WILLIAM BYRD

LIFE

•March 28, 1674-August 26, 1744

•Son of William Byrd, father of William Byrd III

•Lived in Westover, Virginia

•Sent to England at age 7 to be formally educated at Felsted School to

study law

•Served as a representative for Virginia in London

•16 years old at the time of his father’s death

•Member of the King’s Counsel for 37 years

•Denied position of governor of Virginia, returned to England

•Sent back to Virginia by Parliament, became a Virginia delegate,

chosen to commission the survey of the Virginia-North Carolina

border

•Gathered the most valuable library in the Virginia Colony, about

4000 books

LIFE (CONTINUED)

•Founder of Richmond, provided the land where the city was laid

out in 1737

•Married Lucy Parke, daughter of Colonel Daniel Parke II, governor

of the Leeward Islands

•Intended to have a companion and increase wealth

•Parke died of smallpox in 1715, Byrd blamed himself

•Remarried Maria Taylor in 1723

LIFE (CONTINUED)

•First marriage, had 2 sons who died as infants, 2 daughters

•Second marriage, 3 daughters and a son, William III

•William III wasted away family money on gambling

LIFE (CONTINUED)

•History of the Dividing Line

• A Journey to the Land of Eden

• A Progress to the Mines

• The Secret Diaries of William Byrd of Westover

WRITINGS

“I rose before 6 o’clock and read two chapters in Hebrew and 250 verses in Homer’s Odyssey and made and end of it. I said my prayers devoutly. I ate milk for breakfast. I danced my dance. The men began to work this day to dig for brick. I settled my accounts and read Italian. I reproached my wife with ordering the old beef to be kept and the fresh beef used first, contrary to good management, on which she was pleased to be very angry and this put me out of humor. I ate nothing but boiled beef for dinner. I went away presently after dinner to look after my people. When I returned I read more Italian and then my wife came and begged my pardon and we were friends again. I read in Dr. Lister again very late. I said my prayers. I had good health, good thoughts, and bad humor, unlike a philosopher.”

April 7, 1709

DIARY

• Written in shorthand created by William Mason, was not

deciphered and published until 1940s

•Revealed much about himself; provides insight into colonial life

•Day-to-day entries; records meals (ate meat every day which shows

wealth), weather, his studies, whether or not he prayed

•Records birth of son, arguments with wife, great financial loss from

a ship sinking, how he punished his slaves, business or personal

trips, gambling, and commenting on his actions and thoughts

•His ideas about roles of women, the British government's

responsibility to the colonies, slavery, and relations with Native

Americans

•His feelings about his wife and children; his sexual appetite

•Generally written in a cheerful and entertaining manner

•“One of the most complete, entertaining and informative cultural

documents about eighteenth-century life in the Old and New Worlds

that we have in the English language.”

DIARY (CONTINUED)

DIARY (CONTINUED)

Autocratic

•“About 1 1 o'clock we went to church and had a good sermon.

After church I invited nobody home because I design to break that

custom that my people may go to church. I ate boiled pork for

dinner. In the afternoon my wife and I had a terrible quarrel about

the things she had come in but at length she submitted because

she was in the wrong. For my part I kept my temper very well.”

DIARY (CONTINUED)

•Cruelly punished slaves

•For example: being whipped, burned with an iron, beat

•Sometimes regret giving punishments

•Cared for the sick slaves

•“I tended them diligently and went to the quarters to see the

negroes there and gave the necessary orders about them.”

“I rose at 5 o’clock and read two chapters in Hebrew and some Greek in Thucydides. I said my prayers and ate milk and pears for breakfast. About 7 o’clock the negro boy [or Betty] that ran away was brought home. My wife against my will caused little Jenny to be burned with a hot iron, for which I quarreled with her. It was so hot today that I did not intend to go to the launching of Colonel Hill’s ship but about 9 o’clock the Colonel was so kind as to come and call us.”

“I rose at 5 o'clock and read two chapters in Hebrew and some Greek in Cassius. I said my prayers and ate milk for breakfast. I danced my dance. Eugene pissed abed again for which I made him drink a pint of piss.”

“I rose at 6 o’clock and read a chapter in Hebrew and some Greek in Anacreon. I ate milk for breakfast and said my prayers. I danced my dance. About 10 o’clock Major Harrison, Hal Harrison, James Burwell and Mr. Doyley came to play at cricket. Isham Randolph, Mr. Doyley, and I played with them three for a crown. We won one game, they won two. Then we played at billiards till dinner, before which Colonel Ludwell came on his way to Mr. Harrison’s. They all dined with us and I ate boiled pork. Soon after dinner the company went away and I took a nap. Then we walked to Mr. Harrison’s, whom we found better. We played a game at cricket again. I took leave about 8 and returned home where I found Jenny better. I caused her to be cupped and then gave her [m-t-y] pills. This was my birthday, on which I am 36 years old, and I bless God for granting me so many years. I wish I had spent them better. I neglected to say my prayers but had good health, good thoughts, and good humor, thank God Almighty. “

DIARY (CONTINUED)

