This article examines the life and work of Willis McKeand (1782–1860), a Virginia cabinetmaker overlooked in the commonly consulted decorative arts literature. Particular attention is paid to his career in Goochland County, Virginia, from 1802 to 1815. Despite his absence in the literature, Willis McKeand is a particularly well-documented example of southern cabinetmakers escaping local and northern competition in urban areas and moving to the hinterlands and small towns.[1] The article deals first with McKeand’s training in Richmond under Samuel Swann and George and James Taylor. In this section, previously unknown information is provided on the Swann-Taylor cabinetmaking shop (Figure 1). The following section discusses the urban style furniture produced for McKeand’s patron, Thomas Miller, of Goochland County. The third section explores the working connection between Willis McKeand and James McAlester, a cabinetmaker who worked in McKeand’s shop and who also produced urban style furniture in the counties of Goochland and Louisa. In the final section, the article explains how McKeand’s marriage to Sally Gilliam and the property she brought to that union allowed McKeand to transition from being a cabinetmaker to a farmer, as well as supporting his move westward.
 Figure 1 |
Early Life
Willis McKeand was born into a large and prominent family. His first appearance in a public record is in the City of Richmond’s 1782 list of inhabitants, where he appears as a one-year-old alongside his father John (age forty); mother Elizabeth (age thirty-one); sisters Elizabeth Carter (age nine), Jeanett (age seven), and Priscilla (age five); and brother John (age two). Brother Alexander was born the following year and was followed by Anna, who was born between 1783 and 1789. John McKeand came to Richmond circa 1762. When Richmond was incorporated as an independent city in 1782, he became a councilman in the first city council. At the time, he was a partner in the mercantile firm of Buchanan and McKeand. Willis McKeand’s parents both died when he was still a child: Elizabeth McKeand in 1789 and John McKeand on 29 April 1792.[2]
John McKeand’s will and inventory indicate a person of means who provided for his children.[3] In eighteenth-century colonial America, guardians were appointed for orphans who had an estate to protect while impoverished orphans were bound out to learn a trade. In colonial Virginia, the Anglican vestry provided for the impoverished. After the American Revolution, this responsibility was taken over by the county government organization known as the Overseers of the Poor. In 1793, Willis’s older brother John, with the consent of his guardian Alexander McRobert, agreed to be apprenticed to Bell and Shiphard to learn the trade of saddler and harness maker.[4] In 1798, Willis’s younger brother Alexander was bound out at age fifteen by the Overseers of the Poor to Jacob Breckius to learn the trade of tanner and currier.[5] The fact that Alexander had no guardian means the McKeand family had fallen on hard times. Although the 1805 U.S. Circuit Court, Eastern Division of Virginia case of Lloyd and Hansbury vs. McKeand’s Executors states that Robert West was appointed guardian for Alexander McKeand, this may have been a temporary situation as a minor needed an adult to represent him or her in legal matters.[6] Apprenticeships not handled by the Overseers of the Poor were considered private contracts and were not required to be recorded; this seems to have been the situation for Willis McKeand.[7]
Apprenticeship
Given that, as of yet, no public contract has been located in the City of Richmond records, the key to discovering Willis McKeand’s apprenticeship requires springing ahead in time to two nineteenth-century Goochland County court records. Records of a litigation between McKeand and merchant George Greenhow reveal that in 1802, McKeand was an apprentice to City of Richmond cabinetmaker Samuel Swann.
From 1801 to 1802, Willis McKeand purchased goods worth £78.17.1 from George Greenhow, a merchant working in the City of Richmond. Because McKeand still owed £57.17.5½ in 1803, Greenhow received a judgment from the Goochland County court for an execution—an order to seize and sell—McKeand’s property.[8] The largest part of his account with Greenhow was for the following cabinetmaking tools:
1 saw sett
1 double plain iron
1 doz. 4 Key [till?] locks 2 bookcase ditto
2 Smiths Files
1 Rule
6 Plane Irons
1 Grind Stone
1 Screw Auger
1 Sett Desk Mounting
2 pr. Hinges
1 hand saw
The dispute about the debt continued for nearly two decades, and in 1819, McKeand sued Greenhow in the Goochland chancery court.[9] Chancery cases were complicated cases that were decided by fairness rather than written law, and the final disposition of such cases was decided by the court, not a jury.
In his bill of complaint, McKeand claimed that he did not remember contracting the debt except for $30.00, which was paid by his guardian, Robert West. West is likely the same person who was listed as the guardian for Willis’s brother Alexander in the 1805 case Lloyd and Hansbury vs. McKeand’s Executors. In the chancery case against Greenhow, McKeand revised his story and said that if he ever did contract the debt, it was when he was a minor, and that no guardian was appointed to defend his rights. Greenhow, in his answer to the bill of complaint, stated that the plaintiff made numerous promises to pay the debt, but that he never received any remuneration. More importantly, Greenhow revealed McKeand’s apprenticeship by stating “That the debt was created by a supply in the most part of sundry tools for the cabinetmaking business just after the said McKeand had been emancipated from his Apprenticeship under One Saml. Swan, now decd.”[10]
Swann-Taylor Cabinetmaking Shop
To understand Willis McKeand’s training, it is necessary to unravel the complex inner workings of the cabinetmaking shop of Samuel Swann and George Taylor that no doubt impacted McKeand’s work. Swann’s cabinetmaking business, especially his partnership with his brothers-in-law George and James Taylor, was much more involved than has been documented previously.[11]
Cabinetmaker Samuel Swann first appears on the 1787 City of Richmond personal property tax list as head of household along with John Swann and Willis Swann.[12] From 1789 to 1795, Swann was paid by the commonwealth of Virginia for various forms of cabinetmaking. Listings for repairs include items such as mending a bureau and gluing and blocking chairs. He also made a large mahogany press for the Governor’s house that may have been a linen press and a birch book press, which was a case piece with two hinged doors on the bottom and two hinged doors at the top.[13] The interior would have been divided into sections to hold volumes of various sizes and pigeon holes to hold loose papers. In the issue of the Virginia Gazette and Public Advertiser published on 18 June 1791, Swann advertised his cabinetmaking and chair making business and made the public aware that he could provide needs for funerals.[14]
By 1795, Swann expanded his business to Petersburg, Virginia, and entered into a partnership with a Mr. Ellis.[15] The following notice from the same year appeared in Petersburg’s Virginia Gazette, describing the urban high style furniture that the firm offered its customers:
SWAN [sic] & ELLIS RESPECTFULLY inform the public that they have just opened a shop on Bollingbrook Street nearly opposite the Post-Office, where they intend making all kinds of Cabinet work: such as Easy Chairs, Chairs, Sofas, Secretary and Bookcases, Desk and Bookcases. Circular, square, and oval pembrook, Card and Dining Tables, circular and commode sideboards with celaretes, circular, square and commode Beaurous, and many other articles too tedious to mention; which they warrant, shall be made as elegant and on as cheap terms as can be imported from any foreign market.[16]
In 1796, Swann insured a house he used as his shop for $1,500 with the Mutual Assurance Society. The building was described as being located on the “Old Road running up Shokoe Hill” (Figure 2).[17] Also in 1796, Sammuel Swann placed a notice in the newspaper that he was going away for a few months and that the Petersburg business would be handled by Mr. Ellis, and the Richmond business would be handled by George Taylor.[18]
 Figure 2 |
The Petersburg partnership of Ellis and Swann seems to have been dissolved by 1797.[19] Two years later, Samuel Swann died. In his will dated 11 October 1795 and recorded on 7 October 1799, Swann stated he wanted an inventory and appraisal of materials and tools to be taken and then for his friends George and James Taylor to continue his cabinetmaking business in his shop with the existing materials, tools, and all of his apprentices. By the provisions of the will, for as long as the shop continued, George Taylor and James Taylor were to each receive a third of the profits with the remaining third going to the support of Swann’s wife and children.[20] Inventories are taken shortly after the death of the decedent, so Swann’s inventory was taken at the time of his death, but not recorded until 5 April 1802. Oddly, the inventory listed no cabinetmaking materials or tools.[21]
On the surface, the working relationship between Samuel Swann and George and James Taylor seemed amicable. However, the 1860 Goochland County chancery case Thomas Thompson Swann, Etc. vs. Executor of John Swann, Etc., reveals another story. Litigation over Samuel Swann’s estate continued for fifty-nine years.[22] In 1804, John Swann, executor of the estate, contacted George and James Taylor for information that they had that would be helpful in settling the estate. The Taylors responded by sending accounts for 1797–1798, 1799, and 1801–1804 along with a letter dated 1804 and an undated business proposition. The following begins to show the dynamics between Swann and the Taylors:
