University of Virginia Library

III. Early Social Life

The social and economic history of the first settlement
of Albemarle county was an exact continuation of that
transit of population and civilization in Virginia which
had been noted from the foundation of Jamestown. Not
only was this original movement westward to the mountains
more halting, but it was less crude in spirit than the
flood which, in our own times, has carried the American
frontier across an entire continent. It was not a migration
of petty farmers and rough adventurers of all sorts.
Among the names of the early patentees of Albemarle, we
find numerous representatives of the oldest and most influential
families in the Colony: Carters, Randolphs,
Lewises, Nicholases, Meriwethers, Walkers, Henrys,
Carrs, Hopkinses, Terrells, Eppeses, and others of the
like social eminence. While spacious areas of ground
were, at first, taken up by these families with a nominal
residence only, as we have seen, nevertheless it was not
many years before their younger scions began to lay the
corner-stones of their homes in this forest wilderness.
At no stage of its growth was it a scattered community
of wild hunters and trappers alone; on the contrary,
from the second decade at least, it was a community
whose principal citizens had brought up from Eastern
Virginia all the subservience to law, refinement of manners,
and high civic spirit, that had distinguished the
plantation homes in the older shires during many generations.
The Meriwethers and Lewises, and the long
stream of gentle families who followed them, had possessed,

from their first settlement in Virginia, all the social
advantages which the Colony had to bestow; and
when they made their way up from the open country,
through the dark woods, and built their houses along the
slopes of the Southwest Mountains, and in the eastern
shadow of the Blue Ridge, they simply transferred to
those green and quiet sites all the points of view, all the
moral convictions, all the domestic habits, all the personal
demeanor, which had given such a distinct flavor to the
social life on the banks of the tidal rivers below. So
soon as the children of these first settlers had arrived
at maturity, and inherited the parental estates, there was
no substantial difference to be discerned between the
homes in which they dwelt and the original homes of their
fathers still standing in the counties lying towards the sea.

It would hardly be correct to accept Thomas Jefferson
as an average representative of this second generation
born in the valley of the Rivanna, for he stood high above
the multitude of his fellow Americans even in the oldest
communities; but in mere social culture and domestic refinement,
apart from native talents and acquired knowledge,
he was not one whit superior to the representatives
of those families who had patented the virgin lands contemporaneously
with his father.

If any one now living could have taken his stand on the
portico of Monticello, in 1825, on the day that the University
threw open its doors to students, and gazed down
upon the broad map of the country below towards the
west, south, north, and northeast, his eyes would have
caught sight of many residences that were already celebrated
in the social history of the State, not only for the
culture and refinement of their atmosphere, but for the
high distinction of many of the citizens who owned them.
First, would be discerned, on the banks of the Rivanna,

the site of Shadwell, the birthplace of Jefferson himself,
now marked by a group of sycamores, as the original
house had been consumed by fire. Beyond, on a height
that suggested its name, would be visible the walls of
Pantops erected in 1815, and occupied by James Leitch,
who married the granddaughter of Nicholas Lewis, one
of the original settlers. Close by was Lego, the home
of a second Lewis, whose wife was the daughter of the
explorer, Dr. Thomas Walker. Not far towards the
northeast stood Edgehill, the home of the Randolphs,
who had so named it in honor of the battle in which their
cavalier ancestor had fought so bravely yet so unavailingly.
Beyond Edgehill was to be seen Belmont, the
home of Dr. Charles Everett, a graduate of the University
of Pennsylvania, and the private secretary of President
Monroe; next, Cismont and Cloverfields, with
the graveyard in which the older members of the Meriwether
family were buried; Belvoir, the home of the
Nelsons, who had acquired it by a fortunate marriage;
Castle Hill, the home of the Walkers, and afterwards of
the Riveses, through a similar intermarriage; and Keswick,
the home of the Pages.

Looking in turn towards the west, north and south,
there rose, within the scope of the eye, the homes of the
Monroes, the Maurys, the Gilmers, the Coleses, the
Nicholases, the Barbours, the Madisons, the Lewises, the
Woodses, the Minors, the Terrells, the Carrs, and numerous
other families identified with that region, in
most instances, from the earliest years of the community.
Either then, or a short time after the University was
founded, there resided in houses in sight from the same
eminence, Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration
of Independence, and third President of the United
States; James Madison, the Father of the Constitution

