[Sansevierias] Early American Gardens/Early American significant plant nuts

<http://americangardenhistory.blogspot.com/>Early American Gardens


1770 Maryland convict garden servant grows pineapples in a Pinery

Posted: 28 Apr 2014 08:43 PM PDT
Charles Carroll the Barrister's Convict Garden 
Servant grew pineapples in 1770 Baltimore


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1699 Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717)  from Metamorphosis


Some of Maryland’s convict gardeners had 
practiced the gardening trade before arriving in 
the colonies, & one possessed an unusual 
knowledge of sophisticated gardening 
techniques.  One convict gardener brought 
pineapples & the structure of the pinery to 
Maryland before the American Revolution.  He 
served Charles Carroll (1723-1783) the Barrister 
who was an American lawyer from Annapolis, 
Maryland.  The Barrister built his country seat 
called Mount Clare near Baltimore in 1760.  He 
was a delegate to the Second Continental Congress in 1776 & 1777.

In January of 1768, Charles Carroll the Barrister 
wrote to his English agents, “I am in want of a 
Gardener that understands a Kitchen 
Garden…Grafting, Budding, Inoculatingg & the 
Management of an orchard & Fruit Trees…under 
Indenture for four or five years…There come in 
Gardeners in every Branch ffrom Scotland at Six pounds a year.”

The requested servant arrived at Mount Clare 
later that year & was apparently well-respected 
by the Barrister & his fellow gentry, even though 
he was a convict. When the Barrister's cousin 
Charles Carroll of Carrollton bought a gardener 
for his father at the docks in Baltimore, he 
asked the Barrister’s convict gardener to 
interview the new immigrant & then wrote his 
father, “I have bought a new gardiner from 
Captain Frost. I gave 23 pounds currency for him; 
he is not about 21 years of age, appears to be 
healthy & stout & orderly; he says he understands 
a kitchen garden pretty well; Mr. Carroll’s 
gardener examined him: he has 4 years to serve.”

The Barrister’s convict gardener may have been 
a good judge of men, but he did have a few 
negative qualities. Five years into the man’s 
indenture, the exasperated Carroll placed & 
advertisement in the Maryland Gazette on May 
6,1773: “TEN POUNDS REWARD…Ran away…a convict 
servant man, names John Adam Smith…by trade a 
gardener; has with himâ…a treatise of raising 
the pineapple, which he pretends is of his own 
writing, talks much of his trade & loves liquor.”

The issue of the treatise is an interesting one. 
In October 1770, Mary Ambler of Jamestown, 
Virginia, had visited Mount Clare & noted in her 
diary, “at the Garden…he is now building a 
Pinery where the Gardr expects to raise about an 
100 Pine Apples a Year He expects to Ripen some next Sumer.”

It is remarkable that convict gardener Smith 
talked with Mary Ambler about pineapples in 1770, 
& had a treatise on the fruit with him in 
Maryland. The pineapple’s popularity had grown 
in England, creating a demand for publications 
giving directions for its culture. James 
Justice’s plan for a pineapple stove was 
published in The Scots Gardeners’ Director, 
1754.   John Giles (1726-97) published a 
monograph on the plant in England in 1767.  Since 
the Barrister’s convict gardener arrived in the 
colonies in 1768, his claim to have written his 
own treatise is intriguing, because he built a 
functioning pinery in the British American colonies by the 1770s.

What is the history of pineapple cultivation in Europe & Britain?

<http://www.buildingconservation.com/articles/pineapples/pineapples.htm>A 
fine article at BuildingConseration.com written 
<http://www.buildingconservation.com/articles/pineapples/pineapples.htm>by 
Johanna Lausen-Higgins here surveys the history 
of pineapple cultivation in England.  She 
writes,  "Christopher Columbus first encountered 
the pineapple in 1493, unleashing a flurry of 
attempts to convey its exotic flavor to 
uninitiated Europeans. The superlatives & 
majestic comparisons continued long after. In a 
work of 1640, John Parkinson, Royal Botanist to 
Charles I, described the pineapple as: "Scaly 
like an Artichoke at the first view, but more 
like to a cone of the Pine tree, which we call a 
pineapple for the forme... being so sweete in 
smell... tasting... as if Wine, Rosewater & Sugar 
were mixed together." (Theatrum Botanicum)

"Parkinson wrote those words before the pineapple 
had even reached the shores of Britain. Its 
introduction to Europe resulted in a veritable 
mania for growing pineapples & parading them at 
the dinner table became a fashion requisite of 18th century nobility..

"Pineapples originate from the Orinoco basin in 
South America, but before their introduction to 
Europe, the date of which is uncertain, they were 
distributed throughout the tropics. Later, this 
led to some confusion about their origin. The 
Gardener’s Dictionary of 1759 by Philip Miller, 
for example, gives the origin of the pineapple as Africa...

"European pineapple cultivation was pioneered in 
the Netherlands. The early success of Dutch 
growers was a reflection of the trade monopoly 
the Netherlands enjoyed in the Caribbean in the 
form of the Dutch West India Company, established 
in 1621. As a result, plant stock could be 
imported directly from the West Indies in the 
form of seeds, suckers & crowns, from which the 
first plants were propagated...

"Dutch methods of pineapple growing became the 
blueprint for cultivation in Britain, undoubtedly 
endorsed after the Glorious Revolution of 1688 
cemented Anglo-Dutch relations. William Bentinck, 
close adviser of William III, is thought to have 
shipped the entire stock of Caspar Fagel’s 
pineapple plants over to Hampton Court in 1692. 
The fruits were, however, ripened from this stock 
of mature plants & therefore did not count as 
British-grown pineapples. Pineapples had been 
ripened in this way before, as commemorated in 
Hendrik Danckerts’ painting of 1675 depicting 
Charles II being presented with a pineapple by 
John Rose, gardener to the Duchess of Cleveland. 
Danckerts’ painting led to the common 
misconception that Rose was the first to grow a pineapple in Britain.


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1670s Hendrick Danckerts (Dutch artist, 
1625-1689)  Gardener John Rose presenting a pineapple to King Charles II

What was Marylander Charles Carroll the Barrister's Pinery and how did it work?

<http://www.buildingconservation.com/articles/pineapples/pineapples.htm>A 
continuation of  Johanna Lausen-Higgins's 
article:  "The first reliable crop of pineapples 
in Britain was in fact achieved by a Dutch 
grower, Henry Telende, gardener to Matthew 
Decker, at his seat in Richmond between 1714 & 
1716. Decker commissioned a painting in 1720 to 
celebrate this feat & this time the pineapple 
takes pride of place as the sole object of 
admiration. From this point on the craze for 
growing them developed into a full-blown pineapple mania...

