Benjamin Bakkum

bb2fn@virginia.edu

William Rogers and Yorktown: Independence from the Virginia

Planter Culture, 1710-1740
“Though it seems a truism to state that the rich were getting richer, the poor poorer, that

is exactly what was occurring in early eighteenth century Virginia,” claims T. H. Breen in

Tobacco Culture.1 Indeed, Breen uses compelling evidence to support his argument concerning

the growth of an elite and solely planter class, but he also glosses over a story that adds

complexity to the image of the Virginian economy. William Rogers has been believed to have

lived in the London area before immigrating to Yorktown around 1710.2 He arrived at a time

York County and the remainders of the peninsula surrounded by the James and York rivers were

building a reputation for high quality tobacco exports.3 Rogers, however, did not intend to plant

the staple on the plots he purchased within Yorktown, but instead ventured to become a potter

and from there achieved prominence within the community.4 Yorktown’s businessman, having

little of the wealth Breen thought necessary to become richer, still profited greatly and took part

in the governing of the town, illustrating that the proverbial American dream in the early 1700s

could be economically, socially, and politically independent from the “tobacco culture.”

It should be noted that many scholars have joined Breen in already analyzing the social

and economic state of colonial Virginia and Rogers has been the topic of articles before as well.

The insight of the more general and prolific Virginia history scholars, however, does not

1
T. H. Breen, Tobacco Culture: the Mentality of the Great Tidewater Planters on the Eve of
Revolution (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985), 35.
2
“Yorktown’s Poor Potter: A Man Wise Beyond Discretion,” Martha W.
McCartney and Edward Ayres, accessed November 15, 2010,
http://www.chipstone.org/publications/CIA/2004/mccartney/mccartneyindex.html
3
Edmund S. Morgan, American Slavery, American Freedom (New York: W. W. Norton and
Company, Inc., 1975): 415.
4
“Yorktown’s Poor Potter.”
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typically delve deeper than the major role of tobacco.5 Specific pieces on Rogers, contrastingly,

fail to strongly relate the man to the culture and business environment around him, and instead

describe his style of pottery and appearances in historical papers. 6 As Breen recounts, “The great

Tidewater planters dominated Virginia society,” and though his assertion has been proven

correct, historians have generally accepted that no exceptions to this rule exist worth

mentioning.7 This article therefore serves to bridge the gap between the broad narratives of

Virginia in the early to mid-1700s and the specific accounts of William Rogers’ life.

Rogers did not hesitate to fashion himself into a tycoon upon arriving in Yorktown. He

bought lots 51 and 55 in May of 1711 and before that had already imported an African slave.8

Within a year he had paid off the land and constructed his pottery factory and a home.9 Easily it

seems, a man new to the region could buy property within its towns and work as an entrepreneur.

He capitalized on the need of the ordinaries of jugs and other earthenware by building the pottery

workplace.10 Earthen items useful to the ships docked in the York as they loaded hogsheads of

tobacco must have also been a major source of revenue for Rogers. He profited from the tobacco

trade by selling to its merchants, sailors, and laborers. The shipping created economic hubs along

5
Virginius Dabney in his exhaustive account of Virginia’s history, Virginia: The New Dominion
(Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1983), only thoroughly cites the economic
influence of tobacco in the early 18th century. Rhys Isaac in his popular The Transformation of
Virginia, 1740-1790 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1999) also only references
the economic strengths of the planters, focusing on the religious and political shifts in the colony
rather than the changing landscape of manufacturing and commerce.
6
Norman F. Barka, Edward Ayres, and Christine Sheridan, The “Poor Potter” of Yorktown: A
Study of a Colonial Pottery Factory; Colonial National Historical Park, 3 vols. (Denver: U.S.
Department of the Interior, National Park Service, 1984). Ivor Noel Hume, Here Lies Virginia:
An Archaeologists View of Colonial Life and History (Charlottesville: University of Virginia
Press, 1994).
7
Breen, Tobacco Culture, 35.
8
York County Deeds, Orders, Wills 14 (1709–1716): pp. 82, 123.
9
Ibid, 123.
10
“Yorktown’s Poor Potter.”
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the rivers emptying into the Chesapeake.11 Rogers placed himself perfectly to take advantage of

