pattern of fenestration, and at the same period as Richard Taliaferro’s Wythe House did not come within Jefferson’s strictures. There was no portico on the southern front and the northern front, looking towards the Rappahannock, probably afforded the principal entrance to the house. Its size was also rather more substantial than some of its contemporaries as is evidenced by an advertisement inserted Williamsburg Gazette. by Lawrence Battaile, Nicholas’s brother, during 1766, offering a plantation for sale:

on the Rappahannock near Port Royal, upon which is a house with four rooms on the first floor and two above, a twelve foot porch in front; and at the rear, facing the river, a portico fifty-two feet long and eight wide.

59. Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, ed. Frank Suffelton, Harmondsworth, 1999, p.108 The History of Hayfield 36

Thus, even if Nicholas Battaile did not secure the services of Richard Taliaferro, it is far from unlikely that he was influenced by him in its design. Moreover, there was no shortage at this time of the skills requisite for house building and the advertisement which appeared in the Virginia Gazette, on 4th September 1770 was doubtless typical of many:

Just arrived at Leeds Town on the Scotsdale, Captain Read, 139 men, women, and boys, smiths, bricklayers, plasterers, shoe makers, house carpenters and joiners, weavers, barbers, peruke makers, a plumber, a glazier, a Taylor, a printer, book binder, a painter, several seamstresses and others. Also farmers, waggoners, other country labourers. Thomas Hodge.

Nicholas Battaile died within years of its completion and left the property to Hay, his infant son whose guardian was William Woodford, Junior, his grandmother Elizabeth Battaile’s second husband. Woodford, Junior would seem to have had keener academic interests than the bookless John Battaile and it was doubtless his influence that caused Nicholas Battaile to go to England to be polished in 1725 and for his son Hay Battaile to enter Robertson’s Latin school in King and Queen County.

Donald Robertson, 1717-1783, born in Aberdeen, educated at the University of Edinburgh, arrived in Virginia in 1752 where he was immediately hired by Col. John Baylor of New Market, a prominent member of the community in King and Queen County, as a family tutor. Robertson’s success as a tutor led him to establish a private boarding school which also prospered. He also held 130 acres of land and when his wife died in 1799 it was a mark of their joint prosperity that he sold 31 slaves. After 11 years as a widower, in 1818, he married for the second time. His wife, Rachel Clark was an aunt of George Roger Clark, a hero of the American Revolution. William Clark was another nephew who accompanied Meriwether Lewis on his explorations in 1804.

John Baylor’s interest in sound education, which probably reflects the spirit of the times, survived Robertson’s departure from Newmarket and in The History of Hayfield 37

September 1799 he advertised in the Williamsburg Gazette stating he ‘Will give liberal encouragement to a good classical Tutor, for two Boys only’60.

An account book, kept from 1758 to 1775, records the names of those who attended Robertson’s school, what he charged for books imported from abroad, laundry done under the supervision of his wife, and the instruction given in various subjects and languages, including Greek and Latin. He also records the cost of household repairs, hiring teachers, and every day needs of his pupils, of whom one of the most distinguished was James Maddison, 1751-1836, fourth President of the United States of America 1809-1817, Robertson prepared him for Princeton.

It is uncertain as to whether or not the young man Hay in adult manhood flourished financially. Some doubt is cast upon this being so by an announcement which appeared in March 1790 in the Virginia Herald whereby his uncle John Taliaferro advertised

Hayes, a plantation of twenty-one hundred aces on the Rappahannock, in Caroline, encumbered by Mortgages to the extent of fifty-four hundred pounds61.

Some, however, are sceptical about the identification of Hayes with Hayfield though none dispute that Hay Battaile was twice married, and that his first wife, Mary Willis, died in 1792, two years after the appearance of the Hayes advertisement, and that there were four children by this marriage. In 1794, now in his 30s, he married again, his new eighteen year old wife being Ann Daingerfield, the daughter of Colonel William Daingerfield, c.1716-1769, of Belvedere near Fredericksburg and four miles from Hayfield. Rectangular, of brick, and originally two stories, it was built in 1759 for the Daingerfield family who came to Virginia in 1660.

60. Marshall Wingfield, History of Caroline County, Virginia, Bowling Green, Va, 1924, p.86. 61. Cited by Wingfield, op.cit.,p.85. The History of Hayfield 38

In her childhood Ann Daingerfield may have had the benefit of John Harrower as her tutor. Colonel Daingerfield brought his indenture in 1774 and installed this Scottish merchant turned tutor in Belvedere for the education of his children and those of neighbouring planters. His diary is an invaluable primary source for Virginian plantation life at this time.

Thus Harrower described the food served in what Fall calls the ‘English manner’ at Belvedere:

Breakfast consisted either of coffee or chocolate, warm loaf bread of the best flour and Indian corn meal; dinner was served with smoked bacon or pork, with greens when the weather was warm., or sparrow grass62 when cold, and either warm roast pig, lamb, duck, or chicken, and green peas63.

But these were the times of the American War of Independence and at the Pan-colonial Congress meeting at Philadelphia in 1774 it was decided neither to export nor import from England until they had satisfaction, to pay no taxes to Britain, and to prepare to defend themselves if British troops attacked. In the mansions along the shores of the Rappahannock belts were tightened and Harrower complained

since 1st June, 1774, no tea was served, and for six months he had not drunk a dish of tea, nor a dram of plain spirits, due to hostility toward Great Britain, over the tax on tea64.

Harrower reported some of the harsher realities of war on 10th January, 1776 when he confirmed the rumour that the Virginian town of Norfolk had been reduced to ashes by the British troops under Lord Dunmore:

It was the Largest Town in the Colony and a place of great Trade, it being situated a little within the capes. Several Women & Children are killed65.

62. Ie asparagus. 63. Quoted by Fall, op.cit., p. 175. 64. Ibid. 65. Ibid. The History of Hayfield 39

On 4th July 1776 America:

declared her independence and unity, prefacing it with a précis of John Locke on the rights of peoples and Thomas Jefferson on the offences of George III. Jefferson also wrote into the declaration the aims of the new republic, transcending the record of quarrels which occasioned it. The revolutionaries pledged their faith in a new form of government which would guarantee equality and liberty at the same time for all conditions of men66.

But such momentous tidings took their time in making their way up the Rappahannock and it was nearly a week before the news arrived at Fredericksburg:

On 10th July, 1776, Col. Daingerfield sent Anthony Frazier67, his overseer at Belvedere to Fredericksburg to learn the cause of the firing of many guns heard at the plantation six miles south. Frazer returned with the information that the citizens were rejoicing at the news that the Congress had declared the United Colonies of North America independent of the Crown of Great Britain68.

Mrs Ann Battaile, with her Belvedere memories of fresh water drawn in a bucket by a servant from the well, would find things little different at Hayfield where in 1820 the ‘very fine Spring near the House’ was advertised as a desirable amenity69. Open fires provided the heating and the surrounding woodlands the fuel70. She may also have had recollections of the outcome for the negro blacksmith who confessed to stealing a

66. J Steven Watson, The Reign of George III 1760-1815, Oxford, 1960, p.205. 67. 1754-1804? 68. Fall, op.cit., p. 177. 69. The Virginia Herald, 8th April,1820 70. The diaries of the Princeton divinity student Philip Vickers Fithian, a contemporary of John Harrower, and family tutor at Nomini, the Virginia plantation house of Robert Carter in 1773-74 tell how ‘Mr Carter has a Cart and three pair of Oxen which every Day bring in four Loads of Wood, Sunday excepted, and yet these very severe days we have none to spare; And indeed I do not wonder, for in the Great House, School House, Kitchen, etc., there are 28 steady fires and most of these are very large’ [Cited by Fall, op.cit.’ p.175]. The History of Hayfield 40

breeding mare from Belvedere. Anthony Frazier the plantation overseer ‘stripped the man to the skin and administered 39 lashes with hickory switches’71.

In September 1796 Hay Battaile entered into an agreement with the newly founded Mutual Assurance Society Against Fire on Buildings of the State of Virginia72 .whereby Hayfield was insured for $4,50073. In 1805 the meat house was described as the meat curing house, perhaps also for the curing of tobacco, and in 1820 mention is made of an icehouse, still something of a novelty74. But even so it would seem that Hay Battaile was tiring of Hayfield and in 1816 he offered a substantial part of the plantation for sale in the Virginia Herald:

FOR SALE The 800 or 1000 Acres of Land in Caroline County, being part of the Tract on which I live, the greater part of which is Wood Land, is within 11 miles of Fredericksburg, 10 of Port-Royal, and ? of the Rappahannock River. A great

71. Ibid.,p.176. 72. The Society, incorporated by a Special Act of the Virginia General Assembly in December 1794, was unusual at that time in that it was proposed as a statewide insurance company. This led the Virginia General Assembly to impose a $3 million fire insurance subscription requirement upon the Society’s Articles of Incorporation. Consequently, the Society was unable to commence business until December 1795 and did not issue its first policy until February 1796. This gives Hayfield an early place in the Society’s history. 73. The occupant of Flintshire to the west was his kinsman John B Fitzhugh and to the east it was George Turner. There was a revaluation in 1805: Hay Battaille’s neighbours were now Battaile Fitzhugh to the West and Ann Turner to the East. 74. In 1795 the Alexandria Gazette advertised a tavern for sale in Annapolis as having ‘an ice-house built on the best construction, which will contain fifty large loads’ and in January 1803, Thomas Jefferson wrote that ‘if it is now as cold with you as it is here I am in hopes you will be able & ready to fill the icehouse. It would be a real calamity should we not have ice to do it, as it would require double the quantity of fresh meat in summer had we not ice to keep it’. In June 1814 a proprietor of a resort at Shocco Springs in Warren County, North Carolina, advertised that ‘additions and improvements have been made to his buildings, so as to render them more commodious and comfortable than heretofore. His Ice House is well stored with ice. [CR Lounsbury, ed, An Illustrated Glossary of Early Southern Architecture and Landscape, Oxford, 1994, p.187]. The History of Hayfield 41

deal might be said respecting this Land, but supposing no person would wish to purchase without first viewing it, I shall decline further comment. It will be shewn, and terms made known by application to the Subscriber. Hay Battaile. Bowling-Green, Sept. 25, 181675.

No sale, however, was completed and in 1817 it was again on the market at what Hay Battaile intended to be on more competitive terms.

The Land offered for sale by me some time past, not being sold, it is still for sale, and will be sold privately, in Lots to suit purchasers, and on term more liberal than before. Apply to the subscriber. Hay Battaile Hayfield, 3rd May, 181776.

But still there was no sale and Hay Battaile was reduced to offering excuses for its failure in being sold::

HAYFIELD FOR SALE This very desirable Estate was offered for sale some time ago, and I am induced to believe, that it was a pretty general opinion that I was not in earnest. I again present it to the attention of those that want to purchase, and assure the public my wish is to sell.

This Tract contains about TWO THOUSAND Acres, and is one among the most desirable Seats on Rappahannock, commanding a full view of the river. As I expect no one will purchase without first viewing it, I will only mention a few of its many recommendations, healthfulness of situation, fertility of soil; a large two-story Brick House, with all other necessary out Houses, Meadow Land, enough to make one hundred tons of Hay, which can very easily be reclaimed. There is a very good Meadow, already improved, and a good deal more by this Fall, with the privilege of seeding Wheat; a great variety of choice Fruit, very fine Spring near the House, also an Ice House.

75. The Virginia Herald, 25th September 1816. 76. The Virginia Herald, 10th May, 1817. The History of Hayfield 42

The Land will be shown by myself, or in my absence, by my son, Lewis, when the terms will be made known. Hay Battaile77.

This time Hay Battaile succeeded in the disposal of Hayfield. He sold it in October 1822 for $17,000 to the Hon John Taylor and it passed to his son, William Penn Taylor, in 1824. Hay Battaile himself, with a number of other planters, left Caroline County for the new tobacco lands in Kentucky. He died at Montgomery, aged 80. thereby ended a vigorous family life wherein Hay Battaile had ten children by two marriages, and an active public career which included his fair share of litigation and service in the Virginia House of Delegates 1815-20.

In their acquisition of Hayfield, the Taylor family received what Professor Stanton describes as ‘a colonial house of high quality brickwork, but unfashionable decorative interiors’78.

77. The Virginia Herald, 8th April 8, 1820 78. 31.01.2006, Gary Stanton to RWD Fenn in private correspondence The History of Hayfield 43

Chapter Two: Hayfield and the Taylors

ike the Battailes the Taylors came to Virginia from England, were Lcontemporaries, had surnames of Anglo-Norman origin79, and by the seventeenth century were Anglicans. But there the similarity ends. The Battailes probably came to Virginia from the south of England and were in the early seventeenth century socially downwardly mobile. The Tailors came from the English north and lacked social pretensions.

