Plants in Early American Gardens - White Eggplant

White Eggplant (Solanum melongena)

White Eggplant was listed along with a purple variety in several eastern United States seed catalogues by 1825 and Thomas Jefferson was growing both types at Monticello as early as 1812. Also known as melongena, eggplant originated in Asia, where it has been grown for centuries. White Eggplant yields delicious, egg-shaped fruits up to 6 inches long.

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Plants in Early American Gardens - Bull Nose Pepper

Bull Nose Pepper (Capsicum annuum var. annuum)

The sweet bell pepper was grown as early as 1681 by enslaved Africans in Panama. It was introduced to North America most likely from the West Indies by the early 1700s. Bernard McMahon included “Bell” peppers in The American Gardener’s Calendar (1806), and Thomas Jefferson recorded Bull Nose Pepper in his 1812 garden calendar. Jefferson’s Bull Nose likely resembled the heavily lobed, 3-4”, sweet pepper we know today.

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Gardening Books in Early America - Owned by George Wythe 1726-1806

 

George Wythe (1726-1806) was a Virginia lawyer, educator, judge & statesman. Educated by his mother & briefly studying at the College of William & Mary. Wythe studied law with Stephen Dewey & was admitted to the bar at age 20 in 1746. Named attorney general of Virginia in 1753, Wythe later served in the House of Burgesses 1755-1775, representing Williamsburg, the College of William & Mary, & Elizabeth City County. Elected a representative to the Second Continental Congress, Wythe served until 1777. He supported & signed the Declaration of Independence.

Returning to Virginia, Wythe was elected Speaker of the House of Delegates, & worked to draw up the Virginia constitution, overhaul the laws of the state, & design the state seal. In 1779, he became professor of law at the College of William & Mary (making him the first official law professor in America), formalizing his role as a prominent educator (his students included Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall & Henry Clay).

George Wythe House in Colonial Williamsburg

Wythe was named a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1787, but left Philadelphia early due to his wife's final illness. In 1789, Wythe was named judge of Virginia's Court of Chancery; he moved to Richmond in 1791, & lived there for the remainder of his life. Wythe was poisoned by a grandnephew in late May, 1806, & died on 8 June after an agonizing illness.

Wythe bequeathed his extensive library of law, classics & other books to Thomas Jefferson, a longtime friend who was serving as president when Wythe died in 1806.  Among Wythe's garden books was

In Latin, essays of classic garden & farm writers.  Rei rvsticae avctores Latini veteres, M. Cato, M. Varro, L. Colvmella, Palladivs: priores tres, e vetustiss. editionibus; quartus, e veteribus membranis aliquammultis in locis emendatiores: cum tribus indicubus, capitum, auctorum, & rerune ac verborum memorabilium ... Ex Hier - Bequeathed by Wythe to Thomas Jefferson in 1806. Sold by Jefferson to Congress in 1815

An Almanac Purchased by Wythe from the offices of the Virginia Gazette, 21 November 1764 (1/3 sh., through Mrs. Drummond), Daybooks, 1764-66.

The botanic garden : a poem, in two parts. With philosophical notes  Erasmus Darwin  New-York : Printed by T. &. J. Swords ..., 1798.

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Plants in Early American Gardens - Nutmeg Plant

Nutmeg Plant (Nigella sativa)

Thomas Jefferson sowed seeds of "Nutmeg Plant" in a Monticello oval bed in 1810. Also called Black Cumin, Black Seed, and Fennel Flower, this hardy annual has been grown for centuries for the aromatic seed, which has many culinary and medicinal uses. Nutmeg Plant bears feathery, finely cut leaves and delicate white to pale blue flowers.

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Gardening Books in Early America - Owned by Virginian John Baylor III 1705-1772

Colonel John Baylor III (1705-1772), Virginia landowner & one of the wealthiest men & largest landowners of pre-Revolutionary Virginia.  Grandson of a planter who traded profitably in several Tidewater counties, & son of a slave-dealer, planter & burgess from Gloucester & then King & Queen counties, John Baylor III (1705–1772) was third-generation Virginia aristocracy. Baylor was sent to England to be educated at Putney Grammar School, Middlesex, & at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge.