that fact. While many immigrants travelled further into the interior of Virginia in order to stake

claims and begin planting themselves, Rogers settled in the already developed east and filled the

need of taverns and ships for cups, plates, and containers. Whereas the small tobacco operations

had their financial potential squelched by the entrenched elite in the Tidewater, he cleverly

benefitted from their use of the shippers.

Rogers also keyed into the heart of colonial life in the Tidewater—its taverns. Names

such as the Byrd family’s Westover, Carter’s Sabine Hall, and Washington’s Mount Vernon

have engrained themselves in the lore of Virginia history as the great estates of the planters. The

Rose and Crown in Hampton, Rising Sun in Fredericksburg, and Raleigh in Williamsburg,

however, certainly hold just as much historical significance as taverns.12 Yorktown was not

without one of these social and cultural icons. Merchants Thomas Nelson and Joseph Walker

bought a lot in 1719 on which the Swan Tavern would be constructed at some point in the next

several years.13 The Swan, which accommodated seamen in its six beds upstairs as well as

housed gaming (typically cards or backgammon), served as the preeminent meeting place in the

town.14 Its rates were sanctioned by the York County Court, signifying its importance to the

community.15 In these mandated rates the first historical reference to Rogers appears as “Roger’s

best Virg aile,” selling for sixpence a quart.16 This entry, by revealing that Rogers operated a

brewery as well as a pottery, illustrates his business sense and commercial goal: build a

conglomerate based on the demands of a port town. As Edward Riley writes in his article
11
Edward M. Riley, “The Ordinaries of Yorktown.” William and Mary Quarterly 23 (1943): 8.
12
Mary Newton Stanard, Virginia: Its People and Customs (New York: Kessinger Publishing,
2006): 151.
13
Riley, “The Ordinaries of Yorktown,” 20.
14
Hume, Here Lies Virginia, 154.
15
Ibid, 154.
16
Ibid, 155.
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appearing in the William and Mary Quarterly, “The Ordinaries of Yorktown,” “At the sign of the

Swan seamen, tobacco traders, merchants, and all of the varied classes of eighteenth century

Virginia find rest and refreshment.”17 To hear of business, court proceedings, and the news of the

town, citizens of Yorktown meted at the Swan. There, Rogers smartly began a branch of his

small business empire, and there he started his rise to aristocracy on the back of a town rather

than tobacco.

The business plan quickly proved fruitful, and by 1716 he traded under the title “William

Rogers & Company.”18 Yorktown not only allowed Rogers to make money off of the shipping of

other merchants, but to become one himself. The slave trade factored into his dealings

considerably. In the mid-1720s he bought several slaves between the ages of nine and fourteen,

gave them English names, and put them to work in his home and the pottery factory.19 An

acquaintance of Rogers, William Dalton, who lived in nearby Gloucester, owned a slave ship

which may have transported Rogers’, but definitely other slaves from Bristol to Virginia and

Pennsylvania.20 These men were able to enter the slave market and be successful in it regardless

of the major ship captains and London merchants who discouraged competition. It can therefore

be inferred that substantial profits in Virginia not only belonged to the planter elite but also to

newcomers who had the business sense and capital to trade slaves as well as products such as

earthenware.

