The Ewell/Ballendine Partnership in Prince William County, Virginia 1740-1765

Monument at Bel Air
Prince William Home Built by Charles Ewell 1740 

Summary of the Partnership

William Ballendine was a transatlantic ship captain from Liverpool who married Mary Ann Ewell, widow of Charles Ewell, in 1724. Mary Ann was the daughter of a Huguenot minister named John Bertrand and his wife Charlotte Jolly who migrated to Virginia in 1687. Bertrand helped lead a Huguenot migration to the Rappahannock region and worked with his wife to establish a landing for transatlantic ships at their 920-acre Deep Creek plantation, later known as Belle Isle (now preserved as Belle Isle State Park). Charlotte came from a French merchant and noble family. Both her father and brother remained in France where they held the title of Seigneur de Chadignac.

The records suggest William Ballendine had two young sons at the time of his marriage to Mary Ann Bertrand Ewell, William (c. 1720–1771) and John (c. 1722– 1781). Ballendine’s daughters, Frances (c.1728—c.1793) and Hannah (c.1730— c.1770), were born to Mary Ann. The four Ballendine children grew up with five step-siblings who were children of Charles and Mary Ann Ewell: Mary Ann (c.1711—c.1748), Charles (c.1712—1747), Charlotte (1714—1782), Bertrand (c.1716—1793), and Solomon (c.1718—1768). Records indicate that Charles Ewell and William Ballendine after him lived at the Bertrand plantation in a house that Ewell enlarged on 200 acres that he leased from Mary Ann’s brother William Bertrand, who inherited the plantation from his parents. Mary Ann kept that lease until her death in 1750. Both Ewell and Ballendine were partners in the Bertrand trading operations including the landing, tobacco storage houses where William Bertrand was the government-appointed inspector, and a store. They also had their own tobacco production and livestock. Ballendine seems to have followed Ewell’s pattern of acquiring other properties where enslaved workers and servants were living and working. Ewell was a builder and brick maker and records suggest Ballendine took over this business using the enslaved workers Ewell had trained to do it. Ballendine’s expertise as a ship captain made him a valuable partner in the Bertrand operations as he could help transport tobacco to the Bertrand landing and storage houses and other trade goods to the store. The 1736 inventory of William Ballendine’s estate included a 40-foot sloop that may have been used by his sons later.

Following a western French tradition, Mary Ann (like her mother) was a full partner in the Bertrand operations with particular involvement in the store. It is likely that she helped raise her Ballendine step-sons and encouraged their entrepreneurial spirit. Her next marriage sealed the family’s gentry identity in the colony. In 1742 Mary Ann married James Ball, a wealthy merchant, court justice, and burgess who was a first cousin of George Washington’s mother, Mary Ball. Mary Ann’s son Charles had already married Ball’s daughter Sarah and her son Solomon would later marry his daughter Eve. Mary Ann’s daughter Hannah Ballendine would later marry James Ball’s nephew, William Montague. At her death in 1750, Mary Ann was buried in the Ball family plot, prominently located at the St. Mary’s Whitechapel Church cemetery in Lancaster.

By the middle of the 1740s six of the Ewell and Ballendine children who grew up together on the Deep Creek plantation in Lancaster were moving to Prince William County: Charles Ewell, Charlotte Ewell Gallahue (husband Darby), Bertrand Ewell, William Ballendine, John Ballendine, and Frances Ballendine. Records suggest at least for a time they had a store and tobacco trading operation in Dumfries—a business they learned from their parents. The oldest of these siblings, Charles Ewell, led the way into another kind of business venture. After working for wealthy merchants Charles Burges and his father-in-law James Ball in Lancaster, Charles was employed by John Tayloe in the Bristol iron works in King George County along the Rappahannock River about 1737. He continued to work for Tayloe until 1742. By 1740 he was dividing his time between the Bristol iron works and a similar operation owned by Tayloe on Neabsco Creek in Prince William County. In 1742 Charles joined with four partners (Ralph Faulkner, Edward Neale, John Triplett, and Nathaniel Chapman) to purchase the Bristol works from its English owners. By 1744, Charles had shifted his base of operations to Prince William County and formed a joint stock company with three of his Bristol partners (Faulkner, Neale, and Triplett) to acquire land and buildings along the Occoquan River. In 1746 these four partners started the Lancashire Furnace Company in Baltimore County, Maryland where the ore they mined would not be subject to Northern Neck Proprietary taxation. They planned to ship the ore to their Virginia forges for processing.

