While the settlers of the Northern Neck of Virginia were hacking away at
the forest, planting crops in the land thus cleared and building houses
of the felled timber, events were taking place across the sea that would
eventually change the history and culture of the land between the
Rappahannock and the Potomac.
For some time a civil war had been in progress in England and early in
the year of 1649 Charles I was beheaded by Oliver Cromwell's men. A new
government, known as the Commonwealth, was immediately established in
England, under the direction of Cromwell.
The late king's oldest son, Charles, had escaped from England and was
now living in exile in France. His misfortune was shared there by some
of his father's supporters, who now had plenty of time to brood over
their lost estates back in England. These gentlemen with the flowing
hair had little left except the clothes on their backs, plumed hats and
buckled boots. Some of them were walking the streets of Paris in search
of cheap board and lodging, for which they would pay with their
jewels--pawned or sold. Some had already gotten into the clutches of
money-lenders. Their only hope was that Charles would be restored some
day to the throne of England.
Charles wished that he could in some way repay these noblemen, soldiers,
diplomats and favorites of his parents who had proved their loyalty. But
what, he may have wondered, did he have to give? Apparently nothing
remained. Then he thought of land--other land to replace the estates his
followers had lost. This was not a new idea of his own for the English
government had at times awarded frontier lands to deserving soldiers.
But where could lands-to-give-away be found? It was then that Charles
remembered the colony across the sea--Virginia. That was the answer--a
slice of the Virginia wilderness as a grant to his courtiers!
Charles apparently knew little about Virginia, or about the size of the
slice which he selected as a gift to his friends--"all that entire
Tract, Territory, or porcon of Land situate, lying and beeing in
America, and bounded by and within the heads of the Rivers of
Rappahannock and Patawomecke," and "said Rivers."
A patent was written, dated September 18, 1649, at St. Germaine-en-Laye,
France. It was written in close fine writing on both sides of a small
piece of parchment and bore "Our Great Seale of England." Charles
signed it simply in the upper left-hand corner of the front page
"Charles R." Thus the deed was done.
True, the grant was worthless unless Charles was restored to the throne
of England, which event seemed improbable at the moment. However, he had
paid off his obligations as best he could. The courtiers may have
appreciated his gesture but some of them placed no value on their part
of the patent.
Meanwhile, back in Virginia the colonists went on as usual for news was
slow in crossing the ocean. The pioneers of the Northern Neck had their
own problems--fevers and bloody flux, Indians, wolves, witches, and
taxes to be paid to the Colonial Government at Jamestown. It would be a
long time before they would know that their land had been given away
lock, stock and barrel, for Charles had given his followers not only the
land and the rivers, but all rights pertaining to them, even to the
"wild beasts and fowle," the fish and the "wrecks of the Sea."
And should the grant ever become valid, future generations in the
Northern Neck would have landlords over them and pay rent for the land
that their forefathers had believed to be their own.
_THE CAVALIERS_
A man stood on the deck of the _Virginia Merchant_, a leaky English
vessel bound for Jamestown. He had once been a fine gentleman, clothed
in satin and velvet and gold lace. His beard had been trimmed to a peak,
with small upturned mustaches, and his shoulder length hair had been
curled and perfumed. "Love-locks" his curls were called.
Now the velvet was stained and the lace tarnished and his silver buckles
looked more like pewter. The plumes on his hat dangled against his
salt-matted hair. The ship was loaded with men just like him. In England
they were called Cavaliers because they had been loyal followers of the
King. A writer of that time described these Cavaliers as "of the best
material in England"--the nobility, the clergy, the landed gentry and
officers in the King's army.
Tradition says that there were three hundred and thirty Cavaliers on
board the _Virginia Merchant_. This number included the wives and
children, and probably the ship's company.
The voyage had been a nightmare. Rats lived in the dark cabins with the
people, and when the cabin doors were opened a stench rushed out. Some
lay ill from the ship's diet of "pease-porridge" and salt beef. Worms
wriggled in the cheese and hard bread that was called ship's biscuits.
And there was not even enough of this food to last the trip.
Desperation had driven these people to make this voyage, and they were
lucky to have the six pounds to pay their passage. Their England was no
longer good for them. It was a place to "fly from ... as from a place
infected with the plague." Some of their comrades were now rotting in
English prisons, their estates confiscated and sold to members of
Cromwell's party.
Virginia seemed to be the only "city of refuge" left in his Majesty's
dominions. When the _Virginia Merchant_ at last arrived at Jamestown the
Cavaliers were received with open arms by the colonists, whose sympathy
was predominantly with the royalist cause. Still other Cavaliers reached
Virginia from time to time during Cromwell's reign in England.
The _Virginia Merchant_ had sailed from the Old World about the middle
of September 1649. This was almost exactly the same time that the exile
in France was affixing his signature to a bit of parchment. Both
incidents were destined to change the pattern of life in the Northern
Neck of Virginia.
A number of the Cavaliers settled in the Neck, bringing with them into
the wilderness the grace and manners of the English Court and the way of
life of the English country gentleman.
"_CHARLIE-OVER-THE-WATER_"
In the spring of 1650 a small Dutch vessel, according to one tradition,
was bucking her way across the Atlantic. On board was a young man named
Richard Lee. Richard had arranged this trip and "freighted" the vessel
himself, it was said, and he was now on his way to visit England's royal
exile who was at this time living in Brussels.
In Richard's pocket, the story goes, was Sir William "Barcklaie's"
commission for the government of Virginia, which hadn't been worth a
shilling since the execution of England's late King. But Sir William and
Richard, who was his Secretary of State, were determined to hold the
colony firm in its allegiance to "Charlie-Over-The-Water."
Richard arrived safely in Breda and made himself known to Charles.
Thereafter, it is said, a little comedy ensued which we can imagine.
The gentleman from Virginia, dressed in his finest trappings, kneels
before the exiled prince and surrenders the Governor's commission. He
then in flowery words extends a warm invitation to Charles to return
with him to the New World and become "King of Virginia."
Charles is pleased, but he has other plans. Bigger plans. He thanks
Richard and graciously presents him with a new commission for Governor
Berkeley, which isn't worth the paper on which it is written.
After this little farce was attended to, Richard Lee, tradition says,
returned to Jamestown to deliver the commission to Governor Berkeley.
Richard was probably disappointed with the unsatisfactory outcome of his
mission.
How different the history of the New World would have been if Richard
Lee had brought Charles back with him to be crowned "King of Virginia!"
_THE LEGACY_
It was a place especially dear to the Indians. They were still in the
region when Richard Lee built his simple home in the wilderness.
He chose for his home site a neck of land in the southeastern part of
Northumberland County. A creek flowed in here from the Chesapeake and
divided into two parts. The neck was between these two branches of the
creek. Richard called the estuary, Dividing Creek, and he named his
home, Cobbs Hall.
It was wild and beautiful at Dividing Creek. The primeval forest with
its savages and "beastes" was so close, and out in front the Creek led
directly into the Bay--a highway to any place in the world. The Creek
was deep so that foreign ships could come right up to his wharf and take
away the loads of tobacco that this fertile soil would grow.
Richard knew that in this New World land was wealth, so he began to
acquire land by purchase of head-rights. He acquired land along the
Potomac from its mouth to the site that later became Washington. He had
laid the foundation for the future Lees of Virginia.
Richard Lee represented Northumberland in the House of Burgesses at
Jamestown in 1651, which establishes the fact that he was living in the
Northern Neck at that early date. He was also a justice, a member of the
King's Council and Secretary of the Colony.
Richard had business interests abroad and he lived there part of the
time. He owned partnerships in several ships, he was a tobacco merchant
in London with his own warehouse and counting-house. He crossed and
re-crossed the Atlantic almost as often as a modern American tycoon.
A London merchant at that time held a high social rating. In England he
owned a country estate three miles from London. Whether Richard had
inherited the estate or purchased it himself is not known. This was the
property that caused him to sign his will, "lately of Stratford-Langton
in the County of Essex, Esquire." The "Esquire" signified that he was
the proprietor of land with tenants of his own.
Each morning Richard's coach appeared at his door and he emerged
"silver-buckled and knee-breeched" and rumbled away along the road
called "Strat-by-ford" toward London and his counting-house. And back
again each evening, just like a modern American business man shuttling
between his city office and his suburban home. But Richard finally sold
his home and furnishings in England and returned to his home at Dividing
Creek.
Richard Lee was the largest landowner in Virginia at the time of his
death in 1664. He left his family firmly established with probably more
than thirteen thousand acres of virgin tobacco land. He left his son,
Hancock, land near Cobbs Hall. This son established his home there,
called Ditchley.
Richard Lee stated in his will that he desired his family to live in
Virginia. Perhaps after all that was his greatest legacy to his family.
It turned out to be an important legacy not only to the Northern Neck,
but to the American nation.
_THE INDIAN DEED_
Perhaps one of the strangest deeds on record is the one signed by
Accopatough, King of the Rappahannock Indians.
An Englishman named Moore Fauntleroy came to the Northern Neck about
1650, settling on the Rappahannock, rather far up from its mouth. He
must have been very exact in his business dealings, because when he
purchased a tract of land from the Indians it was conveyed to him by a
written deed, dated April 4, 1651, and signed by:
"Accopatough, the true and right Born King of the Indians of Rappahannoc
Town and Towns."
For the land, it is said, Fauntleroy paid the Indians "ten fathoms of
peake and thirty arms lengths of Rhoanoke." The tract is said to have
been a vast domain which extended from the Rappahannock to the Potomac
and some distance along both rivers.
Later, after the Northern Neck became a proprietary, Moore Fauntleroy
had his Indian deed confirmed at Jamestown:
"Act I, the grande assemblie at James Cittie, Va., the 23rd March,
1660-1; Sir William Berkeley, his Majesties Governor, 13th year of
Charles II."
Fauntleroy's "ancient mansion seat" was located on the Rappahannock,
above Cat Point Creek, and it was known as Naylor's Hole. This section
of the Neck was established as Richmond County in 1692.
Colonel Moore Fauntleroy was said to have been the great-great grandson
of Edward Lord Stourton. He came to the Northern Neck during the
Cavalier migration.
_A SUMMONS TO JAMESTOWN_
After the county of Northumberland was created from Chicacoan, John
Mottrom had many extra duties. As a justice he held court at Coan Hall.
A unit of militia had been formed and he had been named by Governor
Berkeley as its chief officer--it was _Colonel_ Mottrom, now!
On the river just above Coan Hall Colonel Mottrom had started the
nucleus of what he hoped would be a future town. He had built there the
first wharf and the first warehouse in the Northern Neck. He had plans
for a "Brew-house" where "ye good ale of England" might be had.
His activities were interrupted in the spring of 1652 by a summons from
the Governor to appear at a meeting of the House of Burgesses.
The grapevine said that danger threatened the colony. It said that
Cromwell's government had sent "a powerful fleet" from England with "a
considerable body of land forces on board" and that the vessels had
already arrived and had cast anchor before Jamestown. It said that the
Governor himself was saying that the strangers were pirates and robbers
who had come to steal the lands of the colonists.
Colonel Mottrom may have had two other burgesses to keep him company on
this trip--George Fletcher from Northumberland, and Francis Willis from
the newly organized county of Lancaster.
When Colonel Mottrom arrived within sight of the Island, he could
probably see that the royal standard was still flying above the town,
even though the English warship _Guinea_ and her armed fleet of
merchantmen had weighed anchor and were moving in closer.
All was astir at Jamestown, especially in the State House. The
"middlemost" of the "stack" of brick buildings was like a busy hive,
with burgesses pouring in and out, and conversing in agitated groups,
while they warmed themselves before the fireplaces in the two rooms.
Governor Berkeley was very much disturbed. Ever loyal to the Crown, he
had boasted that Cromwell's forces would not risk an attack on the
colony. But to be on the safe side, Sir William had, during the fall and
winter, reinforced his defenses. The militia, which he had called up,
was strengthened by the veteran Cavaliers from the King's army who had
so recently come to the colony. He had the promise of help from five
hundred Indian braves, and several armed Dutch ships which were lying in
the river were pressed into service.
