John Hawks speaks

The architect of Tryon Palace describes his greatest work

Detail of John Hawks' written description of Tryon Palace, 12 July 1783

by John B. Green III

John Hawks (c. 1731-1790), English born and trained architect, was brought to North Carolina by Royal Governor William Tryon to design and superintend the construction of the governor's residence at New Bern. This he did, remaining in North Carolina for the rest of his life. Although there is ample evidence that he continued to work as an architect in North Carolina, and even sought work in New York and Charleston, no other building designed  by Hawks is as well documented as Tryon Palace. Multiple sheets of plans survive for the Palace as well as the construction contract between William Tryon and Hawks. Together they form what is probably the most complete set of design documents for any building erected in America in the 18th century.  To this wealth must be added one last treasure: John Hawks' own written description of the Palace.

In our last post we discussed the plan of the Tryon Palace grounds sent to Francisco de Miranda by John Hawks in 1783. The plan was accompanied by a four-page document in which Hawks described the layout of the grounds and the design of the Palace and its wings.  While we quoted from this description in  our last post, we now present a transcription of the entire, remarkable document. The original can be found in the Francisco de Miranda Papers at the Academia Nacional de la Historia in Caracas, Venezuela.

The inclos'd is an original sketch of the situation of the House and Gardens for the residence of the Governor or Commander in chief for the Province of North Carolina. It was agreed for the advantage of a prospect down the river, that the South front should be thrown more to the Eastward which leaves the Gardens not quite so regular as appears in the sketch.  The opening or entrance from Pollok street is likewise much wider than here described, the present fence now ranges with the inside fronts of the two Offices, And the Circular fence to form a Court yard which was to be china or Iron railing with a pair of Iron gates is now totally abolished.

Plan of the Governor's Palace and grounds, Francisco de Miranda Papers, Academia Nacional de la Historia, Caracas, Venezuela

The dimensions of the House exclusive of the projection in each front is 82 by 60 feet.  The principal floor divided into seven rooms and two staircases.

The Hall at entrance in the North front is 26 by 18 feet The walls finished with stucco, pediments over the doors, niches in the walls, and a Modillion Cornice.  

To the left or N.E. angle is a Library 22 by 16 feet.  The Chimney piece of Philadelphia marble, a mahoginy fixed Book case, pedistals on the dado to receive the Window architraves, Caps over the doors, and a solid dentil double Cornice to the room.  

To this Joins the Council room at the E. end or S.E. angle 36 by 23 feet.  The walls covered with modern wainscot with a Carved enrichment in the Base and Sur Base, each window Architrave forms a scrole at Bottom and is supported by a pedistal, over the doors are flat Caps with contracted swelling Friezes, and Ionick Entablature complete finishes to the ceiling, The Chimney Cap or shelf is of statuary marble fully enriched and supported by two Ionick Columns of Seana marble, on the Tablet in the Center is an Urn in B[as] relieve with foliages, to the Frieze is a Siana fret laid in statuary and a Bust of the King over one Column, and Queen over the other in mozzo [sic] relievo at each end of the frieze, the Ornaments over the marble Chimney Commonly called [a]Tabernacle Frame consists of Corinthian Columns and pillasters fluited with the proper Entablature fully inric[hed] and an open pediment.  The quality of the floor is not [the] most inconsiderable part of this room.

Drawing Room details, John Hawks, c.1766-1767. New-York Historical Society

In the center of the South front is the drawing room 26 by 18 feet.  The Chimney of plain statuary marble with a frame for a picture or Land scape over it, the Base and Sur Base inriched with fret work, kneed architraves to the windows, pediments [and] Caps to the doors, and the cieling Coved, this is alowed the most light and Airy finished room in the House.

The dining room in the S.W. angle is 28 by 22 feet and wainscoted with a plain molding and flat pannel, architraves and Caps to the doors and windows as before, and a double cornice with a dentil Bedmould to the Cieling, the Chimney piece of black and white Vein'd marble over which is a frame with an Ogee [scrole] pediment.

The Center room at the west end is about 16 by 12 feet, for a Housekeeper, and the room at the N.W. angle 22 by 14 feet (on the right hand of the Hall at entrance) for the Steward or Butler.

