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COLCHESTER Colonial Port on the Potomac
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Front Cover: Tobacco Warehouse Activities: An Engraving from Tatham, An Historical and Practical Essay on the Culture and Commerce of Tobacco, 1800. The border is composed of tobacco marks which were applied with a branding iron on hogsheads to identify each planter. Reading clockwise starting at the upper left hand corner, the marks belonged to: Captain William Bronaugh, James Buckley, Dempsey Carroll, Jr., Edward Bland, Benjamin Hutchison, James Doyle, Samuel Conner, William Hardy, Jeremiah Hutchison, William Kincheloe, William King, Marcellus Littlejohn, William Triplett, James Turley, Sr., Mrs. Jean Turley, Paul Turley, Sampson Turley, James Halley, Sr., Benjamin Grayson, John Gist, Thomas Love, Daniel McCarty, William Moon, Joseph Yatman, and William Pinkstone.
Transcribed by Beth Mitchell from the Glassford & Company Records, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.
COLCHESTER: Colonial Port on the Potomac
by Edith Moore Sprouse
Published by the Fairfax County Office of Comprehensive Planning in cooperation with the Fairfax County History Commission
Fairfax, Virginia March, 1975 Second Printing, 1977 Third Printing, 1992
FAIRFAX COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
Thomas M. Davis, III, Chairman
Joseph Alexander, Lee District
Ernest J. Berger, Dranesville District
Sharon Bulova, Braddock District
Robert Dix, Centreville District
Michael Frey, Sully District
Katherine Hanley, Providence District
Gerry Hyland, Mount Vernon District
Elaine McConnell, Springfield District
Christine Trapnell, Mason District
Richard A. King, Acting County Executive Anthony H. Griffin, Deputy County Executive for Planning and Development
FAIRFAX COUNTY HISTORY COMMISSION
Patrick Reed, Chainnan
Rev. Clinton W. Austin, Vice-Chairman
Elise R. Murray, Treasurer
Glenda F. Amick
Virginia B. Peters
Mayo S. Stuntz
Donna L. Blackwell
Lea Coryell
Suzanne Rehder
Jack L. Hiller
Milburn Sanders
Marty Kaplan
Donald J. Senese, Ph.D.
William A. Klene
Edith M. Sprouse
This book and other historical publications are available from: Publications Sales The Government Center 12000 Government Center Parkway Fairfax, Virginia 22035
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 75-7787
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
1
Chapter
I.
DEVELOPMENT OF TOWNS ON THE POTOMAC RIVER
. . 4
Early Settlements
The Ferry Across the Occoquan
The Establishment of Towns
A Favorable Town Site
II.
THE GROWTH OF COLCHESTER
16
Land Ownership Before 1753
The Town on the Occoquan
Trustees of the Town
III.
COMMERCIAL ACTIVITIES
41
The Role of the Scots Merchants
The Tobacco Warehouses
Flour Inspection
The Vineyard
The Taverns
Colchester During the Revolution
IV.
THE POST REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD
85
Town Life Returns to Normal Some Problems with the Stagecoach The Post Office The Tannery The End of an Era
v.
VOICES FROM THE PAST
101
VI.
THE DEATH OF A SMALL TOWN
104
Bridges on the Occoquan An Interlude A New and Elegant Road The Transition into Farmland
VII.
THE LATE NINETEENTH CENTURY
117
A Battle on the Occoquan Last Night The Coming of the Railroad Dredging Operations on the Occoquan The Effect on the Local Economy The Close of the Century
: .
VIII.
THE PRESENT ENVIRONMENT
133
The Townscape
Twentieth Century Changes
Park Development
IX.
ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTIONS
140
The Duncan House
The Metzger House
X.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS
155
Photoarchaeological Evidence
Potential Sites and Historical Evidence
Documentary Evidence of Colchester Structures
APPENDICES
133
LIST OF SOURCES
185
iv
ILLUSTRATIONS
Figure
Page
1
John Warner's Survey, 1737 10
2 Bourne's 1666 Patent 15
3
Plan of Colchester Town, 1754
17
4
Fairfax County Property Map, 1974
18
5
Tobacco Hogshead Along Rolling Road 40
6 Tobacco Warehouse Activities 43
7 Tobacco Conveyances 47
8
Advertisement from Maryland Gazette 49
9 The Glassford Family 52
10 Tobacco Hogshead 56
11 Tobacco Shipment 56
12
Washington's Sketch Map, 1768 62
13 Map of Chesapeake Bay, 1776 67
14 Route of the French Army 70
15 Camp 'a Colchester, 1782 72
16 Accounts of Colchester Warehouse, 1792 86
17 Account Disbursements, 1792 87
18 Henderson Tombstone 95
19 Bayly's Sale of Bourne's Patent, 1810 109
20
Surveys for Military Defenses, 1862 116
V
.
