BloomsburyOrange County, Virginia

Copyright © 2007 by The Garden Club of Virginia.All Rights Reserved.

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The Fellowship Committee, ChairThe Garden Club ofThe Garden Club of VirginiaThe Kent-Valentine House12 East Franklin StreetRichmond, VA 23219www.gcvirginia.org

BloomsburyOrange County, Virginia

Carrie TrebilRudy J. Favretti Fellow 2007

The Garden Club of Virginia

AcknowledgementsTo The Garden Club of Virginia for funding the Rudy J. Favretti Fellowship and its efforts to preserve and restore the historic gardens and land-scapes of Virginia. To Mr. Will Rieley, for his guidance and insight into the historic preservation and landscape architecture fields. To Mrs. Helen Marie Taylor for sharing Bloomsbury and the Taylor family history with me. To Mrs. Ann Miller for her valuable information and re-sources, and answering my numerous questions. To Mrs. Marianne Hurd and Mrs. Jean McGaff of the Orange County Historical Society for their company and conversations during my research. To my family and friends for always supporting me, in every endeavor I undertake, and believ-ing that I can achieve anything. With deepest gratitude, Carrie Trebil

Left to Right Top to Bottom:Calder Loth, Bessie Carter, Peter Hatch, Mary Ann Johnson, Dootsie Wilbur, Marty Moore, Helen Marie Taylor, Bill Thomas, Sue Thompson, Betsy Huffman, Peggy Talman, Mina Wood, Kim Nash, Will Rieley, Mary Lou Seilheimer, Suzanne Wright, Mary Wynn McDaniel, Margaret Bemiss, Sally Guy Brown, Carrie Trebil, Deedy Bumgardner

The Restoration Committee of the Garden Club of Virigina

Bloomsbury July 24, 2007

Table of ContentsBloomsbury Today 1

James Taylor Era 2

William Taylor and Elias Langham Era 6

Late 18th Century Orange 7

William Quarles Era 8

Swiftrun Gap Turnpike 10

Francis Jerdone Era 12

Jaquelin E. Taylor Era 15

Bloomsbury in Pictures 17

Recollections of Mrs. Helen Marie Taylor 25

Appendix Sunken Gardens 35

Bloomsbury Timeline 37 Floorplan and Elevations 38

Original Patent Lines 39 Landscape Plan 40

Endnotes 41

Bibliography 43

Nestled among the rolling foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains is the county of Orange Virginia. On one of these hills sits Bloomsbury, one of the oldest houses in Orange County. The original portion of the house is a one and half story double pile structure oriented east. It has a steep gable roof with twin dormer windows on each side. The rear of the house has an original full length shed-roof porch. The current porch was restored in the 1960s by Jaquelin and Helen Marie Taylor, after a former owner enclosed a portion of the porch. The house had an addition built around 1800 by owner William Quarles. The addition is a two story structure situated perpendicular to the original portion, and is oriented north. The only way to access the two portions originally was exterior doors that opened to the porch, making Bloomsbury essentially a duplex. When the porch was restored in the 1960s an interior connection was made by cutting a door between a small lean-to room on the east end of the addition and a closet in the original portion. The small lean-to room and chimney was constructed shortly after the addition was completed, construction date unknown. The small porch on the North side of the addition was a 1960s conjectural restoration of the porch that was original to the house. The original portion of Bloomsbury has a unique layout, but room use was common to other houses of the period. It is a hall and rear chamber plan, with the hall or larger social room in the front and a smaller private room in the rear. It is a variation of the hall and parlor floor plan. Both rooms are heated by corner fireplaces. The staircase located in the hall has a landing above two closets called the musicians gallery. The landing is four and a half feet by eight feet, and is just enough room for three or four musicians to sit and play for assembled guests. Another interesting feature is a small cabinet located near the landing large enough to hold a double violin case. The small room off the rear room or dining room is believed to be a pantry. Three bedchambers are located upstairs in the original portion of the house. The largest room is the only room that is heated. The addition has a central hallway with a winding staircase to the second floor. Prior to the small lean-to room being added, there was

Bloomsbury Today

only one chamber, the hallway, and the entry to the west in the addition. Two chambers are located upstairs in the addition. The only outbuilding that remains is a smokehouse that was moved from its original location about eighteen feet west to its current location by Jaquelin and Helen Marie Taylor. The property also has two cemeteries, the Taylor and Quarles plot in the south east corner and the Jerdone plot in the north west corner. The brick wall around the Taylor and Quarles plot was built in the 1960s the granite posts are said to be original. The Jerdone family moved their loved ones’ remains. The front yard is enclosed by a hedge of boxwoods; an opening in the hedge is aligned with the front door. A sunken garden and four terraces are located behind the house. Family lore is that the garden would have been used for dancing and lawn bowling while musicians sat on the terraces and played. Very few trees are located around the house. Several walnuts, locusts, a holly and some cedars are the only trees that remain on the property.1 Bloomsbury has an interesting history, dating back to the original patentee, Colonel James Taylor II.

Bloomsbury May 2007 (Trebil)

Bloomsbury 1

James Taylor Era

Trail Route

Approximate location of Bloomsbury

(Special Collections University of Virginia Library)

Lt. Colonel James Taylor II was the son of an English immigrant from Carlise, England. Taylor was born March 14, 1674. In 1699 he mar-ried Martha Thompson.2 The couple had nine children, four sons and five daughters; Frances, Martha, James, Zachary, George, Tabitha, Erasmus, Hannah, and Milley.3 James II was appointed a surveyor by Virginia’s Surveyor-General on March 1, 1720.4 The mountains called to James and he desired to explore the western expanses of Virginia. In 1704, he asked the House of Burgesses’ permission to lead an expedition into the mountains claiming he wished to explore “strange Indians lately seen on our frontier”.5 The Burgesses did not want Taylor to acquire more land for himself in the uplands. He had extensive land holdings in six counties, and they put his request off to a Council thirteen months later. The Council wanted more information regarding the expedition, for example: names, guidelines, and funding. The expedition was never authorized. The mountains were finally explored in 1716 by the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe, led by Lt. Governor Alexander Spotswood. Lt. Colonel Taylor was a mem-ber of the group that left Germanna, Spotswood’s settlement on the Rapidan River, on August 29, 1716. The group consisted of gentlemen, Rang-ers, and Indian guides. The horseshoe is significant because the horses were not used to the rocky soil and had to be shod in Germanna before they left. Spotswood had small golden jewel encrusted horseshoe mementoes made for the members of the expedition party. None of these mementoes remain to this day. John Fontaine’s account of the journey reveals that the group was a merry one. The actual route taken by the party is under dispute, but in either account the party passed through the land that would later be patented to Taylor.6

Bloomsbury 2

The King awarded Taylor two land patents on July 1, 1722 one included 8,500 acres and the other was 5,000 acres in St. George parish in Spotsylvania County.7 The 8,500 acres encompassed most of present day Town of Orange. In 1722 regulations regarding land patents had become stricter due to abuse in prior years, for Taylor to keep his land he had three years from issue of the patent to prove that the land had been “seated and planted”, meaning that there was a habitable house, and land that was being actively cultivated. Improvements had to be proved by at least two ‘honest and indifferent’ (objective) men. Taylor like other wealthy land owners had tenants live on small parcels of the land. Improvement records indicate tenant’s names, homes, barns, and fences. The 1722 patent was divided into twelve quarters. Listed below are the improvements on the twelve quarters:

Bloomsbury 3

1. Harry Kelly - Puncheon house and fence 2. Dwelling house 15’ by 10’ with sheds, tobacco house (barn) 40’ by 20’, log house, and fence 3. John Davison - Dwelling house 16’ by 10’ with shed and fence 4. John Davison - Dwelling house 15’ square with shed, fence, and fruit trees 5. George Brasfeild - Puncheon house, and fruit trees 6. Alex Camell - Dwelling house 16’ by 10’ with shed, and fruit trees 7. Richard Mauldin - Dwelling house 15’ square, fence, and rails 8. Richard Thomas - Raftered house, tobacco house (barn) 30’ by 20’, and dwelling house 16’ by 12’ with sheds 9. Thomas Rucker - Fencing, posts, and boards 10. Thomas Jaqueson - Dwelling house 40’ by 15’, house 15’ square, and fence 11. Edward Tinsley - Frame for house 30’ by 20’, felled trees, and fence 12. John Rucker - Fence and fruit trees 8

Taylor later deeded tracts to five of these tenants, John

Legend 1. Richard Mauldin 2. Richard Thomas 3. John Taliaferro 4. Thomas Rucker 5. Thomas Jaqueson 6. Erasmus Taylor 7. George Taylor 8. Zachary Taylor 9 James Taylor, III 10. John Davison (Glimpses Villages of Orange County Joyner)

Subdivision of 8,500 acre Taylor Patent

Davison, Richard Mauldin, Richard Thomas, Thomas Rucker, and Thomas Jaqueson.9 The second quarter listed with no name is the most significant to Bloomsbury, because it adjoins Robert Taliaferro’s quarter, land to the east of Taylor’s patent, and the quarter known to be closest to Bloomsbury. This quarter had three buildings on it: a dwelling house, a tobacco barn, and a log house. It is possible that this log house was one of the earliest if not the first in Virginia. No records of where these structures were or what happened to them have been found.10 He further divided his land by giving each son one thousand acres. Each son had a house of their own on their property. James III received the Bloomsbury tract, George built Midland in 1786, Erasmus recieved the Greenfield tract, and Zachary built Meadowfarm.11 As a fee for surveying a tract of land for William Todd, James II recieved a patent of 4,675 acres in 1723 in then Spotsylvania County, he gave the land

