Williamsburg's Private Homes and Businesses

Making Sense of the Past

   You may find "Colonial shopkeepers" taking a break outside their stores. Stop and talk with them about the goods they carry,  pre-Revolution prices and the "news" of the day.

      The smells, sounds and sights of Colonial Williamsburg can best be sensed in the private homes and shops.  The pungent hot gingerbread cookies at the Raleigh Tavern Bakery, the fragrance of leather permeating the harness maker’s shop on Duke of Gloucester Street, the delicate floral scents emanating from the many small gardens half hidden behind the fences and walls of the private yards are all part of the total experience.  So are the sounds that fill the air: the giggle of visitors trying on hairpieces at the wigmakers, the strident clatter of the blacksmith at work and the rattle and tinkle of the percussive instruments shown on "The Other Half" tour.

The sights of Williamsburg include more than 88 original buildings and an additional 400 reconstructions .  You can get a real feel of what it was like to live in this town by visiting just three private homes: the Peyton Randolph House, George Wythe's House and the Brush-Everard House.

The original owner of the Peyton Randolph House was Sir John Randolph, the only colonial Virginian to be knighted.  He was First Clerk of the House of Burgesses, then the member representing the College of William and Mary and finally Speaker of the House of Burgesses.  When Sir John died in 1737 his wife inherited his Williamsburg home.  On her death it passed to his son, Peyton, for whom it is named.

Peyton Randolph's career paralleled his father's.  He, too, studied law in London after attending William and Mary.  He, too, was sent to England on behalf of the colony.  He was elected to the House of Burgesses in 1748, and in 1766 he, too, was chosen speaker.  It was up to him to guide the Assembly through the tumultuous debates that led to the Revolution.

The Randolph's home is sectional.  The western-most section of the house, built in 1715, was Sir John's home.  He also purchased the house on the adjoining lot.  Later the two homes were connected to make one large residence.  The furnishings are stylish yet comfortable; it is definitely a home, not a museum.  The paneled rooms exude a warmth that was enjoyed by two French guests.  Count de Rochambeau used this house as his headquarters during the siege of Yorktown.  When Lafayette returned to America 50 years after the Revolution he, too, stayed here. 

After Peyton Randolph's death, Thomas Jefferson purchased his library.  When the federal collection in Washington, D.C. was burned by the British during the War of 1812, Jefferson donated his extensive collection of books to the Library of Congress.  Thus the combined libraries of Jefferson and Randolph became the nucleus of the national collection.

If Sir John was the most distinguished lawyer in Virginia in the first third of the 18th century, then another Williamsburg resident, George Wythe, may well lay claim to this distinction in the last third.  While his neighbor, Peyton Randolph, was serving the colony in England, Wythe acted as attorney general.  Wythe, a member of the House of Burgesses, was a good friend of Governors Fauquier and Botetourt.  However, when the time came to choose sides, without hesitating, he joined the patriots and signed the Declaration of Independence for Virginia.

The document's author, Thomas Jefferson, was at one time a law student in Wythe's Williamsburg home.  And in 1776 the Jefferson family stayed at the Wythe house for several weeks.  A popular teacher, Wythe became America's first professor of law at William and Mary in 1779.

The George Wythe House was used by George Washington as his headquarters during the Yorktown siege.  After the hostilities ended Rochambeau moved here from the Randolph House.  Centuries later this Georgian mansion became the home of the Reverend W.A.R. Goodwin.  Perhaps living here made him more attuned to the urgency of restoring Williamsburg to its former glory.   In any event it was he who had the idea for Rockefeller's restoration.  George Wythe established a mini-plantation in the heart of Williamsburg.  You can see his outbuildings and gardens.