Rogers’ wealth only continued to grow as his wares began to be sold outside of

Yorktown and as he diversified his business among several trades. Then publisher of the Virginia

Gazette, William Parks took with him shipments of Rogers’ earthenware to Maryland around

17
Riley, “The Ordinaries of Yorktown,” 20.
18
York County Orders, Wills, and Inventories 16 (1720–1729): 25, 59, 248, 280.
19
Ibid, 280.
20
“Yorktown’s Poor Potter.”
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1735.21 Even in small-town colonial Virginia business owners had the capacity to expand into

other markets outside of the Old Dominion. Rogers himself can be traced to owning the Susanna,

a 150-ton ship, an impressive piece of property for an immigrant who arrived with few

possessions.22 Furthermore, the inventory of his estate illustrates his accrued wealth as portrayed

by a number of slaves, silver, and physical capital. The inventory lists in his ownership and “in

all probability, a reflection of his brewing activities—a copper cistern, a cold still, a worm still,

some casks, beer tubs, hops, and 240 quart bottles.” 23 Subsequently, it appears that unlike the

planters who were bound by the onerous task of managing their crops, Rogers could diversify the

businesses he ran, consistently profiting from the operations of his pottery factory and brewery.

This situation likewise propelled him to a comfortable position in society, garnering him the

luxurious items listed in his will and inventory of the estate.

Rogers also made a point of being independent in the social sphere from the planter

culture within the Tidewater, though here too he seems to have secured for himself a happy

existence. He avoided attending church and consequently received fines for skimping on such a

legal obligation.24 The social tradition of the planter culture lay in church going, and the planters

in many cases were as religious as their puritan counterparts in the north.25 Accordingly, Rogers’

insubordination reveals distaste for the mainstream social structure of the aristocratic, but he was

not a lonely man. His will lists four children born by his wife, Theodosia. 26 Rogers’ business

exploits assuredly would have allowed for a decent lifestyle, and the will stipulates that family

members received his slaves. Unlike settlers in the west, little danger existed of Indian attack by
21
“Yorktown’s Poor Potter.”
22
Ibid.
23
Ibid.
24
Ibid.
25
Louis B. Wright, The First Gentlemen of Virginia: Intellectual Qualities of the Early Colonial
Ruling Class, (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1964): 68.
26
York County Wills and Inventories 18 (1732–1740), pp. 537-540.
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the 1720s in Yorktown, giving Rogers time to focus on his work and family instead of attending

to defense. Rogers also differed from the wealthy elite, however, in that he did not isolate

himself on massive estates which began to be built in the 1720s and 30s, spread out along the

eastern portion of the colony.27 The life of a port town must have staved off the boredom for

Rogers and his family which those on plantations often experienced. Rogers subsequently can be

thought to have prospered not only in a financial sense, but in social terms, having a loving

family and a community whose respect he would go on to win.

Social obligations did not stop Rogers from playing a role in the governing of Yorktown,

representing that not all important positions were connected to the tobacco planters. During the

1710s he often served as an agent of York County’s court justices.28 In this capacity he held

responsibility for auditing business accounts, appraising descendants’ estates, and serving as a

juror.29 Of more significance, however, serves Rogers’ being named the official surveyor of

Yorktown’s landings, streets, and causeways.30 Seemingly he quickly gained the admiration of

the townspeople after arriving around 1710 to so speedily be appointed to these political seats

within Yorktown. This fast climb to a respectable status and notoriety without being related to an

old planter or already having a huge estate provides evidence that the tobacco culture did not as

strongly dominate as some scholars have thought.

Interestingly, shards of pottery were found within in the old main street of Yorktown.

Rogers effectively used the waste from pottery as chief proprietor of the roads in the town. This

practice may have been derived from the English technique of using pottery refuse in drainage

channels and roads.31 Regardless, to be as involved in the operations of the town, specifically the
27
Isaac, The Transformation of Virginia, 1740-1790, 36.
28
“Yorktown’s Poor Potter.”
29
Ibid.
30
Ibid.
31
Hume, Here Lies Virginia, 222.
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planning and construction of its transportation routes, surely gives a sign Rogers’ business

venture lead to further responsibilities in Yorktown.