(Taylor file Orange County Historical Society)

Bloomsbury 4

to Ambrose Madison and Thomas Chew, his son-in-laws. Madison married the oldest daughter Frances and Chew married the second daughter, Martha.12 Taylor family tradition states that James II built Bloomsbury in 1722 and gave it to his son James, and then built Greenfield before his death in 1729 and left it to his son Erasmus.13 In 1729, James III bought property named “Silvannia” from John Taliaferro. The land original belonged to John’s brother Robert. The land left to James III by his father and the land purchased from Taliaferro is where Bloomsbury stands.14 Ulysses P Joyner former Clerk of Court for Orange County redrew the original patent lines over a United States Geographical Survey Map. Bloomsbury is on the Silvannia patent purchased in 1729.15 The National Register of Historic Places Application for Bloomsbury dates the house to the 1750s for a combination of reasons, the first being the location of the house on the Silvannia patent and that mention of James Taylor III is scarce in Orange County Court records in the first half of the eighteenth century. 16 Calder Loth, Senior Architectural Historian for the Virginia Department of His-toric Resources, stated that “The moldings, paneling, brickwork, and other trim details can all be found on colonial Virginia buildings dating from the first quarter of the 18th century. The house is exceptionally interesting architecturally. I know of no other colonial Virginia dwelling that has a similar floor plan, or stair arrangement. The row of closets below the stair is unique as far as I know. The use of English Bond in the chimney and foundation is usually (but not always) an indicator of an early 18th-century date.”17 James Taylor II died June 26, 1729, no will is recorded at Spotsylvania Court House and records were lost prior to the Civil War in King

Text in Lower Left corner of MapOn the tract• Erasmus Taylor Jr. lives (1893) where Zachary Taylor, Sr lived• St Clair Booten “ “ “ James Taylor Jr. lived & Erasmus• Jas Taylor 2nd & Martha Thompson lived where above James lived• Fountain Kennedy lived where Dr. Chas Taylor resided• Mr. Trimmer on the tract called Hare Forest – The old Taylor house is gone – it was just west of R.R.• Mr. Farrar an Englishman lives where Geo Taylor lives in his old house• Mr. Jourdan owns the tract where Col James 3 Taylor lived – Hubbard Taylor lived there for sev-eral years*• Mr N(text lost) owns the Burnley tract or part of it•(Text lost) that of Geo Taylor

*Possible misspelling of Jerdone with Mr. Jourdan ~ Bloomsbury

and Queen County, the other known residence of James Taylor II. Martha died in 1762, and her will is recorded in the Orange County Courthouse.18

Bloomsbury 5

James and Martha Taylor have the distinct honor of being great grandparents to two future presidents, James Madison and Zachary Taylor. Their daughter Frances Taylor married Ambrose Madison, father of James Madison, Sr. and grandparents of the fourth president. James and Mar-tha’s grandson Lt Colonel Richard Taylor, son of Zachary Taylor, married Sarah Dabney Strother in 1779 and Zachary Taylor the twelfth president was born in Orange County in 1784.19

Presidential Family Tree

James and Martha Taylor

Frances Taylorm.

Ambrose Madison

Zachary Taylorm.

Elizabeth

James Madison, Sr.m.

Nelly Conway

Richard Taylorm.

Sarah Dabney Strother

James Madison, Jr.Fourth President

m.Dolley Payne Todd

Zachary TaylorTwelfth President

m.Margaret Mackall Smith

President Madison (Painted by Asher B. Durand ~

Brittanica Online)

President Taylor(Painted by Joesph H. Bush ~

White House Historical Association Online)

Little is known about Bloomsbury during James III era of ownership. He passed all lands in Orange County to his son James IV in 1784 upon his death.20 Colonel Francis Taylor was a son of George Taylor of Midland, nephew of James III, and cousin to James IV; and from 1786 to his death in 1799 he kept a diary. The diary gives a glimpse into the daily lives of the citizens in Orange. An entry dated October 14, 1786 states: “Went to Hd Taylors and dined there Col J Taylor there and told me he had agreed to take a place H Taylor bot of T Graves and let HT have the place he lives on” 21

Hubbard Taylor is the son of James IV, the Colonel J Taylor mentioned. No records in Orange or Caroline Counties can be found of a sale to Hub-bard Taylor from a T Graves. It can only be assumed that Hubbard is coming to live at Bloomsbury and James IV is moving out of Bloomsbury. A map locating all Taylor family properties in Orange County also lists Hubbard Taylor was living at Bloomsbury, although it is not named on the map.(Page 5) A margin note written in another hand on October 21, 1788 states James Taylor IV of Caroline County. On December 7, 1787 Hubbard Taylor told Francis Taylor that he had sold the land to William Taylor a merchant for one thousand pounds.22 The deed for this transaction is dated February 26, 1790 between James Taylor IV of Caroline County and William Taylor of Fredericksburg. Wil-liam Taylor bought 1,235 acres of land for 966 pounds.23 An entry in Francis Taylor’s diary for February 7, 1790 mentions that Reuben Taylor and George Taylor of Ararat dined at Midland, the margin note in another hand states that “George Taylor was probably the son of William Taylor formerly a merchant of Fredericksburg, who bought Ararat from Hubbard Taylor Dec 7, 1789”.24 This idea is reinforced in the entries for February 13 and 14, 1789. Hubbard Taylor and William Taylor Merchant came here from Ararat on the 13th and George Taylor, Francis’ father, accompanies Hubbard and William to Ararat to run lines of the land. It is believed that William Taylor changed the name from Ararat to Red Plains. The May 14, 1791 entry mentions the company at a picnic and Red Plains is in parenthesis behind William Taylor, the margin note indicates the belief in the name change. Francis accompanies a John Taylor to William Taylor’s home, John offered 650 pounds for his land but William wanted 800 pounds cash on July 11, 1791.25 The property containing 1,275 acres was sold to Elias Langham of Fluvanna County for a thousand pounds by William Taylor on September 24, 1791. Hubbard Taylor is mentioned in the deed as selling the property and James Taylor conveying the property, eight Negroes were also included in the sale of the land.26 No mention of the land sale is mentioned in Francis’ diary; however a sale at William Taylor’s is mentioned with a Major Langham in attendance, on December 12, 1791. A hail storm on June 6, 1972 damaged the wheat crops; Major Langham’s crop was mentioned as being much hurt. Elias Langham bought an additional 66 acres to the west from Richard Cawthorn on April 27, 1973.27 A Mr. Langham is mentioned several times, but no Elias Langham until January 13 and 14, 1794, when William Taylor came to visit and went to visit E Langham. William Taylor bought furniture that he had sold to E Langham back at this time. Francis Taylor got four rose bushes from Major Langham on March 26, 1796.28 Elias Langham sold 1,591 acres to William Quarles of Bedford County on January 2, 1797. The deed mentions the purchase of property from both Taylor and Cawthorn.29 Colonel Taylor’s entries are different from the date on the deed, on July 28, 1797 he shows William Quarles and William Pollock Langham’s land, and on August 10, 1797 he mentions the sale of Elias Langham’s property. The Sheriff, William Pollock, sold items from Elias Langham’s estate on November 20, 1797, and William Quarles sold property to J Taylor Jr at some point, the entry mentioning the sale was dated December 22, 1797. No further mention is made of Wil-liam Quarles in Colonel Francis’ diary.30

William Taylor and Elias Langham Era

Bloomsbury 6

Late 18th Century OrangeColonel Francis Taylor’s diary not only provides clues to the owners of Bloomsbury his detailed garden records provide clues to the plant materials that were grown on plantations late in the 18th century. Other interesting items mentioned in his diary were a small earthquake in the early morning of January 14, 1791, a cockmatch at the courthouse in May of 1793, and brandy was the drink of choice. The United States had yet to develop a currency for silver and pounds were still in use. Funerals occurred after the body had already been buried, not before. He had an overseer, Macon Biggers for several years, for his plantation. Wheat was harvested and taken to a mill to be ground. Horses pulled the plow not oxen. The term slave was not found in the diary, but the sale of Negroes was mentioned throughout the years. Colonel Francis often mentions going hunting for small game, and fishing in nearby streams and rivers. The Colonel appeared to have a healthy social life visiting friends and family almost every day.31

William Taylor and Elias Langham may have had the same things in their garden at Bloomsbury.