Figure
Page
21
Sketch of Old Tobacco House, 1863 118
22
Sketch at Colchester Ferry, 1863 118
23 Army Beef Crossing Occoquan, 1863 126
24 Colchester Neighborhood, 1879
130
25
Occoquan Railroad Bridges, 1915 132
26
Topographic Map, 1948 134
27 Fairfax Arms, 1923 139
28 Fairfax Arms, 1934 139
29 Duncan House, Floor Plans
142
30
Metzger House, 1923 145
31 Metzger House, 1970 145
147
32 Metzger House, Floor Plans
33 Colchester Marina 150
34
Hyde House, 1923 150
35 Fairfax Arms, 1959 154
36 Archaeological Sites of Colchester 1 58
37
Modern Landmarks in Old Colchester 159
vi
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
One of the pleasures gained in writing a landmark monograph is the con- tribution made by those people drawn into its periphery through the author's questions. Michael Ritzer, a college student, initiated the discussion of this potential site for historic archaeology. Ross Netherton first suggested that a study be made of the town and John Lay, of the Fairfax County Division of Mapping, began the investigation of the Colchester plat of 1754.
Members of the Duncan, Metzger, Beach and Roberts families answered many inquiries. Invaluable assistance was provided by William A. Bowers, Manager of Records for Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad Company, by J. Glenn Little, by Timberlake McCue and by T. Triplett Russell, AIA.
Mrs. Hugh Cox, C. J. S. Durham and Tony P. Wrenn read the manuscript and provided helpful comments and corrections.
Essential source material was willingly provided by the Fairfax County and Alexandria Libraries and by the Library of Congress, and unfailing encouragement by Nan Netherton, the editor of this series.
vii
Two miles farther down once stood the colonial town of Colchester, and less is known of it now than of the streets of Perseopolis.
American Genius, 1882
INTRODUCTION
Along the rivers of Tidewater Virginia and Maryland are scores of "lost towns," founded in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to function as ports, county seats, or tobacco inspection centers. They grew, flourished, and when there was no longer a reason for their existence, declined. This phenomenon is not restricted to an earlier day, for the 1948 "Map of Suburban Washington" published by the National Geographic Society shows many villages of which there are no traces in 1972.
Nearly a century has passed since James Albert Clark commented upon the lack of knowledge about the town of Colchester2 but his observation is still valid. It is ironic, since the celebration in October 1971 of the 2500th anniversary of Perseopolis, that much more is known of the streets of that ancient town.
Tangible remains of the thriving ports along the Potomac River and its tributaries during the eighteenth century - Dumfries, Aquia, Port Tobacco or Colchester, for example - are few. A name, a few houses, a brickbat or a shard of pottery in an overgrown field are all that survive of some communities important in the colonial period. Their history is but dimly remembered and largely undocumented. Only a few, such as Marlborough in Stafford County3 or St. Mary's City in Maryland, have been extensively researched.
Most of the ports, with the sole exception of Alexandria, have been forgotten. It is the purpose of this study to investigate one of these river towns in order to il- luminate one segment of Tidewater history, when such ports played an important part in a culture founded upon tobacco. Colchester is a potentially valuable and largely undisturbed archaeological site which is unique in Fairfax County. By chronicling the rise and fall of this port on the Potomac River a better understanding may be gained of its counterparts whose names have all but passed into oblivion.
In 1974, the village of Colchester is linked to the earlier community by its orientation to the water. There is a small marina, situated at the spot where travelers on the King's Highway crossed the Occoquan by ferry. Two houses of this earlier period are still standing. The challenge of reconstructing the background of the community is compounded by the loss of certain relevant Fairfax County records. The minute books kept by the town Trustees have disappeared, their existence gleaned from an incidental reference in an early deed book. 4
Existing records such as the town plat of 1754, in conjunction with the detailed mercantile account books of the firm of John Glassford & Company, offer much evidence of the early history of the town. Land tax records can fill in certain gaps when deed books are missing. Although there are five dwellings built in recent years
1
within the 25- acre townsite, most of the land is still in open space. Infrared aerial photographs reveal some 20 underground potential sites worthy of field testing and possible archaeological investigation. At a level below the plough-zone, this evidence of the early town is largely undisturbed. One of the two early houses has been owned by the same family since 1830 and portions of the structure may be from an earlier period. The other structure, in the face of all the calamities of fires, hurricanes and plagues reputed to have afflicted the town, represents a most fortunate survival of an eighteenth century tavern.
