of Richard Ward in this respect was the one commonly followed; in making a division of his silver plate, he left nine spoons to each of his three children, consisting of two sons and a daughter. The value attached by the owners to their silver service was illustrated in the case of Colonel Richard Lee, who took the trouble, on the occasion of a visit to England in the time of the Protectorate, to carry over his plate with a view to changing its fashion. The silver service of every person who was entitled to a coat of arms was engraved with his device.[1]
There is reason to think that few paintings adorned the walls of the chambers, halls, and parlors of the residences in that age. They were not entirely absent, however, from the homes of the most prosperous planters. Colonel Thomas Ludlow owned a portrait of Richardson, an English Judge.[2] In one of the rooms of his house, Joseph Croshaw of York had hung five pictures, whether portraits or landscapes it is impossible to discover from the inventory of his estate.[3] There was an equal number in the hall of Lieutenant Thomas Foote. The paintings in the parlor of Mrs. Elizabeth Digges could not have been of a high degree of merit, as they were appraised at five shillings only, there being in addition five of a small size in her garret. Those in the possession of John Smythe of York were also valued at the same amount.
- ↑ See a reference to the coat of arms of Colonel Richard Lee, engraved on his plate, in Sainsbury’s Calendar of State Papers, Colonial, vol. 1574-1660, p. 430.
- ↑ Records of York County, vol. 1657-1662, p. 275, Va. State Library.
- ↑ Records of York County, Croshaw, vol. 1664-1672, p. 257; Foote, Ibid., p. 266; Smythe, vol. 1687-1691, p. 143, Va. State Library. See, also, reference in same volume, p. 379, to the “old pictures” of Mrs. Rowland Jones. The inventory of James Archer included a “parcell of pictures.” Vol. 1694-1097, p. 429, Va. State Library. There is a reference to portraits in the will of William Fitzhugh, Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. II, p. 276.
