Tradesmen on Governor Harvey’s Lot 1630s

Tradesmen on Governor Harvey’s Lot 1630s. . Despite the success of tobacco, the crown instructed Virginia’s governors to diversify and encourage trades in the colony. Governor Sir John Harvey supported this endeavor. During the 1630s, he employed a variety of tradesmen on this property including: potters; apothecaries; brewers; tanners; tile, lime, and brickmakers; and iron smelters. Harvey sent samples of rape seed (a source of oil), saltpeter, pot-ashes, and iron ore to England, proving that he took the instructions seriously., Archaeologists found evidence of these activities on Harvey’s lot. An area of intensive industrial activity near the Pitch and Tar Swamp centered around a brewhouse and apothecary. A large refuse pit provided clay for a potter and eventually served as a place to dispose of waster pottery. Two smaller pits may have been used for tanning leather. Another pit was an iron smelting furnace., Evidence suggests that much of the activity on this property stopped when Harvey left Virginia. But other lime and brick kilns, scattered throughout the townsite, indicate that tradesmen continued to provide for the town’s needs.