Plant material mentioned by Colonel Taylor• Cherry Trees• Peach Trees• Asparagus• Cucumbers• Parsley• Carrot• Cabbage• Lettuce• Onions• Muskmelons• Beans (several different varieties)• Sugar Beans• Watermelon• Sweet potatoes• Irish potatoes• Red potatoes• Turnips• Cresses• Tobacco• Cashew• Wheat• Corn

Bloomsbury 7(All Images Courtesy of Corbis)

William Quarles Era William Quarles and his wife Lucy bought Bloomsbury in 1797 from Elias Langham. Upon his marriage to Lucy Johnson his father-in-law Thomas Johnson gave them five Negroes, in June of 1794.32 The Quarles added the two-story addition around 1800, making the house a duplex. The wills of William and Lucy can give some insight into life at Bloomsbury. In 1836 the value of Bloomsbury was $11,576.10 and contained 1,423 acres. The Quarles also owned a plantation called The Cottage south of Bloomsbury and property in present day Spotsylvania County. The inventory includes all the furniture, slaves, farm equipment, animals, and crops. Hogs, cattle, sheep, and horses were listed on the inventory. Crops included corn, hay, and oats. Blacksmith tools and equipment were also included in the inventories. A loom and butter pot mentioned, can start to show us a picture of Bloomsbury as a self-sufficient plantation. Outbuildings, barns, and slave cabins would have dominated the landscape, unfor-tunately little record remains of where they would have been.33 An 1842 plat map shows the house, with the addition, a barn and possibly a kitchen, but neither the barn nor the kitchen are still standing.34 William and Lucy had no children, or none were mentioned in either of their wills, in 1832; Lucy gave John Metcalf power of attorney upon her death. William Quarles died August 13, 1834. Lucy died several years later on August 23, 1841. She left the property to her executors Mr. John Metcalf and Mr. Thomas Johnson. Lucy’s will released all of her slaves that wished for their freedom, and that were not already bequeathed to a family member. Her executors were to explain the terms of her will to her slaves and then release those choosing freedom and those who declined freedom were to choose a master from among Lucy’s relations. On August 20, 1842 the executors explained Lucy Quarles’ will and 67 slaves chose freedom and 7 chose masters.35 In 1842, Mr. Metcalf and Mr. Johnson sold Bloomsbury at auc-tion. They put an advertisement in the Daily Richmond Whig describing both properties in Orange County. The advertisement for Bloomsbury follows:

BloomsburyA Valuable Farm, For Sale

On the Fifteenth Day of July,The undersigned will offer for sale, at public auction, on the premises, the above named farm, in Orange county, belonging to the Estate of late Mrs. Lucy Quarles, containing, by a recent survey, about 1400 Acres, situated on the Turnpike Road leading from Orange Courthouse to Fred-ericksburg, about three miles from the former and 33 miles from the latter place – lying on the south side of what is commonly called Quarles’

mountain. About 700 acres have been cleared, and laid off in convenient fields for cultivation; all well watered with never-failing streams, with a large portion of valuable meadow land, now in grass – the balance in wood land, generally well timbered. The Garden is well known, not only for its beautiful arrangement, but for its abundant supply of all the table can ask or taste require in the way of vegetables – attached to

which is a very large Orchard, containing a variety of fruit trees; and from its peculiar locality, has never been known to fail. [Emphasis by the Author] There is a good Dwelling House on the premises (which is insured.) with every out house, that necessity or convenience can re-

quire; with Barns, (in one of which is an excellent wheat machine,) Stables, Corn houses, Carriage houses, &c. &c., all in good order – with a fine Spring near the House, and a Well of excellent water in the kitchen yard. Those who wish to make a permanent investment that will always yield an interest – and want a truly valuable Farm, in the most complete order, and in one of the best neighborhoods in the country, are invited to come

and see for themselves.The advertisement for the Cottage was below the Bloomsbury advertisement with an interesting sentence at the end “Dr. P.T. Johnson, who resides at Bloomsbury, will shew the land to any person wishing to purchase.”36

Bloomsbury 8

Lucy Quarles’ will also mentions two women living with her, a Nancy Clark and a Betsy Frazier. (This romantically inclined author believes that Nan-cy Clark become Nancy Johnson, by marrying Dr. Pe-ter T. Johnson, Lucy’s brother. No evidence has been found to support this idea.) Two tombstones in the Taylor-Quarles cemetery are for David Johnson and a Nancy Johnson wife of Dr. Peter T. Johnson; these tombstones and the mention of Dr. P.T. Johnson liv-ing at Bloomsbury in the newspaper advertisement, and the ladies mentioned in Lucy’s will give credence to the idea that the addition was for extended family members or other persons. The advertisement mentions an orchard and a beautifully arranged garden, but no records have been found to date that give a clue to the arrangement of the garden or the orchard. It is unknown when the sunken garden was built, the Quarles could have built it for their ‘well known’ garden, but there is no evidence to prove a construction date of the sunken garden and terraces. The long list of outbuildings paints a picture of a prosperous plantation in the early 19th century. If the present day well is the same well mentioned in the advertisement then if can be assumed that the kitchen was located some where near the well, as it was in the kitchen yard. Records from the Quarles era are the first time that the name Bloomsbury appears for the

property. The highest bid-der at the auction was a Mr. Francis Jerdone of Louisa County who pur-chased the property for approximately $15,000 - a total of 1,423 acres - July 15, 1842.37

1842 Plat Map of Bloomsbury

House, Barn, and Possible Kitchen Detail(Plat Book 5 Orange County Courthouse)Bloomsbury 9

Swift Run Gap Turnpike

Bloomsbury 10

The Swift Run Gap is an access point to the Shenandoah Valley, the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe possibly passed through Swift Run Gap on their 1716 expedition. Waterways was one of the first transportation systems in Virginia, when the Knights opened up the Piedmont region of Virginia a system of roads was needed, because the streams were impossible to navigate. Counties were required to develop roads inside their boundaries and to the capitol, first Jamestown and later Williamsburg. Better roads were needed between the Blue Ridge and the eastern portion of Virginia. Swift Run Gap was the way into the Valley from Fredericksburg and Alexandria. The 1760s saw a lot of petitions to improve the road from Fredericksburg to Swift Run Gap, bills were passed to ensure that the road was improved. Road improvements were not a major concern when the country was at war with England. Toll roads or turnpikes were the solution to improve roads between counties and to cross the Blue Ridge.38 The Swift Run Gap Turnpike Company was formed in 1810. It ran in a straight line from Orange County Court House to the Wilderness, but did not extend west of the Court House. It passed very close to where the Bloomsbury driveway is. The turnpike was replaced by the Fredericksburg and Valley Plank Road Company in 1850 share-

holders essentially sold the Swift Run Gap Turnpike Company to Fred-ericksburg and Valley Plank Road Company.39 The Turnpike is visible on the 1842 Plat map of Blooms-bury. The Turnpike is also visible on this Hotchkiss map from 1871. The mountain to to the west of Blooms-bury is called Quarles Mountain, it is also often called Jerdone Mountain.

Approximate location of Bloomsbury

(Special Collections University of Virginia Library)

Aerial Survey Orange County (Acme Mapper 2.0 online)

Aerial Shot Bloomsbury (Rieley)

Town of Orange Approximate location of Bloomsbury Old Turnpike Trace

Traces remain of the old Turnpike road bed to this day. Part of Route 20 is as straight as the Swift Run Gap Turnpike and the trace can be fol-lowed from the town of Orange , past Bloomsbury and out to Rt. 20 at the Wilderness. The tree line at the entrance gate to Bloomsbury is the old Turnpike trace.

Turnpike Today

Turnpike Trace visible at Bloomsbury

Bloomsbury 11

FrancisJerdone Era Francis Jerdone was the grandson of a Scottish merchant in Yorktown, and the Jerdone family owned a mill and forge near Providence Forge.40 Francis was married to Eliza Mayo. Within nineteen years of purchasing Bloomsbury, the United States would be embroiled in the Civil War and Orange would find itself in middle of the action. Many troops passed through the small village of Orange. An Orange resident, Fannie Hume of Selma kept a diary; her 1861 and 1862 diaries have been found and published. In July of 1862 she writes of a report of Union troops be-ing seen near Mr. Francis Jerdone’s. She describes it as a large force, Cavalry, infantry, and artillery. A small Confederate party went out to prove the report, and retreated when discovered they were outnumbered. Fannie relates that on the night of July 25th that rest was uneasy and slept little. On August 2 the Yankees stormed Orange, several carriages were stolen from Yatton, formerly Midland, and Fannie’s own farm Selma. Several families left Orange, and Fannie’s family was packing to leave when General Jaqueson arrived to intercept General Pope’s troops. A battle resulted on Cedar Mountain in Culpepper County on August 9. The artillery could be heard in Orange.41 Bloomsbury saw troops again in the fall of 1863 when General Robert E. Lee was encamped near Bloomsbury and the Orange County Court House. General Lee asked Francis Jerdone if he would house a special guest. No mention made of who the special guest was. Mr. Jerdone agreed and Confederate President Jefferson Davis stayed at Bloomsbury while he reviewed the troops in the fall of 1863. A security detail accompanied Davis, and Lee visited on a daily basis while Davis was at Bloomsbury.42

Mary Jerdone, daughter of Francis, wrote at least three letters to Lee, for she received three replies. One letter has an interesting story behind it, if one can find it. One letter is recounted below and the other two can be found in the appendix. Mary Jerdone eventually married William Camper and left Bloomsbury. Two Jerdone sons were enlisted in the Confederate Army. William M Jerdone served in the Orange Artillery and Frank Jerdone served in the 3rd Virginia Cavalry Company D.45 On his death in 1874, Francis Jerdone divided his property into four parcels; one containing 402 acres went to his daughter Mary J. Camper, a second containing 378 acres to his infant granddaughter McKinsie, a third containing 213 acres to Frank Jerdone, and a fourth containing 266 acres to John Jerdone. John received the tract with the house on it.46

Near Petersburg Jan 8th 65My dear Miss Mary I am much gratifi ed to fi nd that I am still re-membered by you. I am very grateful for your pretty New Year’s gift. It will be useful. I require nothing to remind me of my camp near Bloomsbury. I can think of nothing to send in return, but the accompanying photograph. It may serve to scare away those cavaliers who were so fond of bearing you off on horseback.I hope you are well, and that this year may bring you much happiness. With every good wish to yourself, and kind regards to your father and mother, I remain very truly yours R.E. Lee44

General Robert E. Lee(Library of Congress ~ Britannica Online)

Confederate President Jefferson Davis(Library of Congress ~ Britannica Online)

Jefferson Davis had a dis-tant connection to Blooms-bury. Davis’ first wife Sar-ah Knox was the daughter of President Zachary Taylor, great grandson of James II and great nephew to James III. He might not have known of the con-nection but Jefferson Da-vis was visiting the former house of his first’s wife re-lations.43

