The impressive house and other structures you see at Shirley today were not the first to be erected on the property. By 1613 the area was officially known as West and Sherley Hundred and soon thereafter a handful of adventurous tobacco farmers had put up simple dwellings. Beginning in the 1650s, Edward Hill I acquired the property and for three generations his family operated a successful plantation. Historical records say very little about these first occupants, leaving archaeology to fill in the picture. And gradually, excavations at modern day Shirley are beginning to find telling evidence of activity before 1723 and the Carter era.
Tantalizing clues of Hill period occupation turned up in the course of the recent work around the main house, for example. Artifacts characteristic of the 17th century appeared in limited numbers throughout the excavations. Especially indicative of the period are certain types of clay tobacco pipes.
One small test in the north yard encountered a very rich deposit. Great quantities of animal bone, ceramics, glass, and other items were recovered in a buried trash deposit. Confirmation of the pre-1723 date of this material comes in the form of distinctive fragments of a North Devon sgraffito chamber pot. This type of ceramic was made in England’s West Country starting in the mid-1600s. Also present were fragments of leaded, casement windows typically found in the better appointed homes of the early colonial period.
Less obvious but no less significant as a trace of this period is a subtle discoloration in the soil. Distinctive evidence of a narrow trench was recorded in the midst of 18th-century and modern disturbances immediately north of the main house. This remnant is typical of “paling” trenches that supported simple fences on early occupation sites. Some were of a defensive nature, like the palisade at Jamestown, but most often they separated living areas from gardens, animal pens, and the like. The fact that only Indian artifacts had been mixed into the fill of the trench segment is a clue that it was dug and filled well before the Carter-era complex was constructed.
The search for more evidence of Shirley’s earliest colonial occupation will be a priority of future archaeological investigations. |
Edward Hill III, last of the first plantation family to reside at Shirley, from 1700 to 1723.
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