USA > Virginia > Fairfax County > Fairfax County > Colchester Colonial Port on the Potomac > Part 2
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Twenty-seven lots were sold in February 1692. Two men, one of them Capt. George Mason, Jr., received licenses to open ordinaries (taverns). Mason supervised the building of a prison 12 feet square with stocks and pillory. The courthouse, although not yet finished, was usable at this time. Impetus for the town flagged when the act for ports was suspended in 1693; not until 1705 when another act was passed for ports did much activity occur. This act not only named the town but its provisions allowed for exemptions of part of the customs duties, special privileges in regard to paying poll taxes, and partial freedom from militia duty for residents.
Like its predecessor, the Act for Ports was in force only briefly before being repealed. The English government, primarily interested in profitable tobacco crops, was not anxious to encourage self-sufficiency nor to foster any development of manufacturing in Virginia.21
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The courthouse in Marlborough burned about 1718, destroying the main justification for the town's existence. Two years later the county seat was relocated and the few houses fell into decay. When John Mercer acquired the land in 1726 there was only one house left standing.22 Mercer developed the site as a plantation and only the name remained as a reminder of the shortlived town.
Across the Potomac River other seventeenth century towns fared somewhat better. St. Marys City, founded in 1634, was the capital of Maryland for 60 years. Actual town development did not begin until the 1660's. City charters were granted in 1668 and in 1671. By 1678 there were about 30 houses and a State House. 23 The growth of St. Marys was halted by a change of political power and by settlement patterns farther up the Chesapeake Bay. In 1695 the capital was moved to Providence (now Annapolis) and the town of St. Marys died.
Port Tobacco, the county seat of Charles County, Maryland, from 1727 to 1895, had its beginnings in the Indian village noted on Captain John Smith's map as Potapoco. During the latter part of the seventeenth century a village was laid out and called Chandlers Town; by 1729 another town plat had been superimposed over the first. A courthouse was constructed and 100 lots laid out on 60 acres of land. The town was named Charles Town but was known to its inhabitants as Portobacco. This community was an important shipping center throughout the eighteenth century. As was the case with other tobacco ports along tributaries of the Potomac River, siltation ended its usefulness as a port. This community, however, continued to serve as a market town until the court house burned in 1892 and the county seat was moved to La Plata. In recent years extensive research and planning have been underway toward redevelopment of both of these Maryland towns as historic centers.
Although they had a longer lifespan than Marlborough, the towns on the Potomac could not really flourish in an area where direct contact with European ships could be made at one's own wharf. Hugh Jones, writing in 1724, characterized the situation by concluding that "anything may be delivered to a gentleman there from London or Bristol with less trouble and care, than to one living five miles in the country in England. "24
A Favorable Town Site
After the 1705 Act for Ports was rescinded, town building experienced a period of inactivity that lasted for many years. During this time a combination of factors set the stage for another attempt. Until the beginning of the eighteenth century most of the land grants had been issued along the river front and the banks of its tributaries. When available waterfront land became scarce grants were taken up to the westward in the backwoods part of the Potomac watershed.
Between 1707 and 1719 patents were issued at the falls of the Occoquan and inland towards the present Manassas area. As these lands away from navigable water became settled and their fields cleared for growing tobacco, a need arose for roads along which the crop could be brought to the waterside for shipment. Another
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9
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necessity was some form of storage area for the tobacco while it awaited the arrival of a ship; combined with this was the need for a warehouse and inspection system to upgrade the quality of tobacco sent to Great Britain and to collect duties from the planters.
One land parcel in the back country area was Robert Carter's Frying Pan tract (near the present village of Floris in western Fairfax County), where in 1729 Carter's sons tried to mine what they believed to be an outcrop of copper. Failing to secure a water outlet near the Great Falls of the Potomac from which to ship their ore, they chose instead land on the Occoquan just below the fall line. From here a road was cleared to the copper mine. The "copper" turned out to be only a calcareous shale with a tinge of copper, and the mining venture was abandoned. But the road cut through the forest (the Ox Road) offered an outlet to tidewater which became increas- ingly important.