Intellectual

•Read Italian, Greek, Hebrew, Latin, English, Dutch

•Homer, Lucian, Josephus, Anacreon, Thucydides , Cassius, Greek

Testament

•Studied geometry

“I rose before 6 o’clock and read two chapters in Hebrew and 250 verses in Homer’s Odyssey and made and end of it. I said my prayers devoutly. I ate milk for breakfast. I danced my dance. The men began to work this day to dig for brick. I settled my accounts and read Italian. I reproached my wife with ordering the old beef to be kept and the fresh beef used first, contrary to good management, on which she was pleased to be very angry and this put me out of humor. I ate nothing but boiled beef for dinner. I went away presently after dinner to look after my people. When I returned I read more Italian and then my wife came and begged my pardon and we were friends again. I read in Dr. Lister again very late. I said my prayers. I had good health, good thoughts, and bad humor, unlike a philosopher. “

•“Byrd's religiosity seems very formal and superficial, particularly in

contrast to the rigorous scrutiny of Puritan diarists.”

•End of every entry, “I said my prayers and had good health, good

thoughts, and good humor all day, thanks be to God Almighty.”

•On 36th birthday, he says, “This was my birthday, on which I am 36

years old, and I bless God for granting me so many years. I wish I

had spent them better.”

DIARY (CONTINUED) Religious

“My wife was sick still but something better than yesterday. I ate some roast shoat for dinner. In the afternoon came Frank Eppes to bring me his father's bills for the quitrents. He stayed here till about 6 o'clock and then went with me to see the gates and my wife came and walked with me. Just as I was going to bed the Captain of the salt ship came and stayed about half an hour with me and I gave him a bottle of cider. I said my prayers and had good health, good thoughts, and good humor, thank God Almighty. I rogered my wife, in which she took but little pleasure in her condition.”

DIARY (CONTINUED) Passionate

“I rose at 5 o’clock and read two chapters in Hebrew and some Greek in Lucian. I said my prayers and ate boiled milk for breakfast. John G-r-l was taken sick of a fever. About 9 o’clock Mrs. Harrison came to ask my advice concerning her overseer and those people who sold them drink. I offered my service to wait on her to her quarters which she accepted of. When we came there we saw the overseer and I threatened him severely so he promised never to neglect his business more. Then we went to C-t Ch-r-n and I threatened him likewise if he ever entertained any of Mrs. Harrison’s people any more. He promised, very frightened, too, and then we returned home. I ate whole hominy for dinner. In the afternoon I settled some accounts and then read a little in Grotius. In the evening I had a severe quarrel with little Jenny and beat her too much for which I was sorry. I went into the river. I said a short prayer and had good health, good thoughts, and good humor, thanks be to God Almighty. “

DIARY (CONTINUED) Superstitious

“I rose at 7 o'clock and read some Greek in bed. I said my prayers and ate milk for breakfast. The about 8 o'clock we got a-horseback and rode to Mr. Harrison's and found him very ill but sensible . . . In the morning early I returned home and went to bed. It is remarkable that Mrs. Burwell dreamed this night that she saw a person that with money scales weighed time and declared that there was no more than 18 pennies worth of time to come, which seems to be a dream with some significance either concerning the world or a sick person. In my letters from England I learned that the Bishop of Worcester was of opinion that in the year 1715 the city of Rome would be burned to the ground, that before the year 1745 the popish religion would be routed out of the world, that before the year 1790 the Jews and Gentiles would be converted to the Christianity and then would begin the millennium.”

“Some night this month I dreamed that I saw a flaming sword in the sky and called some company to see it but before they could come it was disappeared, and about a week after my wife and I were walking and we discovered in the clouds a shining cloud exactly in the shape of a dart and seemed to be over my plantation but it soon disappeared likewise. Both these appearances seemed to foretell some misfortune to me which afterwards came to pass in the death of several of my negroes after a very unusual manner. My wife about two months since dreamed she saw an angel in the shape of a big woman who told her the time was altered and the seasons were changed and that several calamities would follow that confusion. God avert His judgment from this poor country.”

DIARY (CONTINUED)

Catty

“Then I danced with Mrs. Russell and then several others and among the rest Colonel Smith’s son, who made a sad freak.”

“It rained all day and all night. The President had the worst clothes of anybody there.”

HISTORY OF THE DIVIDING LINE

•Account of the surveying of the border between North Carolina and

Virginia in 1728

•Byrd was chief representative of Virginia

•Fuller version than the Secret History

•More historical and geographical

•Observations on the region, animal and plant life, and the native

people

•Gathered ethnological data mainly from the guide Ned Bearskin

•Did not refer to participants by their true names

•Intended for the public

HISTORY OF THE DIVIDING LINE (CONTINUED)

•Written in a comical tone

•“[I]t offers a humorous look at backwoods life in the mid-

eighteenth century and includes references to classical sources,

other travel narratives, and natural histories.”

HISTORY OF THE DIVIDING LINE (CONTINUED)

SECRET HISTORY OFTHE DIVIDING LINE

•Probably written first

•Had things that were left out in History of the Dividing Line

•Written for a small circle of friends

•Unflattering descriptions and details of the sexual escapades of

the commissioners in the surveying party

•Mocking portraits of various expedition participants