ills U.n 



.uik.ii.iiik Uiv«*r \ 

 Chorrv I" Hik 



(•win* I»l.iii<l 



Milforti H.»MM1 



•Nv'w l\>mt Comfort 



>3 



Figure i. — Location of Rosewell. where Carter's Creek flows into tlie York 

 River. From map made by Joshua Fry and Peter Jefferson in 1751 and 

 revised, with place names, by J. Dalrymple in 1755. Photo courtesy Library 

 of Congress. 



in Spotsylvania County near Fredcricksljuru;.'' As a 

 result of his father's departinc. John Page, tiien a very 

 young man, unexpectedly Ibund himself the master 

 if not the owner of Rosewell and faced with the unen\i- 

 aiale tasks of running a plantation that had not shown 

 a profit in years and of maintaining a house that was 

 rapidly falling apart. .Although the records are far 

 from explicit, it would also seem likeh that John Page 

 had to contend with a father who did not entirely see 

 eye-to-eye with him. 



The relationship between John Page and his father. 

 Mann Page II, is of prime importance in the con- 

 sideration of the material excavated at Rosewell, for 

 it all belongs to the period of transition \\hen the 

 son had taken the place of the father. The exact 

 date of the departure of Mann Page II is uncertain. 



^ Thomas T. Waterman. Thf Mansions of Virginia^ Chapel 

 Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 1946, p. 418. Miss 

 Nellie Deans Greaves e.xplains the departure of Mann Page II 

 bv the fact that John Page was his eldest son by his first mar- 

 riage and so would inherit Rosewell. His eldest son by his 

 second marriage, Mann Page III, had no such inheritance, 

 and therefore Mann Page II moved to Spotsylvania County 

 and built Mannsfield for Mann Page III. Mr. Mann Page 

 of Shelly has suggested that Mann Page II's departure from 

 Rosewell may have been occasioned by his marriage to Anne 

 Corbyn Tayloe, but this event took place in about 1748 ac- 

 cording to Edmund Jennings Lee {Lee of Virginia, Philadelphia, 

 1895). In any case it would seem that die Pages never learned 

 that mansion-building was an expensive undertaking. In 1796 

 Mann Page III was forced to sell Mannsfield because of 

 financial difficulties. Mannsfield was destroyed during the 

 War Between the States. The site was excavated by the 

 National Park Service in 1934. 



P.APER 18; EXCAVATIONS .AT ROSEWELL 



157 