Copy Saml. Swanns propositions to Geo. & James Taylor
It is agreed between George Taylor James [Taylor] & Samuel Swann that he shall take all the hands mahogany & curled Hair moss & tools for which they are to pay £750 pounds. . .Rent of the shop from the first day of May the[y] are to pay £45 pr year Rent & 7 ½ percent on the Stock. . .it is agreed that the[y] are to strickly to attend to the Cabinet business and the[y] are to have each an equal share & for the partnership to last for a term of five years from the date say from the first day of May and that all the work that shall be begun after this day is for the Benefit of Taylor & Co and all the work that is now on hand either begun or know finished shall be for the benefit of the sade Swann the sd Taylor is to let the sade Swann have whatever Cash can be spared out of the business until this ensuing year the expense of the Hous Rent of the Hous & provishions is to commence from the first May ensuing when the partnership of George Taylor James [Taylor] & Saml Swann will commence under the firm of Taylor & Co
Signed
Saml Swann[23]
The following excerpts from a letter of 21 March 1804 from George Taylor to John Swann explain the business relationship between George Taylor and James Taylor with Samuel Swann and the estate of Samuel Swann:
With regards to an agreement having taken place between your brother and ourselves no such thing ever took place. . .suffice it to say that his conduct toward me had been such that I left him and went to Petersburg from whence his letter induced me to return after my return he made the enclosed propositions. . . With regards to a continuance with the partnership with Brother I informed you of it in a conversation at your own house that it did not continue. . . As to my taking the responsibility of the shop on me I always conceived that it was on me and that we had nothing more to do then pay to Samuel Swann or his Estate the profits his proportion Intitled [sic] him to[24]
These two documents indicate that the Taylors initially rejected a business agreement with Samuel Swann. Between 1796 and 1797, relations between George Taylor and Swann deteriorated to the point that Taylor left and went to Petersburg. Did Taylor have a previous connection to Petersburg, or did he go there for a job opportunity? Taylor’s movement back and forth between Petersburg and Richmond is similar to the work experience of chairmakers Leonard Seaton and James Barnes and cabinetmaker John DeJernatt.[25] This movement between the two cities raises the question for future researchers about the relationship of the furniture making business between Richmond and Petersburg. Swann convinced George Taylor to return to work by 1797, and he and his brother James Taylor agreed to the following proposition: the business, after an interim period, would be known as Taylor & Co. In this new venture, George and James Taylor ran the cabinetmaking business and would thus have been responsible for the supervision of apprentices, including Willis McKeand.
City of Richmond personal property taxes for 1797–1798 and the Taylors’ accounts for 1797–1798 in the 1860 Goochland County chancery case Thomas Thompson Swann, Etc. vs. Executor of John Swann, Etc., suggest that the arrangement for George Taylor & Co. ended some time in 1799. As noted above, a clause in Samuel Swann’s will refers to the Taylors continuing the cabinetmaking business with the stock and tools on hand and his apprentices. A comment in George Taylor’s 1804 letter that “most of the hard ware items on hand is totally useless to us” may suggest that in fact there remained very little of value in the shop’s inventory at Swann’s death.[26] About the same time of Swann’s death, an advertisement by Geo. Taylor & Co. of Richmond appeared in the 5 October 1799 issue of The Norfolk Herald seeking to hire eight or ten journeymen cabinetmakers. It is not totally clear, but this may be a new iteration of the Taylors’ cabinetmaking business.[27]
Although there is no documentation of Willis McKeand working as an apprentice for Samuel Swann beyond the 1819 Goochland County chancery court case, it is possible that he is recorded in personal property tax records, which note the number of white males above the age of sixteen and enslaved people above the age of sixteen and between the ages of twelve and sixteen. The list for 1795 includes the names of white males in the household, but such is not included in later lists. Willis McKeand turned sixteen in 1797, so that is the first year that he was likely to be included in the number of white men above the age of sixteen.[28]
Tax records are also useful for documenting the transfer of ownership of Samuel Swann’s shop. By 1797, Samuel Swann disappeared from the City of Richmond personal property tax list, and George Taylor and Company appeared for the first time. The number of white males above the age of sixteen in the household is the same for Swann and Taylor and Company: six. This transfer of apprentices indicates Swann’s proposal for a partnership with George and James Taylor, which has been mentioned earlier.[29]
| Year | Persons names chargeable with the tax | Number of white males above sixteen years | Blacks above sixteen years | Blacks above twelve years |
| 1795 | Samuel Swann | 7* | 5 | 1 |
| 1796 | Samuel Swann | 6 | 2 | |
| 1797 | George Taylor & Co. | 6 | 4 | |
| 1797 | George Taylor & Co. | 2(+ 6 Apprentices) | 2 | |
| 1798 | George Taylor & Co. | 4 | ||
| 1799 | George Taylor | 4 | ||
| 1799 | George Taylor | 5 | 2 | |
| 1800 | George Taylor | 4 |
*The following names are included in the list: Samuel Swann Jr., James Gentry, William Reynolds, Benjamin Moseby, David Chims, and Benjamin Winston [30]
What these chancery and tax records clearly illustrate is that Willis McKeand was trained in the City of Richmond cabinetmaking environment of Samuel Swann, George Taylor, and James Taylor. James Taylor must have made a definite impression on Willis McKeand for in 1815 McKeand sold 182¾ acres to James Taylor of the City of Richmond.[31] Moreover, he was one of three cabinetmakers called in to arbitrate McKeand’s account of furniture made for his Goochland County patron, Thomas Miller.[32]
Thomas Miller of Goochland County
Between 1803 and 1809, Willis McKeand made and repaired furniture for Thomas Miller (1754–1819).[33] In addition to being a planter with estates in Goochland, Spotsylvania, and King William counties, Miller was sheriff of Goochland County and also represented that county in the House of Delegates from 1803 to 1807.[34] Miller died in his home Lavallie in Goochland County in 1819.[35]
The references to McKeand in Miller’s papers highlight the transition from Willis McKeand, apprentice in Richmond’s Swann-Taylor cabinetmaking shop, to Willis McKeand, master of his own cabinetmaking shop in Goochland County. Moreover, the records document cabinetmaking connections between Richmond and the counties to the west (Figure 3 and 4) and the furniture forms produced in Piedmont Virginia that showed knowledge of current styles in the city.
 Figure 3 |
 Figure 4 |
While Willis McKeand’s escaping local and northern competition in urban areas and moving to the hinterlands is particularly well-documented, he was not the only southern cabinetmaker to follow this pattern.[36] Others who pursued similar paths were Robert McLaurine and Arthur Mann.
Across the James River from Goochland County in Powhatan County, Robert McLaurine made a walnut clothespress, inscribing his name and an 1805 date on the bottom of the lower case (Figure 5). Furniture in the Federal period, especially case pieces like the Powhatan clothespress, are more vertical in appearance than those produced earlier. Stylistically, furniture produced in rural areas tended to perpetuate older styles and conventions, yet the McLaurine clothespress, despite its neat and plain aesthetic, demonstrates an awareness of urban-influenced craftsmanship, evident in specific construction elements and its pronounced verticality. Because of the close proximity of Richmond, it is likely that McLaurine was trained there.[37] Given that Samuel Swann was the uncle of Robert McLaurine, McLaurine may have trained under Swann or George and James Taylor before starting his own business in rural Powhatan County.[38]
 Figure 5 |
Arthur Mann of Louisa County also exemplifies the move away from an urban area. In his 1793 deposition given in the City of Richmond for the Henrico County chancery case of Henry Mann vs. John Syme, Arthur Mann stated that his father, Henry Mann, sold Mrs. John Syme of New Castle in Hanover County “two elegant mahogany bedsteads finished in the best manner” and “a mahogany Chinese tea table” in 1784 and 1785.[39] Henry Mann relocated from Hanover County to the City of Richmond by at least late 1786.[40] In the 11 August 1801 issue of the Virginia Gazette and General Advertiser, Arthur Mann, who was at that time living near Louisa County Courthouse, advertised for the hire of three journeymen cabinetmakers and two journeymen house joiners. Those interested in applying were advised to contact Henry Mann, who lived near the Henrico County courthouse, which was then near the corner of East Main Street and Twenty-Second Street in Richmond.[41] Having been raised by a skilled cabinetmaker, Arthur Mann would have been familiar with the current styles of cabinetmaking that were in demand in urban spaces, but he, like McKeand and McLaurine, ultimately chose to set up shop in a rural county (Figures 6 and 7).
