BACON’S CASTLE PEOPLE
By Kim R. Holmes
(For virginiacolonialhouses.com)
ARTHUR ALLEN
The builder of what came to be called “Bacon’s Castle” is Arthur Allen. He was born either in 1607 or 1608 in Droitwich, a small town in northern Worcestershire, England, on the River Salwarpe.[1] He came to Virginia in the 1640s (most likely 1649) or possibly even earlier as an agent (“factor”) for tobacco merchants from Bristol. He maintained a connection to Bristol his entire life, appearing in that port city’s records in 1655 as “Arthur Allen of Bristol, planter.”[2] He was a royalist loyal to the House of Stuart during the English Civil War.[3]
Arthur Allen was the younger son of John Allenof Droitwich, who according to records was a “Gentleman of an Anitient family and of three hundred pound per annum Paternal Estate.[4] Arthur’s mother’s name is unknown. Sources disagree over how many wives Arthur had and when he was married. William P. Carrell of Louisville, Kentucky, believes he was married only once to Alice Tucker sometime around 1632.[5] Kevin Kelly believes that he was married twice, not only to Alice, but to an earlier unknown woman who gave birth to his son Humphrey in 1633.[6] Alice was most likely the daughter of Daniel Tucker of Kent, England, and her brother, also named Daniel, was one of the earliest settlers of Virginia, coming to Jamestown in 1608 with the second supply mission
The first known record of Allen is a 1650 land patent of 200 acres near Lower Chippokes Creek, on the south side of the James River in what is today Surry County.[7] He received the land in exchange for the transportation of his future wife, Alice Tucker, and three servants to the colonyunder the headright system. The cost of the passage was no small expense. It suggests Allen may have already been a man of some means by the time he immigrated to Virginia.
Prior to settling on the Chippokes, Allen may have lived elsewhere, possibly in Jamestown. It’s also possible that he may have moved to the Surry County property earlier than the patent date of 1650. Archeologists have discovered the remains of a palisade settlement there dating to the early 1630s, and it is possible (although by no means proven) that Allen and his family lived there prior to building Bacon’s Castle some thirty years later.
In 1656 Allen bought 350 acres of land from John Richards.[8] On October 3, 1661, he purchased another 500 acres between the Lower Chippokes and Lawn Creek adjoining his property in Surry County. It was four years later that he built a brick mansion on this new land. It was about 1000 feet west of the old settlement discovered on the 1650 patented land of his previous property. In 1669, not long before Allen’s death, he acquired another 1000 acres “inland” from his plantation.[9] At this time he had eleven adult laborers working on what had become an extensive tobacco plantation.
At the time of its construction, the mansion was called “Allen’s Brick House.” It would not come to be called “Bacon’s Castle” until over a hundred years later during the American Revolution. The renaming occurred during the patriot fervor of “1776” when patriots looked upon Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676 as a precursor to the American Revolution.
Allen’s Brick House was one of the grandest housesin all Virginia. Built of brick at a time when dwellings were made of wood, and designed in an elaborate Jacobean style, thegreat house displayed Allen’sgrowing wealth and status. He was clearly a man on the make. In 1652he was appointed to the court and was made a member of the quorum in 1661. He became a member of Lawnes Creek Vestry in 1660. By the 1660s he had acquired 2,450 acres of land, which placed him in the top nine percent of Virginia’s population in landholdings.[10]
Arthur Allen died in Surry County sometime between May 15 and June 1669.[11] His will has been lost, but portions of it were summarized in a 1732Act of the Virginia Assembly. From this source we know that his lands were bequeathed to his son Arthur with a reversion to his daughter Elizabeth in the case of his death.[12] The fact that his daughter was named the “remainder” heir suggests that Arthur was Allen’s only surviving son and Elizabeth was his eldest surviving daughter. In any event, Arthur Allen II became the sole proprietor of Bacon’s Castle and his father’s tobacco plantation.
After his death, Allen’s wife Alice remarried a widower, John Hardy, from neighboring Isle of Wight County. They remained married for about five years until Hardy died 1675. Alice may have returned to Allen’s brick house after Hardy’s death. Accounts of Bacon’s Rebellion report that rebels occupying the house threw an “ancient Gentlewoman . . . out of doors.”[13]Possibly in response to such ill treatment, Alice returned to Isle of Wight where she died sometime around 1681.
ARTHUR ALLEN II
Arthur Allen II was born sometime between 1649 and 1652 (most likely 1651).[14] He continued in his father’s footsteps and held prominent positions in the county. Moreover, like so many other sons of original “immigrants” to the Virginia colony—Richard and Thomas Lee come to mind—Arthur II prospered and expanded the estates, influence and renown of his founding father’s family.
Allen II came to be known as Major Allen, a title he received from his military involvement against Bacon’s Rebellion in1676. He was likely the youngest child in the Allen family, but at the time of his father’s death in 1669, he was the eldest surviving son. Thus he became heir to his father’s Surry County estate, and to the Brick House. He was sent to England in 1660 for his education and returned to Virginia a year or two before his father’s death. Virginia born but English educated, he was well positioned for a career in colonial politics.
