but in a Icdcr of Ma\' 27, 1769, to John Norton from 

 Rosewcll. John Page makes the following excuse for 

 delaying payment of his debts: 



... no Body hates the Thoughts of being in Debt more 

 than I do: but the Great Scarcity of Money here, the 

 Shortness of my Crops for four Years past, & the neces- 

 sary Expences of an encreasing Family joined to the Com- 

 mencement of Housekeeping in a large House, have forced 

 me to submit to it for a while . . . .^ 



It might therefore be construed that John Page had 

 been farming the Rosewell lands for four years prior 

 to 1769 and that he may have been master of Rosewell 

 during much of that time. 



In a letter to John Norton dated February 22, 1770, 

 Mann Page requested that certain goods be shipped 

 from England "to be landed where J live near 

 Fredericksljurg." It is apparent from the same letter 

 that Mann Page was growing tobacco there and that 

 he had been doing so for at least one year previously." 

 In a letter from London in 1773 John Norton 

 mentions Mann Page's tobacco in the following 

 terms: 



. . . the quality of the Crop is amazingly inferior to what 

 it us'd to be, the same may be said of Mr. Mann Page's, 

 I delivd. a hhd of his M P aday or two ago that had a 

 large part of the hhd dry rotten, perish'd and stunk like 

 a dunghill and is not worth a farthing pr cwt if I think 

 of it you shall have a sample of it with tiie mark and no. 

 his Rappa. Tobo. is likewise Trash.* 



This reference is important in that it indicates the 

 nature of Mann Page's tobacco mark, the same mark 

 that appears on a wine-bottle seal (fig. 16. no. 9) 

 found during the excavations at Rosewell. 



John Page's tribulations at Rosewell have become 

 known to us only in scraps of evidence culled from 

 the XurUm Papers: unhappily, few records of Page 

 life at Rosewell survive, and no contemporary de- 

 scriptions or inventories of the house have come to 

 light. It is known, however, that John Page had 

 little success with his tobacco and was constantly 

 forced to sta\e off his creditors. In a letter to John 



' Francis Norton Mason, ed., John Norton & Sons: Merchants 

 of London and Virginia, Richmond, 1937, p. 94, hereinafter 

 referred to as Norton Papers. 



' Mann Page to John Norton, February 22, 1770, Norton 

 Papers, pp. 123-124. 



8 John Norton to Hatley Norton, March 20, 1773, Norton 

 Papers, p. 309. It is suggested in the Norton Papers that the Mann 

 Page of this letter and the one cited in footnote 7 was not 

 Mann Page II of Rosewell but the son of John Page of North 

 End. However the accumulative evidence from other sources 

 strongly suggests that the letters refer to Mann Page II, for- 

 merly of Rosewell but then of Mannsfield. 



Norton written at Rosewell on Octol^er 11, 1771, 

 he described a scheme to increase his tobacco yield: 



. . . they [his friends] advised me to rent some Land in 

 Frederick (where exceedingly fine Land may be rented on 

 very good Terms) break up my Cheescake Quarter, lease 

 it out, send the Hands to Frederick & draught about lo 

 or 12 from Rosewell (where there are 27 in the Crop) & 

 send them up which would make up a Gang of 16 or 17, 

 which Gang say they will produce you from 30 to 40 

 Hhds. pr Anm. & you make within 3 or 4 Hhds. as much 

 Tobo. in Gloster as you do now; for 1 never made but 3 

 Hhds. at Cheescake nor more than 15 at Rosewell. 



He goes on to express his hopes for the success of the 

 plan and to excuse himself for not having sold .some 

 ui his slaves to pay his debts, a course that he had 

 previously promised to take:' 



... I shall be better able to sell Negros a few years hence, 

 if there should be Occasion for it then, when a great Num- 

 ber of young ones will be grown up. than I am now, I am 

 determined to adopt this Plan. 



Later in the same letter John Page gives some in- 

 dication of Rosewell's appearance less than 30 years 

 after it was completed: 



As my House is very much out of Repair, I have engaged 

 a Man to put it in a saving Condition next Spring. I shall 

 therefore be much obliged to you if you will send me 

 the articles mentioned in the inclosed Invoice early in the 

 Spring . . . 



100 lb of White Lead 2 lb of white Coperass 



20 lb Yellow Ochre A Glaziers Diamond of 20/ 

 A Bar.l of Oyl \'alue '<' 



20 Lb of Venetian Red 10 M 8d Nails 



2 Gallons of Spt. of 10 M lod Do 



Turpentine 5 M 6d Do 



5 lb Red Lead 2 M 2od Do 



3 lb Lamp Black 2 M 4d Do 



Although John Page's financial affairs were never 

 in the best of order, his status in the colony and subse- 

 quently in the State of Virginia rose steadily through- 

 out his life. In 1774, as a member of Lord Dunmore's 

 Council, he inade his political position clear jjy 



' .Xorton Papers, p. 199. It is not known how many slaves 

 John Page owned at this time, but he is recorded as possessing 

 160 in Abingdon Parish in ."^pril 1786 and 27 in Petsworth 

 Parish in October 1782, In Hening (op. cit. footnote 3, p. 283) 

 Mann Page is shown to base applied, in September 1744, to the 

 /\ssembly for tlie ownership of 76 slaves left by his father to his 

 deceased brother Ralph. Of these, 17 were at the .Scotland 

 Quarter, 12 at Clements Quarter, 19 at Clay Bank, and 28 at 

 Rttsewell, all in Gloucester County. 



'" Many fragments of window glass were found in the 

 excavation, and a number of the pieces bore evidence of having 

 been cut with a diamond. 



158 



BULLETIN 225: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY .AND TECHNOLOGY 