 Figure 6 |
 Figure 7 |
Awareness of urban cabinetmaking trends is revealed in McKeand’s 1805 agreement with Thomas Miller.[42] McKeand stated that he was completing furniture already ordered by Miller but proposed adding the following items: “a set of dining tables (say one square & two circular ends) of sufficient size & of the best Mahogany, also two Sofas such as may be approved of all which jobs of work said Miller is to allow Richmond price for such pieces.” An example of the furniture form is a set of dining tables with circular ends seen in the neoclassical mahogany Hepplewhite table with demi lune ends (Figure 8) pictured in Southern Furniture 1680–1830 the Colonial Williamsburg Collection.[43] In regard to the table, the authors state that far more neoclassical furniture was produced in Richmond, Norfolk, and Petersburg. Given his training in Richmond, it should come as no surprise that McKeand would make a three-part dining table for Miller. The table’s measurements are described in the accounts for Miller as, “By set 4 F[eet] 6 I[nches] dining Tables $50,” which was a considerable amount of money. In payment for his work, Miller was to provide McKeand with a six-year-old bay mare and pay McKeand’s debts to George Parish, George Payne, and Samuel Robinson.[44]
 Figure 8 |
While written in the form of a business contract, this memo of agreement discusses furniture forms, upholstery work, cabinetmaking supplies, pricing, debt, and customer relationships. The examples that follow provide further insight into these matters.
McKeand was trained in the Richmond urban cabinetmaking tradition where there was a clear distinction between cabinetmakers and upholsterers. This separation of trades led to a more efficient and cost-effective process of production.[45] Given that he created upholstered furniture, it is likely that McKeand had an upholsterer in his shop or contracted the work out. Further, a list of furniture made by McKeand from 1803 to 1809 has an 1805 charge of £7.10.0 for an easy chair, and in McKeand’s account against Thomas Miller there is an 1809 entry for “two sophy frames £6” and an 1810 entry for “Twelve yards Hair Cloth at £1. Per yard.”[46]
In addition to upholstery, McKeand’s use of mahogany is corroborated by an 1805 order for the pick-up of “a slab 4 inches & the Balc. of the Stock laid of & sawed one Inch” lumber at a landing on the James River and the note that “Thomas Miller is hereby authorized to receive a Mahogany stock of mine lying at Bollings Landing.”[47] An 1809 receipt from Perkins & French documents Thomas Miller assisting McKeand in purchasing cabinetmaking hardware such as brads and nails, as well as Osnaburg (“Ozns”), a coarse fabric which was often used for the clothing of enslaved workers.[48]
The 1805 memorandum states that the price for the dining tables and two sofas were to be in agreement with “Richmond price for such pieces.” In pricing his work this way, McKeand implies that there was a general understanding among Richmond cabinetmakers of the value of furniture forms, although the only surviving antebellum document for the cost of cabinetmaking work is the 1822 set of prices paid to journeymen by Willis Cowling and Robert Poore.[49] The memorandum also illustrates an economy where goods and services pass hands rather than ready money until a final settlement is required. Promissory notes of debtor to creditor were also used as a means of payment to a third party.
The use of barter allowed persons to enter the consumer world who had previously been outside the cash economy, and it was not unusual for cabinetmakers to also be involved in the barter system.[50] Chairmaker Chesley Hardy paid his accounts with Sampson Duiguid, a Lynchburg cabinetmaker, with chairs rather than cash.[51] Robert Gilmore paid his accounts with Thomas Chittum, a Lexington cabinetmaker, with bushels of apples or damsons and with the making of table legs.[52]
McKeand was not keeping track of his accounts with Miller—as seen in the following note:
Dear Sir
I am very Sorry that I had to give Mr. Woodson an order on you for four pounds ten Shillings for which sum, you did not owe me, quite as much, at the time I thought you owed me more, but since I have looked, and find it not so, therefore I shall be under Obligations to you to excuse me, as it was not wilfully done and necessity compelled me to have some Money at that time If you want that Bureau I have done, I should be glad you would take it away, as it will get more worsted here than in a house where it is close, my future conduct Shall make up for the Injury done, as I feel my self for the answer, as I think youre were injured
Yours Willis McKeand
Mr. Thomas Miller
September 14th 1803
Mr. Robertson [ ] £12.10.6[53]
The following quotation points out problems with McKeand’s business practices: “you did not owe me, quite as much, at the time I thought you owed me more, but since I have looked, and find it not so.” He either did not understand bookkeeping or use bookkeeping to track his financial status. This would involve using a day to day variety of ledgers, journals, and day books that had to be maintained on a regular basis. This required an entry of debits and credits in interconnected volumes. McKeand was not the only cabinetmaker to have this problem—failure to do this led to the litigation of Lexington cabinetmaker Thomas G. Chittum.[54]
What McKeand made before and after the 1805 memorandum is described in the following list of furniture produced for Thomas Miller from 1803 to 1809:
Mr. Thomas Miller To Willis McKeand Dr
1803 To a Commode Sideboard String £18.0.0
1804 To two Circular Bureaus with birch ends inlade and cross banded 24.0.0
To two Tea Tables Inlade [?] 15 [?] 18 wone without leaves 9.18.0
1805 To Easy Chair 7.10.0
To Wash stand 1.16.0
1809 To Secretary Desk and bookcase 25.0.0
To on Sett of 4F[eet]/6I[nch] Dinning tables, made of good wood 18.0.0
To Sach Corner Sideboard with a cerpantine middle, Sollid and plane 33.0.0
To on[e] Do. Strate except the Middle doors cerpantine and draws on the ends, above the
doors, Sollid plane 24.0.0
To one Small Chest of Draws 2.2.0
To 6 Circular Window Cornice 7/6 per pece 3F[eet] 10I[nches] long 2.5.0
To 4 Do. Ruff to paste paper over 6/ 1.4.0
1803 To Candle Stand 2.8.0
£171.30
We do certify that the prices stated above is Reasonable if the wood is good wood (Bay Mahogany)
Robert Poore
Edmd Webster
Jas Taylor
On the reverse side of the valuation is the following annotation:
Many Acts. Charged not finished & many finished Charged too high as has been agreed by Willis McKeand.[55]
The fact that the furniture costs were reviewed by Richmond cabinetmakers Robert Poore, Edmund Webster, and James Taylor indicates that they had been called in to arbitrate the prices between Miller and McKeand. While the signed side of the arbitration document states that the prices were fair, the annotation on the reverse side of the valuation seen in the transcribed document above indicates there was further discussion about the prices. Examination of the indices of the Goochland County order books (which record a synopsis of law cases that were heard when the court was in session) for 1809 to 1813 do not list any litigation between McKeand and Miller. Thus, it is likely that the arbitration was handled as a private matter, and the list of furniture signed by Poore, Webster, and Taylor is the only record showing that McKeand’s work for Miller was in arbitration. [56] It also provides the clearest and most precise description of the various furniture forms associated with McKeand.[57]
This note is further corroborated by a 6 October 1806 entry from one of the iterations of accounts between McKeand and Miller:
“To over charge on two Burros $30 two tea tables $5 1 candle stand $2 picture frames $ 2.51 11[.] 7 [.] 1.”[58]
The furniture forms included in the arbitration list are also listed in various accounts found in Miller’s records concerning McKeand, sometimes with a value in dollars and cents, and other times in pounds, shillings, and pence. While the valuation above is the most descriptive listing of the furniture made for Thomas Miller, two other accounts list additional furniture and repairs. The first is an 1803 charge for three picture frames at £0.15.2, and the second is a record of charges from 1809 for two brass locks at £0.9.0, a pine table at £0.9.0, repairing a sideboard at £1.16.0, and repairing a clock case at £0.15.0.[59]
In addition to providing insights into the furniture forms he was making in the first decade of the nineteenth century, the arbitration reveals McKeand’s connections to the cabinetmaking community, as well as the connections among other members of that community. For example, Jas Taylor is James Taylor, George Taylor’s brother and Samuel Swann’s brother-in-law, in whose shop McKeand likely trained. There was a notice in the 7 July 1802 issue of the Virginia Gazette and General Advertiser for “Robert Poor[e] at George Taylor’s, cabinetmaker,” implying that Poore was working at Taylor’s shop.[60] The first reference to the cabinetmaking firm of Webster, Poore, and Prosser is an 1805 petition in the City of Richmond Hustings Court for payment of a debt.[61] Robert Poore and Edmund Webster were Richmond cabinetmakers who had been in business together from 1805 to 1814.[62] Notice of the dissolution of their partnership appeared in the 9 April 1814 issue of the Richmond Enquirer and was signed Edmund Webster and Robert Poore.[63] Thus, all three arbitrators were well established and would have been known to McKeand.