Like his father before him,Arthur served on the Vestry of Lawnes Creek Parish beginning in 1673. He was appointed Justice of the Peace for Surry County in 1675. His time in office was not always tranquil. He lost the Justice position in 1677 under Acting Governor Herbert Jeffreys who was a bitter enemy. But he regained the position when Governor William Berkeleyreappointed him after Jeffrey’s death.
The appointment was revealing. Arthur Allen II was a staunch ally of Berkeley’s. He was in fact present at the court session in August 1676 when the Surry justices voted to send supplies to the Governor’s nemesis, the rebel Nathaniel Bacon. We assume Arthur opposed the decision to aid the rebels because shortly thereafter he left home, hid his silver,and joined Berkeley in Jamestown. He was in Jamestown when Bacon attacked and burned the town. As the rebellion grew Arthur became one of Berkeley’s most trusted officers. He led attacks, for example, on the rebels from a ship on the York River near West Point in November 1676. His close association with the Governor likely led to his house being attacked, looted and occupied by the rebels for three months in 1676.
After Bacon’s Rebellion was crushed, Allen became a member of the “Greenspring Faction” led by Robert Beverley and Colonel Phillip Ludwell. He was elected to the House of Burgesses in 1682 and became Speaker for two terms, one in 1686 and another in 1688. His alliance with Ludwell, however, put him at odds with Governor Francis Howard, the 5th Baron Howard of Effingham who removed him from his post as Justice in 1686. Effingham was such a bitter enemy of Allen’s that he dissolved the Assembly both years he was Speaker.
Allen’s fortunes changed when Governor Francis Nicholson took office. In 1703 Allen was given naval command for the Upper District of the James River, which was a highly lucrative position, and Nicholson restored himto his old surveyor’s post in 1704. He had good relations with Governor Edmund Jennings as well, who unsuccessfully tried to get him placed on the Council of State. Late in life Arthur Allen II was thoroughly entrenched in, and accepted as a member in good standing of Virginia’s royal elite.
Allen’s loyalty to the crown was seriously challenged by the Glorious Revolution of 1688. He was a supporter of King James II, the last of the Stuart kings. Thinking his integrity was on the line, herefused to take an oath of allegiance to the new monarchs, William and Mary. He did so not so much out of loyalty to the “Jacobite” cause—as someone who believed in James II’s rightful claim to the throne-- but because his oath of office had been made to the old monarch. As a result he was forced to retire from public life after the ascension of William and Mary to the throne.[15] It was not until after James’s death in 1701 that Allen took the oath to William and Mary. After that he was reappointed as a Justice of Surry County and was placed on the College of William and Mary’s Board of Visitors. Over time he not only regained favor with the royal governor,but evolved into an elder statesman respected for his support of colonial interests against the crown.
Allen married Katherine Baker, the daughter of Captain Lawrence Baker, around 1678 or possibly earlier. He had seven children and left his estate to Katherine and his children when he died on June 15, 1710. He was a very wealthy man. His personal estate was worth£838 plus 28 slaves valued at £682.[16] He owned nearly 10,000 acres both in Surry and Isle of Wight counties. He was in fact one of the richest men in Virginia. The Brick House went to his son Arthur who, born in 1689, became known as Arthur Allen III.
MARY ALLEN AND ARTHUR LONG
One of Arthur Allen II’s daughters, Mary, married a neighbor named Arthur Long. I raise Mary and Arthur because of an odd circumstance. Long wasnot only a Baconite—thus a man on the opposite side of his father-in-law, Arthur Allen II, during Bacon’s Rebellion. He was also someone who actually took part in the rebels’ raid on his wife’s and father-in-law’s house.
It’s a fascinating story. Along with William Rookings, Robert Burgess and Joseph Rogers, Arthurled a party of 70 or so rebels to attack and occupy Allen’s Brick House on Monday, September 18, 1676. He was no mere bystander but an actual leader of the group, holding the rank of “captain.” He and the others ordered Allen’s cattle slaughtered and his wheat ground into meal. Crops of wheat, tobacco and grain were trampled to the ground. The rebels plundered the great house and stole saddles, bridles, sheets, “56 pillow cases,” table cloths, pewter and other household items.[17] They likely emptied Arthur’s wine casks and looked for the silver but couldn’t find it (he had hid it when he joined Berkeley in Jamestown). With the British marines approaching to quell the rebellion on December 27, the rebels fled. Hastily jumping the premises, they stuffed pillow cases and their breeches with books, household linens and anything else they could carry. It was a straight up case of looting, and the rebels managed to escape without a fight.
Arthur Long’s treachery, however, did not go unpunished. After the rebellion collapsed, he was forced by the assembly to acknowledge, on “bended knees,” his “treason” and to “begg pardon for his life.”[18] He was completely humiliated, and he shortly fled Virginia for North Carolina. Mary and the children stayed behind, which at the time was highly unusual. Most wives stuck with their husbands through thick and then. Not Mary. That she refused to accompany her husband into exile suggests a break with the man who had betrayed her and her family.
