A view of Richmond from Mayo’s Bridge in 1822 by French watercolorist J.L. Bouqueta. (Image courtesy Virginia Museum of History & Culture)
During the early weeks of 1795, Richmond suffered an outbreak of the contagious, disfiguring and often fatal smallpox disease. Authorities of the independent city of Manchester across the river barred entry to Richmonders.
A unit of more than a dozen weapons-bearing men held the Manchester side. Six others fanned out along the south bank to prevent river crossings either by ferry or Mayo’s (14th Street) Bridge.
John Mayo Jr., grandson of William Mayo, a civil engineer who laid out Richmond’s original street grid in 1737, completed construction of the bridge around 1787. The tolls permitted by the state legislature made him wealthy. He needed the money for rebuilding after successive floods and ice floes smashed the ramshackle span. The bridge from the north bank to Mayo’s Island consisted of wood piers supporting planks and then was built over pontoon boats from there to Manchester.
The smallpox lockdown stranded citizens, many of whom expressed their displeasure by demonstrating on the bridge.
David Patteson, a Revolutionary War veteran, state legislator and commander of the Chesterfield militia, had written to Virginia Gov. Henry “Light-Horse Harry” Lee (revered Revolutionary commander and Robert E. Lee’s deadbeat dad), suggesting the use of the militia to control the bridge. Lee agreed.
James Hayes lived in Richmond with his wife, Ann, their 4-year-old son and attendant slaves, though the Hayes family also operated the Falls Plantation, which was situated along a bend of the James River east of Manchester. Hayes, an English immigrant and publisher, served as official printer for the commonwealth and postmaster of Richmond.
On Saturday, Jan. 25, he endeavored to place his family and enslaved workers away from the infection. But the move nearly sparked a shooting war.
A few weeks later, Hayes wrote a letter to Gov. Lee to explain what had happened on Mayo’s Bridge.
After Hayes made a crossing by canoe, the Manchester Guard seized the craft. Then two of Hayes’ slaves went into Richmond, “desirous of seeing their fellow-servants,” wrote Hayes. Upon their return to the Falls Plantation, guards ambushed the men and hauled them to the Manchester end. “They were there cruelly treated,” Hayes informed Gov. Lee, “one in particular by Thomas Goode, who after having beaten him in a most violent and inhuman manner” returned the enslaved man to Richmond.
Hayes sought justice. He gathered five witnesses, who armed themselves and paid a visit to the Manchester Guard.
Hayes wrote that he left his weapon with the posse and approached the Manchester toll house, calling for the captain.
Goode emerged, whereupon Hayes “complained of his treatment of the negro.” Unremorseful, Goode declared that he’d do it again. Hayes threatened to prosecute Goode, prompting a vulgar response that Hayes deemed unnecessary to repeat.
The party turned to leave when Goode, Hayes claimed, “called out vehemently for the guard to turn out and put every man to death. A scuffle then ensued.”
Hayes recounted how “after a good deal of severity, repeated insults and threats,” three of the men were forced onto a beach beneath the bridge.
They all then went before Chesterfield County epidemic enforcer “magistrates.” The Manchester Guardsmen served as prosecutors and witnesses, and the Hayes gang received a bond of 50 pounds to appear at the next court session.
But Hayes finagled a return to Falls Plantation. This caused an altercation with Patteson on Hayes’ property. He ultimately thought it “advisable to make my escape in a canoe.” The guards pursued.
Lee, meanwhile, sought to quell the consternation along Mayo’s Bridge by negotiating a compromise to reopen the span to North Siders. The crisis was averted.
Mayo’s Bridge, however, wasn’t so lucky. It suffered at least eight destructions, including detonation by retreating Confederates on April 3, 1865. Following the 1910 union of Richmond and Manchester, the city in 1913 completed a concrete bridge, somewhat resembling the Pont Neuf in Paris. The bridge is presently due for some form of renovation.
