in width. He was to put the different parts of this frame together on the spot selected as the site of the proposed dwelling, and then cover the sides with boards and place a roof on the top. There was to be no cellar, the house being supported by sills resting on the ground. A chimney was to be constructed at either end. The upper and lower floors were to be divided respectively into two rooms by wooden partitions. The joists and posts were to be squared by a line. In consideration of the satisfactory performance by Gates of the provisions of this agreement, Chamberlayne bound himself to pay twelve hundred pounds of tobacco in cask. The house was to be finished in seven months.[1]
In 1695, Robert Sharpe contracted to pay John Hudlesy, both being citizens of Henrico, twenty-two hundred pounds of tobacco in consideration that Hudlesy would build for him a framed house, thirty feet long and twenty feet wide, having a chimney at each end. Sharpe was to furnish the boards and shingles, and Hudlesy the nails and timbers, the latter during the performance of the agreement being required to supply his own food.[2]
Robert Stevens of Middlesex bound himself to erect for Thomas Hill a house forty feet in length in consideration of the payment of nine pounds sterling.[3]
Under the terms of a contract between the executors of William Pryor and Richard Bernard of York County, the latter in leasing the Pryor estate was required, in addition to paying the taxes, to build what was described as a sufficient dwelling-house, that is to say, a house