In both their form and materials, McKeand’s choices of styles are indicative of those produced in an urban area. Circular or bow front bureaus with inlay and cross banding were typical of high style urban furniture. Federal sideboards had options for ornamentation such as string inlay as well as a variety of forms. The facades might be straight, serpentine, or some other shape. Various arrangements of drawers and doors were other options.[64] Also of note are cornices for window treatments, four of which were to be ornamented with some sort of decorative paper. The memorandum of agreement, valuation of furniture forms, and references to mahogany show a cabinetmaker familiar with current styles of furniture and pricing in Richmond. References to an easy chair, settees, and fabric may also indicate McKeand had access to an upholster.
James McAlester
McKeand was an integral connection between cabinetmakers in Richmond and the surrounding counties. His business connections not only enhance our understanding of the cabinetmaking shops of Samuel Swann and George and James Taylor, they also expand and refine our knowledge of another cabinetmaker influenced by the City of Richmond—James McAlester. A Goochland County chancery case from 1811 involving Willis McKeand raises new questions about furniture attributed to James McAlester and provides new insights into both furniture produced in Piedmont Virginia during the first two decades of the nineteenth century in general and that made specifically in Willis McKeand’s cabinetmaking shop. What influence did Richmond-trained McKeand have on McAlester, and what influence did McAlester have on McKeand?
An inlaid mahogany and mahogany veneered apothecary cabinet with sides made of cherry produced between 1800 and 1815 has a Goochland County provenance and is attributed to James McAlester (Figure 9). The attribution is based on similarities in construction found in a cherry desk with tambour doors on which James McAlester’s name appears three times alongside the inscription, “Louisa County, Va. January 1818” (Figure 10).
 Figure 9 |
 Figure 10 |
In Southern Furniture, it is stated that it is not known where McAlester served his apprenticeship, but that the ornamentation and construction of the two pieces attributed to him indicate a knowledge of urban cabinetmaking. It was also noted that that there were several men by the name of James McAlester in Goochland and Louisa counties at the same time, but that a 1790 Alexandria City tax list records a “Jas. McAllister” in the household of carpenter Nathaniel McAllister. It was also stated that the James who signed the desk in 1818 might have had training in that city.[65] While the Alexandria City theory is possible, because of the geographic proximity to Louisa County, it is more probable that McAlester’s training is connected to Richmond or even Fredericksburg. Because of ornamentation and construction similarities, two other pieces of furniture are attributed to McAlester: a mahogany and mahogany veneer desk (Figure 11) signed by its owner “Peter Miller Goochland County” and a walnut table (Figure 12) that descended in the Harris family of Louisa County.[66] Could the three pieces of undated furniture attributed to McAlester have been made in McKeand’s shop?
 Figure 11 |
 Figure 12 |
To date, much of the scholarship on McAlester has focused on formal analysis found in Southern Furniture. However, Goochland County court records involving Willis McKeand provide new insights into cabinetmaker James McAlester. The 1811 chancery case James Turner vs. William Toler, Etc., states that in 1803, Willis McKeand sold a yoke of oxen to James Turner for thirty-five dollars.[67] Even though Turner claimed he had accounts due him from McKeand, he signed a bond or promissory note for the purchase of the two oxen. McKeand then assigned the bond to William Toler, and Toler demanded payment from Turner, who did not comply. On 28 March 1809, Toler got a judgment for an execution—an order to seize and sell—on Turner’s property. Turner responded by bringing suit in chancery court against Toler and McKeand. In his answer to Turner’s bill of complaint, McKeand stated “that he never engaged to pay the complt. the boarding charged in the account or by any means became bound to do so.”[68] This statement seems odd, but perhaps McKeand felt Turner was already indebted to him. McKeand’s accounts for Turner have no listing for boarding costs but list charges on Turner for making a walnut table and commode sideboard. A deposition by Edward Bolling states that McKeand’s shop burned in January of 1803. The court appointed James Carter and George S. Smith as referees to settle matters between the plaintiff James Turner and the defendants William Toler and Willis McKeand. Carter and Smith found that Turner was indebted to Toler and McKeand in the amount of £17.0.0.
The case contains Turner’s three accounts from 29 January 1803 for money due from McKeand. The first account has the following entry:
To boarding self A. East & T. Pleasants £1.10.0
Boarding McAllister £.18.0[69]
The second account also records an entry for boarding:
To boarding yr. self and 3 Workmen £2.8.0[70]
A final account lists the boarding charge in the following manner:
To boarding self A.East & Thos. Pleasants £1.00.0
To boarding James McAlister £ .18.- [71]
James McAlester also provided the following deposition in the dispute between Turner and McKeand:
The affidavit of James McAllester to be read as evidence in a suit in chancery in the County Court of Goochland whereas James Turner is plaintiff and William Toler assignee of Willis McKeand is defendant. Saith that that the account exhibited by the plaintiff against Willis McKeand accept bed charged originated during the year that he lived with the said McKeand at said Turners and he believes in the year 1802- that the bed he believes was bought of the ptff. In the year 1804.
1st Question by Willis McKeand. What time of the year was the watch mentioned in Turners account given to me?
Ans. Sometime in the forepart of the summer of the year we lived with Turner
2nd Quest. By the same Did I agree to pay Turner board for the men that worked with me after the shop got burned?
Ans. I know nothing about the agreement between you and Turner respecting their board. Taken and sworn before me a justice of the peace for the county of Goochland at the house of James McAllister
This 24th Oct 1810 Will. Gray[72]
The accounts and deposition clearly show that McAlester was one of three men living with McKeand at Turner’s and this, in conjunction with formal analysis, indicates that McAlester was working with McKeand. It is not clear if the men working for McKeand were apprentices or journeymen, but the first and third accounts list McAlester separately, possibly suggesting that he held a higher position than A. East and Thomas Pleasants.
Taking his occupation and the time period and geographic area in which he was working, it is more than likely that the James McAlester in McKeand’s lawsuit is indeed the same James McAlester who signed his name on the desk with tambour doors. Willis McKeand was trained in the urban cabinetmaking tradition. Examples of high style items from the list of furniture made for Thomas Miller include furniture forms such as a commode sideboard with string inlay, a sideboard with a serpentine middle, and circular bureaus with inlay and cross banding. While these pieces were made of mahogany, the sides of the circular bureaus were birch. The apothecary cabinet case attributed to McAlester was also made of mixed woods. This similarity in working style further suggests the two men spent time working in the same shop.
The Goochland County chancery case clearly illustrates that McAlester worked with McKeand for the period 1802–1803 and possibly later. At this time, there is no way to definitively answer the complex questions posed at the beginning of this section. However, it is clear that urban style furniture was being produced in Goochland County and that geographically, the City of Richmond was the closest source of that tradition.
Sally Gilliam and the Move West
The year 1810 was pivotal for Willis McKeand because he married Sally Gilliam, and the inherited property, both real and personal, that Sally brought to the marriage enabled Willis to begin a shift from cabinetmaking to farming. As will be seen in the following chancery case, McKeand had known the Gilliam family for some time before his marriage to Sally and that, in the end, litigation with the Gilliams did not prevent the two from marrying.
