The Project Gutenberg EBook of Legends of Loudoun, by Harrison Williams
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Title: Legends of Loudoun
An account of the history and homes of a border county of
Virginia's Northern Neck
Author: Harrison Williams
Release Date: November 25, 2011 [EBook #38130]
Language: English
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Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
Small capital text has been replaced with all capitals.
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LEGENDS OF LOUDOUN Reprinting of this book has been granted to the
Loudoun Museum by Mrs. Harrison Williams and Mr. and Mrs. Winslow
Williams.
All proceeds from the sale of book will benefit the Loudoun Museum.
We are indeed grateful to the Williams family for this generous gesture
and to the Loudoun County Independent Bicentennial Committee for
assistance in making this possible.
[Illustration: JOHN CAMPBELL, 4th Earl of Loudoun (1705-1782).
Governor-in-Chief of Virginia and Commander-in-Chief of British forces
in America, for whom Loudoun County was named in 1757.]
LEGENDS OF
LOUDOUN
_An account of the history
and homes of a border county
of Virginia's Northern Neck_
By HARRISON WILLIAMS
[Illustration: decoration--rider on horse]
GARRETT AND MASSIE INCORPORATED
RICHMOND VIRGINIA
COPYRIGHT, 1938, BY
GARRETT & MASSIE, INCORPORATED
RICHMOND, VIRGINIA
MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES
To
J. S. A.
PREFACE
Many causes have contributed to the great upsurge of interest now
manifesting itself in Virginia's romantic history and in the men and
women who made it. If, perhaps, the greatest and most potent of these
forces is the splendid restoration of Williamsburg, her colonial
capital, through the munificence of Mr. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., of New
York, we must not lose sight of the part played by the reconstruction of
her old historic highways and their tributary roads into the fine modern
highway system which is today the Commonwealth's boast and pride; the
systematic and constructive activities of the Virginia Commission of
Conservation and Development of which the present chairman is the Hon.
Wilbur C. Hall of Loudoun; and the excellent work done by the Garden
Club of Virginia in holding its annual Garden Week celebration in each
spring and the generous permission it obtains, from so many of the
present owners of Virginia's historic old homes and gardens, for the
public to visit and inspect them at that time and thus capture, if but
for the moment, a sense of personal unity with Virginia's glamourous
past.
The increasing flow of visitors to Loudoun and to Leesburg, its county
seat, has developed a steadily growing demand for more information
concerning the County's past and its charming old homes than has been
available in readily accessible form. These visitors, in their quest,
usually call at Leesburg's beautiful Thomas Balch Library which, during
Garden Week, lends its facilities to Virginia's Garden Clubs for their
Loudoun headquarters; and Miss Rebecca Harrison, its Librarian, has upon
occasion found the lack of published information in convenient form
somewhat a handicap in her always gracious efforts to welcome and inform
our growing tide of visitors. Knowing as she did my lifelong interest in
Colonial history and the lives and family stories of the men and women
who enacted their parts therein (my sole qualification, if such in
charity it may be called, for such a task) she, from time to time, had
suggested that I prepare a book upon Loudoun, the people who built up
the County and the old homes which they erected and in which they
lived. The present volume has been written in an effort to respond to
those requests. When some four years ago the work was contemplated, it
was proposed to make it primarily a small, informal guidebook to
Loudoun's older homes; but as my research into her earlier days
progressed, I became deeply conscious that the people of Loudoun have
forgotten much of her past that tenaciously and loyally should be
remembered; and so the story of the County almost crowded out, beyond
expectation, the story of the homes. It is hoped that, sometime in the
future, another book pertaining wholly to these old plantations and
their owners may be prepared and published.
Although there has been no very recent book devoted to her history,
Loudoun has had her historians within and without her boundaries and,
above all, has been fortunate in attracting the interest of that
outstanding scholar and historian of the Northern Neck, the late Fairfax
Harrison, Esq., whose beautiful country-seat of Belvoir is near by in
the adjoining county of Fauquier. As the most casual reader of the
following pages will quickly recognize, I have been under constant
obligation, in the preparation of this work, to these earlier writers
and can but here sincerely acknowledge the help I have derived from
them.
The first published history of Loudoun was written by Yardley Taylor, a
Quaker of the upper country, prior to 1853 in which year it made its
printed appearance. With it was published a map of the County prepared
by him (for his vocation was that of a land-surveyor) and both map and
book are highly creditable to their author. The book, however, is not
very large and, concerning itself somewhat extensively with the
topography, geology, etc. of the County, it has less to say of Loudoun's
history than its admirers could wish. The map, embellished with
cartouches of old buildings, was the first county map to be prepared in
this part of Virginia and so accurate was it found to be that it was
used by both Federals and Confederates in the devastating War Between
the States. That war, with its aftermath, set back the cultural
activities of Virginia for a full generation; thus it was not until 1909
that the next Loudoun history appears, this time by Mr. James W. Head of
Leesburg. His volume is more comprehensive than Mr. Taylor's but,
again, it covers far more than the County's history, including carefully
prepared surveys of its minerals, soils, farm statistics, commercial
activities, and many other interesting and closely related subjects. In
1926 Messrs. Patrick A. Deck and Henry Heaton published their _Economic
and Social Survey of Loudoun County_ which is somewhat similar in its
scope to the work of Mr. Head but not so large a volume. In the
meanwhile, however, in 1924, Mr. Fairfax Harrison, himself a scion of
the Fairfax family, had privately published his comprehensive _Landmarks
of Old Prince William_ covering the early history of all the territory
originally comprised in old Prince William County; and thereby built an
enduring monument to his own erudition and industry that will stand as
long as there remains a man or woman who retains an interest in the
fairest part of the princely Colepeper-Fairfax Proprietary. It remains a
pleasant and grateful memory that I had the benefit of Mr. Harrison's
personal suggestions and advice, as well as access to the overflowing
treasury of his published writings, in my preparation of this volume.
In addition to the authors named, much help was derived from Mr. John
Alexander Binns' treatise on his agricultural experiments, from the
war-books of Major General Henry Lee, Col. John S. Mosby, Col. E. V.
White, Rev. J. J. Williamson, Captain F. M. Myers and Mr. Briscoe
Goodhart, although in the case of the two latter authors their writings
are measurably impaired by the rancour which controlled their pens. Dr.
E. G. Swem's _Virginia Historical Index_ was of constant assistance as
were the publications of the Virginia Historical Society, those of the
College of William and Mary and similar historical magazines as well as
Virginia's Colonial records and the records of Loudoun County. The
resources of the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institution and
those of our little Thomas Balch Library in Leesburg have all been
available to me. In short, I had intended to append a bibliography of
volumes consulted and relied upon for many of the views hereafter
expressed; but when those volumes grew in number to five or six hundred
I realized that limited space would permit no such project. Therefore I
have contented myself with frequently indicating in footnotes the
principal sources from which my information has been derived.
To my acknowledgment of aid obtained from books, pamphlets, newspapers
and magazines, official records and documents, must be added my
appreciation of the help of many friends. Mr. Thomas M. Fendall of
Morrisworth and Leesburg, of distinguished Virginia background himself,
has made such careful and comprehensive studies of Loudoun's past that
he was and is the logical prospective author of a book thereon; but his
modesty equals his industry and scholarship to the very obvious loss, in
this instance, to the County and its people. From him I have had such
constant and constructive assistance and cheerful response to my
frequent appeals that without his aid this book could not have attained
its present form. To Loudoun's present County Clerk Mr. Edward O.
Russell and to his deputy Miss Nellie Hammerley; to Mrs. John Mason;
Mrs. E. B. White and Miss Elizabeth White of Selma; Mrs. Frederick Page;
the Rev. G. Peyton Craighill, the present Rector of Shelburne Parish;
the Rev. J. S. Montgomery; Miss Lilias Janney; Judge and Mrs. J. R. H.
Alexander of Springwood; Mrs. Ashby Chancellor; Mrs. John D. Moore; Mr.
Frank C. Littleton of Oak Hill, and his long studies of the history of
that estate and of President Monroe; Trial Justice William A. Metzger;
Mr. J. Ross Lintner, Loudoun's County Agent; Hon. Charles F. Harrison,
Commonwealth's Attorney; Mr. Oscar L. Emerick, Superintendent of
Schools, for permission to use the map of the County prepared by him;
Mr. E. Marshall Rust; Mr. George Carter; Hon. Wilbur C. Hall and his
efficient official staff; Mr. Valta Palma, Curator of the Rare Book
Collection of the Library of Congress, and Mr. Hirst Milhollen of the
Fine Arts Division of the same great institution; Mr. John T. Loomis,
Managing Director of Loudermilk and Co. of Washington, as well as to
very many others, my sincere thanks are again tendered for the valuable
help they all so willingly have given me.
The illustrations used to embellish the text deserve a word of comment.
The portrait of the Right Honourable John Campbell, 4th Earl of Loudoun,
Captain-General of the British forces in America and Governor-in-Chief
of Virginia, in whose honour the County of Loudoun was named, is
reproduced from an engraving that appeared in the London Magazine of
October, 1757, when Loudoun was at the height of his career. It was
copied from the engraving by Charles Spooner of an earlier painting of
the Earl by the Scotch artist Allan Ramsay (1713-1784), who later became
the principal portrait painter to King George III and his court. I have
in my collection two copies of this London Magazine engraving, one of
which I found in the hands of a dealer in New York and the other in
London. No other copies, so far as I can learn, have recently been
offered for sale.
The fine portrait of the Right Honourable William Petty-FitzMaurice,
Earl of Shelburne and 1st Marquess of Landsdowne, for whom Shelburne
Parish was named, is by Sir Joshua Reynolds and is now in the National
Portrait Gallery in London to which it was presented by his son Henry,
3rd Marquess of Landsdowne, K. G., in June, 1858. I obtained an official
photograph of this painting at the National Portrait Gallery in the
summer of 1937, and permission to reproduce it in this book.
The portrait of Sir Peter Halkett, Baronet, of Pitfiranie, Scotland, who
commanded that part of Braddock's army that passed through the present
Loudoun on its way to the fatal battle near Fort DuQuesne, is from P.
McArdell's engraving of the portrait painted by Allan Ramsay in 1740,
and is considered by me one of my most fortunate discoveries.
The pictures of Oak Hill in the body of the book and that of the meeting
of the Middleburg Hunt on its spacious lawns, reproduced on the
dust-jacket, are from the extensive collections of Mr. Frank C.
Littleton. The original of the portrait of General George Rust of
Rockland (1788-1857), builder of that cherished family seat in 1822,
belongs to and is in the possession of a grandson, Mr. John Y. Rust of
San Angelo, Texas, but a carefully executed copy hangs on Rockland's
walls. During the two administrations of President Andrew Jackson,
General Rust was in command of the United States Arsenal at nearby
Harper's Ferry and for many years he was one of the most respected and
influential of the County's citizens. The photograph of the original
portrait herein used I owe to another grandson, Mr. E. Marshall Rust of
Leesburg and Washington, as I do the picture of Rockland itself and that
of the old John Janney residence in Leesburg, later so long the home of
the late Mr. and Mrs. Thomas W. Edwards, the latter a sister of Mr.
Rust. They were all photographed in this masterly fashion by Miss
Frances Benjamin Johnston of Washington. The pictures of Foxcroft, Oak
Hill and the old Valley Bank in Leesburg are from the Pictorial Archives
of Early American Architecture in the Division of Fine Arts of the
Library of Congress and the negatives are also the work of Miss
Johnston.
Reproduction of the portrait of Nicholas Cresswell, the Journalist, is
due to the courtesy of the Dial Press, of New York, publishers of the
American edition of his journal. The original portrait is owned by Mr.
Samuel Thorneley of Drayton House, near Chichester, West Sussex, England,
a descendant of Cresswell's younger brother, Joseph Cresswell. The map
of Loudoun is based on that prepared by Mr. Oscar L. Emerick in 1923,
and is used by his kind permission.
And now, gentle reader, step with me into the pleasant land of Loudoun.
HARRISON WILLIAMS.
Roxbury Hall
Near Leesburg, Virginia
March, 1938.
CONTENTS
PREFACE vii
THE EARLIER INDIANS 1
ENGLAND ACQUIRES VIRGINIA 10
THE PASSING OF THE INDIANS 20
SETTLEMENT 31
THE MELTING POT 43
ROADS AND BOUNDARIES 60
SPECULATION AND DEVELOPMENT 72
THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR 83
ORGANIZATION OF LOUDOUN AND THE FOUNDING OF LEESBURG 97
ADOLESCENCE 114
REVOLUTION 123
THE STORY OF JOHN CHAMPE 142
EARLY FEDERAL PERIOD 159
MATURITY 182
CIVIL WAR 198
RECOVERY 222
INDEX 235
ILLUSTRATIONS
_John Campbell, 4th Earl of Loudoun_ Frontispiece FACE PAGE
_Map of Loudoun County_ 1
_Sir Alexander Spotswood_ 20
_Sir Peter Halkett, Bart_ 83
_The Fall of Braddock_ 93
_William Petty-FitzMaurice_ 116
_Nicholas Cresswell_ 129
_Noland Mansion_ 139
_Oatlands_ 171
_Foxcroft_ 173
_Rockland_ 175
_General George Rust_ 176
_Oak Hill_ 178
_Oak Hill, East Drawing Room_ 179
_Old Valley Bank_ 203
_Battle of Ball's Bluff_ 205
_Old John Janney House_ 226
LEGENDS OF LOUDOUN
CHAPTER I
THE EARLIER INDIANS
[Illustration: MAP LOUDOUN COUNTY, VIRGINIA]
The county of Loudoun, as now constituted, is an area of 525 square
miles, lying in the extreme northwesterly corner of Virginia, in that
part of the Old Dominion known as the Piedmont and of very irregular
shape, its upper apex formed by the Potomac River on the northeast and
the Blue Ridge Mountains on the northwest, pointing northerly. It is a
region of equable climate, with a mean temperature of from 50 to 55
degrees, seldom falling in winter below fahrenheit zero nor rising above
the upper nineties during its long summer, thus giving a plant-growing
season of about two hundred days in each year.
The county exhibits the typical topography of a true piedmont, a rolling
and undulating land broken by numerous streams and traversed by four
hill-ranges--the Catoctin, the Bull Run and the Blue Ridge mountains and
the so-called Short Hills. These ranges are of a ridge-like character,
with no outstanding peaks, although occasionally producing well-rounded,
cone-like points. The whole area is generously well watered not only by
the Potomac, flowing for thirty-seven miles on its border and the
latter's tributary Goose Creek crossing the southern portion of the
county, but also by many smaller creeks or, as they are locally called,
"runs"; and by such innumerable springs of most excellent potable water
that few, if any, of the farm-fields lack a natural water supply for
livestock. These conditions most happily combine to create a climate
that for healthfulness and all year comfortable living is without peer
on the eastern seaboard and, indeed, truthfully may be said to be among
the best and most enjoyable east of the Mississippi.
Before the advent of the white man, the land was covered by a dense
forest of oak, hickory, walnut, sycamore, locust, ash, pine, maple,
poplar and other varieties of trees--not by any means unbroken, for here
and there the Indian tribes that roamed the area, had burned out great
clearings for grazing-grounds to entice the wild animals they hunted and
in which the native grasses then quickly and indigenously sprang up;
attracting particularly the buffalo, in those days, and at least until
as late as 1730, to be found in vast numbers all through the Piedmont
region and always in the forefront as an unending supply of flesh-food
to their Indian hunters. With the buffalo were great herds of "red and
fallow deer" and wolves, foxes in abundance, bears in the mountains,
opossum, racoons, and, along the streams, otter and beaver (later to be
so greatly valued for their pelts) and whose presence, with that of
other fur-bearing animals, was to have its influence on the history of
the region.
When in 1607 the doughty Captain John Smith--in writing of any part of
Virginia one sooner or later is certain to shake hands with that
amourous hero--when Captain Smith made his first voyage to Virginia and
came in contact with her aboriginees, the latter were, in a broad sense,
of several stocks or nations, distinguishable principally by linguistic
affinity and more or less common cultural idiosyncracies rather than by
close alliances; and indeed frequently appearing to cherish their
bitterest enmities among their own blood-kindred. Along the coast, in
what we now know as Tidewater, the territory running from the Chesapeake
to those rocky outcrops making waterfalls in all the great rivers
flowing from Virginia into the Bay, the Indians were generally of the
Algonquin stock, a tribe covering an enormous territory along the
Atlantic seaboard from the neighborhood of Hudson's Bay southerly to at
least the Carolinas but by no means monopolizing the regions where they
were found.
To the north, in what is now New York, centred the Iroquoian tribes,
with ramifications as far south as Virginia and North Carolina. Among
these more southerly Indians of the Iroquoian stock were the fierce and
powerful "Susquehannocks" along the river we still call by that name who
later were to play a prominent rôle in our Loudoun yet to be; the
Nottoways, occupying a part of southeastern Virginia; the Cherokees,
occupying the area in Virginia and North Carolina west of the Blue
Ridge, extending north as far as the Peaks of Otter near the
headquarters of the James; and the Tuskaroras of famous and bloody
memory, who were paramount in North Carolina until their conquest and
all but annihilation by the English in 1711. What were left of the
fiercest and most implacable of the Tuskaroras after that crushing
defeat, retreated to New York where, as the sixth nation they joined the
Iroquois Confederacy of their near kinsmen of the Long House. A few of
the more friendly were removed to a local reservation in 1717 but
gradually, in small parties, says Mooney, they too moved to join their
kindred in the north.
Both Algonquins and Iroquois were to be classed as barbarians rather
than savages. The former have been described as having generally "found
locations in permanent villages surrounded by extensive cornfields. They
were primarily agriculturists or fishermen, to whom hunting was hardly
more than a pastime and who followed the chase as a serious business
only in the interval between the gathering of one crop and the sowing of
the next." The Iroquois, who found their highest development in their
confederacy of the Five Nations of the Long House in central New York
(the Massawomecks so dreaded by the Powhattans and Manahoacs of Smith's
narratives) were even further advanced. Described by historians as the
Romans of America, they led all other Indians of what is now the United
States in their powers of organization and extraordinary political
development. They lived in cleverly and strongly palisaded villages and
their agricultural activities, falling to the women's share of tribal
work, were probably further advanced than those of any other Indians
north of Mexico. Our earliest knowledge places them on the banks of the
St. Lawrence, in the neighborhood of the present Montreal, whence they
were driven by the neighboring Algonquins. Their defeat and expulsion to
the south bred in them a deep determination for revenge. In the New York
wilderness they developed and cultivated a passion for ruthless warfare
and forming their famous Confederation somewhere about the year 1570,
they rapidly became the most powerful Indian military force east of the
Mississippi and a sombre threat and terror to the other Indian tribes
far and wide.
In contrast to both Algonquins and Iroquois, the Siouan tribes who
ranged the Piedmont country from the Potomac south, were primarily
nomads--and nomads, observes Mooney, have short histories. Modern
scholarship inclines to place the origin of the great Siouan or Dakotan
family possibly amidst the eastern foothills of the southern Alleghanies
or at least as far east as Ohio, whence, after a long period, they
probably were driven by the Iroquois and other enemies beyond the
Mississippi. Being essentially nomadic, without permanent villages and
relying on constant hunting for their food, following their game
wherever it might lead, they necessarily ranged widely and covered broad
areas. From the days of the earliest European invasion, locations of the
Iroquois and Algonquin stock were known, but as the earliest English
scouts and adventurers found no such long established villages in the
Piedmont country, their tendency and following them, that of the early
writers and historians, was to loosely assume that the Indians found
there were, in common with their neighbours, either Algonquins or
Iroquois. Later antiquarians and ethnologists seem to have followed
their lead; with an exasperating paucity of record, tradition or
material remains, there was but little on which to base knowledge of
language, whence racial stock might be deduced. It was not until Horatio
Hale announced, sixty years ago, his discovery of a Siouan language
bordering the Atlantic coast and James Mooney, in 1894, published his
_Siouan Tribes of the East_ that these Indians of the northern Virginia
Piedmont, known to be members of the Manahoac Confederacy, were
identified as of the Siouan stock. They "consisted of perhaps a dozen
tribes of which the names of eight have been preserved. With the
exception of the Stegarake," writes Mooney, "all that is known of these
was recorded by Smith, whose own acquaintance with them seems to have
been limited to an encounter with a large hunting party in 1608."
As Smith's narrative, after its wont, paints a vivid picture of the
Manahoacs, a picture which almost stands alone in the mist of conjecture
and deductive reasoning making up what is left to us of them, it is well
to quote it in full, bearing always in mind that while these people were
found on the upper Rappahannock, we have excellent reason to believe
that they also occupied all the land now within the bounds of Loudoun.
As allied bands, without fixed habitation, they wandered over the lands
between Tidewater and the Blue Ridge, from the James to the Potomac.
The story is contained in Smith's _Generall Historie of Virginia_ which
states on its title page to be "by Captaine John Smith sometymes
Governor in those Countryes & Admirall of New England." Chapter VI of
the book, from which we quote, is however apparently signed by Anthony
Bagnall, Nathaniel Powell and Anas Todhill who were three of Smith's
companions on this adventure. Bagnall and Powell were among the six
listed as "Gentlemen" in distinction to an additional six listed as
"Souldiers," among the latter being Todhill.
On the 24th July, 1608, Smith and these twelve men set out on this
second voyage of discovery along the shores of the Chesapeake Bay. Going
as far north as the head of the Bay and the "Susquesahannock's" river
and noting their many findings, they eventually, upon their return
south, came to "the discovery of this river some call Rapahanock" up
which they proceeded, with occasional brushes with the Indians along its
banks. On their third day upon the river
"Wee sailed so high as our Boat would float, there setting up crosses,
and graving our names in the trees. Our Sentinell saw an arrowe fall by
him, though he had ranged up and downe more than an houre in digging in
the earth, looking of stones, herbs, and springs, not seeing where a
Salvage could well hide himselfe.
"Upon the alarum by that we had recovered our armes, there was about an
hundred nimble Indians skipping from tree to tree, letting fly their
arrows so fast as they could: the trees here served us for Baricadoes as
well as they. But Mosco (their Indian guide) did us more service than we
expected, for having shot away his quiver of Arrowes, he ran to the Boat
for more. The Arrowes of Mosco at the first made them pause upon the
matter, thinking by his bruit and skipping, there were many Salvages.
About halfe an houre this continued, then they all vanished as suddenly
as they approached. Mosco followed them so farre as he could see us,
till they were out of sight. As we returned there lay a Salvage as dead,
shot in the knee, but taking him up we found he had life, which Mosco
seeing, never was Dog more furious against a Beare, than Mosco was to
have beat out his braines, so we had him to our Boat, where our
Chirugian who went with us to cure our Captaines hurt of the Stingray,
so dressed this Salvage that within an houre after he looked somewhat
chearefully, and did eat and speake. In the meane time we contented
Mosco in helping him to gather up their arrowes, which were an armefull,
whereby he gloried not a little. Then we desired Mosco to know what he
was, and what Countries were beyond the mountaines; the poore Salvage
mildly answered he and all with him were of Hassinninga, where there are
three Kings more like unto them, namely the King of Stegora, the King of
Tauxuntania and the King of Shakahonea, that were coming to Mohaskahod,
which is onely a hunting Towne, and the bounds betwixt the Kingdom of
the Mannahocks, and the Nantaughtacunds, but hard by where we were. We
demanded why they came in that manner to betray us, that came to them in
peace, and to seeke their loves; he answered they heard we were a people
come from under the world, to take their world from them. We asked him
how many worlds he did know, he replyed, he knew no more than that which
was under the skie that covered him, which were the Powhattans, with the
Monacans, and the Massawomecks, that were higher up in the mountaines.
Then we asked him what was beyond the mountaines, he answered the Sunne:
but of anything els he knew nothing; because the woods were not burnt.
These and many such questions we demanded, concerning the Massawomecks,
the Monacans, their owne Country, and where were the Kings of Stegora,
Tauxintania, and the rest. The Monacans he said were their neighbours
and friends, and did dwell as they in the hilly Countries by small
rivers, living upon rootes and fruits, but chiefly by hunting. The
Massawomecks did dwell upon a great water and had many boats, & so many
men that they made warre with all the world. For their Kings, they were
gone every one a severall way with their men on hunting: But those with
him came thither a fishing until they saw us, notwithstanding they would
be altogether at night at Mahaskahod. For his relation we gave him many
toyes, with perswasions to go with us, and he as earnestly desired us
to stay the coming of those Kings that for his good usage should be
friends with us, for he was brother to Hassinninga. But Mosco advised us
presently to be gone, for they were all naught, yet we told him we would
not till it was night. All things we made ready to entertain what came,
& Mosco was as dilligent in trimming his arrowes. The night being come
we all imbarked, for the river was so narrow, had it biene light the
land on the one side was so high, they might have done us exceeding much
mischiefe. All this while the K. of Hassinninga was seeking the rest,
and had consultation a good time what to doe. But by their espies seeing
we were gone, it was not long before we heard their arrowes dropping on
every side the Boat; we caused our Salvage to call unto them, but such a
yelling and hallowing they made that they heard nothing but now and then
a peece, ayming for neere as we could where we heard the most voyces.
More than 12 miles they followed us in this manner; then the day
appearing, we found ourselves in a broad Bay, out of danger of their
shot, where we came to an anchor, and fell to breakfast. Not so much as
speaking to them till the Sunne was risen; being well refreshed, we
untyed our Targets[1] that covered us as a Deck, and all shewed
ourselves with these shields on our armes, and swords in our hands, and
also our prisoner Amoroleck; a long discourse there was betwixt his
countrimen and him, how good we were, how well wee used him, how we had
a Patawomeck with us, loved us as his life, that would have slaine him
had we not preserved him, and that he should have his liberty would they
be but friends; and to doe us any hurt it was impossible. Upon this they
all hung their Bowes and Quivers upon the trees, and one came swimming
aboard us with a Bow tyed on his head, and another with a Quiver of
Arrowes, which they delivered to our Captaine as a present, the Captaine
having used them so kindly as he could, told them the other three Kings
should doe the like, and then the great King of our world should be
their friend, whose men we were. It was no sooner demanded than
performed, so upon a low Moorish poynt of Land we went to the Shore,
where those foure Kings came and received Amoroleck: nothing they had
but Bowes, Arrowes, Tobacco-bags, and Pipes: what we desired, none
refused to give us, wondering at every thing we had, and heard we had
done: our Pistols they tooke for pipes, which they much desired, but we
did content them with other Commodities, and so we left foure or five
hundred of our merry Mannahocks, singing, dancing, and making merry and
set sayle for Moraughtacund."
[1] i.e. Shields.
The spelling, punctuation and capitalization follow the text of the
first edition (1624) in which, opposite page 41, is a map shewing
apparently the Manahoacs (there spelled "Mannahoacks") in possession of
the present Loudoun and the Monacans south of them, around the upper
waters of the James.
With Smith's return to the mouth of the Rappahannock the mist descends
again upon Loudoun for many years.
In 1669 and 1670, John Lederer made three journeys into the interior of
Virginia. His first journey took him up the York River; his second, up
the James; and the route of his third he describes as "from the Falls of
the Rappahannock River to the top of the Apalataen Mountains." Although
he obtained the consent of Sir William Berkeley before making his
explorations, he seems to have incurred the ill-will of the Virginians
themselves and by them was forced to flee to Maryland. There he met Sir
William Talbot, who sympathized with and befriended him and translated
his story of his travels from the latin in which it had been written. It
was published in London in 1672 with a "foreword" by Talbot in Lederer's
defense.
Of the "Indians then Inhabiting the western parts of Carolina and
Virginia," Lederer says:
"The Indians now seated in these parts are none of those which the
English removed from Virginia, but a people driven by the Enemy from the
northwest, and invited to sit down here by an Oracle above four hundred
years since, as they pretend for the ancient inhabitants of Virginia
were far more rude and barbarous, feeding only upon raw flesh and fish,
until they taught them to plant corn, and shewed them the use of it."
Concerning the whole Piedmont region, called by Lederer "The Highlands"
he writes:
"These parts were formerly possessed by the Tacci, alias Dogi, but they
are extinct and the Indians now seated here, are distinguished into the
several nations of Mahoc, Nuntaneuck, alias Nuntaly, Nahyssan, Sapon,
Managog, Mangoack, Akernatatzy and Monakin &c. One language is common to
them all, though they differ in dialects. The parts inhabited here are
pleasant and fruitful because cleared of wood and laid open to the Sun."
Apparently in Lederer's "Monakins" and "Mangoacks" we may recognize
Smith's "Monacans" and "Mannahocks" or "Mannahoacks"; but on his third
or Rappahannock journey he does not speak of such Indians as he may have
actually met. James Mooney thinks that by that time the Manahoacs may
have been driven out of their earlier hunting grounds. The "Tacci, alias
Dogi" described by Lederer are suggested by Mooney to have been only a
mythic people, a race of monsters or unnatural beings, such as we find
in the mythologies of all tribes and had no relation to the Doeg, named
in the records of the Bacon rebellion in 1676, who were probably a
branch of the Nanticoke.
What became of the Manahoacs? Did their pursuit of the game they hunted
gradually draw them westward or were they, more probably, driven from
the Piedmont country by their terrible foes the northern Iroquois, aided
perhaps by the Susquehannocks who next appear upon the scene? But before
taking up the story of the Iroquois and Susquehannock influence in
Loudoun, we must turn to the English Kings and their grants of Virginia
and particularly its Northern Neck, that spacious territory lying
between the Rappahannock and Potomac, extending from the Chesapeake to a
disputed western boundary.
CHAPTER II
ENGLAND ACQUIRES VIRGINIA
Mighty in her military strength and with an all but inexhaustible wealth
pouring into her coffers from her American conquests, Spain stood as a
very colossus over the Europe of the sixteenth century; and England,
watching and fearing her hostile growth, grimly determined that she too,
should have her share of that fabulous new world and its treasure. So
deeply planted and so greatly grew this determination that it eventually
became a part of England's public policy and in June, 1578, the great
Elizabeth, with her eyes on the American coast, issued letters patent to
Sir Humphrey Gilbert, and after Gilbert's death reissued them on the
25th March, 1584, to his half-brother Sir Walter Raleigh, to discover,
have, hold and occupy forever, such "remote heathern and barbarous
lands, countries and territories not actually possessed by any Christian
prince, nor inhabited by Christian people." As by its terms the new
grant was to continue but for "the space of six yeares and no more," it
was clear that advantage of its provisions should be taken with
promptness; and Raleigh was not a man given to delay or indecision. He
had been making his preparations; hardly more than a month elapsed
before an expedition of two ships captained by Philip Amidas and Arthur
Barlow set sail from England, bound for America. On the 4th of the
following July, having landed on an island off the coast of the present
Carolinas, these men raised the English flag and formally declared the
sovereignty of England and its Queen. They brought home with them such
glowing accounts of their discovery that Elizabeth was moved to bestow
upon all the coast the name of Virginia--the land of the Virgin Queen.
Two more attempts were made to establish permanent settlements in the
neighborhood and although both failed, enough had been done to found a
claim of English ownership and dominion, a claim which covered the
entire coast from the French settlements in the north to the Spanish
settlements upon the Florida peninsula, and thus the original Virginia
became coextensive with England's pretensions on the North American
continent. It is true that Spain then claimed the entire coast under a
Papal Bull but Papal Bulls meant very little to Elizabeth or to her
pugnacious sea-rovers. One of the many curiosities of history is that
neither Raleigh nor his captains ever saw the soil of that part of
America which was to become the Virginia we know, nor did the Queen who
named it ever have knowledge of its physical characteristics, its
resources or its inhabitants. In short, Virginia proper was neither to
be discovered nor have its first precarious settlement until after
Elizabeth's death.
After these first abortive attempts to found English settlements under
his patent, Raleigh, on the 7th March, 1589, assigned it and all his
rights thereunder to a company of merchants and adventurers who were
resolved to proceed with the enterprise. These assigns, after the death
of Elizabeth, became the leaders in seeking from King James I "leave to
deduce a colony in Virginia." That monarch, says Bancroft, "promoted the
noble work by readily issuing an ample patent" and on the 10th day of
April, 1606, signed and affixed his seal to the first Charter of an
English colony in America under which permanent settlement was to be
effected. This charter declared the boundaries of Virginia to extend
from the 34th to the 45th parallels of longitude and authorized the
planting of two colonies. The first of these, to be founded by the
London Company, largely made up of men of that city, was designated a
"First Colony" to be established in the southerly portion of England's
claim; the right to establish a "Second Colony" to be planted in the
north, went to the Plymouth Company, whose membership, headed by Sir
Ferdinando Gorges, Governor of the garrison of Plymouth in Devonshire,
came principally from the west of England. Under this Charter the King
named the first "Council for all matters which shall happen in
Virginia;" under it the London Company dispatched the expedition of
three ships in command of Sir Christopher Newport and having Captain
John Smith among its members; and under it and the Second Charter (of
1609) the infant colony was governed until, in the year 1624, the
Charter was revoked and the Crown took over the affairs of the Colony.
Until the troubled reign of the first Charles, the growth of Virginia's
population had been very slow. It was not until the defeat of the
Royalists in 1645 by the forces of the Parliament and the King's
execution in January, 1649, that the first great increase in population
occurred. In a pamphlet published in London in that latter year, by an
unknown author, it is stated that her population was at that time 15,000
English and 300 negroes and these were scattered along the lower
portions of the James and the York and the shores of the Chesapeake.
Then the defeated Cavaliers began to arrive in such great numbers that
by 1670 Sir William Berkeley estimated that 32,000 free whites, 6,000
indentured servants and 2,000 negroes were there. Many of the old
population and the newer arrivals as well, were pressing northward to
the land between the mouth of Rappahannock and that of the Potomac which
in 1647 had been organized into a new county, under the name of
Northumberland, to include all the lands lying between those latter
rivers and running westerly to a still indefinite boundary. This was new
territory recently, and still very sparsely, settled by the English and
even as late as 1670 it was contemporaneously estimated that the Indians
between the two rivers had nearly 200 warriors.
Although the Stuarts had been deposed in England and the younger Charles
forced to fly to the Continent, he was still King in Virginia with loyal
and devoted subjects. It was under such conditions that Charles,
actuated not only by a desire to reward certain of his Cavalier
adherents who were sharing his exile, but also to create a refuge for
others of his followers from the ire and oppression of the triumphant
Roundheads, granted by charter dated the 18th day of September, 1649,
the whole domain between the Rappahannock and Potomac to seven of his
faithful lieges who, during the Civil War, had fought valiantly in the
Stuart cause. These men were described in the charter, still preserved
in the British Museum, as Ralph Lord Hopton, Baron of Stratton; Henry
Lord Jermyn, Baron of St. Edmund's Bury; John Lord Colepeper, Baron of
Thoresway; Sir John Berkeley, Sir William Morton, Sir Dudley Wyatt and
Thomas Colepeper Esq. And thus, says Fairfax Harrison, "the proprietary
of the Northern Neck of Virginia came into existence."
He notes that of the patentees Lord Jermyn, after the Restoration,
became Earl of St. Albans and Sir John Berkeley, Baron Berkeley of
Stratton. "The only conditions" quotes Head "attached to the conveyance
of the domain, the equivalent of a principality, were that one-fifth of
all the gold and one-tenth of all the silver, discovered within its
limits should be reserved for the royal use and that a nominal rent of a
few pounds sterling should be paid into the treasury at Jamestown each
year."
But to receive a grant of this splendid Proprietary from a fugitive and
powerless King was one thing and to reduce it to actual possession was
another and very different one. Charles might and did consider himself
King in both England and Virginia and the ruling Virginians might and
did consider themselves his very loyal and obedient subjects; but
unfortunately for the seven Cavalier patentees of the Northern Neck, the
Parliament and Cromwell took a radically different view of the matter
and, even more unfortunately, were in a position to enforce that view.
No sooner had the representatives of the new Proprietors come to
Virginia and were duly welcomed by the royalist Governor Sir William
Berkeley, than a Parliamentary fleet of warships arrived from England,
deposed the Governor, set up the rule of Parliament in 1652 and abruptly
ended, for the time being, the patentees' hopes of gaining possession
of their new grant.
There was little to be done by these Cavaliers while Parliament and
Cromwell ruled. And then the wheel of history, after its fashion,
completed another cycle. On the 3rd September, 1658, Cromwell died and
soon the ruthless and efficient but never very cheerful control of
England by the Puritans came to an end. In 1659 word came to Virginia of
the resignation of Richard Cromwell and the Puritan Governor Mathews
dying about the same time, the Virginia Assembly in March, 1660,
proceeded to elect Sir William Berkeley to be their Governor again. On
the 8th of the following May, Charles II was proclaimed King in England
and in September a royal commission for Berkeley, already elected by the
Assembly, arrived, the Virginians themselves welcoming the restoration
of Stuart rule with great enthusiasm.
