The Westover journal of John A. Selden, esqr., 1858-1862

Front matter

F 23Q .S47 Copy 2

Vol. VI, No. 4 July, 1921

JOHN SPENCER BASSETT SIDNEY BRADSHAW FAY

Introduction

The history of social life in the ante-bellum South is embodied to a large extent in the history of the Southern plantation. To know what the persons did who lived on such an estate, to see how they conducted their labors and spent their leisure, to understand their ideals and their aspirations, is to know what the old Southern life was like. In the Journal here published all these things are reflected with a degree of accuracy that challenges dispute. It is the record of a man who had a strong sense of detail and who wrote for the purpose of expressing the thoughts and interests that occupied his daily life. Most probably he never thought that the work would be published. It has every indication of being an unconscious witness of what he did and thought. It speaks for itself to him who would know the character of a phase of life that is irrevocably past, a life that has often been described under the influence of romantic motives, a life that will never be better portrayed than in the candid pages of such men as Mr. Selden.

The Westover estate, on the James River, is itself one of the best known of all the historic estates of this country. It is situated on the James River, about twenty miles east of Richmond, at a place where the rich low-grounds are broad and inviting. One of the early proprietors described it as lying two miles above where the great ships rode ; and from this fact it undoubtedly derived some of its early importance. Adjoining it on the east was the estate of Berkley, the home of one branch of the Harrison family. A few miles to the west was Shirley, the home of the James River branch of the Carters. A few miles below it was the famous Brandon estate, and not much further away was Green Springs, the fine estate of the famous royalist governor, Sir William Berkley, long the centre of fashion and authority in colonial Virginia. The neighborhood was the best in the colony, at a time when Virginia was in the lead in all the English king's colonial possessions in America.

Most of the historic Virginia estates emerged from a maze of early land speculation about the middle of the seventeenth century — that is, when the colony was about half-a-century old. In this early phase of its history Westover was granted, in 1619, to Lord Delaware, whose family name was West. The title seems to have lapsed through failure to settle the place, and in 1638 it was re-granted, this time to Captain Thomas Pawlett, a kinsman of Governor Berkley. A few years later it passed to Sir John Pawlett, a brother of the second patentee, who sold the larger part of it (1200 acres) to Theoderick Bland for one hundred seventy pounds. In 1668 it passed by purchase to Captain William Byrd, in whose family it remained for one hundred and forty-six years. It was the Byrd family that made Westover the most noted estate in Virginia.

Captain William Byrd made his fortune in farming, Indian trade, and general development of the then frontier, at what is now the city of Richmond. His removal to Westover was due to two causes : he had become auditor of the colony and felt that he should live nearer the centre of settlements than the falls of the James, and having become one of the leading men in Virginia he wished to give his family the advantages of residence in a better-developed part of the colony. He bought Westover and lived there until his death in 1704. His last days were spent in widowed loneliness, attended only by his faithful housekeeper, Joanna Jarratt, 1 and his man, Jean Marat.

The estate devolved by his will to his one son, William Byrd, the second of the name, whom he had sent to England to be educated. This young man was already a well known figure in a fashionable group in London. He had won the good will of men of distinction, his fashionable bearing and ready purse made him a marked figure in society, and his solid intellectual

1 The overseer on the estate in Mr. Selden's time was named Jarratt. He remained there while the place was occupied by the Union Army.

qualities enabled him to hold his own among men prominent in literary and scientific matters. Returning to Virginia he took a leading part in the affairs of the colony, and a few years later went back to London, accompanied by his handsome daughter, Evelyn Byrd, who became at once a reigning belle. Colonel William Byrd, as he is called in contra-distinction from his father, Captain Byrd, spent much of the middle period of his life in England. His later years were passed in Virginia. Here he built (probably some time before 1737) the handsome home that still survives. He collected a large library for the times — in 1777 it contained nearly four thousand volumes. He entertained handsomely, and through his own distinction and ability he rose to the position of president of the council, next to the governor, the highest official in Virginia. He added to his other achievements the writing of three charming books, the style of which entitles him to the rank of the sprightliest writer in the colonies before Franklin. He died at Westover in 1744 and left the estate to his son, the third William Byrd of Westover.

