September 2007 Archaeological Excavations at the Cottage

From 1st to 7th September 2007 a team of archaeologists headed by Dr Julie Schablitsky of the University of Oregan and Dr Robert Neyland of the American Navy Historical Centre, Washington carried out preliminary investigations around the Cottage. They were looking to find material relating to Jones's early family life. The popular story of Jones is that he was born into poverty and became famous but it is known that his father moved to Arbigland Estate because of his talents as a gardener and the Cottage was built for him so it may well be that the family had a decent standard of living and some social standing as skilled artisans. Finds from the Cottage will assist in determining the family’s social status. Some of the team carried out archival research on the history of the Cottage and it is hoped their investigations will fill in some of the gaps in our knowledge such as whether his mother had to move out of the Cottage after the death of her husband, why the Cottage became derelict in the early 1800s, who lived in it after Lt Pinkham restored it in 1831 and the names of some of the more recent occupants. This is the first time this exercise will have been carried out.

A small reception was held by the Trust during the week to thank the team. Towards the end of the dig the team provided public tours of the excavations for visitors and local schools and on the last day Dr Neyland who is head of the Underwater Archaeological Branch of the American Navy Historical Centre gave a talk at Dumfries Museum, the Observatory, Dumfries, on the 2006 and 2007 search for the wreck of the Bonhomme Richard.

Their report of the dig will be published in 2008. The project was kindly funded by the First Landing Foundation.