Corotoman | |
 Historic marker denoting the location of the home | |
  | |
| Location | Address Restricted Weems, Virginia |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 37°39′17″N 76°26′38″W / 37.65472°N 76.44389°W |
| Area | 160 acres (65 ha) |
| Built | 1650–1699, 1700s |
| Architectural style | Georgian |
| NRHP reference No. | 70000805[1] |
| VLR No. | 051-0034 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | September 15, 1970 |
| Designated VLR | December 2, 1969[2] |
Corotoman was a 17th and 18th century plantation on the Rappahannock River in Lancaster County, Virginia, United States. Corotoman was the residence of Robert Carter I (1662/63 – 4 August 1732), a colonial Governor of Virginia and one of the wealthiest men in the British colonies in North America.[3][4][5][6][7] Corotoman was located on a point overlooking the Rappahannock River, and flanked by Carter's Creek and Corrotoman River to its east and west respectively.[3][5]
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Transcription
Welcome to the first in a series of video presentations on collections behind the scenes here at the Society. With around 8 million processed manuscripts, nearly a quarter million rare or specialized books and journals, hundreds of paintings, thousands of three-dimensional objects, and a host of other items in the VHS collections, it's really hard to pick out just a few to highlight, just a few to give you a sense of what we collect and maintain for research and display. So we decided to focus on some representative pieces that for preservation, or security, or other good reasons, are not generally on public display. So today we will go behind the scenes, and our topic is Virginia's colonial history. We've come to the manuscripts storage area to look at one of the most important pieces donated to the Historical Society over the past forty years. This document is one of 12 surviving plats: land surveys, produced by George Washington as surveyor of Culpeper County. It's a very precise depiction of the land involved, and unusual in the intricacy of its compass rose, and in including an elevation of nearby Mount Poney, outside of Culpeper Courthouse. The earliest of these dozen known surviving surveys produced in 1749, this description of land owned by Richard Barnes is a remarkable work to be produced by a 17 year-old and perhaps an indication of great things to come from this young Virginian. We're here in the Paul Mellon Rare Book Room, and what better place to discuss one of the volumes that is most closely linked to the early history of Virginia, to England's first permanent settlement in America, Jamestown, and to some of the English persons' first encounters with the indigenous population. That book is John Smith's "Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, & the Summer Isles" published in London in 1624. Smith's recounting of the experiences of the colonists who landed at Jamestown in 1607 quickly became a bestseller in England. Admittedly self-promoting, his book provides a valuable account of that early English settlement. Among its lavish illustrations is an image of Princess Pocahontas in English garb, which accompanies Smith's account of his rescue by the young Indian woman. The buttons shown on her dress may be the very ones here in our collections. Even more importantly, the book features one of the earliest and most detailed maps of the Chesapeake Bay region and Virginia coastline, a work so reliable that it became the basis for numerous maps produced during the succeeding decades, which came to be called "Smith derivatives." Much of what we know about how people looked and lived in the eighteenth century comes from visual, rather than written evidence, such as portraits of prominent persons. While these paintings show how the elite looked, we can also draw general insights from these depictions, and learn more about styles and life in general from looking at them, such as the case with this portrait of Robert Carter. Called "The Councillor" to differentiate him from his famous grandfather, Robert King Carter, one of the richest men in colonial America, the younger man went to England in order to be educated. There he apparently spent as much time learning the social graces as he did Latin and Greek, as evidenced by the costume he wears in this picture. When Carter returned from England, however, he became serious about being a planter, managed his plantation Nomini Hall in Westmoreland County, built up his land holdings elsewhere in Virginia, and increased an already large slave force. He also served on the governor's council until the beginning of the American Revolution. After the war, he experienced a religious conversion, left the Anglican church to become a Baptist, and eventually freed nearly 500 of his slaves, probably the largest mass emancipation in America before 1860.
History
Earliest inhabitants
Corotoman was first inhabited by the Cuttatwomen Native American tribe several hundred years before the arrival of English colonists to Lancaster County, Virginia.[3]
John Carter I
John Carter I, the patriarch of the Carter family of Virginia, purchased and settled Corotoman between 1652 and 1653.[3] Carter developed and improved the lands into a plantation and constructed the first structures on the property before his death in 1669.[3] Carter's mansion, known as the "Old House", was built in the traditional 17th century hall-parlor plan with a porch chamber.[8]
Robert Carter I
Corotoman was then inherited by Carter's son Robert Carter I (whose wealth and autocratic business methods led to his becoming known by the nickname "King") in 1690.[3] Under Robert Carter I's ownership, Corotoman became the center of what developed into a 300,000-acre (1,200 km2) estate of 48 plantations and farms including places such as Indian Town and Hills Quarters.[3]
Construction
Robert Carter began construction of the large Georgian mansion at Corotoman around 1720.[3][6][7] The mansion was completed in 1725, and introduced a new era for early 18th-century architecture in Virginia.[3][7] Corotoman also set the pattern for 18th-century architectural patronage.[6] The mansion at Corotoman rivaled the other important Colonial mansions of Virginia, and affirmed Robert Carter I's status as the most powerful planter in the aristocracy of the Tidewater region.[3] Carter's correspondences and diary revealed that the construction of the mansion at Corotoman was a lengthy, complex, and frustrating endeavor.[6] Construction materials for the mansion included paving stones from England, lumber from his plantation saw mills and from neighboring plantations, and oyster shells for mortar.[6] For some of the mansion's windows, Carter used iron casement frames for quarrel glass.[6] To undertake the mansion's construction, Carter imported skilled indentured servants from England and hired local craftsmen.[6]
Gardens
Carter employed an English gardener, whom he instructed "to bring the yards around the mansion into closer accord with the architectural rhythms of the mansion.[8] Little is currently known of the garden's contents and design.[8]
Brick House Store
At Corotoman, Carter maintained a building known as the "Brick House Store" where he kept imported goods that he sold and bartered to local planter.[9] In 1730, an inventory of items at the Brick House Store included essential supplies such as cloths, tools, and gunpowder and luxury items such as spices, ivory combs, and brass candlesticks.[9]
Spinster's House
Another supporting structure at Corotoman was known as the "Spinster's House."[10] The house was constructed in either the late 17th century or the early 18th century.[10] The "Spinster's House" was a one-story and a half frame house adorned with a gabled roof with large end chimneys.[10] It lay in ruins for years before finally disappearing around 1930.[10] Before its disappearance, the "Spinster's House" was the last remaining supporting structure of the original Corotoman plantation.
