They were married on September 25, 1788, in Granville, North Carolina, and by April 1789, Lady Skipwith was corresponding with Samuel Goode regarding hop roots.
[4] In January 1788, letters to Sir Peyton began to be addressed to him at his new house, Prestwould Plantation, in Mecklenburg County, named for Prestwold Hall, the country home of the Skipwith family.
On November 6, 1765, Sir Peyton paid William Byrd III 200 pounds for the plot of Blue Stone Castle land that would become Prestwould (deeded Oct. 30, 1765).
[6] Prestwould Plantation, its outbuildings, and its grounds are now a National Historic Landmark and are open to the public, including what may be the earliest known slave house in Virginia.
[7] This was a working tobacco plantation with farm and livestock, a mill, blacksmith shop, store, ferry, and where thoroughbred horses were raised.
[4] Prestwould's extensive archives are held by The College of William & Mary, Earl Gregg Swem Library Special Collections.
Her sketches feature highly-organized garden plots crisscrossed by "boardwalks," some wide enough for wheelbarrows, pony carts, or couples taking exercise to pass through.
[4] The plans also indicate where Lady Skipwith intended to plant verbena, strawberry, crocus, phlox, violets, pansies, and portulaca, as well as annuals and shrubbery.
[10] The archives include records of Lady Skipwith's orders for vegetables, roots and bulbs, which she grew in raised beds.
Among her house plants she listed, not only oranges, lemons, and limes, but also oleander, dwarf myrtle, rose geranium and chrysanthemum, observing that those would "live in the garden through the winter though the first frost would destroy the flower."
Meadow saffron a bulbous root about the size of a tulip, flowers in autumn and the leaves continue green all winter.