William Buckland 1734 - 1774 Architect of Virginia and Maryland

By Rosamond Randall Beirne

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Books Ltd.
• Release date: Apr 26, 2013
• ISBN: 9781473381117

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WILLIAM BUCKLAND

1734-1774

Architect of

Virginia and Maryland

by

ROSAMOND RANDALL BEIRNE

and

JOHN HENRY SCARFF, F.A.I.A.

WILLIAM BUCKLAND

Portrait by Charles Willson Peale, begun 1774, completed 1787. Imaginative symbolic background displays the base of a monumental column and an uncommon five column portico.

Dedicated to Those

Who in the 17th and 18th Centuries

Planted in America the Seeds

of English Culture

Preface

SO LITTLE is known about any of our colonial architects that it seems not too presumptuous to attempt to frame this unfinished sketch of a man who deserves recognition.

The urge to develop the biography of William Buckland was an inherited one. It was stimulated by the study of a few family papers and a close association of one of the authors for many years with Buck-land’s Annapolis houses. Every family has its traditions but most lack a member with time and energy to put these traditions in some sort of permanent form. A professional knowledge of the byways and ancient mores of London and Oxford, as well as of the finer points of eighteenth century architecture, was needed to round out the story of Buckland’s career. Therefore, the two authors became associated in an effort to recreate the life of one of the few pre-Revolutionary craftsmen whose buildings still stand today, serene and authenticated. His is typical of the traditional American success story—the poor young man’s progress and rise in the world. Though his opportunities lay more in the domestic field than in public works, they are unrivaled in his time and place.

We have many acknowledgments to make, some of which fall more naturally into the notes. Chiefly are the authors grateful to the late Daniel R. Randall for his pioneering in William Buckland’s cause. To encouraging friends, particularly to Francis C. Haber, who patiently read and condensed the manuscript, and to Edith Rossiter Bevan; to the courteous staffs of the British Museum, The Public Record Office, the libraries of the Guildhall and of the Royal Institute of British Architects, the manuscript room of the Bodleian Library, the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress, the Peabody Institute, the Maryland Historical Society, the late Roger Thomas of the Maryland Hall of Records, the Virginia State Library, the Virginia Historical Society, the library of the College of William and Mary, and the Alderman Library of the University of Virginia, we offer our sincere thanks.

R. R. B.

J. H. S.

Contents

Preface

I English Background

II Virginia and the Masons

III Gunston Hall

IV Richmond County

V Maryland

VI Buckland’s Annapolis

VII Last Years

VIII Postscript

Appendices

A. Indenture of Apprenticeship

B. Indenture of Service, Buckland to Mason

C. Mortgage Securing McCall’s Loan to Buckland

D. One of Several Buckland Accounts in Lloyd Ledgers

E. Inventory of Estate

F. Final Account of Estate

Notes

Index

List of Illustrations

WILLIAM BUCKLAND

1734-1774

Architect of

Virginia and Maryland

I

English Background

SIXTEEN MILES west-northwest of Oxford, on the Windrush River, a tributary of the Thames, is the town of Burford. Its name signifies a ford by a hill. Burford has figured in English history since Saxon times and is known today for its wool industries and its quarries of excellent building stone. In this ancient town the parish register records that on May 30, 1733, Francis Buckland and Mary Dunsdown, both of this parish, were married by licence. Normally an English marriage took place after banns were announced in church, but without banns marriage could be lawfully celebrated by virtue of licence issued by the bishop or archdeacon, or by his surrogate. Soon thereafter Francis and Mary Buckland must have moved, for the parish register of St. Peter’s-in-the-East at Oxford records that William, son of Francis Buckland was baptized. Later by William’s own hand we learn that he was born in the Parish of St. Peter’s-in-the-East in the City of Oxford on the 14th day of Augt 1734.¹ It was this William who was to leave his native land, cross the Atlantic and join the colonists of Virginia and Maryland, and be intrusted by several of the most influential among them with the design of their fine residences.

Francis Buckland called himself a yeoman, indicating that he was or had been an independent freeholder. At the time of his marriage England was undergoing economic and agricultural changes which increased the mobility of the population and affected the status of the farming classes. In the regions adjacent to London the demand for market produce stimulated the movement of enclosure of commons and the expansion of tillable land. Many freeholders sold their ancient rights and lands and with the cash took up lands or leaseholds elsewhere. Others were drawn to manufacturing centers, either to work as laborers or to find lands closer to good markets. When Francis Buck-land moved from Burford to Oxford between May 30, 1733, and August 14, 1734, he may have sold his inherited lands and taken up a long term leasehold or purchased lands which would be near the market at Oxford. In any event, the title of yeoman placed him in a station of some dignity in English society at this time. The yeoman commanded respect among the hired laborers and on occasion he mingled with the squirearchy.