Rogers’ political impact extended beyond Yorktown as well, figuring into the

relationship between the Virginia colony and London at times even. Lt. Governor William

Gooch, one of the most distinguished Virginians during the 1730s and 1740s, made several

remarkable comments about Rogers. Writing to the English Board of Trade, Gooch referenced

Yorktown’s “poor potter” in 1732 when discussing the meager manufacturing status of the

colony.32 Gooch’s intentions are not entirely apparent, but he may have been trying to downplay

the amount of manufacturing going on in the colony. Another plausible theory, however, lies in

Gooch demeaning someone outside of the typical planter upper echelons gaining the wealth of an

aristocrat. Himself an elite, Gooch may have thought poorly of a break from the status quo in

Virginia.

Making sense of Rogers’ place in the unclear motives of the language necessitates

examining the political climate during Gooch’s administration. The Lt. Governor found himself

well liked by Virginians after arriving in Williamsburg in 1729.33 Legislators there loved his

even-tempered and reasonable approach to governing.34 Gooch emboldened the Burgesses to be

more politically independent.35 Consequently, the confident representatives along with Gooch

soon pitted themselves against the powerful English merchants who filled the political vacuum

during the British Empire’s period of salutary neglect of its American colonies. 36 The tobacco

merchants fixed prices, demanded onerous inspections, and induced high amounts planter debt.37
32
Ibid, 222.
33
Richard L. Morton, Colonial Virginia Vol. II: Westward Expansion and Prelude to Revolution,
1710-1763 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1960): 502.
34
Ibid, 502.
35
Ibid, 503.
36
Ibid, 503.
37
Breen, Tobacco Culture, 120.
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The crown approved Gooch’s Tobacco Act which cracked down on the fraud diminishing the

revenue of Virginians involved in its trade.38 Shortly after, however, it became clear the

merchants held little intention of obeying the act.39 Thusly tensions grew between the economic

minded colonists and the English traders.

This friction had implications for craftsmen and manufacturers in addition to tobacco

planters. The connections between the merchants and English industrialists were strong, and both

groups thought it imperative that Virginia remain purely agricultural. Using the Board of Trade

in London, the enterprising English shackled the colony to the sole production of raw materials,

barring all competition against the mother country’s manufacturing. 40 Gooch, made to report the

economic conditions to a watchful London, wrote to his clerical brother, “the Board of Trade

sent me so many queries to answer, that I have been obliged to write almost a history of this part

of the world.”41 In these answers Gooch mentioned Rogers though he resented the pressure from

the English, himself possessing a stake in an industrial ironworks.42 This role Rogers played in

the papers of a Virginia governor illustrates the significance of his success achieved without

planting. Not only did the colonial culture promote tobacco as the only route to aristocratic

status, but the English conspired against any who broke this mold.

Ultimately, the notion that Gooch intentionally distorted the facts of Virginia’s industrial

growth when he claimed Rogers to be poor for the sake of appearances holds the most

credibility. England, ever worried that the colonies would begin interfering with the market for

manufactured goods on the mainland, wished for the colony to remain a planter society without

38
Morton, Colonial Virginia Vol. II, 512.
39
Ibid, 512.
40
Ibid, 528.
41
Hume, Here Lies Virginia, 222.
42
Morton, Colonial Virginia Vol. II, 528.
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hardly any industry at all.43 Gooch, however, had sympathy for the struggling Virginian

businessmen.44 By downplaying the non-tobacco economic development going on in the colony,

he tempered the fears in England of the colonies becoming financially injurious. Gooch

subsequently protected movements within Virginia to achieve a more diversified economy. His

degrading Rogers as a poor potter indicates how the business of a non-planter could exacerbate

the colony’s relationship with the motherland. It was not the planter elite who would discourage

alternate forms of commerce from planting, but an England scared of an end to mercantilist

profits. Yet more than anything, the life of Rogers shows that even under these constraints the

Virginian economy could be multifaceted.