In spite of these plans for defensive measures the House of Burgesses
showed no enthusiasm for going into active warfare. They reasoned that
the loyalty of the Indian allies might be uncertain, and the presence of
the enemy fleet in the James was but a reminder of England's sea power.
The Governor was finally persuaded to disband his small army.
An agreement was signed on March 12, 1652, between the commissioners
from the Commonwealth of England and the "Governor and counsel for a
cessation of Arms."
This was probably the most stirring event ever associated with the first
State House at Jamestown.
The agreement was favorable to Virginia, even though the colony was
subdued. Most of the essential liberties of the colonials were retained.
One of Cromwell's commissioners, Richard Bennett, was chosen as Governor
by the Assembly.
Sir William had refused to serve under the Commonwealth. He retired to
his estate, Green Spring, near Jamestown, where he could entertain
Cavalier guests and drink toasts to King Charles as much as he pleased.
_THE OATH_
When Colonel Mottrom and the other burgesses from the Northern Neck
returned home from Jamestown after the treaty with Cromwell's
commissioners had been made, they brought news that every "white male"
in the colony would be required to take an oath of loyalty to this new
government in England. If any should refuse to do so they would have to
move away within a year.
As the news traveled into the creeks and coves to the homes of the
planters on the fringes of the wilderness, we can visualize the
reluctant men of Northumberland straggling along to "Cone"--in shallops,
sloops, barges, canoes, and perhaps a few on horseback. A disgruntled
lot no doubt.
But "within the year" of 1652, one hundred "white males" had signed a
statement at Coan which said that they would be "true and faithful to
the Commonwealth of England as it is established without King or House
of Lords."
Under the treaty the people might toast the late King in private as much
as they liked, but no public stand against the Commonwealth would be
tolerated.
_COUNTY OFFICERS_
The highest office in the county was that of county lieutenant. In early
records he was called "Commander of Plantations." In England this office
was usually held by a knight, and in Virginia it was always conferred on
the class of "gentlemen," and they were chosen usually from the large
landholders. He was appointed directly by the governor.
The county lieutenant commanded the militia, with the rank of colonel,
and was entitled to a seat in the Council, and as such was a judge of
the General Court. His powers were great in the civil and military
control of the county. He presided over the county courts at the head of
the justices.
The executive officer of the county court was the sheriff. The judges in
this court were called justices of the peace. They were important men
and had almost entire control of the affairs of the county. They were
chosen from the gentlemen class of the community and received their
commissions from the governor with the advice of the Council. They
received no compensation for their services, the office being considered
one of honor, not of profit. In this way a high standard of men were
obtained for this important office.
_EPRAPHRODIBUS'S WILL_
In 1640 a patent was granted to Epraphrodibus Lawson, in Tarrascoe Neck
Chuckeytuck Parish, Nansemond County. Lawson must have migrated to the
Northern Neck. His will was recorded there, in Lancaster County, in
1652. It is believed to be the oldest recorded will in the United
States. The will follows:
"In the name of God, Amen, I Epraphrodibus Lawson, of Rappahannock,
being sick of body, but of perfect memory, Glory be to God, do make this
my last will and testament. I make and ordain, ye child of my wife ...
my heir ... my wife ... third ... March 31st, 1652.
"Epraphrodibus Lawson.
"Witness:
"Elos Lors,
"Joan Lee,
"Wm. Harper,
"Recorded June, 1652.
"G. John Phillips."
_THE CHALLENGE_
Young Richard Denham almost broke up the Lancaster County court when he
burst into the room bearing a message that challenged Mr. Daniel Fox to
a duel.
The court was being held in the home of one of the justices as no
court-house had yet been built for the new county. Lancaster had been
formed from Northumberland in 1651. The date of the present court was
about 1653.
Richard bore the challenge from his father-in-law, Captain Thomas
Hackett. It ran as follows:
"Mr. Fox, I wonder ye should so much degenerate from a gentleman as to
cast such an aspersion on me in open Court, making nothinge appear but I
knowe it to be out of malice and an evil disposition which remains in
your hearte, therefore, I desire ye if ye have anything of a gentleman
or of manhood in ye to meet me on Tuesday morninge at ye marked tree in
ye valey which partes yr lande and mine, about eight of ye clocke, where
I shall expect ye comeinge to give me satisfaction. My weapon is rapier,
ye length I send ye by bearer; not yours present, but yours at ye time
appointed. THOMAS HACKETT. Ye seconde bringe along with ye if ye please.
I shall finde me of ye like."
This message could not have been delivered at a worse time or place, for
Mr. Fox, a justice, was at the time sitting on the bench with his fellow
justices. That dignified group, dressed in their velvets and gold lace,
were shocked by the lad's audacity.
One of the justices, John Carter, sharply scolded Richard--"saying that
he knew not how his father would acquit himself on an action of that
nature which he said he would not be ye owner of for a world."
Richard answered in a slighting way "that his father would answer it
well enough!"
When sternly questioned by the court, Richard admitted that he knew that
the message he bore was a challenge. He then boldly demanded of Fox what
answer he proposed to send back to Captain Hackett.
The court then made a quick and emphatic decision that Richard was "a
partye with his father-in-law in ye crime," and that for bringing the
challenge, whose character he well knew, and for delivering it while the
justices were sitting, as well as for his contemptuous manner and bold
words he was "adjudged"--"to receive six stripes on his bare shoulders
with a whip," at the hands of the sheriff.
The sheriff was then directed to arrest Captain Hackett and have him
"detained in safe custody without baile" until he should "answer for his
crimes" at the next session of the General Court at Jamestown.
Thus a duel was averted, and Mr. Fox did not meet Captain Hackett "in ye
valey." The valley was probably chosen by Captain Hackett so that the
duel could take place without observation or interruption, and it was
the dividing line between their estates.
Hackett was scrupulous to inform Fox of the length of the rapier he
intended to use, but had he followed regulations exactly, he would have
left the selection of the weapon to his opponent.
_TRADE_
In the early days the Northern Neck carried on trade with various places
besides England. Lancaster County seems to have been especially active
in this trade. From the following record it appears that tobacco and
grain were not the only articles used in trading with the Barbadoes: "In
1686 the sloop Happy transported from Lancaster County to that island, 2
firkins of butter, 2 barrels of pork, and 22 sides of tanned leather, in
addition to 144 bushels of Indian corn." Trade to the West Indies was
conducted in small Virginia-built sloops.
The Dutch brought to the Neck to exchange for tobacco such things as
linen, coarse cloth, beer, brandy and "other distilled spirits." In 1653
Henry Mountford of Rotterdam appointed an agent in Lancaster. About the
same time, Jacobis Vis had "important transactions in exchange of
merchandise for tobacco in the counties of the Northern Neck." It was
said by the Dutch that Virginians could beat them in a deal.
A letter from Captain James Barton of New England to a citizen of
Lancaster indicates that there was commerce between these places. Barton
stated in the letter that he wished to secure a cargo of tobacco, hides
and pork for market in the Barbadoes. His ketch, with a cargo of rum,
salt, sugar, cloth and salted cod and mackerel, would sail from Salem
and exchange cargoes in Virginia and then continue to the West Indies.
Boats from the West Indies sailed to Virginia and then on to New
England.
_THE COLONIAL SAILOR_
A sailor was always a source of interest to the public in colonial days,
whether he wore his tarry working clothes or his shore outfit. There was
the aura of foreign lands about him--he brought stories of far places to
the news-hungry colonists of the New World.
On shore the sailor was a glamorous figure in his flapping trousers,
scarlet sash and cutlasses, or dressed "in a strange habitt with a
four-cornered Capp instead of a hatt and his Breeches hung with Ribbons
from Wast downward a great depth, one over the other like Shingles of a
house." He wore his pigtail shoved into an eelskin, which was supposed
to make his hair grow longer.
_JOHN CARTER_
One day in the year 1654 the frontier home of Thomas Meade on the
Rappahannock, in Lancaster County, was the focal point toward which the
men of the Northern Neck were converging. Some came galloping on
horseback between the big forest trees and others probably came by
sloop.
The Assembly at Jamestown had recently ordered that an armed force be
raised in the Northern Neck: "100 men from Lancaster, 40 from
Northumberland and 30 from Westmoreland." After meeting at Meade's house
the force under John Carter was to proceed to the Rappahannock Indian
town and demand satisfaction for injuries done the white settlers in
that region, but they were to commit no acts of hostility unless
attacked.
Swords and firearms were glinting that day, and no doubt the flagon was
passed many times. Among the men assembled, there was Captain Henry
Fleet, the old Indian trader. He and David Wheatliff were to act as
interpreters.
There seems to be no record of the outcome of this expedition. With the
assistance of Captain Fleet, who was well known as "a powerful man in
Indian affairs," it probably turned out well.
After this affair John Carter was known as "Colonel Carter of Lancaster
County."
Colonel Carter had but recently settled in the Northern Neck. He had
sailed one day from the Chesapeake into the Rappahannock and there
before him lay virgin territory--tobacco soil and a ready-made highway
where ships could sail to his dooryard and carry his tobacco straight to
foreign markets.
He patented land and built his home on a neck cut out from the land by a
creek and a river. He gave his home the Indian name of the river,
Corotoman. The creek was called Carter's.
John Carter left England in 1649 when Cromwell seized the government.
Little is known of his family in England. When he came to Virginia he
settled first in Upper Norfolk and lived there five years. He probably
came to Lancaster County because he saw more opportunity there.
John Carter prospered in the wilderness of the Northern Neck. He
acquired many acres, considerable wealth and all the offices and honors
that went with his position as a substantial landowner. He was even
appointed to his Majesty's Council in Jamestown, which was a high honor.
His dwelling at Corotoman was no doubt a good house for that time.
Inventories show that it had glass windows, and the basement was floored
with paving stones which he had imported from England. The floors of the
dependencies were probably of the same.
He wanted his children to have religious training. He built a church on
his property so that his family could have a place to worship God.
Although women were scarce in this frontier country, Colonel Carter
managed to find five wives within twenty years.
In 1669, Colonel Carter died at Corotoman and was laid to rest in the
yard of his church.
Colonel John Carter of Lancaster County was the founder of the Carter
family in Virginia. His son, Robert, was left to carry on the family
traditions. He did so in a spectacular way.
_FLEET'S POINT_
When a sailing vessel left the Potomac and headed south toward Jamestown
it traveled about six miles down the Chesapeake and then it came to the
entrance of the Great Wicomico River.
On the north side of the mouth of the Great Wicomico there was a point.
This point was called Fleet's Point because the plantation of Captain
Henry Fleet, the Indian trader, was located there.
Between the year 1650 and 1655 Captain Fleet had patented large tracts
of land in Northumberland and Lancaster. He apparently lived in
Lancaster for awhile because he was a burgess from that county in 1652.
But Captain Fleet finally settled in Northumberland at Fleet's Point. In
that region there had been an Indian village named Cinquack. It was thus
marked on an early map. By the time Captain Fleet settled on the point
the Indians may have moved inland, or to an island in the Chesapeake. Or
Fleet may have bought the land from the Indians.
Weary voyagers on the Chesapeake, if evening was near, must have looked
for the lights of Captain Fleet's dwelling on the point. Probably
because of its location Fleet's Point became a stopping place for
"persons passing from Maryland to Virginia."
Captain Fleet no doubt welcomed these guests, but he would stand for no
misconduct at Fleet's Point, as is shown by a deposition that has been
preserved:
"One Henry Carline, of Kent County, Maryland, in 1655, stopped at his
house with a woman, and that he provided lodgings also for another
woman, and a man. Fleet becoming indignant at Carline's loose behavior,
turned him, and the woman who came with him, out of his house, and had
them arraigned before the Rappahannock Court. Carline was fined for
keeping the servant woman from her employer, and disowning his wife, and
the woman was ordered to receive 30 lashes."
