W&M ScholarWorks Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects 1995 "My Bumbling Smiths": An Inter-Site Comparative Analysis of Rural and Urban Blacksmithing in Eighteenth-Century Virginia Sandra Fiona Bessey College of William & Mary - Arts & Sciences Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd Part of the Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Bessey, Sandra Fiona, ""My Bumbling Smiths": An Inter-Site Comparative Analysis of Rural and Urban Blacksmithing in Eighteenth-Century Virginia" (1995). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. Paper 1539625948. https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21220/s2-p1qr-2x03 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. "MY BUMBLING SMITHS...": AN INTER-SITE COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF RURAL AND URBAN BLACKSMITHING IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY VIRGINIA A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of the Department of Anthropology The College of William and Mary in Virginia In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts by Sandra Fiona Bessey 1995 ProQuest Number: 10629405 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10629405 Published by ProQuest LLC (2017). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106 - 1346 APPROVAL SHEET This thesis is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Author Approved, December 1995 Dr. Theodore Reinhart Dr. Norman F. Barka £>— J . Mr. Dennis J. Pogue ie 0 Director of Restoration Mount Vernon Ladies' Association TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv LIST OF TABLES v LIST OF FIGURES vii ABSTRACT ix CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION 2 CHAPTER II. A HISTORICAL BACKGROUND: 7 BLACKSMITHING IN COLONIAL AND FEDERAL AMERICA CHAPTER III. FUNCTION AND TECHNOLOGY: INVESTIGATING 21 WORKSPACE RELATIONSHIPS, FUNCTIONAL TASKS, AND FUNCTIONAL CLASSIFICATIONS IN BLACKSMITHING CHAPTER IV. THE MOUNT VERNON BLACKSMITH SHOP: A 36 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND AND EXCAVATION HISTORY CHAPTER V. THE MATERIAL CULTURE OF THE MOUNT 82 VERNON BLACKSMITH SHOP: THE ARTIFACT ASSEMBLAGE CHAPTER VI. THE COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE: AN 118 INTER-SITE ANALYSIS CHAPTER VII. CONCLUSIONS 134 APPENDIX SELECTED ARTIFACT DESCRIPTIONS FROM 140 THE MOUNT VERNON BLACKSMITH SHOP BIBLIOGRAPHY 153 iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author is indebted to many individuals who provided their encouragement, support, suggestions and expertise. My thesis committee, Dr. Theodore Reinhart, Dr. Norman F. Barka and Mr. Dennis J. Pogue critically and constructively evaluated my work. Without their careful reading and guidance, this thesis would not be the final product it is today. I would especially like to thank Mr. Dennis J. Pogue and Ms. Esther C. White of the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, for their unwavering enthusiasm, encouragement and expertise. In addition, Mr. Pogue completed the site plan and artifact drawings. I would also like to thank many people who contributed to my knowledge of blacksmithing, or aided in other capacities. From the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation: Mr. Ken Schwartz and Mr. Peter Ross for their understanding of blacksmithing from both a historical and material culture perspective; Mr. Greg Brown and Mr. David F. Muraca for their knowledge of blacksmith shops excavated in Williamsburg; Mr. Jay Gaynor for his expertise of tools; Mr. Wayne Randolf for his expertise of agricultural implements; and Ms. Linda Novak, for providing me with an artifact inventory of the John Draper excavations. From the James River Institute for Archaeology, Inc.: Merry A. Outlaw, for her identification of "unidentified" artifacts from Mount Vernon; Beverly A. Straube, for her interest in the unfinished gun parts from Mount Vernon; and Diane E. Masters and Tara Winters for their problem solving skills with computers. From Colonial National Historic Park-Jamestown, Mr. David F. Riggs, for his suggestions for references; and David Morrill for his careful editing skills. To my parents, Valerie and Calvin Bessey of Fairfax, Virginia, for their continued support, enthusiasm and prodding, and to my Grandfather, Mr. H. G. Burns of Little Common, England, for his support. To Mr. Andrew Madsen, for his patience during the lengthy writing process, for his thorough and critical reading of multiple drafts and his insights on material culture. LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Daniels's determination of percentage of time spent on functional 31 tasks according to urban, rural and suburban milieu. 