Historic Shrines of America Part 29

"The house is small, and more humble in appearance than those of the average of successful lawyers and merchants. I called there three times upon him; there is no bell to the door.

Once I turned the handle of it and walked in unannounced; on the other two occasions he had seen me coming, and had lifted the latch and received me at the door, although he was at the time suffering from severe contusions received in the stage while travelling on the road from Fredericksburg to Richmond."

Chief Justice Marshall frequently attended the Monumental Church. The narrow pews troubled him, for he was quite tall. "Not finding room enough for his whole body within the pew, he used to take his seat nearest the door of his pew, and, throwing it open, let his legs stretch a little into the aisle."

The death of his wife was a great grief to him. "Never can I cease to feel the loss and to deplore it," he wrote on December 25, 1832, the anniversary of her death. "Grief for her is too sacred ever to be profaned on this day, which shall be, during my existence, marked by a recollection of her virtues."

He survived Mrs. Marshall less than five years. In June, 1835, he went to Dr. Physic in Philadelphia, seeking relief for a disability that had been aggravated by the road accident of which the English visitor wrote, as already quoted. There he died, July 6, 1835. On July 4 he wrote the inscription which he wished placed above his grave:

"John Marshall, son of Thomas and Mary Marshall, was born on the 24th of September, 1755, intermarried with Mary Willis Ambler the 3rd of January, 1783, departed this life the ---- day of ---- 18 ---- ."

The Marshall house is now in possession of the Society for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, having been purchased a few years ago from the Misses Harvie, the granddaughters of Chief Justice Marshall. They had lived in the house until they sold it to the city of Richmond.

[Ill.u.s.tration: WESTOVER ON THE JAMES, VIRGINIA _Photo by H. P. Cook_ See page 278]

LXI

FIVE OLD HOUSES OF TIDEWATER, VIRGINIA

SABINE HALL, WESTOVER, s.h.i.+RLEY, BRANDON, AND CARTER'S GROVE

The five houses mentioned briefly in this chapter are noteworthy, not only because of their beauty, but because the stories of those who lived in them show how the leading families of old Virginia intermarried until the various relations.h.i.+ps became a puzzle that delights the genealogist.

On the Rappahannock, in Richmond County, Virginia, Landon Carter, son of Robert ("King") Carter, the ancestor of the Carter family of Virginia, built Sabine Hall in 1730. He was a great lover of the works of Horace, and it was quite natural that he should adopt for his mansion the name of the Roman poet's Sabine Farm.

Until his death in 1778 he was a recognized leader in both Church and State. Robert A. Lancaster quotes an unnamed writer who says that he was "a high-minded public servant and a finished scholar, indulging a taste for science and a love for letters," and was considered "one of the most notable of the pre-Revolutionary statesmen of the Colony,"

and was "looked up to by the younger generation as a Nestor among his compatriots." He was a friend of Was.h.i.+ngton, and received many letters from him, some of which have been preserved.

Landon Carter's second wife was Maria Byrd, of Westover. Her portrait, as well as those of the other two wives, the husband and "King"

Carter, are hanging to-day on the walls of Sabine Hall. The estate of four thousand acres descended to his son by his third marriage with Elizabeth Beale, Robert Wormeley Carter, who was a member of the Virginia a.s.sembly. The property is still in the possession of the descendants of the original owner.

Westover, where Landon Carter courted Maria Byrd, is on the James in Charles City County, not far south of Sabine Hall. The mansion was built in the same year as Sabine Hall, 1730, by William Byrd, II, whose father came from England about 1674.

William Byrd, of Westover, was famous as a literary man and as a statesman. At one time he was President of His Majesty's Council. But perhaps his greatest fame came to him because he was the father of Evelyn Byrd, who was a reigning belle. When, at the age of eighteen, she was presented at Court, it was reported that the king of England complimented her by saying he was glad Virginia could produce such "beautiful Byrds."