The hand rail, Baluster and Carved Brackets to the best staircase are of mahoginy, the steps and risers of fine grain clear pine, the light is conveyed to this staircase by a sky light 9 feet Diameter of an octagon plan or [  ] domical section, and finishes with a cove at the foot of the skylight from the center of which is a Chain for a shandelier.  The Back staircase is like wise in the Center of the House receives its light from a hiped skylight, to these staircases all the rooms in the one pair of stairs or Bedroom floor one excepted have a Communication.

Second-floor plan, John Hawks, c.1766-1767. New-York Historical Society

The Basement story consists of apartments for the use of the Butler[,] Housekeeper and Cellering &c, and is 7 ft. 6 Ins. only in the clear.  The principal story 15 feet high in the clear, and the upper or Bedroom story 12 feet high in the clear.

In the center of the North front a pediment spans 32 feet, in the Tympan of which is the Kings Arms in alto relievo, and attributes painted, a Block Cornice finishes this pediment and Continues round the house with a parrapet wall and an Ornament vause at each corner Brake and center of the pediment, A Lead Gutter to receive the water from the In and outside of the roof also runs round the Building with 6 stacks of Lead pipes to convey the water into drains which lead to Reservoirs.  An Ionick portico Frontispiece to the North front and a range of Iron palisadoes from this to each Circular Colonade.

Plan of drains and reservoir, John Hawks, c.1766-1767. New-York Historical Society

The Kitchen and stable Offices are each 50 by 40 feet. [In] the one is a kitchen[,] servants Hall[,] cooks Larder, Scullary [and] Brew House, the one pair of stairs in this Office are a Laundry and three good Bedrooms. 

In the other Office are two la[rge] stables and a coach House and Bedrooms for the servant[s] employed in the stables and Lofts for hay or fodder &c.

North Carolina
New Bern   12 July 1783                                                        J. Hawks

Searching for the Palace Gardens

or, how a Spanish revolutionary, a French map-maker, and an English architect provide clues to the original Tryon Palace gardens.

Portrait of Francisco de Miranda, 1788, as published in Judson P. Wood and John S. Ezell, The New Democracy in America: Travels of Francisco de Miranda in the United States, 1783-84, Norman:University of Oklahoma Press, 1963

by John B. Green III

Francisco de Miranda, Spanish soldier and revolutionary, visited New Bern in June 1783. While here he viewed Tryon Palace, formerly the royal governor's residence, and met the  building's architect John Hawks. Hawks later sent Miranda a plan of the Palace grounds.  Miranda tucked the drawing in his diary and traveled on. Miranda would later be heavily involved in the effort to free much of South America from Spanish colonial rule and would serve as one of the early leaders of the newly-formed nation of Venezuela.  Eventually falling afoul of Spanish royal authorities, Francisco de Miranda would spend the rest of his life in a Spanish prison, dying there in 1816. Shortly before his imprisonment, Miranda arranged for an English sea captain to spirit his diaries and other papers out of the country. Miranda's papers disappeared from view for the next century, only surfacing in England in 1920s. The Venezuelan government would purchase the sixty-three bound volumes of diaries and correspondence in 1926 and place them in their national library in Caracas.

The sixty-three volumes of Francisco de Miranda's papers as they appeared in England before their purchase by the Venezuelan government. From William Spence Robertson, The Diary of Francisco de Miranda: Tour of the United States 1783-1784, New York: The Hispanic Society of America, 1928

Those in charge of the reconstruction and restoration of Tryon Palace in the 1950s were aware of Francisco Miranda's visit to New Bern. They had seen a published Spanish language edition of the Miranda diary and his reference to Hawks and the garden plan and knew that Miranda's papers were now in Caracas. In his diary Miranda states:

The best building of all, and which truly merits the learned traveler's attention is the so-called Palace, built 18 years ago by an able English architect (Mr. Hawks) who came for this purpose from England with Governor Tryon and is still in the City: I have personally dealt with him and found him of admirable character: he sent me an exact plan of said building and gardens, which gives a thorough understanding of the whole.

An attempt was made to locate the garden plan. An American in the oil industry traveling to Venezuela was enlisted to visit the library in Caracas and search for the plan. He was shown the diaries and found the entry pertaining to Miranda's visit to New Bern but could not find the plan. Without the Miranda/Hawks plan the Palace reconstruction was left with only one document which might give some idea as to the placement and appearance of the Palace gardens - Claude Joseph Sauthier's 1769 manuscript map of New Bern.

