During the first quarter of the seventeenth century, the settler in
Virginia used any kind of craft he possessed to cross the streams that
separated him from his neighbor or for transacting business. Canoes,
flatboats, scows, even sailing boats were pressed into service. These
he propelled himself until he acquired a slave or two. Communication
was aided by bridges across the smaller streams, and when horses
became available, by crossing the rivers at the fords whenever
possible.
The steady increase of settlers, however, created a demand for public
transportation across creeks and rivers at the most travelled points.
One of the first public ferries on record was started as a private
enterprise in 1636, by Adam Thoroughgood. A skiff was rowed by slaves
across the waters of Lower Norfolk, between what are now the cities of
Norfolk and Portsmouth. In a few months the demand for transportation
became so strong that the ferry was taken over by the county,
increased to three hand-powered vessels and supported by a levy of six
pounds of tobacco on each taxable person in the county.
A second early ferry was that of Henry Hawley in 1640, when he was
granted a patent by the court to keep a ferry at the mouth of the
Southampton River in Kequoton, now Hampton, for the use of the
inhabitants and other passengers during his natural life, not exacting
above one penny for ferriage according to the offer in his petition.
"For the more ease of travellers," it was enacted by the General
Assembly in January 1642, that the country provide and maintain
ferries and bridges and the levy for payment to the ferrymen be made
by the commissioners where the ferry is kept. This Act, establishing
ferries at public expense, was repealed later and the court of each
county given power to establish a ferry, or ferries in the county
where needed at the instance of individuals. The court had authority
to appoint and license the ferry keeper, to require of him a bond of
twenty pounds sterling payable to His Majesty as security for the
constant use and well-keeping of the boats. It was the duty of the
court to order and direct the boats and hands in use at the ferries.
To encourage men to engage in operating ferries, it was enacted in
1702 that all persons attending on ferryboats should be free from
public and county levies and from such public services as musters,
constables, clearing highways, impressment, etc., and should have
their licenses without fee or paying a reward for obtaining them. And
if the ferryman desired to maintain an ordinary (public inn) at the
ferry, he should be permitted to do so without fee for the license,
but should be required to give bond for security. No other person
should be permitted to establish an ordinary within five miles of such
a ferry keeper. A warning was issued that any person not a ferryman
who for reward should set any person over the river where there was a
ferry, except for going to church, should pay for every such offense
five pounds sterling, one-half to go to the ferryman and one-half to
the informer, the full amount to the ferryman should he be the
informer.
The county court was authorized in 1705 to make an agreement with the
keeper of the ferry to set over the county militia on muster days and
to raise an allowance for this in the county levy. All public messages
and expresses to the government were to be allowed to cross ferry
free. The adjutant general with one servant and their horses were
exempted in 1738 from any payment on any ferry in the colony.
Ministers of the church were likewise exempt from paying ferriage.
Dugout canoes of the Indians were among the first ferries used in
Virginia and when more space was needed, two canoes were lashed
together and secured by means of heavy cross pieces. In the _Journal_
of Thomas Chalkley, a traveller in Virginia, he tells of a ferry
crossing made at Yorktown in 1703: "We put our horses into two canoes
tied together, and our horses stood with their fore feet in one and
their hind feet in the other." Later, flatboats, scows, barges, and
more carefully planked boats were put into use. Rope ferries were
necessary wherever the current was swift, but used as little as
possible on navigable rivers because of the obstruction to navigation.
The number of ferries in the colony increased steadily from year to
year. At nearly every session of the General Assembly some law was
enacted "for the good regulation of ferries." In 1705, the Assembly
published a list of ferries with corresponding rates of ferriage that
crossed the James, York, and Rappahannock Rivers and their branches.
The ferries but not the rates are given herewith as follows: