Charlton at one time took a flier in real estate along with John Stretch, bookbinder and bookkeeper in William Hunter’s printing office. The partners bought the playhouse and lot (about where Mrs. Campbell’s Tavern now stands) from Lewis Hallam, proprietor of the Company of Comedians recently from London. The evidence is inconclusive, but suggests that the venture was not a glittering success.
From time to time Charlton recorded the sale of such items as a “Ferkin of butter,” a gross of bottles (apparently empty), “eight pounds Chooklate,” stockings, “five Hundred Limes,” a piece of linen, three dozen strong beer, one “cheas,” and part of a lottery ticket. However intriguing these entries may be, they are too infrequent and irregular to support a conclusion that the barber was running a retail store on the side. When so much business was done by barter, any craftsman might have incongruous articles to sell.
Like the Silversmith James Geddy, Jr., and other craftsmen of Williamsburg, Charlton once served on the city’s common council. This position carried no compensation, but election to it showed that a man’s neighbors trusted and respected him.
The tradition of the humble artisan whose industry and integrity earned him the esteem of his fellow citizens ran strong in colonial America. Unfortunately for the wigmakers, however, no bulwark could withstand the ebb tide of fashion. George Lafong, whose Williamsburg wig shop rivaled Charlton’s in the early 1770s, ended as a beggar in 1796. Someone, it seems, must pay the price for every forward step in the march of progress. Were it not so, all of us might still be wearing wigs today.
THE BARBERS AND WIGMAKERS OF WILLIAMSBURG
Andrew Anderson—Apprenticed for seven years to John Peter Wagnon of Williamsburg in 1731. After only five years became his own master and bought Wagnon’s shop next to the Raleigh Tavern. The only Williamsburg barber known to have practiced dentistry and phlebotomy. Frequently in court as witness, plaintiff, or defendant in suits over property, debts, etc. Sold out to William Peake, Yorktown barber and wigmaker, and was preparing to leave for England when he died suddenly in 1752.
Stephen Besouth—Died April 3, 1726, leaving an estate appraised at £40 12s. 1d. and consisting almost solely of articles suitable to barbering and wigmaking.
Daniel Blouett—Arrived in Virginia in 1700 as a Huguenot refugee. Bought a lot in Williamsburg in 1713, the deed identifying him as a “Peruke-Maker.” Died in 1720. His name was variously spelled (or misspelled) in different records: Blouet, Bluet, Bleuet, Blewitt, Blewit, Blewet, Blouett, and Blouette.
John Borton—The Virginia Gazette of March 3, 1768, published a list of letters in the post office waiting to be claimed by their addressees. One was for “John Borton, perukemaker, Williamsburg.” Nothing more is known of him.
Simon Brazier—A partner of Anthony Geohegan, Williamsburg barber and wigmaker, from April to about November 1768.