Despite Long’s disloyalty, relations between the Allen and Long families remained oddly close. We don’t know why for certain, but it is likely that these two large and prominent families had close relations prior to Arthur’s and Mary’s marriage. The good relations persisted even after Long left for North Carolina. Arthur Allen II, for example, helped to take care of Long’s son by Mary who was also named Arthur. It may be that both families disavowed what Arthur Long had done and carried on as before. The persistence of such ties in spite of disagreements was not all that unusual. Familial alliances were often the key to advancement and even enrichment in colonial Virginia, and they often survived the occasional betrayal of one of their members.
ARTHUR ALLEN III AND ELIZABETH ALLEN
Arthur Allen II’s son, also named Arthur and known at Arthur Allen III, was born between 1688 and 1692.[19] He was not yet of age when his father’s will was made in 1709, but it wasn’t long, in 1711, before he took control of the property. He received most of his father’s lands, but the Brick House descended to Arthur in entail. This meant that he had no control over who inherited it; it would go directly to Arthur’s issue upon his death. Arthur Allen III continued the family’s official positions in Virginia politics. Like his father and grandfather before him he was a Justice of Surry County.
Arthur married an extraordinary woman, Elizabeth Bray, on November 27, 1711.[20] The daughter of a prominent James City County man, James Bray, Elizabeth was known throughout the area as an astute, intelligent and strong-willed woman. She is a key figure in the history of Bacon’s Castle not only because of her formidable reputation, but because she played such a huge role in running the estate for 63 years.
Arthur died intestate in 1727 leaving Elizabeth as a widow to run the household on her own. She was named the administrator of her husband’s estate, and she retained use of Bacon’s Castle for the remainder of her lifetime. But the bulk of the properties eventually went to Arthur’s only surviving son, James, who died without issue in 1744. The records show Arthur III owned 28 slaves valued at £430, but the total net value (minus debts) of the entire estate was £424.[21] William Byrd II, who usually viewed women with a jaundiced (and sometimes predator’s) eye, was very much impressed with how Elizabeth ran things. “She entertained us elegantly,” he said, “and seemed to pattern Solomon’s housewife, if one may judge by the neatness of her house and the good order of her family.[22]
After Arthur died Elizabeth scrambled to secure her circumstances. She married humbly, an Arthur Smith of Isle of Wight County who actually had less wealth than she. He promised Elizabeth £300 pounds upon his death and equal amount to her children. The amount would not be included in his estate but would be treated separately. It was a shrewd move. Smith was no pauper. He was in fact quite wealthy man, and he was clearly trying to protect his estate. He had become rich by selling off lots in the town of Smithfield which he owned.
Elizabeth used some of her money to start a school at Smithfield. She was intimately involved, establishing the Board of Trustees, drawing up the size and construction of the building and overseeing the curriculum. Boys would stay at the school to study reading, writing and arithmetic for three years and be apprenticed to some “honest calling” suitable to “several capacities.”[23] Girls would remain for two years and be taught reading and writing. They would be apprenticed to some to woman to be taught household affairs.
Smith died in 1754. Elizabeth took her £300 for herself and her children from his estate. All in all she inherited about one third of the value of Smith’s property. A few years later she married again, to a man named Stith. She was already in her sixties, and her new husband didn’t live long; by 1763 she was back living at Bacon’s Castle, presumably after he had died. It may not have been a happy time for her. There is a record of a servant who sued her and won. She in turn sued several other people who owed her money. Apparently she had grown to be quite irascible in her old age.
Elizabeth lived well into her 80s. When she died on February 20, 1774, she drew up her will.[24] She gave £120 to Smithfield School and £50 to the Lower Southward Parish Church. All her children were dead but she provided for her grandchildren. Her grandson, Allan Cocke, inherited Bacon’s Castle in 1774. For over 60 years she had ruled the great house and its estate. Now the property passed into the hands of an entirely new and different generation.
THE COCKES
Allan Cocke inherited Bacon’s Castle through his mother, Katherine Allen Cocke.[25] She was the sister of James Allen, Arthur III’s son. She obtained the majority of the Castle estate when James died in 1744 without issue. How this came about is complicated. James had been set in his father’s will to inherit Bacon’s Castle upon his mother’s death. But she outlived him. When Elizabeth died childless in 1774 the house and estate reverted to Katherine as the eldest surviving daughter. She must not, however, have lived long. That very same year her son by Benjamin Cocke, Allan, inherited Bacon’s Castle. His descendents owned the house until it was lost to foreclosure in 1843.
When Allan Cocke inherited Bacon’s Castle he was already married. His wife was Nancy Kennon of Charles City County, and they had five children. He was quite the country gentleman and a very busy businessman as well. He raised stud horses at Bacon’s Castle and bred mares. He partnered with George Mason and Lord Dunmore in Phillip Mazzei’s company to make wine, oil and silk. He owned a portion of a 300 ton ship that was built around 1780 on Lawns Creek.