An opportunity exists in Colchester for a careful study of one small but signi- ficant port on the Potomac River, on the main Post Road from Boston to Charleston. This monograph will endeavor to recreate the life of this town, document the activities of some of its residents, and show its potential as a major site in historic archaeology.
2
Introduction Notes
1 Kathmoor in the Franconia area, Alpine near Annandale, Donaldson and Ragin in the Hybla Valley neighborhood south of Alexandria are but a few com- munities named in 1948 which are forgotten in 1974.
2 James Albert Clark, "Along the Shore of the Potomac," American Genius, supplement, (1882), p. 13. This article was in a bound collection of pamphlets cata- logued under the subject title Potomac River in the New York Public Library. The author's address was given as 1113 S Street, N. W., Washington, D. C. The Library of Congress catalogue of periodicals, however, has no mention of American Genius.
3 Malcolm Watkins, The Cultural History of Marlborough, Virginia: An Archeological and Historical Investigation of the Port Town for Stafford County and the Plantation of John Mercer, United States National Museum Bulletin, No. 253 (Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1968).
4
Fairfax County Deed Book R-1, p. 288.
3
.
Chapter I
DEVELOPMENT OF TOWNS ON THE POTOMAC RIVER
Early Settlements
As early as 1540 the Chespeake Bay was delineated upon a copper globe as the Bahia de Santa Maria. Spaniards seeking a passage to the Indies were in its waters later in the sixteenth century exploring a river which they called Espiritu Santo, within the territory of the chief of Axacan. On their return to Mexico the brother of the chief accompanied them. There he was greeted ceremonially by the Viceroy and sent to Spain to be presented at Court. In 1570 the Indian came back to Axacan with a party of Jesuits. The hasty notes written by Fathers Segura and Quiros before embarking on that voyage are said to be the earliest known documents relating to Virginia.1
The mission was shortlived: surface exposure to European civilization did not prevent the Indian guide from participating in the massacre of the priests before the first winter had passed. A Spanish relief expedition under the command of Don Menendez found but one survivor. They hung eight Indians from the yardarm of their ship, took possession of the land in the name of the King, and quickly returned to Saint Augustine.
Although the similarity in word-forms led some historians to believe that Axacan might have been located along the Potomac on Aquia Creek or the Occoquan, more recent research tends to place Axacan on the York River. Despite these findings some residents along Aquia still speak of hearing the cries of the massacred victims on a quiet night.
The first European known to have entered the river was Captain John Smith. When he explored the Chesapeake Bay in June 1608, seeking a northern outlet he ascended the Potomac, mapping it as he sailed up as far as the fall-line. His map shows a "chief's house" on the upper shore of the Occoquan River. "As far as you see the little crosses on rivers, mountains, and other places, have been discovered," reported Smith. "The rest was had by information of the Savages, and are set down according to their instruction."3 The map was so accurate that his configuration of the Potomac River, when overlaid on a modern chart, is nearly identical.
Smith's voyage to the head of tidewater helped in establishing friendly relations with the Indians, which led to a brisk trade in corn and furs. One trader, Henry Fleet, aided the first Maryland settlers in 1634 in founding the first English town on the Potomac, St. Marys City. Trading posts were set up near Indian villages on Potomac Creek in Virginia and across the river, on the banks of the Piscataway, Port Tobacco and Anacostia Rivers. Jesuits who had come to Maryland with Leonard
4
-
Calvert lost no time in establishing missions. Father Andrew White was living on Piscataway Creek (Prince Georges County, Maryland) in 1639, seeking to convert the Tayac to Christianity. The next summer he baptised the chief of the Piscataways.
On the fifth of July in a solemn manner he rec'd the sacramental waters in a little chapel which he had erected out of bark in the manner of the Indians ... the Governor was present at this ceremony, together with his secretary and many others. Nor was anything lacking in display which our means could provide. In the afternoon, the Tayac and his Queen were united in matrimony in the Christian manner; then a great holy cross was erected, in carrying which to its destined place the king, governor, secretary, etc., lent their shoulders and hands.'
The English soon were forced to withdraw from the upper Potomac because of Indian hostility. Quarrels among the Marylanders caused some of their number to cross the river and settle in Virginia. One was Giles Brent, member of the Council, treasurer of the colony, and in 1643 acting Governor. With him came his sister Margaret, who had acted as Governor Calvert's executor and unsuccessfully peti- tioned the Maryland Assembly for the unheard-of right for a vote of her own.
