Northumberland County and the Northern Neck of Virginia

Northumberland County, originally called Chickcoun, adjoining Lancaster on the Chesapeake Bay. It originally comprised the whole "Neck of land between Rappahannock `and Potomac Rivers."

The date when this county was formed is in doubt; it certainly contained the first settlement or the whites north of Rappahannock River, within all the territory subsequently named "The Northern Neck of Virginia. "At what date the first settlement was made there is not known. By an Act of Assembly in June, 1642, it was felony to settle outside of certain limits without permission of the governor and council. It provided "That the Rappahannock River should remain unseated for divers reasons therein contained, notwithstanding it should and might be lawful for all persons to assume grants for lands there, "etc. A similar act to that of June, 1642 was passed in 1647, but in October, 1648, it was reviation of Secacaconies, an Indian tribe once located on that stream. The first public official announcement of the name of Northumberland occurs in the 9th Act of Assembly, February, 1644-5, providing for the erection of three forts, viz.: one at "Pamunkey "(Nest Point), named Fort Royal, one at the "Falls of James River" (Richmond), named Fort Charles, and the third on the ridge at "Chicquohominie '' (near Bottoms Bridge), named Fort James, as follows: And be it explained and confirmed by the authorities that the associating counties on the south side of the river are hereby to contribute towards the maintenance of the (Indian) War on that side, without any expectation of any contribution from the north side, and so likewise on the north side by themselves including Northampton and Northumberland. "From the above one would conclude it had been made a county at, or prior to 1644, but the writers of the early period, except Hening, were content with their own knowledge that Northumberland was but a "Plantation "in 1644-45. The earliest court records now in the clerk's office of that county are dated 1652. Some of the court records were burned many years ago, therefore it is not known what dates the records bore which were destroyed. The old books are bound with oak board backs, covered with heavy leather. They contain much of interest in the matter of curious wills, and surprising items relating to the sentences imposed by the courts for offenses (stated in the plainest words of the English language), which under the present day ruling of the courts would meet with less rigorous punishment.

The original "Northern Neck of Virginia" distinguishes this peninsula as being once the seat of the largest individual land holdings ever in America. In 1661, Charles II, of England made a grant of land in America to Lord Hopton and others, which included: "All that entire tract, territory and parcel of land, lying and being in America, and bounded by and within the headwaters of the rivers Tappahannock alias Rappahannock, and Quiriough alias Potomac rivers, the course of the said rivers as they are commonly called and known by the inhabitants, and description of their parts and Chesapeake Bay." This was sold by the original patentees to Lord Culpeper in 1683, and later was confirmed to him by letters patent in the fourth year of the reign of James II, of England. The elder-Thomas 5th-Lord Fairfax, married the only daughter of Lord Culpeper. These lands descended to the son by this marriage-Lord Thomas Fairfax, Sixth Baron of Cambridge. He came to Virginia in 1739 to look after thin estate. This immense tract included the territory now comprising the counties of Lancaster, Northumberland, Richmond Westmoreland, Prince George, Stafford, Prince William, Fauquier, Fairfax, Loudon, Culpeper, Clarke, Madison, Page, Shenandoah and Frederick, in the present limits of the State of Virginia, and Hardy, Hampshire, Morgan, Berkeley and Jefferson now within the State of West Virginia; the whole estate comprising nearly 6,000,000 acres. On a petition of Lord Fairfax, the King appointed a " Commission " for running out and marking the limits of his patent. The three Commissioners for the Crown were Colonel William Byrd, of Westover, John Robinson, and John Grymes. Lord Fairfax appointed William Fairfax, William Beverley and Charles Career. In 1746 an expedition of forty gentlemen, amongst whom were Beverley, Lomax, Lewis, Lightfoot, Hedginan, Peter Jefferson, and young George Washington, started from Fredericksburg to survey and define the boundaries of " The Northern Neck of Virginia." This expedition laid the " Fairfax Stone" at the head spring of the Potomac. Lord Fairfax opened an office in the county-Fairfax-which was named in his honor. There he granted out his lands until a few years thereafter when he removed to Frederick County, and settled at a place he called " Greenway Court," twelve or fourteen miles southeast of Winchester, where he led a sort of hermit life, and kept his office during the remainder of his life. He died December 12, 1781, soon after hearing of the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. It is said that as soon as he learned of the capture of Cornwallis and his army, he called his servant to assist him to bed, observing: " It is time for me to die," and he never again left his bed until he was consigned to his tomb. His body was deposited under the Communion table in the then Episcopal church in Winchester.

The lands were granted by Fairfax in fee simple to his tenants, subject to an annual rent of two shillings sterling 'per hundred acres, added to which he required the payment of ten shillings sterling on each fifty acres, which he termed "composition money," and which was to be paid upon the issuing of the grant. In 1785 the legislature of Virginia passed an Act, in which among other provisions, in relation to the Northern Neck, is the following: "And be it further enacted, that the land owners within the said district of the Northern Neck shall be forever hereafter exonerated and discharged from composition and quitrents, any law, custom or usage, to the contrary notwithstanding:"

Source: Life in Old Virginia, By James J. McDonald, Published by the Old Virginia Publishing Company, Inc., Norfolk, Va., 1907
 

John Mottrom is believed to have been the first to leave Maryland, sail the Potomac, and settle at the mouth of the Coan River. Other Kent Islanders, and Protestants and Royalists disenchanted with Catholic Maryland, came too, and for a few years the growing settlement at Coan prospered in peace. By 1646-47, when Mottrom represented Northumberland in the Virginia General Assembly, a tax had been levied on the new settlement, one of fifteen pounds of tobacco for every hundred acres and every cow over three years of age. In 1648 (even then, there could be no taxation without representation) the Chickacoan area and much, much more territory was officially designated the county of Northumberland, with the power to elect burgesses. William Presly of Northumberland House on Cod's Creek became the Northern Neck's first burgess.

Source: books by Miriam Haynie (The Stronghold) and John C. Wilson (Virginia's Northern Neck, a pictorial history). Other parts of the following are written by the author, David Dammer.