The Tobacco Act of 1730 revived a system of inspection which had been pro- posed earlier by Governor Spotswood. Public waterhouses were built at the heads of the tidewater streams to lessen as much as possible the overland distance from inland plantations. In 1734 one such warehouse was established at the landing on the north bank of the Occoquan. 25
During this same period population increase in the upper part of Stafford County resulted in a new county being formed in 1731 above Chapawamsic Creek. Eleven years later, in 1742, Fairfax County was established, with the Occoquan as its lower boundary. The courthouse for Prince William County was to have been built on the upper shore of the Occoquan, where a church stood near the ferry landing. Although the courthouse was actually built on the lower bank, there existed a developing neighborhood around the former location by 1737.
Here, then, was a location on the Potomac Path (the main road north and south) close to where the Ox Road 26 (the main road west to the Blue Ridge Mountains) led inland. Conditions were favorable for establishing a port town at this spot downstream from the warehouse, where the high bluffs on the upper shore of the Occoquan gave way to a gentle slope.
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Chapter | Notes
1
A. Hyatt Verrill, Romantic and Historic Virginia (New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1935), pp. 5-14; 211-212. This is also discussed in Horace P. Hobbs, Pioneers of the Potowmack (n.p., by the author, 1961), pp. 3-6; Evening Star (Washington, D. C.) June 27, 1920.
2 Clifford M. Lewis and Albert J. Loomie, The Spanish Jesuit Mission in Virginia, 1570-1572 (Chapel Hill, N.C .: University of North Carolina Press for the Virginia Historical Society, 1953.)
Mrs. L. L. Alexander, Stafford, Virginia Interview, November 1962.
3 Travels and Works of Captain John Smith, ed. by Edward Arber (2 vols., new ed .; Edinburgh: John Grant, 1910), 1, 55.
4 Clayton Colman Hall, ed., Narratives of Early Maryland, Original Narratives of Early American History (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1910, p. 131.
5 Mrs. Nell Marion Nugent, Cavaliers and Pioneers: Abstracts of Virginia land Patents and Grants, 1623-1800 ... (Richmond, Va .: Press of the Dietz Printing Company, 1934), p. 149.
6 Fairfax Harrison, Landmarks of Old Prince William: A Study of Origins in Northern Virginia (Berryville, Va .: Chesapeake Book Company, 1964), p. 603.
7
Nugent, Cavaliers, pp. 236, 293, 336.
8 Harrison, Landmarks, p. 70, n. 39.
12
9 William Waller Hening, The Statutes at Large: Being a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia ... , (13 vols .; New York: R. &W. &G. Bartow, 1823,) 11, 328, 330, 433.
10 William H. Snowden, Some Old Historic Landmarks of Virginia and Maryland (2 vols .; 5th ed .; Alexandria, Va .: G.H. Ramey & Son, 1903) 11, 71.
11 Hening, Statutes, 11, 498; 111, 21.
12
Stafford County Deed Book Z-1, p. 248.
13 Stafford County Court Order Book, November 1961.
14 Ibid., December 4, 1692. Peake's larger tract on Giles Run was pur- chased in 1767 by Reverend Lee Massey and became known as "Bradley" (Fairfax County Deed Book G-1, p. 313). The Peake family had a plantation on Little Hunting Creek in the mid-eighteenth century called Gum Spring; this land and the family graveyard are partially included in Martin Luther King Park (1972). In the nineteenth century the Peakes moved to Centreville before migrating to Hannibal, Missouri. At that place they lived in a house owned by author Samuel Clemens, who mentioned the family in his autobiography.
15 "Washington to Fredericksburg in an Auto," Evening Star, (Washington), August 15, 1909.
16 "Report of Col. A.W. McDonald Relative to Boundary Lines," Virginia Senate Journal, Special Session, 1861. This summarizes Acts relating to Potomac River ferries. The Governor of Virginia sent Col. McDonald to England to search colonial documentary evidence concerning the Maryland-Virginia boundary. His maps and much of the report are missing, but a partial index exists. It was rumored that certain material was deliberately removed from McDonald's nine manuscript volumes. Virginia State Library, catalog *J87/V7/1861b.