"The appearance of innovations seems to follow no 
clear chronological order. Early attempts at 
cultivation were made in orangeries, which had 
been designed to provide frost protection for 
citrus fruit during the winter months. 
Orangeries, however, did not provide enough heat 
& light for the tropical pineapple, which grew 
all year round. Heating in glasshouses during the 
mid 17th century was provided by furnaces placed 
within the structure, but fumes often damaged or 
killed the plants. Hot-air flues were then 
devised, which dissipated heat slowly through 
winding flues built into cavity walls. These 
"fire walls" were heated by hot air rising from 
furnaces or stoves & required constant stoking 
with coal. This was a dangerous method & many 
early "pineries," as they later became known, 
burned down when the inevitable accumulation of 
soot & debris within the flues caught fire...


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1720 Theodorus Netscher (Dutch artist, 1661-1732) 
Pineapple Grown in Matthew Decker's Garden at Richmond, Surrey

<http://www.buildingconservation.com/articles/pineapples/pineapples.htm>A 
continuation of  Johanna Lausen-Higgins's 
article:  "Henry Telende’s method of pineapple 
cultivation was published in Richard Bradley’s 
A General Treatise of Husbandry & Gardening in 
1721. Telende grew the young plants, called 
"succession plants," in large cold frames called 
tan pits. The fruiting plants would subsequently 
be moved into the stove or hothouse to benefit 
from the additional heat provided by the hot-air flues.

"The tan pits were lined with pebbles at the 
bottom followed by a layer of manure & then 
topped with a layer of tanners’ bark into which 
the pots were plunged. The last of these elements 
was the most important. Tanners’ bark (oak bark 
soaked in water & used in leather tanning) 
fermented slowly, steadily producing a constant 
temperature of 25ºC-30ºC for two to three 
months & a further two if stirred. Manure alone 
was inferior, in that it heated violently at 
first but cooled more quickly. Stable bottom heat 
is essential for pineapple cultivation & 
tanners’ bark provided the first reliable source...

"James Justice, a principal clerk at the Court of 
Sessions at Edinburgh, was also a talented 
amateur gardener. On his estate at Crichton he 
developed an incredibly efficient glasshouse in 
which he combined the bark pits for succession & 
fruiting plants under one roof. (Justice 
published a very elegant drawing of it in The 
Scots Gardiners’ Director in 1754.) In a letter 
to Philip Miller & other members of the Royal 
Society in 1728, he proudly announces: "I have 
eight of the Ananas in fine fruit." The letter 
makes Justice the first documented gardener to 
have grown pineapples successfully in Scotland...


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  The kitchen garden pineapple house at Dunmore, 
Scotland, the seat of John Murray, Earl of 
Dunmore. The Pineapple Summerhouse was once flanked by hothouses (1761–1776).

<http://www.buildingconservation.com/articles/pineapples/pineapples.htm>A 
continuation of  Johanna Lausen-Higgins's 
article:  "An interesting variant growing 
structure was the pinery-vinery, first proposed 
by Thomas Hitt in 1757. Here, vines created a 
canopy for an understorey of pineapples. The 
vines would have been planted, as was customary 
in vineries, outside, & fed into the structure 
through small open arches built into the low 
brick wall. A fervent admirer of this method was 
William Speechly, gardener to the third Duke of 
Portland, & grandson of William Bentinck, who had 
sent the first batch of pineapples to Britain in 
1692.  Portland inherited Welbeck Abbey in 
Nottinghamshire in 1762, & his passion for 
growing pineapples nearly ruined him. 
Nevertheless, he sent Speechly to Holland like 
many before him to study all the latest 
techniques. Speechly published his now greatly 
refined methods in A Treatise on the Culture of 
the Pineapple & the Management of the Hot-house in 1779"...


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1775 English Print of James Sibbald, Gardener to 
Thomas Devlaval, Holding a Pineapple

"Although Philip Miller & John Abercrombie 
extolled the virtues of tanners’ bark while 
lamenting the flaws of manure, many structures 
that used dung as a heating method were devised 
into the mid 19th century.  Adam Taylor wrote a 
tract titled A Treatise on the Ananas or 
Pine-apple in 1769 in which the use of horse 
manure was promoted, probably for the first time, 
as a method of heating a pineapple pit."


The Greenhouse & Conservatory in Early America

Posted: 28 Apr 2014 10:58 AM PDT

The possibility of growing tender plants in 
greenhouses had fascinated early Americans at 
least since the 1st half of the 18C in colonial 
America. But the price of glass in colonial & 
early America remained high until nearly the 
middle of the 19C, making greenhouses available 
only to those with extra disposable income.

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Mount Vernon's Greenhouse

As British America was being colonized in the 
17th-century, English garden writers were 
focusing on greenshouses which needed glass to 
allow the sun to reach the growing plants. Glass 
was becoming more affordable & glass no longer 
needed to be hand-blown. In England, in 1664, 
diarist & gardener John Evelyn (1620-1706) 
advised, "Set your...Windows and Doors of the 
Green-houses and Conservatories open." And in his 
diary on 30 October 1683, he mentioned, "Greene 
houses for oranges and mirtles." Born in Surrey 
into a family that owned the monopoly on the 
manufacture of gunpowder in England, Evelyn was 
able to devote his life to intellectual pursuits. 
In addition to translating noted French gardening 
books, Evelyn was the author of Kalendarium 
Hortense. His Diary is full of references to 
gardens, & to his own famous garden at Sayes 
Court. In 1691, the London Gazette mentioned 
another "new Conservatory or Green-House" in a house-for-sale ad.

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Detail John Evelyn (1620-1706) by Hendrick van der Borcht, 1641.

In early 18th century England, J. James' 1712 
translation of Jean-Baptiste Alexandre Le Blond's 
(1679-1719) The Theory and Practice of Gardening; 
; wherein is fully handled all that relates to 
fine gardening, commonly called pleasure gardens 
explained that, "Green-houses are large Piles of 
Building like Galleries...for preserving 
Orange-Trees, and other Plants...during the 
Winter." Le Blond was a French architect & garden 
designer who became the chief architect of Saint 
Petersburg in 1716, just 3 years before his 
death. He had derived his gardening expertise 
from André Le Nôtre (1613-1700), and he 
illustrated & helped write Dezallier 
d'Argenville's (1680-1765) seminal work on the 
principles of French formal garden design. In 
England, Phillip Miller had published a plan for 
a greenhouse in his 1754 Gardener's Dictionary, 
which was owned & read in the British American colonies.

 >Much like today, the 18th century colonial 
greenhouse was a glass-windowed structure of wood 
or brick or stone in which tender plants were 
reared & preserved. Revolutionaly iron & glass 
greenhouses would appear in the first half of the 
19th-century allowing more light into the structures.

