r
gentlemen of prominence in the colony, lost his lot for having failed to
comply with the directions of the assembly to build thereon within three
years. The following September there took place an auction of these
forfeited lots, and No. 61 passed to William Sewell for L5 7_s._ 6_d._

At a court held at Fairfax, on April 18, 1759, with five gentlemen
justices presiding; _to wit_, John Carlyle, John West Jun., John Hunter,
Robert Adam, and William Bronaugh:

William Sewell brings into court his servant Elizabeth McNot for
having a base born child. Ordered that she serve for the same one
year and she agrees to serve her said master six months in
consideration of his paying her fine.[120]

Thus out of the mist of one hundred and ninety years emerges again the
dim figure of William Sewell. And who, pray, was William Sewell?
Peruke-maker! So called in a deed of trust dated 1766, "William Sewell
Peruke Maker," and Elizabeth, his wife. The same Elizabeth?

Nearly two hundred years have passed since William dressed a wig or
powdered a head, but if these parlors were his shop, and certainly they
were, all the gentry in the town waited his pleasure here. Visitors who
came to Alexandria and took part in the balls testified to the elegance
of the ladies' apparel (almost always) and a lady to be elegant must
have a well dressed head. It was rare, too, to see a gentleman without
his peruke. William must have had a very large business. One likes to
think that Major Washington dealt with Sewell, and it is not difficult
to imagine on ball evenings Mrs. Carlyle's maid rushing in, making a
hasty curtsy and breathlessly demanding Madam's wig; or perhaps Mrs.
Fairfax's maid presents Mrs. Fairfax's compliments and "Please, will Mr.
Sewell come at two o'clock to dress Mistress Fairfax's hair?" Nor, is it
difficult to picture William, when the shop day is over, with his
apprentices bent over the fine net, meticulously crocheting, by
candlelight, the white hair into a lofty creation that will, in about
six months time, take a lady's breath away.

Alas! Alack! Peruke-making and hair-dressing were not all they ought to
be. Poor William owed a lot of money. He was indebted with interest to
John Carlyle and John Dalton for L42 15_s._ 7_d._; William Ramsay for
L83 14_s._ 4_d._; John Muir for L23 7_s._ 9_d._--all merchants of
Alexandria. But that was not all; the Kingdom of Great Britain was
concerned. He owed one Henry Ellison, of