Current Errors; Wm. and Mary Qrtly., Vol. 8, No. 2

Transcribed by Kathy Merrill for the USGenWeb Archives Special Collections Project

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Current Errors

   William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine, Vol. 8, No. 2.
   (Oct., 1899), pp. 80-82.


                              CURRENT ERRORS.

   BRICKMAKING. - No error is more persisted in than that our old colonial brick 
houses were made of "imported brick".  There is no evidence that any house in Virginia
was made of imported brick, while there is plenty of evidence of brickmaking in
Virginia and of houses actually constructed out of Virginia brick.   The only cir-
cumstance to support the tradition is that sometimes ships brought over a few bricks
as ballast.  But, like other ballast, they were generally dumped into the rivers, and
creeks.  The tradition doubtless arose from the two kinds of brick in use in early
Virginia:  English brick, i.e., brick made according to the English statute and Dutch
brick, i.e., such brick as was commonly used in Holland.  In the course of time a 
house which was truly said to be made of "English brick" came to suggest a construction
of foreign brick, or imported brick.  The following extracts from the records, in
addition to what has already been published in the magazine at different times, may
tend to a sup-

Page 81.

pression of the error, for it is a reflection on our Virginia ancestors to say that
they had to send to England for their brick:

   "Complaint of John Talbot that Captain Richard Willis did make him make brick for
seven weeks and getting Bark every year but one, contrary to his Indentures". -
Middlesex county, December 15, 1692.

   In the account against the estate of Mr. Robert Booth, "To John Kingston for making

and burning of Brick, L7" - York County Records, May 24, 1692.

   In the will of Robert Vaulx, of Westmoreland, we read:  "Item.  I desire the Bricks
now made at the Ruins, together with the shells, may be burnt immediately, and if the
child my wife now goes with be a Boy that my executors hereafter named rebuild the
house out of the profits of my estate as soon as may be, and if the child my wife now
with be a girl and she is inclinable to rebuild the house and be at the third's ex-
pense, I desire my executors to pay the other third, and to have the plank sawed by
my sawyers at Brereton's Neck".  Proved March 26, 1755.

   ELECTIONS - Many writers, especially Northern writers, represent the elective
franchise as very confined in Virginia during the colonial days.  But this is not true.
Till 1670 universal suffrage prevailed, and while in that year the franchise was re-
stricted to householders and freeholders, the suffrage remained practically unchanged,
since the law did not define the freehold until 1736.  At the time of the Revolution
twice as many voted in Virginia as in Massachusetts.  The power of the aristocracy
depended upon compliance with the popular will.  In Masschusetts, the town meeting
was governed by a few aristocrats who continued officers indefinitely.  This difference
gives the real reason why Massachusetts after the Revolution was the seat of the
Federal, or aristocratic, party, and why Virginia was the seat of the Republicn, or
popular, party.  Jefferson did not make Virginia society; he was the best expression
of it.  The aristocracy of Virginia in the eighteenth century was one of wigs and
powder; it had no real authority.  Weeden, in his valuable account of New England,
says that society in Massachusetts was "democratic in form, but aristocratic in the
substance of the administration".  It may be said with equal truth that Virginia
society was aristocratic in form, but democratic in the substance of the administration.

Page 82.

   EDUCATION - The means of education in Virginia, which Mr. Jefferson pronounced
placed her "among the foremost of her sister States at the time of the Revolution",
has been constantly misrepresented.  Under the system prevailing, the counties were
divided into parishes, and the parishes into precincts, to each of which were assigned
appropriate officers.  As all ministers were required to be ordained by the Bishop of
London, there was a constant emigration to Virginia from the earliest date of Oxford
and Cambridge scholars (who taught the parish schoools), such as did not prevail in
New England, which had to depend chiefly upon their home institutions for teachers.
the county courts and parish vestries exercised a jealous supervision over poor and
indigent children, and had them properly cared for.  Many instances of their inter-
vention have already been published, but the reader is not referred to Mr. Churchill
Gibson Chamberlayne's published Vestry and Register of Bristol Parish (1729 - 1787) 
for numerous accessible instances of compliance with "what the law directed" as to
binding our poor children.  The law required the apprentice to be taught "reading and
writing" in every case.  In the background stood the county courts and the grand juries,
who commanded the vestries and punished them for any neglect of duty, and often took
the matter of education into their own hands.

   The following orders may serve as examples of thousands of similar orders which
abound in the county books:

   August 10, 1719.  Robert, ye son of young Cuba, a free negro woman, is bound to Mr.
Edward Carter till he is twenty-one years of age, and the said Carter is to find him
suitable maintenance in his services and to cause him to be taught to read and write,
and at ye end of his time to give him a good suit of clothes.  (Lancaster County).

   Mary Collins is bound to William Chilton till she come to ye Age of Eighteen years,
and ye sd William Chilton is obliged to cause her to be taught to reade the Bible well
and to provide her clothes, dyett and lodging and cause her to be learned such house-
wifely exercises as may tend to her future advantage and att ye expriation of her time
to give her what by Law is due to Import sevts.  (Lancaster County).

   June 10, 1719.  Josias Conway, son of Lazarus Conway, deced, an orphan aged seven
years, is by the court bound unto Miles Walters, his Exrs and admrs until he shall
attaine ye age of 21.  The said Miles Walters obliging himself to teach him or cause
him to be taught to reade and write during the said time, and also the trade of a
cooper, and at the expiration of his time to pay and allow him as is provided servants
Imported by Indenture or custome.  (Lancaster County).