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Virginian William Byrd II (1674-1768) painted by Hans Hysing 1724

Early in 18th-century Pennsylvania, botanist John 
Bartram (1699-1777) wrote to English botanist 
Peter Collinson (1674-1768), on July 18, 1740, 
about Colonel William Byrd's (1674-1744) grounds 
at Westover in Virginia. "Colonel Byrd is very 
prodigalle...new Gates, gravel Walks, hedges, and 
cedars finely twined and a little green house 
with two or three orange trees...he hath the finest seat in Virginia."

Twenty years later, John Bartram wrote to Peter 
Collinson in 1760, "I am going to build a 
green-house. Stone is got...to put some pretty 
flowering winter shrubs, and plants for winter's 
diversion, not to be crowded with orange trees."

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Peter Collinson 1694-1768

John Bartram was much more than just a 
commentator on the homes of colonial gentry, but 
he certainly would have been intrigued by the 
possibilities of Byrd's early greenhouse. Born in 
Darby, Pensylvania, son a Quaker farmer, Bartram 
was the most important botanist in the colonies. 
His son William Bartram (1739-1823) helped him 
collect, replant, & ship his specimens. In 1728, 
John Bartram established a botanic garden at 
Kingsessing on the west bank of the Schuylkill, 
near Philadelphia, where he collected & grew 
native plants. His correspondence with Peter 
Collinson, led to the introduction of many American trees & plants into Europe.

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Charles Willson Peale's 1808 William Bartram

Greenhouses in Europe filled with Bartram's Boxes 
of American plants. His plant specimens & seeds 
traveled across the Atlantic to the gardens & 
greenhouses of Philip Miller, Linnaeus, German 
botanist Dillenius (1687-1747), & Dutch botanist 
Gronovius (1686-1762); and he assisted Linnaeus' 
student Swedish Pehr Kalm (1716-1779) during his 
collecting trip to North America in 1748-1750. 
Although Bartram never visited Britain, in 1765, 
he was appointed Botanist to King George III. 
Linnaeus called him "the worlds greatest 
botanist." Bartram traveled from Lake Ontario in 
the north, to Florida in the south and the Ohio 
River in the west. His Diary of a Journey through 
the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida, a trip taken 
from July 1, 1765, to April 10, 1766, was 
published. His son William accompanied his father 
documenting plants, animals, birds, & native 
peoples of North & South Carolina, Georgia & 
Florida. William published Travels, writings with 
his own illustrations in 1791, which impacted the 
19th century romantic movement as well as natural history.

Not far from Bartram's nursery just outside of 
Philadelphia, John Smith described the plantation 
owned by the family of William Penn at 
Springettesbury Manor in 1745, "On our way 
thither we stopped to view the proprietor's 
green-house, which at this season is an agreeable 
sight; the oranges, lemons and citrons were some 
green, some ripe, some in blossom." 
Springettesbury Manor had been named in honor of 
William Penn's first ie, Gulielma Maria Springett (1644–1694).

Ten years later, Daniel Fisher also described the 
Proprietor's greenhouse, "What to me surpassed 
every thing of the kind I had seen in America was 
a pretty bricked Green House, out of which was 
disposed very properly in the Pleasure Garden, a 
good many Orange, Lemon, and Citrous Trees, in 
great profusion loaded with abundance of Fruit 
and some of each sort seemingly ripe 
then."Bartram traveled South in the colonies 
through Charleston several times, where 
greenhouses were used to entice real estate buyers.

In the South Carolina Gazette, November 14, 1748, 
a house for sale advertisement noted, "TO BE 
SOLD...Dwelling-house...also a large Garden, with 
two neat Green Houses for sheltering exotic Fruit Trees, and Grape-Vines."

Exotic plants captured the fancy of colonials 
early in the century; and by the end of the 
18th-century, formal botanical gardens dotted the 
Atlantic coast. These were both outdoor and 
indoor, public and private garden areas, where 
proud collectors displayed a variety of curious 
plants for purposes of science, education, status, and art.

By 1760, Rhode Islander Abraham Redwood Jr was 
writing to his farm manager, "I desire that you 
put up in Durt one dozen of Small orange 
Trees...four young figg trees and some Guavas 
roots, to put in my greenhouse...twenty two feet 
long, Twelve feet wide, and Twelve feet high." In 
1743, Abraham Redwood purchased 140 acres 
farmland near Newport, Rhode Island, where he 
built a country estate that was considered one of 
the most beautiful botanical gardens in North 
America, which grew plants & trees imported from all over the world.

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Abraham Redwood 1709-1788

Josiah Quincy (1744-1775), who kept a journal as 
he traveled South from Boston for his health in 
1773, was also impressed with a greenhouse, when 
he visited Philadelphia on May 3, 1773, and 
noted, "Dined with the celebrated Pennsylvania 
Farmer, John Dickenson Esqr, at his country seat 
about two and one-half miles from town...his 
gardens, green-house, bathing-house, grotto, 
study, fish pond...vista, through which is 
distant prospect of Delaware River."  John 
Dickinson (1732-1808), who was actually an 
attorney trained at Middle Temple, had married 
Mary Norris, daughter of Isaac Norris, Speaker of 
the Pennsylvania Assembly, and moved to the 
Norris estate of Fairhill, near Germantown. There 
he wrote, under the pseudonym "A Farmer,"12 essays against the Stamp Acts.

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1773 Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). Mary 
Norris (Mrs. John Dickinson) with their daughter Sally.

In 1787, clergyman, merchant, & lawyer Manasseh 
Cutler (1742-1823), wrote of the greenhouse at 
Gray's Tavern, in Philadelphia. "(The Greenhouse) 
is a very large stone bulding, three stories in 
the front and two in the rear. The one-half of 
the house is divided lengthwise, and the front 
part is appropriated to a green-house, and has no 
chamber floors. It is finished in the completest 
manner for the purpose of arranging trees and 
plants in the most beautiful order. The windows 
are enormous. I believe some of them to be twenty 
feet in length, and proportionably wide...We then 
took a view of the contents of the green-house, 
beautifully arranged in the open air on the south 
of the garden. Here were most of the trees and 
fruits that grow in the hottest climates. 
Oranges, lemons, etc., in every stage from 
blossoms to ripe fruit; pine-apples in bloom, and those were fully ripe."

Visiting English agricultural writer Richard 
Parkinson (1748-1815) stopped at John O'Donnell's 
(1743-1805) estate named Canton near Baltimore, 
in 1798. Irishman John O'Donnell had grown 
wealthy by sending the first ship into China in 
1785, for trade goods to sell in America. 
Parkinson wrote that O'Donnell had, "a very 
handsome garden in great order, a most beautiful 
greenhouse and hot house...a very magnificent place for that country."