Title and descriptive key of Claude Joseph Sauthier's 1769 map of New Bern. North Carolina State Archives

Sauthier, French surveyor, map maker, and landscape architect, had been brought to North Carolina by Royal Governor William Tryon to survey and prepare maps of the principal towns of the colony. It is possible that he may also have been employed by Tryon or Palace architect John Hawks in laying out appropriate gardens for the governor's residence. Sauthier's map of New Bern shows elaborate gardens between the north front of the Palace and Pollock Street and a lawn leading from the south front of the building to the river. Could this map be used to reconstruct the Palace gardens?

Detail of the 1769 Sauthier Map of New Bern showing the Governor's Palace and gardens. North Carolina State Archives

There were two problems.  The first was doubt about the accuracy of Sauthier's depiction of the garden.  Sauthier had actually prepared two versions of his map of New Bern each showing elaborate gardens at the Palace but also in virtually every other house lot in the town and the designs of the gardens varied from one map to the next.  Did any of the gardens drawn by Sauthier actually exist the way he drew them or were they just a kind of drafting convention to indicate that those lots were occupied or otherwise in use?

Archaeological trenching to the east of the Palace foundations, ca. 1953-1954. From Thomas E. Beaman, Jr., "Fables of the Reconstruction: Morley Jeffers Williams and the Excavation of Tryon Palace, 1952-1962," North Carolina Archaeology, October 2000.

The second problem arose once the clearing of the site for the reconstruction had begun.  The older type of archaeological excavations carried out- parallel trenching - was more or less effective in locating building foundations and other substantial remains, but not refined enough to locate the fragile remains of the garden walks and beds shown on the Sauthier map.  In the end, lacking conclusive evidence, it was decided to have landscape architect Morley Jeffers Williams design a complex of gardens representing the major garden styles of 18th century England. These gardens, along with the completed Tryon Palace reconstruction, opened to the public in 1959.

Tryon Palace Restoration garden brochure, c. 1960.

Thirty-two years later a renewed effort was made by Tryon Palace staff members to locate the Miranda garden plan.  An American researcher in Venezuela was asked to visit the library in Caracas and locate the garden plan. This effort failed when the researcher was unable to reach the library because of an attempted military coup blocking the streets of Caracas. Success was finally achieved when a letter, translated into Spanish by a bilingual Tryon Palace staff member, was answered by the library's staff and a photocopy of the long-lost map was sent to New Bern.

Plan of the Governor's Palace and grounds from the Francisco de Miranda Papers, Academia Nacional de la Historia, Caracas, Venezuela

The garden plan seems to be in the drafting style of Claude Joseph Sauthier who had prepared the two maps of New Bern in 1769. But this plan, given to Miranda by John Hawks, varies considerably from the garden layouts shown on the town plans. Elaborate symmetrical gardens are now laid out between the Palace and the Trent River, not between the house and Pollock Street, where a tree-lined avenue flanked by lawns is now shown. Miranda says that this rendering is "an exact plan of said building and gardens," but is it really? Might there be any other evidence among Miranda's papers in Caracas?

In poring over the photocopy of the Miranda plan of the gardens, a sharp-eyed staffer notices that part of the previous page in the volume of documents can be seen and the words and parts of words are in English!  Feverish correspondence with Caracas results in the receipt of photocopies of the barely visible document - a four-page letter from John Hawks, Palace architect to Francisco de Miranda.  This previously unknown letter was written by Hawks to accompany and explain the garden drawing and describe the architectural details of the Palace buildings. Writing from New Bern on July 12, 1783 Hawks states that:

The inclos'd is an original sketch of the situation of the House and Gardens for the residence of the Governor or Commander in chief for the Province of North Carolina.  It was agreed for the advantage of a prospect down the river, that the south front should be thrown more to the Eastward which leaves the Gardens not quite so regular as appears in the sketch.  The opening or entrance from Pollok street is likewise much wider than here described, the present fence now ranges with the inside fronts of the two Offices, And the circular fence to form a Court yard which was to be china or Iron railing with a pair of Iron gates is now totally abolished.

