HISTORY
VIOLET BANK

The History of Violet Bank. The source of this article is unknown.

Thomas Shore had found the land on which to build his mansion house.  He owned two tobacco plantations and was already established as an importer of goods from England, but he wanted a tract of land on which to establish his home, so that it might be maintained and cherished by the future generations of his family.   Thus, in 1775 he purchased from John Martin and his wife, Mary, 144 acres of land near the town of Pocahontas, across the Appomattox River from Petersburg, for the price of 600 pounds "current Virginia Money".

This was a portion of the land which John Martin had inherited from his father, Christopher, and his father in turn had acquired by reason of his being heir of one of the sons of George Archer 1, to whom the Crown had granted the original patent for the land in this area.  It was still undeveloped land, but not isolated, as by its description it was bounded at one point by the land where "David Stolt has lately built a stone house", and at another point there was a "corner of Duncan's Shop".

Although Mary Martin, wife of John, did not have a title interest in the tract, it was necessary that she join in the deed to Thomas Shore in order to convey her dower rights.  This apparently posed a problem, for in 1775 deeds were presented to the Clerk of the Circuit Court for the County in which the land was situated, and there the deed was signed by the Sellers and their signatures acknowledged by the Clerk.  The deed to Thomas Shore carries a certificate of Ben Watkins, Clerk of the Court of Chesterfield County, reciting that Mary Martin could not conveniently come to the Court and therefore, David Holt and George Robertson were authorized and commanded to take the deed to her and examine her separately from her husband (as was required by law) and to take her acknowledgment.  Those two gentlemen then attached their certificate stating that they had so examined Mary Martin, and she had acknowledged that her signature to this deed was made of her own free will.

Thomas Shore selected the crest of the hill that rose above the meadow along the river.  Here he built his mansion house and called it Violet Bank.   No one can be certain of the reason for the name - whether there were violets on the bank below the house, for they grow there now, or whether it was intended as an allusion to the passage in Shakespeare's Mid Summer's Night's Dream, "The bank where the violets grow", or perhaps both.  Among the many books listed in Thomas Shore's inventory in 1802 was an eight-volume set of Shakespeare, so he was probably not unfamiliar with the quotation.

As a businessman, in 1797, he felt it prudent to obtain fire insurance on Violet Bank with the new Mutual Assurance Society in Richmond, but he could not foresee that this act would precipitate a bitter court fight long after his death which could only be settled in the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals.

To this house he brought his bride, and she bore him three children.  Probably one of the few regrets of his life was the fact that there were no boys to carry on the name of Shore, for he died in 1800, leaving his widow, Jane Gray, and three daughters, Jane Grayson, Eliza Smith and Mary Louisa.  He left a well-planned and elaborate will which is of record in the Chesterfield County Courthouse, admonishing his executors to collect the debts due him from the trading company in England and to carry on his businesses, but asking them not to press his nephew for repayment of a loan.  He provided that all of his money should be divided into four parts - one part to be paid to his wife outright and three parts held in trust for his three daughters, the interest to be used for their maintenance and the balance for reinvestment, the share of each to be paid to her upon her marrying or coming of lawful age.  Violet Bank Farm was left to the widow, Jane Gray, for her natural life for the purpose of enabling her to bring up, maintain and educate their children, and at her death the farm, the other plantations and personal property were to be divided among the three daughters or such of them as should survive.

As was often the case in those days, Mrs. Shore married a second husband, Henry Haxall, and they continued to live at Violet Bank until the house was accidentally destroyed by fire in October 1810.  When Mr. and Mrs. Haxall applied to the insurance company for the proceeds, which amounted to $7,833, the insurance company refused to make payment on the theory that she was only the life tenant, and as such was entitled to no more than the interest on the funds, being the "enjoyment of the same for life", and that the proceeds would be paid to the daughters after Mrs. Haxall's death.  This resulted in a suit in Richmond Chancery Court and that court ordered that the insurance proceeds should be paid to Mr. and Mrs. Haxall, provided they in turn gave a bond to the then living daughters, Louisa Shippen, who had married William Shippen, and her sister, Eliza, for the payment to them of $7,833 immediately upon the death of Mrs. Haxall.  More than two years after the court entered the order, the Haxalls finally complied by giving the bond, and Mrs. Haxall apparently used two of his close relatives, William Haxall and Phillip Haxall as sureties.