The owners of the patent of the Northern Neck believed that their
patience was at length to be rewarded. Again they sent a representative
to Virginia, this time with instructions from King to Governor to give
his aid to the Proprietors to obtain possession of their domain. But
during all the years of their forced inactivity, the settlement of
Virginia had gone on apace. What had been in 1649 a thinly settled
frontier, shewed now a largely increased population and land grants to
these new settlers had been freely issued by Virginia's government. Many
of those newly seated in the Northern Neck were very influential men and
in their opposition to the claims of the patentees received popular
sympathy and encouragement. As a result, Berkeley found himself
confronted by a Council which obstructed his every effort to carry out
the King's instructions and the endeavours of the Proprietors to gain
possession of their grant being completely blocked, they were obliged to
appeal to the home government for relief. The outcome of negotiations
between them and Francis Moryson, then representing Virginia in London,
was that the patent of 1649 was surrendered by its holders for a new
grant carrying on its face substantial limitations of the earlier
patent. This new grant was dated the 8th day of May, 1669, almost twenty
years after the first, and contained provisions recognizing the title to
lands already seated or occupied under other authority; generally
limiting the Proprietors' title to such other lands as should be
"inhabited or planted" within the ensuing twenty-one years, together
with a constructive recognition of the political jurisdiction of the
Virginia government within the Proprietary.[2]
[2] Harrison's _Virginia Land Grants_, 63.
This appeared a reasonably satisfactory compromise of the controversy to
both sides. But suddenly in February, 1673, Charles made a grant of all
Virginia to the Earl of Arlington and Lord Colepeper to hold for
thirty-one years at an annual rent of forty shillings to be paid at
Michaelmas. Thus was Virginia rewarded for her faithful loyalty to the
Stuarts. When the news came to Jamestown the Colony flamed with
resentment and anger; and now Berkeley and his Council were in hearty
accord with the wrathful indignation of the Colonists. Even though the
King had not intended to interfere with the title of individual planters
in possession of their land, his action threw the whole situation, and
particularly in the Northern Neck, into turmoil and confusion.
Exasperation was directed against the holders of the Charter of 1669 as
well as those of 1673 and again the original patentees appealed to the
Privy Council for relief. Again the King sought to help them but by this
time they had grown weary of the long controversy and indicated their
willingness to sell out their rights to the Colony; before an agreement
could be reached, Bacon's Rebellion flared up and the whole subject was
again in abeyance.
* * * * *
We must now return to the Indians. The Dutch settlements along the
Hudson had early developed a very lucrative and active trade with their
native neighbours, particularly the Iroquois, who brought to them furs
for which they were given European manufactures, especially spirits and
firearms and when, in 1664, the English conquered and took possession of
these Hudson settlements, they continued the Dutch trade and friendship
with the Iroquois. To obtain furs, the hunters and warriors of the Five
Nations ranged further and further afield and before long were in bitter
conflict with the Susquehannocks who had their headquarters and
principal stronghold fifty or sixty miles above the present Port Deposit
in Maryland on the east bank of that river from which they derived their
name. They were mighty men and warriors, these Susquehannocks. All the
early English who mention them pay tribute to their splendid strength
and stature. Smith who, it will be remembered, came in contact with them
before his skirmish with the Manahoacs, said of them that "such great
and well proportioned men are seldom seen, for they seem like giants to
the English, yea to their neighbours." And in 1666 Alsop wrote that the
Christian inhabitants of Maryland regarded them as "the most noble and
heroic nation of Indians that dwelt upon the confines of America....
Men, women and children both summer and winter went practically naked,"
and adds, among other details, that they painted their faces in red,
green, white and black stripes; that the hair of their heads was black,
long and coarse but that the hair growing on other parts of their bodies
was removed by pulling it out hair by hair; and that some tattooed their
bodies, breasts and arms with outlines. Our American soil, from the
beginning, appears to have favoured the art of the barber and
beauty-shop.
From the English in Maryland these Susquehannocks acquired guns and
ammunition and thus were able to hold their own with their Iroquois foe
for over twenty years of the harshest warfare. But the Iroquois were
relentless and though repulsed again and again, returned year after year
to the attack. The Susquehannocks finally weakened by an epidemic of
smallpox, were overcome, the Iroquois captured their main stronghold and
completely overthrew their power. Fugitive bands of Susquehannocks,
nominally friendly to the English of Maryland and Virginia, then roamed
the western frontiers of those colonies and along both banks of the
Potomac, still harassed by pursuing bands of Senecas.
Under such conditions it was not long before they came in open conflict
with the English settlers, some say through Indian thefts, others
because the English attacked a party of them, mistaking them for
pilfering Algonquin Doegs. The fighting, once begun, spread rapidly and
the settlers on their exposed frontiers, denied practical assistance by
the Virginia Governor Berkeley and his colleagues (whom rumor said were
making such substantial profits from the Indian trade that they were
loath to antagonize the Indians by sending organized forces against
them) turned for leadership to Nathaniel Bacon, a young planter of
gentle birth, not long come out from England. Bacon was a natural
leader, their cause was popular and soon Virginia found herself in the
midst of an Indian war and a rebellion against the Jamestown government
as well. Bacon led his men to victory over both Indians and Governor but
suddenly dying from a dysentery or from poison--to this day the cause of
his death is surrounded by uncertainty--the "rebellion collapsed with
surprising suddenness," his former followers were overcome by the
Governor with the aid of English troops and Berkeley proceeded to wreak
a vindictive and merciless revenge.
Meanwhile knowledge of the turmoil had reached England and the King sent
Commissioners to Virginia to investigate the causes of the trouble and
Berkeley's wholesale executions and confiscations of estates. These men
made a fair report of their findings to the King, which, added to the
many complaints from the families of Berkeley's victims, caused Charles
to exclaim: "As I live, that old fool has taken more lives in that naked
country than I have done for the murder of my father." In the spring of
1677 the royal order for Berkeley's removal arrived and he sailed for
England in an attempt to justify himself in an audience with Charles,
his departure being "joyfully celebrated with bonfires and salutes of
the cannon" by the Virginians. But in England he found that the King,
resentful at his abuse of power, avoided meeting him and in July the old
man fell ill and died, his end hastened, it is said, by his vexation and
chagrin over the King's attitude.
Upon the death of Berkeley, the King appointed Lord Colepeper Governor
of Virginia. As he was not ready nor, possibly, inclined to go
immediately to his post, the King issued a special commission to Sir
Herbert Jeffries, who had been one of his emissaries to investigate
Berkeley, as Lieutenant Governor in immediate charge of affairs.
Jeffries ruled until his death in 1678 when he was succeeded by Sir
Henry Chicheley as Deputy Governor under an old Commission issued to him
as early as 1674. Colepeper did not personally take charge on Virginia's
soil until 1680, and then but for a brief period, soon returning to
England and remaining there over two years. It was not until December,
1682, that we again find him in Virginia.
Colepeper, it will be remembered, was not only by inheritance a part
owner of the patents of 1649 and 1669 to the Northern Neck but he was
coproprietor with Arlington under the grant of 1673 of all Virginia and
now in his own person Governor of the Colony as well. For good measure,
his cousin, Alexander Colepeper, was also an owner by inheritance of a
share in the grants of 1649 and 1669. It was apparent that he was in a
position at long last to turn his Virginia interests to account; but in
doing so he sought to make the new dispensation as personally profitable
to his rapacious self as possible. Therefore he opened negotiations with
his old associates, by 1681 had succeeded in buying most of them out,
and declared himself sole owner of all these grants, although his cousin
still owned his one-sixth interest. But the King had become annoyed at
his conduct and the stories of his rapacity and, seeking an opportunity
to punish him, seized upon the pretext that he had been absent from his
post without leave. On this charge he, in 1682, was deprived of his
office as Governor. Two years later (1684) Colepeper sold out his rights
under the so-called Arlington Charter of 1673 to the English Crown for a
pension of £600 a year for twenty-one years. He tried also to sell to
Virginia his rights to the Northern Neck under the Charter of 1669, but
in that transaction he was unsuccessful. A curiously ironic fate seemed
intent upon keeping the Northern Neck Proprietary, reward of Cavalier
loyalty and devotion, as an inheritance for the still unborn sixth Lord
Fairfax, scion and representative of the family of two of the most able
of the Parliamentary leaders.
Although Bacon and his men, when they took the field in 1676, had
thoroughly disciplined the Indians in Virginia, the Iroquois and the
Susquehannocks still entered Piedmont and roamed its forests. The
Iroquois are believed to have driven out the Manahoacs and their kinsmen
prior to 1670 and certainly claimed their lands by conquest; not
coveting them for settlement but for hunting and particularly for such
furs as they could trap and collect in a land plentiful of beaver and
otter. The Virginians built forts at the navigation heads of the great
rivers for the protection of settlers; but the northern Indians passed
beyond and between them and not only attacked the tributary Virginia
Algonquin tribes, from time to time, but were frequently in conflict
with the English as well. Lord Howard of Effingham, successor to
Colepeper as Governor, met Governor Dongan of New York in July, 1684,
and with him closed a treaty with the Iroquois whereby the latter were
to call out of Virginia and Maryland "all their young braves who had
been sent thither for war; they were to observe profound peace with the
friendly Indians; they were to make no incursions upon the whites in
either state; and when they marched southward they were not to approach
near to the heads of the great rivers on which plantations had been
made."[3] But the treaty also contained a provision that the Iroquois,
when in Virginia, should "Keep at the Foot of the Mountains" which
seemed to acknowledge their right to be there and so continued the
Indian menace to such settlers as pushed into Piedmont. Nevertheless the
frontier forts of the Virginians were allowed to fall into disuse, the
Colony depending on companies of armed and mounted rangers to patrol the
back country and keep the Indians in order, and there seemed some
prospect of peace though the outlying plantations, long keyed up to
Indian alarms, remained alert and watchful. However for awhile there was
less Indian trouble in the upper country and then a new alarm occurred,
resulting in the first recorded exploration of the present Loudoun.
[3] Howison's _History of Virginia_, I., 387.
CHAPTER III
THE PASSING OF THE INDIANS
[Illustration: SIR ALEXANDER SPOTSWOOD]
When Smith came to Virginia, there was an Indian tribe of the Algonquin
stock called by him the Nacothtanks, a name later evolving into
Anacostans, which occupied the land about the present city of Washington
and some years later having moved its principal village southward to the
banks of the Piscataway Creek, thereafter was known by the name of that
stream. A daughter of their so called "Emperor" or Chief, having been
converted to Christianity, married Giles Brent of Maryland and with him
moved across the Potomac to land he acquired on the north shore of Aquia
Creek, then still in a frontier wilderness. The Susquehannocks, at the
time of their outbreak in 1675, had sought refuge within the fort of the
Piscataways but had been refused asylum, the Piscataways remaining loyal
to their Maryland neighbours and aiding them in the fighting. In
consequence the Susquehannocks bore these lower river Indians bitter
hatred. When the Iroquois completed their conquest of the Susquehannocks
and reduced them to vassalage, they embraced their side of the quarrel.
Toward all the tribes of the east the attitude of the Iroquois was
simple, consistent and uncompromising. Rule or ruin, subjugation or
extinction, was the harsh choice offered and there was no alternative
for these others save in remotest flight. To protect the Piscataways,
the Marylanders gave them a reservation amidst their settlements.
Blocked and perhaps made jealous by this move, the Iroquois changed from
force to guile, seeking every opportunity to turn them against their
Maryland protectors and, it is thought, eventually in 1697, persuading
them to move across the Potomac into the forests of the Virginia
piedmont where they camped for a while near what is now The Plains in
Fauquier County. It was not long before white hunters or friendly
Indians brought the news to the settlements and the Virginians, still
having sporadic troubles with the Iroquois and Susquehannocks in these
backwoods, viewed the incursion of another tribe with great alarm. They
immediately sought to induce the newcomers to return to Maryland but
this they suavely, though none the less stubbornly, refused to do. At
length in 1699, feeling the loss of their normal and accustomed diet of
fish, they, of their own accord, broke up their camp and traversing the
forests of the present Loudoun, settled on what has since been known as
Conoy Island in the Potomac at the Point of Rocks. There had recently
occurred several murders of English settlers by Indians, probably roving
Iroquois; and Stafford County--which some years before, had come into
existence to cover this upper country and was to include all this
northern piedmont wilderness until through increasing settlement, it was
separately formed into Prince William County in 1731--was again in fine
ferment over the whole Indian menace. By direction of Governor
Nicholson, the county sent two of its officers, Burr Harrison of
Chipawansic and Giles Vandercastel whose plantation was on the upper
Accotink, to summon the "Emperor" of the Conoy Piscataways to
Williamsburg. Mounted on horseback and, we may believe well armed, the
two intrepid emissaries promptly set out upon their mission, travelling
it is thought, an Indian trail about a mile or more south of the
Potomac, which is in its course approximately followed by the present
Alexandria Pike, and fording as well as they could the various creeks
which run into that stream from the south. The Governor had ordered that
they keep a record of their journey and a description of their route and
the land traversed and complying with those instructions they wrote the
first detailed description of any part of Loudoun. Their report exactly
complied with the Governor's orders as to its scope and became a
document of primary importance in Loudoun's history. It reads:
"In obedience to His Excellency's command and an order of this Corte
bearing date the 12th day of this Instance, April," (1699) "We, the
subscribers have beene with the Emperor of Piscataway, att his forte,
and did then Comand him, in his Maj'tys name, to meet his Excellency in
a General Assembly of this his Maj'ties most Ancient Colloney and
Dominion of Virginia, the ffirst of May next or two or three days
before, with sume of his great men. As soone as we had delivered his
Excellency's Commands, the Emperor summons all his Indians thatt was
then at the forte--being in all about twenty men. After consultation of
almost two oures, they told us they were very bussey and could not
possibly come or goe downe, but if his Excellency would be pleased to
come to him, sume of his great men should be glad to see him, and then
his Ex-lly might speake whatt he hath to say to him if Excellency could
nott come himself, then to send sume of his great men, ffor he desired
nothing butt peace.
"They live on an Island in the middle of the Potomack River, its aboutt
a mile long or something Better, and aboute a quarter of a mile wide in
the Broaddis place. The forte stands att ye upper End of the Island butt
nott quite ffinished, & theire the Island is nott above two hundred and
ffifty yards over; the bankes are about 12 ffoot high, and very heard to
asend. Just at ye lower end of the Island is a Lower Land, and Little or
noe Bank; against the upper end of the Island two small Island, the one
on Marriland side, the other on this side, which is of about fore acres
of Land, & within two hundred yards of the fforte, the other smaller and
sumthing nearer, both ffirme land, & from the maine to the fforte is
aboute foure hundred yards att Leaste--not ffordable Excepte in a very
dry time; the fforte is about ffifty or sixty yardes square and theire
is Eighteene Cabbins in the fforte and nine Cabbins without the forte
that we Could see. As for Provitions they have Corne, they have Enuf and
to spare. We saw noe straing Indians, but the Emperor sayes that the
Genekers Lives with them when they att home; also addes that he had maid
peace with all ye Indians Except the ffrench Indians; and now the
ffrench have a minde to Lye still themselves; they have hired theire
Indians to doe mischief. The Distance from the inhabitance is about
seventy miles, as we conceave by our Journeys. The 16th of this Instance
April, we sett out from the Inhabitance, and ffound a good Track ffor
five miles, all the rest of the days's Jorney very Grubby and hilly,
Except sum small patches, but very well for horses, tho nott good for
cartes, and butt one Runn of any danger in a ffrish, and then very bad;
that night lay at the sugar land, which Judge to be forty miles. The
17th day we sett ye River by a small Compasse, and found it lay up N.
W. B. N., and afterwards sett it ffoure times, and always ffound it
neere the same Corse. We generally kept about one mile ffrom the River,
and a bout seven or Eight miles above the sugar land, we came to a broad
Branch of a bout fifty or sixty yards wide, a still or small streeme, it
tooke our horses up to the Belleys, very good going in and out; about
six miles ffarther came to another greate branch of about sixty or
seventy yeards wide, with a strong streeme, making ffall with large
stones that caused our horses sume times to be up to theire Bellyes, and
sume times nott above their Knees; So we conceave it a ffreish, then not
ffordable, thence in a small Track to a smaller Runn, a bout six miles,
Indeferent very, and soe held on till we came within six or seven miles
of the forte or Island, and then very Grubby, and greate stones standing
Above the ground Like heavy cocks--they hold for three or ffoure miles;
and then shorte Ridgges with small Runns, untill we came to ye forte or
Island. As for the number of Indeens, there was att the fforte about
twenty men & aboute twenty women and abbout Thirty children & we mett
sore. We understand theire is in the Inhabitance a bout sixteene. They
informed us there was sume outt a hunting, butt we Judge by theire
Cabbins theire cannot be above Eighty or ninety bowmen in all. This is
all we Can Report, who subscribes ourselves
"Yo'r Ex'lly Most Dutifull Servants
GILES VANDERASTEAL
BUR HARRISON."
This "Sugar land" where our emissaries spent the first night of their
journey, and the Sugarland Run passing through and named from it, are
frequently referred to in the early records and the mouth of the Run
became in 1798 the starting point of Loudoun's corrected southern
boundary line with Fairfax. They derived their name from the groves of
sugar maples found growing there which, with the use of their sap, were
well known to the Indians from earliest times. In 1692 David Strahane
"Lieut. of the Rangers of Pottomack" tells in his journal that while
patrolling the upper woods, he and his men on the 22nd September "Ranged
due North till we came to a great Runn that made into the sugar land, &
we marcht down it about 6 miles & ther we lay that night." The wording
quite clearly shows that the sugar land was then well known to the
whites.
Although, as their report shews, Vandercastel and Harrison reached their
goal and duly delivered their message, the Piscataways did not then or
later comply with the Governor's pressing invitation. That their
attitude was not prompted by defiance but rather by worried caution
based on their appreciation of the manifold difficulties of their then
relations with the whites, is indicated by the report of two other
English envoys who, later in the same year, were sent by the authorities
to Conoy. These men, Giles Tillett and David Straughan, kept a journal
from which we learn that in November, 1699, they in their turn reached
the fort and found that "one Siniker" (i.e. Seneca or Iroquois) was
among the Piscataways who had had trouble with "strange Indians" who
they called Wittowees and that the "Suscahannes" had captured and
brought two of these Wittowees to the fort. The "Emperor" received the
Englishmen very kindly and told them that he was then willing to "come
to live amongst the English againe but he was afeared the sstrange
Indians would follow them and due mischief amongst the English, and he
should be blamed for it, soe he must content himselfe to live there." He
accused the French of stirring up these "strange Indians" and "presents
his services to the Gove'n'r, and thanks him for his Kindness to send
men to see him to know how he did."
Our friend the Emperor shews his knowledge of statecraft. Doubtless he
continued to find plausible reasons for holding on to Conoy where he and
his people complacently continued to remain until after the
Spotswood-Iroquois Treaty of 1722 which had such a broad effect on
Loudoun and which we shall presently consider. During this long
occupation of the island, the Piscataways finished building and occupied
their fort and village and to this day evidence of their tenure, in
arrowheads and other objects, is still, from time to time, discovered.
The journey of Harrison and his companion Vandercastel is important to
Loudoun not only because it resulted in the first known description of
any of the topography of what is now that county, but also because it
marks the first definitely known white exploration of the locality above
the Sugarland Run and while unknown English hunters may have theretofore
penetrated some part of Loudoun's wilderness, these men were, it is
believed, the first whites _named and recorded_ who ever trod Loudoun's
soil above the Sugarland. Vandercastel's connection with our story then
ends; but Burr Harrison became the progenitor of one of the most
prominent and respected families of the county which has now been
identified with its best life for five generations. He had been baptized
in St. Margaret's, Westminster, in 1637 and came with his father
Cuthbert Harrison of Ancaster, Yorkshire, to Virginia some time prior to
1669 when Burr, with others, patented land on Asmale Creek near
Occoquan. Afterward, but before 1679, he acquired land on the
Chipawansic, presumably from Gerrard Broadhurst. Therefore, to
distinguish him and his descendants from the other numerous and not
necessarily related Virginia Harrisons, he and they were thenceforward
usually known as the Harrisons of Chipawansic. It was not, however,
until 1811 that Burr Harrison's descendants in the male line took up
their permanent residence in Loudoun; in that year the widow of his
great-great-grandson Mathew Harrison moved with her children to
Morrisworth, an estate seven miles southeast of Leesburg, now the home
of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Fendall, which had come to her from her family
the Ellzeys of Dumfries, and there she continued to live until her
death.
In the year 1712 another courageous adventurer sought out Conoy. The
Swiss Baron Christopher de Graffenreid had been interested in forming a
colony of Germans, refugees from the lower Palatinate, at New Bern in
North Carolina and also having obtained authority to make a settlement
on the Shenandoah in Virginia's remote frontier, he proceeded to explore
the neighbourhood. He followed the Potomac up to Conoy Island and drew a
map of the surroundings. This map notes the great number of wild fowl on
the river, particularly at the mouth of Goose Creek. "There is in
winter," he wrote, "such a prodigious number of swans, geese and ducks
on this river from Canavest to the Falls that the Indians make a trade
of their feathers." Such a description is enough to reduce to envious
inanition our Loudoun Nimrod of today whose occasional reward of a few
wild ducks may at rare intervals reach the hardly hoped for bagging of a
single wild goose, as a rule now far too alert and wary to alight in
their spring and fall flights over the county. The wild swan has, alas,
wholly disappeared.
De Graffenreid's reference to the vast number of wild fowl on the upper
Potomac, in those early days, has abundant confirmation from others. So
numerous were the wild geese that the Indians called the river above the
falls "Cohongarooton" or Goose River and the English at first gave it
the same name; applying the name Potomac to only so much of the stream
as lay between the falls and the bay. It was not until well after 1730
that the whole river was generally called by the latter name.
The "Canavest" referred to by de Graffenreid was the village of the
Piscataways on Conoy and in his journal he describes it as "a very
pleasant and enchanting spot about forty miles above the falls of the
Potomac, we found a troop of savages there ... we made an alliance,
however with these Indians of Canavest, a very necessary thing in
connection with the mines which we hoped to find in that vicinity, as
well as on account of the establishment which we had resolved to make in
these parts of our small Bernese colony which we were waiting for. After
that we visited those beautiful spots of the country, those enchanted
islands in the Potomac above the falls." De Graffenreid's "mines" and
"establishments" were to be over the Blue Ridge in the nearby Shenandoah
Valley; but he shrewdly recognized the advisability of making friends
with a tribe so firmly and strategically planted as he found at the
settlement on Conoy. As to his "enchanted islands," those contiguous to
the Loudoun bank of the Potomac long have had Loudoun owners and seem to
its people to be sentimentally part of her domain; as a matter of cold
fact and colder law, they lie within the bounds of Maryland; for in 1776
the long dispute over the sovereignty of the Potomac was settled by a
clause in Virginia's Constitution of that year relinquishing
jurisdiction.
Two years before de Graffenreid's expedition, there arrived in Virginia
as Lieutenant Governor, Colonel (afterward Sir) Alexander Spotswood, the
most alert, devoted and able ruler the Colony had had since Smith--a man
"who still enjoys an almost unrivalled distinction among Virginia's
Colonial Governors"[4] and, says Howison, whose "chief advantage
consisted in his social and moral character, in which aspect it would
not be easy to find one of whom might be truly asserted so much that is
good and so little that is evil."[5] Spotswood came to love Virginia as
though it were his native land and great was the moral debt the Colony,
and especially the counties created from its old frontier, came to owe
to his strong and conscientious administration. Under a vicious practice
by that time obtaining in England, the titular governship of Virginia
had been held, since 1697, by George Hamilton Douglas, Earl of Orkney,
who though never setting foot in the Colony, drew £1,200 of the annual
salary of £2,000 attached to the office until his death in 1737; and
thus Spotswood, preëminent among Virginia's rulers, served but under a
lieutenant-governor's commission. A great-grandson of John Spottiswoode,
Archbishop of St. Andrew's and Lord High Chancellor of Scotland, who
lies buried in Henry VII's Chapel in Westminster Abbey, Spotswood
descended from an old and aristocratic Scottish family, whose
progenitor, a cadet of the great house of Gordon, married an heiress of
the ancient race of Spottiswoode which took its name from the Barony of
Spottiswoode in the Parish of Gordon, County of Berwick. Born in 1676 in
Tangier where his father Robert Spotswood then served as physician to
the English Governor and garrison, Spotswood "a tall robust man with
gnarled and wrinkled face and an air of dignity and power"[6] had, in
1704, fought valiantly under Marlborough and had been desperately
wounded in the battle of Blenheim. He brought with him recognition of
the right of Virginians to the writ of Habeas Corpus, which though,
since Magna Carta, the common heritage of every free-born Englishman,
had not theretofore run in Virginia. Had this been his all, Virginia
would have been his debtor; in the event it was but an augury of many
benefactions to follow.
[4] Dr. P. A. Bruce in _A Virginia Plutarch_.
[5] Howison's _History of Virginia_.
[6] Fiske's _Old Virginia and her Neighbours_.
From the first, Spotswood shewed a keen and enlightened interest in the
problems of the frontier. His efforts to expand the settlements westerly
and to subdue the Indians did not always meet with co-operation from the
Virginia legislature, controlled by representatives of the more
protected and densely settled tidewater sections, whose people, the
"Tuckahoes" as they were called, were frequently unresponsive to the
plight of those in the upper country; and from time to time Spotswood's
impatience with his legislators boiled up into strong and bluntly worded
reproof. To one of his assemblies, recalcitrant in Indian affairs, he
addressed his well remembered words of dismissal: "In fine I cannot but
attribute these miscarriages to the people's mistaken choice of a set of
representatives whom Heaven has not ... endowed with the ordinary
qualifications requisite to legislators; and therefore I dissolve you."
A few Spotswoods, scattered here and there in the seats of the mighty of
our modern America, might not prove inefficacious.
In May, 1717, we find him reporting upon the Indian situation to Paul
Methuen, the then English Secretary of State, that though the English
had carefully kept the terms of Lord Howard's Treaty of 1685, the
Iroquois "had committed divers hostilitys on our ffrontiers, in 1713
they rob-d our Indian Traders of a considerable cargo of Goods, the same
year they murdered a Gent'n of Acco't near his out Plantations; they
carried away some slaves belonging to our Inhabitants, and now threaten
not only to destroy our Tributary Indians but the English also in their
neighbourhood." He adds that such conduct requires "some Reparation" and
asks the Secretary to instruct the Governor of New York to cause his
Iroquois to "forebear hostilitys on the King's subjects of the
neighbouring Colonies and likewise any nation of Indians under their
protection."[7]
[7] _Official Letters of Alexander Spotswood._ Virginia Historical
Society, 1882.
Neither by temperament nor training was Spotswood a man to acquiesce in
such conditions. After consulting with and urging co-operation upon the
Governors of Maryland and Pennsylvania, he set out in the winter of
1717-'18 for New York "to demand something more substantial than the
bare promises of the Chief men of those Indians, w'ch they are always
very liberal of, in expectation of presents from the English, while at
the same time their young men are committing their usual depredations
upon ye Frontiers of these Southern Governments." He was fortunate in
arriving in New York "very opportunely to prevent the march of a Great
Body of those Indians w'ch I had Advice on the Road was intended chiefly
against the Tributaries of this Governm't, and the Governor of New
York's Messengers overtook them upon their march and obtained their
promise to Abstain from any hostilitys on the English Governments."
It being late in the season for a conference with the Sachems of the
Long House and the New York Assembly being in the "height of its
business and like to make a larger session than ordinary," Spotswood
arranged, through the Governor of New York, preliminary negotiations
with the Indians and returned to his Virginia.
The discussions thus begun dragged along during the ensuing five years.
At length, in 1721, the Iroquois sent their representatives to
Williamsburg with more definite proposals and in May, 1722, the General
Assembly passed an act reciting in detail the terms on which the treaty
would be made.[8] Later in the summer Spotswood, with certain of his
Council, went to New York on a man-of-war and thence proceeding to
Albany (where he was joined by the Governor of Pennsylvania) the new
treaty was closed after the usual endless speech making and other
ceremony. By its terms the Iroquois were prohibited from ever again
crossing the Potomac or the Blue Ridge "without the license or passport
of the Governor or commander-in-chief of the province of New York, for
the time being"; and the Virginia tributary Indians were similarly
prohibited from crossing the same boundaries. Moreover, there were
provisions that should any Indians--Iroquois or tributary--ignore the
prohibition, they were, upon capture and conviction, to be punishable by
death or transportation to the West Indies, there to be sold as slaves.
There was added a clause rewarding him who captured an Indian found in
Virginia without permission, with 1,000 pounds of tobacco when the
latter should be condemned to death; or, if he should be condemned to
transportation, the captor should "have the benefit of selling and
disposing of the said Indian, and have and receive to his own use, the
money arising from such sale."
[8] Hening IV, 103.
There was nothing ambiguous in this treaty's terms; the Iroquois in
signing it realized that their Piedmont hunting grounds were lost to
them and that the sportive raids of their war parties below the Potomac
were ended.
And now Spotswood's consulship had reached its end. His enemies in
London and Williamsburg had been industriously intriguing and upon his
return he found he had been superseded. He had acquired a vast estate of
over 45,000 acres in the Piedmont forests and to settle and improve
those lands he proceeded to devote his great and able energies. But he
had far from retired from his public labours. As Postmaster General for
the American Colonies he, by 1738, developed a regular mail service from
New England to the James; and was about to sail as a major-general on
Admiral Vernon's expeditions against Carthagena when he suddenly died.
He was buried on his estate, Temple Farm, near Yorktown, where latterly
he had made his home. It was in his mansion there, then owned by his
eldest daughter Ann Catherine and her husband M. Bernard Moore, Senior,
that many years later the negotiations for the surrender of Lord
Cornwallis to General Washington closed the American Revolution.
CHAPTER IV
SETTLEMENT
Although Spotswood's treaty, as we now know, had finally ended the
Indian menace in Piedmont, the Colonists had to be convinced of that
fact by reassuring experience before any great movement to the upper
lands would begin. There had been other treaties and, as they well knew
to their cost, Indian promise and performance were not always
consistent. The first ten years following the treaty, or from 1722 to
1732, are a twilight zone for Loudoun in which one has to depend on
fragmentary traditions and comparatively few grants as to actual
settlement; but after the latter year the records become increasingly
numerous and tradition more definite and the student stands on
progressively firmer ground. Slowly there grew a steady increase in
trappers and hunters to the cismontane region and then, gradually and
cautiously, the landless men, the poorer whites from the lower
settlements, the redemptioners or indentured servants who had fulfilled
their contracts of service, began to make their way by Indian trail or
through the untravelled woodlands. Very soon, however, there were
purchases of substantial tracts by a more prosperous class who began to
seat themselves upon their new possessions. They were a rough and sturdy
folk, those first poorer arrivals, illiterate for the most part, bred to
primitive conditions of living, many accustomed from birth to
self-reliance in meeting the problems of existence on a sparsely settled
land and wholly ignorant of the relative comforts of life enjoyed by the
prosperous planters in tidewater. They built their rude cabins of logs
in such places as seemed best to them, paying scant attention to land
titles and being in fact, for the most part, mere squatters on their
holdings; and there they planted small patches of corn and beans which,
with the abundant game in the woods and fish in the streams, provided
their liberal and hearty fare. It has been traditional that these
earliest pioneers found many open spaces burned over before their
arrival; for so prevalent had been the Indian habit of firing the woods,
that historians have suggested that had the coming of the Europeans to
Virginia been delayed for a few more centuries, its great forests would
have vanished before their arrival. Taylor records that the early whites
found the timber (probably second or younger growth) "far inferior in
size and beauty to what it is at present. Indeed it has been asserted
that in clearing ten acres of land there could hardly be obtained from
it sufficient material to enclose it;" but as he was a Quaker, living in
the midst of the Quaker settlement between the Catoctin range and the
Short Hills in the northern part of the county, whose people were in
habits and daily life somewhat isolated and up to Taylor's time at
least, given to keeping largely to themselves, we may assume that his
tradition applied more particularly to his locality. However, the
present writer, some twenty years ago, while improving a farm then owned
and occupied by him in the Catoctin hills, about four miles northeast of
Leesburg, had occasion to clear woodland for roads and gardens, he found
that none of the larger trees, many of them oaks, had rings indicating
an age of over two hundred years. Taylor, and following him Head, places
the responsibility of burning the forests upon the hunters (ranging over
the ground before the first settlers) who are said to have fired the
underbrush "the better to secure their quarries;" but it is
unquestionable that the Indians had preceded them in the practice. It
will be remembered that more than a hundred years before, Smith's
Manahoacs could not inform him of conditions _beyond_ the mountains
"because the woods were not burnt;" obviously in contrast to conditions
on the Piedmont side; and Beverly in his history, written in 1705, amply
confirms the Indian usage.
Although tradition tells us, and the absence of recorded grants
confirms, that these earliest settlers were mostly squatters, there had
been acquisition of large tracts within present Loudoun from the
Proprietor of the Northern Neck long before their arrival.
In an earlier chapter the title to the Northern Neck has been traced
down to the year 1681 when it vested for the most part in the second
Lord Colepeper and it is now time to continue its history. Upon
Colepeper's death, in 1689, his only child Catherine, with her mother,
inherited the Proprietary. This second Lady Culpeper, or Colepeper as
the name was then also spelled, was something of a character. By birth,
it seems, she was Dutch and had inherited from her own family both a
large fortune and an independent spirit, not infrequently found
together; and it was this fortune
"which enabled Lord Colepeper to hold together his large properties,
particularly the vast Northern Neck proprietary in the Colony of
Virginia. It was also her fortune which rescued from bankruptcy the
English property of her son-in-law, the fifth Lord Fairfax.... Lady
Colepeper, it appears, never succeeded in mastering the English
language. She both spoke and wrote it very imperfectly."[9]
[9] _An Historical Sketch of the two Fairfax Families in Virginia._
Lindsay Fairfax, (1913) p. 41. As to spelling of Culpeper or Colepeper,
see Fairfax Harrison's _Proprietors of the Northern Neck_; also 33
_Virginia Magazine History and Biography_, 223.
Lady Culpeper died in 1710. The daughter Catherine had, some years
before, married Thomas, fifth Lord Fairfax, Baron of Cameron in the
peerage of Scotland and, on her mother's death, the grant rested in
them; for in the meanwhile Alexander Colepeper also had died (1694) and
left his one-sixth interest to Lady Margaret Colepeper, the second
Lord's widow. The fifth Lord Fairfax, dying in 1710, left three sons
(all of whom later died without issue) and it was the eldest of these,
Thomas, who inherited the title and became the sixth Lord. This sixth
Lord Fairfax had been born in England in 1691 and came later to
Virginia, living out his long life as something of a misogynistic
recluse (due, it is said, to an unfortunate love affair in early life
with a mercenary adventuress) at his seat Greenway Court, then in the
wilderness of Frederick County, where he died in 1781. Today his body
rests in Christ Church, Winchester. He it was who became the friend and
patron of the youthful George Washington and who fills so large a part
in the history of the Northern Neck.
The family of Fairfax had long been seated in Yorkshire where the men
were something more than typical English squires, often rising to
positions of much national as well as local importance. It traced its
descent from Richard Fairfax, Lord Chief Justice of England in the reign
of Henry VI. Sir Thomas Fairfax accompanied the Earl of Essex to France
and was knighted for bravery in the camp before Rouen. On the 4th May,
1627, he was created a Baron of Scotland with the title of Lord Fairfax
of Cameron, which not very glorious honour he purchased for the sum of
£1,500.[10] His son, Sir Ferdinando, was a general in the Parliamentary
Army during the English civil war, becoming the second Baron, and the
latter's son Sir Thomas, later third Baron, was commander-in-chief of
the Parliamentary Armies and a most capable soldier. Becoming
dissatisfied with the extreme policies of the Parliamentary party, he
resigned his position in 1650 and was succeeded by Oliver Cromwell. This
third Baron died in 1671, without male issue, and the title then passed
to his cousin Henry, grandson of the first Lord. Upon his death, in
April, 1688, he was succeeded by his son Henry as the fifth Lord Fairfax
who has already been mentioned as the husband of Catherine Culpeper.
[10] Neill's _Fairfaxes of England and America_, p. 8. (1868.)
The fifth Lord Fairfax, although his marriage brought the great
Proprietary into the family, seems to have been dissolute and
extravagant. When he died in London, on the 6th of January, 1710, his
affairs were in great disorder and it is said that at that time "his
servant who attended him robbed him of the little money he had left."
His widow, however, was a woman of thrift and character and intent on
guarding her Virginia patrimony for the benefit of her sons. In 1702
Robert Carter had been appointed local agent for the Proprietary; but
after her husband's death Lady Fairfax became dissatisfied with his
conduct of its affairs and the revenues she was receiving and appointed
in his place Edmund Jenings and Thomas Lee (then only twenty-one years
of age) as resident agents. As Jenings was unable to go to Virginia at
the time, young Lee found himself for four years in sole charge; and a
most conscientious and capable agent he became and continued until
Jenings came to Virginia in 1717 and took matters into his own hands.