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1787 Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). Sarah 
Chew Elliott (Mrs. John O'Donnell) in her garden 
in front of a curving wall with urns used as finials.

In 1793 Massachusetts, Boston merchant Joseph 
Barrell (1739-1804) was ordering plants & a 
gardener from Britain for his new Pleasant Hill 
greenhouse, "I want a person that understands 
green house plants...you will send the trees by 
the same opportunity the gardener comes that he 
may attend them on the passage."

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John Singleton Copley (1738–1815) Josepph Barrell c 1767

Wishing for more land outside of Boston to try 
new gardening styles & modern farming techniques, 
Barrell purchased 211 acres of land across the 
Charles River in Charlestown, where he created a 
ferme ornée. Charles Bulfinch designed the house 
& grounds, one of his 1st commissions.

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John Singleton Copley (1738–1815) Hannah Fitch (Mrs Josseph Barrell) c 1771

In Deborah Logan's journal, she mentioned that in 
1799 Philadelphia,William Logan had a "Green 
house in town, as well as a good one (at 
Stenton). He had many rare and beautiful plants: 
indeed the large and fine orange and lemon trees 
which now ornament Pratt's greenhouses at Lemon 
Hill were originally of his raising."

William Logan (1717–1776) was the son of William 
Penn's secretary James Logan who became a 
Philadelphia Mayor & Supreme Court Justice. 
William inherited Stenton in 1751, and he used it 
as his country seat, while living in Philadelphia.

In the same year, English born seedsman and 
nursery owner William Booth of Baltimore 
advertised in the Federal Gazette and Baltimore 
Advertiser:" To Botanists, Gardeners and 
Florists, and to all other gentlemen, curious in 
ornamental, rare exotic or foreign plants and 
flowers, cultivated in the greenhouse, hot-house, 
or stove, and in the open ground. A large and 
numerous variety of such rarities is now offered 
for sale...After reserving a general and suitable 
stock, he had to spare a well assorted and great 
variety of those things comprising a beautiful 
collection, sufficient to decorate, furnish, and 
ornament a spacious or handsome greenhouse at 
once... The whole is a truly valuable collection 
such as is very rarely to be met with for sale on 
this side of the Atlantic -- indeed a moiety of 
them would comprise a very desirable and 
exclusive variety, consisting of many or most of 
the tropical fruits, and other rare and curious 
finely ornamental trees, scrubs and plants; with 
a numerous and abundant assortment of choice 
bulbous, tubrous, and fibrous rooted flowering 
and ornamental plants in mixtures... please apply 
to John Cummings, at the alms-house, Messrs. 
David and Cuthbert Landreth, gardeners and 
nursery-men... Now is as good time and proper 
season to build a green-house, and to remove plants."

Many of Booth's clients and contemporaries in the 
Chesapeake were becoming excited about collecting 
and displaying non-native varieties of plants. In 
his diary, silversmith, clockmaker, & gardener 
William Faris (1728-1804) noted in Annapolis that 
his neighbor Dr. Upton Scott (1722-1814) was, 
"fond of botany and has a number of rare plants 
and shrubs in his greenhouse and garden." The 
practical Faris used his cellar as his greenhouse.

Some gardeners & plant collectors were obsessed 
with showing off their unusual plant collections 
to visitors. In November of 1803, Manasseh Cutler 
(1722-1823) wrote to Mrs. Torrey about his visit 
to William Hamilton's (1745-1813) Woodlands, 
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, "We then took a turn 
to the garden and greenhouses...ornamented with 
almost all the flowers and vegtables the earth 
affords...The greenhouses which occupy a large 
space of ground, I cannot pretend to describe. 
Every part was crowded with trees and plants, 
from the hot climates, and such as I had never 
seen...He assured us, there was not a rare plant 
in Europe, Asia, Africa, from China and the 
islands in the South Sea, of which he had any 
account, which he had not procured...When we 
turned to rare and superb plants, one of the 
gardeners would be called, and sent with a 
lantern to the green house to fetch me a specimen 
to compare with it. This was done perhaps twenty times."

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Benjamin West (American-born painter, 1738–1820) 
William Hamilton (1745-1813) of Woodlands with His Niece
Authors Joseph Dennie & John Elihu Hall reported 
on the greenhouse at the Woodlands in their 1809 
Portfolio II, "The front, including the hot-house 
on each side, measures one hundred and forty 
feet, and it contains nearly ten thousand plants, 
out of which number may be reckoned between five 
and six thousand of different species, procured 
at much trouble and expense, from many remote 
parts of the globe, from South America, the Cape 
of Good Hope, the Brazils, Botany Bay, Japan, the 
East and West Indies, &c. &c. This collection, 
for the beauty and rich variety of its exotics, 
surpasses any thing of the kind on this 
continent; and, among many other rare productions 
to be seen, are the bread-fruit tree, cinnamon, 
allspice, pepper; mangoes, different sorts, sago, 
coffee from Bengal, Arabia, and the West-Indies, 
tea, green and bohea, mahogany, magnolias, Japan 
rose, rose apples, eherimolia, one of the most 
esteemed fruits of Mexico, bamboo, Indian god 
tree, iron tree of China, ginger, olea fragrans, 
and several varieties of the sugar cane, five 
species of which are from Otaheite. To this 
green-house, so richly stored, too much praise 
can hardly be given. The curious person views it 
with delight, and the naturalist quits it with regret."

On Christmas day in 1803, in Prince George's 
County, Maryland, Rosalie Stier Calvert 
(1795-1821) wrote to her father who had returned 
to Europe, "I am also going to have a small 
greenhouse built where you planned it--at the 
wash-house. The cellar makes a very good 
orangerie." In another letter to her father in 3 
years later, she mentioned that the cellar would 
no longer serve as the greenhouse, "We also have 
to build a small house, a smoke house, a sairy, and an orangerie."

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Gilbert Stuart (Early Americn artist, 1755-1828). 
Rosalie Stier Calvert (1778 -1821) in 1804

I can find only one other reference to an 
orangery or orangerie in early America beside 
those of Rosalie Stier Calvert, leaving me to 
suspect that the term orangery became popular in 
America in the 19th century when referring to greenhouses, old and new.

There are earlier references in England, where 
John Evelyn wrote in his diary on 4 July 1664, 
"The orangerie and aviarie handsome, and a very 
large plantation about it." Another reference 
appears in the 1705 London Gazette, "The 
Mansion-House, called Belsize, ...with...a fine Orangarie, is to Lett."

In America in 1790, Thomas Lee Shippen, 
describing Stratford Hall in Virginia, to his 
father reported, "It was with great difficulty 
that my Uncles, who accompanied me, could 
persuade me to leave the hall to look at the 
gardens, vineyards, orangeries and lawns which surround the house."