So here we have it. John Hawks, Palace architect, seems to indicate that the garden plan is accurate except for the changes he notes.  Archaeological test excavations both to the north and south of the Palace in the 1990s will reveal intact 18th century soil layers but no firm evidence for the garden features shown on the Miranda plan.

1993 test excavations, Tryon Palace, Sun Journal, May 9, 1993

Twenty-five years later, the Palace gardens still await the more extensive archaeological excavations which might confirm what the Revolutionary, the Map-maker, and the Architect are trying to tell us.

William Tisdale and the Palace

or, Tryon Palace as it may have appeared in 1775. 

Tryon Palace, detail from a North Carolina five dollar bill of credit, 1775. Courtesy Tryon Palace, New Bern, NC

by John B. Green III

In our previous post we discussed the finding of the original 18th century architect's drawings for Tryon Palace in New Bern and why the two-story version of the main building was selected for reconstruction.  It would be nice, though, to have a contemporary image of the Palace, that is, one made when the building was still standing, to confirm the decisions made during the 1950's reconstruction.  The main building of the Palace survived for thirty years before it was destroyed by fire in 1798.  Surely someone must have taken notice of this remarkable structure and recorded its details in pencil or ink or paint.  Well, someone did take notice, and he recorded the Palace in the most unlikeliest of places.  The resulting image barely measures an inch by an inch and a half!

North Carolina five dollar bill of credit, 1775. Courtesy Tryon Palace, New Bern, NC

The Provincial Congress of the newly formed revolutionary government of North Carolina meeting in Hillsborough on September 7, 1775 passed the following resolution: "Resolved, That a Sum not exceeding one hundred and twenty five thousand Dollars, be emitted by this Congress in Bills of Credit, for the defence of this Colony."  They further resolved that ". . . Mr. Samuel Johnston, Mr. Richard Caswell, Mr. Richard Cogdell and Mr. Andrew Knox or the survivors of them, be a Committee to get proper plates engraved, and to provide paper and to agree with an Engraver to stamp or print the said Bills and to Frame Devices for the same[.]"  The committee reported back to the Provincial Congress on October 20, 1775 that they had employed "Mr. William Tisdale at New Bern" to engrave the printing plates and had agreed to pay him one hundred pounds for his services.

William Tisdale (1735-c.1797), New Bern silversmith and watchmaker, was born in Connecticut and briefly educated at Harvard.  He had settled in New Bern by 1770 where he practiced his trade and soon became involved in revolutionary politics.  By 1775 he was both a member of the Provincial Congress and the New Bern Committee of Safety.  After successfully engraving the plates for the 1775 bills of credit he was hired in 1779 to engrave the first Great Seal for the State of North Carolina.

The 1775 resolution called for printing bills of credit in a variety of denominations - quarter dollar, half dollar, and one, two, three, four, five, eight, and ten dollars.  Tisdale engraved each plate with scroll-work floral decoration and a vignette in the lower left corner depicting various allegorical or symbolic objects.  He chose a tiny rendering of Tryon Palace for the five dollar bill.

(top) Elevation of Tryon Palace by John Hawks, c.1766-1767, Public Record Office, London

(bottom) Detail from North Carolina five dollar bill of credit, 1775. Courtesy Tryon Palace, New Bern, NC

The image of the Palace is remarkable.  It is our only known contemporary view.  But is it an accurate rendering?  If we assume that William Tisdale, New Bern resident and member of the Provincial Congress, was well acquainted with the appearance of the Palace, then it is possible that his rendering of the building is as accurate as the very small space available on the surface of the plate allowed.  Assuming this level of accuracy, several differences between the 1775 rendering, the 1767 Palace plans, and the reconstructed building stand out.  The 1767 plans call for parapets atop the walls of the main building as well as the two flanking wings.  Tisdale shows a parapet or perhaps a railing or balustrade on the main building only.  He also includes ornamental urns atop the parapet, the central pediment, and along the roofs of the colonnades between the Palace and the wings, details not on the 1767 plans. 

Is this an accurate view of the Palace as it was actually built or just William Tisdale's artistic license at work?  We may never know.  What is known is that this five dollar bill is a rare survival.  Only this copy in the collection of Tryon Palace Historic Sites and Gardens and a scattered few in other collections are all that survive of the four thousand which the 1775 Provincial Congress ordered to be printed.

