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Papers relating to property owned by Anne Haughwout Cutler, of the Bucktrout-Braithwaite family in Williamsburg, Virginia. Cutler was the great-great-granddaughter of Benjamin Bucktrout, a cabinetmaker from London who moved to Williamsburg in 1766, where he opened a business making funeral coffins.
Upon the death of her mother, Virginia Braithwaite Haughwout, Cutler inherited several properties in the Williamsburg area. In 1954, Cutler helped create with other family members the Bucktrout-Braithwaite Memorial Foundation (BBMF), a non-profit organization that gains ownership of Virginia B. Haughwout's properties after Cutler's death. Papers include the BBMF certificate of incorporation, by-laws, board of trustees' correspondence, and meeting minutes. The BBMF negotiated several agreements with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (CWF), allowing CWF to lease properties owned by Cutler and BBMF. This collection includes legal and financial papers relevant to the leasing contracts made between BBMF and CWF.
In particular, several folders in this collection concern the leasing and restoration of Providence Hall, an eighteenth-century residence adjacent to Colonial Williamsburg's historic area. Providence Hall was once located in Providence Forge, New Kent County, Virginia, before being transported and rebuilt in Williamsburg in the 1940s by Virginia B. Haughwout. Under Cutler's ownership, Providence Hall was leased out to the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, where it has served as lodging and a conference center, often for important international leaders, such as President Ronald Reagan.
This collection also contains correspondence concerning William & Mary's Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies program's inaugural Braithwaite Lecture, named after Minnie Braithwaite, Cutler's aunt. In 1896, Braithwaite unsuccesfully petitioned William & Mary to allow her to take a chemistry class at the then all-male institution.
Other projects pursued by Cutler include her research on France's military involvement in the American Revolutionary War, as well as research on the unidentified Revolutionary War soldiers buried in her family's cemetery, the Bucktrout Burying Ground.
Anne H. Cutler Papers, Special Collections Research Center, Swem Library, William & Mary Libraries.
Bucktrout-Braithwaite Papers (Mss. 98 B85)
Richard Manning Bucktrout Daybook and Ledger (Mss. 1997.15)
Bucktrout-Smith Papers (MS 00142)
Bucktrout Funeral Home Records (Mss. Acc. 1997.22)
The Bucktrout-Braithwaite Memorial Foundation is the non-profit organization formed by the Bucktrout-Braithwaite family to manage the estate and trust of Virginia B. Haughwout, Cutler's mother. The BBMF is responsible for negotiating leasing arrangements for the properties owned by Haughwout, as well as maintaining scholarship trusts for the higher education of Haughwout's descendants. Cutler acted as the BBMF's secretary and treasurer at the organization's formation, and continued to serve on the Board of Trustees until her death. Papers in this series include the organization's certificate of incorporation, by-laws, meeting minutes, financial and legal papers, and board of trustees' correspondence.
Out of all the properties in Williamsburg that Virginia B. Haughwout bequeathed to Cutler and the BBMF, Providence Hall is the one mentioned the most in this collection. Haughwout had Providence Hall moved from its original location in Providence Forge, New Kent County and rebuilt in Williamsburg, adjacent to the Colonial Williamsburg historic area. Since Haughwout's death, Providence Hall has served a variety of purposes: first as a personal residence for the Bucktrout-Braithwaite family, then as a gallery for eighteenth-century antiques and decorative arts, and later as a property leased to the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, where it today still serves as a conference center and lodging. Several international dignitaries have visited Providence Hall, including President Ronald Reagan and Emperor Hirohito of Japan. Papers include leasing agreements, financial reports, restoration plans, site inspections, and the construction plans for Bucktrout Cottage, an outbuilding on the property.
Expansion and renovations of the Colonial Parkway tunnel under the Colonial Williamsburg historic area threatened to separate and disrupt portions of the Providence Hall property. Included in this series is correspondence between Cutler and the local Williamsburg government regarding plans for Parkway tunnel construction and Providence Hall preservation.
The Providence Hall property has its own cemetery, the Bucktrout Burying Ground. The property's cemetery served as a burial site for Revolutionary and Civil War soldiers, many of whom were buried without proper identification. Anne Cutler followed up on local rumors that French soldiers, allies in the American Revolution, were also buried in the Bucktrout Burying Ground. Her research took her to the National Library of France in the 1990s, where she consulted numerous records but ultimately did not draw any substantial conclusions regarding a French presence in her family cemetery. Included in this series are notes from her research in France.
Apart from wartime, the Bucktrout Burying Ground existed primarily as the Bucktrout family's personal cemetery. Copies of burial records in this series include those belonging to deceased Bucktrout family members, as well as some of their black servants (marked as "colored" or "negro" on burial records). Other papers in this series document the history of the Burying Ground, as well as the business affairs of Benjamin Bucktrout, Williamsburg coffin-maker.
In the 1990s, Cutler donated to William & Mary Libraries' Special Collections the accounting daybook and ledger (1855-1870) of Richard Manning Bucktrout, her great-grandfather. This series contains correspondence between Cutler and W&M Special Collections regarding copyright restrictions and access to the daybook. Additional correspondence between Cutler, Terry Meyers, former W&M English Department Chair, and Carol K. Dubbs, Williamsburg author, documents Meyers and Dubbs' endeavors to transcribe, interpret, and publish portions of the Bucktrout daybook in a book titled Defend this Old Town (Louisiana State University Press, 2004). Included in this series is Cutler's copy of the deed of gift for the daybook.
This series includes papers and correspondence relevant to William & Mary's Women's Studies Program's 1996 inaugural Braithwaite Lecture. Named after Cutler's aunt, the annual Braithwaite Lecture memorializes the ambitions of Minnie Braithwaite, who unsuccessfully petitioned the all-male College in 1896 to allow her to take a chemistry course. Cutler was a honorary guest at this inaugural lecture, which has continued every year since its conception under the university's now-renamed Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies program.