In 1747 Charles Ewell died leaving a widow and three small children. His executors, Bertrand Ewell and William Ballendine, Jr., sold Charles’ interest in the Bristol works in 1750. In 1749 Bertrand bought out his brother’s Prince William partners to form a new company that acquired 2,000 acres along the Occoquan River with forges, mills, and dams. Bertrand owned 50% of the new company with Charles’ heirs possessing the other 50%. By 1755, Ewell and Company was leasing these assets to John Ballendine. The fact that Ewell and Company owned land, buildings, equipment, tools, livestock, and enslaved workers utilized by Ballendine at Occoquan suggests that he started his work there as part of a Ewell/Ballendine family partnership. Having served as a court justice since 1746, Bertrand Ewell was in position to help Ballendine to avoid or delay business related lawsuits. To raise capital to expand his Occoquan activities, Ballendine formed an additional partnership with John Tayloe and and Presley Thornton in 1755. Their Neabsco iron works was located a few miles from Ballendine’s Occoquan operation. That Bertrand Ewell was part of this partnership is suggested by the record of his loan from Tayloe in 1755.

With an influx of capital from his newly acquired wealthy partners John Ballendine expanded both his iron works and his grain milling operations and built a fine Georgian style home in Occoquan that still stands. However, Ballendine’s relationship with Tayloe and Thornton quickly deteriorated and by 1760 they seem to have withdrawn their support for his operations. Faced with financial ruin for himself and his Ewell partners, Ballendine formed a partnership with a wealthy Maryland merchant named John Semple in 1762. Semple initially leased land and assets from Ballendine and his Ewell partners, paying Ballendine a salary for continuing to manage the Occoquan operations. Within a few years, Semple began buying the land and assets of Bertrand Ewell and the Charles Ewell heirs and in 1765 took full control and bought out Ballendine’s interest.

This Ewell/Ballendine partnership apparently ended as John Ballendine left Prince William to pursue canal building projects on the Potomac and James Rivers. After selling land to cover their Occoquan losses John Ballendine’s Ewell partners remained in Prince William. 

Rockledge
Built by John Ballendine at Occoquan c. 1760 

Ewell and Ballendine Sources

• Harrison, Fairfax, Landmarks of Old Prince William: A Study of Origins in Northern Virginia, Vol. 1 and 2, (Baltimore, 1987), pages 427-429. John Tayloe of Richmond County started the Neabsco iron works before 1738 using ore imported from Maryland. About 1749 Charles Ewell and partners Ralph Faulkner, Edward Neale, and John Triplett acquired 1,520 acres on Hooe’s Run but were unable to exploit them until John Ballendine acquired the tract. His 1755 contracts with the Ewells and Peytons led to a forge and grist mill on the Occoquan. John Tayloe and Presley Thornton offered Ballendine financial backing and entered into a partnership with him enabling him to acquire Valentine Payton’s Occoquan warehouses. Ballendine built a house, forges, water grist mills, bolting mills, bake houses, saw mills, store houses, and dwellings and acquired enslaved workers and livestock. Tayloe and Thornton withdrew from the partnership in 1760 leaving Ballendine in financial difficulty. He borrowed money from John Semple of Charles County, Maryland and by 1762 was compelled to transfer to him all his interest in the Occoquan works, retaining a share of the profits and a manager’s salary. By 1765, Ballendine was forced out and moved to Seneca Falls to begin a project to improve navigation of the Potomac River.

• Kraus, Nancy W., “John Ballendine and the James River Canal near Richmond, Virginia: An Updated History of the First Navigational Canal with Locks in the United States,” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 132, No 3, 2024, pages 163-206. Kraus pulls together an impressive array of sources to show that Ballendine’s significant engineering achievement on the James River has not been understood or appreciated by historians.

• Lee, Lonnie H., A Brief History of Belle Isle Plantation, Lancaster County, Virginia, 1650-1782 (Heritage Books, 2019), pages 29, 42-43, 57-59, 61-73, 119, and 121.

• Lee, Lonnie H., The Huguenot-Anglican Refuge in Virginia: Empire, Land, and Religion in the Rappahannock Region (Lexington Books, 2023), pages 141-143, 159, and 163.

