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LOREM IPSUM DOLOR SIT AMET, CONSECTETUR ADIPISCING ELIT. MAECENAS CONGHE EROS MAGNA.
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LOREM/
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LOREM IPSUM
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CONTACT:
E-mail: Info@loremipsum.com
Web: www.loremipsum.com
Tlf.: +11 111 111 111
Address: line 1
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CONTACT
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CONTACT:
E-mail: Info@loremipsum.com
Web: www.loremipsum.com
Tlf.: +11 111 111 111
Address: line 1
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LOCATION
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Address: line 1
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Queen Charlotte
(1744-1818)
Sophia Charlotte was the youngest daughter of the Duke and Princes of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, a Dutchy of the Holy Roman Empire in modern-day northern Germany. At the age of 17 she married George III in 1761, becoming Queen of Great Britain and Ireland (subsequently queen consort of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland) until her death at the age of 74 in 1818.
Painting by Allan Ramsay
c. 1770
A full-length portrait showing Queen Charlotte in robes of state, turned slightly to the viewer's right, and standing beside a classical column, her proper left hand resting on her crown which, in turn, rests on a cushion on a draped table. She stands on a slight dais covered in an elaborately figured carpet. Her proper right arm hangs at her side, her fingers loosely clasping the edge of her robe. Her train is spread behind her, resting on a throne to the left. Tasseled drapery fills the upper left corner of the composition.
Queen Charlotte
(1744-1818)
Sophia Charlotte was the youngest daughter of the Duke and Princes of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, a Dutchy of the Holy Roman Empire in modern-day northern Germany. At the age of 17 she married George III in 1761, becoming Queen of Great Britain and Ireland (subsequently queen consort of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland) until her death at the age of 74 in 1818.
Painting by Allan Ramsay
c. 1770
A full-length portrait showing Queen Charlotte in robes of state, turned slightly to the viewer's right, and standing beside a classical column, her proper left hand resting on her crown which, in turn, rests on a cushion on a draped table. She stands on a slight dais covered in an elaborately figured carpet. Her proper right arm hangs at her side, her fingers loosely clasping the edge of her robe. Her train is spread behind her, resting on a throne to the left. Tasseled drapery fills the upper left corner of the composition.
King George III
(1738-1820)
At the age of 23 George William Frederick became George III King of Great Britain and King of Ireland on 25 October 1760, four days after his father’s death. Forty-one years later, after the union of Ireland and Great Britain, on January 1st, 1801 George III became King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. He remained under this title until his death at the age of 81 on 29th January 1820.
Painting by Allan Ramsay
c. 1770
A full-length portrait showing George III in robes of the Order of the Garter, situated in front of a classical, draped column and standing on a slight dais covered in an elaborately figured carpet. He wears the Order of the Garter and his body is turned in pleasing contrapposto, his proper right hand on his hip, his proper left hand resting on a portion of his robes spread over a table beside him.
King George III
(1738-1820)
At the age of 23 George William Frederick became George III King of Great Britain and King of Ireland on 25 October 1760, four days after his father’s death. Forty-one years later, after the union of Ireland and Great Britain, on January 1st, 1801 George III became King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. He remained under this title until his death at the age of 81 on 29th January 1820.
Painting by Allan Ramsay
c. 1770
A full-length portrait showing George III in robes of the Order of the Garter, situated in front of a classical, draped column and standing on a slight dais covered in an elaborately figured carpet. He wears the Order of the Garter and his body is turned in pleasing contrapposto, his proper right hand on his hip, his proper left hand resting on a portion of his robes spread over a table beside him.
King Charles II
(1630-1685)
The 19-year-old Charles became King after the execution of his father Charles I in 1649. On Charles I’s death Great Britain became a commonwealth. Therefore, it wasn’t until the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 that Charles II was able to fully take up the position of King of England, Scotland and Ireland. He reigned until his death in 1685 at the age of 54.
Painting by Sir Peter Lely
c. 1670
A three-quarter length portrait of a man, seated, his upper body turned to the left. He has long dark curly hair and a thin dark moustache. He is sumptuously attired in velvet robes and a white shirt with ruffled cuffs. He looks off to the viewer's left and gestures in that direction with his proper right hand, his other hand resting loosely in his lap. Drapery fills the upper corners of the composition.