Unknown Artist. John Baylor, c. 1722

After returning to Virginia from England in 1726, Baylor built a plantation house, Newmarket, in Caroline County (named for the English race track). Baylor began racing & breeding horses at his home Newmarket by late in the 1730s—remnants of his racing track are still visible there—& he imported expensive thoroughbreds from Britain by the early 1740s. Baylor's stud operation was legendary throughout the Chesapeake Bay region, & gentry-turfmen such as George Washington & John Tayloe II sent their prized mares to Newmarket to breed with Baylor's thoroughbreds. By the mid-1750s & concentrated instead on importing & breeding.  In 1764, he paid 1,000 guineas for the racehorse Fearnought, the highest price anyone in colonial America ever paid for a horse. Thomas Jefferson proudly noted in his farm journal that his favorite mount, Caractacus, was the grand sire (grandson) of Fearnought. (While serving as governor, Jefferson famously fled a contingent of British soldiers sent to capture him at Monticello astride Caractacus).

Baylor married Frances Lucy Walker (1728-1783), & the 2 had 8 children who survived. Baylor served as a church warden & vestryman from 1752-1761, & sat in the House of Burgesses from 1742-1752 & 1756-1765. He was also a justice of the peace for Caroline County.  Baylor died leaving a vast estate, but also significant debts, which passed (along with Baylor's library), to his son John Baylor IV.

Most of the farm books in Baylor's library are about horses.  Works & other information included in Baylor's LT catalog are from several sources, including the inventory of his library (a transcript of which is preserved in the proceedings of a later court case, Daingerfield v. Rootes); his letterbooks, 1749-65, in the Baylor Family Papers at the Virginia Historical Society; & the daybooks of the Virginia Gazette, 1750-52 & 1764-66.  Col. Baylor also purchased many books in Virginia and through his British factors for the education of his children, & in pursuit of his horse-racing/breeding interests.

John Baylor III Books on Landscape, Garden, & Farm

Title: The Virginia almanack for the year of our Lord God 1765. ... By Theophilus Wreg.
philom.
Info: Williamsburg [Va.] : Printed and sold by Joseph Royle, and Co, [1764]

Title: The architecture of M. Vitruvius. Pollio: translated from the original Latin, by W. Newton, architect
Author: Vitruvius Pollio
Other authors: William Newton (Translator)
Info: London : printed by William Griffin, and John Clark, and published by J. Dodsley, 1771.

Title: [Treatise on Tobacco]
Author: Buckner Stith [Williamsburg, Virginia Gazette, 1764.]

Title: The complete farmer or, a general dictionary of husbandry, in all its branches; containing the various methods of cultivating and improving every species of land, ...
Authors: Society of Gentlemen

Title: A new and complete system of practical husbandry containing all that experience has proved to be most useful in farming, either in the old or new method, with a comparative view of both, and whatever is beneficial to the husbandman, or conducive to the ornament and improvement of the country gentleman's estate
Author: John Mills
Info: London : Printed for R. Baldwin [ and 7 others], 1762-1765.

Title: A new treatise on the diseases of horses: wherein what is necessary to the knowledge of a horse, the cure of his diseases, and other matters relating to that subject, are fully discussed for many years practice and experience; with the cheapest and most efficacious remedies Author W. Gibson
Info: London, A. Millar, 1751.

Title: The modern husbandman complete in eight volumes : containing I. The practice of farming, as it is now carried on by the most experienced farmers in the several counties of England ... necessary for all landlords and tenants of either ploughed, grass, or wood grounds Author William Ellis
Info: London : Printed for D. Browne ... [et al.], 1750.

Title: A practical treatise of husbandry wherein are contained, many useful and valuable experiments and observations in the new husbandry Authors: Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau, John Mills (Translator)
Info: London : Printed for C. Hitch [and 8 others], 1762.

