Figure 12.—Sgraffito-ware cup and plate from Jamestown. The cup is 4 inches high; the plate is 7 inches in diameter. Colonial National Historical Park.
The May-Hartwell site was explored further and in far greater detail in 1938 and 1939 by Harrington, whose unpublished typescript report is on file with the National Park Service.[58] Harrington’s excavation, in the light of historical documentation, led to the conclusion that the brick drain had been laid during Henry Hartwell’s occupancy of the site between 1689 and 1695. This was supported by the inclusion in the fill of many bottle seals bearing Hartwell’s initials, “H. H.” Hartwell married the widow of William White, who had purchased the property from Nicholas Merriweather in 1677. That was the year following Bacon’s Rebellion, when Merriweather’s house presumably was destroyed.
Figure 13.—Sgraffito-ware jugs, about 8 inches high, from Jamestown. Colonial National Historical Park.
There were many hundreds of sherds in the fill under and around the brick drain, as well as in other ditches in the site. The North Devon types were found here in association with numerous classes of pottery. The most readily identifiable were sherds of English delftware of many forms and styles of decoration related to the second half of the 17th century. There were occasional earlier 17th-century examples, also, as might be expected. No 18th-century intrusions were noted in the brick drain area, and only a scattering in other portions; none was found in association with the North Devon sherds.
JAMESTOWN, VIRGINIA: OTHER SITES.
North Devon wares occur in the majority of sites at Jamestown, but it is not always possible to date them from contextual evidence because precise archeological records were not always kept in the early phases of the excavations. Nevertheless, narrow dating is easily possible in enough sites to suggest date horizons for the wares.
The earliest evidence occurs in material from a well (W-21)—excavated in 1956[59]—that contained an atypical sgraffito sherd described below (p. 43). The sherd lay beneath a foot-deep deposit that included Dutch majolica, Italian sgraffito ware, and tobacco pipes, all dating in form or decoration prior to 1650. This sherd is unique among all those found at Jamestown, but it is essentially characteristic of North Devon work. Presumably it is a forerunner of the typical varieties found in the May-Hartwell site and elsewhere.
No gravel-tempered sherds occur in contexts that can positively be dated prior to 1675. A sizable deposit of gravel-tempered sherds was found between the depth of one foot and the level of the cellar floor of the mansion house site (Structure 112) located near the pitch-and-tar swamp. This house was built before 1650, but burned, probably during Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676.[60] The sherds were doubtless part of the household equipment of the time. All other ceramic fragments, with one exception, were associated with objects dating earlier than 1660.