King Charles II
(1630-1685)
The 19-year-old Charles became King after the execution of his father Charles I in 1649. On Charles I’s death Great Britain became a commonwealth. Therefore, it wasn’t until the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 that Charles II was able to fully take up the position of King of England, Scotland and Ireland. He reigned until his death in 1685 at the age of 54.
Painting by Sir Peter Lely
c. 1670
A three-quarter length portrait of a man, seated, his upper body turned to the left. He has long dark curly hair and a thin dark moustache. He is sumptuously attired in velvet robes and a white shirt with ruffled cuffs. He looks off to the viewer's left and gestures in that direction with his proper right hand, his other hand resting loosely in his lap. Drapery fills the upper corners of the composition.
Queen Catherine
of Braganza
(1638-1705)
Catherine was the daughter of King John IV of Portugal, from the House of Braganza. She married Charles II at the age of 24 on 23 April 1662, two years after the Restoration of the monarchy in Great Britain. She was Queen consort of England, of Scotland and of Ireland until the death of Charles II in 1685. After which, she remained in England until 1692 when she returned to her home in Portugal, where she lived until her death at the age of 67.
Painting by Sir Peter Lely
c. 1668
A three-quarter length portrait of a woman half-turned to the right, seated in a shellback chair or throne, her crown on a pedestal or dais to the right just beyond her. She wears a sumptuous gown, closed down the front, with ermine robes, a pearl choker, and drop pearl earrings. Her hair is curled in ringlets, most hanging loose at the back but one at the side of her head and a short curl at center top of her forehead. She gestures outward, toward the viewer, with her proper right hand, her left rests in her lap. Drapery fills 3/5 of the upper half of the composition.
Queen Catherine
of Braganza
(1638-1705)
Catherine was the daughter of King John IV of Portugal, from the House of Braganza. She married Charles II at the age of 24 on 23 April 1662, two years after the Restoration of the monarchy in Great Britain. She was Queen consort of England, of Scotland and of Ireland until the death of Charles II in 1685. After which, she remained in England until 1692 when she returned to her home in Portugal, where she lived until her death at the age of 67.
Painting by Sir Peter Lely
c. 1668
A three-quarter length portrait of a woman half-turned to the right, seated in a shellback chair or throne, her crown on a pedestal or dais to the right just beyond her. She wears a sumptuous gown, closed down the front, with ermine robes, a pearl choker, and drop pearl earrings. Her hair is curled in ringlets, most hanging loose at the back but one at the side of her head and a short curl at center top of her forehead. She gestures outward, toward the viewer, with her proper right hand, her left rests in her lap. Drapery fills 3/5 of the upper half of the composition.
From 1710 to 1776, the Governor's Palace in Williamsburg, served as the official residence of the Royal Governors of the Colony of Virginia. It was home to seven royal governors, and to the first two elected governors of Virginia, Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson. In 1780, however, Jefferson urged that the capital of Virginia be relocated to Richmond for security reasons during the American Revolution.
A year after the capital moved to Richmond, the main house burned down in 1781, though the outbuildings survived for some time after. Reconstruction of the Governor’s Palace began in the 1930s on its original site with funds generously provided by John D. Rockefeller Jr.
Decorated with muskets, swords and pistols, the Palace was built to impress visitors with a display of authority and wealth. It is one of the two largest buildings at Colonial Williamsburg, the other being the Capitol.
With the Chamber over the Dining Room furnished as a room for Lord Dunmore’s two daughters and their governess, the Chamber over the Parlor becomes the most logical spot for interpreting the role of a guest room in the Governor’s Palace.
Separating the two east chambers is a small cubicle designated in Botetourt’s inventory as a closet. It was furnished as a dressing room with a wash basin and toilet table.
Though originally intended as a state room, by the 1750’s this room had become combined with the study and the Chamber over the Pantry to form a private suite of rooms. The room is referred to several times as a dressing room.
The widow of Lt. Governor Gooch compared her “great Parlour” in London to her “dressing room at Williamsburg.” Fauquier refers to “Mrs. Fauquier’s dressing room.”
The decorations in the room were changed to match this new function, with the leather wall-hangings switched for textile wall hangings. Lady Dunmore very likely used this room to spend private time with her children as well as to entertain suitable Virginia ladies.
The addition to the Governor’s Palace of the Ball Room and the Supper Room In the 1750’s probably altered room use patterns throughout the building, as suddenly new spaces became available for formal entertaining, and older spaces like the Hall and the Dining Room could be modified to more practical and business-related use.