Destruction
In 1729, four years after "King" Carter's mansion was completed, a fire destroyed it.[3][6][7][10] Carter made little mention of the mansion fire in his diary, but did lament the total destruction of his wine cellar.[11] Carter died three years later and the mansion was not rebuilt.[3][10] An inventory taken in 1732 after Carter's death implies that after the fire, Carter resided in either the "Old House" or the "Spinster's House" at Corotoman rather than rebuild it because of fiscal difficulties or ill health.[8][10] In the mid-19th century, Corotoman and its adjacent lands passed out of the Carter family when they were sold by a granddaughter of Charles Carter.[3][5]
Successive ownership
A mansion was rebuilt at Corotoman by successive owners, but was destroyed by fire around 1900.[4]
In Spring 2000, the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities acquired the site of Corotoman.[3]
Architecture
Robert Carter I's 1725 Georgian mansion was a two-story brick dwelling with a two-story porch, which Carter referred to as a piazza.[6][7] The mansion measured 90 by 40 feet (12 m).[3][7] Its central entrance hall was paved in black and white marble brought to Virginia from England.[3][7] The entrance hall was flanked by Carter's bedchamber and a lavishly decorated parlor, both with large closets.[3] Along the mansion's façade against the Rappahannock River ran a gallery. Below the gallery was an arcade and three pavilions.[3]
While the mansion was destroyed by fire four years after its completion, the "Spinster's House" on the Corotoman estate survived until around 1930.[3][10]
Archaeology
In 1978, archaeologists led by Dr. Carter Hudgins and the Virginia Department of Historic Resources excavated the foundations of Robert Carter I's Georgian mansion at Corotoman.[3][6][7] The archaeology undertaken also confirmed a single-pile house of 40 by 90 feet (27 m) including a loggia that measured 10 by 90 feet (27 m).[7][8] The mansion's foundations were found to be 30 inches (760 mm) thick.[8] Considerable rubble was unearthed at Corotoman, including white marble pavers, fragments of dressed stone and rubbed brick, Delft tile, Chinese porcelain, tankards, and over 1,000 wine bottles.[7][8] Artifacts unearthed at Corotoman are currently displayed at the Christ Church museum.[3]
See also
References
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
- ^ "Virginia Landmarks Register". Virginia Department of Historic Resources. Archived from the original on September 21, 2013. Retrieved June 5, 2013.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u The Foundation for Historic Christ Church. "Corotoman". The Foundation for Historic Christ Church. Archived from the original on July 17, 2011. Retrieved September 6, 2009.
- ^ a b Anne-Louise Monn (July 6, 2004). "Rosewell, Corotoman, and Christ Church". The National Institute of American History and Democracy Journals. Archived from the original on July 5, 2010. Retrieved September 6, 2009.
- ^ a b c Glenn, Thomas Allen (1899). Some colonial mansions: and those who lived in them : with genealogies of the various families mentioned. H.T. Coates and Company.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Mooney, Barbara Burlison (2007). Prodigy houses of Virginia: architecture and the native elite. University of Virginia Press. ISBN 978-0-8139-2673-5. Archived from the original on December 18, 2017.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Loth, Calder, ed. (2000). The Virginia landmarks register. University of Virginia Press. ISBN 0-8139-1862-6. Archived from the original on December 18, 2017.
- ^ a b c d e f g Kornwolf, James D.; Georgiana Wallis Kornwolf (2002). Architecture and town planning in colonial North America, Volume 2. Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-8018-5986-7. Archived from the original on December 18, 2017.
- ^ a b Vlach, John Michael (1993). Back of the big house: the architecture of plantation slavery. University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0-8078-4412-8. Archived from the original on December 18, 2017.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Eugene Bradbury, Historic American Buildings Survey. "Spinster's House" (PDF). The Library of Congress. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 5, 2011. Retrieved September 6, 2009.
- ^ Kennedy, Roger G. (1985). Architecture, men, women and money in America, 1600-1860. Random House. ISBN 9780394535791.
External links
- Corotoman, Rappahannock River, Weems, Lancaster County, VA: 1 photo, 1 measured drawing, and 6 data pages at Historic American Buildings Survey
This page was last edited on 12 December 2023, at 14:12