The student of French history notes that Louis XIII built up the great French monarchy, Louis XIV made it famous and grand by his magnificent style of life and his ambition, and Louis XV wasted it by sensuous and uncontrolled appetites. In nearly the same way, the first William Byrd built up the Westover fortune, the second of the name made it brilliant by his magnificent talents, and the third of the name wasted it by his weakness. Under this man ill-fortune hovered over Westover. Gambling brought a load of debts, and finally the spendthrift took his own life in a fit of despair, on January 1, 1777. He left a strongwilled widow, Mary Willing, of the Philadelphia family of that name, who conducted the property with such ability that she managed to save the Westover estate for her own home and to keep it until she died there in 1814. 2

After her death it was thrown on the market. It was purchased by William Carter, who soon became involved in debt

1 In the Editor's Edition of The Writings of Colonel William Byrd of Virginia, Esqr., 1902, is an ample sketch of the Byrd family.

through indorsing for a friend, when it passed into the hands of a Mr. Douthall, who had won a large sum of money in a lottery. When he died, a short time later, it was sold to George E. Harrison, of Brandon, who intended to conduct the plantation in connection with his operations at his own place. He found that Brandon was too far from Westover for such plans, and in 1829 he sold Westover to John A. Selden for $18,000. It was not again in the market until 1862, when it passed into the hands of Ellett and Drury, and later into the possession of Major Augustus Drury, the price being $50,000. Here again it remained for many years and was sold in 1898 to Mrs. Charles Sears Ramsay, who remained the owner until 1920. It has just been announced that the place has been purchased by Mr. Richard Teller Crane, Jr., of Chicago, the recently appointed minister to Czecho-Slovakia.

Much has been written about the Westover estate and the people who lived on it. Perhaps it is the most famous of our colonial estates. But nearly all that has been said about it refers to the period during which it belonged to Colonel William Byrd. His brilliant figure in his time won the attention of posterity. His charming "Writings," which this editor edited twenty years ago, with a sketch of the Byrd family in Virginia, have served to endear the place to those who have the happy faculty of wishing to read the good books of our early literature. It is the Westover of the second William Byrd that is best known to the present generation.

Of the Westover of the nineteenth century little has been written or known up to the present. But I have recently been allowed access to a very interesting journal kept by John A Selden, owner of the place from 1829 to 1862, which supplies much information on the subject. It is not only interesting because it relates to Westover, but because it presents an accurate picture of life on a Virginia estate just before and during the civil war. It begins abruptly with July 1, 1858, and ends abruptly May 31, 1864, a year and a half after the journalist had sold Westover; and there is a strong probability that it is not the only volume of the kind that Mr. Selden prepared. It now belongs to Mr. Armistead Inge Selden, of "Contentment," Greensboro, Alabama, a grandson of John A. Selden, through whose courtesy I am able to give portions of it to the public.

Of John A. Selden, who owned Westover from 1829 to 1862, his own Journal is his best witness. He was descended from Samuel Selden, who came from England to Elizabeth City County, Virginia, in 1690. His son Joseph married Mary Cary, and died at Hampton, Virginia, full of honors, in 1727. Joseph's son, Miles Cary Selden, became a clergyman and served St. John's Church in Richmond. He was strong for the revolution and was called the "Patriot Parson." His grandson, Colonel Miles Cary Selden, married Martha Allen. One of their sons was Miles, and another was John Armistead Selden. The latter, the owner of Westover and author of The Journal, married Maria Pemberton, of Goochland County, and had eighteen children — fifteen sons and three daughters. Seven of these sons served in Confederate armies ; six of them settled ultimately in Alabama, two of them (Miles and John) remained in Virginia, and one (James) settled in Georgia. Of the daughters, Martha (called "Kittie" by her father), married John D. Hobson, of Howard's Neck, Goochland County; his second daughter, Mary Ann (the "Mollie" of the Journal), did not marry; and the third, Maria, married Hugh Nelson, of Petersburg, Virginia, who settled in Alabama. John A. Selden, the father of this large family, moved to Westover soon after he bought it in 1829. During the period covered by the Journal he was a partner in the mercantile firm of Selden and Miller in Richmond.