Bloomsbury 12

Little else is known about Bloomsbury during the time that the Jerdone’s owned it. Photographs taken in the 1930s show the back porch enclosed, and a porch added to the front. A fence appears to be around the sunken garden. An aerial photograph shows the location of several out-buildings none of which remain, and no clue as to what the buildings were used for. The outbuildings that can be seen in the aerial are not located where family legend has them. The kitchen that is supposed to be behind the house is not there in 1933. Family legend has that there was a bath house or sauna on the west side of the well with a chimney for heating bath water and an orangerie on the east side of the well. Directly aligned with this building on the North side of yard was said to have been an office and school room. A breeze-way is said to have been on the bottom floor and the school master and sons would have slept above the school rooms. Brick walkways led from the front door diagonally to each building. The detached kitchen was supposed to have been about sixty feet to the southwest of the house. Along the North side of the sunken garden would have been the dependencies the smokehouse, blacksmith shop, weave house and carriage house. The South side of the garden is where the slave quarters would have been located. According to legend the garden was never planted, and was used for bowling and dancing. Musicians would have sat on the terraces and played for the assembled. These legends were passed on from Eleanor Jerdone Davis to Helen Marie Taylor, when Jaquelin purchased the property in 1964. Three sisters were the last Jerdone owners of Bloomsbury. Two never married, and the younger sister married but had no children. Eleanor, the youngest, and her husband John Davis sold the property to Jaquelin E. Taylor in 1964. Jaquelin Taylor is a direct descendent of the original owner James Taylor. He bought Bloomsbury as a wedding gift for his bride Helen Marie.47

Bloomsbury 13

Bloomsbury Site Plan

Legendd1 - Dwelling, Unit 1d2 - Dwelling Unit 2J - Jerdone Cemetery sitek - kitchen sitemh - mobile home*ms - modern shed*o/s - office/schoolhouse siter.o. - row of outbuildings (sites) (weave house, black smith shop, dovecote, carriagehouse)sg - sunken gardens - smokehousess - former smokehouse sites.h. - slave house sites (approx.)s/d/o - sauna/dairy/orangerie sitet - terracesT-Q - Taylor-Quarles Cemetery

CB - contributing buildingCS - contributing siteCSr - contributing structureNB - noncontributing buildingNS - noncontributing siteNSr - noncontributing structure* No longer standing(J. O’Dell ~ 1988 National Register of Historic Places Application)

1937 Aerial Photograph

Outbuildings No longer standing

Sunken Garden House Turnpike Trace

(Trebil ~ Photo of Original)

This 1937 aerial shows few outbuild-ings, none of them are still standing. The trees make it hard to see some features closer to the house. It is dif-ficult to tell if the garden is planted, although it looks like it could be. Farm paths are visible all over the property.

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Jaquelin E. Taylor Era In 1964 Bloomsbury returned to the Taylor family. Mr. Jaquelin Taylor purchased it from the last Jerdone sister as a wedding present to his wife. Jaquelin and Helen Marie Taylor began restoring Bloomsbury to the original Taylor era. The back porch was restored and the front porch was removed. In addition to restoring the exterior, the Taylors restored the interior of the house. Lovely period antiques fill the rooms. Mrs. Taylor acquired a double violin case to fit in the violin cabinet near the musicains gallery. The meathouse was moved to its present location in attempts to save a tree. In the south west corner of the garden near the terraces was a barn and mobile homes. Both have been removed since the Taylors pur-chased the property. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992. The Taylors have not lived in the house and maintain it for future generations.

West facade during porch restoration 1966

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Notice the amount of vegetation to the rear of the house, and the tree in the front yard, both the tree and the vegetation no longer remain. Mrs. Taylor stated that they inheirted no good trees.

East facade under restoration to James Taylor Era 1966

(Ferol Briggs)

(Ferol Briggs)

East facade restored to James Taylor Era 1974

Notice the shed to the left rear of the house. The tree in front of the smokehouse and the shed

were both lost during a storm. Smokehouse was moved during restoration to save the tree.

West facade original porch restored 1974

(Ferol Briggs)

(Ferol Briggs)

Porch restored, a former owner enclosed part of the porch to allow interior passage from one part of the house to the other. The metal roof was replaced with wooden shingles.

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Bloomsbury in Pictures

View from South west 1933 (Ferol Briggs)

Fence around sunken garden

Porch Enclosed

The porch was restored by the current owners during the 1960s. The paint on the bricks was re-moved at the same. The kitchen by family tradition would have stood between the house and the sunken garden. The children in the photograph are not identified, the Jerdone sisters that owned the house at the time, had no children. A tenant family lived with the Jerdones, the children could belong to that family.

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(Virginia Historical Inventory ~ Library of Virginia)

View from South east 1934 (Ferol Briggs)

Gate to sunken garden

The front porch was removed during the restoration in the 1960s, its original construction date is unknown. The fence around the garden is also visible in this photograph. The shrubs and tree in the foreground no longer remain.

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(Virginia Historical Inventory ~ Library of Virginia)

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North Facade 1974

View from Northeast 1974

View from Southeast 1974

View from Northwest 1974

(All Photos Ferol Briggs)

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North Facade 2007

View from Northwest 2007

View from Southeast 2007

View from Southeast 2007

(All Photos Trebil)

Sunken garden and terraces

View from hill above terraces back to houseTaylor-Quarles Cemetery

Cemetery Gate

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Probe tests were done in at-tempts to locate the outbuild-ings tradition states were on the property. Probe tests merely indicate something solid beneath the ground, they are inconclusive as to the na-ture of the solid. The major-ity of these probes were done in the front of the house try-ing to locate the bath house, office, and walkways leading to each building. More evi-dence was found to the South of house heading towards the well head. Flags were placed to indicate that something was underground.

Possible foundation of stones near well head Flags indicating possible stones or brick walks in front of house

West facade of house

Smoke or Meat House only outbuilding that

remains

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View from North side of Bloomsbury (Rieley)

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View from East side of Bloomsbury (Rieley)

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Recollections from Mrs.Helen Marie Taylor

“Well I would begin by saying that I came to Virginia to visit Meadowfarm, in about 1954 and I was coming to, I hoped visit with Jaquelin P. Taylor, who had been President of the Taylor family association. When I was a little girl they had a vigorous family association back in the twen-ties, and I always wished that I had been able to go but I was too little, but my grandmother shared with me the little soft cover Taylor association booklets that they published, and I got very familiar with these little legends including the one about the little Taylor ring that I have been wearing now for forty years, that according to the article in the little Taylor book, had been wore by James Taylor I when he had come over here, and they traced that it had come down to Colonel Erasmus Taylor who was my father-in laws father, and he acquired it from another cousin, My grandmother had always said, I had an uncle they had vice presidents in practically every state in the Union, I have always said that if you left up a rock ten Taylor’s crawl out their everywhere, and because of that they had a lot of fun in having vice presidents from all the states and getting all their Taylor lore together and they use to meet in Louisville, KY every other year during the twenties until the crash came in ‘29, and things stopped, I assume everybody had financial problems after that, and it was never really restored. Jaquelin P Taylor for Jaquelin Plumber Taylor, named for his uncle, was the President, and I had been in Europe for five years, because the Taylors tend to live a long I fully expected him to be here in his 80 and 90s, my own grandmother that was so much the catalyst and the person who linked me together with all this, lived to be 94, my aunt lived to be 102, and my husband’s sister lived to be 102, my grandmothers grandmother lived to be 116, so I expected Mr. Taylor to be here in his early age of 80s like me 84 this year, so when I came, I went to the front door, and asked the housekeeper when she came if I could see Mr. Jaquelin Taylor, and she said well there was a storm last night, and if you go back down the road from Meadowfarm to route 20 you’ll see a jeep on one side or the other and he is there examining the damage to his corn, so we went back down that road and I saw the jeep was headed away from us, but there was a younger man in the field, and I thought maybe he was the driver and Mr. Taylor was sitting in the jeep, so I got out of the car and I walked through the corn fields waving at this fellow, and he said can I help you, and I said yes I’m looking for Mr. Jaquelin Taylor, and he said I’m Jaquelin Taylor who wants to see him, and I said well I’m your cousin and I want to see you and I have got a whole car full over here, and Jaque who really didn’t care much about cousins, but he was such a gracious sweet guy, it was his father that adored cousins and genealogy and all that, so he said I want you to go back to the house and meet my mother your cousin Catherine, and I think there is an old graveyard behind the house you might be interested, so that was my first visit to Meadowfarm and we all collectively fell in love with Jaque Taylor, who explained that his father had died in 1950, so I had missed him. That’s when I became aware of Meadowfarm personally, and while I was here I asked Jaque Taylor about Bloomsbury, he said “Blooms-bury” and I said yes, and he looked a little quizzical and he said well I haven’t seen it in about twenty years, but as far as I know it’s still standing it’s a quaint little wooden Queen Anne house it’s a miracle it is standing, it seems like it might have burned, but I haven’t seen it in about twenty years and when I saw it then it was not in good shape sitting out in the middle of a corn field and the Jerdone family still own it, and they have a tenant family living there, named Williams, well as it turned out the Williams family lived there until Jaque bought it in 1964 and had been there for 39 40 years and they felt like it was their home and the occupied they Quarles side of the house, and they had been employed by the three Jerdone sisters who had inherited it, and he said, are you going to Bloomsbury, and I said “Yes oh yes I am. My grandmother said it was a very romantic historic little house that was long associated with the family, and that I should never come without going to see it, and to be sure to see the little musicians gallery

As the owner of Bloomsbury, Mrs. Helen Marie Taylor has more than a slight interest in the house; she is a descendant of James Taylor I and her husband is a descendant of the original owner, James Taylor II. Mrs. Taylor recounts how her love for Bloomsbury has grown and the steps she and her husband Mr. Jaquelin Taylor took to painstakingly restore the house to its grandeur.