Hayfield’s connection with the Taylors probably begins with a certain James Taylor, born in Carlisle, a cathedral city in the northern English border county of Cumberland, in February 1610. He was the sixth of the nine children of Thomas Taylor, also of Carlisle, and Margaret Swinderby. Unfortunately the parish registers of Carlisle St Mary’s only survive from 1648 and those of Carlisle St Cuthbert’s from 1693. Moreover, the name James Taylor does not appear in the printed register of Carlisle Grammar School80 Thus there is no mention of a James Taylor in any of the three surviving principal sources.

In 1635, however, another James Taylor is said to have emigrated to Virginia on the sailing vessel Truelove.81 He was a recently baptized infant and as a working hypothesis it is assumed that that this James Taylor was a son of the James Taylor born in 1611. But why, one may ask, did the James Taylor born in 1611, with a wife and infant son, emigrate to Virginia?

79. Reaney & Wilson,op.cit,Taylor, Tayler,Tallyour: Walter Taylurc.1180, William le Taillur 1182, John le talliur, 2002. 80. I am grateful to David Bowcock, Assistant County Archivist at Carlisle for this information. 81. In September 1635 the Truelove, Master John Gibbs, is recorded as sailing from London to Boston, with a George Taylor, aged 31, on board. The Truelove was a frequent Transatlantic voyager, sailing, Master William Sheppard, from Bristol to Virginia in October 1670. Again, no Taylors are mentioned. The Mormon records are ambiguous and make mention of another James Taylor of Carlisle, who was born in 1635, who emigrated to America and also married Frances Walker in 1673, and like our James Taylor, died in April 1698. It is, perhaps, a matter of paying your money and making your choice. The History of Hayfield 44 ir ginia. to the Taylors before they sailed to make their home in V Carlisle Cathedral, much ravaged by the Scots and the Puritans and a familiar sight The History of Hayfield 45

The English county of Cumberland was seen as obscure and wild, poor and remote, and its clergy, slow to embrace the Reformation, were ‘probably the most ignorant’ in the country. Their poverty was shared by the gentry. In the late 16th century the bishopric was only worth £268 per annum and the deanery had become secularized and was held by a layman. In 1616 the city of Carlisle was ravaged by plague and Robert Snowden, who became Bishop of Carlisle that year, complained to James I:

The City of Carlisle is in great ruin, and extreme poverty, partly because the Lieutenant is not there resident, and partly for that the Inhabitants exercise themselves in no Arts or trades, neither have they other means of livelihood besides fishing.

In the Country at large many of the meaner sort live dispersedly in Cottages, or little farms, scarcely sufficient for their necessary maintenance, whereby idleness, thefts, and robberies are occasioned. And according to the nature of the soil, and quality of the air, (like that in Norfolk), the vulgar people are subtle, violent, litigious, and pursuers of endless suits by appeals, to their utter impoverishment.82

The bishop continues that the ecclesiastical condition of his diocese was aggravated by many parishes, having lost their endowments at the Reformation, were served by ‘poor vicars and multitudes of base hirelings’. Happily there was also ‘some show of grave and learned pastors’ in whom, though they seemed to be Puritans, his lordship had not found ‘any of repugnant opinion to any of our summons or laws ecclesiastical’. Finally, though his diocese was not ‘infested with Recusants [ie Roman Catholics] so dangerously as the [adjoining] bishoprics of Durham and Chester’, in his recent episcopal visitation some eighty ‘or thereabouts’ were brought before him as recusants, and for the achievement of ‘whose conversion, or reformation’ he proposed to ‘labour both by gentle persuasion and all other good means to the utmost of my power’.83

82. Cited by RS Ferguson in his Diocesan Histories : Carlisle, London, 1889, ch.8, and available on the Internet. 83. Ibid. The History of Hayfield 46

It would seem reasonable, therefore, to assume that one reason why James Taylor and his family crossed the Atlantic was to escape the poverty of Cumberland. A second factor may have been to escape the provisions of the via media of the established Church of England. As with John Battaile, it is a dilemma to know whether this was because the Church of England was insufficiently reformed to satisfy his Puritanism or was too much so to respect his Catholicism. But what ever the case, as described by some visitors in 1634 Carlisle cathedral did not follow the faith and practice of the Laudian Church of England with any accuracy:

The next day we repaired to their Cathedral, which is nothing so fair and stately as those we had seen, but more like a great, wild country church: and as it appeared outwardly so it was inwardly, neither beautified nor adorned one whit. The organ and voices did well agree, the one being like a shrill bagpipe, the other like the Scottish tone. The sermon, in the like accent, was such as we would hardly bring away, though it was delivered by a neat young scholar one of the Bishop’s chaplains, to supply the Lord’s place that day. The Communion also was administrated, and received in a wild and irreverent manner.84

The chance of making a fresh start in a new country where land was plentiful would have appealed strongly to many 16th century James Taylors.

The ship in which the Taylors sailed was ‘the barke called the Trulove of London of about forty-six tunn’ and belonged ‘unto Rowland Truelove of London, Clothworker’ to whom in 1621 the Virginia Company had assigned a share of land.85 He received a patent as ‘a new adventurer’ which allowed him to transport a hundred people to Virginia and was joined in this venture by ‘divers other patentees’ and ‘adventurers’.

84. Taken from ‘A Relation of a short Survey of 26 Counties, &c., observ’d in a seven week journey, begun at the City of Norwich, and from thence into the North, on Monday, August 11th, 1634, and ending at the same place. By a Captaine, a Lieutenant, and an Ancient, all three of the Military Company in Norwich’ cited by Ferguson, op.cit.. 85. Ibid., pp.68-70. The History of Hayfield 47

The parish church of St. George, Gravesend, Kent. It was here that the immigrants sailing in the Truelove made their communion and received a Sacrament Certificate from the incumbent and churchwardens. The rubrics of the Book of Common Prayer required Anglicans to make their communion at least three times a year, ‘of which Easter shall be one’. The possession of such certificate was required of anyone entering public office and seen as guarantee of the good character of those sailing for Virginia. The History of Hayfield 48

Undiscouraged by the Indian massacre of 1622, in August that year the Truelove Company sent supplies for their plantation. The records of the Virginia Company tell how ‘mr Trulove and his associates intend to proceed in their plantation beinge no whitt discouraged with this late massacre of the English by the treacherous Indians’.

A year later, in July, 1623, ‘Rowland Treawlove and Companie’ pledged anew to supply their plantation with ‘victuall apparrell and other necessaries’ to the extent of £400. Their patent had recently been renewed, or passed again under the seal, and a ship was dispatched with twenty-five new emigrants. The cargo included 100 hogsheads of supplies, valued at £536, for the plantation of the Truelove Society.

However, Truelove’s Plantation seems not to have flourished and in January 1624 Nathaniel Causey was directed by the Court of the Virginia Company in Virginia to:

take into his hands and safe custodie all such goods as belonge to the Company and Societie of Trueloves Plantatione.

This had been requested by the Company overseer and Causey, after making a ‘true inventory’, was to report to the Governor and Council. In the muster of 1625 Truelove’s Plantation appears to be associated with an adjacent plantation known as Chaplain’s Choice and founded in 1623.86

What happened to Truelove’s Society when Virginia became a crown colony is uncertain, but the Truelove makes occasional recorded appearances in Boston and Barbados. Robert Sedgewick who died in 1656, as the Governor of Jamaica has been identified with the Sedgewick who went over to New England in 1635, the year of the Taylors’ migration, in the Truelove, aged 24.87

86. Ibid.,p.70. 87. Article on Robert Sedgewick in the DNB. The History of Hayfield 49

In 1694 the Truelove en route from Virginia to Bideford with a cargo of tobacco was twice captured by pirates off the coast of Brittany and survived the experience. The name Truelove had some popularity as a suitable name for a ship and the vessel in which the Taylors sailed to America probably had contemporaries and certainly had successors, some of which, no doubt commemorated the surname of its owner, whilst others reflected emotions of love and affection. Lloyds list for June 30th 1749 makes mention of another Truelove sailing from London for Virginia. Aled Eames notes the name in his Ships and Seamen of Anglesey88 as does K Lloyd Griffith, ‘Ships and Sailors of the Dee 1277-1787’ in Maritime Wales89 and Gareth Haulfryn Williams, ‘Masnach Gomurol Arfon’.90 It occurs in fiction, too, as, for example, the title of Patrick O’Brian’s 1992 novel The Truelove.

But to return to James Taylor who arrived in Virginia as an infant in 1635 on the Truelove. Of his boyhood and early manhood nothing seems to be known, though the family would seem to have moved north from Truelove’s Plantation into Essex county, where in 1665 he settled in that part which became Caroline county in 1727.

In the year 1673 James married Frances Walker, by whom he had numerous children, of whom two at least died in infancy. In August 1682, now a widower, he married again, his new wife being Mary Bishop Gregory of Rappahannock County. There is, in the schedule of patents recorded by the Virginia Land Office and housed in the Archives at the Library of Virginia, the record of 744 acres of land on the south side of Rappahannock River to a certain James Taylor on the 20th October 1687. Mention is made of the Indian Path otherwise known as Mr Abrey’s Path, and Richard Gregory’s line in sight of John Gatewood’s Plantation.91 This may be our James Taylor, who by this time had an established position in

88. Aled Eames, Ships and Seamen of Anglesey, p.89. 89. Maritime Wales, vol 8, p.49. 90. Ibid., vol 3, p.21. 91. Source: Land Office Patents No. 7, 1679-1689 Land Office. The collection is housed in the Archives at the Library of Virginia. The History of Hayfield 50

local society as a landowner, justice, and Episcopalian. He died in 1698 at Bowling Green.

Like his father, James Taylor, 1674-1729, was also twice married. His first wife was Martha Thompson. Their grandson, James Maddison, 1751- 1836, was the fourth President of the United States of America. Their daughter, Hannah Taylor, b.1718, was the second wife of Nicholas Battaile, who built Hayfield, thereby begins the Battaile-Taylor connection with Hayfield.92

In 1716, James Taylor took part in the expedition of exploration led by Alexander Spotswood, Governor of the colony of Virginia, westward over the Blue Ridge Mountains. Spotswood called his companions the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe, and many of them, Taylor included, achieved prominence in Virginia’s later history. In 1722 he was awarded a patent for 8,500 acres of land in the colony and much of the modern town of Orange lies within this tract whereon Taylor soon established a successful plantation and built there his home, Bloomsbury, which still stands.

James Taylor’s second wife was Mary Gregory, b.1665.93 Mary Bishop Taylor, 1688-1770, James and Mary’s second surviving daughter, married Henry Pendleton and in 1716 Mary Bishop Taylor’s younger brother, John Taylor, 1696-1780, married Catherine Pendleton, 1699-1774,94 and thereby a Taylor sister and brother married a Pendleton brother and sister.

The Pendleton family now assumed a critical importance in the evolution of the Taylorian connection with Hayfield. Though the Pendletons originated from Pendleton in Lancashire, Philip Pendleton was baptised in 1654 in Norwich on the other side of England and it was from here that he and his brother arrived in Virginia in 1676.Philip was apprenticed to

92. Their son Hay Battaile was born in 1760. 93. She remarried after Taylor’s death in 1729 and died sometime after 1745. 94. They had eleven children, and one of his grandchildren was John Penn, a signatory of the Virginia signatories of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. The History of Hayfield 51

The Indian princess Pocahontas, 1595-1617 was baptized and christened Rebecca. She married an Englishmen, John Rolfe, in April 1614 and came to England with her husband and son in the same year. She was presented to James I and setting out for Virginia in 1617 she became fatally ill and was buried in Gravesend churchyard. The Taylors would have seen her grave on their way to St. George’s church in 1633. The History of Hayfield 52

Edmund Craske, Clerk of Rappahannock county, and by 1678 was Deputy Clerk of the county. In 1682 he married Isabella Hurt whose family had settled near Port Royal. He prospered, there were three sons and four daughters by the marriage, and in 1704 his name appears on the Rent Roll of King and Queen county as a land owner of 300 acres.

Though the marriage of John Taylor and Catherine Pendleton was blessed by the birth and survival of eleven children, it is unknown which of their five sons fathered John Taylor, 1759-1824, who was to become eminent in politics and agriculture and who acquired Hayfield in 1824 from his first cousin, once removed, Hay Battaile.

John Taylor was born at Mill Hill in Caroline county in 1754. Orphaned, apparently, at ten, he was adopted by his maternal uncle, Edmund Pendleton. Privately tutored, with his cousin James Madison95 as a fellow pupil, he later graduated from he College of William and Mary in 1770. He then studied law in the office of Edmund Pendleton in Bowling Green, and was licensed to practice in 1774. In 1776 he served with distinction in the American War of Independence, rising to the rank of colonel.

The war, however, nearly depleted Taylor’s fortune and the Government partially recompensed him for his services by granting him five thousand acres of land. After the war he turned to the practice of law with such success that he retired in 1792, with a fortune larger than that which he had lost in the war.