The life of the Buckland family centered in St. Peter’s-in-the-East where its baptisms, marriages and burials are recorded. St. Peter’s-in-the-East is situated on Queen’s Lane (formerly St. Edmund’s Hall Lane) as it passes the buildings of New College. Parts of the church date from Norman times and its crypt is of the late Middle Ages. A small amount of seventeenth century glass remains. Parts of the tower are fourteenth century work although the parapet and quatrefoils are later. On the walls one can read memorial tablets to the more important parishioners of other days.

The graveyard lies on three sides of the church between the College and St. Edmund’s Hall. The grave stones crowd close in and all except the most recent are illegible. In the course of centuries, adjacent buildings have encroached upon church property and many graves have been obliterated. Salvaged headstones, upon which not a vestige remains of the inscriptions are ranged against the enclosing wall, and under the overhanging trees of the College gardens they gather moss. There unmarked, forgotten Bucklands lie buried and their dust has mingled with the soil of their native land.

In the faded and dusty records in the parish chests it is impossible now to ascertain relationships, for between 1734 when William was baptized and 1780 when a Francis was buried, there are many references to Francis. In 1736 Francis, son of Francis Buckland was baptized and two years later John, son of Francis Buckland. They would appear to be younger brothers of William. Unfortunately, during those years the mother’s name is not mentioned in baptisms, so we cannot be sure. Later there is an entry: Buried Jan. 3, 1739 Mary Buckland. That must be the Mary who married Francis Buckland in Burford just six years before! It was but a year after John was born.

The frequently recurring name Francis is to be a puzzle to the end. It is recorded that in 1746 and again in 1747 children of a Francis Buckland were baptized without reference to the mother. In 1749 a Thomas, son of Francis and Penelope Buckland, was baptized. Was Thomas the brother of the children born in 1746 and 1747, and had Francis, the father of William, married the second time? It is not known. After 1749 there is a lapse of eleven years without entries relating to Bucklands. Then in 1758 another Francis, son of Francis and Mary Buckland, is baptized. This father could well be the Francis who was born in 1736, and the brother of our William in America, for he would have been twenty-two years of age.

There were undoubtedly several families named Buckland in the parish, since Buckland entries appear frequently until 1790, when they cease, and the name still exists in Oxfordshire. There is no apparent connection between the families of William Buckland the architect and William Buckland (1784-1856), Dean of Westminster, scholar and teacher at the University of Oxford, and leading geologist of England in the 1820’s. Dean Buckland was born in Axminster, eldest son of the rector of Templeton and Trusham in Devon. Curiously, however, Dean William Buckland named his son Francis.

The family at St. Peter’s-in-the-East pursued its humble course and took but a small and unnoticed part in the large drama of its time. If it had not been for one among them who at the age of fourteen decided to turn his back upon the ways of his fathers to seek his fortune in the more promising life of London, history would be without mention of them. They would have played their parts in the splendid sweep of the eighteenth century unknown and unrecorded. The not inconsiderable talents of William, son of Francis, yeoman, set him apart and entitle him to some renown among the creative men of colonial America.

Throughout the eighteenth century Oxfordshire remained a country of agriculture and pasturage. In its various districts the soil, the vegetation and the architecture present local characteristics directly traceable to the rock that underlies them. Burford, where Francis and Mary Buckland lived before they were married in 1733, is a neighborhood of important quarries. From them came stone for the rebuilding of the Oxford colleges and by clumsy barges it was shipped down the river Thames as far as London for the building of St. Paul’s Cathedral after the Great Fire of 1666. From the forests of the county timber was supplied for the building of houses and ships. Another great resource of Oxfordshire is clay good for the making of bricks. The county up to modern times has not attained any great industrial importance, though the Thames and its tributaries made traffic with London easy before the advent of good road transportation. During his formative years William Buckland in Oxford must have heard much talk of building and it seems most natural for the talented boy to have had his attention so directed and later to have his ambition turned towards the metropolis where his father’s brother, James, a joiner, lived.

APPRENTICE RECORD

Thus comes an important date in the life of William Buckland. In 1748, when he had reached the age of fourteen years, he was apprenticed to his uncle James, a citizen and Joiner of London.² How did it happen that the eldest son of yeoman Francis chose to learn a craft? One can only surmise. That he had a decided talent is certain. If his father had taken a leasehold, his patrimony, as eldest son, was uncertain. This would have made the opportunities for a skilled laborer unpromising. The Oxford colleges were being rebuilt in the new style and he would be quite familiar with the more interesting and rewarding life of the skilled craftsman, but Oxford was a small market-town where life offered him few diversions or opportunities. Life in Londontown promised