of dispute for many years, and as the recent excava- 

 tions have done nothing to resolve the matter, it is 

 not necessary to explore the conflicting opinions and 

 evidence in detail. It is enough to recall that the 

 Vestry Book of Petsworth Parish 3 clearly places Robert 

 Porteus in the Second Precinct which extended from 

 Bennit's Creek up the York River to Jones' Creek. 

 The First Precinct had begun at Clay Bank Creek 

 and had reached to Bennit's Creek. Today most of 

 these names have been changed ; Clay Bank Creek 

 is marked as Aberdeen Creek, the creek at Clay Bank 

 which was apparently originally known as Bennit's 

 Creek now has no name at all, and only Jones' 

 ( Ireek remains the same. 



The only extant map that shows both Clay Bank 

 Creek and Bennit's Creek is the Augustine Herman 

 map of Virginia and Maryland published in 1673 

 (fig. 1). But this shows Bennit's Creek as being as 

 long as the present Jones' Creek, while the latter is 

 omitted from the map altogether. However, as the 

 parish records delineating the bounds of the precincts 

 in 1709 refer to both Bennit's Creek and Jones' 

 Creek there cannot have been any confusion between 

 them. It is therefore reasonably well established that 

 the Porteus property lay between those creeks, which 

 would place it north of the modern community of 

 Clay Bank and south of Jones' Creek. Although it 

 has not been proved that the Porteus land included 



the York River frontage, it is reasonable to suppose 

 that it did. Thus, if that conjecture is accepted, it 

 becomes highly probable that the present "Ardudw) " 

 and the adjacent early foundation are on what were 

 once Porteus acres. 4 The Porteus family continued 

 to own this or other land in the Second Precinct 

 until at least 1763 as the bounds of that precinct were 

 ordered to be processioned in 1751, 1755, 1759 and 

 1763 beginning "on the Land of Rob 1 Porteus Esq'.' 

 As Robert Porteus never returned to Virginia after 

 1727 and died in 1 7 5 H , it must either be assumed that 

 the plantation was taken over by a son or that it 

 was operated by a tenant or manager on "Capt." 

 Robert Porteus' behalf. In the absence of any other 

 documentation indicating the presence of any mem- 

 bers of the Porteus family in Gloucester after October 

 l - 25, 6 the latter construction seems most reasonable. 

 The continuing references to Robert Porteus' land 

 in the Second Precinct until 1763 may be explained 

 as referring to the estate of the late Robert Porteus. 



3 Vestry Booh of Petsworth Parish. Gloucester County, Virginia 

 7677-7793, annotated by C. G. Chamberlayne, The Library 

 Board (Richmond, 1933), p. 97. Hereafter cited as Vestry Booh. 



* Records of Colonial Gloucester County Virginia, compiled by 

 Polly Cary Mason (Newport News, 1946), vol. 1, p. 86. I he 

 Gloucester rent roll of 1704 showed Robert Porteus owning 892 

 acres and Madam Porteus (presumably his widowed mother) 

 with 500 acres. The latter may have been situated elsewhere 

 in the parish and have been property inherited by her at the 

 death of her first husband, Robert Lee. 



= Vestry Book. pp. 284, 295, 304, 318. 



1 Vestry Book, October 6, 1725, pp. 186-187. -Petso Parish 

 Detter this Year in Tobacco . . . To Robert Portuse I i 

 for Keeping Two barsterd Children viz 1 John & W.itkinson 

 Marvil 01333 V 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 



I am greatly indebted to Mr. and Mrs. William F. 

 Jenkins for drawing the Clay Bank site to my attention, 

 for permitting me to do considerable damage to their 

 garden in the course of its excavation, and for generously 

 presenting the illustrated artifacts to the .Smithsonian 

 Institution. I also owe much to their daughter Mrs. 

 William DeHardit for valuable historical information 

 as well as for her constant and vigorous assistance with 

 the actual digging. I am equally grateful to my wile. 

 Audrey Xoel Hume, and to Mr. John Dunton of Colonial 

 Williamsburg for their part in the excavation, also to 

 Mr. A. E. Kendrew, senior vice president of Colonial 

 Williamsburg, and Mr. E. M. Frank, its resident 

 architect, for their comments on both the chimney 

 foundation and on the age of the existing house. I am 



also indebted to Mrs. Carl Dolmetsch of Colonial 

 Williamsburg's research department for her pursuit of 

 cartographic evidence. 



In addition I wish to express my thanks to Mr. R. J. 

 Charleston, keeper of ceramics and glass, Victoria and 

 Albert Museum. London, for examining and com- 

 menting on the glass, and to Mr. W. D. Geiger, direi toi 

 of craft shops, Colonial Williamsburg, for similar assist- 

 ance in identifying the tools. 



Finallv, I am indebted to Miss Elizabeth Harwood of 

 Aberdeen Creek lor permission to illustrate examples of 

 tobacco pipes found on her land, and to Colonial 

 Williamsburg lor subsidizing the preparation of this 

 report. 



May 7965 1. N- H. 



PAPER 52: EXCAVATIONS AT CLAY BANK 