From 1776-1781 he was a member of the Virginia Legislature, joining the opposition to Washington’s plans ‘for a more perfect union and a more

95. James Madison, 1751-1836, the fourth president, of the United States of America, first served in the Virginia state legislature in 1776. As a member of the constitutional convention at Philadelphia in 1787, he was prominent in drafting and securing the adoption of the United States Constitution and became known as the Father of the Constitution. Secretary of state under Jefferson, he succeeded him as President 1809-1817, during which time the United States fought the War of 1812 with Great Britain. Madison died at Montpelier, in Orange County, in June 1836, and is buried there. The History of Hayfield 53 compact nation’ He was also a member of the United States Senate 1792-4, 1803, 1822-3, and 1823-4.and in considering his political life it is as well to remember the cautionary advice of Marshall Wingfield:

to understand the life and activities of John Taylor it must be constantly bourn in mind that he was a Virginian First and an American second.96

After his retirement from the Virginia Legislature, Taylor bought a large estate called Hazelwood on the Rappahannock river, near Port Royal97 and devoted himself as a gentleman farmer to agriculture. He was the first president of the Virginia Agricultural Society and his agricultural thesis, Arator,98 published in 1803, was one of the first books on agriculture written in America. The topics it covers include the improvement of soils, housing of slaves, rotation of crops, and conservation of forests. He writes in defence of slavery and calls for the deportation of free African Americans.

Taylor agrees with Jefferson that the institution of slavery was evil whilst arguing that it was ’incapable of removal, and only within reach of palliation’. In Taylor’s opinion ‘slaves are docile, useful and happy, if they are well managed’ and that ‘the individual is restrained by his property in the slave, and susceptible of humanity’. The blandishments as well as the terrors of religion indissolubly bind together the happiness and misery of both master and slave. In this he anticipated the later arguments that slavery was a positive good.99

96. Wingfield, op.cit.,p.193. 97. Taylor’s estate, Hazelwood, is on the National Register of Historic Places. 98. Latin, The Ploughman, a title reflecting Vergil’s Georgics and the strength of the Classical tradition in Viginian education as well as the character of the readership Taylor had in mind. 99. Eg of John C. Calhoun,1781-1850, ‘the cast iron man’, of South Carolina; Edmund Ruffin, 1794-1865, Virginian farmer and agricultural scientist, George Fitzhugh, 1806-81, lawyer of Port Royal, who maintained that ‘the negro is but a grown up child’. The History of Hayfield 54

It was, however, in other fields that Taylor’s writing made most impact:

Little-known today, Taylor’s work is of great significance in the political and intellectual history of the South and is essential for understanding the constitutional theories that Southerners asserted to justify secession in 1861.100

This time Hay Battaile succeeded in the disposal of Hayfield. He sold it in October 1822 for $17,000 to the Hon John Taylor and it passed to his son, William Penn Taylor, in 1824

Taylor’s closing years were dogged by ill health, but in 1822 he purchased Hayfield, two years before his death, aged 60, at Hazelwood where he is buried. In 1844 Taylor County in West Viginia was named after him and in 1924 the centenary of his death was commemorated by his portrait being hung in the Court House at Bowling Green.

In his will, made in January 1824, being ‘sick but of sound mind’, he left Hazelwood to his wife and then to his grandson John Taylor ‘after his grandmother’s interest theron shall cease’, and to his son William Penn Taylor:

my tract of land called Hayfield with all the negroes, stocks, utensils and crops growing or severed thereon at the time of my death to him and heirs forever.

His widow, Lucy Taylor, was his executrix, and William Penn Taylor, his son, was his executor.

William Penn Taylor was born c.1791101 in the rising town of Fredericksburg, which since 1781 had its own court, council, and mayor.

100. Joseph Sabin, A Dictionary of Books Relating to America 94486. Morris L Cohen, Bibliography of Early American Law 6333.(21527). 101. Salmon et al.,op.cit.,p.150. The History of Hayfield 55

He is said to have ‘received a limited schooling’,102 but this seems ungenerous both in the light of the ninth provision in his father’s will:

I give my books to my four sons reserving to their mother a power to select and retain such as she may choose for her life. and of the scholarly and literary achievements of his father, John Taylor, which must have bestowed at a least a veneer of education upon his sons.

As a young man he enrolled in 1812 with the Virginia militia in response to the declaration of war that year with Great Britain.103 The British made several landings on the southern banks of the Rappahannock River which the militia resisted. Before inheriting Hayfield he lived 1818-19 in King William County and it was probably at this period that he met and married Elizabeth Moore of Chelsea in that county. They were living, however, at Hayfield in 1824, when Mrs Taylor’s cousin, Julia Leiper visited on her way from Richmond to her home in Philadelphia.104 When in 1832 the Taylors visited Gay Mont, Elizabeth Taylor was deemed by one of the ladies of the house to be one of the most entertaining and fine ladies she ever knew and she hoped that she would make them a long visit105 So it is not surprising to read in the Richmond Whig and Public Advertiser, of Elizabeth Taylor of Hayfield’s marriage in May 1847, to J P Aylett, of the influential Montville family of King William County.

William Penn and Elizabeth appear to have been childless, but their two nephews, James and Bernard M Taylor, 1843-64, lived with their aunt and uncle from childhood. They were the youngest children of his brother,

102. The Internet, Biographical Dictionary of the United States Congress. 103. Marshall Wingfield, op. cit., p.232. 104. The Leipers and Taylors intermarried; Mrs William Penn Taylor’s mother was a Leiper of Philadelphia, the daughter of Dr James Hampton Leiper. It was at Hayfield that Julia Leiper met William Penn Taylor’s brother, Henry Taylor of Westmoreland and Spotsylvania Counties: they were married in 1825. 105. Source: James S Patton, Gay Mont, Port Royal, Virginia. The History of Hayfield 56

Dr John Taylor, of Prospect Hill,106 by his second wife, Marion Gordon. Their half sister, Lucy Penn Taylor, born c.1815, seems to have married her cousin Bazil Gordon, born c.1811. She was very wealthy, her grandfather John Taylor having bequeathed to her a legacy of $10,000, ‘a tract of land adjoining Palestine, and a negro girl named Milly’, all to be hers on becoming twenty one or if she had already married.

Hayfield was the venue for at least two other Taylor weddings, both involving nieces of Mrs Penn Taylor and spouses with connections with Mobile, Alabama, and duly reported in the Richmond Whig and Public Advertiser. In November 1843 Elizabeth Moore married John M Dabney of Mobile, and in October 1846 Anna H Moore married WG Gwathmey, also of Mobile. It was this Mrs Gwathmey who was to seek refuge in 1863-4 at Hayfield during the Civil War and of whom more shall be later read.107

Both the Battailes and the Taylors were Anglicans, the Church of England was the established Church in Virginia 1605-1785, and the Book of Common Prayer, often, like the family King James Bible, containing a record of family births, deaths, and marriages, was, no doubt, amongst the books bequeathed in family wills. Hayfield was in St Mary’s parish, established by 1700, and centred upon Port Royal, where. the Revd. WilIiam Friend became rector in 1835, and remained so until his death in 1870. It was he who officiated at these Hayfield weddings. English readers, familiar with Canon Law and the requirement that weddings must be solemnized in the parish church within prescribed hours, may be surprised by the prevalence in Virginia of house weddings, but this was, of course, a consequence of practical necessity, at Hayfield the parish church being some ten miles away.

106. Prospect Hill is a plantation in Caroline County, some 15 miles northwest of Port Royal. The house was built in 1773 and was long connected with the Battaile family and thereby with the Taylors. 107. WG Gwathmey of Mobile, Alabama to Anna H Moore, daughter, of the late Thomas Moore of King William County, by the Reverend William Friend. The History of Hayfield 57 e are no wooden cornices as have survived in the public rooms of Hayfield. ther The spacious upstairs landing where though the waist high panelling of the hall is repeated The History of Hayfield 58

William Taylor’s solar, though north facing, made up with the view towards the Rappahannock for what it lost in warming winter sunshine, an ideal setting for occassional tête à tête.

William Taylor’s addition of an enclosed porch and a solar above. The photograph illustrates however its sun starved northern aspect. The main front of the house still faces the river, suggesting that in the mid-nineteenth century the Rappahannock continued to offer the most favoured form of approach to the house. The History of Hayfield 59

The social aspirations of Hayfield during the 1840s as a riverside house of resort and fashion gave impetus to a measure of reordering of the house within and without. Professor Stanton suggests that it was at this time that all the panelling in the rooms was removed and their panelled overmantles and mantlepieces replaced.108 In 1844 Mount Airy, the much esteemed Georgian mansion in Richmond County, was gutted by fire and it was provided with new Greek Revival interiors designed by George and William Van Ness of Baltimore whose work was at that time deemed to be the ultimate in contemporary chic amongst the manor houses on the shores of the Rappahannock River.

William Taylor seems to have undertaken a general remodelling of the house at this time. The main approach to the house was still from the river, but there was no ceremonial porch to enhance the dignity of the arrival of visitors and to encourage an appropriate appreciation of the status of the family within. But Taylor changed all this by building a river-side porch with fluted columns and pilasters, panelled balustrade, and a pedimented gable roof. The entrance to the porch is wide and its opening enriched by an elliptical arch. Upstairs the space over the porch, windowed on three sides, provided Hayfield’s residents with the equivalent of a medieval solar, no doubt much appreciated in winter, for central heating had yet to be developed. Though facing north, it offered impressive views towards the Rappahannock and the Taylors could indulge the 19th century taste for landscape as reflected in the poetry of William Wordsworth, celebrating the English Lake District and the Wye Valley, and William Cullen Bryant, inspired by the countryside of New England.

At the same time as the north porch was built, small single storey wings were added, built in brick, using the Flemish bond, at both the west and the east ends of the house. The eastern wing was enriched with a porch, the roof of which was supported on well-proportioned Tuscan columns.

108. The window sashes may also have been removed but not the jambs, although the sills were removed and replaced. The History of Hayfield 60

N

Hayfield c.1850 Lower level [Basement]

N

Hayfield c.1850 Main level [Ground floor]. It is likely that the stair cases were, at this time, against the opposite wall and faced the opposite direction, the main entrance being on the side of the house facing the river. The History of Hayfield 61

N

Hayfield c.1850 Second level [First floor]

N

Hayfield c.1850 Attic. The History of Hayfield 62

Taylor entered politics in early middle age, representing Caroline County in the House of Representatives 1833-1835 as an anti-Jacksonian109 but failed to be re-elected for the twenty-fourth Congress. A contemporary in the House of Representatives was Franklin Pierce, 1804-1869, of New Hampshire. Unlike Taylor, he was later a Senator and in 1852 after forty- eight ballots he was nominated by the Democrats as a political dark horse to be a Presidential candidate. He was the fourteenth President of the United States, 1853-1857, and tradition has it that he was one of many who enjoyed the renowned hospitality of Hayfield.110

One of Taylor’s nieces, Fannie Gwathmey Adams, described him as ‘one of Caroline County’s most prominent citizens’. Others, like General Dabney Herndon Maury,111 remembered him for his old fashioned charm:

a dinner of twenty or more seats, when we young men and maidens listened with delight to the witty and wise conversation sustained by Judge Butler, 112 William P. Taylor, of Hayfield and John H. Bernard,113 of Gay Mont, that cultured trio of gentlemen of the old school.114

The modern social conscience, however, may find the triviality of life in the early to mid 19th century Hayfield circle almost beyond endurance if this sample of 1832 has any basis in fact:

On Friday we all dined at Hazelwood, a little party of about 30. Yesterday the party in two coaches rode over from Hazelwood after dinner and took tea. Tomorrow they dine here and next day at Dr J Taylor’s at Liberty Hill. On Monday I hear there will be one at Hayfield, thence to Fredericksburg to the races.115

109. Andrew Jackson, 1767-1845, was the seventh President of the USA, 1829-37. 110. Source: Recollections of James S Patton, Gay Mont, Port Royal, Virginia. 111. Dabney Herndon Maury, born in Fredericksburg, was a Confederate General during the American Civil War. 112. Perhaps Andrew Pickens Butler, 1796-1857, with a reputation for eloquence and humour. 113. John H Bernard represented Caroline County in the Virginia House of Delegates 1816-17, 1822-23, and a member of the State Senate in 1831. 114. Wingfield, op.cit.,p.363. 115. Source: The Recollections of James S Patton, Gay Mont, Port Royal, Virginia. The History of Hayfield 63

Certainly there was in these accounts a measure of remembrance with advantages of the feats they did that day. By no means could the dining room at Hayfield accommodate thirty diners, nor could the four bedrooms offer them all a good night’s repose.

Hayfield prospered under William Penn Taylor and was worked by 80 slaves. It is said that an old wooden jail door can still be found in a room in the basement next to the furnace room. Stories persisted that drunken slaves were confined and chained to the walls here to sober up and that chains and chain holes were found in this room. But one wonders where 80 slaves were housed in the vicinity of Hayfield: no trace of their accommodation seems to have survived.