Benson J. Lossing and the Palace

or, why generations of North Carolinians believed that Tryon Palace had been a three-story building

Engraved view of Tryon Palace from Benson J. Lossing, The Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution, volume II, New York: Harper & Brothers, 1855.

by John B. Green III

By the time that Benson John Lossing published his Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution in 1852, there were few people still living who could remember the long-gone governor's palace in New Bern.  Designed by English architect John Hawks and constructed in the 1760s by Royal Governor William Tryon, the Palace had served as the royal governor's residence and then as the first state capitol of North Carolina following the Revolution.  A late night fire had destroyed the main building of the Palace in 1798 and by Lossing's time only the West or stable wing survived on the site.

Title page from New Bern historian John D. Whitford's copy of The Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution

Benson J. Lossing (1813-1891), illustrator and engraver, editor and publisher, was also one of America's most popular historians of the 19th century.  Lossing is today considered to have been one of the first Americans to utilize modern standards of historical research.  He traveled thousands of miles interviewing participants in, or eyewitnesses to, the events he chronicled.  His books made extensive use of original documents which were quoted within the text or within footnotes.

Elevation of Tryon Palace by John Hawks, 1766, Francis Lister Hawks Papers, New-York Historical Society, as published in Fiske Kimbal and Gertrude S. Carraway, "Tryon Palace," New-York Historical Society Quarterly Bulletin, January 1940.

In the course of preparing the illustrations for the Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution, Lossing sought out the Rev. Francis Lister Hawks of New York, grandson of John Hawks, the Palace architect. Rev. Hawks had in his possession a number of his grandfather's original plans for the Palace including the elevation seen above.  Lossing based his rendering of the Palace on this plan.  His engraving of Tryon Palace, showing a three-story central block, would serve as the definitive illustration of the legendary building for the next eighty years.  The image was copied and modified numerous times for use in books and pamphlets, postcards and souvenirs.  The original plans in the possession of Rev. Hawks were all but forgotten and the possibility that other, perhaps conflicting, plans for the Palace might exist was not considered. 

Postcard, Tryon Cotillon Club, M.E. Whitehurst, publisher, c. 1915

This all changed in 1939.  In that year New Bern historian Gertrude S. Carraway, in response to a growing interest in reconstructing Tryon Palace, began the search for John Hawk's plans for the building.  Using as a starting point Benson J. Lossing's statement that the drawings were "in the present possession of a grandson of the architect, the Reverend Francis L. Hawks, D.D., L.L.D., rector of Calvary Church in the city of New York" Miss Carraway contacted various members of the Hawks family.  None knew where Rev. Hawks' papers were.  Eventually, through contacts in the Episcopal Church, it was discovered that the papers were in the collections of the New-York Historical Society.  The Historical Society quickly confirmed that the Palace plans were still present in Rev. Hawks' collection.  The plans were published for the first time in January 1940 in a article written by Miss Carraway and noted architectural historian Fiske Kimball for the Bulletin of the New-York Historical Society.  

Elevation of Tryon Palace by John Hawks, c.1766-1767, Public Record Office, London, as published in Alonzo Thomas Dill, Jr., "Tryon Palace: a Neglected Niche of North Carolina History," North Carolina Historical Review, April 1942.

There was just one problem.  Although the New York plans showed Benson Lossing's three-story Palace, the dimensions of the two wings did not match the dimensions of the surviving West wing in New Bern.  Was the New York plan a preliminary and ultimately rejected version of the Palace?  Had there been a revised set of plans and could they possibly survive?   In an effort to answer these questions, Dr. Christopher Crittenden of the North Carolina Historical Commission, wrote to the British Public Record Office in London.  Might they possibly have plans for the governor's palace in North Carolina?  The answer was yes!  They had the plans which Royal Governor William Tryon had transmitted in 1767 to the Board of Trade for approval.  These plans had dimensions which matched the surviving stable wing and the still visible remains of the Palace foundations.  The accompanying elevation, however, showed a two-story building not a three-story building.  After much study, the two-story version was chosen as the version most likely to have actually been built in New Bern.  This is the version, with some modifications, that was reconstructed in the 1950s by the State of North Carolina and opened to the public in 1959.

Rendering of proposed reconstruction of Tryon Palace, postcard, c.1955