COLONIAL Cole Digges House Historic Structures Report

Jameson and Others

Obviously David Jameson in 1784 acquired Lot 42 with its development for business expansion purposes, since he already had a residence in the Edmund Smith House on Lot 53— and had been there for some thirty years. From all indications he had been the first to occupy this residence, which was completed just after Smith's death in 1751, perhaps, near the time of his marriage to Smith's daughter Mildred, who inherited the property.

Jameson moved to Yorktown at the mid-point of the century and became a successful merchant and a leading Yorktown citizen. He was active in the revolutionary cause on both the local and State levels, coming to serve as Virginia's lieutenant governor when his next door neighbor, Thomas Nelson, Jr., was the State's chief executive. Jameson was of scientific bent and participated in the formation of the "Society for the Promotion of Useful Knowledge," organized in Williamsburg in 1773. [32]

The Lot 42 property remained in Jameson's ownership for a decade, until his death in 1793. This lot and his other properties then passed to his three nephews, one of whom, John, was a resident of Yorktown and possibly could have been in the use of Lot 42 at the time. In any case John Jameson then moved into the residence of David soon after the latter's death.

In March 1794 the three nephews, as administrators of the David Jameson estate, disposed of Lot 42—"being the Lott on which the Brick Store House and two Shops stand"—to one George Goosley of the "Town of York." The price, £175, "Current Money," was the same that Jameson had paid ten years before. [33]

There were two Goosleys, William and George, resident in Yorktown after the Revolution. Perhaps they were brothers and the children of Ephriam Goosley (who before the Revolution was "General Agent and Manager of the Virginia Fleet" trading between York River, the West Indies, Bermuda, and England) and Martha, his wife. There is evidence in the letters of the John Norton & Sons firm that Martha was also a manager, the "Manager of all Domestic Emergencies in the Town of York, and General Dispenser of Gossip." [34]

Prior to the Revolution, George Goosley seemingly was a ship captain in the employment of the John Norton firm. At the outbreak of the Revolution he was commissioned a captain in the Virginia navy and in February 1776 he commanded the Brig Liberty, a ship that was three-fourths in the ownership of the public and one-fourth the property of William Reynolds, a merchant of "York Town." He resigned in June 1776 but seemingly had other naval and army commands later, including the superintendency of trading vessels and captaincy of the Thetis. After the Revolution he received 5,133 acres for service as a captain in a State regiment. [35]

George Goosley retained ownership of Lot 42 for five years, selling it in August 1799 to John Southgate of the "Town of Norfolk" at a substantial rise in price, £250. The deed contained the now familiar language: "Being the Lot on which the Brick Store house and two Shops Stand." [36] Perhaps he contemplated a move to Richmond since the death of his wife, Mary, was announced in a Richmond paper, the Virginia Gazette, on March 17, 1804. Also, two years earlier he had been in communication with the governor with an offer to remove "the convicted slaves confined in the Penitentiary house of this Commonwealth" by transportation to and sale in the West Indies. He would get the profit after the expense of transportation and after repayment "into the public Treasury the sums drawn from it and expended in the purchase of the slaves." But this, and a second proposal, broke down and Goosley withdrew his propositions. [37]

John Southgate of Norfolk evidently remained owner in absentee and likely leased the Lot 42 property to local users. Twenty years later he, or a son of the same name ("John Southgate of the Borough of Norfolk"), and Frances Pressman his wife disposed of the property to Thomas Newman "of the Town & County of York" for $650. The deed detailed the property as "All that Lot or half acre of Land . . . denoted in the plan of the said Town by the figures 42 being the Lot on which the old Brick Store House now stands." After this sale there is no reference to the two shops indicating, perhaps, that they disappeared. [38]

Thomas Newman, IV, occupied and used the Lot 42 property and structures for several decades. Newman was from a long established Virginia family. His father, born in Richmond County in 1749, was the first Newman to settle in Yorktown. He served in the Revolution and was for six years (1789-1794) clerk of the Hustings Court in Yorktown. He died in 1798 and was buried in Yorktown. [39] His son Thomas Newman, IV, was born in 1795. He was 24 years old, and recently married to Eliza Burt, when he acquired the old Pate residence, which by now had served for quite some time as a store house. For Newman it became both his dwelling and a store. At the time of his death in 1853 Thomas was collector of customs at Yorktown. He was buried in the Newman plot in the Grace Church burial ground, where his tomb today is duly marked. [40]