The Brents acquired land in Virginia by 1644 and formed the nucleus of a new settlement across the Potomac from St. Marys City. Remote from the capital at Jamestown, these new residents were governed by neither colony until Northumberland County was formed in 1648. The first Virginia land patent mentioning the "Petomeck" was issued in 1643.5
As late as 1651 Lord Baltimore claimed jurisdiction over the Virginia shore above Aquia Creek. This stemmed from a mistaken assumption that John Smith's map had shown the Aquia as the main branch of the river separating the two colonies. Brent, who left Maryland to avoid His Lordship's interference, must have been appalled when Lord Baltimore urged London to send settlers "to that place where Mr. Giles Brent now resides. "6 Mr. Brent lost no time in urging the Virginia Assembly to establish their claim by forming a new county. By 1651 he had moved upriver to the Aquia Creek area and was for some years the northernmost settler on the Virginia shore of the Potomac. As new land patents were granted, his land was cited as a point of reference. Giles Brent and his sister Margaret took out land grants in the "freshes" of the river as far upstream as the present city of Alexandria at a time when their friends were still just beginning to patent lands on the Quantico and Occoquan.
Settlement up the Potomac advanced rapidly enough so that a new county, Westmoreland, was formed in 1653 and then Stafford County in 1664. On the Maryland side no new county was taken out of St. Marys until 1658, 24 years after the colony was founded. In the newly established Charles County,grants were patented in 1654 in the present Fort Washington area and in 1662 for Blue Plains (in 1974, the location of District of Columbia sewage plant) and a tract called St. Elizabeths (near Oxon Hill, Maryland).
5
Lands along the Occoquan and on the present Mason Neck were patented in the 1650's by speculators who lived far downstream. The first reference by name seems to be a May, 1653 grant to one Corbert Piddel, who took out 1,000 acres lying "southeast on the Potomeck River and southwest on a creek above Capt. Brent's about fifteen miles called Aquoconde." In September 1654 Richard Codsford patented 400 acres "known by the name of Sandy Point" on Mason Neck. Sandy Point is still shown on modern maps. References appear in the patent books to Doeg's Island offshore, which had eroded away by the eighteenth century. The patents mention Englishmen living as far up the river as the present Mount Vernon area in 1657.7
Pressures from the settlers pushing upriver eventually resulted in Indian re- prisals. The Susquehannock war and Bacon's Rebellion erupted in 1675 and combined to force the white men to retreat downstream to the Aquia Creek area. The Indian hostilities culminated in a joint siege by Maryland and Virginia troops on the Indian fort on Piscataway Creek, Maryland. English forts were subsequently established at the heads of Virginia rivers. One was built on Hunting Creek but, "being made of mudd and dirt and soe of noe use or continuance, "8 it soon fell apart.
Another was built at "Nieapisco near Occoquan" in 1679. A storehouse of 60 x 22 feet and a small house of ten feet square for ammunition storage were authorized by the Assembly. Four Indians were to be provided for each garrison. "Because there is no neighboring Indians on the Virginia side residing near the garrison on Potomack," the legislation stated, " ... four Matteoman Indians from Maryland are to be hired." Col. George Mason, great-grandfather of the builder of Gunston Hall, was ordered to provide powder and shot for the garrison and 100 yards of trading cloth to reward the Indians.
The fort was located on the lower side of the Occoquan River along the Indian trail known as the Potomac Path, which developed in later years into the King's Highway. Mid-nineteenth century tradition placed the ruins of the fort at the top of the hill, overlooking the road which ascended from the ferry landing." 10 In twentieth century Woodbridge, the supposed site is near the railroad bridge crossing. There an eroded gully indicates the early road.
The fort was dismantled in 1682 and replaced by a force of 20 rangers, who were to scout the upper .reaches of Stafford County toward the falls of the Potomac. A boat was to be provided by Col. Mason at the Occoquan for the militia and their horses. s. 11
The Ferry Across the Occoquan
Land speculators from the lower Tidewater first acquired tracts on the Occoquan in the 1650's. Usually the Indian trail along the Potomac which linked the upper and lower parts of Stafford County was easily traversed, and most of the creeks could be easily forded, even in bad weather, by detouring a short distance upstream from the customary crossing. Should there be danger from Indians a man could get back across the streams into more densely populated territory.