This Jenings was a man of considerable prominence who later was to
serve, for a short time, as acting governor awaiting the arrival of
Spotswood. After the death of Lady Fairfax, her testamentary trustees
"turned again to Micajah Perry[11] for help and he pursuaded Robert
Carter to agree once more to assume the agency"[12] (1722) which he
continued to hold until his death ten years later. The Virginia office
of the estate then remained closed until 1734 when Lord Fairfax
appointed his cousin William Fairfax (whose son Bryan by his second wife
Deborah Clarke of Salem, Massachusetts, was eventually to succeed to the
title as the eighth Lord and in whose descendants the title still
remains) to act as collector of rents. In 1736 Lord Fairfax himself
assumed the management in Virginia for a short time; once more the
office was closed until in 1739 we find William Fairfax again in charge,
this time with more extensive powers until Lord Fairfax returned to
Virginia in 1745 and took upon himself control for the rest of his life.
[11] Micajah Perry, the great Virginia merchant of London.
[12] _Landmarks of Old Prince William_, I, 231.
We are thus introduced to two more men who, in themselves and their
families, had paramount rôles to play in and about the territory now
Loudoun; and between whom there was to develop no little rivalry and
conflict of personal ambitions and interests. Lee, himself between 1717
and 1719 a purchaser of several thousand acres of wilderness lying on
either side of Goose Creek, had been born in 1690 at the family home Mt.
Pleasant in Westmoreland County and eventually became "President[13] and
Commander-in-Chief" of Virginia, as he is described in his will. He was
a grandson of that Richard Lee of a family long in possession of the
estate of Coton in Shropshire who, coming to Virginia sometime prior to
1642, first settled in that part of York which subsequently became
Gloucester, later moved to Northumberland and became the progenitor of a
family ever since of outstanding importance in the Northern Neck and
Virginia. Carter, a later purchaser of land on a truly vast scale, whose
father Colonel John Carter, believed to have been the son of William
Carter of Carstown, Hertfordshire and of the Middle Temple, had come to
Virginia prior to 1649 and first settled in upper Norfolk, now
Nansemond County, came to wield an even greater power than his long-time
rival. Our Robert Carter, (1663-1732) the "King Carter" of towering
memory, was the second surviving son, and his residence Corotoman was in
Lancaster County. The descendants of both Lee and Carter continued for
many years to hold great estates in Loudoun. One of Lee's grandsons,
Thomas Ludwell Lee, built Coton (long since vanished) about 1800 and
another grandson Ludwell Lee built about the same time and just across
the highway, the beautiful Belmont, that home of irresistible charm;
while in 1802 George Carter, great-grandson of the mighty Robert, built
and occupied Oatlands. Both Lee and Carter and their families and the
great mansions built in Loudoun by their descendants will receive later
mention.[14]
[13] President of the Council.
[14] Chapter XIII.
Unfortunately for the development of parts of the southern and
southeastern portion of the county, the purchase of these great tracts
by Lee, Carter and others greatly delayed their settlement and this to
the disadvantage of the owners as well as the neighborhood. Even Lord
Fairfax is found setting off to himself large specific tracts.[15] It
was their intention to create hereditary landed estates, modelled on
those existing in England and to be farmed by a numerous class of yeoman
tenantry. But as the very type of farmer-settler most desired as tenants
by the great owners came in, they early and strongly evinced that
determination, common to all in the Colonies, to hold their land in a
freehold that could be passed on indefinitely to their children and thus
insure to them the benefit of their parents' industry and thrift rather
than to become tenants for a limited period of any great estate; and
this no matter how advantageous or tempting the proffered terms of
tenancy. Under then existing conditions, with the supply of new and
cheaply purchasable land seemingly inexhaustible if one had but the
determination and courage to push on to the newer frontier, they went
beyond the great manors, as they came to be called, and seated
themselves in the upper lands or crossed the Blue Ridge to the
Shenandoah Valley. Eventually and much later, when parts of the manors
were sold, it was often in comparatively large parcels and these and the
remaining portions were, as a rule, farmed with slave labor, a custom
practically nonexistent in the northwest part of the county. Thus the
relative thinness of settlement, persisting to this day, of much of the
lower lands of Loudoun may be attributed not wholly to the fact that the
stronger and more fertile lands lay above Goose Creek but in part to the
social history of those early days as well.
[15] The well known Leeds Manor in Fauquier was one; named for Leeds
Castle, the Fairfax seat in Kent.
The first specific grant of land in the later Loudoun appears long
before the treaty of 1722. Under date of the 2nd February, 1709, Captain
Daniel McCarty "of the Parish of Cople in the County of Westmoreland,
Esq." obtained title to 2,993 acres "above the falls of the Potowmack
River, beginning on said River side at the lower end of the Sugar Land
Island opposite to the upper part of the rocks in said River,"[16]
apparently for speculation or investment rather than for immediate
occupation; the number and character of the Indians still to be
encountered thereabout made settlement on isolated plantations or farms
far too risky to be inviting to rich or poor. This Daniel McCarty was
the founder of another eminent family of the Northern Neck which
intermarried in early days with many of the best known of the early
Potomac gentry. He subsequently married, as her second husband, Ann,
sister to Thomas Lee already mentioned, and widow of Colonel William
Fitzhugh of Eagle's Nest in King George County. The joining together of
the prominent families of the lower peninsula began very early and by
the closing years of the eighteenth century had gone so far that almost
all were in very truth "Virginia cousins" of various degrees and through
numerous alliances. Indeed this became so general that the social status
of any family, tracing back to that period and locality, can generally
be determined merely by the test of its affinities.
[16] Land Patents Book, III, 248.
It is remarkable that the literature of romance has concerned itself so
little with Daniel McCarty. His ancestry, his own life and that of his
descendants unite in offering the richest material but, save in the
traditions of Virginia, he is today all but unknown. He was the son of
Donal, the son of Donough, Earl of Clancarty. Donal was an officer in
the Irish Army that fought against King William and was ruined with its
defeat. The Earl and his descendants were exiled and Daniel came to
Virginia as a youth and settled in Westmoreland County. The Earls of
Clancarty were the heads of a family descended from Cormac who was King
of Munster in 483; and Burke, the great authority on the British
peerage, declares that "few pedigrees in the British Empire, if any, can
be traced to a more remote or more exalted source" than theirs; while
another authority asseverates that "long before the founders of the
oldest royal families of Europe, before Rudolph acquired the empire of
Germany, or a Bourbon ascended the throne of France, Cormac McCarty
ruled over Munster and the title of King was at least continued in name
in his posterity down to the reign of Elizabeth."[17] Daniel's eldest
son and heir, Colonel Dennis, married Sarah Ball, first cousin to Mary
Ball, mother of General Washington; and Augustine Washington, the
general's father, named him as one of the executors of his will. It was
another descendant of Captain Daniel who was surviving principal in the
famous McCarty-Mason duel over a century later--an event that so
profoundly stirred the country and cost the life of one of the most
prominent and beloved citizens of the Loudoun of that day.[18]
[17] Journal Cork Historical and Genealogical Society, 2nd Series, Vol.
II, p. 213.
[18] Captain Daniel's descent is given in _The McCarthys in Early
American History_, by Michael J. O'Brien, who corrects Hayden's
assumption that Daniel was the son of Dennis of Lynn Haven, Lower
Norfolk. Also see Chapter XIV.
Francis Aubrey became a large purchaser of Loudoun land soon after the
Iroquois evacuation, first obtaining a grant at the mouth of Broad Run
about 1725. Among the tracts he later acquired was a grant of about 962
acres purchased on the 19th December, 1728 from Lord Fairfax on or near
which later he built a home and lived. Nothing of this early house has
survived; but we know that it was near the "Big Spring" then as now a
conspicuous landmark on the old Carolina Road and about two miles north
of the present Leesburg. Probably "the Chappel above Goose Creek" of
the Truro Vestry books, the Chapel of Ease or convenient neighbourhood
church, the building of which was supervised by him for the Parish, was
immediately adjacent to his home and the location of that structure, the
first church edifice of any kind to be erected within the bounds of
present Loudoun, is known within a fair degree of accuracy and in 1926
with appropriate ceremonies, was marked with a stone monument.[19]
[19] Aubrey's house is shewn on Robert Brooke's survey (1737) of the
Potomac River below the Shenandoah. Original of survey is in Enoch Pratt
Library, Baltimore; photostat copy is in Library of Congress.
Hamilton Parish was coextensive with Prince William County when the
latter was created in 1731. By a legislative act of May, 1732, that part
of Prince William lying above "the river Ockoquan, and the Bull Run (a
branch thereof) and a course thence to the Indian thoroughfare of the
Blue Ridge of Mountains" (Ashby's Gap) was set off as Truro Parish and a
Parish organization promptly followed. The new Parish was named for
Truro in Cornwall, a great mining district, for mining was expected to
be an important industry there. The first Vestry meeting was held on the
7th November, 1732; at a meeting held on the 16th April, 1733, an
agreement was made with the Rev. Lawrence De Butts to preach at the
Parish Church and "at the Chappell above Goose Creek" for 8,000 pounds
of tobacco, clear of the warehouse charges and abatements. The chapel
was then either contemplated or preliminary work on its construction may
have been begun; it was not finished until 1736. But during that
interval it is obvious, from the Vestry records, that occasional
services were held there--perhaps at first in the open air or at the
nearby house of Aubrey and thereafter in the unfinished chapel. At a
Vestry meeting held on the 12th October, 1733, Joseph Johnson was chosen
"Reader to the new Church and the Chappell above Goose Creek.... In the
Parish Levy for this year provision is made for 2,500 pounds of tobacco
to Captain Francis Aubrey toward building the Chapel above Goose Creek,
and the next year the same amount and in 1735, 4,000 pounds for
finishing said chapel."[20] Thus the construction of the chapel cost
the Parish 9,000 pounds of tobacco which about this time seems to have
been valued at eleven shillings per 100 pounds,[21] making the money
cost of the chapel about £49" 10s in Virginia currency or much less in
the more stable money of England. Undoubtedly it was built of logs from
the trees in its immediate vicinity and we may assume that it was very
small.
[20] _History of Truro Parish_, by Rev. Philip Slaughter, D.D., Edited
by Rev. Edward L. Goodwin, p. 7.
[21] Idem, 16.
At a Vestry meeting held on the 18th November, 1735, a payment of 1,000
pounds of tobacco was ordered made to Samuel Hull, Clerk of the Chapel
above Goose Creek. In a meeting nearly a year later, on the 11th
October, 1736, the Vestry ordered "that the Reverend Mr. John Holmes
Minister of this Parish preach six times in each year at the Chappell
above Goose Creek; and it is also ordered, that the Sundays he preached
at the said Chappell the sermon shall be taken from the new Church;" but
Mr. Holmes' ministry seems to have been somewhat irregular for at the
bottom of the page is found this note signed by the Rev. Charles Green
"the first regular Rector of Truro Parish":
"The Levity of the members of the Vestry is worth notice. They applyed
to Collo. Colvill & entered an order, 23d Sept. 1734 for him to procure
them a Clergyman from England. By the order on the other page they gave
Cha. Green a title to the Psh. when ordained, and he had scarcely left
the country when they received Mr. John Holmes into the parish as
appears by the above order. N.B. Mr. Holmes was an Itinerant Preacher
without any orders, & recd. Contrary to Law."
This Dr. Green, for he was a physician before becoming a clergyman, was
"received into, and entertained as Minister" of Truro Parish at a Vestry
meeting held on the 13th day of August, 1737. At the same meeting it was
"ordered that the Churchwardens place the people that are not already
placed, in Pohick and the new Churches in pews, according to their
several ranks and degrees." Also "Ordered that the Reverend Mr. Charles
Green preach four times in a year only, at the Chappell above Goose
Creek. And that the Sundays he preaches at the Chappell, the sermon
shall be taken from the new Church."
At a meeting on the 3rd October, 1737, the Vestry appropriated "To
Francis Aubrey gent. for finding books for the Chappell 200 pounds
tobacco." Also
"Whereas the Rev. Charles Green hath this day agreed with the Vestry to
take the tobacco levied to purchase books for the Chappell above Goose
Creek and ornaments for the Churches, at the rate of eleven shillings
current money per hundred. He by the said agreement obliging himself to
find and provide the said books and ornaments, being allowed fifty per
cent. upon the first cost in accounting with the Church-Wardens. It is
ordered that the collector pay to the said Green the sum of 8000 pounds
of tobacco, it being the quantity this day levied for the purpose
aforesaid."
At a Vestry meeting held on the 15th April, 1745, it was ordered that
Messrs. John West, Ellsey and French view what necessary repairs were
wanting at Goose Creek Chapel and agree with workmen therefor.
That seems to be the extent of the Truro Parish records concerning the
"Chappell." It is believed to have been in use until about 1812 and
thereafter utterly disappeared.[22] In 1742 Fairfax County was created,
consisting of the Parish of Truro. In October, 1748, the Assembly passed
an act dividing Truro Parish at Difficult Run and the upper part became
Cameron Parish, in delicate compliment to the Lord Proprietor's Barony;
but most unfortunately the Vestry book of Cameron, which would be
invaluable source material for the Loudoun student seeking information
for the period from 1748 until after the Revolution, seems to have
wholly disappeared or been destroyed.[23] The Chapel had from its
beginning until it became a part of Cameron Parish, that is from 1733 to
1748, these Clerks and Lay Readers:
Joseph Johnson, new or Falls Church and Goose Creek 1733-1735
Samuel Hull, Goose Creek, 1736-1740
John Richardson, 1741-1745
John Alden, 1745-1746
John Moxley, 1747
Thomas Evans, 1748
[22] _Landmarks of Old Prince William_, 304.
[23] Chapter X post.
Aubrey is believed to have been the son of John Aubrey or Awbrey of
Westmoreland, was an ally and close friend of Thomas Lee and, from his
appearance in what is now Loudoun until his death in 1741, was of such
dominant importance that he has been called its then "first citizen."
When the county of Prince William was set off from Stafford in 1731, he
became a member of its first Court and, in 1732, "the inspector of the
Pohick warehouse and a member of the Truro Vestry." Two years before his
death he became the Sheriff of Prince William County and, at about the
same time, established the ferry at the Point of Rocks.[24]
[24] _Landmarks of Old Prince William_, 148 and 155.
But before Francis Aubrey settled at Big Spring, Philip Noland in 1724
had purchased land at the mouth of Broad Run. He married Aubrey's
daughter Elizabeth and later removed to lands on the Potomac above the
mouth of the Monocacy which his wife had inherited from her father. As
early as 1758 and probably before, Noland operated a ferry across the
Potomac from his new plantation to the Maryland side; thus joining the
Maryland and Virginia sections of the Carolina Road, from the earliest
days of local history a main artery of travel between north and
south.[25] It was in this immediate vicinity that he built the mansion
he was destined never to finish and which still stands incomplete, a
most interesting example of one of the earliest of the more pretentious
homes of Loudoun.
[25] Chapter VI post.
CHAPTER V
THE MELTING POT
Thus far we have been noting the arrival of Virginians from Tidewater.
Rich or poor, great landowners or squatters, gentlemen of position and
influence or the mere riff-raff of the settlements, with all the varying
gradation between those extremes, they had at least in common their
English blood and traditions and being the product of Virginia life,
either through birth or years of residence. It is now time to consider
other and wholly dissimilar strains which, during this period of early
settlement, were coming into the newly opened country and which were to
have such a lasting influence on its population.
As early as 1725 there was, it is said, a group of Irish immigrants
which had established itself on the Virginia bank of the Potomac,
opposite the mouth of the Monocacy. This particular cluster had come
from Maryland having, perhaps, been attracted to the large grant between
the Monocacy and the Point of Rocks which, before 1700, had been
acquired by the first Charles Carroll, founder of his family in Maryland
who, when he acquired the land on the Monocacy, was acting as Agent for
Maryland's Proprietor, Lord Baltimore. Later his grandson, another
Charles Carroll, inherited the grant, added greatly thereto, bestowed
upon it the name of Carrollton Manor and in signing the _Declaration of
Independence_ as Charles Carroll of Carrollton, gave it and himself
immortality. The Carrolls were Irish and Roman Catholics; perhaps they
had encouraged these newcomers to go out to their great holdings on the
Monocacy where life could be begun anew and there was less danger of
interference with their religion than in the strongly Protestant east.
However, whether encouraged or not, our particular covey of Irish seem
eventually to have crossed to the Virginia shore and there planted
themselves with small formality and no title. All was wilderness on both
sides of the Potomac. The matter of a legal title was probably the least
of our adventurers' troubles.
In the first half-century following the founding of Jamestown, few Irish
were to be encountered in Virginia. The Colony was overwhelmingly
English with, it is true, occasional Welsh, Irish and Scotch here and
there; but these were accidental and the basic and dominating race of
the settlers was so wholly Anglo-Saxon that the few others were
submerged and lost in the English flood. But between 1653 and 1660,
hundreds of unfortunate Irish, resisting Cromwell, were shipped as
political prisoners and little better than white slaves to Virginia and
the other Colonies. Again, after the defeat in 1690 of James II and his
Irish supporters by William III at the Battle of the Boyne and the
resultant Treaty of Limerick the next year, great numbers of the Irish
were banished or condemned to transportation and of these many were sent
to Maryland and Virginia where as servants or labourers on the land,
their services were in demand. While the majority thus transported were
ignorant peasants, feudal vassals of their lords, the "Kerns and
gallowglasses" of Macaulay, numbers of the nobility and gentry were
exiled as well, of which we have already recorded a prominent example in
Daniel McCarty. Inasmuch as those transported were so treated as
punishment for their uprising in favour of James and against the de
facto English government of William, they were stigmatized as criminals,
although, as shown, their offense was purely political. But Irish
offenders against the penal laws other than political were also from
time to time condemned to transportation and as the demand for labourers
by wealthier planters in Virginia grew and until negro slaves later were
generally available to them, there was also much kidnapping of wholly
innocent Irish who, too, were taken to the Colonies and sold into
servitude. Among this heterogeneous mass of unfortunates there were
undoubtedly many who were disorderly, depraved and vicious and who, we
know, subsequently gave great trouble to the Virginians; but to classify
all the Irish forcibly transported as criminals or lawless would be as
unjust as it would be untrue. It well may be borne in mind that to most
of the English, they were a strange, impulsive and foreign people and
equally or even more damning, Romanists in an intensely anti-Roman
community. As such, we may well believe, they seldom enjoyed the benefit
of a doubt of their inherent depravity.
The town of Waterford was, according to tradition, founded by an
Irishman, one Asa Moore, who is reputed to have built his, the first
house there in 1732, naming the new settlement for the place of his
nativity. Later it received many English, Scotch-Irish, Germans and,
particularly, Quakers to whom it largely owed the prosperity and
progress it was then to enjoy.
During the interminable wars of the seventeenth century--in ghastly
refutation as they were of those blissful dreams of the solidarity of
Europe and that international brotherhood of peace and culture so fondly
entertained by the Erasmian school only a few generations before--few
parts of that same Europe had suffered more hideously than the land
known as the Palatinate along the Rhine. The so-called Thirty Years War,
from 1618 to 1648, brought devastation particularly to its lower
portion. In 1688 its whole territory was invaded again by the French of
Louis XIV--an invasion which, for sheer savage brutality to the people
there and the inconceivable atrocities perpetrated on them, is difficult
to parallel in the annals of civilized nations but which, with its
certain legacies of distrust and hatred, is somewhat conveniently
forgotten by the professional French patriot of today. The land was
reduced to little more than a desert and such of its inhabitants as
survived, to the utmost want and privation. For nine years, until the
Treaty of Ryswick (1697), the French scourging of the land ground it to
dust. A few years of quiet followed, in which the poor Palatines sought
to restore their ruined towns and farms but fate seemed resolved on
their annihilation. In 1703 another war, that of the Spanish Succession,
broke out and raged until 1713 and the Palatinate again and again was
overrun by hostile armies. It was during these years and after, that
those left with the breath of life in their bodies appeared to give up
hope of ever again occupying their homeland in peace. A great emigration
began, ten thousand fugitives first going to England where they were
received kindly by Queen Anne and her people and given much aid; but, in
an England where work was none too plentiful, the Germans soon became an
economic and social problem. About 3,800 were sent to Ireland where, in
Munster, their descendants are still to be found; but many more were
sent to America, some to New York but the greater number to
Pennsylvania. In the latter Colony they were so well received that they
sent back word encouraging others to follow them; and soon the harassed
Germans began to arrive in such swarms that between 40,000 and 50,000
are believed to have come to Pennsylvania between 1702 and 1727, wholly
changing its complexion. The Colony's Governor, George Thomas, writing
to the Bishop of Exeter in 1747 stated his belief that the Germans then
comprised three-fifths of the population of that Province. But of the
early arrivals many of the most impoverished worked out toward the
cheaper and still wild lands on the then frontier and thence south
through the strong and fertile regions of western Maryland.
Meanwhile Virginia had been encouraging settlements of refugee Europeans
on her frontiers in an effort to form buffer groups between the inimical
French and Indians to the north and the seated parts of her domain. In
1730 a grant of 10,000 acres on the Shenandoah River was made to one
Stover for settlement by Germans who began to pour south from
Pennsylvania and Maryland and soon the Valley was taking on that
perceptible Teutonic colour with which it is still dyed.
In 1731 there came to the present Loudoun the first colony of Germans
from the Valley. Of all the early settling it is doubtful if any was
more intelligently planned or more reasonably could anticipate success.
Instead of a few individuals pioneering in haphazard fashion, there was
a compact and homogeneous group of about sixty families, the men almost
without exception artisans of various trades or peasants skilled in
thrifty farming; and their lot had heretofore been so harsh and their
fortune so adverse that the hardships inseparable from making a new home
in the wilderness were, by comparison, a kindly dispensation of a
hitherto hostile fate. On crossing the Blue Ridge they and those
following them settled the land between the Catoctin Mountains and the
Short Hills, north of the present Morrisonville, which from that time on
has been known as the German Settlement and than which no part of
Loudoun has been more industriously and providently farmed. Little
those early Teutons spent on luxury or even comfort; a sound and certain
living was their objective and the land and its increase, rather than
ornate dwellings, received their uttermost effort. Even as late as 1853,
Yardley Taylor was moved to record that their "farms are generally small
and well cultivated and the land rates high. This class of population
seldom goes to much expense in building houses ... many old log houses
that are barely tolerable are in use by persons abundantly able to build
better ones." But if their houses were primitive, the occupants were
generally prosperous and free from debt and in later years comfortable
and commodious farmhouses have taken the place of the earlier cabins.
These earliest Germans, having neither speech nor habits in common with
their neighbours, developed a self-sustained and independent community
wholly different and set off from those of others around them and to
this day their locality measurably carries on its distinctive life.
Following so closely upon the advent of the Germans that there has
arisen some dispute as to which actually entered first, we find the
arrival of the Quakers. "In 1733 Amos Janney left his residence at the
Falls of the Delaware in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and migrating to
Virginia with his family, established himself at Waterford"[26] and many
other Quakers soon joined him. Local tradition places, even earlier than
Janney, David Potts (another Pennsylvania Quaker) as a pioneer in the
northern part of the present county but no record confirms his presence
before the 16th November, 1746, when he leased 866 acres on "Kittockton
Run" from Catesby Cocke for five shillings in hand paid with right of
purchase. Legend may or may not be correct; the earliest settlers, as we
have seen, often seated themselves without title. Both Janney and Potts
were founders of well known families in the county where their
descendants still worthily bear their names. It is definitely known,
however, that soon the Quakers became very numerous; and as ever since
they have been such a conspicuous element in the diversified population
of the county, a brief narration of their story and migration is of
interest.
[26] _Landmarks of Old Prince William_, I., 267.
The "Friends" or "Quakers" as they were subsequently called, are a
religious sect founded by George Fox in England in 1647 when he was but
twenty-three years old. They owe their name of Quakers to their
tendency, in their early religious meetings, to have become so wrought
up in individual enthusiasm as to be seized with an emotional trembling
or quaking and the earlier Friends "definitely asserted that those who
did not know quaking and trembling, were strangers to the experience of
Moses, David and other Saints."[27] Their characteristic tenets included
the doctrine of non-resistance and opposition to all formalism in
religious services and as Fox began his activities at a time of intense
religious fanaticism met by relentless persecution, it was not long
before he and his followers were in open conflict with the constituted
authorities. From proselyting in public and interrupting conventional
religious services, the more extravagant of the zealots indulged in
activities which can only be ascribed to religious mania and the
authorities promptly met their challenge.[28] Merciless whippings,
dragging at cart-tails, the pillory, branding with hot irons and even
occasional execution were their fate; but in common with other religious
persecution their growth in number seems to have been coincident with
the most vigourous efforts made to suppress them. Fox, a man of humble
birth, with no advantages of formal education, possessed tireless energy
and great bodily vigour coupled with the assurance of a natural and
magnetic evangelist; and although equally detested by Churchmen and
Puritans and in conflict with every other religious body, his following
rapidly grew throughout England. Journeys by his proselytes to
continental America, the West Indies, Holland, Germany, Austria, Hungary
and Italy left converts where they preached and this was particularly so
in the American Colonies where Fox himself came in 1672.
[27] _Encyclopedia Britannica_, _"Friends, Society of."_
[28] Fiske's _Beginnings of New England_.
The first of the Colonies to hear Quaker preaching was Massachusetts in
1656, but Virginia was a close second; for in the following year Thomas
Thurston and Josiah Cole of Bristol arrived in the Old Dominion and are
said to have made a number of converts before they were promptly
banished. The Quakers were as little welcome in either Massachusetts or
Virginia as in England itself and both Colonies passed stringent laws
for their repression. Virginia ordained that any shipmaster found guilty
of smuggling in Quakers was to be fined £100 and upon the third return
of a Quaker after banishment, he was to be treated as a felon. But even
before the passage of the English Toleration Act of 1689 the persecution
had died down. By the end of the century they had so increased in number
that they were a major element in Rhode Island, controlled New Jersey
and Delaware and had, under William Penn in 1681, founded and were
supreme in Pennsylvania. Penn declared for liberty of conscience in the
Colony he termed his "experiment," with absolute religious freedom "for
Papists, Protestants, Jews and Turks"--if not an absolutely unique, at
least a sorely needed attitude in the seventeenth century religious
life. Thence forward Pennsylvania was to be a great centre of Quakerism
and from it mainly but also from Maryland, New York and other Colonies,
as well as directly from Great Britain, were recruited the Quakers of
Loudoun. Undoubtedly the familiar combination of economic pressure, the
cheaper and more fertile lands of the new settlement and the pioneering
spirit inherent in the British race explains the migration. It is
interesting to note that by 1694 a Quaker had become Governor of South
Carolina and that from 1725 to 1775 there was a constant flow of Friends
from Pennsylvania, New York, New England and Great Britain to that
State. As a main north-and-south highway, the famous Carolina Road,
passed through the Loudoun to be, doubtless many came that way and we
may believe that not a few of those emigrants joined their
coreligionists who they found living in such comfort and prosperity in
their fertile Virginia colony.
The Quakers of Loudoun had with characteristic shrewdness picked out for
their settlement that part of the far-famed Loudoun Valley, between the
Catoctin Hills and the Blue Ridge, that lies in the central part of the
present county--perhaps the best and most fertile land the county
boasts; and there the so-called "Quaker Settlement" continues to the
present time. In common with their German neighbours to the north, they
tended to form a more-or-less compact colony, segregated from the other
pioneers. They were frugal, industrious, far better farmers than their
Virginia neighbours; but between Germans and Quakers no love was lost
and, though each was isolated from the Tidewater element, there was
little or no intermingling. Nevertheless we find them occasionally
making common cause against the slaveholding portion of the community
and, in the next century in the War Between the States, both German and
Quaker adhered to the Federal cause and were, at least for the time
being, more than ever cut off from their then intensely Confederate
neighbours. Time has softened and gradually worn down these old-time
edges of difference and today, perhaps more than ever before, we find
the descendants of these earlier opponents living in concord and mutual
respect.
Our melting-pot is slowly filling. In the Scotch-Irish it now takes
another human ingredient as distinct from the Anglo-Saxon as were the
Germans or Irish but destined to make a major contribution not only to
the new population of the Piedmont but to that of Virginia generally and
the other Colonies as well. They were splendid pioneering material with
the persistent industry and frugality of the German and Quaker but,
unlike them, mixing freely with the other settlers, planting themselves
anywhere and everywhere they found conditions and lands to their liking
and so soon and freely intermarrying with their Virginia neighbours that
their blood today is found very generally mixed with the older Virginia
strain. Concerning their origin and history there has been much
misinformation and occasionally rather prejudiced and heated argument;
but the main facts are not obscure.
In the sixth century one of the Irish tribes known as the Scotti or
Scots, inhabiting the island then known as Scotia, but which we now call
Ireland, crossed the Irish Sea and made a mass descent on the west coast
of ancient Caledonia; and driving before them the Picts they found
occupying the land, they settled down in possession of their newly
conquered territory, covering roughly the present Argyle. Five centuries
later the descendants of these invaders, having waxed mightily in power
and numbers and become one of the four tribal kingdoms of Caledonia,
united with the others, the Picts, British and Angles, to make the
Kingdom of Scotland to which they gave their name and of which their
history thenceforth was a part. Thus apparently their future destiny was
fixed for all time in Scotland; but Providence had not forgotten them
and had other plans.
In all Ireland, never renowned for its meekness nor pacification, there
was in Elizabethan days and before, probably no part more constantly and
consistently embroiled than the Province of Ulster. More or less
continuous fighting between its people and Elizabeth's soldiers
gradually wore down the Irish and their final complete collapse came in
1607 when their native princes, the Earls of Tyrconnel and Tyrone,
deserted them and fled to the Continent. Thereupon the first James of
England, having succeeded Elizabeth, declared all the lands of the
Province forfeited and escheated to the English Crown, thus providing a
convenient and legal basis for dispossessing the native Irish of their
holdings, which the King thereupon undertook to repopulate with English
and Scotch. But the English did not view the King's inducements with
enthusiasm. Inasmuch as, in comparison with the Scotch, they "were a
great deal more tenderly bred at home in England, and entertained in
better quarters than they could find in Ireland, they were unwilling to
flock thither except to good land such as they had before at home, or to
good cities where they might trade, both of which in those days were
scarce enough" in Ulster.[29] But the Scotch, many of them from Argyle
found Ulster, their old homeland, to their liking and James, Scotch
himself, seems to have preferred them for his purpose. They came in
great numbers, took root immediately and soon were creating a peace and
prosperity in the Province unknown there for many a long day, their
ranks being later heavily augmented by Covenanters fleeing from the
persecution of Charles I. But between these Presbyterian newcomers and
the native Irish Roman Catholics, their neighbours, there was friction
and hostility from the beginning which has lasted unabated to the
present day.
[29] Testimony of a contemporary, the Rev. Andrew Stewart. _The
Scotch-Irish Settlers in the Valley of Virginia_, by Bolivar Christian.
Had the English government the wit and policy to have let this new
settlement alone all would have been well; but the England of those days
had yet to learn, from the costly experience of the American Revolution,
that art of governing colonies in which she is today without peer. After
the final crushing of the Irish at the Battle of the Boyne, in which the
new Ulster population was of no small assistance, the English merchants
grew jealous of the trade, manufactures and aggressive competition of
the Province and in 1698 succeeded in obtaining from Parliament
restrictive laws which all but ruined her industries, particularly in
linen and woolen then, as now, outstanding. And now to the ruin of their
trades was to be added religious coercion. Although, as we have seen, a
Toleration Act had been passed for England in 1689, it was not until
nearly one hundred years later that in 1782 the Toleration Act for
Ireland became law. From 1704 on there was a great effort to force the
Presbyterians of Ulster, as well as those of Scotland, to conform to the
English Church and those who refused were forbidden to keep schools,
marriages performed by their ministers were declared invalid and other
civil disabilities were imposed. By 1719 the people of Ulster had been
made desperate by this senseless interference and persecution and they,
too, began to flock to America. As with the others, the movement, once
started, grew rapidly and in this instance reached such proportions that
it became by far the greatest immigration that, until the later day of
steam, was to come to America's shores. Again Philadelphia appears to
have been the chief port to receive them, as many as six shiploads
landing there in one week alone. Before the emigration was eased by the
Toleration Act and a generally saner attitude in England, it is
estimated that half a million of the Scotch-Irish had crossed the
Atlantic, carrying with them a deep resentment toward England, for which
she later was to pay a heavy price in the stubborn and valiant support
these people and their descendants gave to the American side in the war
of the Revolution.
As most of these Scotch-Irish immigrants were very poor, many paid for
their passage by selling their services and labour for a term of years,
becoming a part of that flood of "indentured servants" which we shall
soon consider. Fairfax Harrison in his _Landmarks of Old Prince William_
vividly describes their advent and early distribution in the Northern
Neck. As soon as the earlier arrivals had worked out their contracted
years of servitude, Colonel Robert Carter, about 1723, began seating
them around Brent Town and Elk Marsh. But as their numbers grew, they
soon shewed a disinclination to become tenants, preferring to push
further into the wilderness "where they could and did take up small
holdings on the same terms that Colonel Carter took up his great ones
and in that process they scattered."[30] Being too poor to purchase
negro slaves and the supply of "redemptioners" or indentured servants by
that time beginning to diminish, they bought the cheaper convicts for
labourers and the Piedmont backwoods of the Proprietary acquired a
reputation for turbulence and lawlessness to which both master and
servant contributed his share. But they settled the land, planted
tobacco and corn as persistently and relentlessly as did their more
prosperous neighbours and in common with them laboured to develop the
future Loudoun.
[30] _Landmarks of Old Prince William_, I., 235.
To understand the status of the "indentured servants," who were so
numerous in the Virginia Colony and were such a large and important
factor in the population of the Northern Neck, it is well to first
consider the meaning of the term. In the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries the word servant was not at all confined to one who was
engaged in a menial task but broadly referred to anyone who, for
compensation, rendered service to another and it was customary in all
occupations, calling for especial training or instruction, to take on
apprentices "bound to serve for a certain time in consideration of
instruction in an art or trade"--the apprentice to be fed, lodged and
clothed by the master during the term and to give his labour and
services in compensation for his support and instruction. This custom
obtained not only in the various crafts and trades but even in the
professions as well, lawyers and doctors taking students on similar
terms. In modern England the broader and older meaning of the word
persists in the expression "civil servant" in reference to a government
clerk or employé in what in America, too, is known as the Civil Service.
Virginia's agriculture was based on the cultivation of tobacco and
corn--both hand-hoed crops, with practically no use whatever of the
plow. As land was plentiful and the plantations increased in size, the
great and pressing need was always for labor--and more labor. This
system of indentured service in Virginia began very early and opened a
great supply of labor not otherwise available. There were many in
England of the poorer class and even of those once more affluent who had
for one reason or another become the victims of misfortune and sought a
fresh start in the colonies but were without the money to pay their
passage. No small number of those who had become bankrupt became
indentured servants. The severe English laws against debtors forced many
to fly from that country and Virginia was a safe escape; for in 1642 a
law had been passed in Virginia protecting these fugitives from their
English creditors.[31] Little social stigma seems to have attached to
the indentured servants as such. Frequently they lived with the family
of their master, especially so when he was one of the smaller
proprietors, and as they became proficient and earned their master's
confidence they were often made overseers of their fellow workers.
Although by far the greater demand was always for workers on the land,
not all of them were so employed; some were artisans, some of the better
educated became teachers and it was not unusual for the wealthier
planters to seek and purchase these latter for that purpose. George
Washington is said to have thus received his earlier schooling. As a
whole, they appear to have been well and humanely treated in Virginia,
or at least after the earlier days of their introduction, with little or
none of the shocking brutality they are known to have met with upon
occasion in Maryland, such as called for that Colony's legislation of
1664, 1681, etc.[32]
[31] Hening, 256. Also _Patrician and Plebeian in Virginia, T. J.
Wertenbaker_, p. 164.
[32] E. I. McCormac's _White Servitude in Maryland_, p. 67.
That there had been some earlier harshness, but more probably to
convicts, is suggested by the effort made by Robert Beverley, in his
_History of Virginia_, first published in 1705, to refute rumours of
ill-treatment or undue hardship in the lives of these people which had
been spread abroad in the England of his day. No doubt the writings of
Defoe and other authors without personal knowledge of what they
undertook to describe, had had their affect. "A white woman is rarely or
never put to work on the ground, if she be good for anything else,"
Beverley declares and further on has this to say:
"Because I have heard how strangely cruel and severe the service of this
country is represented in some parts of England, I can't forebear
affirming, that the work of the servants and slaves is no other that
what every common freeman does; neither is any servant required to do
more in a day than his overseer; and I can assure you, with great truth,
that generally their slaves are not worked so hard, nor so many hours in
a day, as the husbandman and day labourer in England. An overseer is a
man, that having served his time, has acquired the skill and character
of an experienced planter, and is therefore entrusted with direction of
the servants and slaves ... all masters are under the correction and
censure of the County Courts to provide for their servants food and
wholesome diet, clothing and lodging."
