Photos: Top Row, Richard Henry Lee (artist Charles Wilson Peale, National Art Gallery), Silas Deane (artist William Johnston, Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum; Bottom Row: Francis Lighfoot Lee (artist Willis Arthur Pepoon, Menokin Collection; John Jay (artist Uriah Pratt, Jay Heritage Center Collection)
We’re excited to commemorate America 250 with 3 new historic site partners at the Webb-Dean Stevens House (CT), Menokin, and Stratford Hall (VA) along with the John Jay Homestead. Save the dates to explore the untold Revolutionary war drama of John Jay, Silas Deane and the Lees of Virginia.
We tend to remember the founders as marble men — monumental, unified, certain. The truth is messier and more interesting. The Feuding Founders Collective is a multi-site public history initiative that humanizes these patriots who were in conversation, in collaboration, and sometimes in conflict with one another.
Organized as a three-part series with events in three states, this discussion destabilizes the one-dimensional portraits we’ve inherited and invites audiences to sit with the full complexity of these lives: the ambition and the insecurity, the idealism and the grudges, the smear campaigns and the shared cause.
In an era of weaponized media and public takedowns, these 250-year-old stories feel less like history and more like a mirror — and understanding how the founders navigated political polarization, character assassination, and the tension between principle and self-interest may be one of the most useful things the past can offer us right now. Three sites. Three perspectives. Not a story of heroes and villains, but of imperfect people trying to build something that had never existed before.
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May 16, 10am – 3pm at the Webb Deane Stevens House, Wethersfield, Connecticut – Wethersfield Symposium| The Making of Silas Deane
How does a man of middling origins rise to become America’s first diplomat? The Wethersfield symposium focuses on the early lives and backgrounds of Silas Deane, John Jay, and the Lee brothers — what shaped them before they shaped the republic. What did it take for Deane to climb from a Connecticut schoolteacher to the halls of Versailles, and then plummet to disgrace? How did the Lee brothers leverage Virginia’s planter aristocracy into political influence, and how did their personal relationship drive or derail their decisions? How did Jay’s legal prowess and New York connections place him at the center of revolutionary diplomacy?
This is a day for people who want the real story—not the tidy one. Join us and fellow curious minds for a daylong adventure into the past. Walk the rooms of the Webb and Deane Houses first — stand where political debates unfolded, where military strategy was weighed, where Deane may have sat alone calculating his next move. Let the spaces work on you before the conversation begins. Keep the energy and the intrigue alive over a shared meal in the barn. Then hear from scholars representing each partner site as they paint a more layered, more human picture of Jay, the Lees, and Deane — their relationships to power and to one another. The day closes with a walk to the Wethersfield Cove Warehouse, guided by the Wethersfield Historical Society — the very waterfront where Deane built the merchant trade that launched everything.
SCHEDULE
10:00 AM: Welcome & Orientation | 211 Main Street
10:30 AM: Tour the historic Webb and Deane Houses
12:00 PM: Lunch in the Webb Barn
1:00 PM: Roundtable Discussion
Full Day + Lunch: $55 | $50 Members of Webb Deane Stevens, Jay Heritage Center, Menokin, and Stratford Hall
House Tours & Roundtable Discussion: $20 In Person | $15 Members
Virtual Roundtable Discussion: $8
Register your interest with an email to Renee Dumouchel: rdumouchel@wdsmuseum.org
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September 26, 10am – 3pm at the Jay Estate, Rye New York | John Jay, Diplomat and Spymaster
How did our earliest American diplomats accomplish their secret and very delicate assignments abroad? The Jay Heritage Center symposium will focus on the interactions of John Jay, Silas Deane and the Lee brothers, Arthur and William, as illustrated by the decipherable records and cyphers that they left behind. What was the Jay-Deane code and why is John Jay credited by the CIA as being the first chief of US counterintelligence? What controversy put Jay at the center of a legal defense of Deane’s actions in France? Learn firsthand about the security concerns that prompted the Lee brothers of Virginia to launch public accusations that Deane was a traitor.
