lived at Aquia Crcck.'^^ Francis Hainnicrslcy was a 

 planter who married Giles Brent's widow and lived 

 at "The Retirement,'" one of tiu- Brent estates.'*'^ 

 Geori^e Brent, nephew of the oiiginal (iiles Brent, was 

 law partner of William Fitzhus^h, and had been 

 appointed Receiver General of tiu- Xorthcrn Xeek in 

 I()9t). His l:)rother Robert also was a lot holder. 

 Both li\ed at Woodstock, and presumably they did 

 not maintain residences at the port town."' Otiier 

 leading citizens were Robert Alexander, Samuel Hay- 

 ward, and Martin Scarlett, but again there is little 

 likelihood that they were ever residents of the town. 

 John W'augh, the uproarious pastor of Potomac 

 Parish, also was a lot holder, but he lived on the south 

 side of Potomac Creek in a house whieii belonged to 

 Mrs. .Anne Meese of London. His failure to pay for 

 that house after 1 1 years' occupancy of it, which led 

 to a suit in which l-'itzhugh was the prosecutor, does 

 not suggest that he ever arri\ed ,it building n house 

 in the port town.^" 



Captain George Mason was a distinguished in- 

 dividual who lived at "Accokeek," about a mile and 

 a half hom Marlborough. He certainly built in the 

 town, for in 1691 he petitioned for a license to "keep 

 an ordinary at the Town or Port for this county." 

 The petition was granted on condition that he "find 

 a good and Sufficient maintenance and reception 

 both for man and horse." Captain Mason was 

 grandfather of George Mason of Gunston Hall, 

 author of the Virginia Bill of Rights, and was, at one 

 time or another, sheriff, lieutenant colonel and 

 conunander in chief of the Stafford Rangers, and a 

 burgess. He participated in putting dcjwn the up- 

 rising of Nanticoke Indians in 1692, bringing in 

 captives for trial at the unfinished courthouse in 

 March of that year.^* Despite his interest in llie 

 town, however, it is unlikely that he ever lived there. 



Another lot owner was Captain Malachi Peale, 

 whose lease of the town land from the Brents had 

 been purchased when the site was selected. lie also 



" Stafford County Order Book, 1689-1694, p. 25\. 



''John Mercer's Land Book, loc. cit. (footnote 12); William 

 Fil^ugli and His Chesapeake World, op. cit. (footnote 3), p. 209. 



'• Ibid., pp. 76, 95, 162, 367. 



"Stafford County Order Book, 1689-1694, p. 203; William 

 Filzhugh and His Chesapeake World, op. cit. (footnote 3), pp. 

 2(»9, 211. 



'* Ibid., pp. 184, 230; John Mercer's Land Book, op. cit. 

 'footnote 12); William Fitzhugh and His ('hesapeake World, op. 

 '•It. 'footnote 3), p. 38. 



was an important figure, having been sheriff. He 

 may well have lived on one of his three lots, since 

 he was a resident of the Neck to begin with. John 

 Withers, one of the first feoffees and a justice of the 

 peace, was a lot holder also. George Andrews and 

 Peter Beach, somewhat less distinguished, were per- 

 haps the only full-time residents from among the 

 first grantees. After 1708 Thomas Ballard and 

 possibly William Barber were also householders. 



Thus, few of the ingredients of an active community 

 were to be found at Marlborough, the skilled crafts- 

 men or ship's chandlers or merchants who might 

 have provided the vitality of commerce and trade 

 not having at any time been present. 



HOUSING 



It is likely that most of the houses in the town con- 

 formed to the minimum requirements of 20 by 20 

 feet. They were probably all of wood, a story and a 

 half high with a chimney built against one end. 

 Forman describes a 20-foot-square house foundation 

 at Jamestown, known as the "House on Isaac Watson's 

 Land." This had a brick floor and a fireplace large 

 enough to take an 8-foot log as well as a setting for a 

 brew copper. The ground floor consisted of one room, 

 and there was probably a loft overhead providing 

 e.xtra sleeping and storage space.^^ The original 

 portion of the Digges house at Yorktown, built follow- 

 ing the Port Act of 1705 and still standing, is a brick 

 house, also 20 feet square and a story and a half high. 

 Yet, brick houses certainly were not the rule. In 

 remote Stafford County, shortly before the port town 

 was built, the houses of even well-placed indixiduals 

 were sometimes extremely primitive. William Fitz- 

 hugh wrote in 1687 to his lawyer and merchant 

 friend Nicholas Hayward in London, "Your brother 

 Joseph's building that Shell, of a house without 

 Chimney or partition, & not one tittle of workman- 

 ship about it more than a Tobacco house work, 

 carry'd him into those .Arrears with yovu' self & his 

 other Employees, as you found by his Accots. at his 

 death." '"' Ancient English puncheon-type con- 

 struction, with studs and posts set three feet into the 

 ground, was still in u.se at Marlborough in 1691, as 

 we know from the contract for building a prison 



2' Henry Cii.\ndlee Form.\n, Jamestown and Si. Ataiy's 

 (Baltimore, 1938), pp. 13.i-137. 



*" William Filrjiugh and His Chesapeake World, op. cit. (footnote 

 3), p. 203. 