Willis McKeand was familiar with the family of his future wife Sally Gilliam as early as 1803.[73] That year, Jacob Gilliam, acting as an agent for his mother Sarah Gilliam, hired out an unnamed enslaved woman to Willis McKeand for thirty dollars.[74] Jacob Gilliam was Sally’s uncle, and Sarah Gilliam was her grandmother.[75] Sarah Gilliam died between 1807 and 1808.[76] Jacob Gilliam died soon after his mother, and his will was recorded in 1809.[77]
The hiring out of enslaved persons was a common practice in Virginia, particularly among widowed women, if there was not enough work for them to perform on the enslaver’s property.[78] In December 1803, McKeand wrote to Jacob Gilliam asking Gilliam to accept “corn for the payment of the hyer of your woman.” Written on the reverse of their letter, McKeand appears to have hired the enslaved woman again “for the year 1804 $30.”[79]
While it was not unusual to pay debts in kind, his use of corn as payment does raise the question as to whether Willis McKeand was already engaged in some form of farming in addition to running a cabinetmaking business. George Parish became administrator of Jacob Gilliam’s estate in 1809 and claimed that the thirty dollars for the hire of the enslaved woman had not been paid. Parish got a judgment for an execution—an order to seize and sell—on McKeand’s property. McKeand claimed the debt had been paid by Edward Bolling and brought suit against Parish in the Goochland County chancery court. Indeed, the chancery case contains the following note from Jacob Gilliam: “From Edward Bolling $25.00 in part for hire of woman from my mother,” which is dated as having been received 16 June 1806.[80]
Parish stated he would get a deposition from James McAlester to prove his claim. While there is no surviving testimony from McAlester in the case, Parish’s statement further documents the relationship between the two cabinetmakers.[81] The case has no final decree, but there is supporting documentation that McKeand had not fully paid for the hire of the enslaved woman.
The litigation concerning the hire of the enslaved woman from Jacob Gilliam may well have had bearing on the prenuptial agreement between Willis McKeand and Sally Gilliam that was recorded in Goochland County on 15 July 1810, whereby Willis McKeand transferred to Sally M. T. Gilliam, daughter of Taylor Gilliam, her personal estate, meaning that he transferred non-real estate possessions.[82] In colonial and antebellum Virginia, when a woman entered into a marriage, her property became her husband’s unless otherwise stipulated by a legal document. In this system, prenuptial agreements usually occurred to protect the property rights of children from a previous marriage. However, prenuptial agreements could also occur to protect the bride if her family had concerns about the intended groom being financially responsible. While it is unknown why McKeand and Gilliam had a prenuptial agreement, because there is no indication that Willis or Sally were previously married, it is possible that her family was trying to protect her property. That this was the case is further supported by the fact that Sally Gilliam had a significant inheritance from her father. Taylor Gilliam died without making a will, but his inventory lists an enslaved girl named Culy and two enslaved boys named Amos and Charles.[83] In addition, from the 1807 division of the estate of her paternal grandfather, John Gilliam, Sally inherited enslaved persons named Beck, Hannah, and Judith.[84] Moreover, the 1809 Goochland County chancery case Guardian(s) of Sally M. Gilliam vs. Jacob Gilliam, Etc., notes that Sally received 182¾ acres from the division of her paternal grandfather John Gilliam’s land.[85] It is interesting to note that the plat in the chancery case indicates that Sally Gilliam’s land bordered the land of Willis McKeand’s patron, Thomas Miller.[86] By the terms of the prenuptial agreement, McKeand owned the 182¾ acres of land.[87] Prior to his marriage to Gilliam, Willis McKeand was never taxed for having enslaved persons in his household. However, on the 1815 Goochland County personal property tax roll, McKeand was taxed for two enslaved persons between the ages of nine and twelve and three enslaved persons above the age of sixteen. It is quite possible the some or all of the enslaved persons came from the Gilliam Family.[88] In this way, marriage to Sally Gilliam provided Willis McKeand with resources to which he previously had not had access.
In the early nineteenth century, like today, personal property tax was paid in the county in which one resided. In 1816, Willis McKeand is listed on the Fluvanna County personal property tax roll for the first time.[89] Fluvanna County is the next county west of Goochland along the James River. In 1817, Willis and Sally began buying and selling land in Fluvanna.[90] The 1820 Fluvanna land tax lists McKeand owning three hundred acres on Briery Creek.[91] While it is not clear if McKeand was still doing cabinetmaking work in 1820, three hundred acres of land would suggest that he was farming. He also took on two other sources of income. On 8 May 1822, McKeand petitioned the Fluvanna County court to sell ardent spirits at his house.[92] The following notice in the 23 August 1822, issue of the Richmond Enquirer documents McKeand having secured the position of jailor for the Fluvanna County jail:
Was committed to the jail of Fluvanna county, on the 28th of July last, a negro man who calls himself ROBERT GARLAND, and says he is the property of a Mr. Tinsley of Bedford county. He is 25 years old, dark complexion, and when spoken to is very apt to smile. The owner of the said slave is desired to pay charges and take him away.
August 16. W. McKEAND, Jailor[93]
The position of jailor would have provided a steady income for McKeand.
However, it appears that McKeand may not have completely abandoned cabinetmaking. The 1827 Fluvanna County chancery case of Willis McKeand vs. the Executor of John Ashlin has a connection to the City of Richmond woodworking business.[94] In this case, McKeand, at an unspecified time, delivered timber to John Ashlin’s sawmill to be sawn into plank. McKeand directed Ashlin to sell the plank in Richmond but not to sell it to the firm of Potts and Sully as he did not feel that they were trustworthy. In 1818, Chester Sully, a cabinetmaker formerly of Norfolk, and J. Potts advertised that at their Richmond lumberyard and sawmill lumber would be sold at consignment.[95] Ashlin did what McKeand told him not to do, which resulted in McKeand never receiving payment from Potts and Sully. McKeand’s attempts to receive payment from Ashlin came to nothing, and Ashlin died in debt to McKeand in 1823.[96] Thinking he had a claim against the deceased Ashlin amounting to thirty dollars, McKeand bought items at his estate sale. Ashlin’s executor, George Stillman, did not accept this claim and in the end McKeand paid twenty-eight dollars for the items purchased at the estate sale.
After the Revolutionary War, there was a steady migration out of present-day Virginia to areas to the south and west, and the McKeands appear to be a part of this trend of outward migration. Soil exhaustion from the reliance on tobacco as a cash crop and poor farming practices in general created a need for better land at a good price. In an 1824 Fluvanna County deed, Willis and Sally McKeand, residents of Albemarle County, sold three hundred acres of land on both sides of Briery Creek; the McKeands had moved another county west along the James River.[97] In a deed recorded in Albemarle County in 1826, Willis and Sally, residents of Augusta County, sold land in Albemarle County.[98] This deed indicates the McKeands crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains and were now residents of the Valley of Virginia. In 1831, they sold their Augusta County land.[99] By 1832, Willis and Sally bought and sold land in Cabell County, Virginia, which is now West Virginia.[100] Wayne County was created from Cabell County in 1842. On the 1850 Wayne County census, Willis McKeand is listed as a farmer, aged sixty-two, with real estate valued at fifteen hundred dollars.[101] Willis McKeand died 16 January 1860 in Wayne County, [West] Virginia.[102]
Conclusion
The 1782 list of inhabitants of the City of Richmond, Virginia, records one-year-old Willis McKeand in the home of his father John McKeand, a merchant. Only a decade later, Willis’s father was dead, and Willis was apprenticed to Richmond cabinetmaker Samuel Swann. Swann’s shop was run by his brothers-in-law George and James Taylor from 1796 to his death in 1799, and it is clear that Willis McKeand was trained in high style urban cabinetmaking tradition of Richmond, likely in this shop.
The first records of Willis McKeand’s cabinetmaking work are in a Goochland County, Virginia, county court judgment and a chancery case for tools purchased from 1801–1802. As previously mentioned, Richmond cabinetmaker Arthur Mann was working in the adjoining county of Louisa in 1801. Robert McLaurine, who was trained in the urban cabinetmaking tradition, chose to work in his native county of Powhatan rather than a city. All three men were part of a movement of craftspeople to the Virginia Piedmont who may have seen their move as a way to avoid competition from both locally and northern made furniture. With his myriad connections to the Piedmont cabinetmaking community, Willis McKeand is an integral connection between the urban cabinetmaking of Richmond and the Virginia Piedmont and a window into the work of others.
Accounts in the Thomas Miller Papers document Willis McKeand making a variety of urban style furniture forms from circular bureaus with banding and inlay to serpentine sideboards. The 1811 Goochland County chancery court case documents James McAlester, who was also a cabinetmaker, living with McKeand in 1803. The 1818 signed McAlester desk, along with the attributed apothecary cabinet and another desk attributed to McAlister demonstrate an urban cabinetmaking training. Whatever McAlester’s previous training may have been, he would have encountered Richmond urban cabinetmaking trends while working with Willis McKeand. This raises questions about the reciprocal nature of McKeand’s influence on McAlester and McAlester’s influence on McKeand.