The money received, a new Violet Bank was built with those funds and at least $900 additional put in by Mr. and Mrs. Haxall.  Again Violet Bank was in existence and occupied as a gracious mansion house above the Appomattox.  Mrs. Haxall survived her husband, and died in May 1831.  By this time the oaks Thomas Shore had planted from the house to the Manchester-Petersburg road had begun to grow, as well as those that lined the entrance to Conduit Road and later gave its name to Royal Oak Ave.

If Thomas Shore regretted the fact that he had no sons to carry on his name, nevertheless, he had one daughter who was determined to retain Violet Bank and the other holdings for the family.  On February 14, 1823, Elizabeth Shore, of Violet Bank, in Chesterfield County, entered into an agreement prior to her marriage to John Gilliam of Petersburg, in which she conveyed to Robert Gilliam, Jr. and John Fitzhugh May, both of Petersburg, as Trustees, her interest in the property devised by Thomas Shore and inherited by her by reason of the death of her sister, Jane G. Shore.  The trustees were to hold this property for the life of John Gilliam and then for the life of Elizabeth, with the power to sell only upon the written request of both Elizabeth and John.  Elizabeth retained the power to devise the property by her will and if not devised by her will, then it was specifically to be inherited by her rightful heirs.   This was the only protection a woman could provide for her separate property upon her marriage, as the Married Woman's Act had not yet been passed in the Commonwealth of Virginia.  The mere act of marriage gave a husband the right of ownership over all personal property and control and management of the real property.  Elizabeth was not blinded by love so as to forget to protect her interest, so she had, at least, joint control of her property.

And perhaps it was Elizabeth who pressed the law suit.  At any rate John Gilliam and William Shippen, joined by their wives, brought suit against Executors of the Haxalls who were sureties on the bond given when the insurance money was paid to Jane Shore Haxall.   Their suit alleged that the condition of the bond had been the payment to Elizabeth and Louisa of the sum of $7,833 immediately upon the death of Mrs. Haxall, that the money had not been paid, and that they as the lawful husbands of the two beneficiaries under the bond were entitled to the money.  In vain, the defendants argued that the money had been used to rebuild Violet Bank and that the two girls had inherited the house upon their mother's death - in fact, Elizabeth had lived there all along - but the court read the bond literally, and ruled that the Haxalls must pay the sum claimed.  (Haxall's Executors vs Shippen and Wife and Others, December 1839, Virginia Reports, 10 Leigh 536.)   The court pointed out that the two husbands had no more than a courtesy interest in the house itself, but were entitled as husbands, to the money due their wives on the bond.

Elizabeth and John Gilliam had six children, three daughters, Jane G., Elizabeth S. and Mary Louisa, and three sons, James, Theophilus and Thomas.  At the time of Elizabeth Gilliam's death in 1858, the three girls were unmarried and living at home.  To these three girls she left what she had always considered her greatest security, Violet Bank with all carriages, furniture and furnishings.  James Gilliam was a Navy doctor, and in his mother's will she returned to him the set of china which he had brought to her from India.  Thomas Gilliam was the businessman of the family, and to him went the two tobacco plantations - Arrowfield in Chesterfield County and another plantation in Dinwiddie County.  Little is known of Theophilus, except that he lived in Petersburg at the time of his mother's death.  Since no mention is made of John Gilliam, it is presumed that he predeceased his wife.