Taylor also acquired another tract of land called the Neck, founded by William Buckner, a Justice in Caroline County in 1768. He was also involved in the West Point Land Company,116 but when he made his will in 1863 he had sold his plantation at West Point and meant ‘to sell half the negroes remaining there’, and by the terms of that will he gave and devised to all his nephews and nieces named or alluded to therein his reserved lots and his interest in the West Point Land Company to them and their heirs.

Taylor’s last years were overshadowed by the growing threat of an imminent civil war in which northern Virginia was to be one of the theatres of war. In twenty-six major battles and more than four hundred smaller engagements more men fought and died in Virginia than in any other state.117

In April, 1861 when the War began, the thirteen year old Fanny Lewis Gwathmay Adams, her fourteen year old sister Bessie, and their widowed mother, were staying at Hayfield with the Taylors who were the girls’ aunt

116. In 1691, the Virginia General Assembly directed that West Point be created a port of entry. In 1705 it was renamed Delaware, after Governor Thomas West, third Lord Delaware. However, the old name of West Point was restored in 1861. 117. Salmon.op.cit., p.47. The History of Hayfield 64

and uncle.118 Here, in the country on a self-sufficient plantation, they escaped many of the deprivations inflicted upon towns by the war, where at Richmond, for example, inflation was so rampant that the prices of basic foodstuffs doubled, and, in some cases, even quadrupled.119 Hayfield, however, and the other nearby plantations did not escape the shortage of medicines from which both the army and the civilian population suffered. There were repeated outbreaks of pneumonia, scarlet fever, and smallpox. To the east of Hayfield was Moss Neck where the Corbins, another prominent Virginia family, had their home. In the winter 1862-3, whilst Richard Corbin was away on active service, the Confederate General, Thomas Jonathan Jackson, 1824-63, had his headquarters at Moss Neck and his soldiers camped all around him. It was at this time that Jane Corbin, Richard Corbin’s five year old daughter, caught Scarlet fever. Fanny Adams later recollected that when she asked the general if Jane Corbin was better:

His eyes filled with tears when he told us, ‘Little Janie is dying today’.

The girls and their mother were at Moss Neck at that time because:

the Yankees120 built a road on the opposite side of the river directly opposite Hayfield and we thought they were going to cross there. If they did, we knew they would shell the house. But they never crossed the river there

Back at Hayfield the sounds of battle were clearly heard:

118. Fannie Adams’s reminiscences were published in the William and Mary Quarterly, 2nd ser., 23, 1943: pp. 292–97. 119. A barrel of flour which cost three hundred dollars in 1863, was to cost twelve hundred dollars by 1865. 120. Yankees, for the benefit of our British readers, is specifically a native or inhabitant of New England, but more generally a native or inhabitant of a northern US. state, especially a Union soldier during the Civil War. The History of Hayfield 65

Before the first battle of Fredericksburg, the Yankees were camped on the North side of the river; our army some miles back from the river on the South side on a row of hills covered with timber. We could see the camp and hear the bands play from both army camps.121

During the first battle of Fredericksburg we could hear all of the cannonading and musketry, and when night came could see the shells bursting in the air. Later we heard the cannon and musketry of the battles all around Fredericksburg.

On one occasion the Yankees came to the house at Hayfield about daylight and said they wanted to search for men and guns. After going all over the place and not finding any guns and just my old uncle,122 they went down into the cellar and smelt all the jugs and demijohns down there

Belvedere where the widow and young daughter of William Penn Taylor’s brother, Henry Taylor, lived was less fortunate. The house was perhaps more vulnerable because Henry Taylors four sons were in the Confederate army. It was commandeered by the Union army and Mrs Taylor and her daughter sought refuge at Hayfield. Later:

a crowd of Yankee soldiers went to Belvedere and ransacked the house, tore up clothes and books and poured pickle and preserves over all the furniture and rugs and broke some of it.

Were Hayfield in London it would boast one of the city’s famous blue plaques on the front wall of the house, commemorating its connection with the celebrated and renowned:

121. The first battle of Fredericksburg, but ten miles away from Hayfield, occurred in December 1862. 122. ie William Penn Taylor The History of Hayfield 66

We would often see the generals. On one occasion Generals Lee,123 Jackson,124 Stuart,125 Pendleton126 and Major John Pelham127 from Alabama (The Gallant Pelham, General Lee called him) were all in the dining room of Hayfield at one time. General Lee looked over at Major Pelham who was sitting by a window and said, ‘There sits Major Pelham looking today as if butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth, but in battle he is a perfect lion. The reason he looks so modestly is he has on a borrowed overcoat’. With that the blood mounted in Major Pelham’s face up to his forehead, and when he got up to leave the overcoat almost touched the floor. He walked close to the wall so it wouldn’t be noticed. He was so young and brave. Just a beautiful boy. General Jackson said at the battle of Bull Run,128 ‘If I had a Pelham on both flanks I could whip the world’.

Hayfield, according to Fanny Gwathney Adams, was a scene of some military activity:

There were pickets on each side of the river. Some would come to relieve the ones that had been there the day before. They would always come to our big brick dairy where Bessie and I would fill their canteens with butter milk. We had a cannon in our garden and a part of the artillery company camped in the carriage house and fortifications were thrown up between our house and the river. The soldiers worked at night to keep the Yankees from seeing them. We could hear them working in freezing weather, rain and sleet.

123. ‘The first time General Lee came to Hayfield my sister Bessie and I met him at the door’. Robert E Lee, 1807-1870, was the most successful of the great Southern Confederate generals in the Civil War 124. General Thomas Jonathan [Stonewall] Jackson, 1824-1863, commanded the Army of Northern Virginia under General Robert Lee. ‘General Jackson stayed at Moss Neck ‘till March Seventeenth, 1863. When he left he stopped by Hayfield to tell us goodbye’. 125. James Ewell Brown Stuart, 1833-1864, Confederate General from Virginia. As a cavalry commander he inspired Southern morale. ‘I also knew Sam Sweeney, General Stuart’s banjo player. Whenever he was in the neighborhood he always spent the night at Hayfield and sat up late playing his banjo singing the songs General Stuart loved’. 126. William Nelson Pendleton, 1809-1883, was an Episcopalian priest as well as a Confederate General, serving as Robert E Lee’s chief of artillery. 127. Major John Pelham, 1838-1863, revolutionized the use of light artillery in support of the cavalry. 128. The second battle of Bull Run, Prince William County, Va, in August 1862 was a Confederate victory, under Robert E Lee and Thomas Jackson. The History of Hayfield 67

Both sides had gun boats on the Rappahannock and the enterprising Mrs Gwathmey decided to enlist the protection of the Confederate navy for the occupants of Hayfield:

We knew there were two gun boats anchored in the river a few miles away. My mother wrote notes to both captains telling them that she would be glad if they would send us a guard. The men from the Octorara129 got lost in the river swamp and walked all night and got there about 8 o’clock the next morning. Captain Love from the Octorara came with his men, but Captain Kirkland of the Winnebago130 sent a sergeant with his and they arrived about 9 p.m. that night.

The Corbins at Moss Neck were less fortunate and their home was destroyed by Federal gunboats on the Rappahannock.

At the end of January 1863 William Penn Taylor made his will, not because he was ill, indeed, he says he was in his usual health, but because of his forebodings as to the outcome of the Civil War. Thus he bequeathed to his nephews James and Bernard Taylor

80 slaves should as many be left me after this War is over to be selected by them. Should there not be left so many as 80, then I give to them all that may be left.131

There were at the outbreak of the War half a million African Americans in Virginia, of whom many thousands were impressed into Confederate military service as labourers and drovers, others as blacksmiths, shoemakers, and coal miners. At least 5,723 black Virginians, however, and probably far more, joined the Union army.132

129. Built in 1862, the Octorara was a six-gun, 829-ton steamer which served as part of the Confederate North Atlantic Blockading Squadron. 130. A a double-turreted, river monitor with a displacement of 1,300 tons commissioned in 1864. 131. The will of William P Taylor as copied from the Will Book in the Caroline County Clerk’s Office. 132. Salmon, op.cit., p.49. The History of Hayfield 68

William Penn Taylor died in 1863 and was buried in the family graveyard at Hayfield and so did not see the ultimate outcome of the war, for it was not until 1864, when Ulysses S Grant assumed command of the Union forces, that the tide finally flowed against the South. The North’s greater population, industrial, and agricultural resources were in the end irresistible. In May 1864 Grant prevailed over the Army of North Virginia at the Battle of Wilderness, west of Fredericksburg, and pressed on to Richmond and beyond in pursuit of the Confederates. On 9th April 1865 General Robert E Lee surrendered his army to General Grant, thereby bringing to an end the bloodiest war in American history in which as many as 30,000 Virginians had died.133

When Taylor died his nephews Bernard and James Taylor inherited Hayfield. Bernard Taylor in his will, made in August 1864 at ‘Camp near Petersburg’, left $15,000 to Miss Ella W Dimmock of Richmond and the balance to his brother James. It would seem that Bernard had enlisted in the Confederate Army and it may have been that he died from wounds that he suffered in 1865. But who was the fortunate Miss Ella W Dimmock to whom Bernard left so generous a legacy and for what reason? The Dimmocks were a military family distinguished in the Confederate cause. Charles Henry Dimmock, 1831-1873, was an engineer in the North Virginian Army, and was the officer in charge of the Armoury at Richmond. His kinsman, Charles Dimmock, 1800-1883, who died at Richmond, is remembered as a Confederate Brigadier General. Perhaps the Dimmocks were either related to the Taylors and kinship inspired the legacy, or Bernard Taylor had proposed marriage to Ella Dimmock and her $15,000 legacy was originally intended to be part of the marriage settlement. The will was proved in November 1865.

133. Ibid., p.51. The History of Hayfield 69

Chapter Three: Hayfield goes back to front

ith the war over, Virginia faced the enormous task of reconstruction. WThe Old Dominion’s once-formidable industrial base had been destroyed. Its railroads, too, were in ruins. Little survived of Fredericksburg but a few charred remains; much of Petersburg was utterly destroyed. The state’s agrarian economy was so devastated that one northern observer commented that he could find ‘no sign of human industry, save here and there a sickly, half-cultivated corn field’. Economic and social disruption was so severe that even six months after the war had ended, some twenty- five thousand Virginians survived only on the rations distributed by the Union army. Hundreds of thousands of others-African Americans, returning soldiers, and refugees-were without employment.134

At Hayfield it was a case of the winners taking all and Fanny Gwathney Adams tells how:

After my mother left Hayfield the Yankees took every piece of furniture out of the house, even the portraits off the walls. Fortunately they did not burn the house, but they did burn Hazelwood my uncle’s old. home down on the river near Port Royal.

Now without slaves to work Hayfield’s sickly plantation there followed a period in which the relatively impoverished estate underwent a measure of architectural stagnation in which there were few changes to the house. What developments did take place were at the riverside. Convenient access to a navigable river was essential to the economic success of most plantations.

Every planter owned a wharf; indeed the strongest reason after fertility of soil which influenced him in selecting a tract of land was that it fronted on a water highway. Even if the stream was not sufficiently deep to afford room for the keel of a large vessel, it gave free passage to the shallops in

134. Salmon, op.cit., pp.50,51. The History of Hayfield 70

which the planter’s tobacco could be conveyed to the place where the ship was lying at anchor.

The presence of a navigable stream near every plantation not only furnished its owner with a convenient highway for the removal of his tobacco to market, but it also enabled him to secure his imported supplies without the expense, inconvenience, or delay of sending for them beyond the bounds of his own estate. The ship could unload its cargo at his wharf, and there, too, he made his purchases or received the articles consigned to him by his English merchant.135

Flat bottomed stern wheelers plied the Rappahannock, but the 1836 Survey of the Coast of the United States shows no wharfage at Hayfield though the frontage of the house still faced the river. Later river maps show what was then considered to be the Front Avenue, and now known as the Back Lane, leading to a dock, designated on these maps as Hayfield Warf [sic], remnants of which can still be seen. The house was also served by a ferry over the Rappahannock.

This warf was used to ship commodities to Fredericksburg because it was the furthest north that could be reached on the Rappahannock. Later the Maryton warf was built about 100 yds West of the said Hayfield Warf. Wheat, corn, cotton, tobacco, etc were shipped by paddle wheel boats to the Hayfield and Maryton warfs [later] and hauled by wagon into Fredericksburg.

In November 1874 James Taylor sold Hayfield and the 1,275 acres that then went with it, to HC William Mithoff, of Louisiana, for $16,000. Mithoff died in 1904 and his heirs sold the property to Anne Haynes Ewing, of Toledo, Ohio, for the sum of $14,000, ‘cash in hand’. Ewing is a prominent name in the early history of the city of Toledo, but Anne Ewing’s possession of Hayfield was short lived, despite her re-naming it Anneslee, and in October 1905 it was acquired by Belle M Lewis.136 It was at this time

135. Philip A Bruce, Economic History of Virginia in the seventeenth century, New York, 1896, p.524. 136. Deed Book 73, page 520. The History of Hayfield 71 that a plot of land on the Richmond road was given to the County authorities for a school house.

