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Community celebrates acknowledgement of important 17th Century kiln |
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Members of the community gathered this Tuesday morning near the intersection of Mount Holly Road and State Route 202 to celebrate the unveiling of Westmoreland County’s newest historical marker.
The new roadside marker acknowledges the presence of the 17th Century Morgan Jones kiln that is nestled in the heart of the nearby Glebe Harbor subdivision.
The story of the site begins in 1677, when Welsh potter Morgan Jones and Denis White made arrangements to operate a pottery kiln in an upper portion of a peninsula bounded by glebe and Machodoc creeks.
When White died eight years later, the operations very abruptly ended. The kiln was forgotten until 1969, when plans to convert old Glebe Farm into its current status as the Glebe Harbor subdivision triggered archaeological activity.
It was the late Virginia Sherman and her assistant, young Jeffrey O’Dell of Tappahannock, who uncovered pottery fragments while searching for a Native American site.
Sherman, a Westmoreland resident, was the Northern Neck’s representative on the Virginia Historical Landmarks Commission in 1969. She used her influence to recruit Landmarks Commission senior archaeologist William Kelso to execute the 9-day salvage dig that in 1973 uncovered what was essentially a perfectly preserved 17th Century kiln.
By Spring 1990 the residential subdivision was in place and a developer from nearby Northumberland County had obtained ownership of the Glebe Harbor kiln lot. When the developer proposed to build a home on the property, an elderly Virginia Sherman reviewed the application in her capacity as Westmoreland County Historic Preservation officer.
Sherman quickly alerted the land owner and members of county government to the presence of the once again buried kiln and by Christmas 1990 then Delegate Tayloe Murphy had obtained state funding to support the local government’s purchase of the historic property.
A brochure created by Northern Neck Historical Society for distribution at the roadside marker unveiling ceremony this Tuesday morning borrows the words recorded by Sherman in 1994.
“As the Lords of Trade in London did not permit any manufacturing in the Virginia colony, the White-Jones venture was illegal: the colonists were expected to furnish the raw materials to England and then buy back English manufactured goods.”
At the very least, the kiln was a clandestine operation intended to provide local colonists with simple, utilitarian pottery for use in homes. Morgan Jones pottery had been found on other Westmoreland County archaeological sites, including Stratford Hall, Nominy Plantation and the Washington birthplace.
The kiln uncovered in 1973 was described by Dr. Kelso as being cross-shaped, with a large doughnut hole at the junction of the two arms of its cross. Photographs and drawings associated with the excavation are on display at the Westmoreland County Museum, along with pottery created on the site.
Museum exhibit notes relate that the style of the Morgan Jones kiln “is distinctive from later kilns found in the United States.
“The Morgan Jones kiln is the earliest documented kiln in Virginia and no similar kiln has been found,” the printed narrative relates.
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