Mr. Selden was a man of great energy and business ability, as his own brief entries amply testify. He was a justice of the peace of Charles City County, at a time when to hold such an office was indicative of the highest rank among the county families. He was a faithful member of the Episcopal Church in Westover Parish. His inventories show that he lived in ample comfort and the Journal itself mentions many handsome entertainments at Westover in his day. Among those who came and received hospitality were Lord Napier, the British minister in Washington, Mr. Corcoran, the eminent banker and patron of art, besides the leading men of Virginia. He was on intimate terms with the leading families of the neighborhood, and in every respect he kept the life at Westover up to the high standard set by its previous owners.

Besides being a clear and accurate account of events on a Southern estate in the period before the Civil War, the Journal is a valuable correction of a popular representation of plantation life, for which some of our more fanciful novelists and diarists are responsible. Over such writers Mr. Selden had the great advantage of being on the spot and writing at the time. The tragedy of defeat had not supervened when he wrote. He had no other object than to put down in crisp sentences day by day what he did day by day. To him life was only what it was. He shows us a planter who never went fox-hunting, although he records once that the fox-hunters came to his place and had a good time. In fact, the Journal rarely mentions game of any time, and only twice alludes to hunting, once when the fox-hunters came and once when some friends of his son John came to Westover to go hunting. It is important to know that not all of the old Southern life was given up to pleasant dallying. .

On the contrary, we do see a man very busy and practical. He gave the most careful attention to the seeding of wheat, oats, and clover, the dragging of the land after seeding, and its proper drainage, as well as to the harrowing and fallowing before planting. He tells us day by day how many acres were seeded and with how many bushels. With the harvest he is equally particular. The wages of his hired gleaners and binders, the shocking, the threshing, and the loading of the schooners that carried the grain from his docks to the market in Richmond, — all these are set down with the most conscientious care. There is no month in the year whose routine is not here displayed to us. And the man who directed this piece of industrial machinery is as simple and honest as if he were the hero of a novel. He directed his own plantation, and saw that his orders were carried out with the aid of his "son Edward." He bought and sold, he carried the purse of the family, he did all the things that any prosperous farmer in the United States or out of them has to do to carry his operations on successfully. When the wheat was harvested and at market, he drew on his sales account, paid the bills of the year, and then turned his steps, accompanied by "daughter Mollie," to the White Sulphur Springs for a fortnight of relaxation. The life he exhibits is perhaps the normal life of the well-to-do Virginia planter of his day. Those who believe that there is more truth in fiction than in history will be disappointed with the Wpstover Journal; but the reader who has a sense of reality in him must feel that it glows with candor and abounds in truth.

While it is faithfulness to detail that gives the Journal its chief value, it is true that the book contains enough facts to make it tedious reading if printed in its entirety. With this in view, I have followed the plan of presenting one year in full — July 1, 1858, to June 30, 1859 — and of publishing the remainder of the Journal in an abridged form, omitting all that referred to the mere routine of the estate, which had been well illustrated in the unabridged year, and including all that is of unusual interest, and especially all that refers to the civil war crisis. This plan is justified by the nature of the material, and it is made acceptable by the narrow space that can be devoted to the subject in the series in which it appears. The reader is assured that I have omitted no reference to conditions arising out of the war. Westover was in the path of McClellan's army when he fell back from the Seven-Days'-Fight around Richmond and it formed a part of his camp at his new base at Harrison's Landing. Mr. Selden was not on the estate at the time, although his wife and son were there for eight weeks, surrounded by the soldiery. It seems strange that under such conditions the diary should have told us so little about the occupation. Mr. Selden never wrote for effect ; he probably never expected his record to be published. It is for this reason that we may value so highly the terse and brief entries he did make.

In general the text has been reproduced with exactness ; when, however, an error seemed the result of a mere slip of the pen, I have taken the liberty of correcting it. Most of the contractions used by the diarist have been discarded for the ordinary forms, and the capitalization and punctuation have been made to conform with modern usage. Mr. Selden was an intelligent man, and he was the associate of such men as General Wise, General Magruder, Mr. Wickham, and Colonel Hill Carter. He uses as good English as others around him. His diary rarely contains mistakes, and such as are found in it may fairly be assumed to be the result of ordinary frailities of the average man of affairs. There can be no object in reproducing these slips of the pen.

CHAPTER II

Journal of John A. Selden, of Westover, July 1, 1858, to June 3, 1859

July

1. Thursday. Having finished my Wheat Harvest on yesterday, we start 8 single plos. to ploughing over the first corn laid by, as it [is] getting grassy and baked. The corn generally looks backward and badly. Mrs. Quarles and daughter Anna came. Very warm.

