The Cultural History of Marlborough, Virginia Part 20

DESCRIPTION OF EXCAVATIONS

A nearly square foundation, measuring 18.3 feet by 18.6 feet, with a narrow extended brick structure protruding from it, was situated some 45 feet north of Wall D, about midway in the wall's length. It was oriented on a north-northwest--south-southeast axis, quite without reference to the wall system. The foundation walls and the narrow extension were exposed by excavation, but the interior area within the walls was not excavated, except for 2-foot-wide trenches along the edges of the walls.

The foundation itself, about 2 feet thick, consisted of brick rubble--tumbled and broken bricks, not laid in mortar and for the most part matching bricks found elsewhere in Marlborough structures.

Scattered among the typical Virginia bricks and brickbats were several distinctively smaller and harder dark-red bricks measuring 7-1/4 inches by 3-1/2 inches (fig. 53).

The most interesting feature of the structure was its narrow extension.

This had survived in the form of two parallel walls laid in three brick courses without mortar, the whole projecting from the southeasterly wall. The interior measurement between the walls was 1.75 feet and the exterior overall width was 4 feet. Its southern extremity had an opening narrowed to 1 foot in width by bricks placed at right angles to the walls. Approximately 5 feet to the north the pa.s.sage formed by the walls was narrowed to 1 foot by three tiers of one brick, each tier laid parallel to the pa.s.sage on each side. At 8.7 feet from its southern terminus the extension intersected the main foundation. Just north of this intersection, bricks laid within the pa.s.sage were stepped up to form a platform two courses high and one course lower than the top of the foundation. A fluelike opening was formed by two rows of brick laid on top of the platform, narrowing the pa.s.sage to a width of 5 inches.

North of the southeast foundation wall there remained a strip of four bricks in two courses at the level of the opening, forming a thin continuation of the platform for 3.25 feet.

SIGNIFICANT ARTIFACTS IN STRUCTURE F

The narrow extension contained several bushels of unburned oystersh.e.l.ls and some coals. There was limited evidence of burning, although the sh.e.l.ls were not affected by fire. A small variety of artifacts was found, few of which dated later than the mid-18th century. The flue or fire chamber yielded the following artifacts:

59.1717 Wine-bottle basal fragments, 5-5-1/2 inches, mid-18th-century form

59.1721 Stem of a taper-stem, teardrop winegla.s.s, misshapen from having been melted, ca. 1730-1740

59.1723 Green window gla.s.s, one sherd with rolled edge of crown sheet

59.1724 Blue-and-white Chinese porcelain

59.1725 "Yellowware" sherd, probably made before 1750

59.1727 Westerwald gray-and-blue salt-glazed stoneware

59.1728 Buckley black-glazed ware

59.1730 Miscellaneous late 17th- and early 18th-century delftware fragments

59.1731 Staffordshire salt-glazed white stoneware, some with molded rims, ca. 1760

59.1734 Half of sheep shears (ill. 85)

59.1735 Convex copper escutcheon plate (fig. 83g)

59.1736 Bra.s.s-hinged handle or pull for strap (fig. 83j, ill. 89)

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 52.--STRUCTURE F (supposed smokehouse foundation).

Firing chamber in foreground.]

Elsewhere, in the trenches next to the foundation walls, artifacts typical of those occurring in other parts of the site were found. Worth mentioning are pieces of yellow-streaked, red earthen "agate" ware, sometimes attributed to Astbury or Whieldon, and sherds of cord-impressed Indian pottery.

ARCHITECTURAL a.n.a.lYSIS

Since the interior of this structure was not excavated, many uncertainties remain as to its ident.i.ty. The peculiar fluelike structure pa.s.sing through its foundation, the rubble of bricks used to form the foundation, the huge quant.i.ties of oystersh.e.l.ls in the flue, with partly burnt coals underneath, give rise to various speculations.

So does the orientation of the structure, which is off both the true and polar axes and is also unrelated to the mansion or the wall system.

The most likely explanation seems to be that Structure F was the foundation of a smokehouse. A recently excavated foundation in what was known as Brunswick Town, North Carolina, is almost identical (except for the use of ballast stone in the fire chamber and the building foundation). This also is believed to be a smokehouse foundation, since similar structures are still remembered from the days of their use.[159]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 53.--VIRGINIA BRICK from Structure B (left) 9 by 4 by 2-3/4 inches. Right, small brick from Structure F, probably imported, 7-1/4 by 3-1/2 by 1-3/4 inches. Perhaps one of the 630 bricks brought on the _Marigold_ by Captain Roger Lyndon and purchased by John Mercer.]

The position of the Marlborough structure, outside of the enclosure wall but not far from the kitchen, the relative crudeness of its construction, and its off-axis orientation, support the likelihood of its being a utilitarian structure. The firing chamber and the flue show unquestionably that it was a building requiring heat or smoke.

Marlborough had two greenhouses, according to Thomas Oliver's inventory, and these would have required heating equipment. But the small size of this structure and the absence of any indication of tile flooring or other elaboration suggested by contemporary descriptions of greenhouses seem to rule out this possibility.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 54.--STRUCTURE D, an unidentified structure with debris-filled refuse pit at left.]

FOOTNOTES:

[159] STANLEY SOUTH, "An Unusual Smokehouse is Discovered at Brunswick Town," _Newsletter_, Brunswick County Historical Society (Charlotte, N.C., August 1962), vol. 2, no. 3.

XIII

_Pits and Other Structures_

STRUCTURE D

An exploratory trench was dug northward several yards from a point on Wall D, on axis with Structure B. An irregularly shaped remnant of unmortared-brick structure, varying between two and three bricks wide and one course high was discovered at the undisturbed level. This measured 8.5 feet by 6 feet. Adjacent to it, extending 5.8 feet and having a width varying from 6.5 to 7 feet, was a pit 2 feet 8 inches deep, dug 2 feet below the undisturbed clay level, and filled with a heavy deposit of artifacts, oystersh.e.l.ls, and animal bones. The artifact remains were the richest in the entire site. Some of the most significant of these are the following:

59.1656 Key (fig. 88)

59.1942 Iron bolt (ill. 69)

59.1663} 59.2029} Two-tined forks (ill. 55-57) 59.1939}

59.1664 Jeweler's hammer (ill. 78)

59.1665 Fragments of a penknife (fig. 85c)

59.1668 Knife blade and Sheffield handle (fig. 86b)

59.1669} 59.1670} Pewter trifid-handle spoons (fig. 86f and g, ill. 58)

59.1672 Pewter "wavy-end" spoon (fig. 86e, ill. 59)

59.1675 Fragments of reeded-edge pewter plate (fig. 86a)

59.1676 Pewter teapot lid (fig. 86c, ill. 60)

59.1678 Bra.s.s rings (fig. 83i)