And again:
"If a master should be so cruel, as to use his servant ill, that is
fallen sick or lame in his service, and thereby rendered unfit for
labor, he must be removed by the churchwardens out of the way of such
cruelty, and boarded in some good planters home till the time of his
freedom, the charge of which must be laid before the next county court,
which has power to levy the same, from time to time, upon the goods and
chattels of the master, after which, the charge of such boarding is to
come upon the parish in general.... No master of a servant can make a
new bargain for service or other matter with his servant, without the
privity and consent of the County Court, to prevent the masters
over-reaching, or scaring such servant into an unreasonable compliance."
Moreover, when the servant had redeemed himself by working out his time,
he received from his former master, as assistance to start out for
himself "ten bushels of corn (which is sufficient for almost a year) two
new suits of clothes, both linen and woolen, and a gun, twenty dollars
value"; all of which were given to him as his due. He had the right to
take up fifty acres of unpatented land and thereupon took his place,
according to his merit and industry, in the free life of the Colony.
The system was necessary from the first; for if the servants had not
been bound they promptly would have secured tracts of land to work for
themselves, leaving those who had paid for their passage in the lurch.
That it was advantageous to both master and servant is indicated by its
growth. Its end in Virginia was caused by a cheaper labor supply having
become available rather than from any lack of those seeking
transportation. It has been estimated that, between the years 1635 and
1680, from 1,000 to 1,600 came annually to Virginia under its conditions
and that from first to last not less than eighty thousand persons so
arrived. But with the importation of negroes, beginning on a larger
scale about 1680, the custom declined until by the middle of the
eighteenth century, it seems to have practically ended in Virginia.
The transporting of convicts by England to her American Colonies--a far
greater injustice to them than the later taxation by which they were
lost to her--began early and was, in Virginia, at once and most
vigourously opposed; but the everpressing demand for laborers seems to
have rapidly modified the opposition, at least on the part of the larger
proprietors whose power and influence was out of all proportion to their
number; and it was not long before convicts were not only accepted
without protest but even sought. It is the old story, in America as
elsewhere, of a selfish economic advantage blinding those in power to
the welfare of the State as a whole, although many continued to hold
misgivings of the outcome. Thus we find Beverley in a later edition of
his history, recording: "as for malefactors condemned to transportation,
the greedy planters will always buy them, yet it is to be feared that
they will be very injurious to the Country, which has already suffered
many murders and robberies, the effect of that new law of England."[33]
[33] He refers to the Act passed in 1718, on the transportation of
convicts.
But a loose assumption that all the convicts or prisoners arriving were
moral derelicts, or those whose offense essentially involved moral
depravity, and that the proportion these bore to others leaving Europe
for Virginia fixes the ratio of their descendants or influence in the
Old Dominion's later population, would be wholly and demonstrably
untrue. We must be much more discerning and analytical than that and, as
in another instance, look to our definitions.
The penal law of England, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,
was far more severe than today. Literally scores of offenses were
punishable by death or transportation which today are either not crimes
or, if still so considered, are punishable only by fine or imprisonment.
Among the transgressions most severely dealt with, were purely political
offenses; and a political offense was essentially to have picked the
wrong side in the many religious, dynastic or civic disturbances of the
period. After the various Irish upheavals of the seventeenth
century--and that island, it may be said, was conquered by the English
no less than three times within less than a hundred years--there was
banishment or transportation of many of the losing side. The
transportation was especially ruthless after Cromwell's operations and
again, a generation or more later, after the Battle of the Boyne. But
the Irish were not the only political victims. When the forces of
Parliament defeated the Stuart followers, they condemned to
transportation a goodly number of their opponents; treatment which was
promptly reciprocated by the triumphant Royalists after the Restoration
who meted out the same punishment to former Cromwellian soldiers and
non-conformists as well. Again, after the abortive effort made in 1685
by the Duke of Monmouth to seize his uncle's crown, the vicious and
bloody Jeffries and his colleagues, in their less frenzied moments,
sentenced, as criminals, multitudes of the unfortunate followers of
Monmouth to transportation to Virginia--there to be sold into as virtual
slavery as any thug convicted of murder or highway robbery who had, in
one way or another, been lucky enough to escape hanging. On arrival they
sold for from £10 to £15 each; and we find the King adding his gentle
touch to the work. "Take all care" wrote James to the Council of
Virginia "that they shall serve for ten years at least; and that they be
not permitted to return themselves by money or otherwise until that term
be fully expired. Prepare a bill for the Assembly of our Colony, with
such clauses as shall be requisite for that purpose." Thus the king; but
in four years he has lost his throne and William III is issuing a full
pardon for all political offenders.
Hence no small part of the convicts were unfortunates, rather than
criminals, to our modern way of thought. But there remained a large and
unpalatable number who had been convicted of crimes of all degrees and
in their ranks were found a motley crew ranging from the lowest type of
profligate, whose escape from the noose had been a public misfortune, to
the minor offenders punished for a first violation of law. However even
this evil residue was fated to leave but a minor contamination of the
Colony's bloodstream. A great death-toll was taken by sickness on the
transporting ships, particularly by the dreaded "goal distemper" as it
was called. Those who survived the voyage naturally received far less
consideration from their purchasers than was accorded the indentured
servant; the unaccustomed climate took its quota and all in all the
mortality was very great. Of those who outlived their period of
servitude, some rose to positions of trust; many of the incorrigibles
soon made the Colony too hostile for their comfort and took themselves
off either voluntarily or as fugitives--sometimes to the more remote and
unseated parts of Piedmont or, more generally, to the North Carolina
backwoods, a favorite refuge for the dregs of Virginia's Colonial
population. And at length, in 1740, came an opportunity for a great and
general house-cleaning. In raising the Virginia levies for the ill-fated
expedition against Carthagena, many a convict was pressed into service
and, in the disasters attending that adventure, ended his turbulent
career. But unfortunately the polluted stream continued to pour in on
Virginia's shores until after the Revolution.
An unduly large proportion of these undesirables appears to have found
its way into the backwoods of the Northern Neck which, in 1730, Governor
Gooch described as "a part of the Country remote from the Seat of
Government where the common people are generally of a more turbulent and
unruly disposition than anywhere else, and are not like to become better
by being the Place of all this Dominion where most of transported
Convicts are sold and settled."[34] One may, without an undue straining
of the imagination, discover the descendants of some of these people in
modern Loudoun's small lawless element.
[34] _Landmarks of Old Prince William_, I., 162.
The negro slaves were practically confined to the eastern and southern
parts of Loudoun. They were all but unknown in the German Settlement and
the Quakers as a sect were so opposed to the very institution of slavery
that, as early as the eighteenth century, the Society in America reached
the decision to disown any member thereof who held slaves.
In all this varied assortment of population, it is a tribute to the
natural leadership of the Tidewater Virginian that he maintained his
supremacy and control. From him the county inherits all that is best and
most attractive in its social life--the courtesy of its people, the
unfailing hospitality, the love of social intercourse, the ardour for
outdoor sports, particularly the devotion to horses, dogs and
fox-hunting, all of which so definitely distinguish it today and
contribute to the outstanding and well-recognized charm of its life.
CHAPTER VI
ROADS AND BOUNDARIES
We have mentioned in the foregoing pages that an unusual feature in the
settlement of these Stafford or Prince William backwoods, soon to be
known as Loudoun, was not only the diversity of origin of the new
population but that it came almost simultaneously from the north and the
south and the west as well as from the Tidewater east. As the falls of
the Potomac and Rappahannock blocked continuous water transport from the
older settlements, the pioneers all were forced to come through the
woodland trails and these trails or roads, if they could be then so
called, now demand our attention.
What one might call the Appian Way of Piedmont, the _longarum regina
viarum_ as Statius calls the Roman road, was undoubtedly that aboriginal
trail which, perhaps beginning as a buffalo path,[35] was followed
habitually by the Indians in their north-south journeys to the earliest
knowledge of the whites and appears in the records of the Colony at a
very early date. The Carolina Road, as it is best known, became a great
highway between the north and the south and if our surmise be correct
that, in common with so many of our earliest colonial roads, it owes its
origin to a beaten trail made by the heavier animals of the forest, it
was probably used by the Manahoacks and their predecessor tribes long
before the Susquehannocks frequented it in the latter half of the
seventeenth century, not only on their trading journeys between the
Dutch of Manhattan and the Carolina Indians, but in their war forays as
well. The Iroquois of New York, as we have seen, followed their
Susquehannock kindred to Piedmont and in Spotswood's day it was their
ordinary and accustomed route. We think we get our first record of it
among the Susquehannock "plain paths" noted in the Virginia Act of 1662
and it was sometimes referred to by that name. Later and from about 1686
until at least 1742, that part of the road between Brent Town and the
Rappahannock was also known as the "Shenandoah Hunting Path," a name
still occasionally heard; but the popular name was the Carolina Road
with its no less popular descriptive appellation of "The Rogue's Road"
due to the cattle and horse thieves who infested it throughout the
eighteenth century. That these gentry misused the road only, rather than
were residents of the country it traversed, was always maintained, and
apparently with truth, by the Piedmont people; but so numerous had they
become by 1742 that the Assembly passed an act[36] calling on those
driving stock along the public highways to have in their possession a
bill of sale of their cattle and horses to be exhibited to any justice
of the peace when due demand therefor was made. Yet the rogues still
continued to travel their road until the ebb and wane of its traffic in
the early nineteenth century. Although the records fail to shew that
highwaymen plied their trade on this or other Virginia roads, Loudoun
folklore has held to a belief in their activities as witness the legend
concerning Captain Harper, Loudoun's own Robin Hood:
"This portion through the present Loudoun of the old Carolina Road was
then locally known as 'Rogue's Road' on account of the many bold
robberies committed along its route by the famous gentleman highwayman
of the day, Captain Harper, who regularly patrolled it and terrorized
all those who lived adjacent to it until such was the fear of this
dashing and bold highwayman, that women were afraid to venture out upon
this road alone. A rather pretty story is related in this connection--a
young Virginia maiden was walking this road alone one evening about
twilight, hurrying from a visit to a neighbour, when a dashing cavalier
rode up and reined his horse beside her. 'Are you not afraid to walk
this road alone on account of Captain Harper and his band?' he asked.
'No' replied the maiden 'for I have always heard Captain Harper was a
gentleman.' The dashing horseman looked at her a moment and then walked
his horse beside her until she reached the gate leading to her home. And
then raising his hat and bowing he said: 'Captain Harper bids you good
night' and digging the rowels into his steed he vanished as he
came."[37] The writer omits to mention the local tradition that Harper,
though mercilessly robbing the rich, gave generously to the poor.
[35] _Historic Highways of America_, A. B. Hulbert, I, 19.
[36] Hening, V, 176.
[37] Harry T. Harrison in _Loudoun Times_, 20 Dec., 1916.
The Carolina Road entered Virginia at a point on the bank of the
Potomac, above the mouth of Maryland's Monocacy, where Noland's Ferry
sometime prior to 1756 became its connecting link with Maryland; thence
it ran in a southeasterly direction somewhere along the present clay
road to Christ Church just south of modern Lucketts; thence south,
following closely the present Leesburg-Point of Rocks State Highway,
through Leesburg over what is known as King Street (the King's Highway
of yesteryear) and approximately along the present James Monroe Highway
(Route 15 of the United States Highway System) to Verts' Corner, thence
along what is still locally called the Carolina Road (or sometimes the
Gleedsville Road) to Goose Creek at Oatlands. The present hard road from
Verts' Corner to Oatlands, now the main road, was probably built and the
old road's traffic at that point diverted about 1830 when the rough
pavement of the road was undertaken. From Goose Creek at Oatlands the
old road followed United States Route 15 as at present to the Little
River Turnpike, now known as the Lee-Jackson National Highway, just east
of the village of Aldie; crossing this, it followed what is now but a
local and little used county road which, in its progress south of the
county and under changing conditions, eventually crosses the other great
rivers above their falls line and so on to North Carolina. Along its
route the first church in Loudoun, Aubrey's little log "Chapel of Ease,"
was erected at the Big Spring; and later many of the mansions of the
Loudoun gentlefolk, such as the Noland House, Rockland, Springwood,
Selma, Raspberry Plain, Morven, Rokeby, Oatlands, Oak Hill, and others
in due time came to be built and historic "Ordinaries" or taverns such
as that known as West's and later as Lacey's and towns such as Leesburg
and the nearby Aldie grew up. All through the eighteenth century the
flow of its colorful traffic continued and developed in volume until the
founding of the City of Washington, as the nation's Capital, drew to the
east those travelling between the northern and southern States. And now,
over a hundred years after the passing of its golden days of activity,
there are rumoured plans to revive the old road as a main north and
south highway and once again, in the not too distant future, we may see
its old life restored, with motors and trucks speeding along its surface
where the old-time foot and horse-travel and Indians and soldiers,
missionaries and traders, drovers honest or otherwise, were wont slowly
to pass.
Nor are the old mansions and towns the only surviving landmarks along
its way. The famous Big Spring still rises in as steady volume as of
yore; the Tuscarora and Goose Creeks, no longer needfully forded but now
spanned by modern concrete bridges, still flow complacently in their
old-time channels and between them, on the west side of the present road
and two and a half miles south of Leesburg, still stand the old Indian
mounds.
These mounds, for there are others scattered to the west of the one so
noticeable from the highway, have always excited local interest but the
present generation has all but forgotten their traditional story.
Somewhere in the neighbourhood of the house of Mr. T. W. Gaines, on
whose land rises the mound nearest the road, or perhaps over the land
where the mounds themselves now stand, there was fought a hardly
contested Indian battle at about the time the first of the white
pioneers were coming into that neighbourhood. Many years ago the late
Mrs. William H. Martin, then a bride recently come to Leesburg, with the
assistance of the late Miss Lizzie Worsley, who gave a lifetime of study
to the past of Leesburg and Loudoun, carefully gathered up what she then
could of the old story which had been handed down from generation to
generation and incorporated it in a gracefully written "History and
Traditions of Greenway" which was published in the _Record_ of Leesburg,
then edited by her husband.
"Numberless were said to be dead warriors," wrote Mrs. Martin, "who
found their last resting place so far from their native lands beneath
the mounds that were easily distinguishable in the gloom of the thick
forest. This battle had been between the Catawbas of the Carolinas and
the Delawares.[38] An hereditary enmity existed between these two
tribes, distant as they were, the one from the other. A large band of
Delawares, pushing into the territory of the Catawbas had severely
punished that tribe, and victorious, were travelling northward to their
home. The Catawbas followed and unexpectedly fell upon them, having
overtaken them at the Potomac. Terrible and swift was their revenge, yet
such were the fighting qualities of the Delawares thus brought to bay,
that the Catawbas were forced to retreat, without prisoners. But when
the remaining Delaware warriors looked upon their dead they saw the
flower of their tribe, stark in death, and too far to be carried to
their own hunting grounds. So there they were buried...."[39]
[38] According to C. W. Sam's _The Forest Primeval_ (p. 382) the
Delawares and Catawbas were at war in 1732.
[39] Balch Library. Loudoun Clippings, Vol. 2, p. 66.
The surviving conquerors gathered together the bodies of their slain
tribesmen and over them toiled to erect the mounds that still stand. The
mounds and many hundred acres of surrounding land were early acquired by
the Mead family, who later built nearby Greenway, and in that family the
legend was handed down that in the springtime of each year, about the
anniversary of the battle, there came through the forest a band of
Indians who, when they reached the mounds, conducted weird mourning
rites for their fallen brethren, made offerings of arrows and food and
then disappeared in the surrounding woods as silently as they came. As
the years passed, the mourners grew fewer and fewer until at length but
a solitary old warrior arrived and held what proved to be the final
ceremony. But the story does not end with those last solitary rites.
According to the Mead family tradition, year after year, as the night
fell on the anniversary of the battle, weird sounds of conflict came
from the Indian mounds though no person or living thing could be seen.
Perhaps of equal antiquity and second only to the Carolina Road in early
importance but in that respect now by far surpassing it, is the highway
roughly paralleling the Potomac, the old Ridge Road now generally known
as the Alexandria Pike. This road also originated in an Indian trail,
possibly following an earlier buffalo path; it joined the famous Potomac
Path of Tidewater above the ford at Hunting Creek and it was along its
course that we have seen Giles Vandercastel and Burr Harrison, in 1699,
exploring their way on their mission to Conoy Island. This was the main
entrance from the lower part of the Northern Neck to at least so much of
Loudoun as lies between the Potomac and the Catoctin Hills; and along
its course and that of the Colchester Road to the south came the
majority of the Tidewater settlers. Its route through what later was to
be the Town of Leesburg is marked by Loudoun Street. The late Charles O.
Vandevanter of Leesburg, who made a careful study of the location of
these old roads, believed that originally its course west of Leesburg
followed what is now known as the Dry Mill Road to Clark's Gap; but
there is reason to believe that he was mistaken. As the road approaches
the rise of the Catoctin Hills, it certainly at one time followed the
hollow to the west of the present established road and upon the land
later owned by the author; so running west of the present Roxbury Hall
and on to Clark's Gap, marks of its old route being still plainly
discernible. When the highway was incorporated in 1831, its route at
this point was changed to approximately its present location to avoid
the sharpness of the grade as it left the little branch now crossed by
stone culverts. Remains of the old road were discovered in 1923 when
building the private road to the house last named. At the foot of the
hill and in front of the present tenant house, rough piking was
uncovered and nearby, where the path leaves the lane to go to the barn,
some old brick were dug up. The late Samuel Norris, who died in 1933 at
the age of eighty-four, said that at this point there once was a cottage
where, as he had heard when a boy from older people, there had lived a
man whose duty it was to care for the extra horses which were attached
to the stage coaches before they began the abrupt rise of the road at
that point in following the hollow northwesterly. From Clark's Gap the
early road followed the present sandclay road to what is now known as
Ely's Corner, past the present Paeonian Springs and Warner's Cross Roads
and Wheatland and Hillsboro to the depression in the Blue Ridge known
as Vestal's or Key's Gap--Gershom Keys having owned land at that point
as early as 1748 and the Vestal family having operated a ferry across
the Shenandoah nearby at least as early as 1754 and perhaps in 1736; for
we know it was in operation at that time and that one G. Vestal was
living in the immediate neighbourhood then. Washington followed this
road on his mission to Fort du Quesne in 1753 and once again in 1754 as
major of that expedition against the French on the Alleghany (to the
command of which he later succeeded on the illness and death of Colonel
Fry), which resulted in the building and surrender by him of Fort
Necessity.[40] In the following year it was trodden by that brigade of
Braddock's army which, under the command of Sir Peter Halkett, left the
main body of the troops when that main body crossed the Potomac over
into Maryland at the present Georgetown as is related in a later
chapter.
[40] _Landmarks of Old Prince William_, 481, 511.
In an effort to attract the increasing traffic to and from the west,
Leesburg citizens incorporated in 1831 the Leesburg and Snickers' Gap
Turnpike Company which built an improved road north from Clark's Gap to
Snickers' Gap, as the old Williams' Gap had then come to be called; and
this new road (which is the present Alexandria-Winchester Highway) took
the traffic theretofore going through Vestal's Gap and has since been
the northerly main route across the Blue Ridge.
To carry the old Ridge Road over Broad Run, we know that there was
built, before 1755, one of the earliest highway bridges in Loudoun's
territory of which record has been preserved; for on the 1755 edition of
the Fry & Jefferson map a wooden bridge is shewn at that point. The
picturesque stone bridge that now spans the stream, venerable as it
appears, may not have been constructed before 1820, at about which time
that part of the road was being improved by the Leesburg Turnpike
Company; nevertheless in eastern Loudoun it is a popular legend that it
was built by George Washington as a young man and the inhabitants of the
neighbourhood firmly believe that to be true.
The third of the principal roads of colonial Loudoun is called by
Fairfax Harrison the Colchester Road and is described by him as also, in
its first beginning an Indian path, developed about 1728 by King Carter
and his sons Robin and Charles from the Occoquan below the falls "past
the future sites of Payne's Church and the present Fairfax Court House
all the way to the Frying Pan run."[41] The Carters believed that there
was copper on certain of their recently acquired lands and this road was
developed to bring the ore to tidewater. It became known as the Ox Road
and a year or so later joined Walter Griffin's Rolling Road running west
across Little Rocky Run and eventually across Elk Lick and Bull Run,
across the Carolina Road (near which crossing West's Ordinary was
built), and so above the ford over Little River to the Blue Ridge Road
to Williams' Gap. It was over this road that the youthful Washington
returned in the spring of 1748 from his survey with George William
Fairfax of the lands of Lord Fairfax in the valley and thus first set
foot in the present Loudoun; crossing the Blue Ridge at Williams'
Gap[42] they proceeded to William West's house, later to be licensed as
West's Ordinary and still later as Lacey's. Incidentally this old
building and landmark continued to stand until the year 1927 when it was
quite needlessly and most unfortunately torn down.
[41] _Landmarks_, 423; also C. O. Van Devanter in _Loudoun County
Breeders Magazine_, spring, 1931.
[42] Washington's _Journal Of My Journey Over the Mountains_. Edited by
Dr. J. M. Toner in 1892. p. 52.
The Colchester Road continued to be a main thoroughfare up to about 1806
when the construction of Little River Turnpike diverted most of its
travel and the new road with its branches became the principal highway
system in southern Loudoun.
The Virginia roads in the early days were in terrible condition for
wheeled traffic. Their most earnest defenders can only allege that they
were no worse than other American roads of those days and better than
many, a defense that damns without even the proverbial faint praise.
Englishmen of the period were still asleep in their attitude toward road
building and many of the highways of England seem to have been as bad as
those in America. One peculiarity of the Virginia road was its general
lack of side-fencing. Adjacent property owners were quite apt to run
their boundary fences across the highway, leaving a gate for the
traveller to open and pass through. Curious as this may seem to us, it
was not wholly without its advantage; for where the highway had become a
sink-hole of mud, it thus was possible for the passer-by to make as wide
a detour through adjacent fields or woods as might be necessary to avoid
the obstruction. This throws light upon the effort at Georgetown,
predecessor settlement of the larger Leesburg, to have the course of the
Carolina Road as it passed through that hamlet definitely established by
the court as early as 1742 and again in 1757.[43]
[43] Balch Library Clippings, III, 41 and 53.
Bridges were few, far between, and primitive. There was, as we have
shewn, a wooden bridge prior to 1755 carrying the Ridge Road over Broad
Run and it is believed that prior to 1739, the same road crossed
Difficult near Colvin Run over a bridge of sorts; but for the most part
fords were used to cross streams, or ferries in the case of the Potomac
and other great rivers. When fords and ferries failed, the mounted
traveller swam his horse across, leaving the wayfarer on foot to such
more precarious adventure as conditions and his courage offered.
In a preceding chapter we have seen the Vestrymen of Truro Parish
engaged in ecclesiastical affairs committed to their charge; among their
secular duties was to appoint every four years reputable Freeholders to
"perambulate" the Parish, that is to say to travel over the plantations
and farms within it and renew their landmarks. In Virginia this was
called "processioning" but it derived from a very ancient English
practice know as "beating the bounds" believed to have been brought by
Saint Augustine to England from Gaul where "it may have been derived
from the Roman festival of Terminus, the god of landmarks, to whom cakes
and ale were offered, sports and dancing taking place at the
boundaries." In England we find the "beating of the bounds" observed
under Alfred and Aethelstan, whose laws mention it. In later days, maps
still being rare, it continued an English parish custom, generally
observed on Ascension Day or during Rogation Week. A procession was
formed, headed by the Priest of the Parish, the Churchwardens and other
Parish dignitaries and followed by a crowd of boys who were armed with
sticks with which they beat the Parish boundary stones and were
sometimes beaten themselves at each marker in order to fix those markers
in their minds and to insure the location of the boundary stones being
remembered through the life of the younger generation. The procession
frequently ended in a "parish-ale" or feast which doubtlessly assisted
in reconciling the boys to it all.[44] In earlier days the Priests
sought the Divine blessing for the following harvest on the lands within
the parish. But translated to Virginia the procedure was robbed of much
of its formality and many of its picturesque features and came to apply
to renewing the landmarks of private holdings rather than confirming in
memory those of the Parish bounds. There was a Truro Vestry meeting held
on the 8th October, 1743, to appoint "Processioners," which meeting, the
record states, was pursuant to an order of Fairfax County Court, Loudoun
then being included in Fairfax. The Vestrymen at their meeting "laid off
the said Parish into Precincts and appointed Processioners in manner
following." As the men appointed were representative men in their
neighbourhoods and as the "Precinct" may be taken to forecast the later
division of Loudoun into its Magisterial Districts of modern days, it is
interesting to study so much of the record as refers to the country
above Difficult Run which in a few years was to be organized as Loudoun:
"That John Trammell and John Harle procession between Difficult Run and
Broad Run; that Anthony Hampton and William Moore procession between
Broad Run and the south side of Goose Creek as far as the fork of Little
River; that Philip Noland and John Lasswell procession between Goose
Creek and Limestone Run as far as the fork of Little River; that Amos
Janney and William Hawling procession between Limestone Run and the
south branch of Kitoctan.
[44] _Encyclopedia Britannica_, and W. S. Walsh's _Curiosities of
Popular Customs_.
"Between the south fork of Kitoctan and Williams Gap, no free holder in
this precinct; between Williams Gap, Ashley's Gap, the County line and
Goose Creek, to the Beaver Dam, and back to the Gap, no freeholder in
this precinct. Between the Beaver Dam and the north east fork of Goose
Creek no freeholder in this precinct."
Level Jackson and Jacob Lasswell were ordered to procession between the
northeast and northwest forks of Goose Creek; John Middleton and Edward
Hews between Little River and Goose Creek; William West and William Hall
Junior between Little River and Walnut "Cabbin" branch; George Adams and
Daniel Diskin between Walnut Cabbin branch, Broad run and Cub run and
Popes head. The editors of the record add that these Processioners owned
land within their several precincts at that date.[45]
[45] _History of Truro Parish in Virginia_, 19.
The statement that there were no freeholders
(a) between the south fork of "Kitoctan" and Williams Gap;
and
(b) between Williams Gap, Ashley's Gap, the County line and
Goose Creek to the Beaver Dam and back to the Gap; and
(c) between the Beaver Dam and the north east fork of Goose
Creek
is interesting. A and C take in parts of the Quaker Settlement. Also it
is traditional in the Osburn family of Loudoun that their forebears John
and Nicholas Osburn, sons of Richard Osburn of New Jersey and later of
Chester County, Pennsylvania, came from Pennsylvania to the Shenandoah
Valley near Harper's Ferry and thence in 1734 crossed the Blue Ridge and
settled on its eastern foothills near the present Bluemont. It may be
that with other pioneers in the upper lands they occupied their farms at
first without title and later were obliged to buy the lands they had
rescued from the wilderness from the more shrewd and far-sighted land
speculators for we find no grants from the Proprietor to them. Many of
the earliest settlers were in that position. Catesby Cocke and Benjamin
Grayson particularly, took title to great tracts west of the Catoctin
Hills and in 1740 sold their holdings to John Colvil of Cleesch as will
later appear.[46] Neither Cocke nor Grayson were settlers in Loudoun.
The former was the son of Dr. William Cocke, Secretary of State and he
himself had been successively clerk of the counties of Stafford, Prince
William and Fairfax. Grayson, a Scotch merchant from Quantico, became
the father of Colonel William Grayson of Revolutionary fame who, with
Richard Henry Lee, first represented Virginia in the United States
Senate.
[46] See Chapter VII post.
CHAPTER VII
SPECULATION AND DEVELOPMENT
In the Quarter century, between 1730 and the French and Indian War of
1755, the lands of the future Loudoun became progressively more
populous. Although Truro Parish had been created as recently as 1732,
this pressure of incoming settlers seemed to call for the division, in
its turn, of Truro and in 1748 the government of the Colony set off the
upper part of Truro, beyond Difficult Run, as a new parish which was
named Cameron in delicate compliment to the Lord Proprietor's Scotch
Barony. Most unfortunately, the first vestry book of the new parish,
which would be invaluable source material for the Loudoun student
seeking information for the period from 1748 until the Revolution, has
vanished or been destroyed. The first parson of Cameron was the Rev.
John Andrews, probably the hero of a convivial incident soon to be
related.[47]
[47] See Mrs. Browne's narrative in next chapter.
Increasing population meant rapidly rising land values, exercising an
irresistible lure to many of the more active speculators of the Northern
Neck. Such men of substance as Aubrey and Noland were developing the
lands they purchased; but in another class were Benjamin Grayson,
Catesby Cocke, George Eskridge, the wealthy Potomac trader John Colvil
of Cleesh, that turbulent though gifted son of Dublin John Mercer and
even William Fairfax himself, all of whom, so far as Loudoun was
concerned, were active in land ventures rather than development. The
Germans we have met coming over the Blue Ridge were more intent upon
subduing the wilderness than skilled in the niceties of land titles;
hence they, in common with many of the other pioneers, appear to have
frequently omitted to secure grants from the proprietor for their
holdings, giving Cocke, Grayson, Mercer and even Aubrey the opportunity,
knowingly or otherwise, to secure the legal title to the lands of which
they had taken possession.
In 1740 John Colvil bought out Cocke and his colleagues and, writes
Fairfax Harrison "many lesser men and by pre-arrangement divided the
territory with William Fairfax. Keeping for himself the lands lying
between Catoctin Creek and the Catoctin Ridge and stretching from the
Potomac to Waterford, he conveyed to William Fairfax 46,466 acres,
constituting all the territory on the Potomac lying between Catoctin
Creek and the Shenandoah River, including the Blue Ridge from Gregory's
Gap to Harper's Ferry. The purchaser divided the property at the Short
Hills into two estates, naming the northern one 'Shannondale' and the
southern one 'Piedmont' and administered them as manors, on leases for
three lives. By his will he left these lands, with his mansion house,
Belvoir, to his eldest son, and the latter in turn, by his will of 1780,
entailed them, with the intention that they should constitute the
'plantation' of Belvoir House, always to be held with it. But soon after
this last will was written, the success of the American Revolution made
it necessary for George William Fairfax, by codicil, to change his
testamentary dispositions and his proposed entail was never made
effective."[48]
[48] _Landmarks of Old Prince William_, 273.
After Colvil had settled with William Fairfax, he still held 16,290
acres along Catoctin Creek, to say nothing of 1,500 acres on Difficult
Run, his plantation on Great Hunting Creek known as Cleesh and other
lands in the Northern Neck. Born at Newcastle-on-Tyne, he was closely
related to the Earl of Tankerville, through the latter's mother being
his first cousin--a matter in which he took some pride and which was to
be of even more moment to the Earl; for when Colvil came to make his
will in 1755, he left his plantation Cleesh, then containing about 1,000
acres, to his own brother, Thomas Colvil, for life with remainder over
"to the Right Honourable the present Earl of Tankerville and his heirs
forever" and also "in consideration of my relation and alliance to the
said Earl of Tankerville son of my father's brother's daughter," he left
to him outright his 16,000 acres of land on the Catoctin, his 1,500
acres on Difficult and his interest in a certain nearby copper mine.[49]
Thenceforth these lands remained in the Earl's family until after the
Revolution. Thus originated the Earl of Tankerville's title to certain
Loudoun lands, reference to which occasionally yet is heard.
[49] The will is on record in Fairfax County.
About 1739 Josias Clapham, of an ancient family of Yorkshire (which long
has been associated with the Fairfaxes there) bought land near the Point
of Rocks and before his death owned much land in the Northern Neck. He
died sometime prior to the 27th December, 1749, when his will, dated the
29th October, 1744, was proven in Fairfax County. In that will he left
"to my brother's son Josias Clapham two hundred fourty three Achres of
four hundred joyning to Madm. Mason commonly called the Flat Spring to
him and his heirs forever."
A codicil added to the will reads
"I leave my hole real Estate and Parsonable Estate to my brothers son
Josias Clapham and if he dont come in, it is my desire that his brother
Joseph should have it."[50]
[50] _Landmarks_, 502; also Fairfax County Wills A1, 309 and B1, 26.
Nicholas Cresswell, the journalist, as we shall see in Chapter XI,
states that the younger Josias lived in Wakefield in Yorkshire and was
much in debt. He decided to "come in" by emigrating to Virginia and soon
appeared on his lands in the upper country. He became a great leader in
Loudoun affairs. Toward the end of his long life he, in 1796, deeded to
his son Samuel the estate later known as Chestnut Hill and the latter,
soon thereafter, built the beautiful mansion which became another of
Loudoun's outstanding and stately family seats and which still stands,
in all its old-time charm, not far from the Point of Rocks, in one of
the most fertile and captivating regions of Loudoun. Through the
marriage of Betsy Price, a granddaughter of Josias Clapham, to Thomas F.
Mason of the Gunston Hall branch of that family (and therefore cousin to
that Thomson Mason of Raspberry Plain who we are about to meet) the
house and estate, until very recent years, continuously was occupied by
these Mason descendants of Clapham.[51]
[51] C. O. Vandevantner in _Northern Virginian_, winter issue, 1932.
A few years after the death, in 1741, of Francis Aubrey, much of his
great estate lying between the old Ridge Road (where it now passes
through Leesburg under the name of Loudoun Street) north to the
Limestone Branch and from the Potomac westerly to the Catoctin Hills,
came into the possession of Mrs. Ann Thomson Mason, widow of the third
George of that ilk; thus introducing to our frontier of that day another
of the most prominent of the Tidewater families and one which also was
to play a very notable rôle in Loudoun for at least a century. This
George Mason, at the age of forty-five, had been drowned while
attempting to cross the Potomac in a sailboat in the year 1735. In 1721
he had married, as his second wife, Ann Thomson, daughter of Stevens
Thomson of Hollins Hall, Staffordshire, England, who had served as
Attorney-General of Virginia for some years during Queen Anne's reign.
He, in turn, was the son of Sir William Thomson of the Middle Temple, a
Sergeant at Law who, to his credit, in 1680 had had the courage to act
as counsel for the defendants Tasborough and Price in the malodorous
Popish Plot trials of disgraceful memory. By this second wife, Mason had
six or seven children, of whom only three were to survive him: George
his eldest son (for his first wife had been childless) who later was to
build Gunston Hall and become the author of the famous Bill of Rights;
Thomson, later to become at least a part-time resident of Loudoun and a
famous lawyer in his day; and Mary, who, on the 11th April, 1751, was to
marry Samuel Selden of Salvington in Stafford County, near
Fredericksburg. She died at her mother's plantation Chipawamsic, on the
5th day of January, 1758, leaving two children, Samuel and Mary Mason
Selden, the latter inheriting her Loudoun lands.
When George Mason met his accidental death he left no will. Under the
Colonial law of primogeniture, his extensive holdings of land therefore
went to his eldest son. According to the family historian, his younger
children were left penniless. His widow thereupon bent all her energies
to create an estate for each of them. Saving what she could, through
every available economy and acting under the advice of her late
husband's friends, she acquired "ten thousand acres of what was then
called 'wild lands' in Loudoun County, for which she paid only a few
shillings per acre." She, during her lifetime, divided these lands
between her two younger children "for the reason assigned by her that
she did not wish her children to grow up with any sense of inequality
among them in regard to fortune. The investment turned out a most
fortunate one, and she thereby unwittingly made her younger children
wealthier than their elder brother."[52]
[52] _Life of George Mason_, by Kate Mason Rowland.
It is thus so many of the beautiful modern estates between Leesburg and
the Limestone Branch trace their title back to the Mason family. Mrs.
Ann Thomson Mason died on the 13th November, 1762, "leaving a reputation
among her connections and neighbours for great prudence and business
capacity, united to the charms of an amiable, womanly, character." Her
Rector, friend and relative, the Rev. John Moncure, described her as "a
good woman, a great woman, and a lovely woman."[53]
[53] _Idem._, 79.
Though she planted the Mason line in Loudoun, she herself does not
appear ever to have lived in that rough and for those days remote
frontier country. The actual seating of her line on her large purchase
was left to her son Thomson who, after going to England to acquire his
training in law and being admitted to the Middle Temple on the 14th
August, 1751, as its records show, returned to Virginia, practiced law
at Dumfries, became, perhaps, the most eminent lawyer of his time at the
Virginia Bar and vigourously aided the American Revolution. He either
had improved and extended the first Raspberry Plain home or, as
Lancaster says, built a new one for he deeded the existing structure
with the supporting land to his son Stevens Thomson Mason, confirming
the grant in his will, together with the plate and furniture then in the
dwelling; which indicates a more impressive home than the first
building.