Then in April 1910 Belle M Lewis and her husband conveyed to August J Pielemier ‘that tract of land, known as Hayfield or Lewisanna’,137 another example of egocentric re-naming and indifference to the history of the house, but in less than a year Hayfield, with an estate diminished to a mere 335 acres by being subdivided amongst various members of the family, had been sold on to FD Levering and Alexander Berger.138 The Pielemeiers, however, retained possession of the family burial ground which they had established on the estate. How Levering and Berger arranged the occupancy of the house is uncertain: perhaps they bought it as a speculation for renting out. The Bergers at that time had strong connections with the Pillsbury Flour Co, of Minneapolis, founded in 1869. It claimed to have the world’s largest flour mill in 1881 and became a public company in 1927.139

It was at this period, some say 1912140 and others about 1917,141 that Hayfield underwent a drastic reordering at the hands of Philip N. Stern,

a very successful colonial revival architect, active from 1909 to his retirement from practice after World War II due to ill health. In the 1920s and 30s he designed restorations for the major historic resources in Fredericksburg, designing new houses in a colonial formula. He was president of the Virginia Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, and the regional coordinator of the depression-era Historic American Building Survey.142

137. Deed Book 76 page 567. 138. Deed Book 78 page 118. 139. In a letter written 12th September 1975 Edward E Reinhold then living at Palm Beach, but a former owner of Hayfield, informed his correspondent that a Miss Berger married a William Cullen Bryant at Hayfield. If this be so this William Cullen Bryant may have been a descendant of the poet William Cullen Bryant, 1794-1878, who is also remembered for his committed opposition to slavery and as one of the founding fathers of the American Republican Party. 140. Edward E Reinhold. 141. Selma Farmer, op.cit. 142. Professor Gary Stanton in private correspondence with Roy Fenn. The History of Hayfield 72

The advent of developed railway services, good roads, and monumental bridges, simplifying the broadest of river crossings, meant that the Rappahannock no longer dominated Hayfield and a frontage facing the river was no longer convenient or prestigious. The house needed now to be refocused inland to look towards the highway to which easy access was needed for the new motor car. So Stern gave Hayfield, in the prevailing Colonial Revival style, a new south-facing front, the main feature of which was a dominating portico supported by four large and rather heavy Tuscan columns, surmounted by a pediment pierced with a lunette. This required the removal of the two dormers, such as have survived on the riverside of the house. It is said that the Portland cement for these pillars was poured into wooden forms on what is now the front lawn, and raised in place.143 Gary Stanton, however, prefers to describe them as being wooden, sawn by mechanical circular saw and then ‘parged with Portland cement’.144

Fall describes the south facing setting of the house as it was in 1924:

the entrance to Hayfield was through an old stone wall, half-hidden by a drapery of English ivy, up an avenue bordered by willows, lindens, and cedars. The dwelling faces south, with a portico of imposing columns, visible through mazes of shrubbery and rare trees. It had a wealth of roses climbing high on the house.145

Still to be seen is the boxwood lined walkway and the ornamental use of mill stone burrs in the garden pathways, both in the Colonial Revival style of architecture favoured in Fredericksburg in the 1920s and 30s.

The architectural volte face of the house necessitated considerable internal reordering. Fall mentions its

broad and breezy halls with creamy white cornices, panels and other decorations.146

143. From the recollections of Edward E Reinhold, 12th September 1975. 144. Gary Stanton, op.cit. 145. Fall, op. cit., p.182. 146. Ibid. The History of Hayfield 73 dering of the house. The main entrance was for merly nor th facing and eor s 1912/17 r n’ necessitated the removal of the staircase to the opposite wall and its reversal to face the opposite direction. to the opposite wall and its reversal of the staircase change necessitated the removal The south facing entrance hall after Ster The History of Hayfield 74

Hayfield’s elegant staircase was completetly renewed in the 2006 restoration. The relatively modest size of the house means there is no separate back staircase for the use of the servants. This may well have necessitated some internal protocol whereby master and slave did not encounter each other within the confines of the staircase. The History of Hayfield 75

But, more striking for those who knew Hayfield in the old days would be the re-positioning of the staircase. Visitors now entered the house by Stern’s large, new, single leafed with decorative mouldings, front door. It has an austere elegance and is surmounted by an eliptical fan light and leaded side lights, echoing, for the sake of continuity, the riverside doorway it had displaced in significance and importance. Inside the hall the staircase had to be reversed and turn its back on the old front door of the former river focussed main entrance. Upstairs, the open stairs leading to the attic have the name Leigh Brothers, Fredericksburg written in pencil on the underside, but the identification of these workmen has proved impossible so far147 though they may have been largely responsible for implementing Stern’s designs for the house.

A chair rail, with panelling below, was introduced on both sides of the central hallway or passage, though such rails are absent from the reception rooms of the house. One would have expected them at least in the dining room to protect the vulnerable plaster of the walls from ravages caused by backs of the diners’ chairs during those popular, but crowded, ‘little dinner parties’ given at Hayfield in the William Penn Taylor era.

It seems, however, that some of the finer details of sophisticated early twentieth century living escaped Stern’s reordering causing Gary Stanton to observe that:

147. In the attic there is a large pan of tin, perhaps for a cistern that has been removed. In addition a closet space has been built at the east end of the flooring using boards again that say Leigh Brothers, Fredericksburg. The History of Hayfield 76

The Dining Room at Hayfield. The necessity to use a wide angled lens is over generous to the room’s proportions, but this is compensated for by the colour schemes of the restoration being believed to be in authentic mid-nineteenth century taste, so too are the ceiling cornices. It was in this room that the ‘little dinner parties’ of the Taylors took place attended by the local social and intellectual elite. During the Civil War Confederate generals not infrequently met in this room to plan their strategy.

The Parlor, known as the Parlour in Britain, according to the Oxford English Dictionary is ‘in a private house, the ordinary sitting room of the family, which when more spacious and handsomely furnished is usually called the drawing-room’. If this be so, the crystal chandelier makes the room seem a little overdressed for the homely gossip of the women of the house after they left the men in the dining room to their port and wit. The History of Hayfield 77

the faucet148 on the landing of the second floor is certainly ill-fitting with the panelled dado behind it. That kind of frank service admission is not in character of an architect designing spaces, but is consistent with a contractor installing a holding tank for gravity flow water service during periods when the generator was not operating.149

At the same time a square two storey stack of bathrooms was added to the west side of the house on to the river side of the projecting wing, and a third bathroom was installed at the front of the house, its window giving gracious views of the gardens to those engaged in their toilette. These conveniences would have been much appreciated, had they existed, by Hannah Taylor, Nicholas Battaile’s second wife for whom Hayfield was originally probably built.

But however much appreciated, Stern’s south front, contrasting as it does with its earlier north facing counterpart, gave Hayfield more than a touch of schizophrenia. The restrained asceticism of the south front faithfully reflects the values its seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth Anglo-

148. Professor Stanton’s use of this word is an interesting illustration of the complexities involved in joint Anglo-American authorship. According to the second edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, CD Version, 1992: ‘A tap for drawing liquor from a barrel, etc. Now dialect and U.S. Formerly more fully spigot and faucet, denoting an old form of tap, still used in some parts of England, consisting of a straight wooden tube, one end of which is tapering to be driven into a hole in the barrel, while the other end is closed by a peg or screw. The peg or screw when loosened allows the liquor to flow out through a hole in the under side of the tube. Properly, the spigot seems to have been the tube, and the faucet the peg or screw (as still in the Sheffield dialect); but in some examples the senses are reversed, and each of the words has been used for the entire apparatus. In the U.S. faucet is now the ordinary word for a tap of any kind’. It may be helpful to note at this stage the different usages for the internal arrangements in English and American houses:

English usage: American usage Basement/Cellar Lower level Ground floor Main level First floor Second level Attic Attic

149. Gary Stanton, op.cit.. The History of Hayfield 78

N

Hayfield c.1912 Lower level [Basement]

N

Hayfield c.1912 Main level [Ground floor]. The History of Hayfield 79

N

Hayfield c.1912 Second level [First floor]

N

Hayfield c.1912 Attic. The History of Hayfield 80 introduction of electricity in the early twentieth century necessitated building a house for a generator, the design of which of electricity in the early twentieth century necessitated building a house for generator, The introduction seems not to have unduly challenged the engineer concerned. The History of Hayfield 81

Saxon inhabitants and could be transported to any one of the English shires without comment. Stern’s south front is more assertive and self- confident, less Virginian, as it were, and more American, reflecting the growing influence of the United States in world affairs.

It is likely that at this stage in the early twentieth century that the house was first gas lit. There is some small diameter iron piping in the attic running across the joists that may be gas piping, evidence that the house may have had an acetylene generator serving its carbide lamps. These were considered to give a beautiful light when they were working properly, but at other times they could be very smelly. Thus, there is evidence that carbide was soon replaced by electricity and holes for the original wiring have been found .The supply entered the house at the eaves on the northeast corner and it can be seen that there is, approximately 100 feet to the northeast, a small concrete structure which was almost certainly the generator building which supplied power to the house and the nearby farm as well. A garage for Hayfield’s new motor car would have been by now a sine qua non. Indeed it is reported as having accommodation for two such vehicles.

In August 1914, when Hayfield had either just undergone its re-alignment, or was awaiting it in the near future, in consequence of the assassination of the Archduke Ferdinand ‘the lights went out over Europe’ and the continent was launched into the Great War, Germany and Austro-Hungary and their allies against Great Britain and France and their allies. It was, however, not until 1917 that a Virginia-born president, Woodrow Wilson, led the American nation into the war on the side Britain and France. American involvement lasted nineteen months and cost the lives of 1,200 Virginians.

Hayfield, perhaps, had some indirect or post eventum involvement in the war. In 1896 the Hamburg based North German Lloyd line built the Barbarossa, a 10,984 ton liner, for its North Atlantic run. But at the outbreak of war in August 1914 the vessel was stranded at the New Jersey The History of Hayfield 82

port of Hobroken and there it remained until it was commandeered by the US navy in April 1917 for conversion into a troopship, and renamed USS Mercury, under the command of Prentiss P Bassett who in 1911 was a young twenty-six year old officer on a submarine.

In her short career as a troopship the Mercury carried some 18,000 troops to France, and 20,000 back to America after the Armistice in November 1918. She was sold for scrap in 1924 and one is left wondering as to the tenuous connection with Hayfield? One has to wait another five years for the answer, for it was in May 1929, when both Levering and Berger were widowers, that they sold Hayfield to a certain Amy Gillett Olney of ‘the City and State of New York’ It may be that Amy Olney already had some connection with Hayfield, for Olney Corner. is part of the local topography, and in 1930 she received Maryton which adjoined Hayfield’s eastern boundary from Mr and Mrs CS Hooper, the farm’s previous owners. Then, in September 1938 mention is made of Amy Gillett Bassett and of Prentiss P Bassett as her husband. They were the new owners of Hayfield, and surely it is not stretching probability too far to suggest that in 1917 it was this Prentiss P Bassett who commanded the USS Mercury?

Oral tradition has it that in 1938 the exterior of Hayfield was painted battleship grey with navy blue trim and had been owned by an admiral Another, but not irreconcilable, tradition tells that in 1937 a woman from Vermont inherited Hayfield, which she had to sell, finding the financial burden of properties in Virginia and Vermont too much for her financial resources. A hypothesis for further research and examination is that the admiral was Prentis P Bassett and it was Mrs Prentiss P Bassett who on the death of her husband found having a home in Virginia and in Vermont an embarrassment.150

The last of the succession of twentieth century owners was Edward E Reinhold, an attorney in Washington DC, who bought Hayfield in 1940.

150. The sources of these oral traditions are Mrs Regina Reinhold and her son Edward Reinhold, Junior, so have some authority since it was Mr Edward Reinold, Senior who purchased Hayfield in 1940. The History of Hayfield 83

With a proper sense of its history one of Reinhold’s first acts of conservation was to repaint Hayfield white and to remove all traces of the inappropriate battleship grey. Then, in April 1953, Margaret Reinhold died, and after a period as a widower Edward Reinhold married Regina Fleming in 1954 who bore three children, Edward E, Junior, Regina Ann, and Paul Arthur. Edward Reinhold now moved to Wilmington, Delaware to work with DuPont as an arbitrator. His relocation caused Hayfield to take on the roles of a summer house and a holiday home. On Edward’s retirement, however, in 1972, the Reinholds once again made Hayfield their principal home. Unfortunately, this was not to be for long, and after Edward suffered a heart attack the Reinholds moved, on their doctor’s advice, to Palm Beach, Florida. Consequently, Hayfield was sold in February 1974, the new owners being the Solite Corporation, a sand and gravel mining firm, of which Mr John W Roberts was the President.