All records concerning Captain Fleet seem to end here. Did he ever
return to England? Or was he killed by the Indians?
Perhaps he spent the rest of his life at Fleet's Point and was buried
there.
_GEORGE MASON_
George Mason was another early settler in the upper wilderness of the
Northern Neck.
The first George Mason came to Virginia during the Cavalier emigration.
He "went up the Potomac River and settled at Accohick, near Pasbytanzy."
Apparently the first mention of this founder of the Mason family in
Virginia occurs in the patent of land obtained by him in March, 1655:
"Said land being due the said George Mason by and for the transportation
of eighteen persons in to the colony." Mason was married but it is not
known if his wife or family were among these persons transported as
"head-rights."
The next mention of George Mason in the records is in 1658 when he sold
five hundred acres of land to Mr. John Lease for "five cows with calves
and two thousand five hundred pounds of tobacco." Westmoreland County at
this time included land on the Virginia side of the Potomac from the
northern boundary of Northumberland to the present site of Georgetown in
the District of Columbia. With the land sold to Mr. Lease, Mason
included "all privileges of hawking, fishing and fowling."
By this time George Mason was fairly well established in his wilderness
home among the Indians, some of whom were friendly and some were not.
George Mason, Giles Brent and Gerrard Fowke were the "men of the
border" at this time. From time to time they were involved in troubles
with the Indians.
Colonel Mason's death occurred probably in 1686. He was buried in the
"Burying Place, at Accokeek." He was the great-grandfather of George
Mason, the Revolutionary patriot and author of the Bill of Rights.
_MARY CALVERT_
"Ye said Mrs. Calvert shall personally receive thirty stripes upon her
bare shoulders for her offence." Thus the court of Northumberland
decided in the case of Mary Calvert in the year of our Lord 1655.
This court was probably held at Coan Hall, the home of Colonel John
Mottrom, as it is doubtful that a court-house had yet been built.
Court Day was a great event to the men of Virginia in colonial times. It
created an opportunity for the discussion of politics, for trading
livestock, bargaining for the sale of tobacco, catching up with the
news, and last but not least, a free enjoyment of rough horse-play,
accompanied by the passing of the jug.
Let us imagine this Court Day at Coan Hall. If the weather was warm
enough the session may have been held out of doors under the trees. In
the rear the virgin forest must have furnished an impressive background.
In front flowed the river where the small sailing vessels, barges and
log canoes belonging to the men who had come to court were tied or
anchored. A few horses may have been tied in the barn-lot or tethered
out to graze, but there were not many horses in the Neck at that time,
probably not more than fifteen or twenty in the county.
In cold weather court was doubtless held inside before the blazing fire
in the great hall. Colonel Mottrom, if he was presiding, was no doubt
dressed in his best, as befitted the occasion and his position as
justice. Ursula was probably in the kitchen supervising preparations for
a feast for those among the gathering who would be their guests.
If the crowd overflowed outside there was perhaps an outdoor fire near
the stables for warmth. And the passing flagon of ale no doubt helped to
warm and cheer the crowd. Contests of strength and skill, such as
wrestling, cudgeling, running, riding and shooting may have been going
on there while the court was in progress inside the house.
Mary Calvert must have been embarrassed to have been the only woman in
such a crowd of men, for as a rule women stayed out of sight on Court
Days. The records reveal only enough information about Mary Calvert to
arouse the curiosity. What sort of woman was she?
She was perhaps fairly young, as women of that day usually married early
and died early. There is no clue as to her appearance but it is safe to
assume that her clothes were bright because colonials wore gay colors,
and that she wore a hood of some sort over her head, and if it was cold
a mantle that covered her other garments.
What heinous crime had this woman committed that she deserved to be
lashed thirty times across her bare shoulders?
Mary Calvert had been so bold as to speak in public against Oliver
Cromwell and the Parliament of England. She had called them "rogues and
rebells."
Now, Mrs. Calvert confessed in court that she had made this statement,
but in her own defense she stated that she was in danger of being
murdered by her husband and "spake those words" to bring about her
arrest and thus be "secured from her husband."
Was Mary telling the truth? The true answer will never be known. But the
ancient county records do reveal the fact that her husband either loved
her and could not stand by and see her lashed, or that he wanted to save
his own self-respect.
Whatever his reason may have been he did come forward and beg to pay a
fine in order that Mary's sentence be revoked--
"Upon Mr. Calvert's petition in behalfe of his wife," the court ordered
him to pay a thousand pounds of tobacco for commuting "of ye corporall
punishment to be inflicted upon his said wife, with charges of court."
_HE LIVED BRAVELY_
Colonel John Mottrom may not have presided at the county court of 1655
for he died about that time. He was but forty-five years old and he had
not yet built his brew-house or seen his vision of the town at Coan come
true.
The funeral was no doubt a big affair for Colonel Mottrom was a
prominent man, and all funerals then were important occasions. These
early funerals were carried on in a reverent manner but there was a
cheerful side too. Funerals could even be called festive. The reason for
this was that a funeral brought about one of the few chances friends and
neighbors had for a reunion, and for feasting and drinking together.
The guests had to travel a long way by boat or on horseback to attend a
funeral and these funeral guests were regarded as even more "sacred"
than ordinary guests. The unwritten laws of hospitality would have been
broken if these guests had been allowed to return home without more than
ample food and drink.
Thus the bereaved Mottrom household probably had to put their sorrows
aside while they made preparations for the funeral.
Sometimes the minister and pall-bearers, who were usually the leading
citizens of the county, were directed to wear certain special items,
such as gloves, ribbons and a "love scarf." Mourning-rings and gloves
were often gifts to chief mourners from the family of the deceased.
Often the will of the deceased directed the family to make such gifts.
Colonel Mottrom may have desired to be "buryed ... in the garden plote."
It was the usual custom to be buried not too far away from the dwelling.
It could be truly written of this first settler of the Northern Neck, as
it had been said of another early Virginian--"he lived bravely, kept a
good house and was a true lover of Virginia."
After the body was laid to rest the memory of the deceased was usually
honored by a furious fusillade. This may have been done more for the
entertainment of those who came to bury the deceased than to honor the
dead. Sometimes as much as ten pounds of powder were used. Many
accidents occurred at funerals because of the wild firing of guns by
persons who had been drinking.
The extravagant use of powder was nothing when compared to the amount of
liquor, of all kinds, consumed at a funeral. At one funeral sixty
gallons of cider, four gallons of rum, two gallons of brandy, five
gallons of wine, and thirty pounds of sugar to sweeten the drinks were
used.
Food for the occasion may have included geese, turkeys and other
poultry, a pig, several bushels of flour and twenty pounds of butter.
Sometimes a whole steer and several sheep were prepared for the crowd. A
big funeral cost many pounds of tobacco.
Colonel Mottrom's inventory was valued at 33,896 pounds of tobacco,
which was as large as any estate in the colony at that time. His
inventory was recorded in Northumberland County in 1657, and shows that
he was a man of "wealth and literary pretensions."
He left his children "well-fixed" as to land. In Northumberland alone he
had patented 3700 acres. Tradition says that he left the daughter of his
associate, Nicholas Morris, "a riding mare." His will was referred to
the governor "because of some ambiguities in the procurings of it." No
copy of it can now be found.
Due to distances and lack of fast transportation the widow's hand was
sometimes spoken for at the funeral of her husband by one of the guests
who was afraid that he might lose out if he waited to make another
visit. This was probably not true in Ursula's case, but she did remarry
soon enough for her new husband to act as one of the executors of
Colonel Mottrom's will.
Major George Colclough, Ursula's third husband, was a burgess in 1658.
After his death Ursula Bish Thompson-Mottrom-Colclough married Colonel
Isaac Allerton. Even after she had married this fourth time she
continued to have trouble in settling Colonel Mottrom's estate, because
of the "ambiguities" of his will.
Colonel and Mrs. Allerton lived at his home, The Narrows, which was
located in the new county of Westmoreland, formed from Northumberland in
1653.
Colonel Allerton was the son of Isaac Allerton, who came to Plymouth on
the _Mayflower_ in 1620, and of Fear Brewster, only daughter of Governor
William Brewster, of Plymouth. He was born in 1630 and was one of the
early graduates of Harvard College. He came to Virginia and settled in
the Northern Neck at The Narrows.
From Ursula and Isaac Allerton was descended President Zachary Taylor.
_WITCHCRAFT_
The belief in witchcraft was prevalent amongst the early settlers of the
Northern Neck. The Neck at this time was beset with wolves and Indians
and was a true type of a frontier colony.
To the witch was ascribed the power of inflicting strange and incurable
diseases, of changing men into horses when they were asleep at night,
and after bridling and saddling them, riding them at a gallop over the
countryside to the places where the witches had their frolics. Horses
too were thought to be ridden at night, unbridled and barebacked. In the
morning these horses would be fagged-out and caked with sweat and mud
and their manes plaited into "witches' stirrups."
That witches were taken seriously by settlers of the Neck in the
seventeenth century is proven by the following abstract from the
Northumberland County records:
"20 Nov., 1656.
"Whereas, Articles were Exhibited against Wm. H---- by Mr.
David Lindsaye (Minister) upon suspicion of witchcraft,
sorcery, etc. And an able jury of Twenty-four men were
empanelled to try the matter by verdict of which jury they
found part of the Articles proved by several depositions. The
Court doth therefore order yet ye said Wm. H---- shall
forthwith receave ten stripes upon his bare back and forever to
be Banished this County and yet hee depart within the space of
two moneths. And also to pay all the charges of Court."
_SEAHORSE OF LONDON_
On a cold day in the late winter of 1657 some men were busily working in
the Potomac near the mouth of Mattox Creek. They were trying to lift a
foundered ketch, the _Seahorse_ of London. Among the men was young John
Washington, son of an English clergyman.
John had sailed for Virginia in the winter of 1656, as mate and voyage
partner in the _Seahorse_. After arriving in the Potomac the ketch was
loaded with a cargo of tobacco. On her way out of the river she ran
aground. Before she could be floated a storm hit and sank her. The
entire cargo of tobacco was ruined.
During the delay John made friends with a wealthy planter named
Nathaniel Pope, who lived in the neighborhood.
The _Seahorse_ was finally raised but by that time John did not wish to
return to England. Perhaps Nathaniel's daughter, Anne, was the
attraction in Virginia.
John prevailed on Edward Prescott, the master and part owner of the
_Seahorse_, to release him from further service in order that he might
remain in the Northern Neck of Virginia. He also demanded payment of his
wages. Prescott countered that Washington owed him money and was partly
responsible for the damage done to the vessel. He threatened to have
John arrested and imprisoned.
John's new friend, Pope, offered to go his bond in beaver skins. If
there was a suit the outcome is unknown. Prescott finally sailed away in
the _Seahorse_ and Washington remained in Virginia, but they parted on
bad terms and this was not the last of their quarrel--but that is
another story.
John soon married Anne Pope. As a wedding gift Nathaniel gave them a
seven-hundred-acre tract of land near Mattox Creek, in Westmoreland
County. In 1664 John and Anne moved to a new home four miles eastward on
Bridges Creek.
John Washington was the first of that name to settle in the Northern
Neck. In Westmoreland he led an active life as a planter and as a leader
in county affairs. He had received "decent schooling" before he left
England. John and Anne were the great-grandparents of that most famous
Washington--George.
"_TENN MULBERRY TREES_"
In the fall or early spring of 1656-57 the Virginians were planting
trees.
Since the pioneers of the Northern Neck were living on the edges of a
virgin forest and had been trying desperately to clear away enough of it
to make fields for tobacco and corn, it seems strange that they would
now be engaged in planting more trees.
But these trees were different--they had been imported from China. The
Assembly at Jamestown had recently declared that "whereas by experience
silke will be the most profitable commoditie for the country ... that
everie one hundred acres of land plant tenn mulberry trees."
