In the early days of the colony after tobacco had become a commodity
for export, ships moored at the wharves of the plantations along the
James, York and Rappahannock rivers and their estuaries. As trade
increased, larger ships were used which anchored in the channels of
the rivers, and the tobacco and other exports were carried to them by
small boats--shallops, sloops, and barges. The government complained
that it was losing revenue by this individualistic and unorganized
shipping of the planters, and steps were taken to correct this. In
1633, it was enacted by the General Assembly that all goods entering
in any vessel--ship, bark or brig, should discharge at Jamestown. This
Act applied to the colonists in their exports as well, but the law was
disregarded.
In 1680, places were selected in the different counties that had the
advantage of accessibility and deep water where ships could gather to
receive and discharge their cargoes. The establishment of these
trading towns, as they were called, was by an Act as follows:
The General Assembly having taken into consideration the great
necessity, usefulness and advantages of cohabitation ... and
considering the building of storehouses for the reception of all
merchandizes imported, and receiving and laying ready all tobacco
for exportation and sale ... that there be in every respective
county fifty acres of land purchased by each county and laid out
for a town and storehouses....
The price of the fifty acres of land was set at 10,000 pounds of
tobacco and casks. Lots of one-half acre were to be sold to
individuals by a stated time at the price of one hundred pounds of
tobacco. Twenty places were named in the counties where trading towns
were to be established:
Henrico, at Varina. Charles City, at Flower de Hundred opposite
Swinyards. Surry, at Smith's fort. James City, at James City. Isle
of Wight, at Pate's Field, Pagan creek. Nansemond, at Huff's
point. Warwick, at the mouth of Deep creek. Elizabeth City, west
side of Hampton river. Lower Norfolk, on Nicholas Wise's land.
York, on Mr. Reed's land. New Kent, at the Brick House.
Gloucester, at Tindal's point. Middlesex, west side of Wormley's
creek. Rappahannock, at Hobb's hole. Stafford, at Peace point.
Westmoreland, at Nomini. Accomack, at Onancock. Northampton, north
side of King's creek. Lancaster, north side of Corotomond creek.
Northumberland, at Chickacone creek.
The towns were building up. Warehouses, churches, and prisons were
erected in many of them, as well as private dwellings. An occasional
court house could be found where legal proceedings were enacted. In
1691, however, an Act of the General Assembly changed many of the
trading towns to ports, but was suspended later until the pleasure of
the King and Queen on the subject should be learned. No definite
action was taken until 1705, when Queen Anne, who ascended the throne
in 1702, expressed approval. Then an Act for ports of entry and
clearance was passed to be in use from the 25th of December, 1708.
This Act provided that naval officers and collectors at the ports
should charge Virginia owners of vessels no more than half of the fees
required for the services of entering and clearing. The sixteen towns
to become ports were named as follows:
Hampton. Norfolk. Nansemond. James City. Powhatan (Flower de
Hundred). Yorktown. Queensborough, at Blackwater. Delaware, at
West Point. Queenstown, at Corrotoman. Urbanna, at Middlesex.
Tappahannock, at Hobb's hole. New Castle, at Wicomico. Kingsdale,
at Yohocomoco. Marlborough, at Potomac creek. Northampton, at
King's creek. Onancock.
The names of some of the trading towns were changed when they became
ports, and soon became important and well-known throughout the
country. Hampton, known first by the Indian name Kecoughtan (spelled
in various ways) was settled in 1610. Although the name had been
changed to Elizabeth City by the Company in May, 1620, upon the
petition of the colonists, the old Indian name was still in use
occasionally in the 18th century. In papers relating to the
administration of Governor Nicholson is a list of vessels about to
sail from "Keccowtan" in July 1705, sixty-seven sail of merchant ships
bound for various ports of Great Britain. The names Kecoughtan,
Elizabeth City, Lower James, and even Southampton were used
interchangeably, and shown on records of the colony, until the Act of
1705, named the port Hampton. In British colonial records of 1700, we
find Hampton Town, Elizabeth City and Keccowtan used in the same
chapter.