2. Listing of functional tasks performed by Mount Vernon smiths, 47 compiled from account books. 3. Statistical analysis of documentary evidence from the Mount Vernon 50 blacksmith shop according to functional category. 4. Clientele traveling to Mount Vernon blacksmith shop, pre-1761 54 showing percentage of persons traveling within and outside 5-mile radius. 5. Clientele traveling to Mount Vernon blacksmith shop, post-1761 54 showing percentage of persons traveling within and outside 5-mile radius. 6. Statistical analysis of clientele traveling to Mount Vernon blacksmith 56 shop. 7. Temporal analysis of stratigraphic layers from the Mount Vernon 77 blacksmith shop. 8. Statistical analysis of artifacts recovered from the Mount Vernon 88 blacksmith shop according to functional category. 9. Tools recovered from the Mount Vernon blacksmith shop 88 according to functional categories. 10. Hardware recovered from the Mount Vernon blacksmith shop 96 according to functional categories. 11. Types of locks recovered from the Mount Vernon blacksmith shop. 96 12. Equestrian-related artifacts recovered from the Mount Vernon 101 blacksmith shop according to broad functional category. 13. Equestrian-related artifacts recovered from the Mount Vernon 101 blacksmith shop according to specific functional category. v LIST OF TABLES (continued) Table Page 14. Domestic artifacts recovered from the Mount Vernon 106 blacksmith shop according to functional category. 15. Statistical analysis of artifact assemblage from the Mount Vernon 116 blacksmith shop according to functional category. 16. Statistical analysis of functional tasks based on Daniels's study. 116 17. Functional categories from the John Draper blacksmith 128 shop artifact assemblage. 18. Functional categories from the Mount Vernon blacksmith 128 shop artifact assemblage vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. Painting (1919) of George Washington as smith. 1 2. Vaughan Plan (1787), showing the location of the blacksmith shop 38 on the North Lane. 3. Painting (circa 1792) depicting blacksmith shop on the North Lane. 39 4. Currier and Ives plan (1855), depicting ice house. 41 5. Gillingham plan (1859) depicting the East Lawn ice house, North 42 Lane ice house, and Paddock ice house. 6. Probable places of residence (adapted from Mitchell 1987) for clientele 53 of Mount Vernon Shop, 1755-1761. 7. Plan of Williams's excavation at the Blacksmith Shop site in the North 60 Grove. 8. Copper alloy harness ornament recovered from Williams's excavations. 61 9. Forge base revealed by Macomber (1955-56) north of present Ha-Ha 63 wall. 10. Overall site plan of Mount Vernon blacksmith shop. 66 11. Forge base revealed by Mount Vernon Archaeology Department (1987). 72 12. Interpretive plan of the Mount Vernon blacksmith shop. 74 13. A conjectural drawing of the Mount Vernon blacksmith shop, 80 14. Tools recovered from the Mount Vernon Blacksmith Shop. 91 15. Replica of a bar share plow. 94 16. Hardware and Domestic fragments recovered from the Mount Vernon 98 blacksmith shop. 17. Equestrian-related artifacts recovered from the Mount Vernon 102 vii LIST OF FIGURES (continued) Figure Page blacksmith shop. 18. Lock plate recovered from the Mount Vernon blacksmith shop. 113 viii ABSTRACT This thesis focuses on blacksmithing during the eighteenth century, and the role of this craft at George Washington's Mount Vernon plantation in Virginia. Further, this thesis explores the differing nature of smithing operations in rural and urban settings, by comparing the material culture expressions and documentary evidence of a relatively rural shop, Mount Vernon, to an urban smithing operation, John Draper's shop in Williamsburg. This study incorporates documentary evidence from a variety of sources including journals, account books, invoices and so forth. The data made available by these sources, when combined with an intensive examination of the artifact assemblage, provide a more complete view of how blacksmithing functioned within the urban and rural milieu. Serving as a model for this thesis is Christine Daniels's '"WANTED: A Blacksmith Who Understands Plantation Work': Artisans in Maryland, 1700-1810," a documentary study that focuses on the inherent differences in rural, urban, and suburban blacksmith shops. Daniels maintains that smiths operating