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in the great hall and that I would find on the landing of the musicians gallery a little cupboard the double violin case” Well I had been hearing about that since I was a child and as I told you everyone who has very come through that door, the front door, I have asked if they have ever heard of a double violin case and the standard answer has always been no. And so you can imagine how delighted I was years later to be down in a antique place in Richmond, and I asked this lady I said “Mrs. Kennedy, what is that” and she said I lost mind, I bought that up in Maine last week its a double violin case and I’ll never sell it, well of course she sold it right on the spot, because I couldn’t believe it, and when I got it to Bloomsbury and went up on the landing there was the little cupboard and it slid right in, and I always say the moral to this story is pay attention to your grand-mother because there is nothing written down about it, except I have been talk-ing about all these years myself, and she told me. Calder Loth, as you remem-ber, just a week or so ago when I said that is my understanding that it was the only little Queen Anne house of that period they have found that has the little musicians gallery, and he confirmed that. So there were things about it that made it very distinctive, and which grandmother was aware of, and when most people were building log cabins as she said they had built a really very sophisticated little Queen Anne cottage on the very cutting edge of the frontier, and since James Taylor II wife Martha Thompson I believe was the granddaughter of British baron, who had come over with something do with Bacon’s Rebellion, so they had created their own little culture on the cutting edge of the frontier, they certainly were not building a log cabin. Other things about what they did, the sunken garden. First the land was a crown grant from the King following Colonel James Taylor II participation in this trek across the Blue Ridge with Al-exander Spotswood in 1716, and that group had become known to history as the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe. When they came back, they all liked what they had seen been impressed by it, what we know of that and I what I know of it has come largely from John Fontaine’s diary. Young Spotswood, who’s one of my favorites, who I think was about 19 when he was an aid to John Churchill at the Battle of Blenheim, and he had a cannon ball hit him in his neck and shoulder, it was a wonder it didn’t kill him, came very close, when he returned to London he was all bandaged up, he got a special hug and kiss for that. But John Churchill was made duke of Marlborough, by that successful venture, and the people I learned only recently, raised the money for him to build Blenheim Palace, which was Churchill’s birthplace and his ancestor. Well young Spotswood when he was only about 28-29 years old, become important to us, because the Queen was naming a British governor of the colony and he [George Ham-ilton, Earl of Orkney] wanted the fees that came with it, but he did not want to come half way around the world to a place where they said they had human scalps on their belts and feathers in their heads, so he gave that, as the old parson says some prayerful consideration, and came up with this wonderful plan, which was to approach the Queen and say that he would like to accept her nomination and appointment, but he would also like to appoint a lieutenant governor that would actually go to the colony and be responsible to him and he would be responsible to the Queen, well everybody was happy the Queen got two birds with one stone in a way, she was glad to accommodate young Spotswood and he got to stay back to London and spend the proceeds. Well Young Spotswood was perfect, he was 29, he was young, strong, an adventurer and delighted to have this opportunity. And once he put his two feet on our shores nothing was ever the same. Well the Duke of Gloucester street is about twice as wide as an average British village would have been, he designed and built the Williamsburg palace, it tells you what kind of quality and elegance that they brought with them. He was building his place same year 1722 but in the land adjoining the Taylors. And he was remarkable, he rebuilt Bruton

Musicians Gallery in the Great Hall - Bloomsbury (Ferol Briggs)

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Parish Church, that I think was built in the early 1600s he rebuilt it in 1710 or something like that. He started the first missionary school for the Indians, paid for it out of his own pocket. He was the first great industrialist he started the iron mines over here in Germanna, and all those people were Lutherans that came over from Britain for religious reasons. He was a pirate killer, Blackbeard, Mr. Teach, I think I read that he and his co-horts sank 32 ships of the coast of Virginia so young Spotswood posted a gubernatorial proclamation saying that if he [Blackbeard] didn’t stop it that he was going to fill up some ships and come out and he was going to capture him and cut his head off. Well the pirates all sat around at the taverns with the yo ho hum about this young man and paid no attention and then Spotswood did fill up three ships, and I’m so fortunate that I was able to get The Spectator which was the only paper in the country then out of Boston, accounting for this saying that Young Spotswood was filling up three ships to go out and get Blackbeard, and he did and they cut Blackbeard’s head off, and put it on the mast of the ship and sailed all around so that word got out to these pirates and they lit out back to Sea Island, Georgia and Nags Head, North Carolina which had a big nest of them. When different people came in and told him that he should get the militia and go out and explore this friendly little mountains out here and that he would find a great green valley just waiting to be had, of course that was Kentucky out there. He wanted to do that and he went to the Royal Council sev-eral times got turned down repeatedly and those who have debated this here and off which trail they took, some suggested that one of the reasons they were turned down was because the people on the council didn’t want a band of explorers to get a kind of head start on them in land and land grants, but eventually after being turned down several times and being a pretty unstoppable young man he decided to invite about a dozen gentle-men to accompany him, and probably one of those who had been encouraging him was Colonel James Taylor II who was the surveyor general of the colony. They had 8-9 generations in America by that time, and when you had 8 or 10 youngsters in each generation the pieces of the pie were getting slimmer and slimmer so time to move on. From the Taylor point of view, we were very fortunate that one of the ones he approached to ac-company him was this Colonel James Taylor II. They were all to meet in either Williamsburg or later on in Germanna, and by the time that they arrived in Germanna, I read somewhere that the horses who were used to the sandy lowlands of Jamestown and Yorktown couldn’t take the rocky piedmont country and they stopped there [Germanna] to have the horses shod, and that is when they laughingly dubbed themselves the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe, which has stuck with them all through the generations. This expansion was the prelude to the later Lewis and Clark and it was no less important because it really was a westward expansion that took them on as far as they dared to go and that was Bloomsbury. Which I was told by somebody in Williamsburg that they thought it was the furthest house west of James when it was built, and also when they were out there looking at it one day they were all together in a huddle, and then they came over to me and said “Mrs. Taylor we think this is the earliest porch we know of”, and I said “How did you arrive at that.” And they said “We can show you in Williamsburg the little Queen Anne houses where the porches were added but this is the earliest one of 1722 that incorporates the whole roof line into a porch.” It tells you really I guess that they were learning to live with this heat, and the arcade that later came here at Meadowfarm and over at Monticello a generation later, were sort of cooling additions. If you open up the porch at Bloomsbury and then open the doors that go into the Quarles addition it makes a marvelous draft through there, very cool. Each night they named that camp for one of the gentlemen with them by the time that they had already organized for them to go I guess the Royal Council allowed Spotswood to take some militia so they had backup for him, but when he invited them to come it was to come pro bono, they were to bring their own horses, their own supplies, everything to do with their own service and they did. When they got to the top and Spotswood could see across this great valley he had been hearing about, the legend is that he had a bottle with a note in it claiming it for God and the crown and the rest of it. Its never been found. Then they came back and they all applied for these crown grants, and that was in June of 1716 I think, and they applied for these crown grants. They say Spotswood wrote the King and said that the trek was a great success and because these men had accom-panied him at their own expense that he had designed some little golden horseshoes, since they had laughingly dubbed themselves the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe he had inscribed on it in Latin ‘It is a pleasure to cross the mountains’ and this was studded with little pearls and diamonds,

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and rubies. He suggested that the King might want to have a dozen of them made up in London and sent to him so he could present them to these men to thank them for accompanying him. And so the legend goes the King did and sent them to him and enclosed the bill for Spotswood to pay. All my life I’d been interested in seeing one of those little golden horseshoes and there is a book I think written by the Robbins family and in that the author tells of having seen one, and they were the Kentucky cousins and they were involved with the Taylor family association. Legend had it that the one given to James Taylor II of Bloomsbury had slipped down behind the mantle. I think we proved that could not have been the case, because the original mantle had no ledge, it could slip down behind and the one that was added was added like the porch that you see in some of the pictures it is pre civil war addition, but by that time the Quarles had come and gone and the Jerdones owned it, and we had the men there work-ing, we were living in Richmond and coming up only a couple a days a week to check up on things, I was dismayed when I found they had taken the mantle off and I hadn’t been there. But I got a screen from an old window and I sifted every bit of the debris I could find there was nothing, no golden horseshoe, and then I begin to look at the mantle and the more I looked at it the more I realized that what they had taken off was the latter day addition and what was left behind is the original. Could not have been accurate so what happened, I don’t know. Over the years I have always been interested in it, in 1974, no 1976 when they had the bicentennial celebrations throughout Virginia they had a small museum in Charlottesville where the I think maybe Piedmont Virginia Community College or something over by Monticello, well anyway the state of Virginia would build the building and it would be used for several years as an exhibit and then after that it would revert back to the community college. In that exhibit which was very good, they had a case showing Spotswood coming through the foliage and intense jungle like setting, and in the corner of that case they had one of the little golden horseshoe and I was just thrilled to see it, but it said loaned by anonymous donor to the exhibit. Well I called a fellow in Williamsburg, and I tracked it to there, and they weren’t at liberty to give me out the name, and I said “But if you will have a jeweler do a line drawing of it and make copies I will pay for two of them one for you and one for little Bloomsbury”. They said “Well Mrs. Taylor we have already had a jeweler do that, but we want to wait a respectable length of time after the exhibit closes maybe a year or two and then we’ll take you up on it”. Well the years went by and I meant to get back to them, and eventually I did. When I did nobody could recollect anything they didn’t know where it came from, if they had a jeweler do it they didn’t know where the drawings where, didn’t know who the jeweler was. They told me they thought it had come from a woman in Richmond who had died but that her son taught at Collegiate school so I think I traced back trying to find it, but you know how you get a kind of buzz on to do something and you spend quite a lot of time one day and the next day you are flooded with thousand other things and years go by, so I have never followed up on it, but I do know that I saw one and it was a stubby little horseshoe. I think the Virginia Historical Society has an entirely different one, a big one in a case that is flat and not nearly as authentic looking as this one that was exhibited over there. They said that Cartier in New York had done whatever you do to examine gold to trace the legitimacy of its period and they had confirmed that the owner had done that. Just before I was to marry Jaque he called me to say that the little Jerdone sisters, two of the older ones had never married they were maiden ladies, the three of them owned had Bloomsbury inherited Bloomsbury and the two older sisters had left their interest in it to their baby sister, and she was now about 86. She called and said that they had discussed this before her sisters’ deaths and they would like to sell Bloomsbury back to the Taylor family. Fortunately it only been the Taylors built it supposedly in 1722 and the sold it the Quarles family in 1790 and the Quarles sold it to the Jerdones in 1820. But only those three families had owned it with the tenant family, the Williams, also lived there almost 39 years. They had been the tenant family of the Jerdones. The three girls ended up with no children and that is why they called my husband to say that they decided they’d like to sell it, and put the money in a scholarship fund in the name of their family either at William and Mary or the University of Virginia I can’t remember which one, but one of the two. So he called me and asked “What I would think of Bloomsbury as a wedding present” and I said “Hallelujah, I think that would be great.” Of course that excited the curiosity of his friends here in Orange, who wondered who in the world Jaque was marrying that would think that was a great present. The Rapidan hunt all rode up there and around little Bloomsbury, and it was really ready

