Domestic Life in Virginia in the Seventeenth Century — John Shaqi
Domestic Life in Virginia in the Seventeenth CenturyJester, Annie Lash
History
Domestic Life in Virginia in the Seventeenth Century
Jester, Annie Lash
Plantation life; Virginia -- Social life and customs -- To 1775
The Court sitting at Westover in Charles City County, 3 August 1664,
arrived at a means of disposing of these cases and silencing, perhaps,
public display of temper. The ducking stool on Herring Creek had just
been equipped, the year before, with new irons and so was in good
repair. Whereupon, the Justices ordered that "Goody" Spencer and "Goody"
Goodale for their "scurrilous brawls and frivilous litigations" be each
ducked three times at the public place prepared for that purpose, at or
near the next full tide, and that "each bear his own particular costs
and charges."
The costs levied, the discomfort of being immersed, not to speak of the
ridicule that such an event aroused on the part of the people assembled
to witness the punishment, no doubt had a very sobering effect on
tempers. There was also a ducking stool on Wormeley's Creek in York
County, and another at Lynnhaven in Lower Norfolk. It would thus seem
that these and similar cases were not altogether rare in the Colony.
SERVANTS
To interpret accurately the meaning of the frequently used term
_servant_ is a difficult matter. It appears to have covered a wide range
of classifications in seventeenth-century Virginia. The designation was
often used in the modern sense of employee and, occasionally, members of
a family are listed in an enrollment as _servants_ with the obvious
meaning of dependents. This was the case in the muster of William Gany,
1625, whose child Anna heads the list of his "servants." Also, with
Thomas Palmer and his family, Richard English, aged eleven years, was
living in 1625, but is listed as a "servant." Abraham Wood, aged ten
years, is listed in 1625 as a "servant" of Captain Samuel Mathews. These
children obviously do not come within the twentieth century meaning of
the word.
Also, when individuals or groups of individuals sought to establish
large settlements in Virginia, they sent over a company of men, and
these men are listed as "servants," a term used in our modern sense of
_employee_. The musters of Edward Bennett, Daniel Gookin and others
present such lists. In the Bennett muster, Christopher Reynolds,
evidently a head man in overseeing the creation of a plantation, comes
under the designation. Also, Adam Thoroughgood, who later was named a
member of the Council, is first mentioned in the colony under a list of
"servants."
[Illustration: Photo by Flournoy, Virginia State Chamber of Commerce
Adam Thoroughgood House--Princess Anne County
This house, considerably altered, an example of early
seventeenth-century architecture, located in that part of Lower Norfolk
County which became Princess Anne in 1691, was built by Adam
Thoroughgood on land patented by him, 1635. The dormer windows are a
later addition.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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