Though the rooms were constructed in the 1750’s, they were brought to their current splendor during Lord Botetourt’s stay in the Palace. Before coming to Virginia Botetourt had worked with King George III and held the title of Lord of the Bed Chamber. He therefore knew the latest fashions of British high society and decorated the Ball Room addition accordingly. The colors in the Ball Room had been used by the King in his private chambers and those in the Supper Room were fashionable as well. The addition of warming machines completed the modernization of the Ball Room wing.
One problem regarding the stay of Lord Dunmore and his family is where to place his collection of musical instruments. In his Schedule of Losses Dunmore listed three organs, a harpsichord, and a piano forte along with “other musical instruments.” Unfortunately, the document fails to provide us with any indication of where these instruments were played or where they might have been stored when not in use.
By the mid-18th century the Dining Room had become the principle room for citizens to meet with the Governor. Visitors would have been officially received in the Hall and asked to wait there, while important visitors might have waited or been attended to by the Governor’s clerk in the Parlor. Then they would have been escorted by footmen past the archway in the Dining Room for their audience with the Governor.
In 1760, the Reverend William Robinson articulated exactly this process by bragging at a Palace dinner party that the company dined “in the very room” where he had met to discuss business with Lt. Governor Fauquier the day before. The Dining Room contained furniture (such as desks) for this purpose.
George Washington was a frequent dinner guest at the Palace. While Lord Botetourt was in residence he dined here as often as once a week when he was in town. Washington once sat at table with Lord Botetourt and Governor Eden of Maryland and on another occasion brought his stepchildren with him. Washington’s visits to the Palace increased when Lord Dunmore moved in. Washington dined frequently with Dunmore, and on one day he breakfasted, dined, and supped at the Palace.
By the 1760’s this room, along with the Upper Middle Room and the Study to which it connects, formed a private suite of rooms that were used by both Fauquier and Botetourt, and presumably Lord and Lady Dunmore.
Lord Dunmore may have used this room for two purposes, as both a library and dressing room. Other royal governors followed a similar pattern. Governor Tryon’s dressing contained comparable furniture. Governor Eden’s study also doubled as a dressing room.
By aristocratic British standards, the Palace was relatively small. Originally, it contained three chambers on the second floor supplemented by three additional rooms in the garret, which would not have been enough space for the Murrays and their seven children, plus a governess, a nurse, a housekeeper, and several maids and manservants. Evidence suggests that Dunmore’s additions would have been over the Ball Room and the Supper Room where a series of store rooms were already located. This space might have accommodated easily three or four additional bedchambers.
The Bedchamber over the Dining Room is interpreted as the room of Dunmore’s eldest two daughters and their governess, Mademoiselle Francois Galli. As interpreted now, the two girls share the large bed and the governess sleeps in the smaller bed.
The youngest daughters, Lady Susannah and Lady Virginia, with the children’s nurse Mary Thompson, might have used the rooms in the addition, along with the three boys and their tutor, The Reverend Mr. Gwatkin.
The pantry provided the butler or housekeeper with a secure and strategic place to carry out their responsibilities. Accounts can be kept anywhere, but staff supervision and security for valuables require a physical presence at a particular place.
The door to the hall was most commonly closed, and the room used as a base from which to direct the servants and coordinate their work.
The Palace door opens on a spectacle of Old World authority and power. The coats of arms proclaim that it is British, the arms that it has teeth. It inspired, impressed, and overawed. Deliberately. There are many contemporary references to the display of swords, pistols, and bayonetted muskets in the Palace. William Byrd mentions them in 1711, a century later an aging St. George Tucker recalled that “a considerable number of muskets etc. was always to be seen in the entrance of the Palace, where they were arranged upon the walls in an ornamental Manner, as in the Tower of London.”
The Palace stood as a symbol of British rule over all Virginians, but in keeping with the hierarchical social system of the times, not all Virginians received equal treatment at the door. Probably most people who had business to conduct with the crown’s representative completed their transactions in the offices in the east advance building. Even those who requested an audience with the governor or whose rank entitled them to be admitted as guests were given varied receptions according to their social status.
