William CABELL II

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  General Notes:

CABELL, William (Jody's 5th Great Grand Father), a soldier, was born near Dover, on Licking-Hole creek, Goochland county, Va., March 13, 1730; son of William and Elizabeth (Burks) Cabell. It is probable that his education was finished at William and Mary college. In December, 1749, he began to assist his father in surveying, and continued to do so until 1753. In 1751 he became a vestryman of St. Ann's parish, Albemarle county, and held this office for ten [p.85] years. In February, 1754, at the beginning of the French and Indian war, he raised a troop of horse, of which he was made captain. About 1755 he became a lieutenant-colonel of the Albemarle militia, and on Oct. 11, 1760, was promoted colonel. He was also a justice of the peace. From 1757 to 1761 he was a member of the house of burgesses. In 1760 he subscribed with others to a premium to be given for the purpose of encouraging the production of wine and silk in the colony. In 1761, at the first Amherst court, he qualified as the first presiding magistrate, the first county lieutenant, the first county surveyor, and the first county coroner, holding the offices until 1775. He also held the offices of burgess from Amherst county, of vestryman, and of surveyor by appointment of William and Mary college, thus holding all of the leading offices of Amherst county during the colonial era. On May 2, 1763, he received, from his father, a deed to 1,785 acres of land in Amherst county, which, with the 460 acres already patented, an addition of 579 acres in 1764, and many subsequent additions, made a large and valuable estate. Colonel Cabell was one of the original subscribers to the stock of the first James river canal company, and was prominent in all plans for the improvement of the country. From 1774 to 1776 he was chairman of the Amherst county committee, and from September, 1776, to March, 1781, he served as state senator, when he was appointed a member of the council of state. He was elected to the house of delegates, in 1782, in 1783, and again in 1787, being one of the few members to oppose the adoption of the Federal constitution. In 1788 he was again in the house of delegates, and in 1789 was made presidential elector, voting for George Washington. His wife was Margaret, daughter of Colonel Samuel Jordan, by whom be had seven children. At his death he left an estate of about thirty thousand acres of land, many slaves, and personal property, although he had given several of his children fair estates. His death occurred March 23, 1798.

The following extracts from a letter written by the late Hon. Joseph C. Cabell to the late N. F. Cabell, Esq., on September 28 , 1854, will explain themselves:

"In compliance with the request of Mr. William C. Rives, communicated to me lately by you, I will give you my recollections of Col. William Cabell, Senr., of Union Hill, and particularly as to his personal appearance and habitual dress.

"That gentleman died in the spring of 1798, when I was in the second year of my attendance as a student at William and Mary College. But although upwards of a half century has elapsed since I was in the habit of seeing him, yet, as he was a very remarkable personage, who made a strong impression on all who approached him, my recol­lections respecting him are very distinct.

"He was about six feet high, with large frame, well formed, erect carriage, and rather corpulent in the latter part of his life. His features were remarkable for strength, his nose slightly aquiline, his forehead was capacious and well developed; his head became bald as he advanced to old age.

"There was nothing peculiar in his dress, being that of the planters of good condition in his day, namely: a round hat, a white cambric stock buckled behind, a long-tail coat, a single- breasted waist-coat with flap pockets, short breeches buckled at the knee, long stockings, and shoes with large buckles.

"I never saw him with a square or cocked hat, and never heard of his wearing one, although for aught I know he may have done so previous to and during the Revolution. Such hats were commonly worn by country gentlemen previous to the Revolutionary war, but fell into disuse shortly after that period.

"The habitual expression of his countenance was grave, thoughtful, and dignified. He was generally taciturn, but in entertaining his friends and acquaintances he became affable and communicative; and he possessed the happy talent of adapting his conversation to the ages and condi­tions of his associates. His thoughts were, however, always very briefly expressed, and bore the impress of the sound judgment and powerful mind with which he was gifted.

"His appearance was eminently dignified and com­manding; in this respect he was equal, if not superior, to any one I have ever seen, save Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Clay.

"His father, the first Dr. Cabell, was a man of rare en­dowments and extensive learning; but I do not know that Col. Cabell was much given to literature. He lived in revo­lutionary times, and his active mind was chiefly occupied with men and things.

"In the private relations of husband, father, and brother, no one could be more respected and beloved than he was. But the display of his virtues was not limited to his family circle, and no man ever received a warmer popular admira­tion than he did; an admiration which sometimes amount­ed to adoration, for the late Judge Cabell assured me that men had been known to stoop down and kiss his feet, for which they were gently, but firmly reproved, for no man was in heart more opposed to the spirit of man-worship than he.

"I leave to others to render account of his course of ser­vice in the public bodies of the State previous to, and dur­ing the Revolutionary struggles. Although not an orator, he was a member of great weight and efficiency, and one of the leaders of the public councils in those stormy and perilous times.

"He was a man of very methodical habits, and kept a Diary, written in his own neat and beautiful hand, of the daily operations and occurrences on the various plantations on his home estate, all of which, in the active period of his life, he visited twice in the course of the day.

"He was a man of considerable wealth for the region of country in which he lived. I remember to have heard it stated that he held 25,000 acres of the best lands in his county (now Amherst and Nelson). He resided on his river estate, which occupied the beautiful and fertile valley of James river, from the mouth of Tye river down to the head of Swift Islands, a distance of some six miles. About midway of this valley, on a fine swelling hill overlooking it, he erected his spacious dwelling in a position command­ing a view of the rich bottoms, the ivy cliffs on the oppo­site side, the gentle river flowing between them, and the distant mountains sinking down and disappearing in the southwestern horizon. The selection was as creditable to him as a man of taste, as his methodical habits were to him as a man of business.