Willis McKeand’s marriage to Sally Gilliam in 1810 provided him with the resources, in the form of land and enslaved persons, that he needed to follow another career path. Deeds recording McKeand’s buying and selling of land in Fluvanna, Albemarle, and Augusta counties in Virginia are indicative of someone engaged in farming. The fact that his occupation on the 1850 census of Wayne County, Virginia (now West Virginia), is listed as farmer would further support the claim that McKeand changed his occupation from cabinetmaking to agriculture in the years after his marriage. A similar situation is seen in the case of the cabinetmaker James Rockwood, who started his career in Richmond but moved to Lexington and then to Botetourt County and finally is listed as a farmer on the 1850 census of Cooper County, Missouri.[103]
Examination of the cabinetmaking career of Willis McKeand in Goochland County through the use of the Thomas Miller Papers and Goochland County court judgments and chancery records provides new information for further research on urban cabinetmaking in Richmond and its impact on Piedmont Virginia. Willis McKeand’s career also documents the challenges and changes that southern cabinetmakers faced in a world of local and northern competition.
Christian Kolbe is an emeritus Archives Reference Services Coordinator at The Library of Virginia in Richmond. He can be contacted at [email protected]. He is much indebted to Ms. Cara Griggs for her editorial expertise.
[1] Jonathan Prown, “A Cultural Analysis of Furniture-making in Petersburg, Virginia, 1760–1820,” Journal of Early Southern Decorative Arts 18, no. 1 (May 1992): 104.
[2] United States Bureau of Census, Heads of Families, At the First Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1790: Records of the State Enumerations: 1782–1785, Virginia. (Athens, GA: Iberian Publishing Company, 1990), 117. McKeand is listed as a merchant in the 1782 list. C. Virginius Dabney, Richmond: The Story of a City (Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Company, 1976), 32. The firm of Buchanan & McKeand is found in Amherst County, Virginia, Chancery Court Case, Index No. 1792-004, James Coleman vs. Surviving Partner of John McKeand, digital images, Library of Virginia, Richmond, VA (hereinafter cited as LVA), Chancery Records Index, available online: https://www.lva.virginia.gov/chancery/full_case_detail.asp?CFN=009-1792-004#img (accessed 1 July 2025). Robert K. Headley, ed., Genealogical Abstracts from 18th-Century Virginia Newspapers, 2nd ed. (Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1999), 219; Bernard J. Henley, ed., Marriages and Deaths from Richmond, Virginia Newspapers 1780–1820 (Richmond, VA: The Virginia Genealogical Society, 1983), 100.
[3] Richmond City, Hustings Court Deed Book 2: 2-3, 148-149, Richmond City Microfilm Reel 2, LVA.
[4] Ibid., 79-81.
[5] Richmond City, Hustings Court Order Book 4: 187, 194, Richmond City Microfilm Reel 79, LVA.
[6] United States Circuit Court (5th Circuit), Court Records, 1790–1882, Accession 25186, Box 66, Lloyd and Hansbury vs. McKeand’s Executors, 1805, Federal Government Records Collection, LVA.
[7] Ibid. Further information on John McKeand’s children is found in the 1805 case of Lloyd and Hansbury vs. McKeand’s Executors. The defendants were the following: Robert West and Elizabeth Carter his wife, Meux Thornton and Precilla his wife, Samuel Anderson and Jannet his wife, Henry Perrin and Anna his wife, Willis McKeand, John McKeand, and Alexander McKeand by his guardian Robert West. All the McKeand daughters and their husbands were listed as inhabitants of Gloucester County, Virgina. The records that might reveal further information on the McKeand family—such as the records of Gloucester County and the General Court—are not extant.
[8] Goochland County, County Court Judgments, June–December 1803, Box 85, Folder August II 1803, Greenhow vs. McKeand, LVA.
[9] Goochland County, Virginia, Chancery Court Case, Index No. 1819-004, Willis McKeand vs. George Greenhow, digital images, LVA, Chancery Records Index, available online: https://www.lva.virginia.gov/chancery/full_case_detail.asp?CFN=075-1819-004#img (accessed 1 July 2025).
[10] Ibid., Answer of George Greenhow, 2 August 1819, Image 5.
[11] Richmond City, Hustings Court Deed Book 3: 374-376, Richmond City Microfilm Reel 4, LVA; Letter, Geo. Taylor to John Swann, 21 March 1804, Goochland County, Virginia, Chancery Court Case, Index No. 1860-003, Thomas Thompson Swann, Etc. vs. Executor of John Swann, Etc., digital images, LVA, Chancery Records Index, available online: https://www.lva.virginia.gov/chancery/full_case_detail.asp?CFN=075-1860-003#img, Image 90 (accessed 1 July 2025).
[12] Auditor of Public Accounts, Personal Property Tax, Richmond City, 1787, Personal Property Tax Records Microfilm Reel 363, LVA.
[13] J. Christian Kolbe, “Decorative Arts Guide to the Records of the Auditor of Public Accounts in the Library of Virginia,” Journal of Early Southern Decorative Arts 29, no. 1 (Summer 2001): 88.
[14] Virginia Gazette and Public Advertiser (Richmond, VA), 18 June 1791, p. 4, c. 4.
[15] Prown, 125.
[16] Virginia Gazette (Petersburg, VA), 3 November 1795, p. 2, c. 3.
[17] Mutual Assurance Society of Virginia, Declarations and Revaluations of Assurance, 1796–1966, Declarations Vol. 12, Policy No. 33, Samuel Swann, 24 February 1796, Accession 30177, Business Records Collection, LVA.
[18] Virginia Gazette and General Advertiser (Richmond, VA), 1 June 1796, p. 4, c. 3.
[19] Prown, 125.
[20] Henrico County, Will Book 2: 490-491, Henrico County Microfilm Reel 55, LVA.
[21] Henrico County, Will Book 2: 627, Henrico County Microfilm Reel 55, LVA.
[22] Goochland County, Virginia, Chancery Court Case, Index No. 1860-003, Thomas Thompson Swann, Etc. vs. Executor of John Swann, Etc., digital images, LVA, Chancery Records Index, available online: https://www.lva.virginia.gov/chancery/full_case_detail.asp?CFN=075-1860-003#img (accessed 1 July 2025).
[23] Ibid., Business Proposition of Samuel Swann to George and James Taylor, Image 89.
[24] Ibid., Letter, Geo. Taylor to John Swann, 21 March 1804, Image 90.
[25] Prown, 89-91, 122-124, 143-145.
[26] Letter, Geo. Taylor to John Swann, 21 March 1804, Goochland County, Virginia, Chancery Court Case, Index No. 1860-003, Thomas Thompson Swann, Etc. vs. Executor of John Swann, Etc., digital images, LVA, Chancery Records Index, available online: https://www.lva.virginia.gov/chancery/full_case_detail.asp?CFN=075-1860-003#img, Image 90 (accessed 1 July 2025).
[27] The Norfolk Herald (Norfolk, VA), 5 October 1799, p. 3, c. 5.
[28] Auditor of Public Accounts, Personal Property Tax, Richmond City, 1795, Personal Property Tax Records Microfilm Reel 363, LVA; Auditor of Public Accounts, Personal Property Tax, Richmond City, 1796, Personal Property Tax Records Microfilm Reel 363, LVA; Auditor of Public Accounts, Personal Property Tax, Richmond City, 1797, List 1, Personal Property Tax Records Microfilm Reel 363, LVA; Auditor of Public Accounts, Personal Property Tax, Richmond City, 1797, List 2, Personal Property Tax Records Microfilm Reel 363, LVA.
[29] Auditor of Public Accounts, Personal Property Tax, Richmond City, 1797, List 1, Personal Property Tax Records Microfilm Reel 363, LVA; Auditor of Public Accounts, Personal Property Tax, Richmond City, 1797, List 2, Personal Property Tax Records Microfilm Reel 363, LVA; Auditor of Public Accounts, Personal Property Tax, Richmond City, 1798, Personal Property Tax Records Microfilm Reel 363, LVA; Auditor of Public Accounts, Personal Property Tax, Richmond City, 1799, List 2, Personal Property Tax Records Microfilm Reel 364, LVA; Auditor of Public Accounts, Personal Property Tax, Richmond City, 1800, Personal Property Tax Records Microfilm Reel 364, LVA.
