Journal and Letters of Philip Vickers Fithian: A Plantation Tutor of the Old Dominion, 1773-1774.. Fithian Philip Vickers

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СКАЧАТЬ John Tasker, only four, was too young for instruction. Priscilla, the eldest daughter, was an attractive girl of fifteen. Anne Tasker, called Nancy, and Frances or Fanny, whom Fithian thought the "Flower of the Family," were thirteen and eleven respectively. Betty Landon was ten, and Harriot Lucy, a "bold, fearless, merry girl," was seven. Sarah Fairfax, the baby, was only a few months old at the time Fithian arrived.

      Apart from the members of the family, the tutor, and the numerous domestics, various other persons maintained a more or less permanent connection with the household. Among these were Miss Sally Stanhope, the housekeeper, Mr. Randolph, who served as clerk and steward for Carter, Mr. Christian, a peripatetic dancing master who visited most of the great manor houses of the Northern Neck, Mr. Stadley, music master to the children, and Mrs. Oakley, who had nursed several of them at Williamsburg.

      In no section of the colony were the great planters more numerous than in the Northern Neck; in none did they dominate society more completely. The families on the manor plantations associated on terms of intimacy. Gay assemblies, dances, balls, and banquets brought them together frequently. Dancing masters held their classes in rotation at the great plantation houses. At these homes their pupils assembled in turn, frequently accompanied by parents and friends. After the master had instructed the young men and women on these occasions, an informal dance was generally held. These families customarily congregated about the parish church before and after services to enjoy social exchanges. Attendance at county court provided another regular opportunity for commingling. Boat races, barbecues, "Fish-feasts," and horse races brought friends together at intervals. Sometimes elaborate private entertainments were given at which music, feasting, and dancing continued for several days. Rarely a day passed but found some guest at the Councillor's table. Members of the Carter household constantly exchanged visits with the plantation families of their neighborhood and with relatives and friends in adjoining counties. They dined frequently with the Turbervilles at "Hickory Hill," the Washingtons at "Bushfield," the Lees at "Chantilly" and "Stratford," and with the more distant Tayloes at "Mount Airy."

      With all these persons the young Princeton tutor was familiar. He accompanied the Carters frequently when they dined at their friends' tables, he attended banquets and balls with them, conversed with the people of the vicinity at the parish churches, met them at races, and observed their conduct as guests at "Nomini Hall." The sprightly interest with which Fithian comments upon these men and women and their way of life makes them seem as real today as then.

      For more than a century the manuscript of Fithian's journal and the letters he wrote home remained unpublished. During that time, some years apparently after Philip's death, his brother, Enoch, assembled the letters and papers and the various sections of the journal kept over a period of years and copied them in several bound volumes from the loose and various-sized sheets upon which they were written. It is from this transcript that the journal is known today, and the irregularities in punctuation, spelling, and capitalization in the form in which it has been preserved are doubtless due largely to this fact.

      The journal kept at "Nomini Hall" and a group of letters written by Fithian during his residence there were finally published in 1900 by the Princeton University Library, into whose custody had come seven manuscript volumes of Fithian's papers in Enoch Fithian's hand. This publication was edited by John Rogers Williams, a member of the Princeton Historical Association.[25] A small part of the journal and certain letters which the editor regarded as "of too intimate and personal or too trivial a character" were omitted, his object being "in general to present such as have some bearing on historic places and personages, together with representative ones showing" Fithian's "character and circumstances."[26] The editor, moreover, was interested in Fithian's manuscripts primarily from the standpoint of the tutor's association with Princeton.

      In the present edition the manuscripts have been treated with special reference to the light they throw on life in the Old Dominion. The journal kept at "Nomini Hall" and all the letters written by Fithian from Virginia are given in their entirety. Several letters written after his departure from "Nomini Hall," but which relate to matters and persons in Virginia, are now printed for the first time.

      The journal and letters of Philip Fithian are so revealing of his personality that one inevitably becomes attached to the young tutor, and the reader today may well be curious to know his subsequent career. Having prepared himself for the Presbyterian ministry, Fithian left the Carter household late in 1774 despite the strong ties of friendship and gratitude which now bound him to the family. His decision to return to New Jersey was influenced both by a sense of duty and his growing attachment for Elizabeth Beatty, the "fair Laura" of his journal. In December, 1774, he was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Philadelphia. That winter he filled vacancies in West Jersey and the following summer served as a Presbyterian missionary in the Valley of Virginia and Pennsylvania. He married Elizabeth Beatty in October, 1775. Early in 1776 he enlisted as a chaplain in the Revolutionary forces. Shortly after the battle of White Plains he died as the result of an attack of dysentery and exposure in camp. Though his promise to visit the family at "Nomini Hall" again was never fulfilled, the letters he wrote to members of the Carter household after his departure reveal the tender regard in which all were held.

       JOURNAL & LETTERS

      OF

      Philip Vickers Fithian

[Andrew Hunter,[27] Jr., to Philip Vickers Fithian]Nassau-Hall June 26th 1773.

      Sir.

      I expected notwithstanding your small offence you would have let me know before this time whether you had made any determination different from what you designed when I left you. If you design teaching before you get into business, there are now several considerable offers made to young men who are willing to go to Virginia by some of the first gentlemen in the colony; one particularly who will give as good as 60£, the best accomodations, a room to study in and the advantage of a library, a horse kept and a servant to wait upon you.

      Dr Witherspoon[28] is very fond of getting a person to send him. I make no kind of doubt but if you were to write to the doctor but he would engage it to you, the terms are exactly as I write you as I have informed myself that I might let you know —

      There are a number of our friends and class-mates getting into business as fast as possible, whether they are called or not I cannot pretend to judge, this much I would say that I think it is not any ones duty to run too fast. No less than four Debow, Reese, McCorkle, Allen, under trials by a presbytery, and Bryan[29] trying to get license to plead law in some of the best courts on the continent, if infamy were law or lies were Gospel he might get license either to plead or preach.

      We have had the pleasure of Laura's[30] company here for some weeks past, I hope you will not envy us considering that continual pleasure is too much for such mortals as we to bear.

      I beg that you may no longer refrain from writing, as I should be very glad to hear many things from you and other of my friends in Cohansie which you can relate with little trouble. If you have been trying with me who could keep from writing longest, I own fairly beat. The number of our students are considerably increased, and our school consists of thirty-nine – I have heard there are some disagreeable stories going through your country I wish you would let me know something about them. Doctr Ward spent part of yesterday with me in his return.

      My love to Mr and Mrs Green.

      I am, Sir,

      Your very friend,

Andw Hunter.[JOURNAL]

      July 1. [1773]

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