Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 2.djvu/167

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possession of the same means; it contained only seven apartments, the chamber over the hall, the small room situated in the rear of the chamber, the room over the chamber, which was probably of very small dimensions, as a bed and couch formed its only furniture, the hall, which was situated on the ground floor, the middle room, the porch chamber, and the kitchen. There was in addition a dairy. Edmund Cobbs of York, who was the owner of six negro slaves, forty-eight head of cattle, thirty-two sheep, fifteen head of hogs, three cart and three saddle horses, resided in a house containing a hall and kitchen on the lower floor and one room above stairs.[1]

The division of rooms in the houses of Mrs. Elizabeth Digges and Nathaniel Bacon, Sr., of York, represents very probably the average number in the homes of the wealthiest members of the planting class in this county at the end of the century. The different names given to many of these apartments recall a contemporaneous custom of English housekeepers which has descended to the latest generation of Virginians. There were in the residence of Mrs. Digges, the yellow room, the red room, and the hall parlor; there was a large room opposite the yellow room, which was probably the chamber of the master and the mistress, while back of this, a small room was situated. Above the floor on which these apartments were found, there was a garret with a room attached, while below there was a cellar.[2]

The residence of Nathaniel Bacon, Sr., contained the old and the new hall, an inner room over the hall, an outer room, an upper chamber, the chamber of Mrs. Bacon and a chamber above it, a kitchen, dairy, and storeroom. Colonel

  1. Records of York County, Ludlow, vol. 1657-1662, p. 275; Hubbard, vol. 1664-1672, p. 464; Cobbs, vol. 1690-1694, p. 333, Va. State Library.
  2. Ibid., vol. 1690-1694, p. 313, Va. State Library.