The gathering was held in Smithfield, Virginia from May 14 to 16, 2010. We toured Bacon’s Castle, Smith’s Fort Plantation, and Windsor Castle Park. Alain Outlaw gave a presentation near Windsor Castle about archaeological surveys at that site.
At the Saturday evening banquet meeting, Alain reported on the archaeological survey underway at Whitemarsh, the home of Joseph Bridger. In 2009, the owner of Whitemarsh farm agreed to allow the Association to conduct an archaeological survey of the property. Alain and his wife Merry Outlaw, a Bridger descendant and a member of the Association’s Board of Directors, are both licensed archaeologists with extensive experience in early Virginia archaeology.
The archaeological survey will map the locations of the original Bridger house, other outbuildings as found, significant points of interest, and the graveyard or burial locations of Joseph Bridger and other family members. The survey will map, describe, and catalogue the locations of any objects found during the survey. In addition, Merry and Alain will attempt to join all items found with those from a previous amateur excavation to form a collection of significant Bridger artifacts. Among those artifacts are a wine bottle seal with the Bridger coat of arms molded onto the cap. Also a wine bottle seal with “HB” was found, which indicated that Hester Bridger, wife of Joseph, had a personal seal for her wine bottles. Some of these artifacts are with the Isle of Wight County museum.
The archaeological survey can only be conducted in the fall and winter after the farmer harvests the crops growing on the site.