F. C. Huntley in his _Seaborne Trade in Virginia in Mid-Eighteenth
Century_, published in the _Virginia Magazine of History_, vol. 59,
makes the statement that in the 18th century, Port Hampton handled the
largest amount of shipping of all the Virginia ports, judging from the
total tonnage of vessels entering and clearing as given in the records
of the Naval Officers. He uses 1752, as a normal trade year of which
he gives interesting statistics. He states that the tonnages that
entered and cleared the Port Hampton naval office were distributed
among five different types of rigging. Cleared: 64 sloops, 46
schooners, 16 ships, 20 brigs, 10 snows. Entered: 59 sloops, 40
schooners, 40 ships, 18 brigs, 12 snows. Of these a goodly portion
were built in Virginia.
After taking part in laying the dividing line between Virginia and
North Carolina, William Byrd II wrote on March 28, 1728:
Norfolk has most the air of a town of any in Virginia. There were
more than 20 brigantines and sloops riding at the wharves and
ofttimes they have more. It has all the advantages of a situation
requisite for trade and navigation. There is a secure harbor for a
goodly number of ships of any burthen. The town is so near the sea
that a vessel can sail in and out in a few hours. Their trade is
chiefly to the West Indies whither they export abundance of beef,
pork, flour and lumber.
In the _Journal_ of Lord Adam Gordon, Colonel of the 66th Regiment of
Foot, stationed at the West Indies from 1763 to 1775, is extracted the
following: "Norfolk hath a depth of water for a 40-gun ship or more,
and conveniences of every kind for heaving down and fitting out large
vessels; also a very fine ropewalk. There is a passage boat from
Hampton to Norfolk and from York to Gloucester." In the third quarter
of the 18th century, Norfolk became the principal seaport of Virginia.
Yorktown was founded on land patented about 1635 by Nicholas Martiau,
a Walloon who had come to Virginia in the summer of 1620. His
grandson, Benjamin Read, sold fifty acres to the colony in 1691, and
here Yorktown as a port built the first custom house, not only in
Virginia, but in the country. A two-story brick building, erected
about 1715, by Richard Ambler, who occupied the building as collector
of customs for Yorktown in 1720. It became a port of entry for New
York, Philadelphia and other northern cities, the importance of which
was destroyed by the Revolutionary War. York County was one of the
eight original shires in 1634, under the name, Charles river, changed
in 1643 to York. The old custom house is still standing and is used as
a museum for colonial and revolutionary relics.
The location of Alexandria on a large circular bay in the Potomac
river soon gave that town great importance as a port and shipyard. For
generations, tobacco and grain were shipped from there, and imports of
many kinds brought in. Master shipbuilders turned out vessels manned,
owned and operated by Alexandrians. From her ropewalk came the rope
to hoist the sails made in her sail lofts. On May 19, 1760, George
Washington went to Alexandria to see Col. Littledale's ship launched.
He tells of another launching he attended there on October 6, 1768,
when he "stayd up all night to a ball."
The two creeks flowing from near Williamsburg to York river on one
side and the James on the other, played an important part in early
colonial history. From York river sloops, schooners, barges and all
manner of flat-bottomed craft sailed up Queen's creek to Queen Mary's
port with its Capitol Landing within a mile of Williamsburg. The same
kind of watercraft sailed from James river up College creek to Queen
Anne's port with its College Landing near the city. Cargoes of
mahogany, lignum vitae, lemons, rum, sugar and ivory were discharged.
Received in return were tobacco, grain, flour and other commodities.
Vessels on Queen's creek were required to pass through the custom
house at Yorktown after that office had been established.
Because of a general complaint by masters of ships that there were
neither pilots nor beacons to guide them in Virginia waters, the
General Assembly appointed Captain William Oewin chief pilot of James
river in March, 1661, to be paid five pounds sterling for the pilotage
of all ships above eighty tons if he be employed, and if not employed
due to the presence of the ship's pilot who guided the vessel, he
received forty shillings. The pilot was required to maintain good and
sufficient beacons at all necessary places, and toward this expense,
the master of every vessel that anchored within Point Comfort, having
or not having a pilot, was required to pay thirty shillings. Later the
pilot or the company to which he belonged was required to keep one
pilot boat of 18 foot keel at least, rigged and provided for use at
all times.