Not only was Marlborough foredoomed by external decrees and adverse
official decisions, but much of its failure was rooted in the local
elements by which it was constituted. The great majority of lot holders
were the "gentlemen" who were so carefully distinguished from "all other
of the Inhabitants" in the order to survey the town in 1691. Most were
leading personages in Stafford, and we may assume that their purchases
of lots were made in the interests of investment gains, not in
establishing homes or businesses. Only three or four yeomen and ordinary
keepers seem to have settled in the town.
Sampson Darrell, for example, held two lots, but he lived at Aquia
Creek.[34] Francis Hammersley was a planter who married Giles Brent's
widow and lived at "The Retirement," one of the Brent estates.[35]
George Brent, nephew of the original Giles Brent, was law partner of
William Fitzhugh, and had been appointed Receiver General of the
Northern Neck in 1690. His brother Robert also was a lot holder. Both
lived at Woodstock, and presumably they did not maintain residences at
the port town.[36] Other leading citizens were Robert Alexander, Samuel
Hayward, and Martin Scarlett, but again there is little likelihood that
they were ever residents of the town. John Waugh, the uproarious pastor
of Potomac Parish, also was a lot holder, but he lived on the south side
of Potomac Creek in a house which belonged to Mrs. Anne Meese of London.
His failure to pay for that house after 11 years' occupancy of it, which
led to a suit in which Fitzhugh was the prosecutor, does not suggest
that he ever arrived at building a house in the port town.[37]
Captain George Mason was a distinguished individual who lived at
"Accokeek," about a mile and a half from Marlborough. He certainly built
in the town, for in 1691 he petitioned for a license to "keep an
ordinary at the Town or Port for this county." The petition was granted
on condition that he "find a good and Sufficient maintenance and
reception both for man and horse." Captain Mason was grandfather of
George Mason of Gunston Hall, author of the Virginia Bill of Rights, and
was, at one time or another, sheriff, lieutenant colonel and commander
in chief of the Stafford Rangers, and a burgess. He participated in
putting down the uprising of Nanticoke Indians in 1692, bringing in
captives for trial at the unfinished courthouse in March of that
year.[38] Despite his interest in the town, however, it is unlikely that
he ever lived there.
Another lot owner was Captain Malachi Peale, whose lease of the town
land from the Brents had been purchased when the site was selected. He
also was an important figure, having been sheriff. He may well have
lived on one of his three lots, since he was a resident of the Neck to
begin with. John Withers, one of the first feoffees and a justice of the
peace, was a lot holder also. George Andrews and Peter Beach, somewhat
less distinguished, were perhaps the only full-time residents from among
the first grantees. After 1708 Thomas Ballard and possibly William
Barber were also householders.
Thus, few of the ingredients of an active community were to be found at
Marlborough, the skilled craftsmen or ship's chandlers or merchants who
might have provided the vitality of commerce and trade not having at any
time been present.