Title: Farriery improved or, a compleat treatise upon the art of farriery. Together with many necessary and useful observations and remarks concerning the choice and management of horses. ... Author Henry Bracken
Info: London : printed for W. Johnston; and A. Shuckburgh, 1763.

Title: The gentleman's farriery or, a practical treatise on the diseases of horses: wherein ... M. La Fosse's method of trepanning glandered horses is particularly considered and improved: also a new method of nicking horses is recommended; ... To which is added an appendix, ...
Author: John Bartlet Info: London : printed for J. Nourse; S. Crowder, L. Hawes, W. Clark and R. Collins, and M.
Richardson; and J. Pote at Eton, 1764.

Title: A new system of agriculture or, a plain, easy, and demonstrative method of speedily growing rich: proving, by undeniable arguments, that every land owner, in England, may advance his estate to a double value, in the space of one year's time 
Author Edward Weston
Info: London : printed for A. Millar, 1755. [A Dublin edition was printed the same year]

Title: The gentleman's farriery or, a practical treatise on the diseases of horses: wherein ... M. La Fosse's method of trepanning glandered horses is particularly considered and improved: also a new method of nicking horses is recommended; ... To which is added an appendix, ... 
Author John Bartlet
Info: London : printed for J. Nourse; S. Crowder, L. Hawes, W. Clark and R. Collins, and M.
Richardson; and J. Pote at Eton, 1764.

Title: Farriery improved or, a compleat treatise upon the art of farriery. Together with many necessary and useful observations and remarks concerning the choice and management of horses. Author Henry Bracken
Info: London : printed for W. Johnston; and A. Shuckburgh, 1763.

Title: An historical list of all horse-matches run ... 
Author John Cheny

Title: A new treatise on the diseases of horses: wherein what is necessary to the knowledge of a horse, the cure of his diseases, and other matters relating to that subject, are fully discussed for many years practice and experience; with the cheapest and most efficacious remedies 
Author W. Gibson
Info: London, A. Millar, 1751.

Title: An historical list of horse-matches run. And of plates and prizes, run for in Great Britain 
Author Reginald Heber
Info: London, 1752-1769.

Title: The art of farriery both in theory and practice containing the causes, symptoms, and cure of all diseases incident to horses. With anatomical descriptions, illustrated with cuts, ...
Author John Reeves
Info: London : printed for J. Newbery; and B. Collins, in Salisbury, 1758.

Title: The sportsman’s dictionary: or, the country gentleman’s companion, in all rural recreations: With full and particular Instructions for Hawking, Hunting, Fowling, Setting, Fishing, Racing, Riding, Cocking 

The titles & information included in this library are drawn from Thomas Katheder, The Baylors of Newmarket: The Decline and Fall of a Virginia Planter Family. Bloomingon, Ind., & New York: Universe, 2009. The book is an in-depth & excellent analysis of the Baylor library.

Katheder, T. M. John Baylor III (1705–1772). (2012, January 18). In Encyclopedia Virginia. Retrieved from http://www.EncyclopediaVirginia.org/Baylor_John_III_1705-1772.

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Plants in Early American Gardens - Canada Crookneck Squash

Canada Crookneck Squash (Cucurbita moschata cv.)

Canada Crookneck Squash has curved, bottle-shaped, thin-skinned fruits up to 12” long with nutty and sweet-flavored flesh. It is said to have originated from the Iroquois Nations and was first offered commercially in the 1830s. In Field and Garden Vegetables of America (1863) Fearing Burr wrote: “The Canada is unquestionably the best of the Crooknecked sorts.”

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Plants in Early American Gardens - Cymling or Pattypan Squash

Cymling or Pattypan Squash (Cucurbita pepo)

Commonly called Pattypan Squash, this variety originated among the Native North Americans. Cymlings were well-known in the colonies by the 1790s and Jefferson said they were “one of our finest and most innocent vegetables.” They were frequently grown in his retirement garden as well as in the gardens of Monticello’s enslaved African Americans, and were used in soups and stews with butter, salt, and pepper.

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