Thomson Mason died at Raspberry Plain on the 26th February, 1785, and
was there buried; but the first mansion and burial place were not where
the imposing modern house of the same name now stands but rather much to
the north, near the fine spring and branch for a long time included in
the present Selma lands, for the latter estate was, of course, at that
time and long afterward but another part of the extensive Mason
holdings. It is of interest to note that this original Raspberry Plain
holding was never acquired by Francis Aubrey nor was it part of Mrs. Ann
Thomson Mason's purchase. On the contrary, it comprised a small grant,
stated to be 322 acres, made by the Proprietor to one Joseph Dixon, a
blacksmith, by patent dated the 2nd July, 1731.[54] Dixon, in turn, sold
it to Aeneas Campbell by deed dated the 15th July, 1754, for a
consideration nominally stated as "five shillings"--the old-time
equivalent of our "One Dollar and other good and valuable
considerations"--and Campbell was living there when commissioned the
first sheriff of Loudoun in 1757. In the deed to him the plantation is
described as being "On the branches of Limestone run called and known by
the name of raspberry plain" and the grant goes on to give the exact
location by metes and bounds. It apparently had been more carefully
surveyed and found to have more area than first believed, for it is
further described as containing "393 acres as appears by a survey
thereof" and the grant specifically includes "all houses, buildings,
orchards, ways, waters, water-courses," etc. Therefore Dixon may be
credited with having built the first Raspberry Plain house, a matter
long in doubt locally.[55] The estate was subsequently sold by Campbell
and Lydia his wife to Thomson Mason, by deed dated the 15th day of May,
1760, for 500 pounds current money of Virginia.
[54] Liber 3, Fol. 181, N. N. Grants.
[55] Fairfax County Land Records Liber C1 p. 806.
Around 1750 there came from Scotland to this same country, north of the
present Leesburg, that William Douglass who is to be so frequently
mentioned by Nicholas Cresswell in his journal at the time of the
Revolution. Colonel Douglass, as he afterward became, was the son of
Hugh Douglass of Garalland in Ayshire who, in turn, was sixth in descent
from the Earl of Douglas and also a descendant of the Campbell Barons of
Loudoun, thus making the Douglass family of Loudoun County kinsfolk to
the Earl of Loudoun for whom the county was to be named. Our William
Douglass owned the estates of Garalland and Montressor in Loudoun,
served as one of her justices (1770) and as sheriff in 1782. He died in
the latter year, leaving a will which was probated on the 24th September
1782.[56]
[56] _Douglass Family_, by J. S. Wise.
In the meanwhile the settlement of the Quakers was increasing rapidly in
population. As early as 1736, it is said, Hannah Janney, the wife of
Jacob Janney, held the services of her sect twice a week on a tree-stump
in the forest "and on that spot a log house was built in 1751 and a
meeting established" which was and still is known as the Goose Creek
meeting. This log hut in 1765 was superseded by a stone building and as
the congregation grew and the latter building was found too small, it
was replaced, in 1817, by a brick meeting-house; but the old stone
building of 1765 still stands and is owned by the Friends. Remodelled as
a dwelling house it is now occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence Taylor.
A monument today marks the place, now in the village of Lincoln, where
the good Hannah Janney worshipped. It stands in a grove of trees and
reads:
"Here on a log in the unbroken forest Hannah Janney, wife of Jacob
Janney, worshipped twice weekly in 1736. In 1738 Friends meetings were
held in a private house once a month. Then a log meeting house. Then the
old stone house in 1765 and the brick house in 1817."
By 1743 or 1744 the Friends had erected a church, known as the Fairfax
Meeting, at Waterford, where as we have seen in a prior chapter (V),
they soon had become very numerous and through their energy and thrift
had really established that little settlement's early character and
prosperity. This first meeting house of the Friends followed the fate
which appeared to hover over so many of Virginia's early structures; it
duly disappeared in flames and in its place in 1868 there was
constructed the present substantial and commodious edifice, now only too
seldom used because of the dwindling of the Quaker population there.
Concurrently another religious organization had been growing rapidly in
the colonies. The Baptists had experienced the well-proved truth that
religious persecution is a most fertile soil for religious growth.
"Magistrates and mobs, priests and Sheriffs, courts and parsons all
vainly combined to divert them from their object," writes one of their
historians. The Baptists in Virginia are said to have originated from
three sources--emigrants in 1714, directly from England, settling in the
southeasterly part of the Colony, others from Maryland about 1743 going
to the northwesterly part, and still another group leaving New England
about 1754 and going to what is now Berkely County in West Virginia.
Between 1750 and 1755 John Gerrard, a Baptist preacher of Maryland, is
said to have gone to Berkely County and thence journeyed over the Blue
Ridge into the present Loudoun "where he found the people ready to
listen to the proclamation of the gospel." The first Baptist church in
Loudoun (and perhaps in Virginia as well) was built at Ketocton in 1756
or 1757, according to tradition, to be followed by a stone building in
1815 and then, in 1856, by the present brick edifice.
Until 1765 the Baptist congregations in Virginia were united to the
Philadelphia Association but in that year obtained their dismissal and
set about the task of building their own association in Virginia. Their
first convention was held "in Ketocton in Loudoun" the old church there
thus giving the first Baptist Association in Virginia its name. At that
time the Colony had only four Baptist churches but all of them were
represented at this first convention by the following delegates
Ketocton: John Marks and John Loyd.
Smith and Lynsville Creek: John Alderson.
Mill Creek: John Garrard and Isaac Sutton.
Broad Run: David Thomas and Joseph Metcalf.
A resolution was adopted to seek from the parent association in
Philadelphia instructions for the guidance of the new organization. As
their association grew in membership, it "was divided into two in 1789
by a line running from the Potomac a south course." The westerly portion
retained the Ketocton name and that to the east was known as the
Chappawamsick. This division continued until 1792 when the districts
were again united.[57]
[57] _Baptists in Virginia_, by R. B. Semple; also 3 Balch Library
Clippings, 64.
It is believed that a congregation of the German Reformed Church at
Lovettsville was organized before 1747 and possibly at once on the
arrival of the first German settlers in the Lovettsville neighbourhood,
about 1731. Again we are faced with the loss or destruction of early
records; but the Rev. Michael Schlatter, one of the early founders of
the Reformed Church in America, kept a journal from which it appears
that he preached to a Reformed congregation in our German Settlement at
the home of Elder William Wenner in the month of May, 1747. It is
believed that there was, at a very early day, a building of logs used as
a church and as a schoolhouse as well and that this continued to serve
its congregation until 1810, when a larger brick building was erected
which gave way in 1901 to another structure.[58]
[58] Balch Library Clippings, IV, 4.
By patent dated the 7th day of December, 1731, Rawleigh Chinn of
Lancaster County acquired from Lord Fairfax 3,300 acres near Goose Creek
and adjacent to a huge patent of 13,879 acres lying along the east side
of Goose Creek which already had been granted to Colonel Charles
Burgess, also of Lancaster. This grant to Chinn was on the Proprietor's
usual terms, reserving to the latter "yearly and every year on the feast
day of Saint Michael the Archangel the fee rent of one shilling sterling
money for every fifty acres of Land hereby granted and so for a greater
or lesser quantity"; and also meticulously reciting, "Royal mines
excepted and a full third part of all lead, copper, tin, coals, iron
mines and iron ore that shall be found thereon." Raleigh Chinn had
married Esther, a daughter of Colonel Joseph Ball of Epping Forest,
Lancaster County, an older sister of Mary Ball who was to marry
Augustine Washington; and he, although never living on his purchase of
forest lands in the "upper country," appears to have been so well
pleased with his investment that he subsequently added heavily thereto;
so that at the time of his death in August, 1741, he left to his
children a large estate in what later became Loudoun and Fauquier
Counties. One of Raleigh Chinn's sons, Joseph, in January, 1763, sold to
Leven Powell 500 acres of his inheritance and on a part of this land
Colonel Powell later (1782) laid out the town of Middleburg. Thomas
Chinn, a brother of Joseph, lived on the land on Goose Creek he had
inherited from his father and according to family tradition, employed
his young cousin, George Washington, to survey it for him, Washington
occupying "an office on a beautiful hill," built for him by Chinn.
Another surveyor who had run out the Chinn lines was Colonel Thomas
Marshall who was the first county surveyor of Fauquier, subsequently
became its burgess and sheriff, played a most gallant part in the
Revolution and became the father of the famous Chief Justice.[59]
[59] Depositions in Powell vs. Chinn, Loudoun Archives.
Leven Powell, at the time of his purchase from Joseph Chinn, was no
stranger to Loudoun, for his father, William Powell, had acquired land
in the neighbourhood of the present Middleburg as early as 1741.
Although these lands had been repeatedly surveyed from the time of the
original patents to Raleigh Chinn, Charles Burgess and others, in a day
when forest surveys customarily ran to a red or white oak, an ash or a
walnut tree, it may be supposed that boundary lines, in spite of
"processioning," not infrequently became the subject of vigourous
dispute; so in the Middleburg neighbourhood the Chinn and Powell heirs
fell out, in 1811, over their dividing lines and the accuracy of the
survey made in 1731 by John Barber for Charles Burgess, William Stamp,
Thomas Thornton and Rawleigh Chinn the burgess. About 500 acres of
arable land and 500 acres of forest were involved and hot was the legal
warfare and very numerous the depositions from distant witnesses in
Virginia and Kentucky obtained and filed in Loudoun's Superior Court. At
the end, the litigation appears to have resolved itself into some sort
of compromise; for on the 7th April, 1814, we find the Superior Court
ordering "this Day came the Parties by their Attorneys and this suit is
discontinued being agreed between the Parties."[60] But the memory of
their warfare still ruffled the litigants' minds; for upon the
settlement being effected, "Sailor" Rawleigh Chinn, grandson and
namesake of the patentee, proceeded to build upon the land set off to
him "Mount Recovery" which, burned in the Civil War, was afterwards
rebuilt and became the home of Mr. Thomas Dudley, subsequently being
sold to Mr. Oliver Iselin; while Burr Powell, the other litigant, built
on the tract set off to him a house he called Mount Defiance which in
later years was owned by the Thatcher and Bishop families.
[60] Loudoun Superior Court Orders C 38.
In 1744 John Hough, according to family tradition, settled in these
Fairfax backwoods "and served for many years as surveyor for the vast
estate of Lord Fairfax." He became the progenitor of the family which
has become numerous in Loudoun and includes Emerson Hough, well known
American novelist, though the latter was born in Iowa.[61] His surveys
were much needed, for by 1750 the pressure of settlers for grants in
these uplands had so increased that "Lord Fairfax's land office was
crowded with applicants" we are told.[62]
[61] Balch Library Clippings, II, 84.
[62] _Virginia Land Grants_, 130.
CHAPTER VIII
THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR
[Illustration: SIR PETER HALKETT, Bart. In command of that part of
Braddock's Army that marched through the present Loudoun in 1755.]
We have come to the outbreak of that great world conflict between
England and Prussia on the one side against France and Austria, Russia,
Sweden, and Saxony on the other which Fiske, writing before the
devastation of 1914, called the most memorable war of modern times and
which, involving three continents, ultimately passed the vast French
territories in Canada and India to the British crown. In European
history the contest is known, somewhat inadequately, as the Seven Years
War and gave Frederick the Great of Prussia the fateful opportunity to
demonstrate his extraordinary military genius; but in America it is
known as the French and Indian War from the terrible alliance that the
English colonists were forced there to face.
The menace of the French control of Canada had never oppressed the
imagination of Virginia as it had that of New England and New York.
Distance and lack of colonial unity tended to build in the minds of the
Virginia Assembly the belief that it was a matter, to the Old Dominion
at least, of secondary interest; though her royal governors, and
especially Dinwiddie, recognized its true and pressing danger. Virginia
claimed jurisdiction over a vast and largely unknown western territory,
including much of what is now western Pennsylvania and that strategic
point marking the confluence of the Alleghany and Monongahela rivers,
now covered by the city of Pittsburgh. The French in Canada were well
aware of the huge military importance of this "gateway of the west" and,
although at the time peace was supposed to exist between England and
France, in 1753 sent a small expedition south to take possession of it.
News of these Frenchmen in Virginia territory came to Governor Dinwiddie
who, in turn, sent the twenty-one year old Washington, already a major
in the militia of Virginia, to remonstrate and protest to their
commander. On his journey Washington travelled the road to Vestal's Gap
and crossed the Blue Ridge at that point. Though he faithfully delivered
his message, the English protest was ignored, the French commander
asserting that all that domain belonged to his King and that the
English had no territorial rights west of the mountains. Thereupon the
energetic Dinwiddie decided that war or no war the French should be
dislodged. A regiment of 300 Virginians was organized under Colonel
Joshua Fry, with Major Washington as second in command, to take
possession of the disputed "gateway" and fortify it.
This expedition, too, followed the road to Vestal's Gap and Washington,
as was his habit, kept a journal of his experience. By the mischance of
events this journal was to be captured later by the French at Fort
Necessity; but in 1756, to bolster their claim that this English
expedition was an unprovoked attack against a friendly power in time of
peace, they published in French so much of it as served their purpose.
Unfortunately the published portion did not include the march through
Piedmont; but in Washington's accounting with the Virginia government we
find these items:
"1754
"Apl. 6 To expences of the Regim^{t} at Edward
Thompson's in marching up 2´´16.0
8 To Bacon for D^{o} of John Vestal at
Shenandoah & Ferriges over 1.9"[63]
[63] _Journal of Washington 1754._ Edited by J. M. Toner M. D.
Edward Thompson was a Quaker who lived near the present Hillsboro and
who was to leave numerous descendants in Loudoun.
From the Shenandoah the little force pressed on into Western Maryland
where at Will's Creek (the present Cumberland) then a trading station of
the Ohio Company, 140 miles west from their objective, Colonel Fry was
stricken with an illness which, a short time later, was to prove fatal.
Leaving their colonel behind, the Virginia militia, now under the
command of Major Washington, advanced very slowly cutting a narrow road
through the forest and sending a small force ahead to begin work on the
proposed fort at the confluence of the rivers. That work was hardly
begun, however, when a greatly superior force of French and Indians,
arriving suddenly on the scene from the north, drove the Virginians
away, took possession of the place and continued the fort's
construction naming it, on completion, Fort DuQuesne after Canada's
French Governor.
The retreating Virginians fell back through the woods until they joined
Washington's main force, encamped at Great Meadows, and it was not long
before Washington learned from his Indian scouts that a small party of
enemy skirmishers was cautiously advancing to deliver a surprise attack.
Washington promptly determined on a counter-surprise with such complete
success that the Virginians killed Jumonville, the French leader, and
nine of his followers and captured the remaining twenty-two. But
Washington knew that a much larger force of French would soon attack him
and that his position was precarious. With earthworks and logs he caused
his men to hastily fortify their camp, grimly called by him Fort
Necessity. They had not long to wait for the enemy. There soon emerged
from the surrounding forest a force of six hundred French and Indians
from Fort DuQuesne who, apparently not finding that the appearance of
the fort or the reputation of its defenders invited an attack, settled
down to a siege. Washington, though in the meanwhile reinforced, had not
more than three hundred Virginians and about one hundred and fifty
Indian auxiliaries; but more serious than his inequality of numbers were
his rapidly dwindling supplies of food and ammunition. This was the
situation which resulted in Washington's first and last surrender during
his long military career. The French so little relished an attack on the
fort or a longer siege that the English were allowed to march out and
begin their retreat (4th of July, 1754) under arms and with full honors
of war.
All of this began to look very much like a fresh outbreak of war between
England and France; but more and worse was to follow before a formal
declaration of war was made in 1756. The Duke of Cumberland, son of
George II, then Captain General of the British Armies, laid plans for a
great American campaign which, once for all, was to cripple the French
power in the west. Three expeditions were devised against French
strategic strongholds on the American continent: One was to proceed
against Crown Point on Lake George, a second against Fort Niagara and
the third to capture the newly erected Fort DuQuesne. Major-General
Edward Braddock, a veteran soldier thoroughly trained on Europe's
battlefields, of unquestioned personal courage but abysmally ignorant of
Indian warfare, was vested with the supreme command and with two British
regiments, the 44th and 48th, set sail for America. The expedition
landed at Alexandria where a general conference was immediately called
at which were present, in addition to Braddock, Governor Dinwiddie of
Virginia, Governor Delancey and Colonel William Johnson of New York,
Governor Shirley of Massachusetts, Governor Sharp of Maryland, Governor
Morris of Pennsylvania and other leaders. To these men Braddock revealed
his orders and plans and the governors received the King's instructions
as to the part they were to play in the campaign.
Alexandria was a poor starting point for Fort DuQuesne. Far better would
have been Philadelphia, offering as it did not only a shorter route but
more abundant and easily available supplies. Maryland interests, seeking
the advantage of the highway to the west which the army would make,
brought pressure to bear to have the force go through that Colony. It
was finally decided to send a part of the troops through Maryland and a
part through Virginia, the divided army to come together again at Will's
Creek where, in the meanwhile, a large and strongly palisaded fort had
been built by Colonel James Innes under the instructions of Governor
Dinwiddie. A force of 1,400 Virginians and Marylanders was raised and
added to the English troops and "on the 8th and 9th of April the
provincials and six companies of the 44th under command of Sir Peter
Halkett set out for Winchester, Lieutenant Colonel Gage and four
companies remaining to escort the artillery. On the 18th of April the
48th, under Colonel Dunbar, set out for Frederick."[64] Although General
Braddock, with Major Washington on his staff, crossed over into Maryland
at Rock Creek and went to Will's Creek through that Colony, never
entering or even seeing the embryo Loudoun, the local stories are still
repeated, and with the utmost confidence, of the route he followed
through that County and even where he spent the night. It was, as it
still is, "Braddock's Army" in popular parlance and, as time passed, the
commander's presence with the march through Virginia became a part of
its story.
[64] _History of an Expedition Against Fort DuQuesne in 1755_, by
Winthrop Sargent p. 193.
Had the supreme command of the expedition been vested in Halkett, rather
than Braddock, one may reasonably believe that there would have been a
very different outcome. A trained and able soldier, no less courageous
than his chief, he was more cautious, more susceptible to new ideas and
methods and far less arbitrary than lay in Braddock's nature to be. He
learned to respect the dearly bought and superior knowledge of Indian
fighting traits possessed by the provincials and wished to follow their
recommendations that to Braddock, with his unbounded confidence in iron
discipline, simply savoured of colonial ignorance and lack of military
courage. Loudoun should remember Halkett not only as the commander of
the march through her domain but as a brave and devoted soldier as well.
"Sir Peter Halkett of Pitferran, Fifeshire, a baronet of Nova Scotia,"
writes Sargent, "was the son of Sir Peter Wedderburne of Gosford, who,
marrying the heiress of the ancient family of Halkett, assumed her
name."[65] Our Sir Peter had married Lady Amelia Stewart, second
daughter of Francis, 8th Earl of Moray, by whom he had three sons. Of
these, James, the youngest, was a subaltern in his father's regiment and
accompanied him on the expedition.
[65] Idem, 294.
Of the Virginia troops serving in this campaign an effort has been made
to identify such as came from the incipient Loudoun. All the Virginians
were directly under the command of Captain Waggoner. As Loudoun was then
a part of Fairfax her men were, of course, listed as from the latter
county.
In March, 1756, the Virginia Legislature passed as its first act[66] an
emergency measure from which we learn the names of certain soldiers from
the then undivided Fairfax but from which side of Difficult Run each man
came does not appear, or as to whether they went on Braddock's
expedition or served nearer home, then or subsequently. The small amount
of compensation awarded to each indicates a period of active service too
short to have permitted them to be at the battle. Probably they were
used east of the Blue Ridge.
[66] 7 Hening, 9.
That not all of the Virginia soldiers of the expedition of 1755 were
enthusiastic volunteers is suggested by the passage of Chapter II of the
session of 1754 which states in its preamble that as the King had
instructed his lieutenant governor to raise soldiers for the expedition
against the French on the Ohio and that there were "in every county and
corporation within this Colony, able bodied persons, fit to serve his
majesty, and who follow no lawful calling or employment" the justices of
the peace, through the sheriffs, were ordered to forcibly enlist them,
provided they were not voters or indentured servants![67] To raise money
for the campaign an act was passed in May, 1755, instituting a public
lottery with a first prize of £2,000 "current money" and many other
prizes amounting altogether to £20,000 "current money."[68]
[67] 6 Hening, 438.
[68] 6 Hening, 453.
The route to be followed by Halkett's command is given in Braddock's
Orderly Book as follows:
"Alexandria 11th April 1755
.... March Rout of Sir Peter Halkett's Regiment from the
Camp at Alexandria to Winchester miles
To Y^{e} old Court House 18
To Mr. Colemans on Sugar Land Run
where there is Indian Corn &c 12
To Mr. Miner's 15
To Mr. Thompson ye Quaker wh is 3000 wt. corn 12
To Mr. They's ye Ferry at Shanh 17
From Mr. They's to Winchester 23
--
97"
Thus from the date of entry, only two days after the last of Halkett's
men had left the camp, we learn that the route given was the one ordered
followed, rather than a report of one that had been pursued; but as it
carefully describes the main northern road from Alexandria to Winchester
it is safe to assume that the troops held to the course laid down for
them.
The "Old Court House" was the first courthouse of Fairfax County built
about 1742 and in use about ten years until another was built in
Alexandria. Thus at the time of the march it was no longer used for the
purpose for which it had been built. It stood near the present Tyson's
Corner and in recent years its site has been marked by an appropriate
inscription.
The "Mr. Colemans on Sugar Land Run" was the house of Richard Coleman
who was thereafter in 1756 licensed by the Fairfax Court to keep an
Ordinary there. It stood where the road then crossed Sugarland Run at
the mouth of Colvin Run.
The "Mr. Miners" was the plantation of Nicholas Minor who served as a
captain in this war and who soon was to lay out the town of Leesburg on
part of his estate. It was known as Fruitland and the residence was
situated on a knoll on the south side of the road about a mile east of
the present Leesburg where a later building but bearing the same name
now stands. There Miner in connection with his other activities,
operated a distillery, probably for making brandy from peaches, apples
and persimmons; according to General John Mason, a son of the famous
George of Gunston Hall "the art of distilling from grain was not then
among us" and he spoke of the time of his boyhood--a period well after
1755. A later writer comments: "The choice of such camping places as
this perhaps explains in some measure the frequent court-martials in the
army and the liberal rewards of from 600 to 1,000 lashes to recreant
soldiers for drunkenness and for giving liquor to the Indians who
accompanied the march or whom they met on the way."[69] There is much
evidence that the British regulars, who had been recently recruited,
frequently were disciplined for infraction of military rules and the
disciplinary measures employed in British armies of that day were not
gentle.
[69] Newspaper clipping Balch Library, Leesburg, Vol. 1. Loudoun
County 70.
The "Mr. Thompson ye Quaker" we have already met in the preceding year
when Washington, in Fry's expedition against the French at the
"Gateway," noted his "expences." He lived, it will be recalled, in the
locality which is now Hillsboro.
The "Mr. They's ye Ferry at Shanh" was, it is believed, in error for
"Mr. Key's" and was at the Key's Gap Ferry.
All of this gives very little local detail. Fortunately that is more
freely supplied from another and fortuitous source. There was attached
to Braddock's expedition, when it left England, a certain commissary who
had a widowed sister, one Mrs. Browne. She accompanied her brother from
London to Fort Cumberland and, following the valuable eighteenth century
habit, kept a journal which in 1924 was owned by Mr. S. A. Courtauld of
the Howe, Halstead, Essex, and a photostatic copy of which has been
acquired by the Library of Congress.[70] This journal or diary runs from
the 17th November, 1754, to the 19th January, 1757. When Braddock and
his men departed from Alexandria in April he had a number of soldiers
too ill to travel. These he left there temporarily in charge of a force
of "1 officer and 40 men" and the commissary (Mrs. Browne's brother),
and Mrs. Browne stayed with them to help nurse the invalids. By June the
sick men had so far recovered that they moved to join the main force,
following the old Ridge (Alexandria-Winchester) Road over which Halkett
and his men had marched before them. Here follows a full copy of Mrs.
Browne's journal entries from her entrance into present Loudoun until
she reached the Shenandoah:
[70] _Virginia Magazine of History and Biography_, Vol. 38, p. 169.
1755. "June the 2. At Break of Day the Drum beat. I was extreemly sleepy
but got up, and as soon as our Officer had eat 6 Eggs and drank a dram
or two and some Punch we march'd; but, my Waggon being in the Rear the
Day before, my Coachman insisted that it was not right that Madam Browne
should be behind, and if they did not give way they should feel the soft
end of his Whip. He gain'd his Point and got in Front. The Roads are so
Bad that I am almost disjointed. At 12 we halted at Mr. Coleman's,
pitched our markeys and dined on Salt Gammon,[71] nothing better to be
had.
[71] i.e. Cured ham or even bacon.
"June the 3. At 3 in the Morning was awak'd by the Drum, but was so
stiff that I was at a loss to tell whether I had any Limbs. I
breakfasted in my waggon and then sent of in front; at which all the
rest were very much enrag'd, but to no Purpose for my Coachman told them
that he had but one Officer to Obey and she was in his Waggon, and it
was not right she should be blinded with Dust. My Brother the Day before
left his Cloak behind, so sent his Man back for it on his Horse, and
march'd on Foot. On the Road met with Mr. Adams a Parson[72] who left
his Horse & padded with them on Foot. We halted at Mr. Minors. We
order'd some Fowls for Dinner but not one to be had, so was obliged to
set down to our old Dish Gammon & Greens. The Officer and the Parson
replenish'd their Bowl so often that they began to be very joyous,
untill their Servant told them that their Horses were lost, at which the
Parson was much inrag'd and pop'd out an Oath but Mr. Falkner said
'Never mind your Horse, Doctor, but have you a Sermon ready for next
Sunday?' I being the Doctor's country woman he mad me many Compts. and
told me he should be very happy if he could be better acquainted with
me, but hop'd when I came that way again I would do him the Honour to
spend some Time at his House. I chatted til 11 and then took my leave
and left them a full Bowl before them.
[72] Fairfax Harrison suggests error; that Rev. John Andrews, then
Parson of Cameron Parish, was the man. No Parson named Adams then in
Virginia.
"June the 4. At break of Day my Coachman came and tap'd my Chamber Door
and said Madam all is ready and it is right early. I went to my Waggon
and we moved on. Left Mr. Falkner behind in Pursuit of his Horse.
March'd 14 Miles and halted at an old sage Quaker's with silver Locks.
His Wife on my coming in accosted me in the following manner: 'Welcome
Friend set down, thou seem's full Bulky to travel, but thou art young
and that will enable thee. We were once so ourselves but we have been
married 44 Years & may say we have lived to see the Days that we have
no Pleasure therein.' We had recourse to our old Dish Gammon, nothing
else to be had; but they said they had some Liquor they called Whiskey
which was made of Peaches. My Friend Thompson being a Preacher, when the
soldiers came in as the Spirit mov'd him, held forth to them and told
them the great Virtue of Temperance. They all stared at him like Pigs,
but had not a word to say in their justification.
"June the 5. My Lodgings not being very clean, I had so many close
Companions call'd Ticks that deprived me of my Night's Rest, but I
indulg'd till 7. We halted this Day all the Nurses Baking Bread and
Boiling Beef for the March to Morrow. A fine Regale 2 Chickens with Milk
and water to Drink, which my friend Thompson said was fine temperate
Liquor. Several things lost out of my Waggon, amongst the rest they took
2 of my Hams, which my Coachman said was an abomination to him, and if
he could find out who took them he would make them remember taking the
next.
"June the 6. Took my leave of my Friend Thompson, who bid me farewell. A
great Gust of Thunder and Lightning and Rain, so that we were almost
drown'd. Extreem bad Roads. We pass'd over the Blue Ridge which was one
continual mountain for 3 miles. Forg'd through 2 Rivers. At 7 we halted
at Mr. Key's, a fine Plantation. Had for Dinner 2 Chickens. The Soldiers
desired my Brother to advance them some Whisky for they told him he had
better kill them at once than to let them dye by Inches, for without
they could not live. He complied with their Request and it soon began to
operate; they all went to dancing and bid defiance to the French. My
Friend Gore" (the coachman) "began to shake a Leg. I ask'd him if it was
consistent as a member of his Society to dance; he told me that he was
not at all united with them, and that there were some of his People who
call'd themselves Quakers and stood up for their Church but had no more
religion in them than his Mare. I told him I should set him down as a
Ranter."
But to return to Halkett and the troops under his immediate command.
From Winchester they proceeded to the new fort at Will's Creek which
Braddock, upon his arrival, named Fort Cumberland in honour of his
captain general. Here the main detachments of the expedition came
together again in accordance with the plans made in Alexandria. The
troops were given a short rest after their long march, the final plans
were developed and on the 7th, 8th and 9th of June the army resumed its
march to the west, widening the path through the woods made by
Washington and his men the year before and hauling its artillery over
the mountains with the utmost difficulty. So slow was their progress
that Braddock decided to send on a large advance party, more lightly
equipped, leaving the others to bring on the greater part of the
supplies and baggage.
[Illustration: THE FALL OF BRADDOCK. (From a painting by C. Schuessele,
published in 1859.)]
In contrast to Braddock's unbounded assurance, Halkett seems to have had
a strong premonition of the impending disaster and his own tragic fate.
Lowdermilk, in his excellent _History of Cumberland_, describes his
dejection the night before the battle:
"Sir Peter Halkett was low spirited and depressed; he comprehended the
importance of meeting the wily red skins with their own tactics, and
while he urged the General to beat the bushes over every foot of ground
from the camp to the Fort, he had little hope of seeing his advice put
into effect; when he wrapped his mantle about him that night as he lay
upon his soldier's bed his soul was filled with the darkest forebodings
for the morrow, which he felt would close his own career as well as that
of many another gallant soldier, a presentiment which was sadly
realized."
Upon the following day, the 9th of July, the advance party of British,
now making better progress, pressed on to a point five or six miles from
Fort DuQuesne where they encountered the awaiting French and Indians.
Against such British strength of numbers and equipment the French had
one chance and well they knew it lay in meeting the attacking force in
the forest before it could bring its artillery to play on their
fortification. The mass of the scarlet-coated British troops were in
close formation in the open; the French and Indians hid themselves
behind the surrounding trees. As the first bullets poured into their
ranks the British could see no foe and Braddock, deaf to the entreaties
of the Virginians, insisted that his troops hold their ranks in the
unprotected and open clearing. The provincials scattered and fought the
foe in its own manner from behind every tree and mound they could find
to shelter them; but Braddock, wholly immune to fear or reason himself,
continued to hold his regulars together, in his anger beating back with
his sword into the ranks those seeking cover. Even so the situation,
impossible though it were rapidly becoming, might have been saved by the
desperate and determined efforts of the provincials who had found a
small ravine or ditch from which they were able to deliver an effective
flanking fire against the French; but as the latter began to waver and
the Americans left their protection to charge, the panic-stricken
regulars fired upon them, killing and wounding a great number. It was
the end. Braddock, who throughout the fighting had shewn the most
reckless and obstinate courage and had had his horses killed from under
him again and again, now received a mortal wound and the surviving
English broke into a wild and disorderly retreat. Had the French and
their allies pressed their advantage, hardly one of their foe would have
escaped death or capture; but the Indian allies of the French, when the
British fled, addressed themselves to killing the wounded and robbing
and scalping the dead, thus giving the English their chance of flight,
disorderly and panic-stricken, back over the road they had come.
Braddock, crushed with the completeness of his defeat, died on the
fourth day of the retreat and was buried in the roadway to protect his
body from the Indian savages. How overwhelming was the French victory is
shewn by the English record that of the 1,386 men who were under
Braddock in the fight, only 459 escaped. That the British regulars stood
their ground bravely in the face of most difficult conditions and stupid
leadership there seems no question. But the greater praise went to the
Americans who inflicted far more damage on the foe; and particularly to
their leader Washington who with cool courage was everywhere encouraging
his men in the fight and though his clothing was pierced repeatedly with
rifle balls, he escaped wholly unwounded.
During the battle Halkett was shot and killed and his son James, seeing
him fall and rushing to his aid, at once met the same fate. Both bodies
were scalped and robbed and then left where they fell. Three years later
Halkett's eldest son, the then Sir Peter Halkett, a major in the 42nd
Regiment, joined General Forbes' new and successful expedition against
Fort DuQuesne, especially to seek some trace of the fate of his father
and brother. With friendly Indian help the bodies were found and
identified and given a military burial nearby.
As the defeated English retreated to the east, the story of the calamity
spread terror and dismay among the more westerly settlers. In Virginia
the people in the valley were panic-stricken and in great numbers fled
over the Blue Ridge to the Piedmont counties, spreading their terror
among the people there. Washington wrote that he learned from Captain
Waggoner who, as we have seen, had had command of the Virginia troops
and had been wounded in the battle "that it was with difficulty he
passed the Ridge for crowds of people, who were flying as if every
moment was death." The fear and restlessness continued among the
colonists on both sides of the Blue Ridge until General Forbes, as
noted, in 1758 led his force to Fort DuQuesne and took possession of
what was left by the French who burned and abandoned it at his approach.
From then until after the Revolution this former outpost of France,
under its new name of Fort Pitt, remained in the hands of the English
government.
On the 1st day of September, 1758,[73] an act was passed in Virginia to
pay arrears to "forces in the pay of this colony" and to raise money
therefor. Section 5 recites:
"And whereas several companies of the militia were lately drawn out into
actual service, for the defense and protection of the frontiers of this
colony, whose names, and the time they respectively continued in the
said service, together with the charge of provisions found for the use
of the said militia are contained in the schedule to this act
annexed....
"Loudoun County
l s d
To captain Nicholas Minor 1 00 00
Aeneas Campbell, lieutenant, 7 6
Francis Wilks, 1 17
James Willock, 1 15
To John Owsley, and William Stephens,
15 s. each 1 10
Robert Thomas 10
John Moss, Jun. 4
John Thomas for provisions 5
John Moss, do 2 8
William Ross, do 2 "
[73] 7 Hening, 171 and 222.
On page 217 of the same act under the head of "Fairfax County" appear
the following items, the names suggesting that the list was prepared
prior to the time of the setting off of Loudoun from Fairfax and for
services prior to those above listed:
l s d
"To Nicholas Minor, Captain 15 12 0
Josias Clapham, lieutenant, 7 16
William Trammell, ensign 5 4
To Captain James Hamilton his pay and
guards subsistence carrying soldiers
to Winchester 10 4 1"
The names of many other soldiers are given with the compensation awarded
each. It is quite possible that among them were men who resided in that
part of Fairfax which, at the time of the passage of the act, had been
set off as Loudoun.
CHAPTER IX
ORGANIZATION OF LOUDOUN AND THE FOUNDING OF LEESBURG
In the Virginia of England's rule, the vestry of a Parish "divided with
the County Court the responsibility of local government, having as their
especial charge the maintenance of religion and the oversight of all
things pertaining thereto in the domain of charity and morals."[74] The
parish was a territorial subdivision with large civil as well as
ecclesiastical powers and duties and when, through increasing
population, a parish came to be divided, in those days of expanding
settlement, it usually was followed by the creation of a new county. As
has been noted in a prior chapter, Truro Parish, then coextensive with
Fairfax County, was divided in 1748 by the Assembly setting off the
upper part thereof, above Difficult Run, as Cameron Parish, thus
indicating the early organization of a new county. But the politicians
of Tidewater were beginning to look askance at the rapid increase of new
counties in the upper country, fearing a diminution of their influence
and control and perhaps there was some opposition in Fairfax itself. A
petition presented to the Assembly in 1754 by the people of Cameron that
they be formed into a new county resulted in a bill being passed to that
end which, however, was disapproved by the Council. Again a petition was
presented to the next Assembly with no better success; but on the 8th
day of June, 1757 a bill was passed creating the new county. It reads as
follows:
"An Act for Dividing the County of Fairfax
"I. Whereas many inconveniences attend the upper inhabitants of the
County of Fairfax by reason of the large extent of said county, and
their remote situation from the court house, and the said inhabitants
have petitioned this present general assembly that the said county be
divided: Be it, therefore enacted, by the Lieutenant-Governor, Council
and Burgesses of this present General Assembly, and it is hereby
enacted, by the authority of the same, that from and after the 1st day
of July next ensuing the said county of Fairfax be divided into two
counties, that is to say: All that part thereof, lying above Difficult
run, which falls into the Patowmack river, and by a line to be run from
the head of the same run, a straight course, to the mouth of Rocky run,
shall be one distinct county, and called and known by the name of
Loudoun: And all that part below the said run and course, shall be
another distinct county, and retain the name of Fairfax.
"II. And for the due administration of justice in the said county of
Loudoun, after the same shall take place: Be it further enacted by the
authority aforesaid, that after the first day of July a court for the
said county of Loudoun be constantly held by the justices thereof, upon
the second Tuesday in every month in such manner as by the laws of this
colony is provided, and shall be by their commission directed.
"III. Provided always, that nothing herein contained shall be
constructed to hinder the sheriff or collector of the said county of
Fairfax, as the same now stands entire and undivided, from collecting
and making distress for any public dues, or officers fees, which shall
remain unpaid by the inhabitants of said county of Loudoun at the time
of its taking place; but such sheriff or collector shall have the same
power to collect or distrain for such dues and fees, and shall be
answerable for them in the same manner as if this act had never been
made, any law, usage or custom to the contrary thereof in any wise
notwithstanding.