When the colonists came to Virginia they noticed the abundance of
mulberry trees. These native trees, such favorites of the Indians, had
reddish-blue berries. The early colonists thought that "the climate and
soil of middle America were ... adapted to the culture of silke."
So, the first Assembly, in 1619, in the church at Jamestown, had adopted
measures on the planting of mulberry trees:
"About the plantation of mulberry trees, be it enacted that every man as
he is seatted upon his division, doe for seven years together, every
yeare plante and maintaine in growte six Mulberry trees at the least,
and as many more as he shall think conveniente."
But the silkworms would not cooperate--they refused to eat the leaves
of the red mulberry tree. In 1621, the white mulberry was imported from
China. But still the silk industry languished, this time it was said,
for want of cheap labor.
In the beginning the care of the silkworms was held to be specially
suitable work for children. The mulberry trees were kept like a low
hedge so that children could pick the leaves to feed the worms. This is
probably where the singing-game originated:
"Here we go 'round the mulberry bush, mulberry bush--."
Tradition said that two boys, "if their hands be not sleeping in their
pockets, could care for six ounces of seed from hatching till within
fourteen days of spinning." After that three or four helpers, "women and
children being as proper as men," were needed to assist in feeding the
worms, airing, drying, cleansing and "perfuming" them.
Now, under the Commonwealth, the silk industry was again being
stimulated. But all was in vain--the colonists had their minds set on
raising tobacco and they could not be diverted.
_ROADS_
As a rule the settlers of the Northern Neck built their homes on the
banks of rivers and creeks. Since travel was by boat there was little
need at first for roads through the forest.
The Indians traveled through the woods over narrow footpaths not much
over twenty inches wide. These had been made originally by animals. Now
they were traveled by both Indians and wild beasts. These paths usually
ran along high ground or where there was little undergrowth and few
streams to cross.
When it was necessary for settlers to penetrate the interior they used
these Indian and animal paths, or cut new paths and blazed the trees so
that the blazes stood out clear and white in the forest.
Northumberland County records mention a horse path "wch leadeth from
Wicocomoco to Chickacoon buttin upon the north west side of an Indian
field knowne by the name of Fairefield." There was a cart path near the
Corotoman river "knowne by the name of Morratico & Wiccomcomico Path."
Early land patents mention other paths, horse paths and Indian paths.
Rolling-roads were narrow roads cut through the woods over which
hogsheads of tobacco fitted with axles could be rolled or drawn. In this
way inland plantations could send their tobacco to wharves and
warehouses on the waterfront for shipment overseas.
The parish church, court-houses, ferries and ordinaries became the focal
points that led from crude interplantation lanes. In 1658 the General
Assembly appointed surveyors whose responsibility it was to clear
general ways from county to county. These roads were to be forty feet
wide and the surveyors were to see that the citizens kept them up. This
last order was hard to enforce because for a long time the planters had
little interest in highways on land.
_MARKETS_
The custom of Market Day, which was a form of the English fair, was
brought to Virginia by the colonists. In 1649 it was decided to hold
markets every week in Jamestown, on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
The Assembly decided in 1655 to establish one or more market-places in
each county. These were to be located on a river or creek, and all the
trade of the surrounding country was to be concentrated at these places.
Imported articles were to be brought from certain ports to each market
place. Here were to be built the court-house, prison, offices of the
clerk and sheriff, ordinaries and churches. Nothing seems to have come
of this attempt.
Again, about 1679, certain places were designated as public marts, to
which all the Indians who were at peace with the white settlers were
invited to come, one day in the spring and one day in autumn. A
government clerk was to keep records of all the trading which took place
at each mart.
One of these marts was situated in Lancaster County, and another in
Stafford. In Northumberland, the Wicocomico Indians were to be permitted
to trade with the English under special regulations adopted by the
authorities in that county.
The purpose of these market places was to encourage the building of
towns, but the attempts were all unsuccessful. The settlers preferred
their independent way of life on the plantations.
_THE OLD DOMINION_
In May, 1660, Charles II returned to England by invitation of a new
Parliament. Cromwell was dead and his son and successor, "Tumbledown
Dick," had abdicated.
Charles rode into London, where the streets were dressed with green
boughs and the windows hung with tapestry in his honor. Since everyone
was so glad to see him he wondered why he had stayed away so long.
When the Virginians heard the news they went wild with joy!
Sir William Berkeley already had control of the Virginia government
again. The Assembly at Jamestown had foreseen the restoration of the
king and they had called Sir William back from his self-imposed exile at
his plantation, Green Spring, in March, 1660--two months before Charles
was actually crowned King of England.
It took four months for the news of the restoration to reach Virginia.
In September, Sir William issued a command that the news be proclaimed
in every county in Virginia.
This was what the Virginians had been waiting for and they celebrated in
their typical way--by drinking healths and by making every kind of noise
that they could contrive to make.
Hundreds of pounds of tobacco were exchanged for barrels of gunpowder
and kegs of cider. In some places "ye trumpeters" were paid as much as
eight hundred pounds of tobacco for their music, and at least one
minister was paid five hundred pounds of tobacco for a service of
thanksgiving.
In recognition of Virginia's loyalty to him, Charles II caused her to be
proclaimed an independent member of his Empire. He had it engraved on
coins that the English Kingdom should henceforth consist of "England,
Scotland, Ireland and Virginia." Virginia's coat-of-arms was added to
those of the other three countries comprised in his dominions.
Traditions say that Charles wore a robe of Virginia silk at his
coronation.
It was in this way that Virginia acquired the title of "The Old
Dominion."
_THE PROPRIETARY_
The settlers of the Northern Neck had hardly ended their celebrations in
honor of England's new king when they received a great shock.
One of the first things that Charles II did, at the insistence of those
courtiers who had shared his exile, was to have the Northern Neck
patent, which he had issued while he was in France, recorded and put on
the market to be leased for the benefit of those courtiers to whom he
had given it. Thus in 1661, the Northern Neck became a proprietary--that
is, it was owned now by the seven courtiers.
In 1662, several English merchants took a lease of the proprietary from
the original courtiers who owned it. The merchants hoped to settle new
"adventures" in the land between the Potomac and the Rappahannock. King
Charles then wrote a letter to Governor Berkeley instructing him to
assist these men who had leased the patent.
Even Sir William who had always been fanatical in his loyalty to the
Crown was shocked. The royal order aroused the opposition of both the
governor and the council to the proprietorship and to the lease of it.
It was a threat to the colonial government and they were afraid that
they would lose their power to defend themselves. They felt that the
rights of the colonists should be protected.
Before 1661, a total of 576 grants of "headright" lands in the Northern
Neck had been made in the King's name by the Colonial Governor. The
meaning of "headright" was that any person who paid his own way to
Virginia would receive 50 acres of land. He would also be assigned 50
acres for each person he transported "at his own cost."
Now titles to these lands previously taken would be clouded. Or the
lands might be completely lost.
Instead of assisting the lessees of the patent the colonial government
at Jamestown prepared an address to the Crown and sent one of their
ablest citizens to England to act as an agent for Virginia.
The King ignored this protest, rebuked the colonial government and sent
their representative back to Virginia with a renewed petition of the
proprietors and orders to "protect his agents and encourage them."
Nevertheless, no more was heard of the English merchants. The colonials
had scored their first victory in the war over the Northern Neck patent,
but many troublesome years were still to follow.
_A FIRST LADY OF JAMESTOWN_
While life flowed on at Chicacone, what had become of little Frances
Mottrom?
Frances had been growing up. She was now, in 1662, seventeen years old
and about to become the bride of one of the most important men in
Virginia.
Since her step-mother's marriage Frances had probably been living with
her sister, Anne, who had been married for five or six years to Richard
Wright, formerly a merchant of London. The Wrights lived part of the
time at Coan Hall and part of the time at Cabin Point, in Westmoreland
County. The latter estate had been left to Anne by her father, Colonel
John Mottrom.
And how did Frances find a suitable bridegroom in the wilderness of the
Northern Neck? Probably through her brother-in-law, Richard Wright. Her
future husband, the Honorable Nicholas Spencer, Esq., had also been a
London merchant who had taken up lands in the Neck. He was now a
neighbor of the Wrights, in Westmoreland County.
And where was the wedding to take place? There are no records to tell
us, but a deed made a few years after Frances' marriage refers to her as
being "late of Chickacone." It is doubtful if a church had been built as
yet, although the Parish of Chicacoan had been established in 1653, and
the Reverend David Lindsaye, of the Established Church of England, had
arrived in the Northern Neck as early as 1656.
Let us assume that Frances and Nicholas were married at Coan Hall by the
new minister, who would have been dressed for the occasion in a white
surplice with bands and a "close" cap of black velvet.
The ceremony would probably have taken place on a Wednesday morning
between eight and noonday.
The bride was doubtless radiant in a low-cut gown of the latest London
fashion. It may have been pink, yellow or some other pastel shade but we
can be sure that it was not white. The gown, no doubt fell in soft folds
to the ground, as hoops had not yet come into vogue. Her hair was
probably arranged just as she wore it as a child, with a veil in place
of the cap.
Coan Hall was no doubt "passing sweet trimmed up with divers flowers" or
evergreens. All the kettles were doubtless a-bubble in the kitchen, and
the silver, pewter, brass and copper gleamed in the firelight.
There seem to be no surviving records of the festivities accompanying a
seventeenth century wedding in Virginia, but we may be sure that there
was "an open cellar, a full house and a sweating cook," three things
dearly loved by these transplanted English people.
They also loved noise--the sound of guns and firecrackers, bells and
music. They liked to sing the old ballads brought from "home," as they
still called England.
The wedding guests may have brought small spiced buns to the wedding and
piled them high in the center of the table. If the bride and groom
succeeded in kissing each other over the mound, lifelong prosperity was
assured.
Dancing and games were very likely to have followed the feasting. The
wedding guests may have lingered on a week or more at Coan. It is
possible that the wedding party followed the bride and groom to the
groom's house in Westmoreland and continued the festivities for awhile
there.
And how did Frances reach her new home? Most likely by sailing vessel,
up the Potomac. If she traveled by land it was doubtless on horseback as
there were few if any carriages then, nor any roads. She may have been
seated on a pillion behind her new husband, holding on tight to his
waist. If the wedding party traveled by land they must have made quite a
clatter--riding at the reckless "planter's pace" between the big trees,
shouting and singing and making the forest ring with happy sound.
Two wedding gifts that Frances may have brought to her new home were a
"garnish of pewter," that is a full set of pewter platters, plates and
dishes, and a bread "peel," which was significant of domestic utility,
plenty, and was a symbol of good luck. These were favorite wedding gifts
then. Glass and earthenware were scarce at that time because of breakage
on the trip across the Atlantic. An inventory later on shows that
Frances had only twelve glasses and not more than eighty-eight pieces of
earthenware. Silver plate was abundant in the homes of the wealthy.
At the time of their marriage Frances' husband was a member of the House
of Burgesses. Later (1679-89) he was Secretary of the Colony which made
him, next to the Governor, probably the most powerful man in Virginia at
that time. People started calling his home on Nomini River, Secretary's
Point, by which name it was ever after known.
Colonel Spencer's neighbors named their parish "Cople" in honor of his
ancestral parish in Bedfordshire, England.
About 1675 Colonel Spencer and John Washington procured a patent for
five thousand acres of land on Little Hunting Creek, which later became
famous as the Mount Vernon estate. This land descended to the heirs of
Spencer and Washington.
Colonel Spencer became President of the Council, which was a position of
great honor and dignity. As President of the Council in the absence of
the Governor, his cousin Lord Culpeper, he became acting governor from
1683-84.
"Madam Spencer," as Frances was now respectfully addressed, had seen
many changes since she had left her wilderness playground in the
Northern Neck, to become for awhile the "First Lady of Jamestown." She
had borne six children. One son went to England and remained there to
claim the large estates which his father had inherited.