By the time Englishman John Claudius Loudon 
(1783-1843) wrote his 1822 Encyclopedia of 
Gardening, the orangery had fallen out of favor. 
He wrote, "The orangery is the green-house of the 
last century, the object of which was to preserve 
large plants of exotic evergreens during winter, 
such as the orange tribe, myrtles, sweet bays, 
pomegranates, and a few others. Geraniums, 
heaths, fuchsias, and other delicate plants 
requiring much light, were then unknown. The 
orangery was generally placed near to or 
adjoining the house, and its elevation 
corresponded in architectural design with that of 
the mansion. From this last circumstance has 
arisen a prejudice highly unfavorable to the 
culture of ornamental exotcis, namely, that every 
plant-habitation attached to a mansion should be 
an architectural object, and consist of windows 
between stone piers or columns, with a regular 
cornice and entablature. By this mode of design, 
these buildings are rendered so gloomy as never 
to present a vigorous vegetation, and vivid 
glowing colors within ; and as they are thus 
unfit for the purpose for which they are 
intended, it does not appear to us...that they can possibly be in good taste."

In Maryland, Rosalie Calvert grew plants in pots 
that could be brought outside in warm weather or 
ornament the interior of Riversdale house in 
winter. In 1803, she wrote, “I have arranged 
all the orange trees and geraniums in pots along 
the north wall of the house, where they make a 
very pretty effect, and the geraniums, being 
shaded, bear many more blossoms and are growing well.”

By 1809, she had added several more types of 
potted plants, and wrote that they were “a 
marvelous source of entertainment for 
me—geraniums, heliotropes, jasmines, China rose 
bushes, etc. I don’t have any aloes or any of 
those other plants whose only recommendation is 
their rarity and which lack beauty.” 
Heliotropes, she wrote, would be transplanted 
“outdoors in the summertime with the geraniums, 
jasmine, rose bushes, etc.”  While we do not 
have a painting of Rosalie Calvert's indoor 
parlor plant arrangement, we do have this painting from Connecticut in 1816,

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George Freeman (Connecticut artist, 1787-1837) 
Widow Elizabeth Fenimor Cooper 1816

Rosalie Calvert's orangerie never materialized. 
Instead, she used a central room of the house, 
her “grand salon,” with three large 
south-facing triple-hung windows, as her 
conservatory. She bragged to her father in 1813 
about “my lemon trees. I have four superb 
specimens which in winter we place in the four 
corners of the salon, where they make a lovely 
effect. Last November one of them produced 87 large lemons.”

American diplomat David Bailie Warden visited 
Riversdale and described Rosalie's salon, "The 
hall is ornamented with lemon-trees, geraniums, 
polianthusses, heliptropes, and other plants, 
which in the summer evenings, invite the 
humming-birds to taste of their sweetness; and 
afterwards struggling to escape, they fly 
incessantly backwards and forwards near the 
ceiling, until from fatigue they perch on a stick 
or rod, when they are easily taken by the hand."

Another nurseryman living in Philadelphia was 
also promoting plants and pleasure gardens. In 
1806, Irish American horticulturalist, seedsman, 
& writer Bernard M'Mahon (1775-1816), whose book 
would be read by gardeners in America for the 
next 50 years, explained the difference between 
the greenhouse and a conservatory,

"A Green house is a garden building fronted with 
glass, serving as a winter residence, for tender 
plants from the warmer parts of the world, which 
require no more artificial heat than what is 
barely sufficient to keep off the front...A 
greenhouse should generally stand in a pleasure 
ground and if possible, upon a somewhat elevated 
and dry spot fronting the south...the building 
ought to be of brick or stone, having the front 
almost wholly of glasswork, ranging lengthwise 
east to west, and constructed upon an ornamental plan...

"The Greenhouse and Conservatory have been 
generally considered as synonimous; their 
essential difference is this: in the greenhouse, 
the trees and plants are either in tubs or pots, 
and are planted on stands or stages during the 
winter, till they are removed into some suitable situation abroad in summer.

"In the conservatory, the ground plan is laid out 
in beds and borders, made up of the best 
compositions of soils that can be procured, three 
or four inches deep. In these the trees or 
plants, taken out of their tubs or pots are 
regularly planted, in the same manner as the plants in the open air.

"This house is roofed, as well as fronted with 
glass-work, and instead of taking out the plants 
in summer, as in the Greenhouse, the whole of the 
glass roof is taken off, and the plants are exposed to open air."

[]
Charles Peale Polk (1767-1822), Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826).

Thomas Jefferson, who was always experimenting 
and adding onto his property, was interested in a 
greenhouse as well. On August 2, 1807, from 
Albemarle County, Virginia, even Thomas Jefferson 
(1743-1826) received a letter listing sizes of 
glass he would need for a "green house."

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1799 Artist Lambert ? Bouche. Ann Ogle (Mrs. John 
Tayloe III) and daughters Rebecca and Henrietta.

The Minute Book of John Tayloe III (1770-1828) 
noted on August 2, 1812 at his country seat Mount 
Airy in Richmond County, Virginia, "Gardeners 
attending to the Greenhouse at Mt. Airy." 
Tayloe's city residence was Octogon House in Washinton D. C.

[]
Wye House (18th-century greenhouse with hot air 
duct system, still owned by descendants of Edward 
Lloyd) Copperville, Talbot County, Maryland. Photo by Janet Blyberg.

By the early 19th century in the new republic, 
gentlemen were building greenhouses, 
conservatories, orangeries, hot houses, pineries, 
and stove houses to grow tender plants for their 
food value and to impress their neighbors. Some 
even had their portraits painted holding their favorite plants.

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  1801 Rembrant Peale (1778-1860) Rubens Peale with Geranium


George Washington's Greenhouse

Posted: 28 Apr 2014 06:36 AM PDT

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1790s Christian Gullager (1759-1826). George Washington (1732-1799).

One of the most intriguing greenhouse stories 
involves Virginian George Washington & Margaret Tilghman Carroll  of Maryland.

In her 1770 description of the gardens Charles 
Carroll the Barrister's home called Mount Clare 
in Baltimore, Maryland, visiting Virginia widow 
Mary Ambler mentioned, "there is a Green House 
with a good many Orange & Lemon Trees just ready 
to bear." Widow & mother Mary Ambler had traveled 
to Baltimore from Belvoir in Fauquier County, 
Virginia, with her 2 children to be innoculated against smallpox.

At Mount Clare, as in many 18th century 
households, the wife supervised the greenhouse 
activities, while the husband oversaw the design 
of the gardens and grounds. Margaret Tilghman 
Carroll (1743-1817) was renowned for her orange & 
lemon trees. After her husband Charles Carroll 
(1723-1783) died in 1783, she devoted much of her 
time to growing plants in her greenhouse.