In 1975, now able to recollect in Florida in tranquillity Edward Reinhold compiled longhand notes on the house’s history for the benefit of Mr Roberts, who he warned that he ‘had no way of checking their authenticity’. The commercial potential of the sand and gravel around, and indeed beneath, Hayfield had outstripped its historical interest, though it was well known that any attempt to rezone so distinguished a property would be strongly resisted by the authorities in Caroline County. Edward Reinhold died in 1977 his son, Edward Reinhold, Junior, b.1957, and nicknamed ‘Judge’ at two weeks old, will be familiar to cinema goers on both sides of the Atlantic.

In 1978 Mr Roberts, attempted to sell Hayfield, now known as Hayfield Farm,151 and had an advertisement in the Wall Street Journal offering the house and some acreage for sale. There was no sale, however, and over the years Mr Roberts took the property on and off the market, and repeatedly

151. Mrs Regina Reinhold recollects that white faced Herefords were bred on the farm property along with the growing of wheat and soybean. The mention of Herefords is particularly gratifying to one of the authors, living as he does in the English county of Hereford and surrounded by these beautiful, docile cattle. The History of Hayfield 84

revised the price and changed the property’s configuration. Failure to find a buyer to relieve the Solite Corporate of the cultural liability of possessing Hayfield inevitably caused the corporation to suffer ‘negative reverberations’.

Realtors [alias estate agents] told prospective buyers that Hayfield was newly insulated, and enjoyed excellent plumbing with copper pipes together with oil fired central heating and hot water. Its sanitation by septic fields was in perfect order as was the artesian well by which the house enjoyed an abundant water supply. Moreover, the house was newly decorated, at least at Roberts’s first attempt to secure a sale, there was beautiful woodwork, flooring, and panelling, and ‘a soft Williamsburg blue set off one of the bedrooms’. The grounds, however, had been diminished to 80 acres, though for an asking price of a mere $625,000 Hayfield was surely a bargain.

The problem of disposing of the house became more acute in August 1979 when the Board of Supervisors of Caroline County, on the advice of the County Planning Commission, gave conditional permission to the Solite Corporation for local mining of sand and gravel. But still a successful sale eluded Mr Roberts and it was not until 1997 that the Solite Corporation finally managed to dispose of the property. By then the house had been vandalised, the soft Williamsburg blue of the best bedroom had lost its lustre, and the whole house was well on the path to dereliction. Steps were taken therefore by the new owners for its security whilst careful thought was given to its future. Unfortunately this did not prevent the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities naming Hayfield in 2005 as:

one of the last great unrestored antebellum mansions on the Rappahannock and in 2005 one of the most endangered sites in Virginia

The massive Georgian brick house has been derelict for over 20 years, has suffered several bouts of vandalism, and is a prime example of ‘demolition by neglect’ Currently, Hayfield is part of a 350-acre farm owned by a sand and gravel mining company that holds a valid mining permit for the property. The History of Hayfield 85

So far, so good, but the Association was less than accurate when it claimed that

The mining company considers the sand and gravel under and around the house more valuable than the house itself and could begin operations to remove it at any time.

The anonymous mining company was, of course, Aggregate Industries, a company with origins in Great Britain, and which enjoys an enviable reputation for its concern for the palaeontology, archaeology, and history of the sites in its care. Its archives enjoy the protection of being part of a Company Trust.

Its headquarters at Bardon Hall in the English county of Leicester were, built in 1836 by ‘Mr Lugar of London’. Robert Lugar, was a carpenter’s son from Colchester, who established himself, towards the end of the eighteenth century, in London as an architect specialising in country houses in a variety of styles, all of which were fashionably elegant in appearance, with a touch of Brighton or Cheltenham about them. More recently through its acquisition of Foster Yeoman the company has added Marston House in Somerset to its portfolio of historic houses. Described as ‘a fair house with orchards, gardens, and pleasant walks about it, Marston House was built about 1600, and acquired a classical appearance in the 18th century when it became the home of Richard Boyle, Earl of Cork, and remained the home of his descendants until 1905. Some of the company directors had their portraits painted by such distinguished artists as the American John Singer Sargent. Some of the company’s quarries have been worked since the 18th century and their lime kilns are listed buildings.

It is then, no surprise that Aggregate Industries should have undertaken the careful restoration of Hayfield. The advice of architectural historians has been sought and the work which is ongoing has already cost some $600,000 and it is hoped that the result when finished will give pleasure and pride to the local community. The History of Hayfield 86

A verandah was added on the eastern kitchen wing perhaps for children of the slaves. The History of Hayfield 87

Chapter Four: Hayfield and Its Restoration152

ggregate Industries acquired the 497-acre Hayfield property, including Athe mansion, for sand and gravel extraction in 1997. The derelict house was enclosed by an eight-foot chain link fence to prevent further vandalism and left idle while the lengthy process of developing plans and obtaining permits for the mining operation were initiated. In 2005, new management brought in a different philosophy in recognition of the historical value of the house at the soon-to-be operational site.

Vice-President and General Manager, Don Delano made a case for restoration of the mansion to the company’s senior corporate management at a meeting in Chicago, Illinois, in October, 2005. One month later, Aggregate Industries’ Chief Executive Officer, Bill Bolsover, and Company Historian, Dr Roy Fenn, were met by the US Chief Operating Officer Louis Beauchemin, Regional President Pat Groff, and Don Delano to tour the manor house. Once at the manor, Mining Engineer John Ellis presented a summary of Hayfield’s history along with a proposed restoration plan. Seeing was believing, and by February of 2006, funding was in place and restoration work began under the guidance of John Ellis.

The first goal of the Hayfield restoration project was stabilization of the house to prevent further deterioration. The project sought to restore the structure inside and out in a historically accurate manner consistent primarily with the Greek Revival Period renovations conducted during the mid-1800s. The second goal was to preserve original features from the 1700s, 1800s and early 1900s. It was decided that the wings, porches, walls, and windows that were added and removed over the house’s lifetime would not be altered. If a change was unavoidable, the original features were to be preserved in place where possible. Where loss of

152. John Ellis wrote this chapter and American usage has, on the whole, been left in tact. Thus, for example Hayfield hitherto referred to as a house, now becomes a mansion, a title which in English usage, on account of its relatively modest size, it would not justify. Likewise, the term manor implies a feudal antiquity with which it would not be credited in England. The History of Hayfield 88 estoration commenced, over run with saplings, the ceiling of portico collapsed, windows e r south front of Hayfield befor The south front dereliction. up, brickwork exposed, and a general appearance of approaching boarded The History of Hayfield 89 original elements was unavoidable, such features were to be documented with film and/or drawings to preserve the information for future scholars.

The first phase of the project was a thorough examination and assessment of the exterior and interior of the house and preparation of the site for the renovation work. A detailed survey and drawings of the house were performed by Associate Professor of Historic Preservation, Gary Stanton and the distinguished Professor of Early American Culture and Historic Preservation, Carter Hudgins from the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, VA. Mortar samples from different areas on the manor were taken and analysed by Virginia Lime Works in Lynchburg, VA in order to produce replicas for use during the restoration.

The Norman Company Inc. was hired to conduct an engineering and structural survey of the condition of the house. The company was chosen due to its experience in restoration of old buildings and their reputation for high quality workmanship. The Norman Company did restoration work on the Fielding Lewis Store in Fredericksburg, VA, which is the oldest surviving urban retail store in America. They also have done restoration work on two other historic Virginia homes; the Camden, located in Port Royal, VA and Shirley Plantation, located in Charles City, VA.

Joseph H Norman, Jr, PE, undertook the structural survey and in his report summary of 5th April 2006, he noted that:

The building has been abandoned for several years and this is reflected in the deteriorated condition of the interior and exterior finishes. In addition, vandalism has taken place destroying most of the windows and interior glass work. If this is left unaddressed, the interior wood structure will deteriorate rapidly. Having made the above comments the structure is in very good condition. There are several areas however, that will need attention such as the first floor joist and the roof structure. The work required in these areas does not appear at this time to be extensive. I find the structure to be in sound and in fair to good condition, with the exception of items discussed in the body of the report. The History of Hayfield 90 equired radical treatment and a badly decayed portion of beam radical treatment equired ont portico r eated timbers. e tr s 1912/1917 fr n’ epaired with pressur epaired The dilapidated condition of Ster its roof was r suppor ting its roof The History of Hayfield 91

The decayed conditon of the portico ceiling. One of Stern’s supporting columns can be seen at the top left hand corner of the illustration.

The condition of the basement when work began in 2006. The History of Hayfield 92

Above: Shows the poor state of the plaster when work begun. Below: The restored re-plastered wall. The History of Hayfield 93

An exterminator inspected the house for carpenter ants and bees, beetles, termites and rodents. As was to be expected in a home that had stood idle for many years a bounty of squirrels and other rodents had nested in the chimneys and elsewhere in the house. While there was damage from wood-boring insects, the extent was surprisingly minimal even on the oldest timbers of the home. The foundations were treated for subterranean termite protection.

The large old trees surrounding the home were pruned to improve their health and appearance, as well as to reduce the risk of branch failure damaging the building. The Southern Magnolia was outfitted with a cable to provide mechanical support to the co-dominant leaders, and the tall Tulip Poplar was equipped with a lighting protection system. The Director of Horticulture at President George Washington’s Mount Vernon Estate and Gardens, Dean Norton, was contacted to evaluate the approximately 100-year-old boxwood hedge along the entrance walk because of his reputation as one of the best boxwood arborists in the region. He found the hedge to be healthy enough to be preserved and personally sheared and fertilized the hedge to put it on track to full beauty.

The first order of business for the actual house restoration was to replace the existing cedar shake roof to protect the house from further damage from the elements. The roof deck was inspected for deteriorated sheathing and some sheathing was replaced along with the installation of new Camelot architectural shingles. Better ventilation was required in the attic areas to prevent damage to the interior from humidity and condensation, so a modern, yet unobtrusive, ridgeline vent system was installed. Ice and water shields were installed at the eaves and valleys and new copper drip edges and flashing were installed along with a copper roof over the kitchen wing porch and over the bulkhead for the basement stairs. The nine fireplace flues were cleaned and inspected and the squirrels' nests and other debris built up behind the dampers were removed.

The site presented several environmental issues that needed to be The History of Hayfield 94

Each one of the forty-three windows were carefully removed, numbered then restored. The History of Hayfield 95 addressed. The first of these was a 1,000-gallon heating oil tank of unknown age buried alongside the house. The tank was pumped out to remove residual oil and then dug up. An environmental consultant then sampled the surrounding soil to determine if any leakage and contamination had occurred. Fortunately, the tank had remained sound and no soil contamination was detected. A new double-walled 1,000 gallon fiberglass replacement tank was then installed.

Samples of the materials wrapping the steam return pipes in the basement were taken during the house survey and later determined to be asbestos. Before any work could be done inside the home, the asbestos had to be abated to protect workers and future occupants from this hazardous material. A licensed asbestos removal contractor, WW Nash Construction, Inc., was hired to safely remove and dispose of the material.

Lead-based paints had been used extensively outside and inside the house. Trained workers had to scrape all areas of loose and peeling paint in a manner that minimized airborne dust and allowed for meticulous collection of the paint chips. The paint chips and dust were then placed in barrels and sealed for proper disposal.

Once the environmental issues were addressed, a bevy of workers began attending to other structural repairs. For instance, the engineer’s survey documented that twelve log joist ends located in the basement that supported the first floor were in need of repair. These original log joists were reinforced by attaching, or 'sistering', new 2”x10” pressure-treated lumber beams alongside. These new beams were supported by new beam pockets cut into the foundation wall.

Two floor joists located in the living room wing needed to be repaired due to damage caused by carpenter ants. A section of the heartwood pine floor above the floor joist also suffered damage from the carpenter ants and had to be replaced. The Norman Company was able to find heartwood similar to the original flooring to ensure a perfect color match. The History of Hayfield 96

The additions to the original house were, for the most part, made of inferior materials. For this reason, the porch flooring and sub-structure of the kitchen wing had completely deteriorated and needed to be replaced. The existing fir flooring was replaced with new primed Douglas Fir and the sub-structure was replaced with new 2”x 8” pressure-treated lumber. Since the flooring unfortunately ran under the Tuscan columns, the porch roof had to be shored while the columns were removed and the flooring replaced.

A decayed portion of the beam supporting the front portico roof was repaired with 2”x 12” pressure-treated lumber. Sections of the wood cornice and wood blocking had to be repaired or replaced. This work took some time as the cornices for the kitchen and library wings were elaborately constructed of seven different pieces of wood. Removal of the cornices revealed sections of damaged rafter tails due to weathering and rot. These then had to be repaired by attaching alongside appropriately- sized pressure-treated lumber.

A major task, begun in April of 2006, was the repair of all 43 wooden windows. Most of the glass in each window had been broken and some of the muntins, the strips of wood separating and holding panes of glass in a window, had been broken or had decayed. All 43 windows were re-glazed. If a pane of glass was not broken, then the brittle or missing putty was removed and new putty sculpted back into place to preserve the historic glass. Of all of the sills, only one had significant rot and had to be replaced. The replacement sill was hand crafted out of cypress and perfectly matched its predecessor.