After Governor Spencer's death Frances married Reverend John Bolton.
_LAND_
"Clear titles" to their lands were extremely important to the
landholders of the Northern Neck, probably because for many years due to
the proprietary their land was not wholly their own.
To the natives of the Neck, land was an almost sacred possession. To
acquire more and more of it was an obsession with some of them. Land was
their wealth--without it tobacco could not be grown. The virgin soil
lasted only about three years under tobacco cultivation. It was easier
and cheaper to look for new lands than to enrich old acreage so the
planter was always looking for new lands, in the fertile river margins
or in the vast forests. It was a wasteful system.
Land made a man's social position then. For social rating purposes the
amount of land he owned did not matter so much, but if he was to be
"somebody" he must own some land. Common expressions in those days
were--"he is a big landowner" or "he owns land." This manner of social
rating persisted for many years in the Neck.
Land was a man's security--even if he could no longer make money on it
"the land was still there." If he did not have wealth he still had land
and a social position.
The landowner rarely sold his land. The bulk of it was left to the
oldest son; other sons received smaller portions and the daughters
received still smaller portions. The girls were supposed to marry into
landed stock.
The importance of land to natives of the Northern Neck in bygone days
can hardly be exaggerated.
_PROCESSIONING_
A morning in spring between Easter and Whitsuntide found all Virginians
out-of-doors. This special day came once each year--it was the day of
the "processioning."
On this day, required by law, the planters would ride and walk over
their lands and inspect their property lines. We can visualize the
scene--the planter and his older sons leading the way, servants
following with axes and other implements, chattering women and girls,
servant women bringing up the rear with lunch baskets, and children
riding pillion, or in front of some older person, or when the procession
halted, darting about chasing a butterfly or rabbit.
"Processioning" day was an important time, for in those days land
surveys were not always true and the boundaries of each man's plantation
were uncertain. At this time the various landmarks were impressed upon
the minds of the older sons--"yonder is a corner pine," "the four red
and the one white oak," "there is the grove of tulip poplars," "the
dogwood corner," "the hickory corner," "the two gums and the white
oak"--there was so much to remember!
Sometimes the lands were divided by ditches, for ditches would last a
hundred years or more it was said. Landmarks were renewed at this time.
Blazes were recut on trees and in the places where trees had fallen
during the winter new ones were planted. Tradition says that pear trees
were often planted as they were long-lived trees.
Here and there processions from neighboring plantations would meet at
the boundaries where the lands joined. A sociable time then followed,
and if it was at lunch time, perhaps a picnic. Disputed boundaries were
decided upon at these times and announced to all persons present so that
at the next "processioning" those who were still living would be able to
testify as to the correct line.
"_THE BANQUETTING HOUSE_"
Among the planters whose lands adjoined near Machodoc Creek, in
Westmoreland County, were John Lee, Henry Corbin, Thomas Gerrard and
Isaac Allerton.
John Lee was the oldest son of Richard, the immigrant, of Cobbs Hall in
Northumberland. John was the first of the Lees to establish a seat on
land acquired by his father on the Potomac. This first Lee home in
Westmoreland was called Matholic. John had been educated at Oxford and
had graduated at Queen's College, 1658, and then studied medicine. He
had probably returned to Virginia with his father in 1664. Two years
later he was seated at Matholic, and he immediately took his place among
the leading planters in the county. Besides the usual offices that went
with his station, he was on a committee appointed by the governor for
the defense of the Northern Neck against Indians. Later he served on a
commission with Colonel John Washington and others to "arrange the
boundary line between Lancaster and Northumberland Counties." But what
Jack really liked to do was to ride, shoot and fish. He liked the
militia training and the celebrations that went with it. He was young,
gay and a bachelor.
Henry Corbin had been born in Warwickshire, England, about 1629. His
family was of high standing among the English gentry. Henry came to
Virginia during the Cavalier emigration and took up an estate on the
Potomac near Matholic. His home was named Pecatone for an Indian chief
of the region, according to tradition. Pecatone was one of the great
manors of Westmoreland. It was built of brick with a terrace and stone
steps in front. The large rooms were wainscoted. The house was set in a
grove of trees and the lawn sloped to the Potomac. The house had the
massive look of a fort and it was plain to severity. Life at Pecatone
was carried on in the grand manner.
Doctor Thomas Gerrard lived not far from Isaac Allerton on a plantation
called Wilton. Gerrard had once owned lands and had been a prominent
figure in the Province of Maryland, but because of religious persecution
he had crossed the Potomac and found sanctuary in the Northern Neck.
Wilton had originally been patented by Major William Hockaday in 1651.
At that time the Indians were still living on the land and Hockaday had
to wait to seat the place "until the Indians could be removed." Doctor
Gerrard purchased Wilton from Hockaday in 1662.
Isaac Allerton was the grandson of that celebrated Puritan, Governor
William Brewster of Plymouth. After Isaac graduated from Harvard
College, in 1650, he left New England and settled in Westmoreland
County, near the plantations of John Lee and Henry Corbin. Isaac called
his home The Narrows. He became a leading planter of the county and was
one of the men of Westmoreland "upon whom Governor Berkeley relied." In
1675 Allerton was second in command under Colonel John Washington to
fight Indians. Allerton married Ursula, the widow of John Mottrom. From
the union of Ursula and Isaac was descended President Zachary Taylor, as
has been stated before.
These then were the four neighbors with such diverse backgrounds, whose
plantations adjoined and who all came together each year at
"processioning" time.
In March of 1670 these men decided to build a "banquetting house for the
continuance of good Neighborhood."
The plan was that each neighbor, or his heirs, would take turns in
preparing the banquet and entertainment "yearly, according to his due,
to make an Honorable treatment fit to entertain the undertakers thereof,
their wives, misters & friends yearly and every year, & to begin upon
the 29th of May."
Thus the agreement was written, witnessed, and signed by Henry Corbin,
John Lee, Thomas Gerrard and Isaac Allerton, on the 30th of March 1670.
Jack Lee was assigned the responsibility of the building of the
"banquetting house." There is documented proof that the house was built
in "Pickatown field," and that the yearly celebrations were held.
At these celebrations Jack Lee, arriving on his spirited mount dressed
in his "gray suit with silver buttons" and "gloves with silver tops,"
must have been a dashing figure.
We can imagine Ursula at "Pickatown field," escorted by her fourth
husband, Colonel Allerton; Henry Corbin with his wife Alice and
daughter, Laetitia; and the Gerrards--Thomas and Rose.
Since friends were to be invited, Colonel Nicholas Spencer of
Secretary's Point may have been there with his wife, Frances Mottrom
Spencer. The host would probably have been afraid to omit from the guest
list Dick Cole of Salisbury Park, and his wife Anna.
Perhaps a little eight-year-old girl from Tucker Hill was dancing gaily
at "Pickatown field" in the year 1671. In three more years "little
Sarah Tucker" was to put away childish things to become the bride of
Colonel William Fitzhugh, one of the wealthiest planters in the Neck.
And in two more years the laughter of young Jack Lee would be stilled
forever.
But in the springtime of 1671 there was probably no small cloud over
"Pickatown field," and the "banquetting house" was filled with happy
sound.
Here end all known records concerning the "banquetting house in
Pickatown field"--America's first country club, circa 1671.
_THE LAND AGENT_
Now, in the year 1670, something new had been added to the Northern
Neck--a land agent.
The grapevine must have been buzzing in those days--what is a land
agent?--a man who represents the proprietary--what is a proprietary,
anyway?--the people who have taken our land away from us--who is this
land agent?--Thomas Kirton, from England--what will he do?--make us pay
rent--rent our own land?--something like taxes--I won't do it--how can
he make us?--what right have they--
The Northern Neckers had probably not fully realized that they no longer
owned their own land until they came face to face with a land agent.
Thomas Kirton came to Virginia in 1670 and opened a land office in
Northumberland County. He was to be assisted by Edward Dale, a prominent
citizen of Lancaster.
Kirton came armed with credentials, a copy of the patent and power of
attorney for himself and Dale. He presented these documents to the
General Court at Jamestown, April 5, 1671. He was recognized and action
was prompt "... the said letters, patent being read in court ...,"
"obedience" and "submission" was given and recorded.
This complete acceptance of Kirton, and what he stood for, by the
Colonial Government was another shock to the settlers of the Northern
Neck. There had never been "anything to so move the grief and passion of
the people as uncertainty whether they were to make a country for the
King or for the Proprietors."
It had become a very real fact to the settlers now that they had
landlords over them. They had been accustomed to the utmost freedom and
independence and this was an almost unbearable blow.
A strange thing about the story of the proprietary is that the people
who lived within it had very little understanding as to what it was all
about. Most of them lived all of their lives without understanding the
terms of the proprietary. This was partly due to the fact that
everything was done in secret. Even the Colonial Government was kept in
the dark as to the various changes and renewals, while the proprietors
increased their authority over the domain of the Northern Neck.
Kirton's main duty was to collect quit-rents. The quit-rent was handed
down from the feudal system of medieval times. In simple terms--it was
the "bond between the lord and the land." The quit-rent was a monetary
payment to relieve the tenant of obligations, such as laboring for the
lord of a manor on a certain number of days a week, or paying him with a
portion of the produce.
Under the system of the quit-rent the tenant still had complete control
of his land although he did not own it. He was free to bequeath the land
to his heirs.
Kirton had little success in collecting quit-rents although they were
small, only two shillings per one hundred acres. The settlers had no
intention of paying anything to the proprietors unless they were
compelled to do so. As the years went on they acquiesced to a certain
degree, but the quit-rents were never willingly paid.
However the settlers did not object to patenting new lands. These could
be paid for in English coins, Spanish pieces of eight, or in tobacco, if
metallic money was not to be had.
Kirton was ousted from his office, in 1673, because for some time he had
failed to remit the quit-rents. Before this Kirton and Dale had
quarreled and Dale had ceased to act as an agent.
Thomas Kirton probably had few friends in the Northern Neck. The fact
that he married Anna, the widow of Dick Cole, tells quite a lot about
him. She was despised and feared by her neighbors because of her
slanderous tongue.
Kirton's home was in Westmoreland County, near the Northumberland
boundary. He probably remained in the Northern Neck, for in 1686 he
informed the Westmoreland court that its records were "somewhat delayed
and the transfers through time and carelessness were scarcely legible."
The court directed him to transcribe all the records in one book. For
this he was paid 2,000 pounds of tobacco and cask, if he finished the
work by 1688.
_HANNA AND THE HORSESHOE_
In early days the horseshoe was believed to have a magic potency. When
butter was slow in coming, a heated horseshoe was thrown into the churn.
A horseshoe was also believed to keep off witches. Doubtless most of the
early settlers of the Northern Neck had one nailed over the threshold.
An instance of the belief in the power of the horseshoe is found in the
seventeenth century records of Northumberland County. From three sworn
statements filed in that county, "April ye 11, 1671," let us reconstruct
the strange happenings that were reported.
The story starts on board a vessel at sea, bound home to the Northern
Neck from a trip to the Barbadoes. ("I Edw: Le Breton deposeth that
being aboard of our ship & Mr. Edward Cole talking then and there of
severall psons (persons) & among all ye rest of Mrs. Neall, Hanna
Rodham, daughter of Matthew Rodham, and wife of Christopher Neall.")
We can imagine Le Breton and Cole in their ship's cabin relaxing a bit
as they neared home--two mariners dressed in loose breeches and jerkins
of canvas or frieze, with their warm Monmouth caps and outer garments
swaying on the pegs where they hung and the swinging lanthorn casting
crazy shadows over all. Perhaps a bottle of the West Indies rum had
loosened the tongue of Edward Cole as he told of "a certyne time some
yeares past" when "there grew difference" between himself and the family
of Hanna Neall. "She then," continued Cole, "made a kind of prayer that
he nor none of his family never prosper and shortly after his people
fell sick & much of his cattle dyed."