2. Friday. Ran 10 plos. Very hot. Males gave out gleaning wheat field. Thinning corn, etc.

3. Saturday. Same work. Sent my wagon out in my outer woods for two oak posts for Barn machine [i. e., a threshing machine]. Very warm. Gus Crenshaw and wife came.

4. Sunday. Still very warm. Gave church $2.00.

5. Monday. When [sic] down with daughter Mollie to Old Point. Boat did not go by Old Point this evening in consequence of being very late and the heavy sea. Cutting oats with machine.

6. Tuesday. Went down to Old Point this morning in Glen Cove with daughter Mollie from Norfolk. Staid last night at National Hotel and paid for her $3.00. Cutting oats. Very warm.

7. Wednesday. Same work. Found the Point full.

8. Thursday. Rained a little. Same work. New machine came down yesterday for threshing from Smith's.

9. Friday. Same work.

10. Saturday. Paid Mr. Mott for repairing my old machine $10.00. Finished my harvest of oats (50 acres).

11. Sunday. Very warm day.

12. Monday. Finished laying by my corn, getting up gleaned wheat and oats.

13. Tuesday. Left Old Point for Norfolk. Paid my bill, 7 l / 2 days $40.00. Remained all night with Captain Saunders. 1 Paid Captain Saunders in full interest to 1st July, $150.00.

14. Wednesday. Returned home in Custis Peck. Paid Custis Peck $3.00. Gave servants while away $2.50. Found we have had a severe drought : no rain since I left to do any good. Had a very pleasant visit to Old Point.

15. Thursday. Clearing up, etc., to thresh wheat.

16. Friday. Commenced threshing some gleaned wheat in evening with old machine.

17. Saturday. Dust so bad had to abandon the barn and put down new machine under my shelter. Son William returned from school.

18. Sunday. Attended church. Paid alms $1.00.

19. Monday. Threshed all day, but the machine was getting constantly out of order, so we did not do much.

20. Tuesday. The new machine broke this morning and had to send the piece up to Richmond to be repaired. Went on threshing with old machine in barn. Rained in evening, about half enough. Corn almost ruined for the want of rain. Paid Watt Onley's wife for loading carts 5 days $2.50. Ditto Joe Taylor for putting up wheat to machine $1.25. Mr. David Minge and wife and children dined here.

21. Wednesday. Mr. Shields left on yesterday. He carried up my machine wheel for me. Wheat too wet to thresh. Preparing Ruta Baga patch and thinning carrots, etc. Paid Lobidee [ ?] Taylor for 3 days work in picking up oats at 62^2 cts., $1.87>1 Paid Richard Taylor for ditto $2.28. Paid Lemuel and Ben Taylor for Z J / 2 days $4.50.

22. Thursday. Omitted to credit Selden & Miller of Richmond for $199.12 on an order of Legas [ ?] of Old Point he paid me on Tuesday 13th. Threshed all day with old machine. I went up to Richmond with daughter Mollie on her way to Springs. Paid her $3.00.

23. Friday. Received of Selden and Miller to pay my teacher Mr. Jones, etc., $500.00. Paid Price and Watkins for cloak for

1 Captain John L. Saunders married John A. Selden's sister Martha.

daughter Mollie $15.00. Gave Mollie to go to the springs and to pay her fare up to White Sulphur $20.00. Hack and half-soling shoes $2.25. My new machine broke again and had to send it up in my wagon to Smith.

24. Saturday. Returned home in Custis Peck. Threshed all day with old machine. My waggon returned by one o'cl. Still very dry and cool. Paid boy Archy for picking up oats $2.25. Paid Mager for 12 chickens $1.50. Paid Anderson for fish $.60.

25. Sunday. Very warm and dry.

26. Monday. Gave my son Edward $5.00. Paid Mr. Jesse Simpkins Jones, my teacher, in full ; paid him today $400.00. Gave my son Wille this sum to go to Goochland, $5.00. Sent hogs [head] bacon hams weighing 956 lbs. nett to Selden and Miller to sell. Threshed with old machine. Quite cool and dry.

