The difficulties confronting the central and local governing bodies in
putting the Acts into effect are illustrated by the attempts to
establish a port town for Stafford County. Under the act of 1680 a town
was to be built at "Peace Point," where the Catholic refugee Giles Brent
had settled nearly forty years before, but there is no evidence that
even so much as a survey was made there. The 1691 Act for Ports located
the town at Potomac Neck, where Accokeek Creek and Potomac Creek
converge on the Potomac River. Situated about three miles below the
previously designated site, it was again on Brent property, lying within
a tract leased for life to Captain Malachi Peale, former high sheriff of
Stafford. On October 9, 1691, the Stafford Court "ordered that Mr.
William Buckner deputy Surveyor of this County shall on Thursday next
... repair to the Malachy Peale neck being the place allotted by act of
assembly for this Town and Port of this County and shall then and there
Survey and Lay Out the said Towne or Port ... to the Interest that all
the gentlemen of and all other of the Inhabitants may take up such Lot
and Lots as be and they desire...." On the same day John Withers and
Matthew Thompson, both justices of the peace, were appointed "Feoffees
in Trust." Young Giles Brent, "son and heir of Giles Brent Gent. late of
this county dec^{ed}" and not yet 21, selected Francis Hammersley as his
guardian.
Hammersley in this capacity became the administrator of Brent's
affairs, and accordingly it was agreed that 13,000 pounds of tobacco
should be paid to him in exchange for the 50 acres of town land owned by
Brent.[10]
Actually, 52 acres were surveyed, "two of the said acres being the Land
belonging to and laid out for the Court House according to a former Act
of Assembly and the other fifty acres pursuant to the late Act for
Ports." The "former Act of Assembly" which had been passed in 1667 had
stipulated the allotment of two-acre tracts for churches and court
houses, which in case the lots "be deserted y^e land shall revert to y^e
1st proprietor...."[11] For the extra two acres Hammersley was given 800
pounds of tobacco in addition. Of the total of 13,800 pounds, 3450 were
set aside to compensate Malachi Peale for the loss of his leasehold.
The order for the survey to be made was a formality, since the plat had
actually been drawn ahead of time by Buckner on August 16, nearly two
months before; clearly the Staffordians were eager to begin their town.
Buckner's plat was copied by his superior, Theodorick Bland, and entered
in the now-missing Stafford Survey Book. John Savage, a later surveyor,
in 1731 provided John Mercer with a duplicate of Bland's copy, which has
survived in John Mercer's Land Book (fig. 2).[12]
On February 11, 1692, the feoffees granted 27 lots to 15 applicants.
John Mercer's later review of the town's history in this period states
that "many" of the lots were "built on and improved."[13] Two ordinaries
were licensed, one in 1691 and one in 1693, but no business activity
other than the Potomac Creek ferry seems to have been conducted.[14] Any
future the town might have had was erased by the same adverse reactions
that had killed the previous port acts. The merchants and shippers used
their negative influence and on March 22, 1693, a "bill for suspension
of y^e act for Ports &c till their Maj^{ts} pleasure shall be known
therein or till y^e next assembly" passed the house. In due course the
act was reviewed and returned unsigned for further consideration.
William Fitzhugh, on October 17, 1693, dutifully read the
recommendation of the Committee of Grievances and Properties "That the
appointment of Ports & injoyneing the Landing and Shipping of all goods
imported or to be exported at & from the same will (considering the
present circumstances of the Country) be very injurious & burthensome to
the Inhabitants thereof and traders thereunto."[15] Doubtless dictated
by the Board of Trade in London, the recommendation was a defeat for
those who, like Fitzhugh, sought by the establishment of towns to break
tobacco's strangle-hold on Virginia.