When Edward Cole arrived home from the Barbadoes he found his wife ill
and the "suspition of Doctor S----, & others was that his wife was under
an ill tongue, & if it was soe he concluded yt (yet) it was Mrs. Neall
by reason of imprecations made by her & yt indeed he thought soe," and
"he did accuse Mrs. Neall of it alsoe."
Edward Cole was greatly troubled. If Hanna Neall could do this much, she
could do worse things. He was almost "beside himself" with fear and
worry when he remembered the horseshoe nailed over his threshold. It was
there to keep off witches. If he could induce Hanna Neall to cross over
the horseshoe he could find out once and for all if she was a woman or a
witch.
And so it came about that Edward Cole at "a certyne time sent for Mrs.
Neall to come to see his wife."
Witches are usually thought of as being old hags, but from portions of
these statements it seems that Hanna was not an ordinary witch. She was
at least a fairly young woman, and quite possibly an attractive one.
Records of early land patents show that she and her father were
landowners, which gave her certain social distinctions, and only a small
number of persons of the best condition had the designation of Mr. and
Mrs. prefixed to their names in the seventeenth century. The
Northumberland records prove that she was fearless, for she answered
Edward Cole's invitation by coming at once.
Did she live near enough to walk? Since individual landholdings were
large then we do not think that she lived close enough to walk. Did she
come riding on a pillion? Or did she come across the water in a barge
rowed by her servants? These are questions for speculation.
We can assume that she was dressed in the usual outdoor costume of women
of that time and place. In April the air is still sharp in the Northern
Neck of Virginia so she probably wore a linsey-woolsey gown of blue with
undersleeves of white kenting, a dark mantle of wool, a hood with a
bright lining turned back around her face, and a white muslin apron.
Perhaps she carried a basket with some delicacy for the sick woman--a
pair of quail shot by her husband and roasted by herself on the spit in
her fireplace.
What feelings of dread must Edward Cole have had as he watched the
approach of Hanna Neall! We can see him slowly opening the door and
standing far aside for her to enter.
We can picture Hanna, looking into the dark room where the candle in the
tin lanthorn threw shadows across the strained faces, and a pomander
ball gave off the sickening odors that were supposed to ward off
infection. And there in the dimness of the bed with its heavy hangings
lay the sick woman.
Was Hanna frightened when she looked into the face of her accuser? Was
she angry? Or did she pity him? In any case, when she trod on the
threshold, brushed the horseshoe with her skirts, and entered the
room--nothing happened.
Hanna crossed to the sick woman, knelt beside the bed and "shee prayed
so heartily for her" that Edward Cole believed in her sincerity.
It was in this way that Hanna Neall was saved from being banished from
the county, or from lashes at the whipping post, or from the ducking
"stoole" at Northumberland County court-house, down in Hull's Neck.
Saved by a horseshoe and a prayer!
And Edward Cole straightened matters out with the following statement:
"I, Edward Cole, doe acknowledge yt ye words which I did speake
concerning Mrs. Neall as tending to defame her with the
aspersion of being a witch, were passionately spoken.
"Edward Cole"
April ye 11, 1671
_MUSTER_
In the early days of the colony there was a unit of militia in each
county. The governor, who was in command, appointed for each unit a
colonel, lieutenant-colonel, and major, who had lesser officers under
them. Every freeman between the ages of sixteen and sixty was subject to
this military duty. Single troops and companies were mustered four times
a year, and once a year there was a general muster.
Everyone looked forward to the general muster--on that day all roads led
to the county seat. Some of the people came as far as they could by boat
and then walked the rest of the way. Others came in carts and on
horseback, with the women and girls riding pillion behind their
husbands, fathers or brothers. Small children were probably perched up
in front of the riders. All were dressed in their bravest clothes.
At the county seat there was excitement in the air--the British flags
were all flying, swords were glinting, and there was the sound of the
"brass Trumpetts w'th silver mouth pieces" and the roll of drums. There
were "Troopes of horse & Companies of Foot ... provided w'th Armes &
Ammunition" and with their "coullours" flying. The officers wore
handsome belts and "Bootes." The men carried "firelock musketts" and had
"Pistolls & Houlsters."
After the parades and drills were over the people mingled and enjoyed
being together. It was probably the second day before the crowd broke up
and the people started homeward. Liquor was no doubt flowing freely
among the men.
The citizens of Northumberland petitioned the House of Burgesses in
1696, "praying" that no musters should be allowed to take place on
Saturday, "as it led to the profamation of Sunday."
_THE STORE_
The store was one of the principal institutions in the colony in early
days. Every important planter kept a store somewhere on his plantation.
Sometimes it was in a room in the manor but usually it was in a detached
building. Storehouses were small, often not more than sixteen by
eighteen feet.
The contents of these stores included nearly every article used by
Virginians. A plantation store of 1667, with contents valued at six
hundred fourteen pounds sterling, carried merchandise such as: materials
of all kinds, carpenters' tools, bellows, sickles, locks, nails,
staples, cooking utensils, flesh forks, shovels and tongs, medicines,
wool cards, compasses, needles, stirrups, looking-glasses, candlesticks,
candles, raisins, brandy, wine, and many other items.
Most of the manufactured articles came from England. To be very salable
merchandise had to bear an English label.
_THE WOLF-DRIVE_
For a century after the first settlers came to the Northern Neck the
forest was still alive with wolves. In the evenings they could be heard
hunting and they sounded "like a pack of beagles."
These wolves were small, not much larger than a fox, but so ravenous
that if a traveler was forced to spend the night in the woods he could
hardly keep his horse from being devoured even though tied close to him
and to the light of the fire.
The scattered sheepfolds and grazing pastures had to be guarded. Wolves
were such a nuisance to the planters that authorities sought ways to
destroy them. Rewards were offered for any person killing a wolf
"provided the said wolf shall not be so young that it is not of age to
do mischief."
The planters caught the wolves in various ways--in wolf-pits, log-pens
and log-traps. Several mackerel hooks were fastened together and then
dipped in melted tallow which hardened and concealed them. These were
fastened to a chain so that after the wolf had swallowed the hooks he
could not wander away in the forest and his head be lost for bounty.
In 1674, John Mottrom, II of Coan was rewarded with fourteen hundred
pounds of tobacco for "killing seven wolves in a pitt." The settlers
often paid their public dues in the skins of wolves.
As late as 1691 the county court of Northumberland made public
arrangements for an annual wolf-drive. The wolves were hunted on
horseback with dogs, very much in the manner of fox-hunting. Early
writers state that it was possible while going at full speed to run down
a wolf.
The wolf-drive was somewhat like the old English "drift of the forest,"
where a ring of men and boys with guns surrounded a large tract of
woods. The wolves scenting them would retreat to the center of the
circle, where the hunters would close in on them. Many were killed in
this way. "Wolf-driving" was considered great sport.
Wolf-Trap Light, in Chesapeake Bay, is said to have been named because
ashore near there was a famous place for catching the last of the
wolves.
_THE INDIANS AND ROBERT HEN_
In the year 1675, strange things were happening in the Northern Neck.
Thomas Matthews, a planter, whose "dwelling was in Northumberland, the
lowest county on Potomack River," recorded these strange events--there
"appear'd three prodigies in that country, which from attending
disasters were look'd upon as ominous presages.
"The one was a large comet every evening for a week, or more at
Southwest; thirty-five degrees high streaming like a horse taile
westwards, until it reach'd (almost) the horizon, and setting toward the
North-west.
"Another was, fflights of pigeons in breadth nigh a quarter of the
mid-hemisphere, and of their length was no visible end; whose weights
brake down the limbs of large trees whereon these rested at nights, of
which the ffowlers shot abundance and eat 'em; this sight put the old
planters under the more portentous apprehensions, because the like was
seen, (as they said), in the year 1644 when th' Indians committed the
last massacre, ...
"The third strange appearance was swarms of fflyes about an inch long,
and big as the top of a man's little finger, rising out of spigot holes
in the earth, which eat the new sprouted leaves from the tops of the
trees without doing other harm, and in a month left us." (This insect
was the seventeen-year locust.)
The events which followed these strange occurrences not only justified
the apprehensions of the old planters but also changed the course of
history in the New World.
Thomas Matthews, of Cherry Point in Northumberland, also had a
plantation, servants and cattle in Stafford County. His over-seer there
had bargained with an Englishman, Robert Hen, to come "thither" and be
herdsman of the Stafford flocks.
Robert Hen arrived in due course of time and made his habitation on the
Stafford plantation.
On a Sunday morning in the summer of 1675, people on their way to church
found Hen lying across his threshold, and an Indian lying in the
dooryard--"both chopt on their heads, arms and other parts, as if done
with Indian hatchetts, th' Indian was dead, but Hen when asked who did
that? answered Doegs, Doegs, and soon died, and then a boy who came out
from under a bed where he had hid himself, told them, Indians had come
at break of day and done those murders."
"Ffrom this Englishman's bloud," wrote Matthews, "did (by degrees) arise
Bacon's rebellion."
Matthews continues: "Of this horrid action Coll: Mason who commanded the
militia regiment of ffoot & Capt. Brent[6] the troop of horse in that
county ... having speedy notice raised 30, or more men, & pursu'd those
Indians 20 miles up & 4 miles over that river into Maryland, where
landing at dawn of day, they found two small paths ... each leader with
his party took a separate path and in less than a furlong either found a
cabin, which they (silently) surrounded. Capt. Brent went to the Doegs
cabin (as it proved to be) who speaking the Indian tongue called to have
a council ... such being the usual manner with Indians ... the king came
trembling forth, and would have fled, when Capt. Brent, catching hold of
his twisted lock (which was all the hair he wore) told him he was come
for the murder of Rob't Hen, the king pleaded ignorance and slipt loos,
whom Brent shot dead with his pistoll, th' Indians shot two or three
guns out of the cabin, th' English shot into it, th' Indians throng'd
out at the door and fled, the English shot as many as they could so that
they killed ten ... and brought away the kings son of about 8 years
old ... the noise of the shooting awaken'd the Indians in the cabin,
which Coll: Mason had encompassed, who likewise rush'd out and fled, of
whom his company (supposing from that noise of shooting Brent's party to
be engaged) shot fourteen before an Indian came, who with both hands
shook him (friendly) by one arm saying Susquehanoughs netoughs, meaning
Susquehanoughs friends and fled. Whereupon Col: Mason ran amongst his
men crying out for the Lords sake shoot no more, these are our friends
the Susquehanoughs."
[Footnote 6: This was the second Giles Brent, who was half-Indian.]
This attack upon the friendly Susquehannocks was a very unfortunate and
costly mistake. The incensed Indians took to the warpath and murders
were committed in both Virginia and Maryland. A body of Virginia militia
under the command of Colonel John Washington, Colonel George Mason and
Major Allerton, all of the Northern Neck, crossed the Potomac after the
Indians.
This warfare ended, after much bloodshed, with Bacon in command. The
allied Indians were defeated and the once friendly Susquehannocks were
anihilated. And it was in this way, with an army at his command, that
Bacon established his power and became strong enough to fight Governor
Berkeley.
Thus it was, according to Thomas Matthews, that Bacon's Rebellion
started with the murder of Robert Hen in the Northern Neck.
_THE ROYAL CAVALCADE_
When Robert Carter of Corotoman, Lancaster County, dressed on Sunday
mornings he had a choice of several dress swords and of several belts to
hold them--there was the silken belt, the buff, and the one of tan
leather which was both "genteel and strong." His coat was of velvet with
lace choker and cuffs, and his satin shorts were fastened at the knees
with silver buckles to match those on his shoes.
If he looked in the mirror, as a servant adjusted his wig, he saw a
strong man of medium height with a plump clean-shaven face and dark eyes
that observed everything but saw no humour in anything.