"IV. And be it further enacted, by the authority aforesaid, that the
court of the said county of Fairfax shall have jurisdiction of all
actions and suits, both in law and equity, which shall be depending
before them at the time the said division shall take place; and shall
and may try and determine all such actions and suits, and issue process
and award execution in any such action or suit in the same manner as if
this act had never been made, any law, usage, or custom to the contrary
in any wise notwithstanding.
"V. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that out of
every hundred pounds of tobacco, paid in discharge of quit rents,
secretary's, clerk's, sheriff's, surveyor's, or other officers fees,
and so proportionately for a greater or lesser quantity, there shall be
made the following abatements or allowances to the payer, that is to
say: For tobacco due in the county of Fairfax ten pounds of tobacco, and
for tobacco due in the county of Loudoun twenty pounds of tobacco; and
that so much of the act of the assembly, intitled, An Act for amending
the staple of tobacco, and preventing frauds in his Majesty's customs,
as relates to anything within the purview of this act, shall be and is
hereby repealed and made void."[75]
[74] _History of Truro Parish_, i.
[75] Known as Chapter XXII. See 7 Hening, 148.
The boundaries of the new county thus fixed have since that time been
changed but once, when in 1798, a part of the originally constituted
Loudoun was, by act of the Legislature, returned to Fairfax as later
will be noted.[76]
[76] See Chapter XIII post.
Thus, from the formation of Northumberland County in 1647, it had taken
110 years for a sufficient population to penetrate, settle and develop
in the backwoods to justify the organization of Loudoun. At first the
creation of new counties out of the early Northumberland had been rapid.
Lancaster along the Rappahannock was formed in 1651 and Westmoreland
along the Potomac in 1653. Out of Westmoreland came Stafford in 1664.
Then, so far as the line of descent of Loudoun is concerned, there is a
long wait. Indian warfare and Indian domination of the upper country
effectually held back settlement until Spotswood's epochal treaty of
1722. With the withdrawal of the Indians the pressure from Tidewater
rapidly had its effect. Out of the Stafford "backwoods" and those of
King George to the south was organized in 1731 Prince William with a
disputed western boundary, the Proprietor claiming much of the
Shenandoah Valley and the Virginia government holding to the Blue Ridge
but the act discretely leaving that question untouched. In 1742 the
territory above "Occoquan and Bull Run and from the head of the main
branch of Bull Run by a straight course" to Ashley's Gap became the
County of Fairfax of which, as shown, Loudoun in 1757 was born. Her
contiguous county Fauquier was, by contrast, taken directly from Prince
William in 1759.
It would have been wholly appropriate to have named the new county Lee
or Carter, honoring families and individuals which had been so active in
its development but the Lees then loved the Carters not at all nor the
Carters the Lees and doubtlessly each would, and perhaps did, prevent
the honor going to the other. So it came about that the lusty infant
became the namesake of a man whose fame, so far as Virginia and the
other American Colonies were concerned, was highly ephemeral. On the
17th February, 1756, in the winter following Braddock's defeat, John
Campbell, fourth Earl of Loudoun, had been appointed Captain-General and
Governor-in-Chief of Virginia and, on the 20th of the month following,
Commander-in-Chief of the British forces in America. He seems to have
owed his selection to his own and his family's influence with Court and
ministry; certainly nothing in his earlier career had logically earned
the bestowal of a paramount command in such a critical period for
Britain. Loudoun, the only son of the third Earl of that ilk and his
wife the Lady Margaret Dalrymple (only daughter of John 1st Earl of
Stair) had been born in 1705 and succeeded his father in the title and
estates in 1731. From 1734, until his death in 1782, he was one of the
representative peers of Scotland. At the age of twenty-two he entered
the army and had been appointed Governor of Sterling Castle in 1741,
becoming aide-de-camp to the king in 1743. When the Jacobite rebellion
broke out in 1745 he had been a staunch supporter of the House of
Hanover, raising a regiment of Highlanders of which he became colonel
and which later was cut to pieces at the Battle of Preston. Loudoun was
one of the few who came out of the fight unscathed and, shewing that
upon occasion he was capable of energy as well as loyalty, promptly he
raised a force of more than two thousand new soldiers.
When he arrived in New York on the 23rd July, 1756, he found affairs in
great confusion. After the care with which Braddock's campaign had been
planned for him and the disastrous outcome, the home authorities were
now slow to adopt measures to cope with the crisis. Not only Fort
DuQuesne but Forts Oswego and Ontario were held by the French,
aggressive and confident from their repeated successes. After spending
a year in surveying the situation, Loudoun headed an expedition against
Louisburg, going as far as Halifax and then, though a caution made to
appear the more excessive by inevitable comparison with the dash and
reckless courage of Pepperell's earlier and sensationally successful
expedition, returned to New York without striking a blow. He had
incurred great unpopularity earlier in New York and now in Halifax
although in the former, at least, his measures of quartering troops and
interference with commerce fairly could be defended on the ground of
military necessity. Of more unfortunate importance, the ineptitude and
dilatory inefficiency of his Louisburg campaign had drained its
defenders from the Hudson Valley, thus permitting a successful and
disastrous invasion of the Province of New York by the French and their
Indians and Loudoun was peremptorily recalled to England (1757), General
Jeffrey Amherst being sent over to take his place. Loudoun's indecision
inspired Benjamin Franklin's famous epigram which all down the years, to
the few who remember Loudoun, remains inseparably associated with his
name: that, "he was like King George upon the signposts, always on
horseback but never advancing." There was, however, at least one voice
publicly raised on his behalf; an effort was made in England to defend
his conduct in America through an anonymous pamphlet published in London
the following year entitled "The Conduct of a Noble Commander in America
Impartially Reviewed with the genuine Causes of the Discontents at New
York and Hallifax," one of the few surviving copies of which is now
lodged in the Library of Congress. And it was for this British general
with but a year of American experience (and that far from glorious) who
never, so far as it is known, set foot on Virginia's soil that the
fairest of Piedmont's counties was named during those brief months when
his ascendant star glowed with an all too temporary brilliance and hope
and expectation ran high. Had the county been organized when first
proposed or had its formation been further postponed, it is a fair
presumption that another name would have been chosen.
Lord Loudoun's American record seemingly did not end his influence in
London. In 1762, when war broke out between England and Spain, he was
appointed second in command, under Lord Tyrawley, of the British troops
sent to Portugal. As he never married, his title upon his death at
Loudoun Castle on the 27th April, 1782, passed to his cousin, James Mure
Campbell, a grandson of the second Earl.
Of the first officials of Loudoun County, the following men by
commission of the Virginia Council, dated the 24th May, 1757, became its
first court or governing body: Anthony Russell, Fielding Turner, James
Hamilton, Aeneas Campbell, Nicholas Minor, William West, of the Quorum,
Richard Coleman, Josias Clapham, George West, Charles Tyler, John Moss,
Francis Peyton and John Mucklehany. These men may be taken as
outstanding residents.
We can learn from the early records something concerning the actual
procedure followed in organizing the new county. The first entry in the
volume of Court Orders is a record on the 12th day of July, 1757, that a
Commission of the Peace and Dedimus of the county directed to the last
mentioned "Gentlemen, justices of the said County was produced and
openly Read, and pursuant to the Dedimus" that they took the oaths
prescribed by law.
The first county clerk was Charles Binns who served thirty-nine years in
that capacity, from 1757 to 1796; to be succeeded by his son Charles
Binns, Jr., who, in his turn, served forty-one years or from 1796 to
1837, a record indicating that Loudoun had been fortunate in the
selection for this office. It is traditional in the county that the
first clerk's office was at Rokeby, the present country seat of Mr. and
Mrs. B. Franklin Nalle.
The first sheriff was Aeneas Campbell who came to the then Fairfax
County from Saint Mary's County, Maryland, just in time to become a
lieutenant in that Fairfax company in the French War captained by
Nicholas Minor and whose home was at Raspberry Plain as already has been
shown.[77] It is also locally related that the first jail was a small
brick building about twelve feet square, in his yard there. A
ducking-spring was also a part of the new sheriff's equipment at his
home and was used to temper the enthusiasm of females too greatly
addicted to mischievous talking. A woman duly convicted of idle gossip
and slandering her neighbours, was generally fined in tobacco; if the
fine were not paid by her husband or the dame herself, she was taken to
the ducking-spring, where a long pole had a chair with arms attached to
its end. The talkative lady was then tied in the chair, the pole lowered
and she was immersed in the pond a sufficient number of times to cause
her ruefully to remember her experience and, let us hope, amend her
conduct. Alas! Alas! _Tempora mutantur_.
[77] See chapter VII ante.
Campbell's bond as sheriff occupies the place of honor in the first Deed
Book of the county on page one. He and his two sureties, Anthony Russell
and James Hamilton, bind themselves "unto our Sovereign Lord King George
the second in the sum of one thousand pounds Current Money to be paid to
our said Lord the King his Heirs and Successors." Tobacco as money was
all well enough in Virginia but apparently was not appreciated by
Royalty across the sea.
Both county clerk and sheriff qualified at this first session of the
Court.
Aeneas Campbell was one of the leading spirits in the new county. Not
only was he its first sheriff but he built its first courthouse, as
later noted, and was an original trustee of Leesburg when that town was
"erected." In those days the outstanding men in a community were chosen
for public office and the frequency of his name on the records
unquestionably confirms his influential prominence. His later career was
interesting. After he sold Raspberry Plain to Thomson Mason in 1760, we
find him, in 1776, back in Maryland and busily engaged in the work of
the Revolution. He became captain of the First Maryland Battalion of the
Flying Camp in July of that year and on the 18th of the month in
Frederick County, is credited with presenting to that command thirty-two
men, including his son Aeneas Campbell, Jr., (who held the rank of
cadet) all of whom were then reviewed and passed (accepted?) by Major
John Fulford.[78] His descendants, including the Giddings family of
Leesburg, proudly retain the tradition that Campbell raised and
accoutred this force entirely at his own expense, setting an example of
patriotism which Loudoun should remember.
[78] Archives of Maryland, Published by Maryland Historical Society
1900.
The county lieutenant, first officer in rank but, in the present
instance, the last to be chosen, was not commissioned until December,
1757, when Francis Lightfoot Lee, son of our old friend Thomas Lee, was
selected and settled himself on lands which he had inherited from his
father and which were within the boundaries of the new county. His
residence in Loudoun, however, did not prove to be permanent, for upon
his marriage in 1769, to Miss Rebecca Tayloe of Mount Airy, he removed
to Menokin on the Rappahannock where he continued to reside until his
death, without issue, in the winter of 1797; but as a result of his
frontier experience he was always thereafter called "Loudoun" by his
brothers.[79] In addition to his position as county lieutenant he and
James Hamilton served as the first Burgesses from Loudoun and
continuously so acted for a number of years.
[79] _Landmarks_, I., 327 and 344.
The first county surveyor was recognized at the court held on the 9th
August, 1757, when "George West, Gent. produced a Commission to be
Surveyor of this County and thereupon he took the Oath directed by the
Act of Assembly and entered into and acknowledged his Bond to the
President and Masters of the College of William & Mary in Virginia with
Charles Binns & Lee Massey his Sureties which is Ordered to be
recorded."
The first attorneys to qualify to practice law before the Loudoun Court
were Hugh West, Benjamin Sebastian, William Elzey, and James Keith.
Few institutions of the Northern Neck of those days of slow travel and
thin settlement were more important than the inns or as they are usually
designated "ordinaries;" and the keeper of an Ordinary was generally a
man of parts and consequence in his community. The matter of cost of
food, drink and lodging in the public inns was a subject close to the
heart of the eighteenth century colonial and Loudoun's Court lost no
time in taking control of the ordinaries within its boundaries. Already
several were in existence. As early as 1740 William West had acquired
land on the Carolina Road near the present Aldie and soon had
constructed a dwelling and was keeping an ordinary there. The Loudoun
Court on the 9th May, 1759, gave him a license to keep his ordinary for
a year--presumably to be annually renewed--but he had been acting as the
local Boniface for many years before that. The first Loudoun license for
an ordinary, however, was granted on the 10th August, 1757, "to James
Coleman to keep Ordinary at his House in this County (at the Sugar
Lands) for one Year he with Security having given Bond as the Law
directs;" but Coleman, too, had been conducting an ordinary at his
residence before then.
On the 12th September, 1759, the court licensed John Moss to keep an
Ordinary at Leesburg.
But on the 9th day of August, 1757, the day before it granted its first
license to keep ordinary to James Coleman, the court laid down its rules
and regulations for Loudoun inn keepers. That the gentlemen justices
gave far more detailed attention to the charges for alcoholic
refreshment than to the other matters regulated may or may not have been
mere coincidence.
"The Court," so runs the record, "proceeded to rate the Liquor for this
County as follows:
L S d
For a gallon of rum and so in proportion 8
Nantz Brandy Pr Gallon 10
Peach or Apple Brandy Pr Gallon 6
New England Rum Pr Gallon 2 6
Virginia Brandy from Grain Pr Gallon 4
Arrack the Quart made into Punch 8
For a Quart of White, red or Madeira Wine 2 6
For Royall and other low Wines Pr Quart 1 6
English Strong Beer Pr Quart 1 3
London Beer called Porter Pr Quart 1
Virginia Strong Beer Pr Quart 7-1/2
Cyder the quart Bottle 3-3/4
English Cyder the Quart 1 3
For a Gill of Rum made into Punch with loaf Sugar 6
Ditto with fruit 7-1/2
For ditto with Brown Sugar 3-3/4
For a Hot Diet 9
For a Cold Diet 6
For a Gallon of Corn or Oats 4
Stableage & Fodder for a horse 24 hours or one night 6
Pasturage for a Horse 24 Hours or one night 4
For lodging with clean Sheets 6d. Otherwise nothing
All soldiers and Expresses on his Majesty's service paying
ready money shall have 1/5 part deducted.
"Ordered that the respective Ordinary keepers in this County do sell
according to the above rates in Money or Tobacco at the rate of 12s 6d
per hundred and that they do not presume to demand more of any Person
whatsoever."
The first deed recorded in Loudoun but on page 2 of the first volume of
Deed Books, is dated the 6th day of August, 1757, from Andrew Hutchison
"of Loudoun County and Cameron Parish" and runs to his sons John and
Daniel, also of Loudoun; it conveys a piece of land "containing by
estimation seven hundred acres more or less whereon now lives the said
John Huchison and to be equally divided between them." Thus another old
and well-known Loudoun family is introduced.
The first will recorded was that of "Evan Thomas of Virginia Coleney in
Loudoun County." It was proved at the court held on the 8th day of
November, 1757, and its record is followed by a long and interesting
inventory of his estate.
For some time prior to the organization of the county there had been a
small backwoods settlement, perhaps only a few scattered log houses,
near the intersection of the Carolina and old Ridge Roads. This tiny
hamlet had dignified itself with the name of George Town in rugged
loyalty to King George the Second. Deck and Heaton say that in 1757 a
little fort was built there. Protection from attack by the French and
Indians was deemed necessary to every frontier settlement. Nicholas
Minor, who was a captain in the Virginia Militia and in active service
at this period, may have had a hand in the building of this fort and it
is probable that he was in military command there. He lived on his
nearby plantation of Fruitland and his estate included some sixty acres
or more at the intersection of the Carolina and Ridge Roads. In the year
1756, it is believed, he employed John Hough (who, as stated in the last
chapter, had in 1744 settled in these backwoods and was acting as a
surveyor for Lord Fairfax) to survey this land for a town site. Hough
thereupon made his survey and perhaps mapped his first rough draft in
1757, probably making a more carefully detailed copy in 1759, after the
establishment of the Town had been formally authorized by the
Legislature and Minor had sold off a number of the lots as plotted on
the plan. If so, this first rough draft is now lost or has been
destroyed and the copy of 1759 was destined for many years also to be
involved in mysterious disappearance. Though constantly in use for the
first forty years of its existence, through oversight or negligence
neither this 1759 "edition," nor the original draft, had been entered on
the county records. Then in the latter part of the eighteenth century,
the 1759 copy was used as an exhibit in the suit of Cavan vs. Murray,
involving land adjacent to the town and in 1798 folded up and filed with
the county clerk together with other exhibits in that litigation. The
story of its disappearance and recovery is attached to a photostatic
copy of the map now before me:
"For generations the mystery of its disappearance has been a subject of
speculation and many believed that it had been withdrawn from the public
records into private lands, and there held or possibly lost. In November
1928, the bundle containing the papers in the above suit was opened by
Charles F. Cochran, and the old plat brought to light, just 130 years
after it had been placed there. The paper was worn through at many of
the creases, being completely in two through the middle, many minute
bits were turned under or hanging only by a shred, and in places there
has been shrinkage. Through the courtesy of Dr. Herbert Putnam,
Librarian of Congress, and Col. Lawrence Martin, Chief of the Division
of Maps, and in return for permission to file a photostat of the plat in
the Library of Congress, the plat was mounted by Mr. William F. Norbeck,
the Library's expert in the restoration of old maps. It was due to Mr.
Henry B. Rust of Rockland, near Leesburg that the extended search of the
Loudoun County records was made, in which the plat was brought to light,
and he has had it framed."[80]
[80] I owe both the copy of the map and its history to Mr. Thomas M.
Fendall of Morrisworth and Leesburg.
This framed map of 1759 was presented to the county, by delivery to Mr.
B. W. Franklin, then county clerk of Loudoun, on the 30th December,
1928, by Mr. E. Marshall Rust, the brother of Henry B. Rust.
Upon the organization of the county, the matter of location and
establishment of a county seat had to be determined. It was not,
however, until the 15th June, 1758, that the Council of the Colony, by
deciding to locate the courthouse of Loudoun on the lands of Nicholas
Minor on the old Carolina Road near the crossing of the Alexandria-Keys
Gap Highway, fixed the importance of what was to be known as Leesburg.
The order of the Council reads:
"The Council having this day taken under Consideration the most proper
Place for establishing the Court House of Loudoun County, it appearing
to them that the plantation of Captain Nicholas Minor was the most
convenient place and agreeable to the Generality of the People in that
County, it was their opinion, and accordingly Ordered, That the Court
House for the said County be fixed on the land of the said Minor."
When this order of the Council was made on the 15th June, 1758, the
Loudoun Court, as we have seen, had been duly organized and from time to
time was meeting for the performance of its duties since the preceding
12th July. Where these early meetings were held does not appear on the
records, nor so far as I can learn, is now known. The record of the
court's sittings at the time generally begin "At a court held at the
courthouse" so that the presumption arises that, for the time being, the
residence of one of its members may have been used for that purpose.
Apparently the court was becoming impatient to have an official home and
weary of the Council's delay; for at the court's session of the 11th day
of July, 1758, or four days before the date of the Council's order, we
find that it is, by the Loudoun Court,
"Ordered that the Sheriff of this County Advertise for Workmen to build
a Courthouse to meet here at the next Court to agree for the same."
The proposed edifice was so carefully described that we can get a very
clear idea of its appearance from the specifications recorded at this
session of the 9th August, 1758. It was to be a brick building 28 x 40,
with a jury room added sixteen feet square, having "an outside chimney
and fireplace, eight feet in the clear from the foundation to the
surface, two feet from the surface to the water table four feet, from
thence to the joist ten feet." There significantly follows "and also a
Prison and Stocks of the same Dimensions as those in Fairfax County for
this County."[81]
[81] Loudoun Orders A, 142.
A month later, at the court's sitting of the 12th September, 1758, it
was
"Ordered that the courthouse for this County be Built on a Lott of
Captain Nicholas Minor's No. 27 and 28 and that he convey the same to
William West and James Hamilton Gent. as Trustees in Fee for the use of
the County."[82]
[82] Loudoun Orders A, 162.
Nevertheless no deed from Minor actually was obtained until nearly three
years later, as will subsequently appear. That shrewd and careful
Founder of Leesburg well might have been unwilling to give to the county
two of the best lots in his new subdivision until he was abundantly
protected; so the deed was not given until the new courthouse was built
and any lingering doubt removed from his mind that the county's project
would be carried out. At the court's session of the 13th September,
1758, a contract to build the courthouse was confirmed to "Aeneas
Campbell Gent." for the sum of 365 pounds current money to be paid in
two equal payments, the first on the first day of August next ensuing
and the remaining half in the year 1760, Campbell having given a bond
for the due performance of his contract. At the same session the
contract to build the "Goal and stocks for this county" was confirmed to
"Daniel French Gent" for 83 pounds current money to be paid on or before
the 20th day of August then next; and it is noted that Campbell and
French were the lowest bidders.
The building operations duly progressed. At the court held on the 15th
November, 1759, a levy was laid in tobacco for the compensation of
county officers and of 29,200 pounds of tobacco for the balance due
Campbell, referred to as being "late sheriff" and succeeded by "Nicholas
Minor Gt."
Upon completion of the building in 1761 the cautious Captain Minor felt
assurance to execute his deed to the county. On the 17th day of June in
that year he conveyed to "Francis Lightfoot Lee Gentleman the first
Justice named and nominated in the Commission of the Peace for the said
County of Loudoun for and in behalf of him the said Francis Lightfoot
Lee and the rest of the Justices in the said Commission named and their
and his successors" for the nominal consideration of five shillings,
"Current Money of Virginia, the two Lots of Land situate lying and being
in the Town of Leesburg in the County and Colony aforesaid being the
same whereon the Courthouse and Prison now stand laid off and surveyed
by John Hough to contain each Lot half an Acre and numbered twenty seven
and twenty eight." There were some formal rites attending the transfer
of the land and the ancient "livery of seizin" ceremony was duly
enacted. Then, following the signature of Minor and his witnesses to the
deed:
"Memorandum that on the Eleventh Day of June Anno Domini one Thousand
seven hundred and sixty one full peaceable and Quiet possession of the
within mentioned premises was given by Nicholas Minor Gent to Francis
Lightfoot Lee and the other Justices within named by delivery to him and
them Turf and Twig on the said premises in the presence of the
underwritten Persons then Present."[83]
[83] Loudoun Deeds B, 149.
And finally, at the court held on the 12th November, 1761, it was
"Ordered that Nicholas Minor Gen't. and John Moss Junr. Agree with
Workmen to clear away the Bricks and Dirt about the Courthouse and
likewise for building a Necessary House and Posting and Railing in the
Courthouse Lott and bring in their Account at the Laying of the next
Levy."[84]
[84] Loudoun Orders A, 544.
And from that day to this the Loudoun courthouse, in its various and
successive reconstructions, has always stood on these lots of Captain
Nicholas Minor, thus granted by him to the county for that purpose. In
the process of time the prison, the stocks and the "Necessary House"
have been removed.
In September, 1758, the Assembly passed an act "erecting" Leesburg as a
town, in the same measure "erecting" Stephensburg and enlarging
Winchester, which act reads, in part, as follows:
"An Act for erecting a town on the land of Lewis Stephens, in the county
of Frederick: For enlarging the town of Winchester, and for erecting a
town on the land of Nicholas Minor, in the county of Loudoun....
"III And whereas Nicholas Minor of the county of Loudoun, gentleman,
hath laid off sixty acres of his land, adjoining to the court-house of
the said county into lots, with proper streets for a town, many of which
lots are sold, and improvements made thereon, and the inhabitants of the
said county have petitioned this general assembly that the same may be
erected into a town, Be it therefore enacted by the authority aforesaid,
that the land so laid off into lots and streets, for a town, by the said
Nicholas Minor, be and the same is hereby erected and established a
town, and shall be called by the name of Leesburg; and that the free
holders and inhabitants thereof shall for ever hereafter enjoy the same
privileges which the inhabitants of other towns, erected by act of
Assembly, now enjoy.
"IV And whereas it is expedient that trustees should be appointed to
regulate the buildings in the said towns of Stephensburg, Winchester
and Leesburg: Be it therefore enacted by the authority aforesaid, ...
And that the honorable Philip Ludwell Lee, esquire, Thomas Mason,
esquire, Francis Lightfoot Lee, James Hamilton, Nicholas Minor, Josias
Clapham, Aeneas Campbell, John Hugh, Francis Hague, and William West,
gentlemen, be constituted and appointed trustees for the said town of
Leesburg; and that they, or any five or more of them, are hereby
authorized and empowered, from time to time, and all times hereafter, to
settle and establish such rules and orders for the more regular and
orderly building of the houses in the said town of Leesburg, as to them
shall seem best and most convenient. And in the case of death or
removal, or other legal disability of any one or more of the trustees
above mentioned, it shall and may be lawful for the surviving or
remaining trustees of the said towns of Stephensburg, Winchester, and
Leesburg, respectively, from time to time, to elect and choose so many
other persons in the room of those so dead, removed or disabled, as
shall make up the number of ten; which trustees, so chosen, shall by all
intents and purposes be vested with the same power as any other in this
Act particularly named."[85]
[85] 7 Hening, 234.
Of the members of the Lee family participating in the early affairs of
the town and county or owning land in Loudoun, it is generally held that
the new town was named in honour of Francis Lightfoot Lee, the first
county lieutenant. Thus the Lees are appropriately and locally
commemorated, though their river still remains Goose Creek and the
county of their large holdings goes by another and less congruous name.
Now it must be remembered that in this year of 1758 which marked the
formal recognition and naming of Leesburg, the French and Indian menace
was a very real and terrible anxiety in the minds of the Loudoun
settlers and had been responsible for the erection of the small frontier
fort at this point which has been mentioned. The local tradition that
the little town, when first built, was surrounded by a timber stockade
seems not only plausible but highly probable.[86] It was a well
established custom of the English Colonists on the Indian frontier,
north and south, to protect their outlying villages in that manner.
Leesburg people always insist that the noticeable crowding together of
houses in the older part of the town and the pronounced local custom of
building immediately on the street line is a survival of this very early
need of concentration for protection.
[86] Head, 72.
Where the two main roads, to which the town owes its existence, passed
through its future site, they followed the old Virginia custom in being
decidedly indefinite in their bounds; and their condition was further
complicated by the ground at this point being marshy and fed by numerous
springs. Therefore even before Leesburg was laid out or Loudoun
organized, the people living in the neighborhood had petitioned the
Fairfax Court for the construction of a highway at that point in such
manner as would be most convenient for the travel from Noland's Ferry to
the Carolinas. When Loudoun was organized the petition was certified to
the court of the new county which, in its November term of 1757, ordered
that the roads leading from Alexandria to Winchester and from Noland's
Ferry to the Carolinas be opened to go through that neighbourhood "in
the most convenient manner;" and James Hamilton, John Moss and Thomas
Sorrell were ordered "to view the most convenient way for the same and
make report to the Court." These viewers proceeded to so efficiently
fulfill their duties that when they eventually reported to the court, on
the 12th April, 1758, that they had "viewed the most convenient way for
the Roads to pass through the Town and find them convenient and good
with proper clearing,"[87] a corduroy road had been constructed through
the marshy ground and Hough was thus able to have his King Street in
definite bounds when he mapped his survey for Minor.
[87] Loudoun Orders A, 91.
CHAPTER X
ADOLESCENCE
Our upper country, at last, has graduated from being classified as
merely part of the backwoods of Lord Fairfax's Northern Neck and is now
enrolled in the rapidly growing roster of colonial Virginia's counties.
Unfortunately the conferring of that dignity did not alter the social
problems of the frontier nor change, to any great degree, the turbulence
and heterogeneous character of its population. The Irish element,
particularly, appears to have been pugnacious and lawless, if one may
judge from the frequency of proceedings before the Court for "battery"
wherein defendants carry distinctly Hibernian names. There was no dearth
of business, civil or criminal, awaiting the court's sessions.
Those of the poorer class, however, were not alone in taking the law
into their own hands. Cameron Parish, as heretofore appears, was set up
in 1748. Whether its vestry was more arbitrary and tenacious of office
or merely less diplomatic than was the rule elsewhere is not clear; but
that there developed great dissatisfaction with its activities the
records show. The Parish vestry, it will be remembered, exercised many
powers of civil government. Originally the vestry of twelve gentlemen
and their successors were chosen by vote of the parishioners; but
gradually the practice developed in existing vestries, upon the death or
resignation of a member, for the survivors themselves arbitrarily to
appoint his successor. There never was unanimity of religious belief in
Cameron the Parish nor in Loudoun the county. From the very beginning,
as we have seen, the land was peopled by men and women of definitely
divergent religious views--the Churchmen from Tidewater with some
Baptists and Presbyterians, a large number of Quakers from Pennsylvania,
Germans from overseas and no small number whose religious convictions,
if existent, were of nebulous tenuity. Had the vestries stood annually
for election the populace might have felt more closely represented; but
with their membership exclusively taken from the landowning class which
had migrated from the lower country, the Quakers, the Scotch-Irish, the
Germans accepted a somewhat arbitrary rule less willingly than were they
all churchmen and meeting together in common worship. The friction was
not confined to Cameron. Similar troubles had developed elsewhere and
petitions had been sent to Williamsburg for relief. In 1759 the
Legislature decided to act. "Whereas" reads the preamble to Chapter XXI
of the Laws of 1758-59
"it has been represented to this present General Assembly, that the
Vestries of the parish of Antrim, in the County of Halifax; of the
parish of Cameron in the County of Loudoun; of the parish of Bath, in
the County of Dinwiddie; and of the parish of Saint-Patrick, in the
County of Prince Edward, have been guilty of arbitrary and illegal
practices to the great oppression of the inhabitants of said parishes
... and the inhabitants of said parishes have respectively petitioned
this Assembly that the said vestries may be dissolved;"[88]
[88] 7 Hening, 301.
the Legislature thereupon dissolved the vestries named, their future
acts were "declared utterly void to all intents and purposes whatsoever"
and the freeholders and housekeepers of the respective parishes
authorized to meet, on notice, and "elect twelve of the most able &
discreet persons of the said parishes respectively to be vestrymen of
the same." So far was the Legislature willing to go; but the orthodox
rulers of Virginia did not for a moment propose to turn over control of
the vestries in the dissatisfied parishes to a dissenting element; there
was a further provision that should any vestrymen dissent from the
communion of the Church of England and join "themselves to a dissenting
congregation, and yet continue to act as vestrymen" they should be
displaced.
During the ensuing ten years Loudoun's population grew rapidly and a
parish extending from Difficult Run to the Blue Ridge covered so much
territory that it made it difficult for a vestry, chosen from different
parts of the parish, to assemble frequently for business. The project of
dividing Cameron was the subject of a petition to the Legislature in
1769 but because of opposition and disagreement the division was not
made until June, 1770, when an act was passed creating a new parish
beyond Goose Creek and running to the Blue Ridge.[89] It was given the
name of Shelburne in compliment to the British statesman William
Petty-FitzMaurice, Lord Shelburne.
[89] 8 Hening, 425.
This contemplated division of Cameron had repercussions in the relations
between that parish and its mother parish Truro. The new Shelburne would
take from Cameron many of its tithables or taxpayers and suggested
intensive study of its remaining economic resources. In November, 1766,
or twenty-eight years after the creation of Cameron, the Legislature
passed an act empowering Truro's vestry to sell its parish Glebe and
church plate and divide the proceeds between Truro and Cameron; while
three years later, in the act creating Shelburne, it was provided that
as the Cameron Glebe was then located inconveniently, the latter's
vestry was authorized to sell it and use the proceeds "toward purchasing
a more convenient glebe, and erecting buildings thereon, for the use and
benefit of the minister of the said parish of Cameron, for the time
being, forever."[90]
[90] 8 Hening, 202.
[Illustration: WILLIAM PETTY-FITZMAURICE. Earl of Shelburne, 1st Marquis
of Lansdowne, for whom Shelburne Parish was named.]
The parish well may continue to take satisfaction in having been named
worthily. Shelburne came of an historical and noble family, being a
direct descendant of the very ancient Lords of Kerry. Born in Dublin on
the 20th May, 1737, his childhood is said to have been "spent in the
remotest parts of the south of Ireland and according to his own account
when he entered Christ Church, Oxford in 1755 he had both everything to
learn and everything to unlearn." Perhaps his friendship and
conciliatory attitude always shewn toward the American Colonies arose
from his naturally amiable and considerate disposition, perhaps from his
participation under Wolfe in campaigns against the French. However that
may be, he was well-liked and trusted in Virginia. He succeeded his
father as Earl of Shelburne in 1761. During the critical years of 1766
and 1767 he was serving, under Pitt, as Secretary of State and sought,
as a friend of the Colonies, to avoid the crisis which was surely
developing. Unfortunately his efforts toward conciliation were
blocked by others of the ministry and the King and in 1768 Shelburne was
dismissed. In 1782 he reassumed office under Lord Rockingham, with the
express understanding that the independence of the American Colonies
should be recognized; an attitude requiring courage and strength to
maintain. When Rockingham died, Shelburne succeeded him as Premier but
through an alliance of Fox with Shelburne's old enemy North, he was
forced to resign that position in 1783. A year later, when Pitt returned
to power, he caused Shelburne to be created first Marquis of Landsdowne
with which his public career ended. He was succeeded in his titles and
estates, upon his death on the 7th May, 1805, by his eldest son.[91]
[91] See biography in _Encyclopedia Britannica_ under name of
Landsdowne.
More fortunate in its fate than the early vestry books of Cameron, which
have been destroyed or lost, the first vestry book of Shelburne,
covering the period from 1771 to 1805, has been preserved and after
being for many years in the library of the Episcopal Theological
Seminary at Alexandria was sent to the State Library in Richmond. A
photostatic copy has been made and is held in Loudoun.[92]
[92] In Loudoun National Bank.
By way of contrast to the first vestry books of Virginia's older
parishes, the earliest entries in that of Shelburne do not yield a great
amount of interesting material. Its pages are largely filled with
details of the levy of taxes and there is a protracted quarrel over the
sites to be chosen for new church buildings which, in the event,
prevented action until the Revolution and its aftermath deprived the
Vestries of much of their authority. A few entries in the Vestry book
have been abstracted:
"30th November 1772 Ordered that the Church Wardens for the Present Year
do provide Benches to accomodate the persons who come to attend Divine
Service at the Court House in Leesburg."
And then, to shew what a Church the Parish might have had but did not,
there is this entry on the 30th December 1774. (Page 30) "Ordered that
there be a Church built at or near the place where the Chapple now
stands at Stephen Rozels and that it be 50 feet long & 40 feet broad in
the clear. To be built either of brick or stone. To be of Sufficient
Pitch for two rows of Windows, if built of brick the wall to be 2-1/2
brick thick if built of stone the walls to be 2 feet thick; the Pews &
all the Carpenter work to be of pine plank (framing excepted) The Base
to be of Stone 2-1/2 feet thick & to be finished off in such manner as
the person appointed shall direct."
From the 10th day of June, 1776, no meeting of the vestry is recorded
until the 1st day of April 1779.
At the meeting of the 4th November, 1795, Mr. Jones, the minister was
ordered to preach "one Sunday at the Church at Rozels & the rest at
Leesburg."
Thus the county was divided into two parishes. A little later Cameron
secured the services, as Parson, of a member of another well-known
family of the Northern Neck when, in 1771, the Rev. Spence Grayson
returned from his theological studies and ordination in England and
assumed that position. He was the son of Benjamin Grayson and Susan
Monroe and had inherited from his father his home, Belle Air, in Prince
William County which he left to go to England to enter the church. He
married Mary Elizabeth Wagener, sister to Colonel Peter Wagener (clerk
of Fairfax County and subsequently an officer in the Revolution) and
became one of the original trustees in 1788 of the town of Carrborough
on the south side of the mouth of Quantico Creek, where now are situated
the Marine Corps Barracks. His nephew was the well-known Colonel William
Grayson who, after serving with distinction in the Revolution, became
one of the original two senators from Virginia.
But Shelburne was not to be cast in the shade in this matter of Parsons.
In 1771 there was inducted there as minister the man who, of her long
line of clergy, has left in Church, State, and Nation the most prominent
name of all. The Rev. Dr. David Griffith had been born in the city of
New York in 1742. Like the Rev. Charles Green, early minister of Truro,
Dr. Griffith first became a physician, taking his medical degree in
London and then returning to New York and beginning his practice as a
physician there in 1763. Determining to enter the church ministry, he
returned to England and was ordained in London by Bishop Terrick on the
19th August, 1770. Again he returned to America and worked as a
missionary in New Jersey, whence he came to take charge of Shelburne
Parish in 1771. When the Revolution came on, he, in 1776, became
Chaplain of the 3rd Virginia Regiment and, in December of that year, he
"was acting as a surgeon in the Continental Army in Philadelphia." Long
a close and confidential friend of George Washington, he became the
Rector of Christ Church, Alexandria, in 1780, in which position he
continued until his death. He was a leader in building up the church in
Virginia from its depressed condition after the Revolution, was a member
of its first convention in Richmond in 1785 and was elected first Bishop
of Virginia at the second annual convention of the Diocese in May, 1786.