• McIntosh, David and Don Peterson, John Ballendine: Early Developer of the Potomac River By-Pass Canals and Developments on the Occoquan and James Rivers (published by the Authors, 2022). A recent biography of John Ballendine flawed by its omission of primary records in Lancaster and Prince William Counties that identify Ballendine’s business relationship with Bertrand Ewell and the Charles Ewell heirs in Occoquan.

• Sparacio, Ruth and Sam, Deed Abstracts of Prince William County, Virginia (1740-1741) (McLean, VA, 1989), p. 105. Charles Ewell purchases 175 acres from John Gregg along a branch of the Neabsco River., January 1741.

• Sparacio, Deed Abstracts of Prince William County, Virginia, 1763-1768 (Part I) (McLean, VA, 1990), pp. 69-70. John Semple pays 525 pds (Great Britain) to James and Marianne Craik and 1200 pds (Virginia) to Jesse Ewell for two-sixths part of the Forge Lands, purchased by Bertrand Ewell from Charles Ewell’s partners, Ralph Faulkner, Edward Neale, and John Triplett, in 1749. Including four tracts: 188 acres on the south side of the Occoquan, 1,070 adjoining acres, 50 acres, 212 acres contained in the Charles Ewell joint stock company formed in 1744. Also including one tract of 950 acres on the Occoquan purchased by Bertrand Ewell and Charles’ heirs in 1759, for total of 2,470 acres, October 1764.

• Sparacio, Deed Book Q (1763-1768) (McLean, VA, 1990).

  • Pages 67-68: On October 5, 1764 John Ballendine takes out a mortgage with James Douglas for 464 pds fifteen shillings (Virginia) on two tracts of land: 280 acres on the Occoquan River, on which is built a mill, storehouse, and dwelling house, and 20 adjoining acres with two merchant mills, four pair of Stones, two boulting mills, one bake house, two large ovens, and one forge, and all his share of stocks, slaves, servants, horses, cattle, and wagons. Payment of full sum on 10 May 1765 will release the mortgage. Filed 5 December 1764.

  • Pages 75-77: On 21 February 1765 John Semple claims full control of the two tacts and businesses he leased from John Ballendine in 1762 by virtue of his purchase of them.

  • Pages 87-88: On 21 February 1765 John and Mary Ballendine sell to John Semple their forge lands previously leased to Semple for 10,500 pds Sterling.

  • Page 106: On 2 May 1766 James Douglas sells to John Tayloe and Presley Thornton the two tracts of 300 acres Ballendine mortgaged to him in 1764, now in the possession of John Semple, for 570 pds Virginia because Ballendine failed to pay his debt of 464 pds 15 shillings Virginia by 1 May 1764.

  • Pages 106-107: On 6 June 1766 Bertrand and Frances Ewell sell 500 acres to William Carr that Bertrand acquired in 1762. 

• Sparacio, Deed Abstracts of Prince William County, Virginia (1745-1746/1748-1749) (McLean, VA, 1989).

  • Page 30: Bertrand Ewell is serving as a court justice in Prince William in July of 1746.

  • Page 101: On 8 June 1749 Bertrand Ewell buys two parcels of land, 180 acres on the south side of the Occoquan River and 80 acres adjoining the first, for 70 pds sterling (British).

• Sparacio, Deed Abstracts of Prince William County, Virginia (1749-1752/1761-1764) (McLean, VA, 1989).

  • Pages 31-32: On 3 August 1749 Bertrand Ewell and Chas Ewell heirs buy out Charles Ewell’s partners (Ralph Faulkner, Edw Neale, John Triplet) for 200 pds (Virginia) to each, their three-fourths share of 2,000 acres on the Occoquan with houses, forges, dams. Bertrand holds half and the heirs hold half. Unclear reference to the Lancashire Furnace in Baltimore County, perhaps Bertrand is trading Chas’ one-fourth share in it.

  • Page 38: On 1 October 1750 John Muschett, merchant, receives 1014 acres on Occoquan River for marriage to Penelope Elliott.

  • Page 70: In 1760 John Muschett leases 1,014 acres on the Occoquan to John Tayloe and Presley Thornton.