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1765 John Hesselius (1728-1778). Margaret 
Tilghman Carroll Mrs Charles Carroll the Barrister.

In addition to her greenhouse, Margaret Carroll 
also had a 39' by 24' brick structure at Mount 
Clare, which she called a Stove House, with an 
intricate hot air heating system for growing 
plants, such as pineapples, indoors yearound.

Her reputation & skill as a horticulturalist had 
impressed George Washington (1732-1799) who wrote 
a letter to her cousin Col. Tench Tilghman in 
August of 1784,  "I shall essay the finishing of 
my greenhouse this fall, but find that neither 
myself, nor any person about me is so well 
skilled in the internal constructions as to 
proceed without a probability at least of running 
into errors. Shall I for this reason, ask the 
favor of you to give me a short description of 
the Green-house at Mrs. Carrolls? I am persuaded, 
now that I planned mine on too contracted a 
scale. My house is (of Brick) 40 feet by 24, in the outer dimensions."

It is believed that Washington built his 
greenhouse copying Margaret Carrolls' building, 
which no longer exists. And in April the 
following spring Washington noted in his diary, 
"Planted and sowed in boxes placed in front of the Green House."

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Greenhouse at Mount Vernon

In 1788, Lt. John Enys (1757-1818) stopped at 
Mount Vernon noting that, "The front by which we 
entered had a Gras plot before it with a road 
round it for Carriages planted on each side with 
a number of different kinds of Trees among the 
rest some Weeping Willows which seem to flourish 
very well. One the one side of this stands the 
Garden, green house &c." Enys had come to America 
during the Revolution and recorded his notes 
after he returned to England and retired from the British army.


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Greenhouse at Mount Vernon

Early in 1789, Congregational clergyman & 
geographer Jedidiah Morse (1761-1826) was also 
impressed with Washington's garden & described 
Mount Vernon in his American Geography, "the 
green-house, school-house, offices and servants 
halls, when seen from the land side, bears a 
resemblance to a rural village --especially as 
the lands in that side are laid out somewhat in 
the form of English gardens, in meadows and grass 
grounds, ornamented with little copies, circular clumps and single trees."

[]
Greenhouse at Mount Vernon

Wishing to make a present of some of her prized 
greenhouse specimens to George Washington, 
including one grafted tree that produced both 
lemons and oranges, on 29 October 1789, Margaret 
Carroll sent by boat 20 pots of lemon & orange 
trees plus 5 boxes of assorted other greenhouse 
plants to Washington at the harbor in Alexandria.

Apparently Margaret Carroll had spoken about the 
financial possibilities of erecting greenhouses & 
stovehouses to George Washington; because the 
gift of Mount Clare's mistress was in response to 
a letter that Washington had sent her from New York, on September 16th 1789.

"Madam,
A Person having been lately sent to me from 
Europe in the capacity of a Gardner, who 
professes a knowledge in the culture of rare 
plants and care of a Green-House, I am desirous 
to profit of the very obliging offer you were pleased some time ago to make me.

"In availing myself of your goodness I am far 
from desiring that it should induce any 
inconvenience to yourself—but, reconciling your 
disposition to oblige, with your convenience, I 
shall be happy to receive such aids as you can 
well spare, and as will not impair your collection.

"Trusting that this will be the rule of your 
bounty, I have requested General Williams to give 
you notice, when an opportunity offers to 
transport the trees or plants in the freshest 
state to Mount Vernon, and to pay any expence 
which may be incurred in fitting them for 
transportation, and to receive them from your Gardner for that purpose.

"I have the honor to be, most respectfully, 
Madam, Your obliged and obedient Servant,
G. Washington"

[]
Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827). Margaret 
Tilghman (Mrs Charles Carroll the Barrister) This 
painting depicts Margaret Carroll standing next 
to the closed or lidded Lidded Campana Urn on a 
Classical Pedestal which stood on the grounds at Mount Clare in Baltimore.

Several years later, in 1792, French visitor 
Jacques Pierre Brissot de Warville (1754-1793) 
wrote, "I hastened to arrive at Mount 
Vernon...after having passed over two hills, you 
discover a country house of an elegant and 
majestic simplicity. It is preceded by 
grass-plats; on the one side of the avenue are 
the stables, on the other the green-house, and 
houses of a number of negro mechanics." Brissot 
was a vocal supporter of the 1789 French Revolution.


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This flurry of activity around the greenhouses of 
Margaret Carroll and George Washington was not 
new in America. The possibilities of growing 
tender plants in greenhouses had fascinated 
Americans since the 1st half of the century in colonial America.


American Indentured & Convict Garden Servants

Posted: 28 Apr 2014 12:14 PM PDT

Slaves, indentured servants, & convict servants 
formed the core of the garden labor force in the 
Mid-Atlantic & South. When indentured servants & 
convict servants became scarce in the early 
republic, slaves became the main maintenance gardeners.

The vast majority of gardeners of whom there are 
records were indentured & convict servants from 
Scotland, Wales, Ireland & England. Although 
slaves often assisted in the gardens during this 
period, their tasks or trades were usually not 
recorded, so it is difficult to verify their numbers.

Originally, most indentured servants imported 
into the Mid-Atlantic & Upper South worked in the 
labor-intensive task of raising of tobacco. The 
second half of the 18th century, especially in 
Maryland, witnessed growing urbanization & 
artisan production as well as a steady 
diversification in agriculture away from tobacco 
& toward less labor-demanding grain crops, such as wheat.

The Revolutionary War disrupted the flow of 
indentured & convict servants from Britain to the 
colonies, & between the end of the war & the turn 
of the century only five additional white 
indentured gardeners appeared in Maryland 
records. White indentured & convict servants 
increasingly became employed in a variety of 
trades, as their numbers dwindled in the new republic.

Most indentured & convict gardeners were 
transported to Atlantic coast docks, & then their 
labor was sold, much like other imported goods of 
the period. Their arrival was usually announced 
in a local newspaper, but little specific 
information appeared in these notices.

Much information about indentured & convict 
servants is gained through newspaper ads placed 
by the master who owned the service of a runaway 
servant. Most gardeners who ran away during the 
pre-Revolutionary years were indentured servants, 
not slaves; & most records of them that survive 
are fugitive notices in contemporary newspapers. 
The advertisements placed to apprehend runaway 
gardeners described these servants ---their 
clothing, mannerisms, & bad habits---in hope of 
speedy identification & capture.

The average age of servant gardeners was between 
20 & 30. When Charles Carroll the Barrister in 
Baltimore, Maryland, was making his request to 
his English factor in January 1768, he wrote, 
“If the above servants are Turned thirty years 
of age I shall like them better as they are more 
Likely to be Riotous & Troublesome if young.”