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to fall down, if Jaque hadn’t gotten it probably would be gone, because in the new kitchen on the Quarles side, if you put your knife up in the big timber there it would just come out like it sand. It was explained to me that they didn’t have termites until they put the boiler in there, and that had been some years before, but long after it was built. In the basement kitchen we found one half had the original brick floor, but the other half had been churned up by putting that boiler in, once we took the boiler out we continued bricks all over that room but you can see the old original ones where they were in front of the fireplace, to this day the house has never had a kitchen, that’s the only kitchen, that was called the modern kitchen because it was inside instead of the one that was outside that the Taylors had. So we began the restoration and we got Tommy Craven who was a very re-spected architect over in Charlottesville to help with this, but he became so frustrated with the workmen who could not understand that we weren’t remodeling it, we were restoring it, and they would tend to think they could take something out and improve it, and we would find out about it. Mrs. Davis stood there on the front, she described standing at the front of the house, on the porch at that time, she said underneath this porch, you would find the beginnings of this walk that went across, because in her girlhood it came out from under the porch, across to two buildings, matching buildings on either side at the front, two story the rooms at the end facing the house had chimneys the one on the right was to have been as she called it the bathing room or the sauna bathing room and the well was next to that, and then where the ground sort of sloped down she said was an orangerie and she said it went into the ground and it had windows to let the light in and to preserve the flowers. It is long gone, all of it was gone except the well head. On the other side matching that was a two story, white, wooden building had a fireplace at the end and that was the room that was called sometimes the office and other times the school room, but it had a breezeway and a stairway that went upstairs and the master and the boys slept up there. It was the habit in those days to have the minister come and stay with the family for a month at a time in different houses or stay a whole season at someone’s house. One of the stories that the Jerdones just adored to tell and I was never with Mrs. Davis for more than half an hour that she didn’t tell me this story and I loved it every time she told me. She said that when they were little that her mother did not want them to hang onto the back of the wagon when she was going into town. They were boarding the minister at the time and on her way into town one

Sunken Garden and Terraces - 2007 (Trebil)

day she turned around to see why the carriage was leaning down so, and saw all three girls hanging onto the back, she said “I’m going to spank you when I get home I told you not to do that”. She went on her way and they came trudging back to the house, the minister was in the dining room what they call the great dining room, small little room next to the great hall which is a small room. He was working on his sermon for the Sunday church service, and they saw him. The fireplaces which were ruined by the remodelers instead of restorers was joined together and you could look at that time from one fireplace around to the other fireplace but the three girls knelt down, knowing that the minister was in there and prayed that when their mother got home that she would not spank them, and he heard all of that. So sure enough when the mother was approaching he went out to meet the carriage and he said “I think it would diminish their faith if you spanked them after they prayed so hard.” They were laughing about 75 years later about how it had worked, and how the minister had come to intercede for the Good Lord. She talked about how they really had a kind of sauna there because of that fireplace and the well being next to it that they had the old tin tubs originally She said even then that the sunken garden had never been planted with vegetables and things like that, it was always a bowling green or a place where she said Bloomsbury 29

traditionally we had danced the roundel, she said all the families apparently the Taylors started it with their spinets and two violins that was kept up she said we had a neighbor that was the best violin player you could imagine, and he used to come over and play. They had romping roundels she said, I don’t know what they were like when the Taylors and the Quarles had them but when the Jerdones were here they were a lot of festivities. The terraces on the back were planted with flowers and around the edges, the old horseshoe you could see where it had originally existed. The way we [Jerdone] had it lined was just with flowers and in the corners [with flowers] and on the right hand side as you went down in the sunken garden was where the steps were. There was a large group of boxwood there all in a clump and I was curious about that. I said “why are those boxwoods there, I see out in the front yard where you say that carriages would came up and come into a rectangular garden with a sup-posed sundial in the middle, but what is that for.” Finally the 89 year old Mr. Williams, who was daunted by talking of the privy he said kind of blustered out, “I know what was there I know what was there” and they said “What Mr. Williams,” he said “The privy was there, the privy, the necessary was there.” That explained why there was a kind of circle that this little building could Former Entrance to Bloomsbury (Trebil)be in, I thought of that when I saw the Wythe house down at Williamsburg, because they had the garden I don’t recall it being sunken but it was a garden behind the house and over to one side they had these dependences, the kitchen, the loom room, and the carriage house, and all that. Then they had these little necessaries and privies at the end of the garden, and one garden was a decorative one and the other side was a vegetable garden, but it looks like it was a self contained plantation house hold within Williamsburg and probably not unlike what was out there at Bloomsbury Even though Jaque bought it in 64 and I remember seeing a barn some distance from it, down there in the field, like a harvest barn or some-thing like, we went in and found a box thank goodness right back to the 1720 of hand blow glass that fitted the original house, and when these so called restorers or carpenters would put a ladder or something over their shoulder and turn a corner and would crash and a window either would be cracked or broken, and we were horrified at this, and here was a whole box of hand blown glass same as what was in the house and we were able to replace what we had and we still have some of the glass in the only little closet in the house. So then we began in 1964 we gave the Carpenters after being there so many years, a year’s notice to vacant. Alas three days before they were to turn the place over to us their cows got out and ate all of the 250 year old boxwood that was out there in the back, so much so, that there wasn’t even a chance of saving it, by the time that the got to the front yard they had done some damage but the Carpenters had discovered them by that time, so my husband planted in other boxwood around the original stalk and they have come out to give some semblance of a rounded box bush. She said if you will excavate you will find those walks going over to those two houses. We started on one and we came back the next week, and they were stacking them up and I asked “What had happened to the bricks” and they said “Those old bricks?” I said “Yes those bricks we were uncovering to go to that building.” They said “Mrs. Taylor, those old bricks weren’t any good, we used them to stop up the holes out there in the road.” The road was terrible in those days with big holes, and we said “Don’t do any more work.” We took what was left, and my husband said “Well they’re right, their in pretty fragile state.” But I said “I don’t care if they are, make an arc there so we can still have what Madison, Jefferson, Spotswood, and James, all of them walked over.” That is that little moon which was certainly not original. Jaque put around the house the drainage that new, the back porch the porch was there, but the foundation of the porch had been changed. They put the steps at the far end and they were just the kind you could buy, the cement kind. They had put tin all