  • Page 100: On 1 September 1761 Bertrand Ewell sells ten enslaved workers to William Carr for 172 pds VA.

  • Page 102: On 12 July 1758 Bertrand Ewell sells 1900 acres on Quantico Creek with warehouses to Allan Macrae for 400 pds VA.

  • Page 106: On 18 January 1762 Bertrand Ewell sells 500 acres on Quantico Creek to William Carr for 200 pds VA.

  • Pages 107-110: 9 April 1762 contract between John Ballendine and John Semple. Leasing two parcels, 20 acres on Occoquan with mills, bake house, etc and 280 adjoining acres with saw mill and twenty-seven hundred fifty acres leased from Bertrand Ewell and Chas Ewell’s heirs in 1755 on which stands a forge, saw mill and water grist mill. Semple pays to Ballandine 500 pds (Virginia) and Ballendine’s debt of 1,033 pds five shillings and six and a half penny (Virginia) to John Tayloe and Thornton Presley. Ballendine to live in house and receive 100 pds Sterling wages to manage the operation.

  • Pages 111-112: On 16 June 1762 Ballendine mortgages his two parcels of 280 acres and 20 acres, and his lease of 2,750 acres from Bertrand Ewell, to John Semple for 3,450 pounds of tobacco, 286 pds, 1 shilling, 4 pence (British), and 1,490 pds, 17 shillings, 4 pence (Virginia). Mortgage satisfied if paid in full by 1 September 1769. 

  • Pages 120-121: On 21 July 1762 Bertrand Ewell is bonded (10,000 pds Virginia) for lease of one-half of Ewell and Company land (3,000 acres) and assets for 3,000 pds (Virginia) and acknowledges sale of John Muschett’s 1,000-acre tract to Semple.

  • Page 125: On 14 September 1762 Bertrand Ewell purchases 1,450 acres on north run of Neabsco for 150 pds (Virginia) from Catesby Cocke.

  • Pages 130-132: On 21 January 1763 Bertrand Ewell and wife Frances sell his one-half interest in the forge lands (including purchase from Catesby Cocke 13-14 Sept 1762) for 3,000 pds (Virginia) to John Semple.

  • Pages 133-135: On 21 January 1763 John Ballendine and wife Mary sell to John Tayloe and Presley Thornton their share of land and holdings jointly purchased in 1755 during former partnership for 5 shillings (Virginia).

  • Pages 138-139: On 8 April 1763, James and Jesse Ewell sell their Ewell and Company holdings to John Semple for 2,400 pds (Virginia).

  • Pages 139-140: On 29 April 1762 John Semple is granted the authority to cut timber for ships from land he is leasing from John Ballendine and the land Ballendine is leasing from Bertrand Ewell, acknowledging that he will have no interest in iron production of John Tayloe and Presley Thornton from the forge leased to them by Bertrand Ewell, but will be in partnership with Ballendine for other trade at the works.

• Virginia Historical Society Library, MSSIT2118d, 159-160. Bertrand Ewell and Richard Kenner borrow 300 pds Virginia from John Tayloe on September 15, 1755, mortgaging a 200-acre tract owned by Kenner on Neabsco Creek.

• Donald L. Wilson to Scott Arnold, August 10, 2000. Letter from the research librarian at Ruth E. Lloyd Information Center for Genealogy and Local History in Manassas, Virginia to a representative of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources in which he lists and interprets the early records for the Occoquan iron works. Wilson concludes that Charles Ewell established the first forges and mills at Occoquan sometime between 1744 and 1749 and that his heirs rented them to John Ballendine in 1755. 

Sign Commemorating the Site of Occoquan’s First Gristmill
Built by John Ballendine about 1755 

Timeline

1724
William Ballendine, a transatlantic sea captain from Liverpool, marries Mary Ann Bertrand Ewell in Lancaster County, Virginia and becomes a partner in the Bertrand trading business.

1736
William Ballendine dies in Lancaster County, leaving four children: William and John by a previous marriage and Frances and Hannah by Mary Ann.

1737
Charles Ewell is working for John Tayloe at the Bristol iron works in King George County and Neabsco iron works in Prince William.

1742
Charles Ewell joins with four partners to purchase the Bristol works from British owners.

1744
Charles Ewell forms a joint stock company with three of his partners from the Bristol works and purchases land along the Occoquan River for an iron works in Prince William.

