Mrs. Ann Wager

A Biographical Sketch of Mrs. Ann Wager

by Emma L. Powers

Ann Wager (b. by 1716¹ - d. by 20 August 1774) tutor and mistress of the Bray School in Williamsburg.

Ann Wager’s origins are unknown. She married William Wager, possibly of James City County. They had two children. Their son, also named William, was born by 1733; by 1760 he was a justice of the peace in Elizabeth City County, and by 1756 he represented that county in the House of Burgesses.² The Wager’s daughter Mary was born before 1747. She married Williamsburg carpenter Matthew Watts Hatton.³ Ann’s husband had probably died by 1748. In 1750 she and her son William settled his estate.⁴ There is no indication in the records of how much real or personal property made up the estate.

Obviously, Ann Wager was literate and cultured. As a widow, she supported herself and her family by teaching. She was employed by Carter Burwell at Carter’s Grove by 1748 and received £20 for “Schooling my Children two years.” She may have been at Carter’s Grove until 1754.⁵ In the 1750s court records show that Mrs. Wager was also paid £18.4.6 by the estate of Edward Champion Travis. She also received monies from the estate of George Wells, perhaps for teaching his children.⁶ In the early 1760s she had a dozen or so white pupils in Williamsburg, whose parents held her in “high repute for her care & method of teaching.”⁷ The Rev. John Waring in London wrote to the Rev. Thomas Dawson, Commissary and rector of Bruton Parish, on 29 February 1760, informing him that the Bray Associates had “lately agreed to open a School at Williamsburgh in Virginia for the Instruction of Negro Children in the Principles of the Christian Religion.” The letter continued by direction that “You will with all convenient Speed open a School for this purpose: & As tis probable that Some of Each Sex may be sent for Instruction, The Associates are therefore of the opinion that a Mistress will be preferable to a Master, as she may teach the Girls to Sew knit, &c. as well as all to read & say their Catechism. They think 30 Children or thereabout will Sufficiently employ one person…”⁸ In addition, the letter listed the books, such as primers, printed Anglican sermons, and other religious tracts, that would be sent for use at the school. The Bible was certainly the principal text.

Mrs. Ann Wager was asked to be the school mistress beginning on 29 September 1760.⁹ Robert Carter Nicholas, locak trestee for the Bray Associates, oversaw its operations.¹⁰ Mrs. Wager was the school mistress for fourteen years from September 1760 until her death in 1774. At any one time, she taught about thirty enslaved and free black children ranging in age from three to ten. Enroolment lists show that most students at the Bray School were enslaved, but a few free black children also attended. Classes were held in Mrs. Wager’s home beginning at 6:00A.M. in the summer and 7:00A.M. in the winter. Until 1766 she occupied a house rented from Dudley Digges, probably at the corner of Henry and Ireland Streets; later she moved into a house rented from John Blair possibly on Capitol Landing Road.¹¹

She was not only responsible for teaching the children to read and write, but to read the Bible, to know the “Principles of the Christian Religion,” and to explain the “Church Catechism.” In addition she was tot teach them how to dress and behave as model black children while discouraging “idleness & suppress[ing] the Beginnings of vice” and to be “faithful and obedient to their Masters.”¹² The Associates intended some of the Books of Common Prayer they sent to Mrs. Wager to be “given to the Children when qualified to use them at Church.”¹³ The minister at Bruton Parish (whoever the happened to be) heard the children recite the catechism. During her fourteen years as school mistress, Mrs. Wager reached a large number of children , influencing their religious beliefs and practices. If she emphasized obedience in her instruction, Mrs. Wager also equipped her students with skills they could use to advantage in a slave society; chief among them were reading and writing.

Robert Carter Nicholas, in a letter to the Rev. John Waring dated 13 September 1765, nine years before her death, stated that the “mistress is pretty much advanced in Years & I fear Labours of the School will shortly be too much for her.” On 16 February 1769 Nicholas again wrote to Waring that “Mr. Hunter had fix’d the Mistress’s Salary at £7 a Quarter, a Sum for 30 Scholars, much less than is paid for schooling in this City to other Mistresses; but, as Mrs. Wager had no House of her own, she was at first allow’d £8 current Money more to pay for the Rent of a House, which was too small for such a number of children; however she continued in it as long as it was tenable; I was then obliged to rent the House, where she now resides, of President Blair, for twelve Pounds Current Money.” ¹⁴

On 17 November 1774 Carter wrote to Waring that “I have to advise you of the Death of Mrs. Wager, the Mistress of the Bray School at Williamsburg.” He discontinued the School until, he said, “I can receive your further instructions.” ¹⁵

Endnotes

¹Birth date based on her son’s birth year of 1733.

²William and Mary Quarterly, 1st ser., vol. 20, p. 171; Ibid., vol. 27, pp. 107-108; Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 3, p. 427; and Ibid., vol. 8, p. 257.

³Deeds 6: 458-459, dated 12 June 1762 and recorded 21 June 1782.

⁴William and Mary Quarterly, 1st ser., vol. 14, p. 37; Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol 17, p. 271.

⁵[Carter] Burwell Account Book, 1738-1755, folio 52; transcript, Department of Historical Research, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.

⁶Judgments and Orders 2: 327-328, and Wills and Inventories 20: 498-501.

⁷Van Horne, pp. 276.

⁸Ibid., pp. 144-146.

⁹Ibid., pp. 153.

¹⁰In early 1760, the Associates appointed William Hunter and the Rev. Thomas Dawson school trustees; both died within a few months of the school’s opening. Van Horne, pp. 144, 153.

¹¹Mary A. Stephenson, Notes on a negro School in Williamsburg, 1760-1774, unpublished research report, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, June 1964, p. 4.

¹²Van Horne, pp. 190-191.

¹³Van Horne, pp. 158.

¹⁴Van Horne, pp. 236, 276.

¹⁵Van Horne, pp. 236, 276.

Emma L. Powers is a historian in the Department of Historical Research. This paper was published in the “Enslaving Virginia Resource Book,” in Becoming Americans: Our Struggle to be Both Free and Equal. Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1998.