When Carter and his lady, equally as splendid, stepped outside their
mansion, a coach was a-waiting them, with liveried servants to help them
inside. The coach was a heavy, four-wheeled, enclosed vehicle with two
seats facing each other, and it carried four or more passengers. Most
likely it was painted in shades of yellow and green, or a subdued red,
with the family crest or coat of arms painted on the doors.
[Illustration: _"King" Carter attends Christ Church._]
The six matched horses which drew the coach were being held in check by
the driver and the outriders. A chaise may have been waiting behind the
coach for the older daughters and guests. The sons of the house, if they
were old enough, were mounted and attended by servants on horseback, one
for each gentleman. Other mounted servants with led horses may have
brought up the rear, but it is doubtful, as the distance to be traveled
was only three miles.
There must have been a great rumbling of wheels, creaking of saddle
leather and clatter of hoofs when the cavalcade swung onto the road
which led from Corotoman to Christ Church. The master had built the road
high, drained by deep ditches, and bordered on both sides by closely set
cedars. It was like a long formal alley.
When the churchyard came into view people could be seen waiting there.
The procession came to a halt with noise and "a great to-do." The family
alighted and the master led the way. At the church door he halted and
drew a key from his vest pocket with which he unlocked the door. It was
customary for gentlemen to remove their swords at the church door and
place them in a rack provided for the purpose, but whether or not the
head of the Carter family did so is not known.
The Carters entered the church and proceeded to their high boxed pews,
where curtains on gilt rods screened them from the gaze of the
congregation.
According to tradition, this bit of pageantry was put on by Robert
(King) Carter every Sabbath, and the congregation, it was said, waited
rain or shine in the churchyard until he came to unlock the door. If he
chose to take a Sunday off, services were held in the churchyard, it was
said.
Though it was the custom for the rector to sign the vestry minute book
first and then the members in order of their rank, in Christ Church the
Carters always signed first, tradition says.
King Carter was a vestryman at Christ Church. He wanted his children to
belong to the Established Church--"As I am of the Church of England way
so I desire they should be."
The first Christ Church had been built by John Carter, the immigrant, in
1669. The second Christ Church was built on the same site by King Carter
in 1732.
_THE KING OF THE NORTHERN NECK_
Robert Carter was born to be a king among men. His fellow countrymen
called him "King" and his real name was eventually forgotten. Like King
Midas, everything that King Carter touched turned to gold, but in the
case of the latter there was no magic in it--he planned it that way and
worked to make his plans succeed.
Robert Carter was the second son of John, the immigrant and Indian
fighter. His mother was Sarah Ludlow Carter, his father's fourth wife.
Robert Carter was born in 1663, at his father's plantation, Corotoman,
in Lancaster County. The foundation had already been laid there for his
future success. The immigrant Carter had done well. His plantation was
orderly and successful and he had accumulated considerable wealth.
John Carter died when Robert was six years old, and the elder son
inherited the bulk of the estate, as was the custom then according to
the law of primogeniture and entail.
But John Carter did not forget Robert. He left instructions that his
younger son should be well educated, specifying that "during his
minority" he should have a man or youth servant bought for him. This
servant was "not only to teach him his books ... but also to preserve
him from harm and evil." He further specified that his son should learn
both Latin and English. These instructions were followed and Robert's
education was completed in England.
The elder brother soon died, without male heir, and the whole estate
reverted to Robert. It was now up to him to carry on the family
traditions.
Corotoman, a bee-hive of activity, was typical of the plantations of
that day. It was like a village, which was dominated by the manor house.
There were the cottages of the white indentured servants, the slaves'
quarters, the barn and farm buildings, the spinning-house, the
laundry-house, the milk-house. There were the shops of the artisans who
manufactured and repaired the articles used on the plantation. There was
a shop where boats were built. Corotoman had everything that it needed
to make it a self-sustaining unit.
To the sloop-landing, near the mouth of Carter's Creek, ships came
directly from foreign ports with cargoes of clothing, furniture and
luxuries for the manor, and shoes and other necessities for the white
serfs and negro slaves. These vessels went away loaded with tobacco and
grain.
Robert Carter was aware of everything that went on at Corotoman and on
his other plantations, not the smallest detail escaped him. He knew when
a slave's shoes didn't fit, or when a servant's child needed medical
attention. When his sons were in school in England he followed their
progress by remote control and never let them forget that he was holding
the purse-strings--"Mind your book," he wrote his son, Landon. He wanted
them to have a classical education, a thorough understanding of Latin
and English. He also wanted them to have religious training.
Robert Carter was a politician as well as a planter. He held every high
office in the county and colony, and even acted as governor for more
than a year.
But most of all, the land fascinated Robert Carter. He loved the rich
virgin soil that would grow tobacco. It was the same thing as growing
money. But in about three years time tobacco had worn out the soil and
new fields must always be on tap in this tobacco game.
Carter's big opportunity came in 1702 when he was appointed as a land
agent of the Northern Neck proprietary. He set up a land office at
Corotoman and began to acquire lands for himself as well as for others.
He had accumulated 20,000 acres by 1711, at which time he lost the
agency to Thomas Lee, of Westmoreland.
In 1719 Carter regained the agency and again became the representative
of the Fairfax interests in the Northern Neck. In 1726 he took an even
bolder step by leasing the entire Northern Neck from the proprietor for
a fixed rental of 450 pounds a year. Now he had the income from the
quit-rents for the entire region.
When King Carter died in 1732, he owned 330,000 acres of land, a
thousand slaves and 10,000 pounds sterling. The latter fact was
remarkable because there was such a small amount of metallic money in
the colony. He also left more than a hundred head of horses, over two
thousand cattle and swine and several hundred sheep. These slaves and
stock were scattered over his various plantations. His estate also
included indentured servants, ships and nautical equipment, crops,
farming equipment, cabins and mansions, furnishings, personal effects
and a library of 521 volumes.
King Carter had done well for himself, and well for the proprietor. He
had also opened up the back lands of the Northern Neck to settlers,
which automatically forced the Indians back.
King Carter was a builder. He had a large brick kiln at Corotoman, which
doubtless furnished the bricks for some of his homes and the church. He
built a breakwater at Corotoman to save the waterfront from being washed
away by tide and storm. It was made of huge rocks, probably brought as
ballast in some of the ships. He dug a well at Corotoman and had it
lined with stone. It was a far-cry from the early settlers' "spring near
the door."
King Carter built a road from Corotoman to Lease-Land (Fredericksburg),
a distance of almost a hundred miles. It was known as the King's
Highway.
In everything that King Carter did he looked ahead. He was building for
the future generations of his family. When he died he was the richest
and most powerful man in Virginia. His given name had long since been
forgotten. He was known to everyone in the Northern Neck as King Carter.
He was laid to rest in the yard of Christ Church.
_KITH AND KIN_
There used to be an old saying--"everybody in the Northern Neck is kith
and kin." This was almost a fact.
It all came about because in the early days the families of wealth and
ability assumed leadership locally and in the Colonial Government. It
was the custom of these families to intermarry in order to keep the
power of wealth and influence within their own circle.
By the end of the eighteenth century it was hardly possible to find a
prominent Northern Necker who was not "kin" to some other outstanding
Virginian. This rigid rule of "keeping up the bars," as they called it,
resulted in an aristocracy similar in many ways to the nobility of the
Old World. This system accounts for the high political intelligence for
which Tidewater Virginia was noted.
The marriages of King Carter's children illustrate this characteristic
of colonial life in the Northern Neck, and in Virginia. King Carter
married only twice but he had twelve children.
By his first wife, Judith Armistead, King Carter had four children,
John, Elizabeth, Judith and Anne.
Judith died in 1699, and he married Elizabeth Landon Willis, a widow and
daughter of Thomas Landon of England. She died in 1719. The best known
of her eight children are Robert, Charles, Landon, Mary and Lucy.
Elizabeth, the eldest daughter, was married to Nathaniel Burwell. King
Carter gave her Carter's Grove. After Burwell died she married George
Nicholas. Judith married Mann Page of Rosewell, in Gloucester County.
Anne married Benjamin Harrison of Berkeley, on the James.
Mary married George Braxton of Newington, in King and Queen County. Lucy
married Colonel Henry Fitzhugh of Eagle's Nest, in Stafford County, on
the Potomac.
John became a barrister in the Middle Temple, London, and married
Elizabeth Hill of Shirley, on the James. Robert settled on the
plantation of Nomini, on the Potomac. He married Priscilla, the daughter
of William Churchill, a member of the Council.
Charles married three times--Mary Walker, Anne, daughter of William Byrd
of Westover, and Lucy Taliaferro. His home was Cleve on the
Rappahannock.
Landon's home was Sabine Hall, on the Rappahannock. He married three
times--an Armistead of Hesse, a Byrd of Westover and a Wormeley of
Rosegill.
King Carter's direct descendants include: a signer of the Declaration of
Independence (Carter Braxton), two Presidents of the United States (the
Harrisons), and General Robert E. Lee.
Thus King Carter's children were well established. These Carters and the
heads of other top-ranking families were sometimes known in the Northern
Neck as the "river barons."
_THE FIELDINGS_
Ambrose Fielding was a justice of the peace for Northumberland County in
1670.
Ambrose's son, Edward, came to Virginia from England, about 1687-88, to
take up his inheritance of three hundred twenty-five acres left him by
his father in 1675. His Northern Neck holdings were increased in 1695 by
the will of his "Uncle Edward" Fielding, a great merchant of Bristol,
England, who left him "500 acres at Wiccomocco in the County of
Northumberland, in the Country of Virginia beyond the seas." In the same
year Edward, by grant from Lady Culpeper and Lord Fairfax, acquired four
hundred twenty-five more acres on "Wicocomoco river ... near ye Mill Dam
of ye sd. Fielding, of Lee parish."
Edward owned a snuff box, marked with his initials, "E.F.," and the date
"1716." The portrait of a young woman was painted on the lid. It is
believed to have been his wife, or his daughter Sarah. The girl in the
picture wears a dress of satin, with white skirt, green stomacher and
plain colored bodice; the head-dress, which is like a scarf or loose
hood, is of white and green, and the flower held in her hand is blue, as
are the velvet cushions of the chair.
Edward's oldest son was born in 1689. Edward named him for his father,
Ambrose.
When Ambrose was about twenty-one years old he married the daughter of a
"chirugeon," Mark Attkins. After their marriage Ambrose and Catherine
moved to Lancaster County and settled on a plantation known as Broad
Neck Quarter.
The house of Ambrose Fielding II, was built like a small fort in the
wilderness, probably for defense against Indians. It was built of brick
with loop-holes in the walls. A brick wall surrounded the house, and it
too was pierced with loop-holes.
This house is said to have been located near the seat of the Carters at
Corotoman. This statement seems to have been borne out by the will of
King Carter, 1728, in which he mentions a "Fielding's Place." In 1749
the King's grandson, Robert Carter III, of Nomini Hall, owned about two
thousand acres in a tract in Northumberland called Fielding's Quarter.
_PIRATES_
In the time of King Carter of Corotoman, the Chesapeake was alive with
pirates. He wrote that they were "very bold and roguish ... miserable
case, the Crown takes no more care of so vast a fleet of ships as uses
this bay."
The pirates reaped a rich harvest from the unprotected ships that
traveled to and from foreign ports. In one year four ships bound back to
Virginia from England had been sunk.
There were three types of pirates--the "bloody pirate," who was simply a
robber on the high seas; the privateers, who commanded armed private
vessels commissioned to cruise against the commerce or war vessels of
the enemy; and buccaneers, who were freeholders who preyed upon Spanish
as well as American vessels and settlements.
With its many bays and rivers the coastline of Tidewater Virginia was
hard to defend. Pirates could swoop down in their fast boats and rob
vessels and plunder the plantations along the shore. It was easy to make
a landing in the lower counties of the Neck where the land was low and
there were wharves at the plantations.
