of eggs, which he intended to present to several of his friends who wished to become silk masters. The great trouble and expense which he incurred in his effort to revive the culture of silk in Virginia, led in after years to his nomination to the office of Auditor, on the ground that he deserved well of the Colony on this account.[1] Mr. Ferrer, his correspondent, was very anxious to make use of the natural silk bottoms of Virginia, and devised a means by which they could be unwound with ease in spite of their gummy hardness; this consisted in boiling them in very hot lye until nearly dissolved, and then immersing them in scalding clean water. After this had been done, the texture of the bottoms could be drawn out without injury. Ferrer was of a rhyming turn of mind, and left to posterity a series of doggerel lines, which has transmitted the names of the planters giving most attention to silk culture. Besides Mr. Digges, Sir Henry Chichely, Colonels Ludlow and Bernard, Major Westrope, and Mr. George Lobs were very much interested in the industry, and had experimented at length in connection with it.[2] The production of silk was not confined to male Virginians; Mrs. Garrett and Mrs. Burbage, two women of prominence in the Colony, were also engaged in its culture.[3]
The Reformed Virginian Silk-Worm, a pamphlet which
- ↑ Governor Berkeley to Secretary Williamson, June 13, 1670, British State Papers, Colonial; Sainsbury Abstracts for 1670, p. 154, Va. State Library. The inscription on the tomb of Digges, at Bellefield, described him as “the only promoter of silk manufacture in this Colony,” a claim which, it would seem, was too broad.
- ↑ There is an interesting letter from Francis Yeardley, dated May 8, 1654, to John Ferrer, in which he asks for a present of silk-worm seed. See Richmond (Va.) Standard, Feb. 11, 1882.
- ↑ Reformed Virginian Silk-Worm, p. 34, Force’s Historical Tracts, Vol. III.