Evelyn's brother, William Byrd, III, was the heir of the estate. He married Elizabeth Hill Carter, of s.h.i.+rley, a neighboring estate. He was a member of the Virginia Council and attained distinction by his service as a colonel in the French and Indian War.

During the siege of Yorktown some of the French officers made frequent visits to Westover. One of them, Marquis de Chastellux, said that this was the most beautiful place in America.

Two armies have halted at Westover. In April, 1781, Cornwallis pa.s.sed that way, and, during the Civil War McClellan's army camped on the grounds. A war-time picture shows something of the havoc wrought by the soldiers.

When Elizabeth Hill Carter, of s.h.i.+rley, came to Westover, she gave up one beautiful home for another. Her father's Charles City County mansion was probably built late in the seventeenth century, though the exact date is not known. One of the estate's claims to distinction is that it has never been offered for sale. Colonel Edward Hill, the builder, Colonel Edward Hill, II, his son, and Colonel Edward Hill, III, his grandson, were leaders in the life of the county. At the death of Colonel Hill, III, his sister, Elizabeth Hill, became heir to the estate. She married John Carter, of Corotoman, son of Robert ("King") Carter, who was Secretary of the Colony. It was his daughter who married William Byrd, III, of Westover. Her brother, Charles Carter, who was a patriot of prominence, was the father-in-law of Light Horse Harry Lee, and the grandfather of General Robert E. Lee.

Carter's Grove, another seat of the Carter family, is also on the James, in Charles City County, not far from s.h.i.+rley. The builder was Carter Burwell, and the house dates from 1751. The work was done by slaves, under the direction of a foreman who received 140 for his work. In the construction of the house 25,000 feet of lumber, 40,000 s.h.i.+ngles, 15,000 laths, and 460,000 bricks were used. The total cost was only 500.

Carter Burwell was the son of Elizabeth, daughter of Robert ("King") Carter, who married Colonel Nathaniel Burwell.

Across the James, in Prince George County, is Brandon, whose builder was Nathaniel Harrison. The house dates from early in the eighteenth century. His son, also Nathaniel Harrison, married, as his second wife, Lucy the daughter of Robert ("King") Carter of Corotoman.

Benjamin Harrison, the son by the first wife, Mary Digges, married Evelyn Taylor Byrd, of Westover. When she went to Brandon she took with her the Byrd portraits, which are to-day one of the attractions of the mansion.

Brandon has always been in the possession of descendants of the original owner.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GUNSTON HALL ON THE POTOMAC, VIRGINIA _Photo by H. P. Cook_ See page 281]

LXII

GUNSTON HALL, VIRGINIA

THE HOME OF GEORGE MASON, "THE PEN OF THE REVOLUTION IN VIRGINIA"

Four miles from Mt. Vernon, on the Potomac, is the well-preserved mansion, Gunston Hall, built in 1758 by George Mason, the great-grandson of George Mason, who fled to America after the Battle of Worcester, where he was in arms against the king of England. The first mention of the name of this George Mason occurs in the Virginia patent of land which he secured in March, 1655.

George Was.h.i.+ngton and George Mason were not only near neighbors, but they were warm friends. Frequently Was.h.i.+ngton drove to Gunston Hall for a talk with Mason; or sometimes he floated down the stream in his four-oared gig, manned by his own slaves. Sometimes the men roamed together through the woods or the fields; on one of these walks they sought to define the boundaries between their estates.

Gifts of various kinds pa.s.sed back and forth between the two manors; one day in 1785, when Mason was driven from Mt. Vernon in Was.h.i.+ngton's carriage, he sent back by the driver some young shoots of the Persian jessamine and Guelder rose.

A few days later a hogshead of cider was broached at Gunston Hall, and a liberal sample was sent to Was.h.i.+ngton. A note dated "9th November, 1785," addressed to Was.h.i.+ngton, begins, "The bearer waits on you with a side of venison (the first we have killed this season), which I beg your acceptance of."

