Maupins in Williamsburg, Part II

Taliaferro-Cole Home

Hi Maupin family,

Yesterday I received a reply from the Colonial Williamsburg Historian. I
am currently crafting a response to Ms. Rowe's email since there is a
discrepancy in Ms. Rowe's response about the ownership of the
Taliaferro-Cole home by Crease and what an article in the current magazine
of Colonial Williamsburg reveals.

If any of you have copies of documents that show the ownership of Lot #352
by Gabriel and Marie (Mary) Maupin I would appreciate a copy of the
documentation to show that the home was owned by the Maupin's and Crease's
ownership was through his marriage to the widow of Gabriel.

Also, Ms. Rowe did not address my question about Mary Maupin Crease's
burial location in the Burton Parrish Church yard so any documentation
pertaining to her burial would be helpful as well. 

 Yesterday I also received the Spring 2016  Tradition - The Magazine
of Colonial Williamsburg. The magazine includes two articles pertaining to
the Taliaferro-Cole house
1. Tending a Changing Landscape by Ben Swenson which includes a photo of
the garden described as 'a garden 300 years in the making'.
The article says:

'*Gardening happened to be the profession of Thomas Crease, who for
more than three decades owned what's now the Taliaferro-Cole property.
Crease was the gardener for both the College of William & Mary and for Lt.
Gov. Hugh Drysdale, who acted as Virginia's governor from 1722 until his
death in 1726. This was an uncommon livelihood in the 18th century because
only the gentry had the means or the inclination to pay for such services.
Nevertheless, Crease seemed to be a booster for the food and pleasure a
garden afforded when he offered for sale in the 1717.....*

*Though it's hard to say exactly how Crease's garden appeared, the terraces
remained through several later owners (including Charles Taliaferro and
Jesse Cole, for whom the house is named), and research and archaeology have
revealed contemporary walkways and fences, allowing guests the opportunity
to follow a path made and maintained by so many hands through the years.*

*Today, Colonial Wiliamsburg's gardeners carry Crease's mantle at the
Taliaferro-Cole Home garden and numerous other sites around town.'*


2. A Lamb's Tale (no author) which shows sheep grazing in the back pasture
of the Taliaferro-Cole house.

Thanks,
Donna Maupin

 *Email from Ms. Rowe:*

Dear Ms. Maupin:

Wendy Sumerlin forwarded your questions and comments about lots and houses
associated with the Maupin family in Williamsburg to me. I think it is
about time we’re in direct contact!


I assure you that Colonial Williamsburg has not written generations of the
Maupin family out of Williamsburg’s colonial history. Not only were there
three generations of Gabriel Maupins in Williamsburg, Gabriel Maupin III
had an important responsibility at a critical time in Virginia’s and
America’s history. In 1775, after British sailors, under orders from the
last royal governor of Virginia (Lord Dunmore), broke into the Magazine in
Williamsburg and removed a large amount of gunpowder belonging to the
Virginia militia, Gabriel Maupin III was appointed Keeper of the Magazine.
Under his watch, he was responsible for more than five thousand muskets and
rifles—as well as many other types of weapons—that went through the
Magazine’s doors as the new government of Virginia tried to ready the
people of Williamsburg to defend themselves against Great Britain. His name
appears in three sections of the current guidebook.

 As for the house names in Williamsburg, it may be helpful to keep in mind
that the Custis-Maupin House (Lot 355) and the Taliaferro-Cole House (Lot
352) are two different houses with separate and distinct histories.


The Taliaferro-Cole House on Lot 352 stands on the south side of Duke of
Gloucester Street at the southeast corner of Nassau Street. See image here:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2775/4263414312_37d22c0a06.jpg


The Custis-Maupin House on Lot 355 that you saw in the 1960s stands on the
south side of Duke of Gloucester Street across from Bruton Parish Church.
See image here:
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/1c/5a/a3/1c5aa37de950e5320b7f73c8073c6d11.jpg


Both of the houses appear in Colonial Williamsburg guidebooks from the
1960s (see attached pages).

Colonial Williamsburg’s naming practices for houses in its historic area
changed over the course of the 20th-century. Initially, several houses
carried hyphenated names for different reasons, sometimes to commemorate
both an 18th- and 19th-century person or family. Because Colonial
Williamsburg obtained Lot 355 from Maupin descendants in 1939, it is likely
that was part of the decision to include both the Custis and Maupin names
early on.


In the 1980s, house naming standards at Colonial Williamsburg changed. It
was deemed important that names for houses in the historic area coincide as
closely as possible with the period from about 1760 to the American
Revolution presented in the colonial setting. Consequently, in 1984, the
Custis-Maupin House on Lot 355 was renamed the Custis Tenement. A Maupin
family connection with it did not begin until John M. Maupin’s ownership in
1838, well beyond the 18th-century history that Colonial Williamsburg
presents in its daily programs and historical interpretation. John Custis
owned Lot 355 from 1715 and it remained in Custis family hands until 1782.
During that period, members of the Custis family owned the house and lot
but never lived in it. They rented the dwelling to a succession of tenants,
not an uncommon practice in 18th-century Williamsburg and quite respectable.


At this time, I cannot confirm the construction of a brick house on Lot
355. It is clear, however, that John M. Maupin had a large addition built
onto what was already on Lot 355 in 1838. 

 The history of Lot 352 where the Taliaferro-Cole House stands is
problematic. Lot 352 was located on the James City County side of
Williamsburg in the eighteenth century. That is important because the
county line between York County and James City County bisected
Williamsburg. While the York County court records (deeds, wills,
inventories, etc.) are mostly extant, records for the James City County
side of Williamsburg were destroyed during the Civil War. Gabriel Maupin I
(the immigrant) arrived in Virginia about 1700. From that time until after
his death (1719 or 1720), he was described as living in York County,
including on January 19, 1719, when the York County Court granted him a
license “to keep an ordinary at his now dwelling house in Williamsburgh in
this county [i. e. York County] for the next year ensuing.” The 1724 deed
of trust for Lot 352 executed by Thomas Creas and his wife, Mary Creas
(widow of Gabriel I), is recorded in the York County records even though
Lot 352 was on the James City County side of Williamsburg. This is baffling
and bears further investigation. Note that the ownership of Lot 352 is
undocumented from Thomas Creas’s death in 1756 until Charles Taliaferro
owned it by the 1770s. Blank periods of this nature are quite common for
dwellings and lots on the James City side of Williamsburg due to the loss
of records mentioned above.


I am in hopes that the information above is helpful. I’d be happy to hear
any comment or further questions you may have. Colonial Williamsburg is
always happy to know of records family members have preserved. This is
especially true for the Maupin family associated as it was with three
properties in the eighteenth century (Taliaferro-Cole House, Alexander
Craig House, and Market Square Tavern) and five in the nineteenth century
(Custis Tenement, Raleigh Tavern, Peter Scott House Site, James City
Courthouse Site, and the Archibald Blair Storehouse Site.


Kind regards,

Linda


Linda H. Rowe
Historian
Research and Interpretive Education
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
757-220-7443

See note below from Donna Maupin on the matter---thanks for your response.