Unfortunately there were no funds available to pay his expenses to
England and thus he was never formally consecrated. He died at the house
of Bishop White in Philadelphia, while attending a church convention
there, in 1789. He has been described as "large and tall in person but
firm in manner. Without perhaps being brilliant, he was an able man of
sound judgment and consecrated life, who had the esteem and affection as
well as the confidence of his contemporaries. His memory ought to be
held by us in highest honour."[93]
[93] _The Colonial Church in Virginia_, Rev. E. L. Goodwin, p. 116. Also
see _Colonel Leven Powell_, by Dr. R. C. Powell and Appleton's
_Encyclopedia American Biography_.
In those days Loudoun shared, with other of Virginia's frontier
counties, a pest of numerous wolves which indeed penetrated into the
older counties as well. There was a broad demand that the bounty for
killing the animals be increased and in 1765 the Assembly passed an act
authorizing Loudoun and six other counties to pay larger bounties,
providing that a person killing a wolf within their respective
boundaries "shall have an additional reward of fifty pounds of neat
tobacco for every young wolf not exceeding the age of six months, and
for every wolf above that age one hundred pounds of neat tobacco, to be
levied and paid in the respective counties where the service shall be
performed."[94] The act was to continue in force, however, only three
years.
[94] 8 Hening, 147.
Five years later the hunting activities of Leesburg, at least, took on a
more domestic hue. The inhabitants of the little town were busy in
building up the reputation of a famous Virginia delicacy but apparently
were rather overdoing it. "It is represented" reads an act of 1772 "that
a great number of hogs are raised and suffered to go at large in the
town of Leesburg, in the county of Loudoun to the great prejudice of the
inhabitants thereof;" so the act forbade owners from allowing such
liberties to their porkers and permitted any person to "kill and destroy
such swine so running at large."[95]
[95] 9 Hening, 586.
That Francis Aubrey established the first ferry from Loudoun's shore
across the Potomac prior to 1741 has been noted in Chapter IV. It was at
the Point of Rocks and was inherited by Thomas Aubrey, son of its
founder, who obtained a license for its operation in 1769. By 1775 the
travel was very light at that point and complaint was made of inadequate
equipment. In 1834 it, with the surrounding land on the Loudoun side,
was in the possession of Rebecca Johnson and in 1837 in that of Margaret
Graham. The construction of the Point of Rocks bridge by the Potomac
Bridge Company in 1847 ended its usefulness.
A second ferry, also across the Potomac and heretofore recorded, became
far more famous than that of the Aubreys. When Philip Noland acquired
land on that river where travel over the old Carolina Road had, from
time immemorial, crossed it, he had the most valuable and frequented
ferry-site in the neighborhood. He had sought, but unsuccessfully, a
ferry license as early as 1748; in 1756, with or without a license, he
was operating his ferry. Its operation was eventually authorized by the
Legislature in 1778 to the land of Arthur Nelson in the State of
Maryland. No other ferry from Loudoun's shores acquired the fame that
did Noland's. At the height of its activities the travel at that point
is said to have supported a country store, a blacksmith's shop, a wagon
shop, a tailor and a shoemaker. The coming of the railroads and the
construction of the Point of Rocks Bridge together were responsible for
its ultimate abandonment. We have a suggestive glimpse of conditions
there. In May, 1780, the Moravian emissary John Frederick Reichel, in
the course of his ministrations to those of his faith in America,
undertook a journey from Bethlehem in Pennsylvania down the Carolina
Road to the present Winston-Salem in North Carolina. One of his
companions kept a journal from which we learn that upon successfully
crossing into Virginia at Noland's Ferry, Bishop Reichel and his company
"made camp near Mr. Th. Noland's house close to the road which turns to
the right from the Foart road towards Noland's Ferry which crosses the
Patomoak two miles from here. So far our journey had been very pleasant.
Now, however, the Virginia air brought storms." While the weary
travelers were resting that night from their journey, some of Noland's
negroes left their "Quarters" and proceeded to lay their hands on the
strangers' equipment. The diarist on the next day indignantly records
the following "Note. Mr. Th. Noland and his father and father in law
have 200 negroes in this neighbourhood on both sides of the Potomoack
and this neighbourhood is far-famed for robbery and theft." On their
return the travellers found that Mr. Noland had busied himself in
recapturing much of the loot and duly returned the articles to their
rightful owners.[96]
[96] _Landmarks_, 504.
Between Noland and Josias Clapham there was a controversy for many years
over which of the two should control the very profitable ferry business
over the nearby stretches of the Potomac. Both had powerful associations
and friends and both were, through their own activities and characters,
outstanding figures in the Loudoun of their day. Noland as the
son-in-law of the most prominent of Loudoun's earliest settlers, Francis
Aubrey, and through his wife in possession of part of Aubrey's great
land-grants, could well have entertained a conviction that he was
Aubrey's representative and as such entitled to especial consideration
as well as for his own accomplishments; while, on the other hand,
Clapham's inherited friendship with Lord Fairfax and his own recent
military services as a lieutenant in the troublous times following
Braddock's defeat and death, his early and continued ownership of
extensive tracts of land, his sound personal qualities and the high
esteem in which he was held by his neighbours, made him a formidable
opponent and rival. He successfully fought Noland's application to the
Legislature for a ferry license in 1756 and in 1757 obtained one himself
for the operation of a ferry below that of Noland, "from the lands of
Josias Clapham, in the County of Fairfax, over Potowmack river, to the
land on either side of Monochisey creek, in the province of Maryland;
the price for a man four pence & for a horse the same."[97] Though this
license was afterwards suspended, Clapham appears to have operated his
ferry until 1778 when the Legislature ordered it discontinued as
inconvenient. As Clapham at that time was himself a member of that body,
it is probable that the old rivalry between the neighbours had ended.
[97] 7 Hening, 126.
We learn something of yet another ferry from this same act of the
Legislature passed in the war year of 1778. Therein it was also provided
"that publick ferries be constantly kept at the following places and the
rates for passing the same be as follows, that is to say: From the land
of the earl of Tankerville, in the County of Loudoun (at present in the
tenure of Christian Shimmer) across Potowmack river to the opposite
shore in the state of Maryland, the price for a man eight pence, and for
a horse the same: ..." The act authorized Noland to collect the same
tolls at his ferry, thus permitting the doubling of the ferry charges by
the act of 1757.[98]
[98] In this ferry situation, _Landmarks of Old Prince William_ is an
invaluable guide.
CHAPTER XI
REVOLUTION
When the American Colonies joined issue with Great Britain in the
controversy which was to result in American independence, Loudoun's
population, beginning with a thin trickle of adventurers, had been
growing for over fifty years, during which time, save for the short
period before and after Braddock's defeat, her sure but steady
development and increase of people had received no serious reversal. The
exact number of her inhabitants in 1775 is unknown; but fifteen years
later she was credited with 14,747 whites and 4,030 slaves or a total of
18,777 individuals. One writer goes so far as to assert that the county
was one of the most densely populated in the Colony at that period.[99]
Toward the close of the conflict, in 1780 and 1781, her militia numbered
no less than 1746 men, which is claimed by Head to have been "far in
excess of that reported by any other Virginia County." When it is
remembered that her present population does not greatly exceed 20,000
inhabitants and that, in the years which have intervened, the towns have
substantially increased in number and size, it is probable that the
country districts were quite as populous in 1775 as they are today.
[99] Goodheart's _Loudoun Rangers_, 6.
With her early diversity of population, it might well be expected that
the county's inhabitants would be divided in their attitude as to the
wisdom of war with England. There seems, however, to have been
practically a solid front, save for the Quakers who, because of their
oppugnance to all war, opposed the Revolution in Loudoun as elsewhere
and suffered bitterly in consequence as later will be related.
As it was, Loudoun lost no time in placing herself on record, as the
following amply demonstrates:
"At a meeting of the Freeholders and other inhabitants of the County of
Loudoun, in the Colony of Virginia, held at the Courthouse in Leesburg,
the 14th June 1774--F. Peyton, Esq., in the chair--to consider the most
effective method to preserve the rights and liberties of N. America,
and relieve our brethren of Boston, suffering under the most oppressive
and tyranical Act of the British Parliament, made in the 14th year of
his present Majesty's reign, whereby their Harber is blocked up, their
commerce totally obstructed, their property rendered useless
"_Resolved_, That we will always cheerfully submit to such prerogatives
as his Majesty has a right, by law, to exercise, as Sovereign of the
British Dominions, and to no others.
"_Resolved_, That it is beneath the dignity of freemen to submit to any
tax not imposed on them in the usual manner, by representatives of their
own choosing.
"_Resolved_, That the Act of the British Parliament above mentioned, is
utterly repugnant to the fundamental laws of justice, in punishing
persons without even the form of a trial; but a despotic exertion of
unconstitutional power designedly calculated to enslave a free and loyal
people.
"_Resolved_, That the enforcing the execution of the said Act of
Parliament by a military power, must have a necessary tendency to raise
a civil war, and that we will, with our lives and fortunes, assist our
suffering brethren of Boston, and every part of North America that may
fall under the immediate hand of oppression, until a release of all our
grievances shall be procurred; and our common liberties established on a
permanent foundation.
"_Resolved_, That the East India Company, by exporting their tea from
England to America, whilst subject to a tax imposed thereon by the
British Parliament, have evidently designed to fix on the Americans
those chains forged for them by a venal ministry, and have thereby
rendered themselves odious and detestable throughout all America. It is,
therefore, the unanimous opinion of this meeting not to purchase any tea
or other East India commodity whatever, imported after the first of this
Month.
"_Resolved_, That we will have no Commercial intercourse with Great
Britain until the above mentioned Act of Parliament shall be totally
repealed, and the right of regulating the internal policy of N. America
by a British Parliament shall be absolutely and positively given up.
_"Resolved,_ That Thompson Mason and Francis Peyton, Esqs., be appointed
to represent the County at a general meeting to be held at Williamsburg
on the 1st day of August next, to take the sense of this Colony on the
subject of the preceeding resolves, and that they, together with Leven
Powell, William Ellzey, John Thornton, George Johnston and Samuel Levi,
or any three of them, be a committee to correspond with the several
Committees appointed for this purpose
"Signed by
John Morton Thomas Williams
Thomas Ray James Noland
Thomas Drake Samuel Peugh
William Booram William Nornail
Benj. Isaac Humphrey Thomas Luttrell
Samuel Mills James Brair
Joshua Singleton Poins Awsley
Jonathan Drake John Kendrick
Matthew Rust Edward O'Neal
Barney Sims Francil Triplitt
John Sims Joseph Combs
Samuel Butler John Peyton Harrison
Thomas Chinn Robert Combs
Appollos Cooper Stephen Combs
Lina Hancock Samuel Henderson
John McVicker Benjamin Overfield
Simon Triplett Adam Sangster
Thomas Awsley Bazzell Roads
Isaac Sanders John Wildey
Thomas Williams James Graydey
Henry Awsley Joseph Bayley
Wm. Finnekin John Reardon
Richard Hanson Edward Miller
John Dinker Richard Hirst
Jasper Grant James Davis"[100]
[100] Copy found among papers of Colonel Leven Powell. See 12 William
and Mary Quarterly (1) 231.
The names of the following men, composing the Committee for Loudoun, are
taken from the record of its meeting on the 26th May, 1775:
Francis Peyton, Esq. James Lane
Josias Clapham Jacob Reed
Thomas Lewis Leven Powell
Anthony Russell William Smith
John Thomas Robert Johnson
George Johnson Hardage Lane
Thomas Shore John Lewis
with one of the members, George Johnson, acting as clerk.
When war began, the gentlemen justices of the county's court recommended
certain of her men to the governor from time to time as worthy of
commissions in the military forces being raised by the Colony. Many an
old and familiar Loudoun name appears on the list and for the interest
of their descendants and relatives it is here appended as abstracted
from the county records by James W. Head in his very useful _History of
Loudoun_:[101]
[101] Loudoun "Orders" G 517-522. Head, 134.
"March 1778: James Whaley Jr., second lieutenant; William Carnan,
ensign; Daniel Lewis, second lieutenant; Josiah Miles and Thomas King,
lieutenants; Hugh Douglass, ensign; Isaac Vandevanter, lieutenant; John
Dodd, ensign.
"May 1778. George Summers and Charles G. Eskridge, colonels; William
McClellan, Robert McClain and John Henry, captains; Samuel Cox, Major;
Frans Russell, James Beavers, Scarlet Burkley, Moses Thomas, Henry
Farnsworth, John Russell, Gustavus Elgin, John Miller, Samuel Butcher,
Joshua Botts, John Williams, George Tyler, Nathaniel Adams and George
Mason, lieutenants; Isaac Grant, John Thatcher, William Elliott, Richard
Shore, and Peter Benham, ensigns.
"August, 1778 Thomas Marks, William Robison, Joseph Butler and John
Linton, lieutenants; Joseph Wildman and George Asbury, ensigns.
"September 1778 Francis Russell, lieutenant, and George Shrieve, ensign.
"May 1779 Joseph Wildman, lieutenant, and Francis Elgin Jr., ensign.
"June 14, 1779 George Kilgour, lieutenant and Jacob Caton, ensign.
"July 12, 1779 John Debell, lieutenant and William Huchison, ensign.
"October 11, 1779 Francis Russell, captain.
"November 8, 1779 James Cleveland, captain; Thomas Millan, ensign.
"February 14, 1780 Thomas Williams, ensign.
"March, 1780 John Benham, ensign.
"June, 1780 Wethers Smith and William Debell, second lieutenants,
Francis Adams and Joel White, ensigns.
"August, 1780 Robert Russell, ensign.
"October, 1780. John Spitzfathem, first lieutenant; Thomas Thomas and
Matthew Rust, second lieutenants; Nicholas Minor Jr., David Hopkins,
William McGeath and Samuel Oliphant ensigns; Charles Bennett, captain.
"November, 1780. James Coleman, Esq., Colonel, George West,
lieutenant-colonel; James McLlaney, Major.
"February, 1781. Simon Triplett, Colonel; John Alexander,
lieutenant-colonel; Jacob Reed, Major; John Linton, captain; William
Debell and Joel White, lieutenants; Thomas Minor, ensign; Thomas Shores,
captain; John Tayler and Thomas Beatty, lieutenants; John McClain,
ensign.
"March 1781. John McGeath, captain; Ignatius Burns, captain; Hugh
Douglass, first lieutenant; John Cornelison, second lieutenant; Joseph
Butler and Conn Oneale, lieutenants; John Jones, Jr., ensign; William
Tayler, Major first battalion; James Coleman, Colonel; George West,
lieutenant-colonel; Josiah Maffett, captain; John Binns, first
lieutenant; Charles Binns, Jr., second lieutenant and Joseph Hough,
ensign.
"April 1781. Samson Trammell, captain; Spence Wigginton and Smith King,
lieutenants.
"May 1781. Thomas Respass, Esq., Major; Hugh Douglass, Gent. captain;
Thomas King, lieutenant; William T. Mason, ensign; Samuel Noland,
captain; Abraham Dehaven and Enock Thomas, lieutenants; Isaac Dehaven
and Thomas Vince, ensigns; James McLlaney, captain; Thomas Kennan,
captain; John Bagley, first lieutenant.
"June 1781. Enoch Furr and George Rust, lieutenants; Withers Berry and
William Hutchison (son of Benjamin), ensign.
"September 1781. Gustavus Elgin, captain; John Littleton, ensign.
"January 1782. William McClellan, captain.
"February 1782. William George, Timothy Hixon and Joseph Butler,
captains.
"March 1782. James McLlaney, captain; George West, colonel, Thomas
Respass, lieutenant-colonel.
"July 1782. Samuel Noland, Major; James Lewin Gibbs, second lieutenant
and Giles Turley, ensign.
"August 1782. Enoch Thomas, captain; Samuel Smith, lieutenant; Matthias
Smitley, first lieutenant; Charles Tyler and David Beaty, ensigns.
"December 1782. Thomas King, captain; William Mason, first lieutenant
and Silas Gilbert, ensign."
By a stroke of good fortune, there has been brought to light and
published in recent years a journal kept by one Nicholas Cresswell, a
young Englishman of gentle birth who, in 1774, at the age of 24 years
obeyed a keen impulse to emigrate to Virginia with the expectation of
buying a plantation and becoming a Virginia farmer.[102] His home in
England was the estate of his father, known as Crowden-le-Booth, in the
parish of Edale in the Peak of Derbyshire. The father seems to have
been a somewhat stern disciplinarian, against the rigidity of whose rule
and unhappy home conditions young Cresswell fretted; and that and an
ambition to make his own way in the world, coupled with an appetite for
adventure common to his age and race, induced Nicholas to his course.
After many difficulties, he sailed from England in the ship _Molly_ on
the 9th of April, 1774, and thus began a series of adventures, his
excellent record of which has been characterized as "a valuable addition
to Revolutionary Americana" and, it may be added, is nothing less than
treasure trove to the student of Loudoun's past. In the course of his
ensuing experiences he met, among a multitude of others, Jefferson, Lord
Howe, Patrick Henry, Francis Lightfoot Lee; was upon occasion
Washington's guest at Mount Vernon and paints and proves Thomson Mason
to have been one of the kindliest and most hospitable of men. His
wanderings took him through many parts of Virginia and particularly
Leesburg and its neighborhood, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York; on a
voyage to Barbados to recoup his health and on an expedition as a viewer
and surveyor of new lands, down the Ohio River into Indiana country, in
an unsuccessful effort to recoup his fortune. An educated young
Englishman, loyal to his King and country, arriving in the Colonies as
the storm of the Revolution was about to break, he soon was suspected of
being an English spy, was bullied and persecuted by some, befriended by
others and, withal, records his experiences in a narrative of such
fascination that one reads it from end to end with unabated interest. Of
the Leesburg and Loudoun of the period he gives the best contemporary,
if not always complimentary, account known to the present writer.
Through the courtesy of the Dial Press, the publishers of his Journal in
the United States, the following abstract of Loudoun material is
permitted:
[Illustration: NICHOLAS CRESSWELL, the Journalist. (From a portrait now
owned by Samuel Thorneley, Esquire.)]
Cresswell first passed through Loudoun in November, 1774, in the course
of a journey to the Valley. He arrived in Leesburg on Sunday the 27th
and records:
"The land begins to grow better. A Gravelly soil and produces good
Wheat, but the roads are very bad, cut to pieces with the wagons,
number of them we met today. Their method of mending the roads is with
poles about 10 foot long laid across the road close together; they stick
fast in the mud and make an excellent causeway. Very thinly peopled
along the road, almost all Woods. Only one public House between this
place and Alexandria."
[102] _The Journal of Nicholas Cresswell_, The Dial Press, New York.
On the next day he inspected Leesburg. "Viewing the town. It is
regularly laid off in squares, but very indifferently built and few
inhabitants and little trade, tho' very advantageously situated, for it
is at the conjunction of the great Roads from the North part of the
Continent to the South and the East and the West. Lodged at Mr.
Moffit's, Mr. Kirk's partner in a store which he has here."
On the following Sunday, "Went to a Methodist meeting. This Sect is
scattered in every place and have got considerable footing here, owing
to the great negligence of the Church Parsons."
The next day he continued his journey to the West, returning to Leesburg
on the 14th December, 1774. On the following day, being Sunday, he
simply notes "but no prayers." On Monday, "Court day. A great number of
litigious suits. The people seem to be fond of Law. Nothing uncommon for
them to bring suit against a person for a Book debt and trade with him
on an open account at the same time. To be arrested for debt is no
scandal here." And on the next day he "Saw the Independence Company
exercise. A ragged crew." In January he amuses himself "with shooting
wild Geese and Ducks. Here is incredible numbers in the River likewise
Swans. It is said they come from the Lakes."
Again on his way to the West, this time to the Indian country, he
arrived in Leesburg on Sunday the 26th March, 1775. On the following
Wednesday he "went to look at a silver mine. Saw some appearance of
metal but don't know what it is." On the 31st: "At Leesburg waiting for
my gun and goods coming from Alexandria. The Peach Orchards are in full
blossom and make a beautiful appearance." On the following Sunday, the
2nd April, he notes "But no Parson. It is a shame to suffer these people
to neglect their duty in the manner they do."
After his journey in the "Illinois Country" we find him again in
Leesburg in the employment of one Kirk, a merchant of Alexandria who,
son of a blacksmith in Cresswell's home parish, had gone to Virginia and
prospered there. On Sunday, the 19th November, 1775, Nicholas records
that he "went to Church or Courthouse which you please in the forenoon"
thus further confirming that the established church services were, at
that time, held in the courthouse at Leesburg. Cresswell meets and is
much in the company of George Johnston, Captain McCabe, George Ancram,
and Captain Douglas. As a sidelight on Leesburg's evening diversions of
the period, he writes under date of the 28th November that he "dined at
Captn. McCabe's in Company with Captn. Douglas and Cavan. Spent the
evening at the store in company with Captn. McCabe and Captn. Speake and
all of us got drunk."
On the 4th December he made a short visit to "Frederick Town in
Maryland," and, both going and some days later on his return, dined at
Noland's Ferry, suggesting some accommodation for travellers there. On
Sunday the 10th December, he "went to Church, spent the evening at Mr.
Johnson's with the Rev. Mr. David Griffiths and several gentlemen."
He was a guest at "Garalland, seat of Captn. William Douglas. A great
deal of agreeable Company and very merry." On the next day there was
"Dancing and playing at Cards. In the evening several of the company
went in quest of a poor Englishman, who they supposed had made songs on
the Committee, but did not find him." This week was one of celebration;
on the following Friday, (5th January, 1776) "This being my birthday,
invited Captn. McCabe, H. Neilson, W. Johnston, Matthews, Booker and my
particular Friend P. Cavan to spend the evening with me. We have kept it
up all night and I am at this time very merry." On Saturday: "Spent the
evening at Mr. Johnston's with our last night's company. He is going to
camp. All of us got most feloniously drunk. Captn. McCabe, Hugh Neilson
and I kept it up all night." On Sunday: "went to bed about two o'clock
in the afternoon, stupidly drunk. Not been in bed or asleep for two
nights."
A party was a party in the Leesburg of 1776.
Virginia was heading toward independence, with war if need be. Popular
sentiment is shown by such entries as "Nothing but Independence will go
down. The Devil is in the people." "All in confusion. The Committee met
to choose Officers for the new Company that are to be raised. They are
21 in number, the first men in the County and had two bowls of toddy,"
(he carefully explains elsewhere that "toddy" means punch) "but could
not find cash to pay for it." On the 12th February, "Court day. Great
Confusion, no business done. The populace deters the Magistrates and
they in turn are courting the rebels' favour. Enlisting men for the
Rebel Army upon credit. Their paper money is not yet arrived from the
Mine." On the 22nd March he "went to see the general musters of the
Militia in town, about 700 men but few arms." On Sunday the 17th May he
says: "This day is appointed by the Great Sanhedrim to be kept an Holy
Fast throughout the continent, but we have no prayers in Leesburg. The
Parson (Rev. David Griffiths) is gone into the Army."
He has this to say about a Quaker meeting in February, probably at
Waterford, to which he went with his friends Cavan and Thomas Matthews.
"This is one of the most comfortable places of worship I was ever in,
they had two large fires and a Dutch stove. After a long silence and
many groans a Man got up and gave us a short Lecture with great
deliberation. Dined at Mr. Jos. Janney's one of the Friends."
It was not until the 24th April, 1776, that Thomson Mason, who was to
prove so consistently a friend to him, is introduced, when Cresswell
notes that he was a dinner guest at his home--presumably Raspberry
Plain. By that time Cresswell had made a host of acquaintances and
friends. He enjoyed popularity with his new companions, frequently was
entertained or was a host himself. To add to his scanty resources, he
made lye, nitre and saltpetre on shares and his process and progress he
records in detail. His work was interrupted by frequent illness, due
doubtless to the heavy drinking indulged in by him and his associates.
On the 9th July, 1776, he learns, to his dismay, of the _Declaration of
Independence_.
From time to time he dined with Thomson Mason who on the 26th July
"proffers to give me a letter of recommendation to the Governor Henry
for liberty to go on board the Fleet in the Bay. I have no other choice
to go home but this;" and on the next day, "a general muster of the
Militia. Great confusion among them. Recruiting parties offer 10 Dollars
advance and 40 S per month."
But Cresswell realized the increasing danger to him, loyal Briton that
he was, of a continued stay in America. In August he determined to go to
New York for he was convinced that he "must either escape that way or go
to jail for Toryism." He did not tell Mr. Mason of his design to leave
the county, but only that he contemplated a northern journey; and from
him obtained a "letter to Messrs. Francis Lightfoot Lee, Thos. Stone,
Thos. Jefferson and John Rogers Esq., all members of the Congress." On
the 23rd August "in company with Mr. Alexander Cooper, a Storekeeper in
town" he left Leesburg for the north.
He duly arrived in Philadelphia which greatly pleased him in its size
and cleanliness.
He calls on Lee and Jefferson, presents his letters, is kindly received
and through the latter obtains "a pass written by Mr. John Hancock,
Pres. of the Congress." Thence to New York, where he sees the British
Army and ships in the distance but cannot reach them and begins to feel
that to do so would be a dishonourable return for Thomson Mason's
kindness. So back again to Leesburg he journeys, bewailing his situation
but to his credit determining "to rot in a Jail rather than take up Arms
against my native country."
On the 10th October, 1776, the 6th Regiment of Virginians, encamped at
Leesburg on their way to the North, are described as "a set of dirty,
ragged people, badly clothed, badly disciplined and badly armed." Salt
was selling there at "Forty shillings, Currency, per Bushel. This
article usually sold for four shillings. If no salt comes in there will
be an insurrection in the Colony." In Alexandria a few days later, he
learns that the committee "will not permit me to depart this Colony as
they look upon me to be a Spy and that I must be obliged to give
security or go to jail." Then to Leesburg again, which he seems to
regard as his American home and on the 28th October sees a "General
Muster of the County Militia in town, about 600 men appeared
under-armed, with Tobacco sticks in general much rioting and confusion.
Recruiting Officers for the _Sleber_ Army offer Twelve Pounds bounty and
200 acres of land when the War is over, but get very few men." In spite
of repeatedly admonishing himself in his journal to avoid political
arguments he was unable to do so, particularly when in his cups, and so
on the 28th November his criticism of the Revolution and its adherents
caused him to be waited upon by three members of the Committee of Safety
who obliged him to pledge himself not to leave the Colony for three
months.
At this time there was an ordinary at Leesburg known as the Crooked
Billet.[103] It was a favourite place for the heavy drinking parties in
which Cresswell and his friends indulged. He records, after a night of
debauchery, he had sent all his companions "to bed drunk and I am now
going to bed myself at 9 in the morning as drunk as an honest man could
wish." The next day the carouse continued. The Leesburg of the
eighteenth century was as little noted for sobriety as were other parts
of the English-speaking world.
[103] The name persists in England. In July, 1937, on leaving the Tower
of London, I found myself facing another "Crooked Billet," a public
house at 32 Minories.
After spending much of the winter of 1776-'7 in and around Leesburg and
recording the great encouragement the Americans obtained from
Washington's successes at Princeton and elsewhere, he, on the 1st March,
1777, "went with Captn. Douglas and Mr. Flemming Patterson to see Mr.
Josiah Clapham. He is an Assembly Man, Colonel of the county and Justice
of the Peace on the present establishment. He is an Englishman from
Wakefield in Yorkshire, much in debt at home, and in course a violent
Sleber here. Has made himself very popular by erecting a Manufactory of
Guns, but it is poorly carried on. His wife is the most notable woman in
the County for Housew'fery, but I should like her much better if she
would keep a cleaner house. He has got a very good plantation, takes
every mean art to render himself popular amongst a set of ignorant
Dutchmen that are settled in his neighbourhood. Dirty in person and
principle."
Though much embarrassed by his poverty Cresswell refuses a commission as
a captain of Engineers at $3 per day offered to him by Colonel Green and
Colonel Grayson. He told them he "could not bear the thoughts of taking
up arms against my native country" and they "were pleased to make me
some genteel compliment about my steadiness and resolution." His
despondency returns and Mason invites him to dinner and offers him "a
letter of introduction and recommendations to the Governor of Virginia
by his permission to go on board the man of war in the Bay." He resolves
to accept the letter and make an attempt to return to England in April.
The Rev. David Griffith returns to Leesburg and preaches "a political
discourse." He speaks of meeting Mr. Griffith and his wife at Mr.
Neilson's. Griffith, writes Cresswell "is a most violent Sleber. He is
Doctor and Chaplain to one of their Regmt." On the 22nd March, 1777, he
records "Great tumults and murmurings among the people caused by them
pressing the young men into the Army. The people now begin to feel the
effects of an Independent Government and groan under it, but cannot help
themselves, as they are almost in general disarmed."
On the 6th April, 1777, he left Leesburg and eventually succeeded in
getting to the British man-of-war _Phoenix_ off the mouth of the
Chesapeake. After another visit to New York he finally reached England
in safety. In spite of all his tribulations and the very real dangers he
incurred in his American sojourn, he records that "Virginia is the very
finest country I ever was in"--no small concession.[104]
[104] The book itself should be read. The above abstractions necessarily
omit much of fascinating interest.
The people of Loudoun's German Settlement may have been "a set of
ignorant Dutchmen" to the irritated Cresswell but they proved loyal and
effective fighters in the American cause. They seem to have been
whole-heartedly with their Tidewater and Scotch-Irish neighbors in the
controversy and are reputed to have largely joined Armand's Legion under
Charles Trefin Armand, Marquis de la Rouaire (1751-1793) who, after
service in the Garde de Corps in Paris, had volunteered in the American
Army on the 10th May, 1777, under the name of Charles Armand, had been
commissioned a colonel by the Congress, saw much service and was greatly
beloved by his men, few of whom were able to speak English.
Cresswell is confirmed in his statement regarding Clapham's gun factory
by the record of a session of the Committee of Safety of Virginia, held
on the 27th March, 1776, at Williamsburg:
"Ordered that a letter be written to Colonel Clapham in answer to his of
Feby 23rd and March 24th informing him that we have sent him £360 to pay
for the rifles mentioned by Chro. Perfect, that the Comm'ee agree to
take all the good musquets that shall be made by the 5 or 6 hands he
mentions by the 1st December next, and desire him to contract for the 12
large rifles also mentioned."[105]
[105] 8 Calendar of Virginia State Papers, 139.
Two other men in Loudoun must again be cited for their activities in the
cause of independence--one as a statesman, the other as a soldier.
Thomson Mason, from his ownership of Raspberry Plain, was identified
closely with the county although not a continuous resident there. We
find him constantly devoting his time and abilities to the American
cause. Even as early as 1774 he wrote
"You must draw your swords in a just cause, and rely upon that God, who
assists the righteous, to support your endeavours to preserve the
liberty he gave, and the love of which he hath implanted in your hearts
as essential to your nature."
Less eloquent but more active was Leven Powell. He with Mason, in that
same year of 1774, was urging his neighbors to resistance. In 1775 he
received a commission as major in a battalion of Minute Men from
Loudoun, in 1777 was made by General Washington a lieutenant colonel of
the 16th Regiment of Virginia Continentals, spent the greater part of
that year in raising and equipping his command and saw much active
service until invalided home from the vigours of the following terrible
winter at Valley Forge. His impaired health forced him to resign his
commission in the autumn of 1778.
By way of sharp contrast to the other people of Loudoun, the Quakers
refused to aid or abet the Revolution in any way. Through their industry
and frugality they had, by that time, acquired some influence in the
County but when they refused to aid their fellow-Virginians in the great
struggle, all that was changed. Non-resistance was a cardinal principle
of their faith and come weal or woe they stuck to it. They refused to
serve in the army. They refused to pay muster-fines. "Not even the
scourge" writes Kercheval of the Quakers of the Valley, "would compel
them to submit to discipline. The practice of coercion was therefore
abandoned and the legislature enacted a law to levy a tax upon their
property to hire substitutes to perform militia duty in their
stead."[106] Refusing to pay these taxes their property was sold and
many were reduced to great distress. Others, taking advantage of these
tax sales, bought up their properties and profited largely by their
shrewdness.
[106] _History of Shenandoah Valley of Virginia_, by Samuel Kercheval,
149.
As the war continued, Virginia faced difficulties in raising her quota
of Continental troops. We have read Cresswell's record of these troubles
in Loudoun as early as October, 1776. In 1778 the Assembly passed an act
recognizing as inadequate prior laws on the subject, calling for 2,216
men, rank and file, and offering for eighteen months enlistment $300;
while to those who enlisted for three years, or the duration of the war,
$400 was to be given "together with the continental bounty of land and
shall be entitled to receive the pay and rations which are allowed to
soldiers in the continental army from the day of their enlistment and
shall be furnished annually, at the public expense with the following
articles, a coat, waistcoat and breeches, two shirts, one hat, two pairs
of stockings, one pair of shoes and a blanket...."[107] In the same year
the Legislature was obliged to pass an act against "forestallers and
engrossers"--in other words what we today call war profiteers,
authorizing the governor to seize grain and flour for the army in the
hands of those gentry.[108]
[107] 9 Hening, 586.
[108] 9 Hening, 584.
The objection to enlistment seems to have been directed against the
longer term rather than to military service itself. Also there was
confusion and lack of that complete authority necessary in such a
crisis. We find Colonel Josias Clapham writing to the Council of
Virginia on the 11th September, 1778, asking to be permitted to send a
company of volunteers, which had been raised in Loudoun, to the
assistance of General McIntosh's Brigade, but his request was declined
on the ground that the "Executive power" had no right to send volunteers
to join any corps whatsoever.[109]
[109] 23 Virginia Magazine History and Biography, 261.
The lot of the Loyalist or "Tories" as they were popularly termed, was
not a happy one. There was one James White who indiscreetly "spoke many
disrespectful words of his Excellency G. Washington and that he was not
fit to be the son of a Stewart dog." White appears to have been indicted
in Loudoun as a Tory and thereupon to have fled the county. There is the
suggestion that he was a man of some property and that to avoid its
confiscation he later saw the error of his ways, returned to Loudoun,
apologized to the court for his behavior, took the oath of allegiance to
the new State of Virginia and so succeeded in having his indictment
dismissed.[110]
[110] 2 Balch Library Clippings, 18.
At the other end of the social scale were the white convicts of which,
as we have seen, Loudoun had long had her share or more. There has been
preserved an advertisement of 1777 by Sam Love, a justice of the peace:
"Ran away from the subscriber, in Loudoun County, two convict servants,
David Hinds, an Irishman, about 35 years of age, 5 feet, 6 or 8 inches
high, pitted with small pox, hath a wart or pear on his chin, hath
short, black, curled hair, had on when he went away a country cloth
jacket and breeches, yarn stockings, country linen shirt, old shoes and
felt hat almost new,--George Dorman, born in England, about 20 years of
age, 5 feet, 6 or 7 inches hight, had on when he went away nearly the
same clothing as Hinds, they both had iron collars on when they went
away, its expected they will change their clothing and have forged
passes. Whoever brings the said servants home shall have Two Dollars
reward for each if taken ten miles from home, and in proportion for a
greater or less distance, as far as 50 miles, including what the law
allows.
"Paid by Gm. Sam Love."
[Illustration: From the Loudoun-Fauquier Magazine
NOLAND MANSION. Built about 1775.]
But negroes and convicts were not the only class in Loudoun deprived of
liberty. Early in 1776 the unfortunate prisoners of war began to arrive.
Of a number of "Highland Prisoners taken by Captain James and Richard
Barren in the Ship Oxford," the following were sent to Loudoun by the
Committee of Safety at its session on the 24th June 1776:
Donald McLeod John Gunn
Donald Keith Murdock Morison
John McLeod Hugh McKay
William Kelly John Forbas
Alexander McIntosh William Robinson
John McLeod, Jr. John McKay[111]
Peter Robinson
[111] See Tyler's Quarterly V-61.
The next year a much larger contingent made its appearance. The Hessian
prisoners taken at the Battle of Saratoga were divided into parties
which were sent to different parts of the Colonies. A numerous band was
sent to Noland's Ferry where a camp for them was established and, it is
said, some of their number were employed in building the Noland mansion
there, thus fixing the long disputed date of its construction. Briscoe
Goodhart says that few of these prisoners were returned to Europe after
the war but that, for the most part, they settled in Loudoun and in
Frederick and Montgomery counties, Maryland, in all of which were many
of German descent and that the former Hessian prisoners became useful
and industrious citizens in their new homes.[112]
[112] Balch Library Clippings II, 48 and IV, 1.
As the war drew to its close in 1781, there appears to have been a large
accumulation of war supplies in Loudoun. Lafayette wrote to Washington
on the 1st July of that year:
"There must be a great quantity of accoutrements in the country. By a
letter from the Board of War, I find that 100 Saddles, 100 Swords, 100
pairs of pistols may be soon expected at Leesburg, supposing that the
same number be got in the country...."[113]
[113] 5 Virginia Magazine History and Biography, 377.
On the 26th of the same month Colonel William Davis, in covering the
situation in the Northern Neck, wrote
"At Noland's there are 920 muskets and 486 bayonets. Those added to the
275 at Fredericksburg are too many by 195...."[114]
[114] 2 Virginia Colonial State Papers, 258.