The double hung windows of the house were originally equipped with spring-loaded balances manufactured in the late 1800s by the Pullman Company. These acted to counterbalance the weight of the window when lifting them open and closed. Where possible the original balances were repaired. When they could not be fixed, reproduction Pullman balances were used as replacements. The History of Hayfield 97

The restored front and storm doors. The History of Hayfield 98 e to be disturbed during the Civil War by the wash of gun boats and firing their guns. e to be disturbed during the Civil War , wer waters, however Rappahannock River gave easy access to Hayfield and allowed its inhabitants a route to the Atlantic and Europe. Its placid to the Atlantic and Europe. The Rappahannock River gave easy access to Hayfield and allowed its inhabitants a route The History of Hayfield 99

The four zinc side lights next to the front and rear entrances and the transom above the front door were reconstructed out of zinc. The half round zinc light in the attic was preserved and repaired. The interior French doors to the sun porch were repaired and re-glazed and the six-light doors that divide the library from the living room were also repaired and re-glazed.

All of the exterior doors were repaired. New mortise locks were installed on the front and rear doors. The carpenter box locks on the living room wing door were repaired. A new lockset replaced the missing lockset on the kitchen wing door. New storm doors were built to protect the exterior doors. All of the hardware from the original storm doors that was repairable was repaired and installed on the new doors. The old storm doors, while of minimal historic value, were saved and stored in the basement. The heavy wooden lattice door to the basement jail cell was discovered detached in a corner of the basement and will eventually be restored and rehung.

Once the structural repairs were completed, refinishing work could begin. The exterior brick surfaces received two coats of primer specifically designed for masonry and a flat white finish coat. The large cracks and holes in the stucco front of the kitchen wing were patched then painted. The exterior plaster, wood trim, and columns received one primer coat and a white finish coat.

For work on the interior walls, the services of Bajram Dobra, of Two World Renovations were obtained. Mr Dobra is a plaster expert with twenty three years of experience and training. He began learning his trade in Kosovo, his place of origin, and later in Germany. After emigrating to the US, Mr Dobra worked on several historical buildings. Locally he worked on the restorations of the Mary Washington House, The Rising Sun Tavern, and The James House.

Only damaged or loose plaster was removed from the walls and every effort was made to preserving the underlying plaster and paint strata for The History of Hayfield 100

possible future paint analysis. Once the damaged plaster was repaired new layers of bonding agents and plaster reinforced with fibreglass mesh were applied to prevent the plaster from cracking for many years to come. All walls received a new coat of plaster with the exception of the three bathrooms and the kitchen wing.

The plaster was given a month to dry and then the walls were painted with two coats of primer and a finish coat chosen from Duron’s Historic Colors of America palette compatible with the Greek Revival and Georgian periods. The Society of the Preservation of New England Antiquities was consulted regarding the color selection. Their trained conservators have advised museums and private homeowners from across the country on historically accurate colors. The wall colors range from white and straw yellow to soft grey, green and blue and one rich red. For the most part trim was painted white except in the library where it was restored to a pumpkin color.

On a parallel track with the structural repairs were massive repairs and replacements of the mansion’s inadequate, unsafe or non-functioning utilities.

The well for the house was sufficiently modern and could provide an ample supply of water. However, the pipeline to the house was blocked and had to be excavated and replaced. Once water was able to flow from the well to the pressure tank in the basement, running water through the antiquated piping of the house proved problematic. Most spectacular was a compete line break between a basement crawl space and the second story master bath that sent water cascading down the wall. Elsewhere numerous leaks requiring repair arose throughout the house. Functional toilet plumbing and a working septic system rounded out the list.

Once the water supply was watertight and functional a new hot water heater and a new boiler for the steam heating system to replace the old oil burner were installed. In addition, all the steam return lines in the The History of Hayfield 101

The shelves of the library at Hayfield await the books of contemporary scholars but they were full in former days. John Taylor left in his will ‘my books to my four sons reserving to their mother a power to select and retain such as she may choose for her life.

The study at Hayfield. One wonders what was kept in those large cupboards? Perhaps the Plantation and Estate records. Like the other rooms the fireplace is focussed from a corner towards the centre of the room, there was, of course, no central heating, and wood was the source of the room’s warmth. Tending the fires was a time consuming daily labour for the servants. The History of Hayfield 102

basement had to be replaced and new flue piping was installed in a chimney so the boiler would have a safe exhaust vent.

The first lighting system installed in the house was acetylene pipe for gas lights. When electricity became generally available, a 'knob and tube' electrical system using bare copper wiring was installed, and updated in a piecemeal fashion in later decades. To ensure the wiring was safe and met current electrical codes, a new breaker box was installed and all the old wiring was disconnected. New wire was run throughout the entire house. In some cases, sections of flooring had to be pulled up in order to run wire to the second floor outlets and to future first floor ceiling fixtures.

The restoration of the Hayfield mansion will be an ongoing process and much work remains to be done. In addition, the location of the site in the midst of an active mining operation for more than a decade poses challenges. However, an important piece of architectural and cultural history has been rescued from oblivion to the joy of the local community and architectural preservationists everywhere. And, as an educational tool, this lovely mansion is already proving its worth. It has been serving as a living classroom where students in the University of Mary Washington’s historical preservation classes spend time conducting structural surveys or dating rooms by the smallest architectural details. Even the type of nail used tells its own special story. The History of Hayfield 103

The Hayfield Estate was self-contained. A smoke house such as this was used to cure tobacco and meat. The History of Hayfield 104

Epilogue

oth the Battails and the Taylors, as part of their Anglican tradition, knew Btheir Bibles. The family Bible, with its careful flyleaf record of births, deaths, and marriages, was part of their cultural and religious inheritance. They knew, too, its contents, in the 1611 authorized version of King James, and would have been familiar with Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones153 and the question asked of the prophet: Can these bones live? The question for the present day occupants of Hayfield and for those who have worked so diligently and so imaginatively on its repair, is the same: Can these stones live?

The dry bones of Ezekiel’s vision did live again.

and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold an earthquake, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. And I beheld, and there were sinews upon them, and flesh came up, and skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them. Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man….and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.

And so it is with Hayfield. The dry stones can live. Sinews, flesh, and skin have been restored to the dry, and in some cases broken, bones of the house, and new the time has come for breath and life to come into them. So far Hayfield’s past and the present have been chronicled. And now one asks: what of the future?

Aggregate Industries sees its restoration of Hayfield as a statement of values. The house is not intended to be an antiquarian monument, but as a declaration of ideals. Thus, whereas lead paint was used by its eighteenth and nineteenth century decorators its use nowadays is recognised as a safety hazard so that either oil or latex based paints were used. Authenticity was not allowed to claim precedence over safety whilst every

153. Ezekiel 37:1-10. The History of Hayfield 105 effort was made to respect authenticity. Likewise the asbestos wrapping of the steam pipes was removed. Strict adherence to safety regulations was observed, however, be it in choice of paints or the wearing of safety helmets, not simply because the law required it, but because safety was seen as a fundamental value in its own right.

Similarly, not only was the house restored, but also its immediate environment. The Ginko and Tulip Poplar, were professionally pruned by expert arborists. In some respects the fine Ginkgo biloba standing in front of the house, with its distinctive dignity, is symbolic of Hayfield itself for it must have looked upon many of its comings and goings. As is well known the Gingko is the most ancient of all living trees, there being fossil evidence for its existence 200 million years ago. It is considered to have changed little over the centuries and to be capable of living for over 3,000 years. Ginkgo biloba was introduced to England in 1754 and the oldest surviving specimen in Great Britain is probably the one at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, planted in 1762. The American botanist William Hamilton planted a Ginkgo in his woodland estate in Philadelphia in 1784. Some 110 feet tall, the age of Hayfield’s Ginkgo is a matter for future research, but it is not unlikely that it provides a living thread of continuity linking both the Battailes and the Taylors by way of the Reinholds to the present owners, Aggregate Industries.

The description of the unique significance of the Gingko tree by the English palæo-botanist, Sir Albert Charles Seward, FRS, 1863-1941, has its own relevance for Hayfield:

It appeals to the historic soul: we see it as an emblem of changelessness, a heritage from worlds too remote for our human intelligence to grasp, a tree which has in its keeping the secrets of the immeasureable past.

The susceptibility of Tulip Poplars to lightning strikes caused lighting conductors to be were fitted, a technique not available to Hayfield’s earlier gardners. The millstones in the garden pathway were left and instead of The History of Hayfield 106

The lane from the riverside wharf to Hayfield. The History of Hayfield 107 gravel, Mallmix laid around them to enhance their appearance and one still walks and a path formed a century ago.

It was the appreciation of the importance of settings and appearances, be they in a commercial site or in a country garden, that caused the removal of undergrowth and overgrowth, and the sowing of new grass, so that the original lane leading from the house to its riverside wharf on the Rappahannock, so important in its earlier history, could be more easily identified by the modern visitor or student.

Thus the relationship between Hayfield and Aggregate Industries is a parable illustrating the Company’s ethical aims and endeavours. Two of the downstairs rooms, the living and dining rooms, both have fireplaces capable of being lit and of serving as a living focus of warmth, hospitality, and conversation to all. And so it is hoped that Hayfield will be the venue, not only for Company Board Meetings, conferences, and social occasions, but also a welcoming place to stay, as much for the Company’s guests and officers, but also for scholars and students who want to appreciate better Hayfield’s contribution to the history of the Commonwealth of Virginia in general, and to that of County Caroline in particular, thereby endorsing the opinion first expressed in the Virginia Herald in April 1820 that Hayfield was indeed ‘a very desirable estate.’ The History of Hayfield 108

Mill stones were used to ornament the boxwood lined garden pathway. The History of Hayfield 109

Bibliography

Adams, Fannie Lewis Gwathmey. ‘Reminiscences of a Childhood Spent at Hayfield Plantation Near Fredericksburg, Virginia during the Civil War’. William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine, 2nd Ser., Vol. 23, No. 3, July,1943,

Carmichael, Christine, et al., The Manor of Battles Hall, Manuden, Essex, Manuden, 1996.

Cohen, Morris L, Bibliogrpahy of Early American Law, 1998.

Coldham, Peter Wilson, The Complete Book of Emigrants 1607-1660, Baltimore, 1987.

Davis, Godfrey, The Early Stuarts 1603-1660, 2nd edition, Oxford, 1959, p.329.

Fall, The Rev’d Ralph, People, Post Offices and Communities in Caroline County, Virginia 1727-1969, McDonaugh, Georgia, 1989.

Hay, David, The Oxford Companion to Local and Family History, Oxford, 1998.

Jefferson, Thomas, Notes on the State of Virginia, ed.Frank Suffelton, Harmondsworth, 1999.

Hatch, Charles E, Jr, The First Seventeen Years. Virginia 1607-1624, University of Virginia Press of Charlottesville and London, 1957,

Lounsbury, Carl R, ed. An Illustrated Glossary of Early Southern Architecture and Landscape. Charlottesville, 1999.

McGroarty, William Buckner, ‘The Line of Battaile’, The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, V, 41.

Mills, AD, Oxford Dictionary of British Place Names, Oxford, 1991. The History of Hayfield 110

Moorman, John R H, A History of the Church in England, London,1954.

Pevsner, Nicholas, The Buildings of England: Essex, 2nd edition, Harmondsworth, 1965.

Reaney, PH and Wilson, RM, A Dictionary of English Surnames, Oxford, 2005.

Sabin, Joseph, A Dictionary of Books Relating to America. New York, 1868-92.

Salmon, Emily J and Campbell, Edward DC, Jr. The Hornbook of Virginia History, 4th edition. Richmond: Library of Virginia, 1994.

Swem, Earl G, comp, Virginia Historical Index, 1934.

Verey, HI, Manuden, Essex. Annals of the parish church of St Mary the Virgin since c.1143. 1978.

Taliaferro, HG, ‘The Wives of Colonel John Battaile’, The Virginia genealogist. Vol.36, no.2, 1992.

Wade, W. Cecil, The Symbolisms of Heraldry or A Treatise on the Meanings and Derivations of Armorial Bearings. London, 1898.

Watson, J. Steven, The Reign of George III 1760-1815, Oxford, 1960.