27. Tuesday. Threshed with old machine in morning : started new after dinner.

28. Wednesday. New machine broke the 3rd time this morning. Carried it to Richmond.

29. Thursday. Threshed with old barn machine. Went up to Richmond to have machine wheels repaired on yesterday. Spent today in Richmond, $10.00.

30. Friday. Insured my Barnes, Shed, etc., in Alexandria office, Mr. J. Thomas Budd, Agent, for $3,416, premium $34.16. Survey and policy $2. Paid Mr. Budd this date $36.16, and gave my note for $171 should it be required. This insures the property for three years from date. Threshed with old machine.

31. Saturday. Started new machine again but it broke two wheels in less than an hour.

1. Sunday. Attended church. Mr. Bonsall and wife and Miss Neale arrived on yesterday. Paid at church $1.00 for Mr. Scott's work on Africa. Execessively dry and hot.

2. Monday. Sent new Machine up to Richmond in Custis Peck and sent Oliver up to get some Brass, etc., for old Machines. Gave him $1.00. Gave Mr. Maiser, our music teacher, 4 shirts, pr. pants, vest, 2 pr. socks, and handkerchief. Paid Mr. Maiser for 31 music lessons to children $31.00. $20 of this was paid in advance in April. Paid him today $11.

3. Tuesday. Worked old Barn Machine. Very hot and dry.

4. Wednesday. Same work, excessively hot.

5. Thursday. Moved old Pitts Machine in outer field near Flying Point and commenced Threshing.

6. Friday. Threshed today 240 bushels. My wife left for Howards Neck (my daughter's) with 3 children and Miss Neale. Gave her $15.00. Excessively hot and dry.

7. Saturday. Finished threshing all my white wheat (150 acres) by 12 o'cl. Vessel arrived for it. Commcd. cleaning in evening. Invited to Shirley but unwell, could not go. Mr. Bonsall went in my carriage.

8. Sunday. Very warm day.

9. Monday. Cleaning and delivering wheat. Delivered today 1050 bushels white wheat.

10. Tuesday. Cleaned and delivered today 1010 bushels.

11. Wednesday. Finished delivering my white wheat this morning by breakfast time. In all delivered to schooner H. and J. Nichol, Captain John R. Jones, of Balto., 2313 bushels 20 lbs. of nice wheat weighing near 62 lbs. consigned to Hoxall, Crenshaw & Co., of Richmond. Excessively hot and dry. Never have known so severe a drought before. Corn almost entirely burnt up. Have had no rain now to do any good since the 17th June, two months. Preparing to start Pitts Machine to thresh my corn land purple straw. Paid Watt Onley for 18 dys work at 75 cts., $13.50.

12. Thursday. Threshing purple straw wheat on corn land. Went up to Richmond with Son James and woman Polly. Paid for their fares, etc., $3.00.

13. Friday. Received of Hoxall, Crenshaw and Co. this amount in part for wheat delivered them, $1500, $1000 of which I deposited in Va. Bank. Paid my bill at A. K. Parker & Co. in check in full for dry goods, $493.39. Paid Putney & Watts for shoes in check, $179.98. Paid Beers & Poindexter for suit clothes for self $51.00. Paid Price & Watkins for dresses for Mollie $61.63. Paid Miss Vernon, dress-maker, for making

Mollie's dresses, etc., $54.25. Paid for oranges to send to my daughter Kittie $2.00. Sent my wife to Howard's Neck by Jimmie $25.00. Gave to son Jimmie to buy socks $1.00 and to carry him and Polly up to Howard's Neck $3.50. Wrote to Mr. John B. Cary, of Hampton, accepting Mr. McCabe 2 as teacher at $350 and also Miss Spielman as teacher in my family of music, French, and German.

There was an error in my insurance of my Barnes, etc., on the 30th July last. The offices would not insure for more than $3000; so gave my bond for $150 instead of $171, which was returned to me. Mr. Budd owes me $4.16, the difference in the two amounts.

14. Saturday. Returned home. Paid for hacks, etc., $5.00. Finished threshing all my wheat today. Threshed of purple straw from 50 acres of corn land 1320 bushels, an average of 26^ bushls. We estimate our crop of wheat including all at 4250 bushels, or an average of 21*4 bushels, which is the best average I have heard of.