[]


Many garden servants bore the scars of health 
problems such as smallpox, frostbite, cataracts, 
& past violence. Some convict gardeners wore 
double-riveted steel collars as a mark of their 
status, especially if they had a history of “stealth of self.”

In 1737, indentured gardener Edward Major, born 
in England and "bred to Gardening," absented 
himself from the service of Richard Pearne in 
Brockley Township, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania.

Convict gardeners were running away in Virginia 
as early as 1738, when gardener Robert Shiels, "a 
lusty well set fellow about 26 Years of Age" ran 
from Northumberland, Virginia. English convict 
garden servant James Spencer ran from Stafford, 
Virginia, in August of 1747; and John Weller, a 
convict gardener rode away from John Sutherland 
in Fredericksburg, Virgina, in 1759, on a large 
black horse stolen from his master.

In the 1740s, several South Carolina runaway 
notices mentioned gardeners, both enslaved and 
serving under an indenture. Run away... a servant 
man... a Gardener by trade (South Carolina Gazette, January 8, 1750).

In 1741 Philadelphia, the vessel the Snow Prince 
of Orange arrived from Dublin, with "a Likely 
Parcel of Servants" including several gardeners. 
A few months earlier, the Snow Penguin arrived 
from Cork, also offering a gardener "to be disposed of."

The port at Philadelphia was a popular arrival 
point for indentured servants. In 1750, the Snow 
Golden Fleece arrived from Bristol with some 
gardeners. Several "likely servants" including 
gardeners arrived in November of 1751; and 1754 
saw a "parcel of likely, healthy servant men" 
including gardeners arrive from London on the brigatine "Lark."

In Philadelphia in 1751, Edward Cross, an English 
indentured gardener ran away from his service 
wearing a brown coat with a plush collar, a 
striped waistcoat, brown stockings, leather 
breeches, & a dark brown wig. And another 
gardener jumped the ship Dolphin, when it landed. 
Stephen Gom, an English gardener, was also 
wearing a brown wig, when he escaped the vessel 
and his indenture contract in 1752.

Convict gardener Jacob Parrott, born in the West 
of England, ran away from Bohemia, Maryland, in 
1752. In 1753, Henry Tedder, "born in Essex, 
England, about 30 & brought up a Gardiner" ran 
away from John Hall & Jacob Giles in Baltimore, 
County, Maryland. Henry had a "pretty wide mouth, 
talks pretty quick, and snaps his eyes when he 
talks much, which he is apt to do; much given to drink."

Convict Thomas Warner ran from his garden 
indenture in Baltimore, County, in 1756; while 
John Johnson, by trade a gardener, about 25 years 
old, ran away from the ship Anna, in Lower 
Marlborough, Maryland. A reward was offered for his return.

John Shupard, "an Englishman, a Gardiner by 
Trade" ran away from his master John Brown in 
Cecil County, Maryland, in December of 1757. "An 
old man, a Gardiner, that belonged to Mr. Thomas 
Ringold" ran away from Chester Town, Maryland, in the fall of 1760.

English convict servant gardener Thomas Humphreys 
ran from Stephen Bordley in Kent County, 
Maryland, in 1760. Bordley noted that Humphreys 
"is a slippery Chap." The following year, John 
Nelson, a convict servant gardener, ran from Benjamin Rogers in Baltimore Town.

In a daring over-the-wall escape in 1762, John 
McDaniel, a convict gardener, made it out of the 
goal in Philadelphia, wearing his own hair. Also 
in 1762, John Inglis, a servant "gardiner" from 
Leith, Scotland, escaped his master John Malcolm on the Bristol Road.


[]


In 1766, William Firth, "a Gardiner, an 
Englishman, about 45 Years of Age" ran away from 
Rousby Hall, Patuxent River, Maryland. In 
Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Irish servant 
gardener & shoemaker John Logan, under contract 
to James Alexander near Philadelphia, was waiting 
in the Carlisle Goal to be picked up by his 
master or sold for costs & fees by the local 
jailer. Less than a year later, English servant 
gardener Thomas Bowman left John Lee Webster in 
Bushtown reportedly heading for the bright lights of Philadelphia or New York.

At least two gardeners conscripted into His 
Majesty's army, ran away from their military 
service. In 1760, Thomas Holmes, an English 
gardener, deserted in Philadelphia; and Dublin 
gardener John Fitzpatrick left the service in Annapolis, in 1762.

Some South Carolina indentured servants did not 
choose to serve their sea service and fled for 
terra firma, as evidence by this as in the 
Gazette on September 28, 1767, ABSENTED on the 
25th of Sept. 1767, from the ship Two Friends, 
Samuel Ball, master, indented servant, JAMES 
FOSTER, aged about 22 years, well set, about 5 
feet 6 inches high, his complexion ruddy, but a 
good deal sun-burnt , with short brown hair, 
inclined to curl; born in Norwich, and a gardener 
by trade, had on when he went away a brown coat, 
but may have changed his dress.

Some indentured servant gardeners were 
unwittingly impressed into naval service at 
European ports during the last half of the 18th 
century. At least 3 men who ended up as gardeners 
in the Chesapeake had jumped ship; when they 
arrived in the ports of the bay, in order to get 
back to terra firma. One of them was 30-year-old 
white sailor Pierre LaFitte, who fled a French 
privateer in Baltimore, hoping to return to his 
original trade as a gardener, further inland, at Frederick, Maryland.

LaFitte quickly came to enjoy some of the 
benefits of life on land but disliked others. He 
soon ran away from his gardening chores at 
Frederick as well; however, he did carry with him 
several silver spools & a 22-year-old 
French-speaking black girl wearing a green petticoat.

In 1762, an exceptionally well-dressed servant 
Englishman John Crocott, who "worked in a Garden 
at times whilst with me" ran away from 
Westmoreland County, Virginia. "He took with him 
a dark Kersey Coat with large Metal Buttons, and 
Breeches of the same almost new...a blue jump 
Jacket, double breasted, with small Metal 
Buttons, white and coloured Stockings."

The ship "Hugh and James" arrived in 
Philadelphia, from Ireland in 1766, offering 
servant gardeners among the cargo. The brig 
"Patty" arrived at Philadelphia bringing "about 
100 Servants and Redemptioners, Men Women, Boys, 
and Girls" among which were several gardeners in 
1772. It was followed by the Brigantine "Dolphin" 
in 1774, also with several gardeners "to be disposed of."

Welch convict gardener William Spring ate ran 
from Daniel Charier in Baltimore in 1771; and in 
1775, Spring ate, this time noted to be "a great 
thief and drunkard" ran again from Job Garret son 
in Baltimore County, Maryland.