The businessman of the family, Thomas, then decided that the best way to help his sisters was to have them deed the farm to him, and he in exchange gave a deed of trust to John Pegram May and his brother, Theophilus F. Gilliam, as Trustees for the three girls, to secure the purchase price of $15,000.  Of course, this meant that Thomas took title to Violet Bank without actually paying any cash for it, but it also protected the girls from fortune hunters, and we have no way of knowing but what he may have been financially responsible for the girls during the years they lived at Violet Bank.  At any rate, this deed was executed in 1859, but was not placed of record until 1866.  Since this deed is closely followed on the record by a deed from Thomas Gilliam to Richmond & Petersburg Railroad Company for a piece of the meadow land along the river, it was probably necessary to record it in order to create a clear title and collect the $1,500 paid by the railroad, money which the Gilliam family apparently needed at that time.

Between the house and the Manchester-Petersburg Highway General Lee set up camp and the gracious ladies of Violet Bank served him tea, and today one of the cups and saucers from that set is on display in the house.

Finally, in 1873 the descendants of Thomas Shore and Violet Bank were parted, almost one hundred years after the patriarch selected the site for his famous house.  For the sum of $12,025.00 in cash, Eveline Gasquet Marshall of the City of New York purchased the tract of land called "Violet Bank", including that part east of Conduit or Roslin Road, sometimes called "Guy Hall" and the meadow land, containing 159 acres more or less, from the Trustees under the deed of Trust from Thomas S. Gilliam and from W. S. Watkins, the assignee of Thomas S. Gilliam, a bankrupt.   The only thing saved was a reservation of the graveyard surrounded by a stone and iron enclosure, used as the Gilliam family burial place, with the right of ingress and egress.

Nevertheless, Thomas Gilliam had protected his three sisters, maybe better than he realized.  He could not have foreseen his bankruptcy, but because he provided them with a secured claim, they received their share through the bankrupt's estate:  Miss M. S. Gilliam, $3,331.09; Mrs. E. S. Dunlop $4,387.82; and Mrs. Jane G. Shippen $3,645.55.

In 1886 Frances James Gasquet, Executor of the Will of Eveline G. Marshall, sold the land and improvements known as "Violet Bank", containing 150 acres, except the burial ground to C. F. W. Haskins, wife of A. N. Haskins, for the grand sum of $4,800.00.

Violet Bank lent itself to the Victorian Era and life was gentle past the turn of the century.   The estate itself became smaller by reason of various parcels being sold, and most of the meadowland along the river was conveyed to the United States so that the course of the Appomattox River could be swung to the north into its present channel.  The Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike established its western boundary line, and its other boundary lines were marked with hedgerows, ditches and Conduit Road.  But land was not of great value in the early years of the twentieth century, so that the Executor of Mrs. Haskins' will conveyed Violet Bank to Petersburg Realty Corporation for $1,000 in 1905.

It may be that the records do not fully disclose the monetary considerations involved, or if they do, one may guess that speculation paid off, for in October 1909, Petersburg Realty Corporation (James E. Cuthbert, President and S. Henley Turner, Secretary) sold three parcels of land - the first of which was Violet Bank - to T. Marshall Bellamy of Norfolk County, Virginia, for a consideration of $55,000.  Mr. Bellamy was a developer, but he preserved the main portion of the Violet Bank Farm, about 65 acres, as a dairy farm and sold this acreage to Greater Petersburg Development Corporation in December, 1915 for $50,000.  That corporation subdivided the land into Riverside Park Subdivision, leaving Block 7, as it is shaped today, with no lots, labeling it simply "General Lee's Headquarters".  Then, in 1919, Block 6 was broken into three lots, the center lot being No. 2 and containing the present building, and this lot and building was sold to Alice V. D. Pierrepont.

Mrs. Pierrepont lived here for many years and entertained extensively in the house that is presently known as Violet Bank.  This house, however, is said by Charles Gilliam, a descendant of Elizabeth Shore Gilliam, to be the guest house of the Violet Bank built by Jane and Henry Haxall with the famous insurance money, although the location of the main house and the circumstances of its destruction seem to be completely unknown.

In 1947 Mrs. Pierrepont sold the present Violet Bank to the Colonial Heights Post No. 284 American Legion, and in 1959 the Legion Post sold the property to the City of Colonial Heights.  Today it houses a Civil War museum and has been furnished with furniture typical of its period by the Colonial Heights Federated Women's Club.