Another lot owner was Captain Malachi Peale, whose lease of the town land from the Brents had been purchased when the site was selected. He also was an important figure, having been sheriff. He may well have lived on one of his three lots, since he was a resident of the Neck to begin with. John Withers, one of the first feoffees and a justice of the peace, was a lot holder also. George Andrews and Peter Beach, somewhat less distinguished, were perhaps the only full-time residents from among the first grantees. After 1708 Thomas Ballard and possibly William Barber were also householders. Thus, few of the ingredients of an active community were to be found at Marlborough, the skilled craftsmen or ship's chandlers or merchants who might have provided the vitality of commerce and trade not having at any time been present. FOOTNOTES: [34] Stafford County Order Book, 1689-1694, p. 251. [35] John Mercer's Land Book, loc. cit. (footnote 12); _William Fitzhugh and His Chesapeake World_, op. cit. (footnote 3), p. 209. [36] Ibid., pp. 76, 93, 162, 367. [37] Stafford County Order Book, 1689-1694, p. 203; _William Fitzhugh and His Chesapeake World_, op. cit. (footnote 3), pp. 209, 211. [38] Ibid., pp. 184, 230; John Mercer's Land Book, op. cit. (footnote 12); _William Fitzhugh and His Chesapeake World_, op. cit. (footnote 3), p. 38. HOUSING It is likely that most of the houses in the town conformed to the minimum requirements of 20 by 20 feet. They were probably all of wood, a story and a half high with a chimney built against one end. Forman describes a 20-foot-square house foundation at Jamestown, known as the "House on Isaac Watson's Land." This had a brick floor and a fireplace large enough to take an 8-foot log as well as a setting for a brew copper. The ground floor consisted of one room, and there was probably a loft overhead providing extra sleeping and storage space.[39] The original portion of the Digges house at Yorktown, built following the Port Act of 1705 and still standing, is a brick house, also 20 feet square and a story and a half high. Yet, brick houses certainly were not the rule. In remote Stafford County, shortly before the port town was built, the houses of even well-placed individuals were sometimes extremely primitive. William Fitzhugh wrote in 1687 to his lawyer and merchant friend Nicholas Hayward in London, "Your brother Joseph's building that Shell, of a house without Chimney or partition, & not one tittle of workmanship about it more than a Tobacco house work, carry'd him into those Arrears with your self & his other Employees, as you found by his Accots. at his death."[40] Ancient English puncheon-type construction, with studs and posts set three feet into the ground, was still in use at Marlborough in 1691, as we know from the contract for building a prison quoted by Happel.[41] No doubt the houses there