6
The Occoquan, however, was no gentle stream. In winter its waters were treacherous and nasty, pouring through a narrow rocky gorge, tossed by biting winds. Swollen in the spring by melting snows from the Bull Run Mountains to the west, this river could form an impassable barrier for days at a time. Long after the end of the Susquehannock uprising the inhabitants above the Occoquan had occasional alarms. As late as 1704 John West would write from his plantation on Hunting Creek of his inability to attend sessions of the county court because of " ... great sign of Indians and the inhabitants in great fear of them. "12
The first official transport across the Occoquan was provided by Col. George Mason in 1684. His concern was with the militia. There was no obligation to run a ferry for the civilian population, nor did anyone expect him to do so. By 1691 there were enough settlers so that the Stafford Court could order:
For the convenience of the town or port for this county as well as the court- house it is found absolutely necessary for the inhabitants of the upper parish of this county that there should be a ferry kept over Occoquan River.
David Strahan, a lieutenant in the militia, was operating a ferry there in February 1690/1, several months before this court authorization. 13 Martin Scarlett, a justice of the Stafford Court and surveyor of the road between Occoquan and Neabsco Creek, was another who was in charge of the ferry during its early years. Scarlett lived on the lower side of Occoquan at his Deep Hole plantation; his tombstone, dated 1695, is on the grounds of the Army Radio Station at Woodbridge.
The location chosen for the ferry crossing was determined by the topography of the land. It was situated about two miles upstream from the mouth of the Occoquan, at its narrowest point, before the steep banks on the shoreline prevented easy access to the river. The route lay from John Peake's former landing on the upper shore to the landing on the tract formerly occupied by Thomas Pearson on the other side. 14 Peake had two tracts, a total of about 300 acres. The smaller of these contained the landing. From that spot a ferry operated for the next hundred years before being replaced by a bridge; around the landing a blacksmith shop, a tavern, and other facil- ities for travelers developed. Here the town of Colchester was established in 1753: when the ferry crossing became obsolete, the town itself dec lined.
Ferries in the Tidewater were essential elements of transportation. The primitive roads served primarily as connector links between interlacing waterways. When as recently as 1909 the 50 miles between Washington and Fredericksburg required seven hours travel over a corduroy road and the motorist could conclude that "Any autoist who can successfully pilot a car over the Telegraph Road ... without mishap will find descent of the steps of the east front of the Capitol to be mere child's play, "15 one can barely imagine what colonial travelers must have experienced.
Although Maryland claimed jurisdiction over the Potomac River under the terms of its charter, it did not begin officially to establish ferries until 1781. Virginia legislation relating to ferries began in 1673 and until 1784 it was assumed that the Potomac was under its control. 16 An Act of 1702 established ferry rates and set forth conditions for licenses. Boats were to operate between sunrise and sunset. Ferrymen
7
were to be exempted from militia duties, public levies and road work. A vestige of these early privileges is part of Virginia law, for ferrymen employed at any ferry established by law are still exempt from jury duty. 17
The ferry across the Occoquan was first mentioned in a 1730 Act providing for a parish vestry election but rates were not set for that specific crossing until 1736. Charges were fixed at threepence for a man and the same for a horse. 18
The Establishment of Towns
"There seems no need for a waste of money in attempting to build up towns on the lower Potomac, " commented a writer many years later. "The British government tried that experiment before the Revolution, and every attempt of the sort turned out to be a signal failure. "19
This retrospective viewpoint was a fair judgement. Towns had never been particularly successful ventures on the Virginia rivers, although attempts had been made by the Assembly to establish ports since 1680. At that time legislation was passed setting up one town in each county, through which all tobacco exported and all goods imported should pass. Despite special inducements offered to prospective inhabitants, few towns were able to attract settlers. It was much more convenient to trade from one's own wharf. Few of the projected towns materialized, fewer still flourished. Hampton, Yorktown and Hobbs Hole (Tappahannock) owe their origins to this legislation, but most of the paper towns suffered the fate of the nameless port for Stafford County. A port town was directed to be built at Peace Point, Col. Giles Brent's former plantation on Aquia Creek. Nothing came of the move until 1691, when another directive was issued for a port town in Stafford County. This time the location, although still on land owned by the Brents, was on the upper bank of Potomac Creek (in 1974 known as Marlborough Point). The town was Marlborough. Stafford County records show that 50 acres were purchased from Giles Brent, Jr., for 13,000 lbs. of tobacco, that in November 1691 a "chief undertaker" was chosen to build the courthouse, and the surveyor "shall lay out the said town or port according to law, to the intent that all the gentlemen ... and other inhabitants may take up such lots as he or they desire. "20
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