Bray's Littletown Plantation (44JC34)
Site History
The Bray's Littletown site (44JC34) is the location of a homesite built around the turn of the 18th century by James Bray II. Bray built an impressive one and a half story brick mansion with a full basement along the James River on Kingsmill Plantation. Bray was a member of the House of Burgesses, a James City County justice of the peace, and an alderman for Williamsburg. His landholdings in 1704 included 2220 acres in James City County and 1400 acres in Prince William County. James Bray II left the Bray Littletown Plantation to his grandson James Bray III in his 1725 will. James Bray III farmed at Littletown from 1736 until his death in 1744, after which his father managed the property until he died in 1751. The structure, which may have been abandoned by the third quarter of the 18th century, burned sometime after 1780.
Archaeological Investigations
The location of Bray's mansion was visible on aerial photographs as a crop mark prior to the commencement of excavation in the 1970s by Virginia Historic Landmarks Commission Research Center for Archaeology. Work was undertaken at this site in advance of a residential development and the construction of a brewery by Anheuser-Busch, Inc. Removal of the plowzone overlying the structure revealed a 29 by 53 ft. building with a full English basement whose floors were partially paved with brick. Large chimneys stood at either end of the house. Archaeological investigations suggested that the home had four to five rooms on the first floor, including a hall, parlor, dining and sleeping room. The cellar was also partitioned into rooms, with one space possibly serving as a wine cellar. Debris like burned plaster and charcoal filling the basement indicated that the house was gutted by fire sometime after 1780.
A large (105 by 235 ft.) fenced garden area stood directly south of the house, adjacent to the James River. Archaeological excavation also documented a well, a smokehouse, several trash pits, an earthfast kitchen and office structures to the north of the house, and an earthfast building with several subfloor pits located northwest of the mansion. This earthfast dwelling contained a large brick chimney and has been interpreted as laborer housing. Traces of ditches that divided fields were also documented.
Artifacts from this site are curated at the Virginia Department of Historic Resources in Richmond.
References
1984 Kingsmill Plantations, 1619-1800; Archaeology of Country Life in Colonial Virginia. Academic Press, New York.
