inventories of Middlesex, Lancaster, and the Eastern Shore disclose an equal number.
The presence of the loom is also shown in a number of cases. In 1668, William Parker, a former servant of Nathaniel Bacon, Sr., owned and operated a machine of this character in York with valuable encouragement from the county.[1] Many years later, there was recorded in Elizabeth City an indenture, by the terms of which John Stringer was bound out for a period of five years to serve as an apprentice of Charles Combs and his wife in the trade of a weaver.[2] John West of Lower Norfolk, William Glover, William Cocke, and Martin Elam of Henrico, John Wallop of Accomac, and Charles Kelly of Lancaster were owners of looms.[3] William Phillips, also of Accomac, a weaver by profession, was a plan of property; in 1696, he is found buying a plantation in that county covering one hundred acres.[4] The manufacture of these looms extended to blankets and to flannel.[5]
- ↑ Records of York County, vol. 1664-1672, p. 285, Va. State Library.
- ↑ Records of Elizabeth City County, vol. 1684-1699, p. 113, Va. State Library. In 1689, Stringer had bound himself out as an apprentice to a cooper. See Ibid., p. 361. Edmond Swansy of this county also owned a loom. Ibid., p. 494
- ↑ Records of Lower Norfolk County, original vol. 1675-1686, f. p. 199 Records of Henrico County, vol. 1688-1697, pp. 284, 706, Va. State Library; Records of Accomac County, original vol. 1692-1715, p. 18; Records of Lancaster County, original vol. 1696-1702, p. 96. There are also many references to wool-combs.
- ↑ Records of Accomac County, original vol. 1692-1715, p. 118.
- ↑ Records of Northampton County, original vol. 1692-1707, pp. 235, 253; Records of Henrico County, vol. 1688-1697, p. 652. The inventory of William Taylor of Accomac County included “35 yards of Virginia cloth,” original vol. 1692-1715, p. 201. References to “Virginia stockings” will be found in Records of Middlesex County, original vol. 1680-1694, orders April 9, 1684, and in Records of York County, vol. 1694-1697, p. 292, Va. State Library. For Virginian cloth, napkins, and towels, see Records of Henrico County, vol. 1688-1697, p. 350. It should be borne in mind that only a portion of the county records of the seventeenth century leave survived to the present day. Those which were destroyed would leave thrown still further light on the extent of local manufacture.