17 Alexandria Globe, February 11, 1971, citing the current Code of Virginia. Also exempt from jury duty are those in such outmoded occupations as postriders and stage drivers.
13
18
Hening, Statutes, IV, 304, 532. The Act of 1702 is in III, 218.
19 Alexandria Gazette, January 26, 1871. The writer was protesting a Congressional proposal to establish a port of entry at Evansport (now Quantico) on the Potomac. Although his views were biased in favor of Alexandria, his statement about towns was valid.
20
Stafford County Court Order Book, October 8, 1691.
21 Watkins, Marlborough, pp. 7-8, has an excellent discussion of early towns in Virginia. See also Edward F. Heite, "Markets and Ports," Virginia Cavalcade, April 1966, p. 29.
22 Watkins, Marlborough, p. 14.
23 Robert L. Plavnick, St. Mary's City: A Plan for the Preservation and Development of Maryland's First Capital (St. Mary's City, Md .: St. Mary's City Commission, 1970), pp. 9, 15. A comprehensive research and preservation plan was begun in 1966.
24 Hugh Jones, The Present State of Virginia, ed. by Richard L. Morton, new ed., (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1956), p. 73.
25 Hening, Statutes, IV, 331.
26 A 1746 petition to the Fairfax County Court stated that "the main road leads from Ocquaquan ferry to Blew ridge." Virginia State Library, Accession #21681.
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Figure 2.
DIVISION OF BOURNE'S 1666 PATENT FOR 1000 ACRES Actually 703 acres.
John Savage Survey August 7, 1729
Fairfax County Proceedings in Land Causes, Justice Book I, p. 22
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15
Chapter II THE GROWTH OF COLCHESTER
Land Ownership Before 1753
In 1729 there was a blacksmith shop at the shore of the Occoquan River and a ferry to take passengers across. In the vicinity was Occoquan Church.1 Across the river stood a house owned by the third George Mason.
The land on which the town was later to be built had been patented on June 5, 1666 by William Bourne (Boren) of Stafford County, part of a thousand acre tract "on the northeast side of Accaquon Creek." Bourne received the land for bringing 20 settlers to Virginia.2 On November 12, 1668 Bourne conveyed the tract to Thomas Baxter and William Harris. A few months later Baxter sold the upper 500 acres to Ralph Clifford, whose daughter held it until March 24, 1692. The next owner was George Luke. The lower 500 acres had passed into the hands of Joseph Waugh by 1729.3
In 1726 Elizabeth Luke sold her half of the tract to George Mason, owner of the ferry concession and the father of George Mason of Gunston Hall. When the tract was surveyed three years later and divided between Mason and Waugh, it was found to contain 703 acres rather than 1,000.4 Extending upstream from Giles Creek (now Massey Creek), the tract was split diagonally. Perhaps this was done in order that the ferry landing would be included within Mason's land. Because of this southern tip cutting across the road to the Occoquan ferry, a 25 acre segment was separated from the rest of the tract. This.was the area where the future town of Colchester would be laid out. It is apparent that a portion of this dividing line is shown as a property boundary5 on the 1972 Fairfax County Property Map, running from the shoreline toward the present Furnace Road (formerly Ox Road, now county route 611).
