to be erected at Jamestown should be covered with this material;[1] this constituted probably the greater quantity in Virginia during the latter part of the century, although it was said of the storm which occurred in 1684 that a large proportion of the damage which it inflicted consisted in the destruction of the tile roofs by the hail. No slate seems to have been employed, although, as the line of settlements spread, quarries of this formation were discovered. The cost of its transportation would have excluded it, even if the violent winds of Virginia had not rendered its use inadvisable. Cypress shingles were not only remarkable for the length of time during which they would last in a state of absolute exposure to every sort of weather, but they could be procured at a comparatively small expense, a consideration of supreme importance. The demand for this roofing was always steady. Among the fines imposed upon some of the persons implicated in the insurrection of Bacon was one of ten thousand shingles.[2]
The windows of the houses were doubtless in many cases merely sliding panels; in all homes of any pretension, however, glass panes were in use.[3] In 1684, Colonel Byrd transmitted an order to his London merchant to send him four hundred feet of glass with drawn lead and solder in proportion, but a part of this was probably designed for sale in the Colony.
- ↑ Hening’s Statutes, vol. II, p. 172. The order was “slate or tile.”
- ↑ Petition of John Johnson, British State Papers, Colonial Papers; Sainsbury Abstracts for 1677, p. 6, Va. State Library.
- ↑ Leah and Rachel, p. 18, Force’s Historical Tracts, vol. III. “In the difference between Mr. Thomas Ballard, Jr., assignee of Col. Thomas Ballard and Jeremiah Wing, it is ordered that the said Wing doth forthwith perform and finish the glazing work he was to do, otherwise execution for forty shillings to issue against him.” Records of York County, vol. 1684-1687, p. 157, Va. State Library. See also Records of Lower Norfolk County, original vol. 1651-1656, f. p. l.