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across the porch to create another storage room, and that is where this woman kept all her canned goods, peaches and beans and tomatoes. Once we took that off we realized what a nice porch it was and that the steps had been at the other end, so I drew up a plan of restoration which was then passed to Tommy Craven who approved it and probably made additions or suggestions for it but he was in charge of restoring the porch the way he thought it had been. We got inside the house in the Quarles house when you first come through the doors you couldn’t get from one house to the other except by going out on the porch so there was quite a lot of privacy created by this duplex affair and that hall when you go that passage room we discovered that there had been a stairway there in that room that led down to the basement so there was a way to get into the kitchen basement the new kitchen of 1790 however there has never been anything but the fireplace cooking arrangement and not nearly as impressive as the one over at Greenfield that he later built, that has ovens on the side and all that kind of thing, but anyway we didn’t find it out till later, so we didn’t put the stairway back but that really should be done. When you are down in that basement kitchen there is as you are approaching the kitchen as you are looking at it driving it, there is a big window there, well on the opposite side where that little side porch is there was another window matching that, but by that time we had built the porch and didn’t realize that window should have been there. If the porch is rebuilt it should be rebuilt smaller, and that window should be put back. If that window was in there that modern kitchen would be very bright and light indeed and it would have a nice division one side of the stairway and the big room on the other side. Under the Taylor side of the house there were two rooms, they apparently had ale or wine or whatever spirits they had in big barrels we later figured this one out because there were little holes on each side two great big doors, huge doors going into one room, we couldn’t find out why they would have these great big rooms together, but the barrels were in the middle of the room going across, and this suddenly hit me when I was at the John Marshall house down in Richmond, that basement has one of these things that hold the casks, the holes support the cask, and the reason was that the draft could come across them, but once you got them in there you couldn’t pass from one side of the room to the other you had to go into the big rooms, I have the barrels in there but I have not built the cask containers or supporters for the barrels. Alas I don’t know why in the world we didn’t start on the landscaping years and years and years ago, the years fly by so it would have a respectful amount of years on it. Mr. Taylor did plant those boxwood to help restore that immediate crisis there. For twenty years we started restoring it and furnishing it, little by little it was called by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources the best kept historic secret in Virginia. I guess it was a historic secret because we didn’t advertise it, and it never was a 501 C 3 it was a private house museum that we were doing. However no body has ever knocked on this door or called on the telephone that said they were kin to us or could they visit it that we didn’t usually stop what we were doing I don’t care how busy we were, we always received them as though they were coming home because in a way they were. When you’ve got a place that has been the family for eight generations and you are just one strand of it and by acci-dent of birth you happen to be a steward of it. At least that is how I always looked at it I can assure you my husband and sister-in-law did not, they thought of it as a very private place, well they thought of Meadowfarm as very private place of their own. I never looked on it that way, I always looked at it as stewardship I never put anything in this house, that I ever expect to take out of this house, whatever I put here I always hoped would go into the next generations, because we have things here that have gone and been contributed generational. You don’t have a house and family like Meadowfarm, been here seven to nine generations everywhere you look, that beech tree that I’m looking at out there that was planted by Col Erasamus Taylor Jaque’s grandfather who was General Longstreet’s quartermaster This beech tree was planted by my husband. The poplars that go down that allee where the boxwood is were planted by my father in law, Jaquelin P. Taylor. Those old walnuts down there are primeval to this place so they were here when Zachary Taylor and Elizabeth Lee, first master and mistress of this place, who are buried out there with no gravestones, were here. Whatever else changes, I say the driveway you came in today that’s the same driveway that James and Dolley came in on horse drawn carriages, General Lee rode up here on his horse, and that old tree out there is called the Traveller tree. That is where Traveller was tied when he came here. There are legends like that. There is an old sleigh bed here, they brought General Longstreet here after he been shot accidentally by one of his men in the Battle of the Wilderness, Colonel Erasmus Taylor brought him back here and he spent one night in that sleigh bed and its has

Bloomsbury 31

been called the Longstreet bed. I have it on loan to the museum uptown. Well we went through all sorts of phases of the house, and what we were able to furnish it with, there is not a single thing in the house that is original to the house, at all, except a very handsome corner cupboard that is the front great hall, and that was on the back porch of the new house the Quarles house of 1790 painted blue, when my husband was interested in it, he had it refinished and it was so handsome he couldn’t put it back on the porch or paint it, now the thing that is interesting in the house is the paneling, if you go to Montpelier and see the legend that James Madison Sr. when he was a boy helped carry the things from Pleasant Garden which was the original house. Col James Taylor II had two daughters Martha Taylor who married Thomas Chew and Frances Taylor who married Ambrose Madison. He had surveyed 20 thousand acre grant for that he was paid 5 thousand acres, and he had that 5 thousand put in the name of his two sons in laws to be, for his two daughters. The Chews got the part out here where you see Woodlea as you go to Gordonsville, and Frances Taylor and Ambrose got the part as you go out towards Somerset, that’s Mont-pelier. I met with Angus Green up at the church with the pastor, and me and two or three others about what Orange was going to do to celebrate the bicentennial and everyone was talking of course about our native sons Zachary Taylor and James Madison, but I wanted to be sure that Spotwsood was in there because I really feel that Orange county started with Spotswood and that Knights of the Golden Horseshoe trek and our crown jewel in Orange is the little St Thomas Church that’s the only church designed by Thomas Jefferson in existence. It use to be out in our backyard, I think the glebe laws were passed about 1803 1805 something like saying that the churches didn’t belong to the crown they belonged to the people, the Anglican church by that time was pretty controversial and the good old folks in Orange decided that if that church belonged to them they better get out there and get part of it. The slate roof and the bricks and all of that were stolen and the furniture inside. The Taylors had largely built it because of the law that when the fifth homesteader taken up his grant you had to build a church, and it was smart because you had to go to church on Sunday and you had tithe and stay awake or they’d poke you one, on Saturday the church become the court house that was court day and that’s were all the taxes were collected. Talk about separation of church and state nothing could have been further from the original patterns of church on Sunday and Saturday the court day. The Taylors saved the little rose window they had ordered from England and that’s over the door of the little St. Thomas’ Church uptown. In a neat turn around they then started holding church in the courthouse uptown, by that time they had a nice courthouse. Someone told me that James Madison’s grandmother, Frances Taylor Madison, was buried from there, and had a memorial service there. A few years passed and Jefferson choose a lovely promontory in Charlottesville and designed and built a church there, and the people in Orange saw and liked it so much that they wanted to copy that but build it in the town of Orange and they did, and put that little rose window Taylor window over top, and there is a plaque there that say that the bricks you are walking over came from the brick church of Meadowfarm the middle church, and then Jefferson’s church in Charlottesville burned down and instead of rebuilding that lovely little church they built a gothic church so that’s how we ended up with the only one designed by Jefferson it had rectangular windows originally, but gothic windows were put in, and lovely stain glass windows including a couple of Tiffanys. So what really began as an interest from my grandmother to me in Bloomsbury and the Taylor family ended up with little Bloomsbury at least restored and with the Garden Club of Virginia awarding this fellowship to you.”

Interview with author, August 2, 2007 at Meadowfarm, Orange Virginia

Bloomsbury 32

1722 Bloomsbury Manor HouseBuilt by Col James Taylor II and Martha Thompson Taylor given and/ inherited by his son James Taylor III who is buried in the graveyard with his 3 wives He was a member of the House of Burgesses.

Bloomsbury 33

Taylor Manor - 1722 Bloomsbury - rear of house showing the porch. Purchased by Quarles family in 1797. Quarles addition (possibly 1800) sold to Francis Jerdone 1842 and sold to Jaquelin Erasmus Taylor in 1964 for a wedding present for his cousin and wife Helen Marie Taylor. It is said to have been the furthest house west of the James River in 1722. The back porch, as has been suggested by the consultants from Williamsburg, may be the earliest in Virginia. The musicians gallery is unique and none have been found in any Queen Anne cottage that is known to exist.

Pictures and Captions from Helen Marie Taylor August 8, 2007

Bloomsbury 34

Appendix

Sunken Gardens Bloomsbury’s sunken garden is an interesting landscape feature, which requires more research since little information regarding the date of these features has been found, a general history of sunken gardens is discussed here. A few Roman gardens have been found to be sunken gardens or at a lower elevation. This design conserved water during the hot dry sum-mers. One garden at Domus Sollertiana at Eljam, North Africa had outlets for waste water. The most extensive royal garden was that of Herod the Great at his palace near Jericho, it was semi-sunken with three sides having retaining walls and the fourth was open to allow views into the garden from the opposite palace.48 Virginia has a few sunken gardens located at Red Lion Tavern at Colonial Williamsburg, English inspired Agecroft Hall, Lewis Ginter Bo-tanical Garden, and the sunken garden at William and Mary. The sunken garden at Red Lion Tavern is only slightly depressed, mere inches in el-evation change. The exterior edge is planted with boxwoods and a flower border within the boxwoods. Benches have been placed in the boxwoods for retreat. This garden is much smaller than the one at Bloomsbury. The garden would have dated back to the 1770s-1780s. The sunken garden at Agecroft Hall was designed by Charles Gillette and was inspired by the Hampton Court Palace Pond Garden in England. Unlike Bloomsbury this garden has retaining walls not a sloped edge to it. The garden at Agecroft was designed in the 1920s.49 Hampton Court Palace was Henry VIII’s favorite residence, and an exact date on the pond garden was not found. The palace went through a series of changes during different reigns. The sunken garden at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden is the newest garden on the list. Its sunken garden was inspired by the sunken gardens of the Romans.50 William and Mary has an impressive sunken garden, with sloped sides behind the Wren Building. The sunken garden was part of a comphrehensive plan developed by architect Charles Robinson and landscape architect Charles Gillette. Gillette’s Sunken Garden is surrounded on three sides by buildings and the other end by Jefferson’s Prospect, or a view to the countryside. This was plan was started in the 1920s.51

The only mention of the landscape at Bloomsbury in the National Register of Historic Places Registration Form was this: The most interesting landscape feature at Bloomsbury is the large sunken garden and bowling green to the west of the dwelling. Aligned with the house, it measures roughly 52 yards from north to south and 27 yards from east to west. The base of the sunken area, which is nearly perfectly level, averages about four feet below the level of the slightly undulating yard. At its west end the ground steps up in a series of four terraces, each about five yards deep and 36 yards long. According to oral reports, arbors once ran along some of these terraces, and a ‘half –moon’ shaped pergola or summerhouse stood on the highest terrace. In the early part of this century [20th Century] the sunken area was planted with flowers, herbs and shrubs at its corners and edges, leaving a horseshoe-shaped lawn for bowling in the center. Protected from view and equipped with benches, each corner of the garden formed a private place of retreat. Formerly, steps led to the sunken garden from a walkway extending to the main house. Today the only vestiges of early plantings are the large American boxwood bushes that dot the west yard and form a screen across the front of the east yard.

Source: No other sunken garden of this type is known in eastern Virginia. Based on the author’s detailed description, Kent Brinkley, land scape architect with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, said the sunken and terraced garden at Bloomsbury could very well be a col nial landscape feature. Sunken lawns were popular in 18th-century England, being used to play the games foursquare and pall-mall. A level slightly sunken lawn (only about 8” below grade) exists at the Red Lion Tavern in Colonial Williamsburg. Brinkley said that archeo logical testing should be able to determine the garden’s approximate date. (Interview with author [Jeffery O’Dell] , March 29, 1988)

Bloomsbury 35

Top left: The Roman inspired sunken garden at the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden.