and fourth President; James Monroe, the fifth President
and author of the celebrated Doctrine which bears
his name; Andrew Stevenson, Speaker of the House of
Representatives and Minister to the Court of St. James;
Thomas Walker Gilmer, Governor of the State and Secretary
of the Navy; Edward Coles, Governor of Illinois;
William C. Nicholas, Governor of Virginia and United
States Senator; Thomas Mann Randolph, member of
Congress and Governor of Virginia; James Barbour,
Governor of the State, United States Senator, and Minister
to Great Britain; Philip P. Barbour, Speaker of the
House of Representatives and Justice of the Supreme
Court; George Rogers Clark, the conqueror of the
Northwest Territory; Meriwether Lewis, the explorer
of the Missouri and Columbia Rivers; William C. Rives,
United States Senator and twice Minister to the Court
of Versailles; Hugh Nelson, member of Congress and
Minister to Spain; William Short, Minister to the
Hague; and William F. Gordon, member of Congress
and author of the sub-treasury scheme. In this list of
distinguished citizens, there are to be found three Presidents
of the United States, seven Governors of Commonwealths,
seven envoys to foreign countries, two Speakers
of the Lower House of Congress, one Justice of the Supreme
Court, one Secretary of the Navy, two Secretaries
of State, one Secretary of War, three United States Senators,
one noted soldier, and an equally noted explorer.
In no commensurate area of the Republic, at that time,
could there have been descried so many men, either already
celebrated, or destined, within a few years, to win
fame in political life. A region of country that had been
occupied only one hundred years surpassed the oldest
parts of Virginia and the other States alike, in the acknowledged
eminence of its principal residents, on account
of their splendid public services.

The social life of the county was, at all seasons,
enlivened by constant personal intercourse between neighbors,
and at times by a succession of gaieties. Isaac
Coles, writing to Cabell from his home in Albemarle, in
1811, mentions that his hours were mainly "given up to
visits, Christmas dinners and Christmas balls!" Judge
Dabney Carr, describing a recent sojourn in the county
in 1821, remarks, by way of apology for failing to reply
to Cabell, "I was in such a constant round of company,
dining to-day here, and to-morrow there, that I could not
find a moment for a letter." "From a long and intimate
knowledge of Albemarle county," Gilmer wrote to
George Long, in 1824, "I assure you, I know no place in
America where there is a more liberal, intelligent, hospitable,
and agreeable society, nor where respectable
strangers could receive a kinder welcome." Jefferson,
who had passed so much of his life in the most polished
coteries of the Old and the New World, held a similar
view: "The society in Albemarle," he stated to a
European correspondent in March, 1815, "is much better
than is common in country situations. Perhaps, there
is not a better country society in the United States. But
do not imagine this a Parisian or an academical society.
It consists of plain, honest, and rational neighbors,—
some of them well informed, and men of reading, all
superintending their farms, hospitable and friendly, and
speaking nothing but English."

Charlottesville, situated on a gentle eminence that
sloped to the Rivanna, was a small collection of houses
built around the court-house square. It hardly possessed
the consequence of a village from the point of view of

population alone, but as the seat of justice, the site of several
general stores and the foremost lawyers' offices, and
the scene of popular assemblages when the court was in
session, or a political rally was holding, it formed the
central point in the civic life of the community. Apart
from the court-house itself, the two principal houses in the
little town were the Swann and the Old Stone taverns.
It was here that the promiscuous concourse of citizens
dined on court days; it was here that travellers, passing
through to the Valley or the West, stopped to bait their
horses or to spend a night; and it was here also that the
rather liberal taste for strong waters prevailing in those
times could always find indulgence. The lawyers probably
met some of their clients here; and here certainly
many important conferences of all kinds were held. The
most animated spot within the limits of the village outside
of the court-house square itself was, on court days at
least, the porch of the Old Stone tavern, for this ordinary
was kept by one of the most popular citizens of the
county, Triplett Estes, the condition of whose affairs, as
we shall soon see, threatened, at one time, to have some
connection with the origin of the University of Virginia.

Albemarle county, before the Revolution, was divided
between Fredericksville and St. Anne's parishes;
and of the two, Fredericksville, which had been extended
from Louisa county, was laid off first. St. Anne's was
formed in 1762 by drawing its eastern boundary line
along the Rivanna to a point opposite Charlottesville;
and thence the line ran through the town westward to
the Blue Ridge. The parish itself was situated south of
this line. The history of these parishes is pertinent to
our subject, for the clergymen who filled their pulpits
were, in several instances, well known teachers before and
after the Revolution, and the sales of the glebes, when the

Church was disestablished, created an important fund for
the promotion of public education. The glebe of Fredericksville,
which seems to have embraced four hundred
acres, was purchased for four hundred pounds in colonial
currency. On the other hand, the glebe of St. Anne's,
which lay not far from the Green Mountains, was, perhaps,
not so extensive or so profitable.