The unusual construction of the kitchen and its situation in the trash area at a skew with the residence might prompt the conclusion that it was built without much consideration for the beauty of the whole. It is probable that the kitchen was erected after the house had ceased to be the residence of the owner or a tenant of the Tutter's Neck acres, and that the dwelling was then a slave quarter. Such a conclusion is supported by the presence in Pits D-F, of numerous fragments of Colono-Indian pottery, a ware produced by Tidewater Indians in pseudo-European forms and probably intended for the use of the slave population. The construction date of the kitchen in the decade 1731-1740 would place it in the ownership of Col. Thomas Bray, who resided at Littletown (see p. [40]). Thus the Tutter's Neck residence is at best unlikely to have been any more than the quarters of an overseer, or, at worst, communal housing for slaves working in that area.

Such a conclusion would help to explain the fact that the majority of artifacts found in the site's later deposits were of dates much earlier than their contexts would suggest. Many items of pottery and cutlery were of late 17th-century date, though found in refuse pits of about 1730-1740. This would not be so surprising were it not for the fact that few, if any, such items have been found in excavations at Williamsburg, a town that was firmly established throughout the period covered by the Tutter's Neck occupancy as determined by the excavations. But if the kitchen site was used as a slave quarter, it would be logical to expect that such things as pottery and cutlery would have been old before being relegated to that location. A graphic example is provided by the latten spoon from Pit D that dates from the period about 1660-1690 (fig. 15, no. 13) and which had seen such service that it had been worn down to half its bowl size before being discarded.

The Refuse Pits

A total of six refuse pits were excavated, five of them entirely or partially sealed beneath the foundations of the kitchen. All five consequently predated that structure, though Pit B (see fig. 5) was probably 20 years earlier than the others. Pits C-F, on the other hand, were probably all dug within a short time of each other. They were approximately the same size and depth and were situated within a few inches of one another, although none overlapped its neighbor. It may be deduced, therefore, that the pits were dug in such close succession that the outlines of the preceding pits were still visible to the digger. It is possible that they may have been privy pits. Concrete evidence indicating the close relationships between these pits was provided by fragments of the same Colono-Indian bowl found in both Pit D and Pit E.

PIT A

This deposit (T.N. 31) was located farthest from the buildings, being situated, as previously noted, about 125 feet southeast of the residence on the south slope of the neck. As elsewhere on the site, the topsoil over the pit had been removed, leaving only the lower portions of the dirty yellow clay deposit intact. This pit measured 8 ft. by 5 ft. and extended to a depth of only 1 ft. 2 in. into the surrounding natural yellow clay. A tree stump obscured a small part of this oval pit, but it is believed that its presence prevented few, if any, artifacts from avoiding recovery. The finds comprised two or three sherds of coarse pottery of no identifiable form, part of the base of an English delftware mug ornamented with sponged manganese, one clay pipe of about 1700, and fragments of at least 18 wine bottles of the period about 1690-1710. One of these fragments bore an "F I" seal from the same matrix as another found in Pit B.

The location of Pit A so far from the house and in a totally different area from the only other pit of the same date (Pit B) suggests that there was little consistency in the deposition of trash in the early years of the century. It is possible that the pits were created when tree stumps were removed and were filled with trash no matter where they happened to be. The fact that modern tree roots invariably sought the richer soil of the pits' contents makes it quite probable that there are numerous other pits on the site that are still hidden beneath standing trees or cut stumps.

Dating: There is little doubt that Pit A was filled during the first decade of the 18th century.

PIT B

This pit (T.N. 30) was approximately circular, with a diameter of 9 ft. 4 in. and a maximum depth of 2 ft. 8 in. It was covered by part of the kitchen's north wall and by the whole of the east side of the kitchen chimney. It was apparent that the builders knew that the pit was there, for a considerable number of brickbats were laid under the foundation of the chimney's northeast corner in an entirely abortive attempt to prevent it from settling. It is probable that the pit was initially a stump hole, there being a large quantity of dirty, greenish-gray clay at the bottom from which no artifacts were recovered (see fig. 8.) It is probable that this clay was redeposited when the stump and attached roots were dug out. Subsequently, the remaining concavity served as a rubbish pit into which more than 120 broken wine bottles were thrown. All these bottles belonged to the same period (1690-1710) as those in Pit A, and among them were five seals marked "F I" and one seal bearing the legend "Richard Burbydge 1701."[112]