"UNION HILL"

"His dwelling was the theatre of a magnificent hospital­ity embracing his poorer as well as his more wealthy coun­trymen. He was singularly gifted with the talent for enter­taining large companies; attending personally to them in succession, quietly and without seeming effort; providing for all, and making all feel easy, contented, and happy.

"The ashes of this admirable citizen, statesman, and pa­triot repose beside those of his most excellent wife, and others of the family, in the burying-ground at 'Union Hill,' the place of his residence."

I will append the following notes to the foregoing de­scription, because "Union Hill" was in many respects an example of many of the old homes of the Cabells and their kin.

The low grounds in front of the present "Union Hill" house were granted to Dr. William Cabell by patent from the Crown of Great Britain (through its representative, the governor of Virginia) on September 12, 1738, and deeded by the old doctor to his son William on May 2, 1763. The ground on which the house stands was granted by royal patent to Col. William Cabell the elder, on Au­gust 20, 1760. To this original estate he continued to add, up to, during, and for some years after the Revolution, by grants from the crown, and by purchase from sundry persons, namely: Carter Braxton, Esq. (a signer of the Decla­ration of Independence), Lunsford Lomax, Sr., Esq., Hon. Philip Grimes, Col. James Nevil, Peter Cartwright (ances­tor of the celebrated Rev. Peter Cartwright, of the Illinois Conference), David Shepherd, escheator of the common­wealth (the escheated lands of Walter King, Esq., and John Harmer, Esq., of Bristol, England, loyal British sub­jects), Hon. Peyton Randolph (first president of Con­gress), and others. This tract, when completed, extended for about six miles along James River, east of Tye River, and back about ten miles in a northwesterly direction, some distance beyond the present Montreal station, and con­tained at least 25,000 acres. I have a complete list of these lands, showing how and when every acre was acquired, and to whom and in what way it was distributed by him to his heirs or assigns.

The building of the present mansion house began about 1775. The country soon became entirely cut off from the original source of supply (the mother country); Col. Ca­bell was obliged to change some of his first plans; the work was in various ways delayed by the war then waging; and so the house was plainly, but substantially built. There is no carved oak or other fancy work as there was in his first dwelling. The frame is of wood, the underpinning, cellar walls, and chimneys of brick. The wood is "of the heart of the oak, the pine, the poplar, and the walnut." Every foot of this timber was cut on Col. Cabell's land, and sawed by the hands of his servants. The bricks were made and the lime was burnt by his servants on his land. Every nail, from the largest spike to the smallest lathing nail, was made by hand, and most of them in his own blacksmith ­shops. Of course the brass locks, manufactured hardware, etc., purchased from merchants, came from England or elsewhere; but in the main, the old home was home-made. The building was not completed until February 25, 1778, on which day Col. Cabell tells us in his diary that "Mrs. Nicholas, her daughter Betsy, and Judith Jones," were the first persons who spent the night within its walls.

This old house, built in the early years of the Revolution, received then the name "Union Hill," and it is now an in­teresting relic of that historic period of the struggle be­tween the Union of States and the Crown of Great Britain. Save that the original shingle roof has been replaced by tin, two porches and two of the chimneys repaired, the house to-day, "the usual wear and tear excepted," is about as Col. Cabell left it.

The house could not be considered large now; but for the period when it was built, and for the part of the coun­try in which it was built, it was large -- forty by sixty feet, two stories, a basement and an attic, with wainscoted rooms and halls, and ample cellars.

While the mansion houses of those days were not especi­ally large in themselves, to the rear of the mansion, con­veniently arranged, were many appendages. Of these, the following buildings were under the especial charge of the mistress, "The Colonial Dame," namely: the picking, spin­ning, weaving, and dyeing houses; the sewing-rooms and laundry; the dairy, the store-room, the smoke-house, the kitchen, the poultry-houses, the coach-house, the ice-house, the cow-houses, and stable of horses for use of the family; the park or grounds around the dwelling, the garden, etc.; the female servants, the house servants, the butter, the gardener, the carriage driver, etc. Of course, the master also had an eye to these, but the manor and its belongings was under the especial jurisdiction of the mistress.

The master's especial charge was the plantation and the appendages thereof which were generally built near the overseer's or manager's house, some distance from the mansion house. These were the various farm-stables, barns, com-houses, tobacco-houses; shops for shoemakers, black­smiths, wheelwrights, carpenters, coopers, masons, and other artisans; the servant-quarters, the tannery, distillery, etc.; the mills, etc., the laborers, the teams, the farming im­plements the crops, the orchards, the fruits, etc. The man­sion and its outbuildings had the appearance of a village. The mistress and the master of a large plantation in old Virginia had their hands full. Nearly all of these append­ages to "Union Hill" have now crumbled to decay; but very many of them were still standing within my own recollection.

Many years ago, an old Virginia matron said to me: "When I first recollect 'Union Hill,' we bought, compara­tively speaking, very little. Every kind of provision was raised in the greatest abundance, and large orchards sup­plied quantities of fruit. We raised an ample supply of cotton, wool, flax, hemp, etc., to clothe the negroes com­fortably in winter and summer. This was all picked, spun, woven, and dyed beautifully at home. Every trade and oc­cupation was carried on there. This old system was labor­ious, but it made an up-country home in Virginia a very interesting place. But this system, which had been in vogue in the colonial era, gradually passed away; the former white servants became scarcer and scarcer, and it was thought to be cheaper to buy the manufactured articles than to manufacture with negro labor at home."

William married Margaret JORDAN, daughter of Col. Samuel JORDAN and Ruth MEREDITH. (Margaret JORDAN died in Mar 1812 in Union Hill, Nelson County, Virginia, USA.)