James VAX of New Providence Township in 
Philadelphia County, lost his English servant 
gardener Leonard Broom, who was wearing a 
handkerchief about his neck, when he took off. In 
1776, English servant gardener Thomas S altar 
also ran away from New Providence and his owner Row land Evens.

In 1774 ship, "London Packet," offered "100 
likely German & English servants" including one 
gardener. In 1775, the brig "Dolphin" returned to 
port with a number of "healthy Servants and 
Redemptioners" including gardeners, who would 
serve for a term of 4 years. In the same year, 
Samuel Hansom of Charles County, Maryland, 
advertised for the return of his Irish servant 
gardener Robert Mills. Charles Tipping, a 
gardener, ran away from William Reynolds in Annapolis in November of 1775.

Irish gardener John Mohican ran away from Tom's 
Creek in Frederick County, Maryland, in June of 
1776. He traveled north to Lancaster County, 
Pennsylvania, and was calling himself John Melon 
there, as he looked for work. The next April, 
John Brown, "a Gardener by trade" ran away from 
John Gallo way in Chester town, Maryland.

After 1750, many of the gentry had begun to 
garden for both sustenance & pleasure at their 
in-town residences as well as out on their 
plantations. By the time the young Charles Car 
roll of Carrollton returned to Annapolis after 
completing his education in Europe, in 1765, the 
grounds has already been set in some order. 
Charles Carroll of Annapolis, his father, had 
begun working on their gardens in 1730, with the 
assistance of a servant gardener. Later, when 
planning the extensive renovations of their 
property, the Carrolls decided to buy the 
indenture of a 22-year-old Welsh convict 
gardener, in addition to renting the two gardeners from Colonel Sharpes.

Over the next few years, they directly employed 
several indentured servant gardeners as well as 
slaves to dig drainage ditches. (The gentlemen 
themselves were busy ordering seeds, grasses, & 
clover from their English factors.) In 1772, 
various laborers built garden gates & a 
washhouse, & by 1774, brick masons had laid the 
brick wall surrounding the gardens.

Stonemasons & slaves completed a sea wall at the 
bottom of the garden terraces in 1775, & the next 
year laborers were erecting the two octagonal 
pavilions that would sit 400 feet apart at either 
end of the sea wall. The servants’ & slaves’ 
final addition to the grounds, a bathhouse, was 
up & working in 1778. The artisans & gardeners 
who achieved these complicated additions to the 
Carroll grounds at Annapolis worked side by side 
with Carroll slaves regularly assigned to garden work.

By the 1780s, the Carroll garden was established 
& only needed to be maintained, so after that 
date the Carrolls employed few new white garden 
indentured servants, using for the maintenance 
work the slaves who had been trained during the renovation.

Similarly, young Annapolis attorney William Paca 
married wealthy Mary Chew in 1763, & immediately 
began to plan his Annapolis home & gardens, which 
he began building in 1765. Paca employed at least 
one indentured garden servant, who doubled as a 
shoemaker, to help plan & construct his 
brick-walled pleasure grounds. His garden was 
dominated by geometric terraces that fell to a 
small naturalized wilderness garden boasting a 
pond, a Chinese-style bridge, & a classical pavilion.

Of the 30 gardeners identified in Maryland 
documents before the Revolution, all but four 
were white indentured servants. Many were 
seasoned British gardeners. The first Maryland 
servant gardener appeared in Anne Arundel County records in 1720.

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Mid-Atlantic & Upper South colonists often looked 
for specific experience in their indentured 
servant gardeners. Charles Carroll of Annapolis 
asked each prospective gardener “How long he 
served, in what Place, in what places & Gardens 
He has Worked Since He was out of his 
apprenticesh[ip], in What Branch He has been 
Chiefly employed, the Kitchen or Flower Garden of 
Nursery, whether He understands Grafting Inoculating & Trimming.”

During the 1770s, these indentured servants were 
usually paid between 6 pounds & 32 pounds per 
year plus their meat, drink, washing, & lodging. 
Garden servants often supplemented their regular 
duties in the winter by doubling as dyers, & 
weavers. Familiarity with the dyes produced by 
various plants led gardeners naturally into 
textile trades. The combination of crafts 
flourished outside the Mid-Atlantic & Upper South 
as well. Slaves who served as summer gardeners 
also sometimes doubled as shoemakers during the winter months.

Some of Maryland’s convict gardeners had 
practiced the gardening trade before arriving in 
the colonies, & one possessed an unusual 
knowledge of sophisticated gardening techniques. 
In January of 1768, Charles Carroll the 
Barrister, cousin to the Carrolls of Annapolis & 
Carrolton, wrote to his English agents, “I am 
in want of a Gardener that understands a Kitchen 
Garden…Grafting, Budding, Inoculatingg & the 
Management of an orchard & Fruit Trees…under 
Indentuure for four or five years…There come in 
Gardeners in every Branch ffrom Scotland at Six pounds a year.”

The requested servant arrived at Mount Clare 
later that year & was apparently well respected 
by the Barrister & his fellow gentry, even though 
he was a convict. When Charles Carroll of 
Carrollton bought a gardener for his father at 
the docks in Baltimore, he asked the 
Barrister’s convict gardener to interview the 
new immigrant & then wrote his father, “I have 
bought a new gardiner from Captain Frost. I gave 
23 pounds currency for him; he is not about 21 
years of age, appears to be healthy & stout & 
orderly; he says he understands a kitchen garden 
pretty well; Mr. Carroll’s gardener examined him: he has 4 years to serve.”

Carroll Barrister’s convict gardener may have 
been a good judge of men, but he did have a few 
negative qualities. Five years into the man’s 
indenture, the exasperated Carroll placed & 
advertisement in the Maryland Gazette on May 
6,1773: “TEN POUNDS REWARD…¦Ran away…a convict 
servant man, names John Adam Smith>…by trade a 
gardener; has with him…a treatise of raisaising 
the pineapple, which he pretends is of his own 
writing, talks much of his trade & loves liquor.”

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Occasionally masters placed a spiked iron collar 
around the necks of their white indentured 
servants for other offenses. In 1770, one of the 
servant gardeners of Charles Carroll of Annapolis 
got drunk & insulted several women in the Carroll 
family. Carroll threatened to have the man 
whipped, but the women begged for leniency on his behalf.

Carroll wrote to his son, “Squires was not 
whipt, He wears a collar in terrorem to others, & 
as a Punishment which He justly deserves, but I 
think to take it off soon." Carroll felt fully 
justified in often whipping his favorite servant 
gardener, John Turnbull, for drinking too much & 
was surprised when the man chose to work for 
Carroll no more, when his indenture expired in 1772.  Ah, freedom.