Col. George Mason did not remain in undisputed possession of the land. Mrs. Luke changed her mind and sued him in the General Court of Virginia, ejecting the new owner; she then willed this tract to John Popiatt of Great Britain.6 The Mason family continued to run the ferry and must have assumed that they had a valid claim to the land. In 1735 George Mason, crossing the Potomac from his plantation in Charles County, Maryland, was drowned when his boat capsized. In the absence of a will, his property passed to his oldest son George .. Many years later an attempt was made by Mason to recover the tract but he did not succeed, although Mason's right to operate the ferry was reconfirmed." This was set forth in an Act of Assembly in 1744, which stated:
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Whereas the ferry across the Occoquan from the lands of Mrs. Ann Mason, widow, in Prince William to the lands of Mrs. Ann Mason in Fairfax, hath been found to be very convenient to the people of each county, and was always, until Prince William was divided, maintained at the expense of the said county: but since the division whereof, the justices of each county have refused to make an annual charge ... in their levy ... therefore, the justices of both counties are to contract with Mrs. Mason to run the said ferry ... 8
The tract above the ferry was sold in 1746 by the heir of Mrs. Luke to a merchant in Prince William County named John Graham.9 He was one of a group of Scottish traders who operated stores on Quantico Creek in Prince William and on Hunting Creek in Fairfax County. These men were engaged during the 1740's in promoting the formation of towns at the sites of their trading posts. Competitive attempts were made to have the Virginia Assembly authorize a town at these places or on the Occoquan. Graham, already owning land on Quantico Creek, thus obtained a foothold on Occoquan if the Assembly should decide to choose that location for a townsite.
On May 11, 1749, charters were granted for the town of Dumfries on Graham's land at Quantico and for another on Hunting Creek, to be named Alexandria. Both towns were laid out on 60 acres and both were subsequently enlarged. By the time John Graham sold his land on the upper bank of the Occoquan in March 1753, both of the new towns were well established. 10
The Town on the Occoquan
The new owner of the 351} acre tract was Peter Wagener, Clerk of the Fairfax County Court. Having paid double the price" at which the land had last been sold, Wagener wasted no time in urging the Assembly to give a charter for the town which he proposed to establish. Eight months later the enabling Act was passed, stating that the said town "would be very convenient for trade and navigation" and "greatly to the ease and advantage of the frontier inhabitants." The site was to be surveyed within 12 months, "beginning at the upper side of the ferry landing and extending down the said river, to the land of Waugh; thence back into the said Wagener's land ... so as to include twenty-five acres."12
The legislation did not specify a name for the town. This must have been chosen by Peter Wagener, whose home in England had been near the town of Colchester in Essex. The history of that community went back to pre-Roman Britain. Once known as Camulodunum, it had been the capital of a federation of tribes in the southeast. Before the Roman invasion it was ruled by the king of Catuvellauni. The town covered an area of about 12 square miles, which was enclosed by dykes during the reign of Cunobelinus. His son, Caratacus, ruled about the year 43 A. D. The Roman Emperor Claudius was there during the invasion and chose the town as the first Roman capital. After a time it was superseded by Londinium (the present city of London). 13 A more recent link between the two Colchesters was the siege of the English town in 1648 by General Fairfax, whose family name was given to the county in which the new Col- chester was located. 14
19
The namesake town in the Virginia colony may have had a different pronunciation in its early days. Mrs. Rosemary Selecman, who was married in 1909, stated that her mother-in-law always pronounced Colchester as if the first syllable rhymed with "doll. "15 The Selecman family has owned land in the Occoquan area since the eighteenth century.
Colchester's charter was similar to that of other new towns of the period. Lots were not to exceed half an acre in size. Within two years time a building at least 20' square, with roof of a 9' pitch, had to be constructed on each lot in order to vali- date the title; if this were not done the lot would revert to the town trustees to resell for the benefit of the town. The original purchase price went to Peter Wagener, owner of the town land.
Houses might be built of brick, stone, or wood. Wooden chimneys were pro- hibited as a fire hazard. The residents were also forbidden to allow pigs to run at large in the streets. They were responsible, under the supervision of the Trustees, for keeping the streets and the public wharf in good repair. Provision was made for a market square as well as a public landing, and it was ordered that the town be surveyed and laid out within a year's time. Five trustees were appointed to govern the town.
All of these men lived in the general area, but of the five only Peter Wagener (who held title to the entire unsold acreage) ever purchased lots in the town. In 1771 he bought five specific lots, although no deed was recorded until 178816 at the time of the Wagener-Mason lawsuit.
The reluctance of the other four trustees to purchase town lots is as surprising as the slowness in lot sales, especially when it is considered that in nearby Alexandria at least five of the 11 trustees did so at the initial auction of lots in 1749. Nearly all of the lots in Alexandria were sold during the auction. Neighboring planters like George Mason of Gunston Hall supported the new town by buying lots. (Mason was a Trustee of Dumfries in Prince William County.)