In 1699, Captain Kidd, who tradition says wore a gold chain around his
neck and picked his teeth with a toothpick of gold, entered the
Chesapeake in his vessel _Alexander_. The militia of the maritime
counties was called out but Captain Kidd, after plundering several
ships, sailed away.
Louis Guittar entered the Bay in 1700 and plundered and destroyed five
vessels while there. At some time during this period, a ship-load of
pirates reached the waters of the upper Chesapeake, where they captured
a large sloop. They anchored that evening not far from shore and,
tradition says, "the pirates were heard beating their drums all night
long."
The pirate, George Lowther, entered the Bay in 1722. Roger Makeele was
another Bay pirate. He and his gang of thirteen men and four women
preyed on small craft in the Bay channels. After a successful venture
they celebrated by "drinking and feasting with Rumm or Brandy, mutton,
Turkey &C." This gang was captured and brought to trial by the Governor
of Virginia.
The Virginia government used several methods of defense: look-outs,
militia, forts and guard-ships. There was a fort with twenty-four guns
and one hundred fifty "available shot" at Corotoman, on the
Rappahannock. At Yeocomico, on the Potomac, there was a fort with six
guns. Since almost no maintenance was given to the forts in Virginia
they were in a dilapidated condition by 1691. The guns were "spoiled in
the sand with the water flowing over them at high tide." This form of
defense proved to be ineffective. The colony had already turned to
guard-ships as a means of protection.
These guard-ships were used to convoy merchant vessels to their
destination, or to a safe "riding place." The designated "riding place"
on the Rappahannock was above the fort at Corotoman. On the Wicomico and
on the Potomac the "riding places" were "as high as they can go."
One of these guard-ships, _H.M.S. Deptford_, a ketch, under command of
Captain Thomas Berry, was upset in a squall in the Potomac. Captain
Berry, who was ill at the time, was drowned along with eight members of
his crew.
In 1726, Joseph Parsons, mate of the ship _Tayloe_ of Bristol, was tried
in the court of Richmond County and convicted of piracy and the murder
of Captain John Heard of the _Tayloe_. Parsons was sent to the "gaol" at
Williamsburg. The Council in Williamsburg re-examined the case and
discharged Parsons because of lack of sufficient evidence. The silver
plate and other articles found in the possession of the crew were held
by the authorities until the rightful owners could claim them. The crew
said that they had taken the property from the _Tayloe_ "for sustinance
while journeying through the colony."
After Blackbeard was captured by Maynard, in 1718, piracy in the
Tidewater declined. The last pirate reported in the Chesapeake was in
1807. Tales of pirates, piracy and buried treasure were told in the
region for many years.
_CHRISTMAS AT COLONEL FITZHUGH'S_
An account of a Christmas spent at Bedford plantation in the Northern
Neck was written by Monsieur Durand, a Frenchman, who was journeying
through Virginia in the holiday season of the year 1686. He wrote:
"We were now approaching the Christmas Festival.... It was agreed that
all should go to spend the night with Colonel Fitzhugh, whose house is
on the shore of the great river Potomac....
"By the time we reached Col. Fitzhugh's we made up a troop of 20 horse.
"The Colonel's accomodations were, however, so ample that this company
gave him no trouble at all; we were all supplied with beds, though we
had to double up. Col Fitzhugh showed us the largest hospitality. He had
store of good wine and other things to drink, and a frolic ensued.
"He called in three fiddlers, a clown, a tight-rope dancer and an
acrobatic tumbler, and gave us all the divertisement one would wish. It
was very cold but no one thought of going near the fire because they
never put less than the trunk of a tree upon it and so the entire room
was kept warm."
William Fitzhugh, the owner of Bedford, came to Virginia in 1670. He
secured a grant of land in the upper Neck, in what later became King
George County. He married "little Sarah Tucker" of Tucker Hill when she
was only eleven years old, and then sent her to England to be educated.
Sarah and William reared a family of five sons. Colonel Fitzhugh became
one of the largest landowners in the Northern Neck. At the time of his
death in 1701 he owned 54,054 acres of land.
_INDIAN VISITORS_
When the French Huguenot, Monsieur Durand, was in Stafford County in
1686 he described the Indians who lived along the Rappahannock River as
follows:
"As we were about to take horse all those savages, men, women & little
children, came to return our visit. Those who had been able to procure
jerkins from the Christians were wearing them, as also the women who
wore some kind of petticoats, others wore some pieces of shabby cloth
from which were made the blankets they had traded on some ships in
exchange for deer skins. They had a hole in the center to put their
heads through & fastened it around their body with deer-thongs. The
women were wearing theirs as a mantilla, like the Egyptian women in
Europe, & their children were entirely naked. They had taken to adorn
themselves some kind of pure white fishbones, slipping a strand of hair
through a bone, & so on all around their head. They also wore necklaces
& bracelets of small grains which are found in the country."
_HORSE RACING_
Horse racing was the most popular form of amusement in Virginia in the
seventeenth century. The lower counties of the Northern Neck were the
center of horse racing in the colony at that time.
These races had many spectators, including women, but only gentlemen
could participate. Racing was considered "a sport for gentlemen alone,"
and records show that if one not of that class presumed to enter his
horse in a race he was heavily fined.
The races were taken seriously and conducted with fairness, even if it
might be necessary to be assisted to this end by the courts. There are
many records of contested decisions decided by jury.
Saturday was the customary day for the races. These occasions when a
crowd was gathered together were used by the public authorities for
making announcements to the people.
In 1696 citizens of Northumberland complained to the House of Burgesses
that the races on Saturday often caused the Sabbath to be profaned. The
races may have been carried over into Sunday, or they may have ended in
drinking and fighting bouts which continued on that day.
There were three racing tracks in the lower Neck: Coan Race Course,
Willoughby's Old Field, located in Richmond County, and a third course
at Yeocomico. Of these the principal and the most popular was the Coan
track. These race-tracks were kept in good condition. Early race-courses
were not always oval. Some were over "race paths." The "quarter race"
was the outcome of this--where two horses ran a straight quarter of a
mile. The stretch was sometimes a quarter and a half-quarter of a mile.
Smoker, owned by Mr. Joseph Humphrey, was one of the most famous
race-horses in the colony. He was later owned by Captain Rodham Kenner,
who was High Sheriff of Northumberland. Prince, owned by Captain John
Haynie, II, was another noted race-horse. In 1695 Smoker was run in a
race against Prince on Coan Race Course. The stake was four thousand
pounds of tobacco and forty shillings. The race was won by Smoker.
Betting was part of the pleasure of the races. The stakes ran high--they
were usually made up of a large amount of tobacco with a small addition
of metallic coin.
Another horse celebrated in the region was Young Fire, owned by John
Gardiner. This horse was snow-white in color. Captain John Hartley owned
a horse called Campbell. Folly was a mare owned by Mr. Peter Contanceau.
The owners were sensitive as to the reputations of their horses and
would go to great lengths to preserve them.
Other Northern Neck turfmen mentioned in seventeenth century records
were: Mr. Yewell of Westmoreland, John Hartridge, Daniel Sullivant, Mr.
Raleigh Travers, Mr. John Clemens, Captain William Barber and John
Washington.
_MANUFACTURE_
Early attempts at manufacture were begun in Virginia. The Assembly
estimated that five children not over thirteen years of age could spin
and weave enough to keep thirty persons clothed. In 1646 it was ordered
that two houses be erected in Jamestown for spinning-schools.
These "Flax-Houses," as they were called in some records, were to be
"one-storey, measuring eight feet from floor to ceiling, with a loft of
sawn boards above." A "stack" of brick chimneys were to stand in the
middle of each house, and suitable partitions were to be made.
Each county was to send to these schools two "poor children," about
seven or eight years old, who were to work at carding, knitting and
spinning. For their maintenance the county authorities were to supply
each of their children when they were admitted with: "6 barrels of
Indian corn, a pig, 2 hens, clothing, shoes, a bed, rug, blanket, 2
coverlets, a wooden tray, and 2 pewter dishes or cups."
This plan was not very successful and it probably failed before the
counties of the Northern Neck had advanced far enough to send children
to the spinning-schools.
To encourage manufacture in early Virginia, prizes in tobacco were given
for every pound of flax raised, for every skein of yarn, and for every
yard of linen produced.
In 1697, Tobias Hall of Lancaster County, claimed the reward for the
production of linen. Inventories of Lancaster disclose woolen-wheels and
wool cards. A loom was owned by Charles Kelly. Flannel, and even
blankets, were manufactured on these looms.
Between 1660 and 1702 there were at least two tailors in Lancaster
County. Daniel Harrison, of the same county, must have manufactured
quite a lot of shoes, for the time and place. He employed three
shoemakers, and his personal estate included: "122 sides of leather, 72
pairs of shoes, 37 awls, 26 paring knives, 12 dozen lasts and numerous
curriers' and tanners' tools."
A reward of fifty pounds of tobacco was offered for any sea-going vessel
built in Virginia. There was no lack of Virginia-built small vessels,
such as barges, shallops and sloops.
Rural life was not favorable to manufacture, although each plantation
manufactured those articles necessary to its needs. William Fitzhugh, a
wealthy landowner of the upper Neck, wrote to his London agent in 1692
and requested him to send to his plantations several shoemakers, "with
lasts, awls and knives, together with half a hundred shoemaker's thread,
some 20 or 30 gallons of train oil and proper colorings for leather." He
had set up a tan-house and wished to convert the product into shoes on
his own plantation.
Later on, in the eighteenth century, Robert Carter of Nomini Hall, a
grandson of King Carter, manufactured on quite a large scale.
_THE POTOMAC RANGERS_
The Potomac rangers were appointed by the governor for frontier duty.
The county lieutenant, in command of the county militia, was given the
power to impress men who lived in the region for this service.
The outfit was composed of a commander and eleven men with horses, arms,
and necessary equipment. The Rangers had orders from the Jamestown
government to "seize any Indian or Indians whatsoever," and have him, or
them, put in jail to remain there until "delivered by due process of
law."
Indians were not the only public enemies in the frontier country. In
1698, the gentlemen of Stafford sent a letter of "grievances" to
Jamestown asking that the "bloody villain, Squire Tom, a convict upon
record," be demanded from the "Emperor of Piscataway," who was then
protecting him from punishment.
The activities of the Potomac Rangers are described in a quaint journal
kept by one of the Rangers in 1692:
"A Journiall of our Ranging. Given by me, David Strahan, Lieutenant of
ye Rangers of Pottomack. June the 17th; We ranged over Ackoquane, and so
we Ranged Round persi-Neck and ther we lay that night. And on ye 18th
came to Pohike, and ther we heard that Capt. Mason's Servt-man was
missing. Then we went to see if we could find him, and we followed his
foot abut a mile, to a house that is deserted, and we took ye tract of a
great many Indians and we followed it about 10 miles, and having no
provisions we was forced to return. June 26th: We Ranged up to Jonathan
Matthews hs. along with Capt. Masone, and ther we met with Capt.
Houseley, and we sent over for the Emperor, but he would not come, and
we went over to ye towne, and they held a Masocomacko and ordered 20 of
their Indians to goe after ye Indians that carried away Capt. Masone's
man, and so we returned. July the 3d ... July 11th; We ranged up to
Brenttowne and ther we lay.... The 19th we ranged up to Ackotink, and
discovered nothing.... So we Ranged once in ye Neck till ye 20th
Sept^{br}, then we mercht to Capt. Masone's and ther we met with Capt.
Houseley and his men; so we draved out 12 of our best horses, and so we
ranged up Ackotink and ther we lay that night. Sept 22^d ... Sept. 23^d
We marcht to the Suggar Land[7].... And the 24th we Ranged about to see
if we could find ye tract of any Indians, but we could not see any fresh
signe ...; the 26th marcht to Capt. Masone's, and ther dismissed my men
till ye next March."
[Footnote 7: Suggar Land was named for the sugar maple trees that at
that time grew in the region of what was later Fairfax and Loudoun
counties.]