Virginia Architecture in the Seventeenth CenturyForman, Henry Chandlee
History
Virginia Architecture in the Seventeenth Century
Forman, Henry Chandlee
Architecture -- Virginia -- History -- 17th century; Architecture, Colonial -- Virginia
The richest details known to a seventeenth-century building in the Old
Dominion appear to have once upon a time decorated the ceiling of the
Great Hall of "William Sherwood's House," built about 1677-80 in
Jamestown. The dwelling was a small, brick, storey-and-garret residence
built on top of and across the foundation ruins of the old "Governor's
House," already described. Mr. Sherwood's Great Hall, seventeen feet by
sixteen in size, was rented in 1685 by the Government of Virginia and
used as a Council Room by His Majesty's Governor and Council.
Now for the discovery. It was in the excavations of 1935 in Sherwood's
neat, brick basement, and in the area immediately surrounding that
cellar, that more than fifty thousand fragments of plaster were
retrieved. There are still some who do not believe that this plaster
work came from Sherwood's House; but like "Kilroy," this writer was
there and can vouch for its coming from Sherwood's. In fact we have
charts showing exactly where each important fragment of plaster was
found, and at what depth below the ground.
At any rate, some of the plaster was colored or frescoed, and much of it
was moulded. There were two particular pieces of plaster with raised
letters upon them: on one the letters "VI," on the other the letter
"Y." What did they mean? This writer invited Mr. Singleton Moorehead, of
the Williamsburg Restoration, down to Jamestown Island to view the
letters, and he immediately identified them as belonging to the "Garter"
of the Royal Arms of Great Britain. In quoting what the Garter states,
we have underlined the Jamestown letters, thus: "HONI SOIT Q_VI_ MAL _Y_
PENSE." Translated, the words mean, "Evil be to him who evil thinks."
There is no doubt that Mr. Moorehead was correct. The tail of the "Q" in
"Q_VI_" showed plainly, and the blank space in front of the "_Y_"
indicated that it was a letter by itself. But with the Garter in hand we
could identify the other important plaster finds--the masks, roses,
leaves, the lion, the hand-and-book, and the ribs, which ordinarily
divide a large plaster composition into separate panels--as part of the
Royal Coat of Arms.
[Illustration: The Now Famous Letters from the Jamestown Plaster
Garter identified by S. P. Moorehead]
In England such a ceiling arrangement in plaster was called "pargetry"
and was a Tudor manner of decorating an important room. How appropriate
to find the Royal Arms of England in the room in Sherwood's which was
used by His Majesty's Governor and Council. That was one of the great
archaeological finds of America, and the translation of the inscription
one of the great interpretations.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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