In Colchester, on the other hand, there were only two buyers at the initial sale and only one-third of the 42 lots were sold. Neither purchaser lived in Fairfax County. Daniel McCarty, William Ellzey, John Barry and their fellow trustee Edward Washington were not participants, neither were landowners on nearby Mason Neck such as Catesby Cocke of Belmont or George Mason.
McCarty's and Barry's abstention may have stemmed from their involvement with the Pohick warehouse, and Washington's position as an inspector of the tobacco at Occoquan warehouse. Perhaps they had no desire to foster a potential rival of these establishments. (Too little is known of Ellzey to guess at his motivation.) It is, however, a curious circumstance that the governing body of the town did not see fit to show their confidence in its future by investing in it.
The town was surveyed in June 1754. George West laid out 42 lots and four streets, 60 feet in width. Because of the town's triangular shape (a result of the 1729 division of the original patent) not all of the lots contained half an acre. Most measured 165 feet by 132 feet. There were six small wedge-shaped lots. On the down- stream end of town the lots were of irregular size. The east line of the town ran on the dividing line of the patent.
Streets were not named on the town plat, but county deedbooks show that the present road (county route #825) leading to the marina was Essex Street. It was part
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1
of the Kings Highway and was later referred to as the Great Road or the Stage Road. Fairfax Street paralleled it on the south. The cross street was known as Wine Street. One other street is shown on the plat as a continuation of Furnace Road (county route #611, formerly Ox Road) along the east boundary of the town. No name refer- ence to this has been found in deeds and it may not have functioned as a street.
The ferry landing was at the foot of Essex Street and a spring on the hillside is still known as the ferry spring. The public wharf was on Fairfax Street, located approximately where remains of pilings from a later wharf rise above water level. 18
The first sale of lots took place in May 1756. Six were bought by Benjamin Grayson and two by William Bayly. Both men lived in Prince William County. Grayson chose two lots adjacent to the public wharf (#6, 42), one (#3) as close as he could get to the ferry landing, and three (*19, 21, 23) full-size lots near the inter- section of Essex Street and the Ox Road. His purchase of #3 indicates that these fronting the river (#1, 36, 2) were being held back by Wagener or considered by George Mason as part of the ferry landing and therefore his. William Bayly contented himself with two lots (#4, 13) just behind the waterfront on the south side of Essex Street. The latter lot fronted on the area set aside as the market square.
Peter Wagener waited until 1771 to obtain a deed for the waterfront lots and two others (#17 across from the market and #9 at the southern end of town). Wagener had an ordinary (tavern) operating in 1757 and Bayly opened one at his house the next year. Grayson ran a store on his property.
With these enterprises in being another sale was held in September 1758. Five more men invested in eight lots, all but two clustering around the market place. John McIntosh, a tailor, bought #20 on the south side of Essex Street; in front of him Morris Pound, a native of Germany, got two lots on the east side of Wine Street facing the market (#18, 26). Next to Pound on the north side of Fairfax Street, George Car- penter had #27. The German planted a vineyard on his land and a tanyard was later established on Carpenter's Ict. Mindful, perhaps, of the possibility that the cross- roads might become the focus of activity, Carpenter also purchased #25 and #39 at the northeast edge of town. The lot across from the market place on Essex Street, #15,was the first real estate that young merchant Alexander Henderson obtained in Colchester. The following year he was to buy from Valentine Cloninger of Prince William County. #14, first purchased that day in 1758.
The Trustees sold no more lots until May 1759. At that time Philip Peill, a merchant in Fairfax County, bought #12. Edward Conner, who lived in Loudoun County, may have speculated that the wagon trade beginning to travel from the west- ward down Ox Road might bring prosperity to the new settlement. The Reverend Andrew Burnaby, seeing it in 1759, wrote that the town was built for the sake of the back country trade and seemed more impressed with the forge, mills and sawmills operating two miles upstream below the falls.
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