For what it is worth: in the cached field of a Google search on
"'Solomon's Garden' Virginia plantation," reproduced at bottom, turned up:

20 October 1688 MR. HENRY GAULER, 1091 acs; on back of land

purchased by Henry Corbyn, Esqr., & another taken by sd. Corbyn,
dec'd; crossing the maine br. of Ware Cr; a gr. br. Of Passatink Cr;
by a valley called Solomon's Garden, &c.  p. 689.  Granted to Mr.
Abraham Weeks & Mr. Hugh Williams, 26 Sept. 1680, deserted & now
granted by order, &c.  Trans. of 22 pers: James Johnson, Ed. Hughes,
Wm. Cortlet, Alex Jenings, Michll. Jones, Wm. ByFIELD, Ed. Streater,
James Collins, Tho. Oliver, Ed. Horton, Cornel. Atkins, Wm. FIELD,
Ann Eden, Wm. Poster, Wm. Denis, Jno. Wheeler, Edwd. Foules (or
Stoutes), Jane Evans, Richd. Pirete (?), Ed. James, Jone Yates, Ed.
FIELDing.

Ware Creek is near Fredericksburg, Virginia, in Caroline County. George
Washington's associations with Fredericksburg--Ferry Farm, for
example--are well known. His sister Betty married merchant Fielding
Lewis, the owner of definitely brick Kenmore. Mr. Lewis, I think, owned
other area properties. My presumption is that Fielding was Mr. Lewis'
mother's maiden name.

FCO 14 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Cousin Matt's well referenced FIELD ...
<http://idbdnet.com/FCO/14.txt>... 120 acres with plantation Field,
John, 1770, Louisa, VA 8 ... _Cavaliers and Pioneers: Abstract of
Virginia Land Patents ... Cr; by a valley called Solomon's Garden, &c ...
idbdnet.com/FCO/14.txt - 53k - Supplemental Result  Cached
<http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:aY7oBCJXwm4J:idbdnet.com/FCO/14.txt+%22Solomon%27s+Garden%22+Virginia+plantation&hl=en>
- Similar pages
<http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=related:idbdnet.com/FCO/14.txt>






Barbara Griffith wrote:

> Thanks -- and someone else had raised the Louisiana-Washington-Custis
> connection, but Mrs. Keyes didn't move to New Orleans until later in her
> life.  Her husband was the senior senator from New Hampshire and she
> considered herself a Washingtonian, a Virginian--by birth, at least,
> and a
> New Englander through her mother and grandmother's line.
> But you bring up a salient point.
> The settings for Mrs. Keyes' Louisiana novels were always real-life
> edifices
> (like "San Francisco" and "The Cottage" along the River Road) and she
> went
> into great detail about them in her forewords.  This one--Honor Bright
> was
> written shortly before her husband's death-- is different. It's
> definitely
> in Virginia and, for some reason, she says no more.  I'm hopeful her
> papers
> will reveal why, but until I can get to them I'm looking for any clues in
> this mystery.  My suspicions are it may unlock some clue about Mrs.
> Keyes'
> personal life and the inspiration for her writing career.  Thank you
> so much
> for your response!
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jon Kukla" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Monday, June 27, 2005 4:39 PM
> Subject: Re: plantation used as setting by novelist in 1936
>
>
>> Just a  thought - but through Nelly Custis Lewis, there were Washington
>> kin in Louisiana (Patricia Brady, who spoke at LVA today, has written
>> about Nelly). Right off hand you may want to entertain the possibility
>> that Keyes - a prominent New Orleanian - might have had a Louisiana
>> Plantation in mind....
>>
>> Jon Kukla
>>
>>> I'm researching the life of novelist Frances Parkinson Keyes and
>>> would be
>>> very grateful for any information concerning the setting of what may be
>>> her
>>> most autobiographical novel. In 1936, Mrs. Keyes began her novel Honor
>>> Bright with an author's foreword that stated:
>>>
>>>  "The old plantation of Solomon's Garden, described in Honor Bright,
>>> has its prototype in reality.  It is presented in fiction form with the
>>> knowledge and approval of its present owner, the nearest living
>>> 'kin' to
>>> George Washington."
>>>
>>> There is no other information in the forword.  In fact, Mrs. Keyes was
>>> uncharacteristically coy about the identity of this plantation and its
>>> inhabitants. She typically shares much more about such settings with
>>> her
>>> readers.  Mrs. Keyes goes on to say another, nearby plantation actually
>>> bore the name Solomon's Garden "but that [place] is now obsolete."  It
>>> was
>>> definitely another estate which served as the model for the
>>> plantation in
>>> Honor Bright
>>>
>>> Can anyone enlighten me as to the name of the estate in question? Or
>>> the
>>> names of its inhabitants in 1934-36? Moreover, can you think of any
>>> reason
>>> Mrs. Keyes would be so mysterious about this place?
>>>
>>> A careful reading of the novel itself gives this information about the
>>> estate: It is--or was --a white clapboarded, green-shuttered house
>>> with a
>>> wide brick walk leading up to it and four white outbuildings
>>> arranged in
>>> a
>>> symmetrical square. It sits atop a knoll or slight rise in the ground.
>>> It
>>> may be the older of two homes on one property. However, if Mrs.
>>> Keyes is
>>> true to form, she also used factual information to describe the history
>>> of
>>> the place--and in that case, it was built around 1678 by James
>>> Fitzhubert
>>> for his bride, Sally Hunter.  Its most famous attribute may be a
>>> Painted
>>> Parlor -- a formal sitting room outstanding in its hand-painted panels.
>>> That parlor was decorated by a Hessian soldier rescued (from drowning?)
>>> by
>>> the plantation owner/another Virginia landowner.  In gratitude, the
>>> Hessian
>>> made his own paints from clay on the grounds and decorated the room in
>>> the
>>> European "fashions of the day."
>>>
>>> Mrs. Keyes has used the Fielding name in several of her novels, both as
>>> main characters and in minor, supporting roles.  In Honor Bright, a
>>> ghost
>>> named Lucy Fielding is said to haunt Solomon's Garden.  In her
>>> foreword,
>>> Mrs. Keyes' says she appropriated the haunt--name and all -- from the
>>> real
>>> Solomon's Garden, the one that is NOT the setting of the novel -- but
>>> which
>>> is nearby.
>>>
>>> Again, I'd be most appreciative of any information or even
>>> supposition in
>>> this case.
>>>
>>> To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the
>>> instructions
>>> at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> Dr. Jon Kukla, Executive Vice-President
>> Red Hill - The Patrick Henry National Memorial
>> 1250 Red Hill Road
>> Brookneal, Virginia 24528
>> www.redhill.org
>> Phone 434-376-2044 or 800-514-7463
>>
>> Fax 434-376-2647
>>
>> - M. Lynn Davis, Office Manager
>> - Karen Gorham-Smith, Associate Curator
>> - Edith Poindexter, Curator
>>
>> To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the
>> instructions
>> at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
>
>
> To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions
> at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
>

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