noted that not .ill layers and deposits tabled below 

 were encountered in any one excavation area, while 

 some were confined to single locations. 



I. Topsoil and brown loam to 1 foot 8 inches over 

 cellar hole. 



Sand) loam merging into top of sandy clay fill 

 or silting, spreading over edges of cellar hole 

 and sealing the chimney rem. tins. About 1 690- 

 1700 with some top disturbance. 



3. Main sandy clay fill, extending to oystershell 

 deposit in central areas. About 1690-1700. 



3.\. Sandy clay fill extending to within 6 inches of 

 floor in Area B, against wall north of chimney. 

 The same as Strata 3-5 but without the oystershell 

 layer that divided them elsewhere. About 1690— 

 1700. 



3n. Sandy clay as above, but from areas where 

 Stratum 4 was absent. About 1690-1700. 



4. Oystershell deposit in Areas A, C and E, sealed 

 l.\ sandy clay Stratum 3. About 1690-1700. 



5. Sandy clay under oystershell layer, reaching to 

 cellar floor. About 1690-1700. 



(>. Ash and sand layer on remains of cellar floor; 

 principal artifacts concentrated against south 

 face of cellar hole in Areas D and E. About 

 1690 1700 

 6a. Similar layer to Stratum 6. confined to Area B 

 north of the chimney and underhearth founda- 

 tion. About 1690-1700. (The same number is 

 given to a chisel found behind a horizontal wall 

 board at this level, but which may have been 

 deposited when the cellar was built rather than 

 at its date of abandonment. Fig. 14, no. 6.) 



7. < >bjects lying in slots left by rotted-floor sleepers. 

 About 1690 1700. 



8. Late disturbance at southwest corner of excava- 

 tion. Area E. 19th century. 



9. 3-inch layer of light-grey soil beneath Stratum 

 2 extending down to top of oystershell layer (4) 

 from southwest: confined to Areas E and F. 

 About Id'' 1 1 1700, possibly disturbed at upper 

 west edge. 



10. Unstratified material from all areas of the cellar- 

 hole excavation, derived from frost disturbances 

 and the results of removing the walnut tree. 



II. Finds from oystershell and artifact layer beneath 

 topsoil southeast of the existing house. About 

 1690-1700 with a few much later intrusions. 



:a K. fig. 2.) 

 12. Surface finds recovered from field west of existing 

 house. 



The Artifacts 



The collection of objects from the Clay Bank cellar 

 hole is important lor a small number of rare items 

 and because the deposit provided accurate dating for 

 a much larger group of less impressive artifacts. Un- 

 fortunately, neither category included pieces that 

 were of much help in establishing anything of the 

 history of the property. 



A small cannonball of the 3-pound type used by 

 light iieldpieces of the minion class was found in the 

 top of the sand stratum (D3) a»ainst the south face 

 of the cellar. Guns of this caliber may well have 

 been used during Bacon's Rebellion, and there might 

 be some who would care to use the excavated ball to 

 support the legend that Bacon died at ( Hay Bank. 

 The ball, it has been argued, could have been left 

 behind by Bacon's forces when they vacated the site 

 in the fall of 1676. However, such a conjecture, based 

 on so little evidence, can hardly be taken seriously. 



The single clue pointing to a Porteus family associa- 

 tion, the latten spoon with its presumed Scottish mark, 

 hardly merits any more serious consideration than 

 the cannonball. Somewhat more tenable, however, 

 may be the suggestion furnished by two artifacts, that 

 the cellar hole was in the vicinity of a cooper's work- 

 shop. The objects in question were a "'chisel" fig 

 14, no. 7) used specifically for driving down barrel 

 hoops, and a race knife (fig. 12, no. 3), a tool fre- 

 quently used by coopers to mark the barrels. Xo 

 documentary evidence has been found to indicate the 

 presence of a cooper in the Second Precinct of Pets- 

 worth Parish in the late 17th century though the 

 Vestry Book does contain an entry for October 4th, 

 1699, ordering an orphan to be indentured to a 

 cooper in King and Queen County.-" 



Other tools from the Clay Bank cellar included 

 spade and hoe blades, a large wedge, and a carpentei 's 

 chisel, a range of items that did nothing to support a 

 coopering association, but which did tend to indicate 

 tli.it the artifacts might have come from a variety of 

 sources. 



The pottery included a high percentage of coat 

 earthenwares, among which were fragments of two, 

 or possibly three, lead-glazed tygs and a similarly 

 glazed cup (fig. 13, nos. 7, 8. and 9), all objects that 

 would have been best suited either to a yeoman's 

 household or to a tavern. The large quantity ol 



-'" IVi/iv Himk. p !i(). 'Necholas Lewis" indentured to "Henry 

 Morris oi Straten Majoi in v County "i King and Quine . . . 

 in Learn y said orphant y" art ofCoopery." 



12 



BULLETIN 249: CONTRIBUTIONS 1ROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLO( A 