Wingfield, Marshall, History of Caroline County, Richmond, 1924. The History of Hayfield 111

APPENDIX

The Will of John Taylor

I John Taylor being sick but of sound mind do declare this to be my last will and testament this 7th day of January 1824. 1st I give to my wife Lucy C. Taylor my estate called Hazelwood including all my lands adjoining to it bought of sundry persons and an island in the river during her widowhood. I also give her Phillis the wife of Norment and all the descendants of the said Phillis. Angella another house servant and all her descendants, Judy a cook and all descendents, Charles, Harry, Tom, Matthew, and Eliza husbands and wife of some of these descendants including any born after the date of this will, absolutely, I also give her all the money in the house at the time of my death, the household furniture and liquors, all the stocks, tools, carriages and crops growing or severed in the estate at the time of my death, absolutely, and all the slaves which may be living on it at that time, above those given to her forever, I give to her for and during her widowhood. But I direct that out of the money in the house, should a suit or suits in the Court of appeals a gains my son John on account of some transactions of his brother in law, William Woodford, finally go against him she shall discharge whatever may be recovered. 2nd, I give to my son William my tract of land called Hayfield with all the negroes, stocks, utensils and crops growing or severed thereon at the time of my death to him and heirs forever. 3rd I give to my son Henry all the lands in Westmoreland I bought of Robertson with all the slaves stocks and utensils thereto belonging and all the crops thereon either~rowing or severed at the time of my death to him and his heirs. 4th I give to my son George my two plantations on Pamunkey river opposite to each other, with all the slaves stocks and utensils to them belonging and all the crops severed or growing thereon at the time of my death and also a tract of land on Mattapony usually called Hoomes’s bought of several persons, all to him and his heirs forever. The History of Hayfield 112

5th I give to my grandson John Taylor the estate called Hazelwood after his grandmother’s interest theron shall cease, together with one moiety of the slaves given to her during her widowhood provided he both attains the age of twenty one years and marries. If both these event should be accomplished, these lands and slaves are to go to him and heirs forever, if either should fail, then, are on his death to be equally divided among my heirs. But I make this devise upon condition that my said grandson shall relinquish to any children or child which his father may have besides the three he now has anything which may fall to him under a settlement relating to the land and negroes of which his father is possessed. 6th I give to my four sons the other moiety of the slaves given to my wife during her widowhood. 7th I give to my grand daughter Lucy P. Taylor ten thousand dollars to be raised out of the debts due to me, a tract of land adjoining Palestine, and a negro girl named Milly, directing my executors to sell the land if they can giving a preference to the Mr. Burks, and to allot the debts of these gentlemen towards the payment of this legacy., whom I wish them to indulge as long as they pay the interest punctually. This legacy is not to become payable unless the said Lucy shall attain to twenty one years of age or marry and in the meantime I direct my executors to accumulate it by receiving the interest and putting it at interest; for I direct that bonds carrying interest shall be appropriated to the object upon my death. If the said Lucy shall neither attain the age of twenty one nor marry then everything given to her is to revert to my estate. 8th I give to my grand son Edmund Taylor all the lands I bought of Spotswood with the slaves Stocks Crops growing or severed and tools except Humphrey and his family intended to be sold and Tom given to his grand mother, upon condition that he both arrives to twenty one years of age and marries, upon the accomplishment of both which events he is to have a fee simple; upon the failure of either and his death, the property hereby devised, is to revert to my estate and go to my heirs. 9th I give my books to my four sons reserving to their mother a power to select and retain such as she may choose for her life. 10th If the surplus of my debts after paying my grand daughter’s legacy The History of Hayfield 113 should not suffice to pay all demands against me, each of my sons William Henry and George are to pay one fourth of the deficiency, and the Hazelwood estate the other fourth. 11th I direct conveyance to be made by my heirs for any Lands in Kentucky I have given to my relations there by letter. The gifts were only of my title and no warranty is to be made against the claims of others. 12th I give all the rest of my estate real and personal to be equally divided among my four sons. In this residue is included a large tract of land in Kentucky inherited from my son Edmund; 500 acres patented; a 1000 acres entry in the case of Mr Waring and some town lots in the care of Gen’l Taylor. 13th I direct that all the lands and slaves devised by this will shall be bound to guarantee the title of each divisees and that if any eviction or recovery shall take place the same shall contribute in proportion to value to make good the loss. 14th I direct that the possession of Hazelwood for the time being shall provide for William Normont during his life as he has hitherto been provided for. Finally, I appoint my wife Lucy Taylor and my son, William P. Taylor executrix and executor of this my will and direct that neither an inventory appraisement nor sale be made of any part of my estate and that neither of them be required to give security. And I subscribe this paper wholly written with my own hand as and for my last will and testament this 7th day of January 1824. For removing any doubt which might arise from two clauses of this my will, it is my intention that my two grandsons John and Edmund shall have the possession and use of the property devised to them respectfully the former from the termination of his grandmother’s estate and the latter from my death, each for his life though the events may never happen which may make their titles absolute.

John Taylor1

1. Fredericksburg Court. File CRUC-M 372-48. The History of Hayfield 114

Index

Act of Uniformity 1662, 26 Bryant, William Cullen, 59 Adams, Fanny Gwathney, 62,63,69 Buckner, William, of the Neck, 63 Aggregate Industries, 85 Calhoun, John C, 53n Company values, 104, 105,107 Carlisle, England, 45 American Civil War, 63,64,65,66,67,68,69,76n Carlisle cathedral, 46 American War of Independence, 38,39,52 Caroline County, 15 Anglicans in Virginia, 56,104 Causey, Nathaniel, 46,48 Aylett, JP, 55 Chaplain’s Choice Plantation, 48 Barbarossa, SS, German liner, 81 Charles’I, beheaded 1649, 24 Bardon Hall, Leicestershire, England, 85 Charles II, 25 Bassett, Prentiss P, 82 Church of England, the, 24 Battaile family arms,15,17,19 Clare, Suffolk, England, 17 Battaile family, its origins, 43 College of William and Mary, Virginia, 52 Battaile, origin of surname,15 Corbin family of Moss Neck, 64,67 Battaile, Elizabeth, 29 Craske, Edward, 52 Battaile, John, 12,13,14,20,27,28,29,46 Crime, Calendar of, 3 Battale, John, junior, 29 Cromwell, Oliver, Lord Protector, 25 Battaile, Hay, 36,37,40,41,42,52 Cromwell, Thomas, Earl of`Essex, 1485-1540, 22 Battaile, Humphrey, 17 Cumberland, English county, 45 Battaile, Lawrence,15,35 Dabney, John M, 56 Battaile, Matthew, 14,17 Daingerfield, Ann, second wife of Hay Battaile, Battaile, Nicholas, 29,30,31,34,35,50 37,39 Battaile, Nigel, 19 Dick, Tumbledown, 25 Battaile,Richard, 19 Dimmock, Charles, 68 Battaile, Thomas, the King’s Mason, 19,22,24n Dimmock, Charles Henry, 68 Battailes, 13, 15 Dimmock Ella W, 68 Battels Manor, Manuden, 19 Dobra, Bajram, restorer, 99 Baylor, Col John, 36,37 Duty sailing vessel, 2 Berger, Alexander, 71,82 Elizabeth I, 2 Berkley, Sir William, Governor of Virginia, 25,26 Emigration, 9,12 Bigley, Thomas, Vicar of Manuden, 23 Reasons for, 9 Bideford, Devon, England, 49 English Civil War, 10 Black Death, 23 Essex, England, 15,19,20 Bloomsbury plantation, 50 Essex County [USA], 13, 14 Book of Common Prayer, 25,47,56,104 Ewing, Anne Haynes, 70 Bowling Green, 50,52 Ezekiel and the Valley of Dry Bones, 104 Boyle, Richard, Earl of Cork, 85 Fire Insurance, 40 Bray, the Vicar of, 27 Fitzhugh, George, 53n Brittany, 49 Fredericksburg, 31,39,54,65,68,69,72 Bristol, 2 Friend, the Revd William, 56 The History of Hayfield 115

Fynderne family and Manuden, 22 Jonathan sailing vessel, 11 Gordon, Bazil, 56 Jones, Cadwalader, 9n, 12, 14 Gordon, Marion, 56 King James Bible, 56,104 Grant, General, 68 Knights of the Golden Horseshoe, 50 Gravesend, Kent, England, 47 Layhill, Archdeacon of Essex, England, 25 St George’s parish church, Gravesend, 47,51 Lee, General Robert E, 66,68 Great War, the, 81 Leigh Brothers of Fredericksburg, 75 Gregory, Mary Bishop, 49 Leiper, Julia, 55 Gwathmey, WG, 56 Levering, FD, 71,82 Hamilton, William, botanist, 105 Lewis, Belle M, 70 Harrower, John, tutor at Belvedere, 38 London, 10 Hayfield, Lugar, Robert, English architect, 85 30,31,32,33,34,37,40,41,42,50,52,54,55,56,59, Madison, James, President, 37,50,52 62,63 Manuden, Essex, England,17,20 Electricity, 80,81,101 Battaile connection, 17,22 Environmental issues, 95 Parish Church, 20,22 Gardens of the house, 93 Battel Chapel, 20 Gas lighting, 81, 102 Marston House, Frome, Somerset, England, 85 Hereford cattle 83n Masssachusetts, 25 Known by other names, 70,82 Maury, General Dabnet Herndon, 62 Lightning conductor, 105 Mercury, USS troop ship, 82 Restoration aims and procedure, Merriwether, Thomas, 30 87,89,93,95,96 Mithoff, HC William, 70 School house, 70 Moore, Anna, 56 Trees, 105 Moore, Elizabeth of Chelsea, King William Water supply and plumbing, 100 County, Wharf , 69,70 55,56 Hazelwood estate, 53,54 Norman Company, the, restorers, 89,95 Headright, 10,14 Norman, Joseph H, 89 Hellan, the Revd James, Vicar of Manuden, 26 Norton, Dean, horticulturist, 93 Henry VI, 1422-71,19 Octorara gun boat, 67 Hertfordshire, England,15,19,20 Olney, Amy Gillett, 82 Hooper, Mr and Mrs CS, 82 Parish registers [English], 22,23 Hopkins, Matthew, witch hunter, 25 Patents, 12,49 Hord, the`Revd Arnold Harris, 15 Peasants Revolt, 23 Hord, William Taliafero, 15 Pelham, Major John, 66 Hurt, Isabella, 52 Pendleton, Lancashire, England, 50 Indian Massacre,1622, 48 Pendleton, Catherine, 50 Jackson, General Thomas Jonathan, 64,66 Pendleton, Philip, 50 James’I, 10,45 Philips, George, Puritan clergyman, 24 Jamestown, 14 Pierce, Franklin, 62 Jefferson, Thomas, Pocahontas, Princess, 51 comments on architecture, 35 Port Royal,14,31,35,53 The History of Hayfield 116

St Mary’s parish, 56 Taliaferro, Sarah, 27 Powell, John, 29 Taylor family, its origins, 43 Prisons, 10 Taylor, Bernard M, 55,68 Newgate, 14 Taylor, Elizabeth, of Hayfield, 55 Puritans, 24 Taylor, Hannah, 30,50 Rappahannock County, 13,14,49 Taylor, Henry, 65 Rappahannock river, 72,99 Taylor, James, of Carlisle, England, 43,46,49,51 Rappahannock, sailing vessel, 30 Taylor, James, junior, 55,68,70 Reformation, the, 45 Taylor, John, 43, 50 Reinhold, Edward E, 71n,82,83 Taylor, Dr John, 56,62 Reinhold, Edward, junior, 83 Taylor, John, 1759-1824, 52,53,54,55, 62,68 Richmond, Virginia, 64 Taylor, Lucy, 54 Richmond Whig and Public Advertizer, Taylor, Thomas, 43 55,56 Taylor, William Penn, 42,54,55,59,63,75 Roberts, John W, of the Solite Corporation, 83 Thompson, Martha, 50 Robertson, Donald, tutor, 36,37 Thornton, Mary, 30 Rolfe, John, 51 Truelove, Rowland, 46,48,49 Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, England, 105 Truelove, sailing vessel, 43,46,48,49 Ruffin, Edmund, 53n Truelove Society, the, 48 Sacrament certificates, 47 Truelove’s plantation, 48 Scottish border, 10 Van Ness, George and William, architects, 59 Sedgewick, Robert, 48 Virginia, 9,10,25,46 Seward, Sir `Albert Charles, FRS, Association for the Preservation of Virginia palæo-botanist, 105 Antiquities, 84,85 Slavery, 39,40,53,63,69 Virginia Agricultural Society, 53 Smith, Lawrence, 27 Virginia Company, 9,12,46 Smith, Elizabeth, 27 Virginia Gazette, 36 Snowden, Robert, Bishop of Carlisle, 45 Virginia Herald, 37,40,107 Solite Corporation, the, 83,84 Walker, Frances, 49 Solomon’s Garden, 30 War of 1812 with Britain, 55 Southen, the Revd Samuel, West Point Land Company, 63 Vicar of Manuden, 26 Williamsburg, 14 Spotswood, Alexander, 50 Williamsburg Gazette, 35 Stanton, Professor Gary, 34,59,71n,75,76,89 Wilson,. President Woodrow, 81 Stern, Philip N, architect, 71,72,73,75,76 Winnebago gun boat, 67 Stern wheelers, 70 Witchcraft, 25 Taliaferro, Catherine, 27 Woodford, John, 29,36 Taliaferro, HG, 14 Wordsworth, William, 59 Taliaferro, Col. John, 27,37 Wyclif, John, 1382-1430, 23 Their children, 27 Wythe, George, 35 Taliaferro, Richard, architect, 35,36 Yeoman, Foster, Ltd., 85 Taliaferro, Robert, 27