Top right: The English inspired sunken garden at Agecroft Hall de-signed by Charles Gillette.

Bottom left: The sunken garden behind the Red Lion Tavern in Colo-nial Williamsburg.

Bottom right: The Sunken Garden at William & Mary designed by Charles Gillette.

(All photos ~ Trebil)

Bloomsbury 36

Bloomsbury Timeline

Knights of the Golden Horseshoe Expedition

Listed on National Register

of Historic Places

James Taylor II recieves 8,500 acre land patent

James II dies &

James III purchases Silvannia

Patent from Taliferro

James III dies & leaves

all land in Orange to

son James IV

17

84

Hubbard Taylor, son of

James IV, recieves

house from father

Sold to William Taylor of

Fredericks-burg

17

90

Sold to Elias LanghamFluvanna County

179

1Sold to Wil-liam Quarles

Bedford County

1

797

Quarles build addition

180

0

Sold at auc-tion to Fran-cis Jerdone

18

42

Union Troops encamped

near by

186

2

Lee’s troops encamped

near byJefferson Da-vis is a guest at Blooms-

bury

18

63

Francis Jer-done dies and divides land among heirs

187

4

Sold to Jaquelin Taylor Orange County

Begins resto-ration

19

64

172

9

1716

1722

1992

1784

Bloomsbury 37

Bloomsbury 38

North Elevation

West Elevation East Elevation

South Elevation

Floorplans and

ElevationsFloorplans and elevations were drawn by Architect Carroll Curtice. They were found at the Orange County Historical Society attached to the National Register of Historic Places Registeration Form.

Original 1722 8,500 acre Taylor land patent redrawn by Uylsses P. Joyner

(Trebil)

#27 Taliaferro Patent redrawn by Uylsses P Joyner

Town of Orange Bloomsbury

Bloomsbury 39

Ulysses P Joyner former Clerk of Court for Orange County redrew the original patent lines over a United States Geographical Survey Map. Bloomsbury is on the Silvannia patent purchased in 1729.

This map can be found on the wall of the back room of the Orange County Historical Society. The black square under “Cems” which stands for cemeteries, is Bloomsbury, on the Taliaferro land pat-ent, not the Taylor land.

Original Patent Lines

Contour Line

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Building Face

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Bloomsbury 40

1. O’dell, Jeffery. National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. 2. Taylor Genealogy Book, Orange Historical Society3. Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. Virginia Historical Society. Richmond, VA.4. Calendar of State Papers. Volume I. 1985. Walker Jr., Frank S. Remembering: A History of Orange County Virginia. Orange, Virginia. Orange Historical Society, Inc, 2004. 796. Walker Jr., Frank S. Remembering: A History of Orange County Virginia. Orange, Virginia. Orange Historical Society, Inc, 2004. 79-807. Virginia Land Patent Book 11. Library of Virginia. Richmond, VA. 149-1508. Miller, Ann. Early Patent Structures in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, 1721-1735. Thesis. School of Architecture, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, 1989. 11-17, 36.9. Joyner Jr, Ulysses. Glimpses: Villages of Orange County. Figure VIII10. Miller, Ann. Early Patent Structures in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, 1721-1735. Thesis. School of Architecture, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, 1989. 91-93.11. Miller, Ann. Antebellum Orange: The Pre-Civil War Homes, Public Buildings and Historic Sites of Orange County, Virginia. Orange, VA. Orange County Historical Society Mass Publications, 1988. 113-115.12. Miller, Ann. “Documenting the Historic Landscapes”. May 13, 2000. Orange County Historical Society.13. Interview with Helen Marie Taylor.14. Joyner Jr, Ulysses. The First Settlers of Orange County, Virginia 1700-1776. Orange, VA. Orange County Historical Society. 85.15. Joyner, Ulysses P. Orange County Land Patents. 1978. Orange County Historical Society.16. O’dell, Jeffery. National Register of Historic Places Registration Form.17. Correspondence with author, July 30, 2007.18. Orange County Will Book19. Burke’s Presidential Families of United States of America. Burke’s Genealogical Series. Found in Taylor File Orange Historical Society.20. Orange County Will Book 3. 85-87.21. Taylor, Francis. Diary. Transcribed Gunston Hall. 28.22. Taylor, Francis. Diary. Transcribed Gunston Hall. 152.23. Orange County Deed Book 19. 445-448.24. Taylor, Francis. Diary. Transcribed Gunston Hall. 161.25. Taylor, Francis. Diary. Transcribed Gunston Hall. 220.26. Orange County Deed Book 20. 43-44, 48.27. Orange County Deed Book 20. 266.28. Taylor, Francis. Diary. Transcribed Gunston Hall. 406.29. Orange County Deed Book 22. 101.30. Taylor, Francis. Diary. Transcribed Gunston Hall. 475,477,491.31. Taylor, Francis. Diary. Transcribed Gunston Hall. 32. Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. Virginia Historical Society. Richmond, VA. V26. 105.

Endnotes

Bloomsbury 41

33. Orange County Will Books 9, 272-280. 15, 15-17.34. Orange County Plat Book 5. 22.35. Orange County Will Book 9. 23-29.36. Daily Richmond Whig. Richmond, Virginia. July 1, 1842. Vol. XXVIII No 1. Microfilm, Library of Virginia.37. Orange County Deed Book 38. 394-396.38. Pawlett, Nathaniel Mason. A Brief History of the Roads in Virginia 1607- 1840. Virginia Highway and Transportation Research Council. Charlottesville, VA. 2003.39. Correspondence with Ann Miller. Virginia Highway and Transportation Research Council.40. William and Mary Quarterly. Volume 5 First Series. 21-22.41. Hume, Fanny. The Fanny Hume Diary of 1862. 125-137.42. Hurst, Patricia. Soldiers, Stories, Sites, and Fights: Orange County, Virginia 1861-1865 and the Aftermath. 96.43. Interview with Helen Marie Taylor44. Hendricks, John C. Survey Report, Bloomsbury, Dec 3 1936. Virginia WPA Historical Inventory Project. 4.45. Hurst, Patricia. Soldiers, Stories, Sites, and Fights: Orange County, Virginia 1861-1865 and the Aftermath. 323.46. Orange County Will Book 13. 385.47. Interview with Helen Marie Taylor.48. Farrar, Linda. Ancient Roman Gardens. 45-47.49. Agecroft Hall Informational Pamphlet.50. Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden Informational Sign.51. The College of William and Mary Campus Design Guidelines Report. May 2003. 4.

Bloomsbury 42

BibliographyBurke’s Presidential Families of United States of America. Burke’s Genealogical Series. Found in Taylor File Orange Historical Society.

Calendar of State Papers. Volume I.

Daily Richmond Whig. Richmond, Virginia. July 1, 1842. Vol. XXVIII No 1. Microfilm, Library of Virginia.

Farrar, Linda. Ancient Roman Gardens. Sutton. Great Britain. 1998.

Hendricks, John C. Survey Report, Bloomsbury, Dec 3 1936. Virginia WPA Historical Inventory Project.

Hume, Fannie. The Fannie Hume Diary of 1862 A Year of Wartime Orange, Virginia. Orange County Historical Society, Inc. Orange, VA. 1994.

Hurst, Patricia. Soldiers, Stories, Sites, and Fights: Orange County, Virginia 1861-1865 and the Aftermath. Patricia Hurst. Rapidan, VA. 1998.

Joyner Jr, Ulysses. Glimpses: Villages of Orange County. Figure VIII

Joyner, Ulysses P. Orange County Land Patents. 1978. Orange County Historical Society.

Joyner Jr, Ulysses. The First Settlers of Orange County, Virginia 1700-1776. Orange, VA. Orange County Historical Society.

Miller, Ann. Antebellum Orange: The Pre-Civil War Homes, Public Buildings and Historic Sites of Orange County, Virginia. Orange, VA.

Orange County Historical Society Mass Publications, 1988.

Miller, Ann. “Documenting the Historic Landscapes”. May 13, 2000. Orange County Historical Society.

Miller, Ann. Early Patent Structures in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, 1721-1735. Thesis. School of Architecture, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, 1989.

O’dell, Jeffery. National Register of Historic Places Registration Form.

Orange County Deed Books. Orange County Courthouse. 1734-Present.

Orange County Plat Book. Orange County Courthouse.Bloomsbury 43

Orange County Will Books. Orange County Courthouse. 1734-Present.

Pawlett, Nathaniel Mason. A Brief History of the Roads in Virginia 1607- 1840. Virginia Highway and Transportation Research Council.

Charlottesville, VA. 2003.

Taylor, Francis. Diary 1786-1799. Transcribed Gunston Hall.

Taylor Genealogy Book. Orange Historical Society.

Virginia Land Patent Book 11. Library of Virginia. Richmond, VA.

Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. Virginia Historical Society. Richmond, VA.

Walker Jr., Frank S. Remembering: A History of Orange County Virginia. Orange, Virginia. Orange Historical Society, Inc, 2004.

William and Mary Quarterly. Volume 5 First Series. 21-22.

CorrespondenceLoth, Calder. Senior Architectural Historian, Virginia Department of Historic Resources. E-mail July 2007.

Miller, Ann. Virginia Highway and Transporation Research Council. E-mail July 2007.

Taylor, Helen Marie. Owner of Bloomsbury. Interviews summer of 2007.

Bloomsbury 44