[30] Beginning in 1792, personal property tax records were to have the following columns to document individuals within a household: “Persons names chargeable with the tax,” “Number of white males above sixteen years,” Blacks above sixteen years,” and “Blacks above twelve years.” The tax code defined all males sixteen and older and all enslaved women sixteen and older as “tithables,” or those who were “chargeable for defraying the county levies and poor rates.” Given that there was no tax charged on white men but there was on enslaved people, “Blacks” refers to enslaved people in this instance. Tax collectors in this era did not always use the standard headings dictated by the tax code; consequently, this table is an attempt to place the data in the City of Richmond tax records into the proper columns. A Collection of All Such Acts of the General Assembly of Virginia, of a Public and Permanent Nature, as Are Now in Force; with a Table of the Principal Matters. To Which Are Prefixed the Declaration of Rights, and Constitution, or Form of Government. Published Pursuant to an Act of the General Assembly, Intituled, “An act providing for the republication of the laws of this Commonwealth,” Passed on the Twenty-Eighth Day of December, One Thousand Seven Hundred and Ninety-Two (Richmond, VA, Printed by A. Davis, Printer for the Commonwealth, 1794), 140, 261; Auditor of Public Accounts, Personal Property Tax, Richmond City, 1795, Personal Property Tax Records Microfilm Reel 363, LVA; Auditor of Public Accounts, Personal Property Tax, Richmond City, 1796, Personal Property Tax Records Microfilm Reel 363, LVA; Auditor of Public Accounts, Personal Property Tax, Richmond City, 1797, List 1, Personal Property Tax Records Microfilm Reel 363, LVA; Auditor of Public Accounts, Personal Property Tax, Richmond City, 1797, List 2, Personal Property Tax Records Microfilm Reel 363, LVA; Auditor of Public Accounts, Personal Property Tax, Richmond City, 1798, Personal Property Tax Records Microfilm Reel 363, LVA; Auditor of Public Accounts, Personal Property Tax, Richmond City, 1799, List 2, Personal Property Tax Records Microfilm Reel 364, LVA; Auditor of Public Accounts, Personal Property Tax, Richmond City, 1800, Personal Property Tax Records Microfilm Reel 364.
[31] Goochland County, Deed Book 22: 112, Goochland County Microfilm Reel 9, LVA.
[32] List of furniture in arbitration between Willis McKeand and Thomas Miller, 1803–1809, Thomas Miller Papers, 1773–1852, Accession 38114, Series 3, Box 6, Folder 31, Goochland County Microfilm Reel 130, Frames 489-490, Local Government Records Collection, LVA.
[33] Thomas Miller Papers, 1773–1852, Accession 38114, Series 3, Box 6, Folder 31, Goochland County Microfilm Reel 130, Local Government Records Collection, LVA.
[34] Thomas Miller was born in 1754 to William Miller and Mary Heath Miller. Virginia House of Delegates Clerk’s Office, “Thomas Miller Jr.” in A History of the Virginia House of Delegates, Burgesses and Delegates Database, available online: https://history.house.virginia.gov/members/453 (accessed 1 July 2025).
[35] Jim Greve, “A Guide to the Thomas Miller Papers, 1773–1852,” available online: https://ead.lib.virginia.edu/vivaxtf/view?docId=lva%2Fvi00187.xml (accessed 1 July 2025).
[36] Prown, 104.
[37] Ronald L. Hurst and Jonathan Prown, Southern Furniture, 1680–1830: The Colonial Williamsburg Collection (Williamsburg, VA: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation in association with Harry N. Abrams, 1997): 401-404.
[38] Will of Thompson Swann, Powhatan County, Will Book 1: 19-21, Powhatan County Microfilm Reel 15, LVA; Commissioner’s Report, 22 November 1860, Petersburg City, Virginia, Chancery Court Case, Index No. 1869-018, Administrator of J. T. Swann, Etc. and John T. Swann vs. William Baugh, Etc., T. S. Kilby and Wife, Etc., and Hector McNeil, Etc., digital images, LVA, Chancery Records Index, available online: https://www.lva.virginia.gov/chancery/full_case_detail.asp?CFN=730-1869-018#img, Images 182, 184, 188 (accessed 1 July 2025).
[39] Henrico County, Virginia, Chancery Court Records, Box 9, Index No. 1805-001, Henry Mann vs. John Syme, LVA.
[40] Virginia Gazette and Weekly Advertiser (Richmond, VA), 30 November 1786, p. 4, c. 1. More information on Arthur and Henry Mann is found in Michael L. Marshall, “Henry Mann Family of Virginia Cabinetmakers,” (2017), Edenton Historical Commission, available online: https://ehcnc.org/decorative-arts/furniture/ (accessed 1 July 2025).
[41] Virginia Gazette and General Advertiser (Richmond, VA), 11 August 1801, p. 3, c. 2.
[42] Memorandum of agreement between Willis McKeand and Thomas Miller, 26 April 1805, Thomas Miller Papers, 1773–1852, Accession 38114, Series 3, Box 6, Folder 31, Goochland County Microfilm Reel 130, Frames 482-484, Local Government Records Collection, LVA.
[43] Hurst and Prown, 222-225.
[44] Memorandum of agreement between Willis McKeand and Thomas Miller, 26 April 1805, Thomas Miller Papers, 1773–1852, Accession 38114, Series 3, Box 6, Folder 31, Goochland County Microfilm Reel 130, Frames 482-484, Local Government Records Collection, LVA.
[45] Sarah Neale Fayen, “Tilt-Top Tables and Eighteenth-Century Consumerism,” in American Furniture 2003, ed. Luke Beckerdite (Milwaukee, WS: Chipstone Foundation, 2003), 107-110.
[46] Accounts of Willis McKeand with Thomas Miller, Thomas Miller Papers, 1773–1852, Accession 38114, Series 3, Box 6, Folder 31; Goochland County Microfilm Reel 130, Frame 496, Local Government Records Collection, LVA.
[47] Ibid., Willis McKeand’s authorization for Thomas Miller to pick up mahogany, 23 October 1805, Frame 457.
[48] Account of purchase of hardware and Osnaburgs, 25 November 1809, Thomas Miller Papers, 1773–1852, Accession 38114, Series 3, Box 6, Folder 31, Goochland County Microfilm Reel 130, Frame 459, Local Government Records Collection, LVA.
[49] J. Christian Kolbe, “Willis Cowling (1788–1828) Richmond Cabinetmaker,” Journal of Early Southern Decorative Arts 27, no. 2 (Winter 2001): 69-73.
[50] Anne Smart Martin, Buying into the World of Goods: Early Consumers in Buckcountry Virginia (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University, 2008), 54, 163, 177-178.
[51] J. Christian Kolbe, “The Account Book of Sampson Diuguid, Lynchburg, Virginia, Cabinetmaker,” Journal of Early Southern Decorative Arts 30, no. 2 (Winter 2004): 32.
[52] J. Christian Kolbe, “Thomas Chittum, Cabinetmaker, Lexington, Virginia: His Shop, Product, and Client Accounts, 1839–1852,” Journal of Early Southern Decorative Arts 42/43 (2021/2022): “Furniture Forms: Tables (General),” https://www.mesdajournal.org/2022/thomas-chittum-cabinetmaker-lexington-virginia-his-shop-product-and-client-accounts-1839-1852/.
[53] Note of Willis McKeand to Thomas Miller, 14 September 1803, Thomas Miller Papers, 1773–1852, Accession 38114, Series 3, Box 6, Folder 31, Goochland County Microfilm Reel 130, Frame 474, Local Government Records Collection, LVA.
[54] Kolbe, “Thomas Chittum,” “John D. Camden vs. Thomas G. Chittum, Etc.”
[55] List of furniture produced by Willis McKeand for Thomas Miller, 1809, Thomas Miller Papers, 1773–1852, Accession 38114, Series 3, Box 6, Folder 31, Goochland County Microfilm Reel 130, Frames 489-490, Local Government Records Collection, LVA.
[56] The indices of Goochland County county court order books from 1807 to 1813 do not indicate that there was any litigation between McKeand and Miller. Thus, the arbitration was a private matter handled between cabinetmaker and patron. Goochland County, Order Book 26, Goochland County Microfilm Reel 32, LVA; Goochland County, Order Book 27, Goochland County Microfilm Reel 33, LVA; Goochland County, Order Book 28, Goochland County Microfilm Reel 33, LVA.