1745
Bertrand Ewell, Charlotte Ewell Gallahue, William Ballendine, John Ballendine, and Frances Ballendine are moving to Prince William participating in a tobacco trading operation at Dumfries. 

1746
Charles Ewell and his Occoquan partners form the Lancashire Furnace Company in Baltimore County, Maryland. Bertrand Ewell becomes a Prince William court justice.

1747
Charles Ewell dies leaving a widow and three small children. Bertrand Ewell and William Ballendine are his executors.

1749
Bertrand Ewell buys out Charles’ Occoquan partners, apparently trading Charles’ interest in the Lancashire Furnace Company. Bertrand owns half of the new company with the Charles Ewell heirs possessing the other 50%. Bertrand Ewell buys additional land to augment the 2,000 acres Charles and his partners had accumulated along the Occoquan. The Occoquan property includes houses, forges, mills, and dams at the time of this transaction.

1750
As Charles Ewell’s executors, Bertrand Ewell and William Ballendine sell his interest in the Bristol iron works to Ralph Faulkner and Edward Neale.

1755
John Ballendine uses his two-masted packet boat (inherited from his father?) to transport forty-four members of the Virginia militia from Westmoreland County to Alexandria where they join the forces of General Braddick for an unsuccessful assault on Fort Duquesne in the French and Indian War. Ewell and Company is leasing land and assets on the Occoquan River to John Ballendine in what appears to be a partnership. Ballendine and Ewell enter another partnership with John Tayloe and Presley Thornton, with Bertrand Ewell borrowing 300 pds Virginia money from Tayloe.

1756
Tayloe is complaining about John Ballendine in the Maryland Gazette.

1760
John Ballendine’s Georgian style home, Rockledge, is constructed in Occoquan. The Ballendine partnership with Tayloe and Thornton ends leaving him in financial difficulty.

1762
John Ballendine enters a partnership with John Semple who loans him money in exchange for paying his debts and signing over the controlling interest in the iron works and bake houses. Bertrand Ewell leases his half of Ewell and Company land and assets to John Semple. Ballendine builds an iron furnace above Shenandoah Falls at Elk Run where John Semple is acquiring large tracts of land. The furnace soon closes when ore deposits proved to be insufficient.

1763
Bertrand Ewell sells his half of Ewell and Company land and assets to John Semple. James and Jesse Ewell also sell their share to Semple. John Ballendine sells John Tayloe and Presley Thornton his share of the land and assets of a forge partnership between them. 

1764
James and Marianne Craik sell her share of Ewell and Company to John Semple. John Ballendine mortgages his forge lands and assets to James Douglas.

1765
John Ballendine sells his forge lands to John Semple and moves to Seneca Falls to work on a By-Pass Canal to move grain and other goods more quickly down the Potomac River—a project he began in 1763.

1766
James Douglas sells Ballendine’s defaulted mortgage to Tayloe and Thornton and they file a court action claiming ownership of the property Semple had purchased from Ballendine the previous year.

1767
Records suggest Ballendine completes the Seneca Falls By-Pass Canal by May, enhancing the economic growth of Fairfax and Loudoun Counties in Virginia and Frederick County in Maryland. He then shifts his attention to constructing the Little Falls By-Pass Canal to connect the fresh-water Potomac to the salt-water Potomac near the present-day District of Columbia boundary line. He builds two mills in the Little Falls area where John Semple is also active, but is unable to secure sufficient financial backing to finish the canal.

1772
John Ballendine travels to Europe, spending two years in England, Scotland, and France to learn how to construct canals, aqueducts, and canal gates.

1775
Having given up his plan to complete the Little Fall By-Pass canal on the Potomac, Ballendine moves to the village of Westham on the James River near Richmond.

1776
Ballendine forms a partnership to build a foundry and iron works at Westham to produce cannon and cannon balls, receiving funding from the Fifth Revolutionary Convention and the Virginia General Assembly.

1777
Ballendine builds a dam and water lock gate on the James River near his foundry. While he is unable to complete a canal to the tidewater below the falls before his death, it later becomes what one historian has called “the earliest operating canal system with locks and towpath in the United States.”

1781
In January, a British force commanded by Benedict Arnold burns Richmond and destroys Ballendine’s Westham foundry. In October, John Ballendine dies.