This is an experience for people who want to hear our whole history. Join us and fellow history lovers for a daylong exploration of 18th century political quandaries and fragile allegiances. Stand on the very spot where Jay looked out at the horizon during the Stamp Act and imagined a new nation and his own role in shaping it. Contemplate the contradictions he faced in seeking freedom from British rule while his family denied freedom to others who worked the land. Tour the historic Jay Estate gardens followed by lunch at the same place where Jay celebrated the end of the Revolutionary War and his negotiation of the Treaty of Paris. Then hear from scholars representing each partner site as they paint a more layered, more human picture of Jay, the Lees, and Deane — their relationships to power and to one another. The program closes with a walk of the property that inspired James Fenimore Cooper’s Revolutionary War novel, “The Spy.”
10:00 AM: Welcome and Orientation (210 Boston Post Road) at Jay Mansion
10:30 AM: Jay Mansion Tour
11:00 AM: Jay Estate Gardens and Grounds Tour
12:00 PM: Lunch break on the Veranda
1:00 PM: Round Table Discussion at the Wachenheim Center
Hour long round table discussion plus Q&A. Discussion will focus on the early lives and background of the Lee Brothers, Silas Deane and John Jay. Each site will give a brief introduction to their founding father(s) and historic site(s).
3:00 pm: Tour of the 18th century Lyon Farmhouse exterior and archaeological area.
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November 8th, 10 am – 6 pm | Feuding Founders: The Lee—Deane Conflict and the Political “Bloodbath” of 1778
The Feuding Founders Collective travels to Stratford Hall in the Northern Neck of Virginia for a day focused on politics and Revolutionary ideals of a group of men working for the goal of Independence even if they didn’t always agree on how to achieve it. The Lee band of brothers—Richard Henry, Francis Lightfoot, William and Arthur—played pivotal roles in our path towards revolution and formation of an independent nation. Their power and influence would be tested as they came into political conflict with Silas Deane and John Jay. The program will include a round table discussion and tours of Stratford Hall and Menokin.
About Stratford Hall
Stratford Hall brings together people from around the world to experience two-thousand acres of natural and human history, preserved and presented so that we can all learn from the courageous struggles of our ancestors, taking inspiration both from what they endured and what they accomplished. There are few places in America where people can travel down small, rural roads to arrive at a vast site that preserves so many aspects of early-American life, from the Great House where the influential Lee family helped to forge a new nation, to the fields worked by enslaved Africans, to the waters of the rivers that fueled trade, to the ground, which still yields secrets about the people and animals that lived before. Come experience this extraordinary place and learn about a layered history that began millions of years ago—a history that continues to educate, inspire, and influence Americans to the present day.
SCHEDULE (subject to updates)
10:00 am – 11:30 am: Tour Menokin house and grounds, Warsaw, VA
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm: Lunch at Stratford Hall, Montross VA
1:00 pm – 2:30 pm: Hour long round table discussion plus Q&A on the Lee Deane Conflict with representatives from the historic homes of John Jay (NY), Silas Deane (CT), Richard Henry Lee (VA) and Francis Lightfoot Lee (VA).
3:00 pm – 4:30 pm: Tour of Stratford Hall
5:00 pm – 6:00 pm: Wrap-up Reception and NNK Symposium Kick off, Stratford Hall
6:30 pm – 7:30 Talk: NNK Symposium Keynote [add-on $10]
Pricing:
$30 – Sun, 11/8 Day Pass: Includes Menokin tour, Stratford tour, Roundtable, Reception
$10 – add-on: NNK symposium keynote on 11/8 and NNK Symposium ticket for 11/9
$15: Roundtable only, 11/8 at 1 pm: $15
$5: Virtual admission only to Roundtable, 11/8 at 1 pm
Special: $60: Pass to 11/8 “Feuding Fathers” + Pass to 11/9 NNK Symposium
For more information or to register interest, email Connie Rosemont at crosemont@menokin.org or Hunter Peal at hunterp@stratfordhall.org
Attend All Three! Reserve tickets for the first event here
Each roundtable discussion will also be livestreamed on Zoom. Attend all events onsite, online, or a combination!