The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1907-03-03


GINA. The Sunday Times Dspatch
the respect Of wives and children for their people tic
soil, therefore having given this fair beginnings reimburs
Of whose charges it ordered that every that narries
them give one hundred and twenty pounds OF best leaf to-
bacco for each OF them.
I'VE desire that the marriage be free according nature
and would not have those maidens deceived and married
servants, but only to such freencn tenants have
maintain them We pray you, therefore to be
fathers Of them in this business not enforcing thcto marry
against their wills
With the introduction Of and the forming Of fam
lily ties in the colony there followed Of very general
domestic and social improvement The first sign Of this bet
tcr1nen was to be discovered in the Improvement the
homes and the increase Of domestic conveniences. 1t has
already been suggested that the first homes of very
rude and msy sort made chiefly of clapboard and logs
but before Smiths departure from the colony there
great solcitude his part that the people should be
housed in comfortable and secure homes. We
find that he insisted that the London Company should send
who would be able to build stable and comfortable
houses, making appeal for workmcn of all crafts espc-
cially carpenters and brick On the succession Of
Governor Yeardley the urgency repeatedly
pressed He instrumental in getting for the colonists
many things that contributed the comfort and
fulness of the homes.
The first houses that constructed frame build
ngs the timber for which from the neghbong for
and sawed first by hand though know that
mill established at Jamestown in 1880 The output OF
such mills in the colony have been very
mcagTe throughout the seventeenth Century there
constant complaint of the lack Of suitable tim
Der and boards for the construction Of houses.
Jamestown at first literally wooden town, which
account speedily and completely swept away by fire
in the terrible winter Of 6oSoo Not until these disastrous
confagatons had been repeated several times there any
real purpose to houses OF brick. There WERE be
few brickayers in the colony but their work had been
hitherto confined mainly to the ,,,'d;--- = =. -
tho cnnncys 1t provided that brick
makers should be placed upon the college lands Henrico
but the record goes there not single brick
house in the colony the time the Virginia Colony became
royal province Thirteen years later Governor Francis
Wyatt received Instructions the effect that he should
qure every Of plantation so large one hundred
acres land to build upon brick house least twenty
four feet long and sixteen feet vide but there evidence
that these instructions carried out in instances
This same order aer,vard repeated to Sir William
Berkeley 1t known that the secretary OF the colony
Kemp did brick residence about this time James
town. which reported be the substantial private
dwelling in the colony. 1t likely that during Berkeley
time than one-af of the buildings constructed at
Jamestown of brick, and by the beginning OF eg-
tcenh century many Of the best homes built Of brick
Berkeley caused brick mansion be built himself
colonial mansions however, until later
the eighteenth century The seventeenth century houses
usually forty feet long by twenty feet WIDE
and quite frequently large None these first
buildings exhibited any architectural design beauty They
usually story and half high, with dormer windows,
and in many ways quite unique and in many things
quite attractive; but they did by any compare
with the homes Of Engshmen Of the same rank.
was exceedingly difficult matter procure materials
that entered the construction of buildings especially