[57] The various accounts between McKeand and Miller list the furniture but not in the detail that the signed list does. The accounts list many other items that pertain to cabinetmaking. List of furniture produced by Willis McKeand for Thomas Miller, 1809, Thomas Miller Papers, 1773–1852, Accession 38114, Series 3, Box 6, Folder 31, Goochland County Microfilm Reel 130, Frames 489-490, Local Government Records Collection, LVA.
[58] Ibid., Accounts of Willis McKeand with Thomas Miller, 6 October 1806, Frame 468.
[59] Ibid., Accounts of Willis McKeand with Thomas Miller, 1803–1811, Frame 466, Frame 496.
[60] Virginia Gazette and General Advertiser (Richmond, VA), 7 July 1802, p. 3, c. 4.
[61] Richmond City, Hustings Court Order Book 6: 195, Richmond City Microfilm Reel 973, LVA.
[62] A notice of a reward of five dollars appeared in the 6 December 1808 issue of the Richmond Enquirer for the return of a box of four sash doors of an octagon design for a china press that were on a wagon headed for Louisa County. The reward money would be paid by Frederick Harris of Louisa County or the cabinetmaking firm of Webster, Poore, and Prosser of the City of Richmond. Louisa County borders Goochland County, where Willis McKeand was working. The notice also documents the influence of Richmond cabinetmaking in the Virginia Piedmont. In the 5 January 1809 issue of the Richmond Enquirer a notice appeared of the dissolution of the firm of Webster, Poore, and Prosser and in the future to be called Webster and Poore. Richmond Enquirer (Richmond, VA), 5 January 1809, p. 1, c. 1; First listing for Edmund Webster, Auditor of Public Accounts, Personal Property Tax, Richmond City, 1809, Personal Property Microfilm Reel 364, LVA; Richmond Enquirer (Richmond, VA), 6 December 1808, p. 3, c. 1.
[63] Richmond Enquirer (Richmond, VA), 9 April 1814, p. 4, c. 4.
[64] Hurst and Prown, 513.
[65] Ibid., 415-419. They also note that the McAlesters of Goochland spelled their name several different ways in the records of the time period.
[66] “Peter Miller” refers to Peter Guerrant Miller (1859–1942), Clerk of the Goochland County Circuit Court from 1912 to 1942. Goochland Historical Society, “Highlighting Historic Properties–Reed Marsh,” Goochland History (Blog), 1 March 2019, available online: https://goochlandhistory.wordpress.com/2019/03/01/highlighting-historic-properties-reed-marsh/ (accessed 14 August 2025); Record of Secretary and Bookcase attributed to James McAlester, Goochland or Louisa County, VA, 1790-1810, MESDA Object Database file S-6702, available online: mesda.org/item/object/desk/11732/.
[67] Goochland County, Virginia, Chancery Court Case, Index No. 1811-023, James Turner vs. William Toler, Etc., digital images, LVA, Chancery Records Index, available online: https://www.lva.virginia.gov/chancery/full_case_detail.asp?CFN=075-1811-023#img (accessed 1 July 2025).
[68] Ibid., Answer of Willis McKeand, n.d., Image 5.
[69] Ibid., First account of James Turner with Willis McKeand, 29 January 1803, Image 30.
[70] Ibid., Second account of James Turner with Willis McKeand, 29 January 1803, Image 32.
[71] Ibid., Third account of James Turner with Willis McKeand, 29 January 1803, Image 38.
[72] Ibid., Deposition of James McAlester, 24 October 1810, Image 14.
[73] Goochland County, Virginia, Chancery Court Case, Index No. 1821-027, Willis McKeand vs. Administrator of Jacob Gilliam, digital images, LVA, Chancery Records Index, available online: https://www.lva.virginia.gov/chancery/full_case_detail.asp?CFN=075-1821-027#img (accessed 1 July 2025).
[74] Ibid., Images 12-13.
[75] Goochland County, Virginia, Chancery Court Case, Index No. 1809-011, Guardian(s) of Sally M. Gilliam vs. Jacob Gilliam, Etc., digital images, LVA, Chancery Records Index, available online: https://www.lva.virginia.gov/chancery/full_case_detail.asp?CFN=075-1809-011#img (accessed 1 July 2025).
[76] Goochland County, Deed Book 20: 400-401, Goochland County Microfilm Reel 8, LVA.
[77] Ibid., 389.
[78] John J. Zaborney, Slaves for Hire, Renting Enslaved Laborers in Antebellum Virginia (Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University, 2012), 3, 11, 23, 28, 114.
[79] Note from Willis McKeand to Jacob Gilliam, 11 December 1803, Goochland County, Virginia, Chancery Court Case, Index No. 1821-027, Willis McKeand vs. Administrator of Jacob Gilliam, digital images, LVA, Chancery Records Index, available online: https://www.lva.virginia.gov/chancery/full_case_detail.asp?CFN=075-1821-027#img, Images 12-13 (accessed 1 July 2025).
[80] Ibid., Note from Jacob Gilliam, 16 June 1806, Image 8.
[81] Ibid., Answer of George Parish, 11 July 1816, Image 4.
[82] Goochland County, Deed Book 20: 565-566, Goochland County Microfilm Reel 8, LVA.
[83] Goochland County, Deed Book 16: 372, Goochland County Microfilm Reel 6, LVA.
[84] Goochland County, Deed Book 19: 663-664, Goochland County Microfilm Reel 8, LVA.
[85] Goochland County, Virginia, Chancery Court Case, Index No. 1809-011, Guardian(s) of Sally M. Gilliam vs. Jacob Gilliam, Etc., digital images, LVA, Chancery Records Index, available online: https://www.lva.virginia.gov/chancery/full_case_detail.asp?CFN=075-1809-011#img (accessed 1 July 2025).
[86] Ibid., Plat of John Gilliam’s Land, 22 February 1809, Image 15.
[87] Goochland County, Deed Book 22:112, Goochland County Microfilm Reel 9, LVA. McKeand sold the land to James Taylor in 1815.
[88] Auditor of Public Accounts, Personal Property Tax, Goochland County, 1815, List B, Personal Property Tax Records Microfilm Reel 17, LVA.
[89] Auditor of Public Accounts, Personal Property Tax, Fluvanna County, 1816, Personal Property Tax Records Microfilm Reel 118, LVA.
[90] Fluvanna County, Deed Book 6: 682-683, 726-728, Fluvanna County Microfilm Reel 3, LVA.
[91] Auditor of Public Accounts, Personal Property Tax, Fluvanna County, 1820, Personal Property Tax Records Microfilm Reel 100, LVA.
[92] Fluvanna County, County Court Order Book 1820–1825: 289, 292, Fluvanna County Microfilm Reel 20, LVA.
[93] Richmond Enquirer (Richmond, VA), 23 August 1822, p 4, c. 6.
[94] Fluvanna County, Virginia, Chancery Court Case, Index No. 1827-003, Willis McKeand vs. Executor of John Ashlin, digital images, LVA, Chancery Records Index, available online: https://www.lva.virginia.gov/chancery/full_case_detail.asp?CFN=065-1827-003#img (accessed 1 July 2025).
[95] Thomas R. J. Newbern and James R. Melchor, Classical Norfolk Furniture, 1810–1840 (Paducah, KY: Turner Publishing Company, 2004), 62-64.
[96] Fluvanna County, Will Book 2: 409-410, Fluvanna County Microfilm Reel 11, LVA.
[97] Fluvanna County, Deed Book 8: 505-506, Fluvanna County Microfilm Reel 4, LVA.
[98] Albemarle County, Deed Book 24: 89-90, Albemarle County Microfilm Reel 11, LVA.
[99] Augusta County, Deed Book 52: 460-462 and 554-556, Augusta County Microfilm Reel 21, LVA.
[100] Carrie Eldridge, ed. Abstracts of Deed Book 5, 1830–1835, Cabell County Virginia/West Virginia (Chesapeake, OH: C. Eldridge, 1993), 147.
[101] 1850 Federal Census, Wayne County, Virginia, population schedule, Willis McKeand household, 229a.
[102] Find A Grave, Willis McKeand, McKeand Cemetery, Ceredo, Wayne County, West Virginia, USA, available online: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/177164000/willis-mckeand (accessed 1 July 2025).
[103] Kolbe, “Thomas Chittum,” “Lexington Cabinetmaker” and “Conclusion.”