A footman escorted prominent citizens to the parlor to wait until the governor could see them. Others waited with less comfort in the hall, which Isaac Ware described in his Complete Body of Architecture as “an anti-chamber in which people of business, or of the second rank, wait and amuse themselves.”
The Parlor near the entrance was a waiting room, a place of business, and a setting for polite entertainment. Isaac Ware noted that a room next to the hall “might very conveniently be made a waiting room for those persons who are of better rank than to be left in the hall.” Servants easily could transform the room into a place of entertainment.
The Parlor in the Palace seems intended for dual use, both as office for Governor and his clerk, and as entertaining space for guests in the evening. Both Fauquier’s and Botetourt’s inventories list both office furniture and furniture suited for entertaining.
Furnishing the Palace to reflect Lord Dunmore’s occupancy is difficult, largely due to the period’s relatively sparse documentation. When Dunmore submitted his Schedule of Losses in 1784 he used only broad, general terms to describe his possessions and did not specify in which rooms the items were located. He did note that they “completely furnished” twenty five rooms and cumulatively valued £3200.
Even the building is different from the one occupied by Lord Dunmore and his family, for in November of 1771 the Governor submitted a proposal for “augmenting the Governor’s House” to accommodate his large family. With a wife and seven children, plus a retinue of clerks and domestic servants, Lord Dunmore’s family simply required more space. The Council approved Dunmore’s proposal and authorized expenditures of slightly more than six hundred pounds. Additionally they recommended Benjamin Powell as the best available contractor for the work and suggested sending to Great Britain for the necessary building materials. Between 1772 and 1774, however, expenditures grew to more than £2000.
By the spring of 1774, the work was completed and Lady Dunmore and six of the seven children arrived to take up residence in Williamsburg. Presumably, the servants in tow included the children’s governess Francois Galli and nurse Mary Thompson, the Countess’s waiting maid Elizabeth Ruth, and two manservants, Jean le Jeune and James Ramsay. Exactly how the building had been altered to accommodate them all remains a matter of speculation, but given that both the 1930’s archeological excavations and Thomas Jefferson’s floor plans show that the buildings footprint was not expanded, the alterations probably involved the construction of a nursery wing over the Ball Room and Supper Room addition of the 1750’s.
Though Lord Botetourt’s estate inventory and financial accounts remain our best evidence for furnishing the Palace during a particular governor’s residency, his bachelor status prevents them from shedding significant light on how a governor with a wife and children might have used the same spaces. Fortunately, Lt. Governor Francis Fauquier’s estate inventory provides at least some illumination. Fauquier was married, and at various times his wife and two sons joined him in living at the Palace. His inventory is not itemized room-by-room; nevertheless it follows a distinctive pattern with identifiable room groups for the Parlor, the Dining Room, the Upper Middle Room, the Governor’s Dressing Room, and the upstairs chambers. And since Botetourt purchased many of Fauquier’s furnishings, items can be tracked between the two documents to suggest their placement in Fauquier’s Palace.
By carefully comparing the two inventories, a number of very subtle and important differences emerge that, together, suggest divergent room use patterns between Governor Botetourt and his married predecessor. Additional evidence provided by personal letters and public records of the period, fleshes out how a married governor might have used the Palace, and the spaces that might have been reserved for private, family use. Drawing on this evidence, we can begin to see how Lord Dunmore, his wife, and their seven children might have lived in the Governor’s Palace during their residency there in the mid-1770’s.
The addition to the Governor’s Palace of the Ball Room and the Supper Room In the 1750’s probably altered room use patterns throughout the building, as suddenly new spaces became available for formal entertaining, and older spaces like the Hall and the Dining Room could be modified to more practical and business-related use.
Though the rooms were constructed in the 1750’s, they were brought to their current splendor during Lord Botetourt’s stay in the Palace. Before coming to Virginia Botetourt had worked with King George III and held the title of Lord of the Bed Chamber. He therefore knew the latest fashions of British high society and decorated the Ball Room addition accordingly. The colors in the Ball Room had been used by the King in his private chambers and those in the Supper Room were fashionable as well. The addition of warming machines completed the modernization of the Ball Room wing.
One problem regarding the stay of Lord Dunmore and his family is where to place his collection of musical instruments. In his Schedule of Losses Dunmore listed three organs, a harpsichord, and a piano forte along with “other musical instruments.” Unfortunately, the document fails to provide us with any indication of where these instruments were played or where they might have been stored when not in use.