[With Col. Byrd at Col. Martin's on the 6th of October 1732.]
"By eight o'clock we had no more to say, and I gaped wide as a signal for retiring, whereupon I was conducted to a clean lodging where I would have been glad to exchange one of the beds for a chimney."7 [October]. This morning Mrs. Martin was worse, so that there was no hopes of seeing how much she was altered. Nor was this all, but the indisposition of his consort made the Colonel intolerably grave and thoughtful. I prudently eat a meat breakfast, to give me spirits for a long journey and a long fast.
"My landlord was so good as to send his servant along with me to guide me through all the turnings of a difficult way. In about four miles we crossed Mattaponi River at Norman's Ford and then slanted down to King William County road. We kept along that for about twelve miles, as far as the new brick church. After that I took a blind path that carried me to several of Colonel Jones's quarters, which border upon my own. The Colonel's overseers were all abroad, which made me fearful I should find mine as idle as them. But I was mistaken, for when I came to Gravel Hall, the first of my plantations in King William, I found William Snead (that looks after three of them) very honestly about his business. I had the pleasure to see my people all well and my business in good forwardness. I visited all the five quarters on that side, which spent so much of my time that I had no leisure to see any of those on the other side of the river; though I discoursed Thomas Tinsley, one of the overseers, who informed me how matters went.
"In the evening Tinsley conducted me to Mrs. Syme's house [by her second husband, she was the mother of Patrick Henry, born in 1736], where I intended to take up my quarters. The lady, at first suspecting I was some lover, put on a gravity that becomes a weed, but so soon as she learnt who I was brightened up into an unusual cheerfulness and serenity. She was a portly, handsome dame, of the family of Esau, and seemed not to pine too much for the death of her husband, who was of the family of the Saracens. He left a son by her who has all the strong features of his sire, not softened in the least by any of hers, so that the most malicious of her neighbors can't bring his legitimacy in question, not even the parson's wife, whose unruly tongue, they say, don't spare even the Reverend Doctor, her husband. The widow is a person of a lively and cheerful conversation, with much less reserve than most of her countrywomen. It becomes her very well and sets off her other agreeable qualities to advantage. We tossed off a bottle of honest port, which we relished with a broiled chicken. At nine I retired to my devotions and then slept so sound that fancy itself was stupefied, else I should have dreamt of my most obliging landlady."
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.