The deliberate withholding of the true nature of the “poor potter” in Yorktown by Gooch

becomes further apparent in the inventory of Rogers’ estate. Unless Gooch himself had been

woefully unaware of the aristocratic trappings of Rogers’ life on the York River, he completely

ignored Rogers’ 29 slaves and the fifty-two pictures decorating his home at death.45 Rogers

additionally owned silver serving vessels and numerous fine furnishings as well as the Susanna

in the mid-1730s.46 Rogers’ wealth rivaled that of the planters. The inventory also catalogues

multiple kilns, a mill, and dozens of items used in an obviously robust pottery trade. 47 When later

in 1739 Gooch again assured the English Board of Trade, “The same poor potter’s work is still

continued at Yorktown without any great improvement or advantage to the owner or any injury

to the trade of Great Britain,” he must have known his statements were blatant stretches of the

truth.48 Simply in his language, explicitly claiming no profit had occurred from the

43
Ibid, 528.
44
“Yorktown’s Poor Potter.”
45
Hume, Here Lies Virginia, 224.
46
“Yorktown’s Poor Potter.”
47
Hume, Here Lies Virginia, 224.
48
Ibid, 222.
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manufacturing of earthenware, his aims become clear. Gooch wanted no evidence of industrial

growth in Virginia leaked to London. Rogers, comfortably situated in his considerable estate and

affluent lifestyle, had proven that competition with the importation of English manufactures

could be possible in colonial Virginia. His small non-agricultural conglomerate seemed only

poised to grow.

By the time Rogers died in either 1740 or 1741, he had spent almost three decades

successfully building up his businesses.49 Gooch again took the precaution of allaying English

fears by sending news that the manufacturer had died and that “the business of making potts and

pans is of little advantage to his Family and as little Damage to our Trade of our Mother

Country.” In such a statement can be seen the potter’s legacy. His audacity to become

aristocratic outside of the planter elite favored by the English and their manufacturers put

political pressure on even the Lt. Governor. Rogers’ independent thinking not only reveals the

ability for profitable business to be built outside of the tobacco trade, but it also sheds light on

the colony’s relationship with London, giving clues to the political strains which precipitated the

revolution. In Yorktown Rogers forged a different dimension to the economics of Virginia,

muddying the image created by historians that a refined, entrepreneurial, and self-made colonist

could have only been a planter.

Bibliography

Primary Sources

York County Deeds, Orders, Wills 18 (1732–1740). From the Library of Virginia, County and City
Records.

York County Deeds, Orders, Wills 14 (1709–1716). From the Library of Virginia, County and City
Records.
49
Ibid, 222.
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Secondary Sources

Breen, T. H. Tobacco Culture: the Mentality of the Great Tidewater Planters on the Eve of Revolution.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985.

C. Malcolm Watkins and Ivor Noël Hume, The “Poor Potter” of Yorktown. Washington, D.C.:
Smithsonian Institution Press, 1967.

Edmund S. Morgan, American Slavery, American Freedom. New York: W. W. Norton and Company,
Inc., 1975

Louis B. Wright, The First Gentlemen of Virginia: Intellectual Qualities of the Early Colonial Ruling
Class. Los Angeles: Adcraft Press, 1940.

Chipstone. “Yorktown’s Poor Potter: A Man Wise

Beyond Discretion,” Martha W.
McCartney and Edward Ayres. Accessed November 15, 2010.
http://www.chipstone.org/publications/CIA/2004/mccartney/mccartneyindex.html.
Noël, Hume Ivor. Here Lies Virginia; an Archaeologist's View of Colonial Life and History. New York:
Knopf, 1963.

Rhys Isaac, The Transformation of Virginia, 1740-1790. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press,
1982.

Richard L. Morton, Colonial Virginia Vol. II: Westward Expansion and Prelude to Revolution, 1710-
1763. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1960.

Riley, Edward M. "Suburban Development of Yorktown, Virginia, during the Colonial Period." Virginia
Magazine of History and Biography 60.4 (1952).

Riley, Edward M. "The Ordinaries of Colonial Yorktown." The William and Mary Quarterly 23.1 (1943).

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