Figure 8.—Section through the filling of Pit B.
Other finds included fragments of English delftware, among them a very large polychrome charger that had been intended as a wall or dresser ornament, and a most unusual saucer-shaped vessel, ornamented with splashes of blue, that resembles a reversed form of the London copies of Nevers faïence.[113] Additional finds included North Devon[114] and other coarse earthenwares, a millefiori bead, and an English wineglass in the Hawley Bishop style dating about 1690.
Dating: The evidence of the bottles indicates a filling date in the first decade of the 18th century.
PIT C
Covering the top of this pit was a layer of reddish clay, the same type of clay that was used in the backfilling of the builders' trench around the kitchen foundations. The clay was directly covered by brick rubble from the building's destruction stratum. From between the clay and rubble (T.N. 15) came fragments of an iron saw some 17 in. long and a brass harness fitting of unusual form. Set into the clay level was the base of a brick pier made from brickbats and intended to provide added support over the soft filling of a pit measuring approximately 6 ft. by 4 ft. 3 in. and having a total depth of 2 ft. 6 in. The walls were carefully trimmed and the bottom was flat, leaving no doubt that this cavity was dug as a refuse pit and was not a converted stump hole.
The red clay described above gave way to a yellow clay beneath the brick pier from which level (T.N. 16) came a few unimportant pottery fragments, a shoulder fragment from a wide-mouthed jar, and an iron harness buckle. Beneath this stratum was encountered the main pit filling, comprising a thick stratum of wood ash (T.N. 17) which blended towards the corners of the pit into pale clay (T.N. 18) that has probably silted in from the sides. From the ash deposit came part of a sickle, the bowl of a much-decayed pewter spoon, objects of turned bone, tobacco pipes, and a silvered-brass harness ornament. Somewhat surprisingly, the stratum also contained part of a plate comparable to the delftware charger from Pit B, though the date of the deposit was probably 20 or more years later.
The silted clay at the bottom of the pit included numerous clay-pipe fragments whose stem holes, following the Harrington theory, pointed to a date in the period about 1735-1750. Other finds included coarse earthenwares from Yorktown, delftware, and part of a pewter spoon handle.
Dating: About 1740.