15. Sunday. Attended church. Very warm. Mr. Bonsall and wife left us on yesterday for Shirley. They have been here just two weeks. Son John went up to Richmond yesterday to consult the doctors : fears he has gravel.

16. Monday. Sent son William down to Doctor George Wilson's for some seed wheat in steam boat : gave him $5.00. Moving machine to barn from field, etc. Cleaned wheat, etc.

17. Tuesday. Cleaned wheat. Hauling in oats and preparing turnip patch. Son William returned in steamboat : carried down 75 bags for 150 busl. seed wheat of Doctor Geo. Wilson of Surry. Captain John Davis of steamer Glen Cove died last night at 2 oc'l. in Richmond. He was a kind and particular friend of mine and greatly lamented by the whole community.

18. Wednesday. Vessel arrived for balance of my wheat: delivered this evening 500 bushels red wheat. Commenced raining about night.

2 This was W. Gordon McCabe, who later achieved distinguished success as head of the University School in Petersburg and Richmond.

19. Thursday. Had a very pretty rain last night, with a great deal of Lightning and Thunder. This is the first rain we have had to do any good since the 17th June, too late I fear to do the Corn much good. Finished delivering the balance of my wheat this morning by 12 o'cl. Delivered 104 42-60 lbs. [bushels] white and 1155 22-60 bushels red, making 1260 4-60 of wheat today or by the E. Miller, Wm, Allen's Lighter. In all delivered to Hoxall, Crenshaw & Co., 3593 23-60 bushels.

Paid off rest of my hirelings for threshing wheat. Paid Lemuel $16.50, Richard $18.74, Archer $13.62, Daniel $16.00, Ben $15.35, Harriet $13.00. Paid Watt Onley and wife for same before $16.00. Gave my son Edward today $50.00. Saved 250 bushels white wheat for seed, and 50 for flour, and 75 bushels red for seed, and 20 bushels for Mr. Carter. Paid Pompey for 6 chickens $.75. Paid Patrick for 8 ditto $1.00. 3 Went up to Richmond in Glen Cove, $1.50.

20. Friday. Remained in Richmond.

21. Saturday. Same.

22. Sunday. Same.

23. Monday. Received of Hoxall, Crenshaw & Co. toward my wheat $1500. Paid Robert M. Taylor the interest due him in full to 5th August, 1858, $557.52. Bought a thin overcoat for self $12.00. Gave Oliver, my servant, $5.00. Candy, etc., for daughter Kittie $.75. Hack, etc., $2.00. Paid Canal Boat, etc., $5.15. Paid to wife at Howard's Neck $25.00. Went up to Howard's Neck this evening.

24. Tuesday. Remained at Howard's Neck.

25. Wednesday. Same.

26. Thursday. Returned to Richmond. Paid P. Johnston & Brother for medicines in full in check $62.23. Paid J. D. Goodman for suit clothes for son William $27.75. Paid Keen & Co. for socks, etc., for Willie $3.50. Paid for cap self $.75, suspenders and gloves $1.50. Paid Mr. Brown in check for William's

3 The Journal contains many entries showing that Mr. Selden purchased various articles from his slaves.

board, tuition, etc., at his school in Albemarle $125.00. Check to self on Va. Bank to carry me to the Springs, etc., $500.00. Paid Bulkley for oil, lamps, etc., for son William $3.02. Paid to William to pay his expenses up to Mr. Brown's school and for pocket money $16.00. Remained in Richmond.

27. Friday. Remained in Richmond.

28. Saturday. Started for the White Sulphur by Central Road: paid fare, etc., $19.50. Hack, $1.25. Night and breakfast at Calehans, $1.50. Dinner at Staunton, $.75.

29. Sunday. Arrived at White Sulphur to breakfast: found all my children were at Old Sweet.

30. Monday. Remained at White Sulphur until evening. Hired hack and went over to Old Sweet. Bill at White, $5.50. Hack, $5.00.

31. Tuesday. Arrived here last night at Old Sweet. Found son Joe and wife, son John and daughter Mollie here. Very crowded. Mr. Robbins, of Gloucester, gave me his bed.

1. Wednesday. At Old Sweet; found everything burnt up in mountains as well as at home by drought.

2. Thursday. Paid for washing, etc., $3.50. Gave daughter Mollie to pay for washing, etc., $8.50.

3. Friday. Same at Old Sweet.