At one time both Was.h.i.+ngton and Mason were members of the vestry of Truro parish. Was.h.i.+ngton's list of the vestrymen shows that his friend was elected by two hundred and eighty-two votes, while he himself received but fifty-one votes.

Mason was as often at Mt. Vernon as Was.h.i.+ngton was at Gunston Hall.

After a visit made on Christmas Day, 1783, one of the other guests, Miss Lewis, of Fredericksburg, wrote:

"Among the most notable of the callers was Mr. George Mason, of Gunston Hall, who was on his way home from Alexandria, and who brought a charming granddaughter with him.... He is said to be one of the greatest statesmen and wisest men in Virginia. We had heard much of him and were delighted to look in his face, hear him speak, and take his hand, which he offered in a courtly manner. He is slight in figure, but not tall, and has a grand head and clear gray eyes."

To the home of George Mason other men of note delighted to come. In the guest room Jefferson and Richard Henry Lee, as well as Was.h.i.+ngton, slept more than once. Patrick Henry, too, was a welcome visitor at Gunston Hall. George Mason had as high an opinion of the orator as Patrick Henry had of the statesman. "He is by far the most powerful speaker I ever heard," Mason once said of Henry; "every word he says not only engages but commands the attention; and your pa.s.sions are no longer your own when he addresses them. But his eloquence is the smallest part of his merit. He is in my opinion the first man upon this continent, as well in abilities as public virtues, and had he lived in Rome about the time of the first Punic War, when the Roman people had arrived at their meridian glory and their virtue not tarnished, Mr. Henry's talents must have put him at the head of that glorious commonwealth."

The orator returned the compliment by calling Mason one of the two greatest statesmen he ever knew.

George Mason's statesmanlike vision was seen in 1766, when he warned the British public of the results that would follow coercion. "Three millions of people driven to desperation are not an object of contempt," he wrote. Again he proved a good prophet when he wrote to George Was.h.i.+ngton, on April 2, 1776, after the General took possession of Boston:

"I congratulate you most heartily upon this glorious and important event--an event which will render George Was.h.i.+ngton's name immortal in the annals of America, endear his memory to the latest posterity, and ent.i.tle him to those thanks which heaven appointed as the reward of public virtue."

Mason was of a retiring disposition, and he would have preferred to remain at home. But he was forced into the councils of the Virginia Convention, and during his service there he prepared the marvellous Bill of Rights which was later made a part of the Const.i.tution of that State and was the model for similar doc.u.ments in many other States. He was also the author of the Const.i.tution of Virginia, and the designer of the State seal. He was a member of the Const.i.tutional Convention in Philadelphia, where he proved himself "the champion of the State and the author of the doctrine of State Rights." Because the Const.i.tution as finally drafted by the convention contained so many provisions that he felt were dangerous, he refused to sign the doc.u.ment, "declaring that he would sooner chop off his right hand than put it to the Const.i.tution" whose provisions he could not approve.

After the Const.i.tutional Convention for more than four years the statesman lived quietly at Gunston Hall. When he died in October, 1792, he asked to be buried by the side of his first wife, whose death in 1773 had been a grievous blow to him. Over her tomb he had inscribed:

"Once She was all that cheers and sweetens Life; The tender Mother, Daughter, Friend and Wife: Once She was all that makes Mankind adore; Now view the Marble, and be vain no more."

No monument was ever raised over his own grave. A grandson planned to set a stone inscribed to "The Author of the Bill of Rights and the Const.i.tution of Virginia," but he was unable to do as he wished.

Gunston Hall still stands, though it has pa.s.sed through many hands since the death of him whom George Esten Cooke called "one of the most remarkable men, not only of his Country, and of his epoch, but of all Countries and all time."

[Ill.u.s.tration: WAs.h.i.+NGTON COLLEGE BUILDING, LEXINGTON, VA.

_Photo by Ph. B. Wallace_ See page 285]

LXIII