And on the 9th August in the same year, Captain A. Bohannan wrote from
Fauquier Court House to Colonel Wm. Davis:
"I have this moment returned from Leesburg--the stores that were there &
at Noland's Ferry are now on their way to this place; it was with the
greatest difficulty that I could procure waggons in the neighbourhood of
Leesburg for the Transportation of them; in short I cou'd not have done
it had I not promised to pay them when they arrived at this place &
discharge them. It is useless to pretend to impress waggons in this part
of the Country, as you will seldom see a waggon on any plantation but
what wants either a wheel or Geer. the Inhabitants say they are willing
to work for the public, provided that they cou'd get paid for their
services. They are willing to take what the Q. M. Genl: allows, tho' it
shu'd be less than they could get from private persons."
It was estimated that it would cost "Fifteen or Twenty Thousand Pounds"
(presumably tobacco) to move the stores, and the writer "desires some
pay for himself, being without a shilling and not having received any
money for eighteen months."[115]
[115] 2 Virginia Colonial State Papers, 308.
And now, a final glimpse of Loudoun and Leesburg in the Revolution,
afforded in the diary of Captain John Davis of the Pennsylvania line who
passed through the county with General Anthony Wayne's Brigade on its
way to Yorktown and victory; the entries to be quoted begin on the 31st
day of May, 1781, when the command was on its way from "York Town" in
Pennsylvania:
"Took up the line of march at sunrise, passed through Frederick Town,
Maryland and reached Powtomack, which, in crossing in Squows, one
unfortunately sunk, loaded with artillery & Q. M. stores and men in
which our Sergeant & three men were drowned; encamped on the S. W. side
of the river. Night being very wet, our baggage not crossed, Officers of
the Reg. took Quarters in Col. Clapham's Negro Quarter, where we
agreeably passed the night.
"June 1st. Continued on our ground till four o'clock in the afternoon,
when we mov'd five miles on the way to Leesburg.
"June 2d. Very wet day ... & continued till evening.
"3rd (Loudoun Co.) Took up the line of March at 10 o'clock, passed
through Leesburg--the appearance of which I was much disappointed in;
encamped at Goose Creek, 15 miles.
"4th. (Prince Wm. Co.) Marched from Goose Creek at six o'clock at which
place left our baggage & sick, and proceeded through the low country.
Roads bad in consequence of the rains; encamped at Red house 18 miles."
All writers of the period who describe the town agree that Leesburg,
after twenty years or more of existence, was still a shabby little
place, "of few and insignificant wooden houses" as one traveller records
his impressions. The day of permanent buildings in the town had not yet
arrived. Hardly an edifice standing in Leesburg today was then in
existence.
CHAPTER XII
THE STORY OF JOHN CHAMPE
While the Powells and the Masons, the Lees, the Claphams, the Nolands
and the Rusts, the Chinns, the Peytons, the Mercers, the Ellzeys and
others of her natural leaders and large landowning families of the time,
had abetted and supported, in one capacity or another, the Revolutionary
cause, it was, in the end, the simple, homespun, backwoodsman class that
bred Loudoun's most romantic figure in the Revolution. Sergeant Major
John Champe of Lee's Partisan Legion, mighty of bone and sinew,
stout-hearted, resourceful and of such boundless devotion and loyalty to
his country and his commander-in-chief in its hour of travail that he
consented to incur the scorn and hatred of his fellow-soldiers when
along that hard path lay his duty, deserves to have his fidelity, his
courage and his exploits commemorated at length in every story of his
native county.
John Champe was born in what was soon to become Loudoun in the year
1752. Little or nothing is known of his boyhood. His family was too
humble and his early life too obscure to have challenged the pen of his
scattered neighbors. When the American Colonies revolted against the
mother country, he at once enlisted in Virginia's forces and in 1780 was
serving as a dragoon in Light Horse Harry Lee's cavalry Legion in which
he had by sheer merit attained the rank of sergeant major and, through
the esteem he had earned, was in line for promotion to a commission. The
morale of the American Army had been profoundly shaken by Arnold's
recent treason and escape; the courageous but unfortunate young British
officer Andrè was a prisoner in Washington's hands as a result of his
part in the affair and Washington was deeply troubled lest the treason
which had corrupted Arnold had spread its vicious poison elsewhere among
his soldiers. Henry Lee of Virginia, famous enough in his own right but
also destined to be known as the father of General Robert E. Lee as
well, was afterward, in the War of 1812, commissioned a major general;
but then, as a cavalry major of twenty-three in command of an
independent partisan corps of Dragoons, had already achieved his
magnificent capture of the British-held fort at Paulus Hook and for that
and many another daring exploit enjoyed no small military distinction.
At the time our story opens, Lee and his corps were with Washington
along the Hudson River. Many years later he was to write his famous
_Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department of the United
States_,[116] an important source-book of American history. It is to
this work that we are principally indebted for our knowledge of Champe's
exploit and from it I shall quote largely the story, condensing but the
less essential parts. Only thus can be taken the true measure of
Champe's heroism, now too generally forgotten in Loudoun.
[116] Quotations are from the 2nd edition published in 1827 in
Washington by Peter Force.
There had fallen into Washington's hands certain anonymous papers which
appeared to involve other of his soldiers in treason, and particularly
one of his generals.[117] He had sent for Lee and handed him the papers.
Lee studied them carefully and when asked his counsel, said he thought
they represented a contrivance of Sir Henry Clinton, the British
commander-in-chief, to destroy confidence between Washington and his men
and purposely had been permitted by the British to fall into
Washington's hands. Washington rejoined that the idea was plausible and
had already occurred to him; but the danger involved in the possible
defection of one of his highest officers was so great that the truth
must be ascertained at once.
[117] Supposed to have been General Gates.
"'I have sent for you'" Lee quotes Washington as saying, "'in the
expectation that you have in your corps individuals capable and willing
to undertake an indispensable, delicate and hazardous project. Whoever
comes forward upon this occasion, will lay me under great obligations
personally, and in behalf of the United States I will reward him amply.
No time is to be lost: he must proceed if possible this night. My object
is to probe to the bottom the afflicting intelligence contained in the
papers you have just read; to seize Arnold, and by getting him, to save
Andrè. They are all connected. While my emissary is engaged in preparing
means for the seizure of Arnold, the guilt of others can be traced; and
the timely delivery of Arnold to me, will possibly put it into my power
to restore the amiable and unfortunate Andrè to his friends. My
instructions are ready, in which you will find my express orders that
Arnold is not to be hurt; but that he be permitted to escape if to be
prevented only by killing him, as his public punishment is the sole
object in view. That you cannot too forcibly press upon whomsoever may
engage in the enterprise; and this fail not to do. With my instructions
are two letters to be delivered as ordered and here are some guineas for
expenses.'
"Major Lee, replying, said that he had little or no doubt but that his
legion contained many individuals daring enough for any operation,
however perilous; but that the one in view required a combination of
qualities not easily to be found, unless in a commissioned officer to
whom he could not venture to propose an enterprise the first step in
which was desertion. That though the sergeant-major of the cavalry was
in all respects qualified for the delicate and adventurous project, and
to him it might be proposed without indelicacy, as his station did not
interpose an obstacle before stated; yet it was very probable that the
same difficulty would occur in his breast, to remove which would not be
easy, if practicable."
Washington became at once interested in this hitherto unknown sergeant
major and asked his name, his country, his age, size, length of service
and character.
"Being told his name," continues Lee "that he was a native of Loudoun
County in Virginia; about twenty-three or twenty-four years of age--that
he had enlisted in 1776--rather above the medium size--full of bone and
muscle; with a saturnine countenance, grave, thoughtful and taciturn--of
tried courage and inflexible perseverance, and as likely to regret an
adventure coupled with ignominy as any officer in the corps; a
commission being the goal of his long and anxious exertions, and certain
on the first vacancy--the general exclaimed that he was the very man for
the business; and that going to the enemy by the instigation and at the
request of his officer, was not desertion though it appeared to be so.
And he enjoined that this explanation, as coming from him, should be
pressed on Champe."
Leaving Washington, Lee hastened to the camp of his cavalry corps where,
arriving about 8:00 o'clock at night, he sent for Champe and placed the
matter before him, stressing "the very great obligation he would confer
on the commander-in-chief" and all else Lee could think of to insure his
acceptance of the assignment; concluding with an explanation of the
details of the plan, so far as they had been developed, and an
expression of his personal wish that he would enter upon its execution
instantly.
"Champe listened with deep attention, and with a highly excited
countenance; the perturbations of his breast not being hid even by his
dark visage. He briefly and modestly replied, that no soldier exceeded
him in respect and affection for the commander-in-chief, to serve whom
he would willingly lay down his life; and that he was sensible of the
honour conferred by the choice of him for the execution of a project all
over arduous; nor could he be at a loss to know to whom was to be
ascribed the preference bestowed, which he took pleasure in
acknowledging, although increasing obligations, before great and many."
As for the plan itself, Champe thought it excellent and understood at
once how great might be the benefits resulting from its success. "He was
not deterred by the danger and difficulty which was evidently to be
encountered but he was deterred by the ignominy of desertion, to be
followed by the hypocrisy of enlisting with the enemy; neither of which
comported with his feelings, and either placed an insuperable bar in his
way to promotion. He concluded by observing, that if any mode could be
contrived free from disgrace, he would cordially embark in the
enterprise. As it was he prayed to be excused."
Thus Champe's reaction to the project justified Lee's prior opinion
expressed to his general and shewed his knowledge and understanding of
the man. But the plan, with the tremendous results involved, pressed for
immediate action and Lee exerted his utmost power of persuasion. He
pointed out that Washington himself had declared that, in this case, the
desertion was not a crime; adding that if Champe accepted, Lee would
consider the whole corps highly honored by the General's call but that
if it failed, at such a critical moment, to furnish a competent man it
would reduce Lee to "a mortifying condition."
It was a long and arduous task to overcome Champe's repugnance to become
involved, even seemingly, in a situation repellant to his every standard
of honor to which his soldier's life had been trained; but slowly Lee
overcame his scruples and obtained his consent. Then the detailed
instructions, already prepared, were read to him, covering not only his
behaviour and procedure when once safely away but also the very
difficult matter of the desertion itself which must be so managed as to
leave no doubt in his companions' minds as to his treachery but also to
insure, so far as possible, his safety from their inevitable wrath.
Obviously very little help could be given by Major Lee at this point
"lest it might induce a belief that he was privy to the desertion, which
opinion getting to the enemy would involve the life of Champe." So that
part of the matter was left to the young sergeant, Lee promising,
however, that if his escape were discovered before morning, he would
seek to delay the pursuit "as long as practical."
Giving Champe three guineas as initial expense money, Lee urged him to
start without delay and to let him hear from him, as promptly as
possible, after he had arrived in New York. Champe, again urging Lee to
delay pursuit, returned to his camp "and taking his cloak, valise and
orderly book, he drew his horse from the picket and mounting him, put
himself upon fortune."
His anticipation of rapid discovery and pursuit proved only too well
founded. None knew better than he the alertness and efficiency of his
fellow-dragoons and the effective discipline maintained in Lee's
command. Less than half an hour had passed since he escaped the camp,
before his absence, under what appeared highly suspicious circumstances,
was discovered and promptly reported. "Captain Carnes, Officer of the
day, waited upon the Major[118] and with considerable emotion told him
that one of the patrol had fallen in with a dragoon, who being
challenged, put spur to his horse and escaped, though instantly
pursued."
[118] Lee, the narrator.
Lee, mindful of the value to Champe of every minute of delay which his
ingenuity could devise, simulated a lack of understanding of his report,
and when that had been repeated and clarified, appeared to doubt Carnes'
deduction and sought to persuade him that he was mistaken. The latter,
however, was a competent officer and moreover his suspicions had been
thoroughly aroused. Arnold's treason had raised mistrust of loyalty
which, perhaps, normally would not have been entertained. Therefore on
leaving Lee, Carnes at once returned to his men and ordered them to
assemble, thus quickly learning that Champe, "his horse, baggage, arms
and orderly book" were missing. His worst fears thus confirmed and,
greatly affected by the supposed desertion in his own command, he
hurriedly arranged a party for pursuit and returned to Lee for written
orders. Again Lee played for delay. While appearing to approve of
Carnes' zeal, he told him that he had already planned certain other and
particular service for him that night and that another officer would
have to lead the pursuit. For that purpose, after apparent deep and
protracted consideration, he chose a younger officer, Cornet Middleton,
being moved to do so, writes Lee by "his knowledge of the tenderness of
Middleton's disposition, which he hoped would lead to the protection of
Champe, should he be taken;" but he was, at the end, obliged to issue
orders in the customary form upon such occasions and those delivered to
Middleton, duly signed by Lee, read ominously enough: "Pursue as far as
you can with safety Sergeant Champe, who is suspected of deserting to
the enemy, and has taken the road leading to Paulus Hook. Bring him
alive that he may suffer in the presence of the army; but kill him if he
resists or escapes after being taken."
And still Lee procrastinated. With one device or another he contrived to
hold Middleton, giving him instructions in such detail that they
bordered on the trivial. Yet rake his imagination as he would, he at
length was obliged to dismiss the youthful Cornet, with an expressed
wish, however insincere, for his success.
In the meanwhile, and soon after Champe's departure, rain had begun to
fall, almost wrecking the carefully contrived plan; for Champe's horse
was shod in a manner peculiar to the Legion and Middleton's party was
thus better able to follow Champe's course than otherwise would have
been possible on a dark night through the deserted country. Middleton
and his men had finally succeeded in leaving the American camp soon
after midnight, something over an hour after Champe had made his escape;
but to examine the ground for shoeprints and the prints themselves, on a
rainy night, meant the frequent dismounting of troopers, the striking of
a light and thus an ever-growing delay. With the break of day, however,
the shoeprints were clear enough and better time could be made--and then
on a rise before reaching Three Pigeons, some miles north of the Village
of Bergen, Middleton's men caught sight of the fugitive, not more than
half a mile ahead, Champe seeing his pursuers at the same time.
The pursuit was now so grimly close that Champe knew a mistake by him or
taking any but the most essential risks meant quick capture and no
gentle treatment, if, indeed, he should survive that unpleasant event.
Therefore he quickly abandoned his first plan to reach Paulus Hook (now
part of Jersey City) and instead, with all possible speed and by
changing his course, sought immediate refuge in the British galleys
which he knew lay a few miles to the west of Bergen "in accordance with
British custom." Again, on the new course, he was sighted, his
determined pursuers coming within two or three hundred yards of their
quarry; but Champe, coming abreast of the galleys "dismounted and
running through the marsh to the river, plunged into it, calling upon
the galleys for help." This was readily given; "they fired upon our
horse" writes Lee "and sent a boat to meet Champe, who was taken in and
carried on board, and conveyed to New York with a letter from the
captain of the galley, stating the circumstances he had seen." Escape
had been achieved by the narrowest of margins and in the gravest danger;
but it had created a realistic background for Champe's introduction to
the British, difficult indeed to have bettered. Not the slightest doubt
was entertained by either group that it had witnessed a daring desertion
most narrowly achieved.
Greatly chagrined as were the Americans, they were not obliged to return
entirely empty-handed. The fleeing Sergeant's horse with its equipment,
his cloak and scabbard fell into their hands and were carried back by
them; but Champe held onto his sword until he plunged into the river and
the British made it too hot at that point for prolonged search.
Dejectedly the dragoons returned to their camp to report their failure;
giving Lee, quite unknowingly, a very bad moment when he saw Champe's
riderless horse being led back, until he was apprised of what had really
happened; thereupon he lost no time in presenting himself to General
Washington and reporting the complete success of the first part of the
hazardous adventure.
Four days slowly passed, and then an unsigned letter, in a disguised
hand, was received by Lee from his sergeant, telling of his further
adventures. He had, it seems, been kindly received on the galley and
taken at once to the British Commandant in New York who was deeply
interested in his story of his escape. The keen-witted Champe did not
fail to take full advantage of his sympathetic audience and the good
impression he was making. He assured the British officers "that such was
the spirit of defection which prevailed among the American troops in
consequence of Arnold's example, that he had no doubt, if the temper was
properly cherished, Washington's ranks would not only be greatly
thinned, but that some of his best corps would leave him." This did not
seem, to a reflective mind, wholly consistent with the fire and spirit
of the pursuit which the sergeant had so narrowly eluded, but his
circumstantial narrative gave such welcome news to the British that they
appear happily to have succumbed to the very human inclination to
believe what they most wished were true. Their enthusiasm, however, did
not cause them to forego recording a very careful description of their
new ally: "his size, place of birth, form, countenance, hair, the corps
in which he had served, with other remarks in conformity with the
British usage." Delighted as were his new friends with the sergeant and
his story and inclined to accept both as offered, they apparently had
not wholly failed to profit from their long contact at home with their
canny northern neighbors.
And now Champe was taken before His Majesty's Commander-in-Chief, Sir
Henry Clinton himself. Nothing was wanting to shew the importance
attached by the British to this latest deserter and the causes believed
by them to have impelled him to his course. Clinton closely
cross-examined the fugitive as to the possibility of the encouragement
of further desertions from the American forces, the effect of Arnold's
treason on Washington and the treatment being given Andrè. Although
there were moments when Champe's ingenuity and presence of mind appear
to have been sadly taxed, yet on the whole he succeeded in so well and
convincingly deporting himself that Sir Henry, at the close of his
examination, gave him a couple of guineas and assigned him to the
service of General Arnold, with a letter telling the latter who and what
he was. Arnold also received Champe cordially, expressed much
satisfaction on hearing from him the manner of his escape and the
fabulous effect of Arnold's example; and concluded his numerous
enquiries by assigning to him similar quarters to those occupied by his
own recruiting sergeants.
Nothing could have developed more favorably to the American's plot. Of a
surety, fickle fortune appeared at last to be broadly smiling on him.
Arnold's next move was to seek to persuade Champe to join his legion;
but that was a step so repugnant to the sergeant's spirit that even
devotion to Washington failed, in his mind, to justify it; so he told
Arnold, with some surliness, that for his part, he had had enough of war
and knew that if he ever were captured by the rebels he would be hung
out-of-hand which for him made further military service doubly
hazardous.[119] Arnold had reason to appreciate the sergeant's point and
permitted him to retire to his quarters where at once he devoted himself
to the consideration of how and when he could make contact with the
American friends within the British lines who were to get for him the
information sought by Washington as to the loyalty of certain of his
officers. This contact, with fortune's aid, he was able to establish the
next night and his new friend not only pledged himself to procure the
information he sought but engaged to send out Champe's reports to Major
Lee as well.
[119] Thus Lee's account, but Champe apparently afterwards found it
expedient to enlist with the British, as will appear later.
Thus was communication established between Champe and Lee and promptly
word came from the latter urging expedition; for Andrè's situation had
become desperate and further delay by Washington increasingly difficult.
And then Andrè himself destroyed his own last chance and ruined the
hopes and efforts of his well-wishers. Disdaining pretense or defense,
he freely acknowledged the truth of the charges against him and sealed
his own doom. By his acknowledgment Washington's hands were tied and
Andrè was promptly condemned as a spy and duly executed.
Andrè's tragic fate did not diminish Washington's desire to lay his
hands on Arnold. Champe was duly informed by Lee of the fatal event and
again urged to bring the plot in which he was engaged to a successful
outcome.
But Champe needed no urging. With such alacrity had he and his
confederates been working, that soon he was able to send a report to Lee
completely vindicating the American general officer toward whom
Washington's doubts had been directed, which report Lee duly transmitted
to his chief; with the result that "the distrust heretofore entertained
of the accused was forever dismissed."
And now Champe had but to secure the person of Arnold to crown his task
with success and to wholly justify the confidence reposed in him by Lee
and Washington. On the 19th October, 1780, Major Lee received from him a
full report of his progress toward that end and the plan he had made.
Again Lee laid his communication before his general, from whom he
received the following letter in Washington's own handwriting, shewing
how carefully the latter sought to guard the secret and protect his
emissary:
"Headquarters October 20, 1780
"Dear Sir: The plan proposed for taking A----d (the outlines of which
are communicated in your letter, which was this moment put into my hands
without date) has every mark of a good one. I therefore agree to the
promised rewards; and have such entire confidence in your management of
the business, as to give it my fullest approbation; and leave the whole
to the guidance of your judgment, with this express stipulation and
pointed injunction, that he (A----d) is to be brought to me alive.
"No circumstance whatever shall obtain my consent to his being put to
death. The idea which would accompany such an event, would be that
ruffians had been hired to assassinate him. My aim is to make a public
example of him; and this should be strongly impressed upon those who are
employed to bring him off. The Sergeant must be very circumspect--too
much zeal may create suspicion, and too much precipitency may defeat the
project. The most inviolable secrecy must be observed on all hands. I
send you five guineas; but I am not satisfied of the propriety of the
Sergeant's appearing with much specie. This circumstance may also lead
to suspicion, as it is but too well known to the enemy that we do not
abound in this article.
"The interviews between the party in and out of the city, should be
managed with much caution and seeming indifference; or else the
frequency of their meetings, etc., may betray the design, and involve
bad consequences; but I am persuaded that you will place every matter in
a proper point of view to the conductors of this interesting business,
and therefore I shall only add that
"I am, dear sir, etc., etc.
"G. WASHINGTON."
Written communications between Champe and Lee continued. In ten days
Champe had added the final touches to his plan for the abduction and so
informed Lee, asking that on the third subsequent night a party of
dragoons meet him at Hoboken to whom he hoped to deliver Arnold.
Our sergeant was by this time familiar with Arnold's habits and
movements. He knew that it was Arnold's custom to return to his home
about midnight and to visit the garden before retiring. It was at that
time that Champe and the allies he, through Lee's letters, had obtained,
planned to seize and gag the renegade and remove him by way of an
adjoining alley to a boat, manned by other trusted conspirators, at one
of the wharves on the nearby Hudson.
When the appointed day arrived, Washington directed Lee to himself take
command of the small detachment of dragoons who were to meet Champe and
his prisoner. "The day arrived," quoting Lee again "and Lee with a party
of dragoons left camp late in the evening, with three led horses; one
for Arnold, one for the sergeant and the third for his associate; never
doubting the success of the enterprise from the tenor of the last
received communication. The party reached Hoboken about midnight, where
they were concealed in the adjoining wood--Lee with three dragoons
stationing himself near the river shore. Hour after hour passed--no boat
approached. At length the day broke and the major retired to his party
and with his led horses returned to camp, where he proceeded to
headquarters to inform the general of the disappointment as mortifying
as inexplicable."
Deeply concerned as were both Washington and Lee over the failure of the
plan, they were also very apprehensive as to Champe's fate, but in a few
days one of the sergeant's associates succeeded in getting through to
them an anonymous letter explaining the failure of their plans. On the
day preceding that fixed for the abduction, Arnold most unexpectedly
removed his quarters to another part of the town to facilitate the
supervision by him of the embarkation of troops on a special mission to
be commanded by him and wholly unforeseen by the conspirators--an
expeditionary force made up largely of American deserters. "Thus it
happened" Lee explains "that John Champe, instead of crossing the Hudson
that night, was safely deposited on board one of the fleet of
transports, from whence he never departed until Arnold landed in
Virginia! Nor was he able to escape from the British Army until after
the junction of Lord Cornwallis at Petersburg, when he deserted; and
proceeding high up into Virginia, he passed into North Carolina near the
Saura towns, and keeping in the friendly districts of that State,
safely joined the army soon after it had passed the Congaree in pursuit
of Lord Rawdon.
"His appearance excited extreme surprise among his former comrades,
which was not a little increased when they saw the cordial reception he
met with from Lieutenant Colonel Lee. His whole story soon became known
to the corps, which reproduced the love and respect of officer and
soldier, heightened by universal admiration of his daring and arduous
attempt.
"Champe was introduced to General Green, who cheerfully complied with
the promises made by the commander-in-chief, so far as in his power; and
having provided the sergeant with a good horse and money for his
journey, sent him to General Washington, who munificently anticipated
every desire of the sergeant, and presented him with a discharge from
further service lest he might in the vicissitudes of war, fall into the
enemy's hands, when if recognized, he was sure to die on a gibbet."
Here ends Lee's account, apparently as first written; but subsequently
he seems to have acquired some further information of his sergeant's
later life which he appends in a note, as will appear later.
When Champe was with the British in New York, he, according to Lee and
as appears above, refused to enlist in the enemy's forces; but there is
another account which says that when he arrived in New York "he was
placed in the company of Captain Cameron." In the Champe family is the
tradition that he wrote to Lee of this:
"I was yesterday compelled to a most affecting step, but one
indispensable the success of my plan. It was necessary for me to accept
a commission in the traitor's legion that I might have uninterrupted
access to his house."
This Captain Cameron, after the termination of the war, married in
Virginia and fortunately kept a diary, a part of which was published in
_The British United Service Journal_. From it we learn, through
Howe,[120] that Cameron had occasion to traverse the forests of Loudoun
with a single servant and--familiar touch--was caught in one of those
violent thunderstorms so characteristic of upper Piedmont. Night came
on, no habitation or shelter of any kind was discernible to our
travellers in that wilderness and, believing themselves in grave peril,
they were becoming really alarmed when they saw through the woods a
faint light. Riding toward it, they discovered it came from one of the
typical log-houses of a frontier clearing and they lost no time in
seeking shelter. The owner of the little home received them with true
backwoods hospitality. And now quoting from Captain Cameron's journal:
[120] _Historic Collections of Virginia_, by Henry Howe, 1849.
"He would not permit either master or man to think of their horses, but
insisted that we should enter the house, where fire and changes of
apparel awaited us, he himself led the jaded animals to a shed, rubbed
them down and provided them with forage. It would have been affectation
of the worst kind to dispute his pleasure in this instance, so I readily
sought the shelter of his roof, to which a comely dame bade me welcome,
and busied herself in preventing my wishes. My drenched uniform was
exchanged for a suit of my host's apparel; my servant was accomodated in
the same manner, and we soon afterwards found ourselves seated before a
blazing fire of wood, by the light of which our hostess assiduously laid
out a well-stocked supper table. I need not say that all this was in the
highest degree comfortable. Yet I was not destined to sit down to supper
without discovering still greater cause for wonder. In due time our host
returned and the first glance which I cast towards him satisfied me that
he was no stranger. The second set everything like doubt at rest.
Sergeant Champe stood before me; the same in complexion, in feature,
though somewhat less thoughtful in the expression of his eye, as when he
first joined my company in New York.
"I cannot say my sensations on recognizing my ci-devant sergeant were
altogether agreeable. The mysterious manner in which he both came and
went, the success with which he had thrown a veil over his own
movements, and the recollection that I was the guest of a man who
probably entertained no sense of honour, either public or private,
excited in me a vague and indefinite alarm, which I found it impossible
on the instant to conceal. I started, and the movement was not lost upon
Champe. He examined my face closely; and a light appearing to burst all
at once upon his memory, he ran forward toward the spot where I sat.
"'Welcome, welcome, Captain Cameron' said he 'a thousand times welcome
to my roof; you behaved well to me when I was under your command, and
deserve more of hospitality than I possess the power to offer; but what
I do possess is very much at your service, and heartily glad am I that
accident should have thus brought us together again. You have doubtless
looked upon me as a twofold traitor, and I cannot blame you if you have.
Yet I should wish to stand well in your estimation too; and therefore I
will, if you please, give a faithful narrative of the causes which led
both to my arrival in New York, and to my abandonment of the British
Army on the shores of the Chesapeake. You are tired with your day's
travel; you stand in need of food and rest. Eat and drink, I pray you,
and sleep soundly; and tomorrow, if you are so disposed, I will try to
put my character straight in the estimation of the only British officer
of whose good opinion I am covetous.'
"There was so much frankness and apparent sincerity in this, that I
could not resist it, so I sat down to supper with a mind perfectly at
ease and having eaten heartily I soon afterwards retired to rest, on a
clean pallet which was spread for me on the floor. Sleep was not slow in
visiting my eyelids; nor did I awake until long after the sun had risen
on the morrow, and the hardy and active settlers, to whose kindness I
was indebted, had gone through a considerable portion of their day's
labour.
"I found my host next morning the same open, candid and hospitable man
that he had shewn himself on first recognizing me. He made no allusion,
indeed, during breakfast, to what had fallen from him over night; but
when he heard me talk of getting my horses ready, he begged to have a
few minutes' conversation with me. His wife, for such my hostess was,
immediately withdrew, under the pretext of attending to her household
affairs, upon which he took a seat beside me and began his story."
After the war and, it is said, on the personal recommendation of General
Washington, Sergeant Champe was appointed to the position of doorkeeper
or sergeant-at-arms of the Continental Congress, then meeting at
Philadelphia, but obliged, on account of rioting, to remove to Trenton.
His name appears on a roll of the 25th August, 1783, as holding that
position. Soon afterwards he returned to Loudoun, married and acquired a
small holding near what is now Dover, between the later towns of Aldie
and Middleburg, close by the present Little River Turnpike. The State of
Virginia has erected one of its excellent road markers adjacent to the
spot, bearing the following words:
"A Revolutionary Hero
"Here stood the home of John Champ, Continental soldier. Champ deserted
and enlisted in Benedict Arnold's British Command for the purpose of
capturing the traitor, 1780. Failing in this attempt Champ rejoined the
American Army."
Nearby there is a pool of water still known locally as "Champe's
Spring."
According to local tradition, he later lived in a log cabin on the old
Military Road near the old Ketoctin Baptist Church and on lands
afterward owned by Robert Braden. Thence he in turn moved to Kentucky
where, it is believed he died in or about the year 1797.
And now we may return to General Lee's narrative for the note he
appended thereto:
"When General Washington was called by President Adams to the command of
the Army prepared to defend the country from French hostility, he sent
to Lieutenant-Colonel Lee to inquire for Champe, being determined to
bring him into the field at the head of a company of infantry. Lee sent
to Loudoun County, where Champe settled after his discharge from the
Army, and learned that the gallant soldier had removed to Kentucky, and
had soon after died."
Of the sergeant's children, one son, Nathaniel, was born in Virginia on
the 22nd December, 1792, and in 1812 enlisted in Colonel Duncan
McArthur's regiment at Dayton, Ohio, that command comprising a part of
Hull's Army sent for the relief of Detroit. He was in the battle of
Monguagon, was among those captured at Detroit and subsequently, in the
regular army, saw further fighting and was with General Arthur's
advance-guard when Detroit was reoccupied. After the war he engaged in
business in Detroit, was a buyer and seller of real estate and built
Detroit's first "Temperance Hotel" of which he acted as landlord and in
which he was succeeded by his son William. Later he moved to Onondago,
Ohio, where he died on the 13th February, 1870.[121]
[121] Vol. 3, Balch Library Clippings, p. 30.
CHAPTER XIII
EARLY FEDERAL PERIOD
From the close of the Revolution to the War of 1812, there were at least
four outstanding movements in Loudoun: the restoration of the fertility
of her soil, the disestablishment of the church, the loss of a
substantial part of her area which returned to Fairfax and the erection
of large country mansions. The great project of Washington's Potomac
Company, involving the extensive improvement of that river for
navigation, was not, of course a Loudoun enterprise, although the
welfare of her people was greatly affected and such Loudoun men as
Joseph Janney, Benjamin Shreve, John Hough, Benjamin Dulaney, William
Brown, John Harper, William Ellzey, and Leven Powell were at one time or
another, as directors or stockholders, interested in the undertaking.
In the settlement of county, the Virginians from Tidewater had brought
with them their improvident methods of farming. From the earliest days,
when land was more available than labor, scant attention had been given
by the Virginia planter or farmer to the conservation or restoration of
the fertility of his soil. A field was planted and replanted to
heavy-feeding crops, with perhaps an occasional fallow year intervening;
and when the inevitable result registered itself in the falling off of
production to a point where the planting of that field became
unprofitable, it was abandoned and new ground broken up to be put
through the same disastrous course. Rotation of crops and the manuring
of the land were seldom, if ever, practiced outside perhaps the Quaker
and German Settlements. Toward the end of the eighteenth century, so far
had this reckless agriculture gone, that even the fertile lands of the
Piedmont were recording the result in no uncertain manner. The yield of
corn and wheat to the acre had been steadily declining, followed by an
emigration of many of the Loudoun people to Kentucky and elsewhere. It
was then that there arose in the county a farmer and leader who,
measured by the results of his work, may be considered as the most
valuable man to her own interests that Loudoun has thus far produced.
John Alexander Binns was the son of Charles Binns, the first clerk of
Loudoun and of his wife, Ann Alexander, a daughter of "John Alexander
the Eldest of Stafford County. Gent." as he is described in a deed to
his daughter in 1760. The son was born probably about 1761, although the
exact date seems uncertain. In March, 1781, he was, as we have seen,
recommended by the County Court of Loudoun to the governor for
appointment as a first lieutenant in the Virginia forces and at the same
time his brother, Charles Binns, Jr., later to succeed his father as
county clerk, was recommended for a commission as second lieutenant.
After the war, John Binns turned his attention to farming and grappled
with the problem of restoring the fertility of the soil. He had learned
of the use of land plaster (gypsum) and clover for that purpose in the
Philadelphia neighborhood, whence it is said the system had been brought
from Leipsic in Saxony. As early as 1780 he began his experiments, using
not only the land plaster and clover but practicing deeper ploughing and
rotating crops. At first he was, of course, ridiculed by his farmer
neighbors, for the reluctance of the husbandman to change his methods is
an old, old story. But Binns persisted. As he improved one farm and his
profits rose, he purchased other worn-out lands from their discouraged
owners and in time was profiting handsomely from his intelligence and
industry. At length, in 1803, his labors crowned with success and the
agricultural wealth of his home county rapidly rising as a result of his
long and patient work, he sat himself down to write the story of what he
had accomplished. His little book was printed in a very small edition,
due probably to the high price and scarcity of paper, and was offered
for sale at fifty cents, under the comprehensive title "_A Treatise on
Practical Farming, embracing particularly the following subjects, viz.
The Use of Plaster of Paris, with Directions for Using it; and General
Observations on the Use of Other Manures. On Deep Ploughing; thick
Sowing of Grain; Method of Preventing Fruit Trees from Decaying and
Farming in General._ By John A. Binns Of Loudoun County, Virginia,
Farmer." It was published at "Frederick-Town, Maryland," and "Printed by
John B. Colvin, Editor of the _Republican Advocate_, 1803." "The little
book" writes Rodney H. True "is now hard to find and the first edition,
but for the copy preserved by Jefferson and now treasured among the
great man's books in the Library of Congress, would well-nigh be lost."
Thomas Jefferson, with his restless intelligence, was one of the first
to acquire the book. Having studied it and being impressed with Binns'
success, he wrote to Sir John Sinclair, the head of the English Board of
Agriculture, a letter dated the 30th June, 1803, sending with it
"the enclosed pamphlet on the use of gypsum by a Mr. Binns, a plain
farmer, who understands handling his plough better than his pen. he is
certainly something of an enthusiast in the use of this manure; but he
has a right to be so. the result of his husbandry prooves his confidence
in it well found for from being poor, it has made him rich. the county
of Loudoun in which he live(s) exhausted & wasted by bad husbandry, has,
from his example, become the most productive one in Virginia: and its
lands, from being the lowest, sell at the highest prices. these facts
speak more strongly for his pamphlet than a better arrangement & more
polished phrases would have done. were I now a farmer I should surely
adopt the gypsum...."
On the same day, in a letter to Mr. William Strictland, another member
of the English Board of Agriculture, Jefferson wrote
"You will discover that Mr. Binns is an enthusiast for the use of
gypsum, but there are two facts which prove that he has a right to be so
1. he began poor and has made himself tollerably rich by his farming
alone. 2. the county of Loudoun, in which he lives, had been so
exhausted & wasted by bad husbandry, that it began to depopulate, the
inhabitants going Southwardly in quest of better lands. Binns' success
has stopped that immigration. it is now becoming on(e) of the most
productive counties of the state of Virginia, and the price given for
the lands is multiplied manifold."
Sir John Sinclair in his reply to Mr. Jefferson, whom he addresses as
"His Highness, Thomas Jefferson" wrote from Edinburgh under date of the
1st January 1804:
"On various accounts I received with much pleasure, your obliging letter
of the 30th June last, which only reached me, at the place, on the 19th
November. I certainly feel highly indebted to Mr. Binns, both for the
information contained in the pamphlet he has drawn up; and also, for his
having been the means of inducing you to recommence our correspondence
together, for the purpose of transmitting a paper which does credit to
the practical farmers of America.
"As to the Plaster of Paris, which Mr. Binns so strongly recommends, it
is singularly, that whilst it proves such a source of fertility to you,
it is of little avail in any part of the British Islands, Kent alone
excepted. I am thence inclined to conjecture, that its great advantage
must arise from its attracting moisture from the atmosphere, of which we
have in great abundance in these Kingdoms...."
But it is time to turn to Binns' own record of his work. How desperately
poor the yield of grain had become in Loudoun is shown by his statement
that some of his unplastered land yielded but five bushels of wheat to
the acre and not more than three bushels of corn on a place so worn out,
when he took it over in 1793, that his friends thought he "must starve
on it." By 1798 he was getting from that farm 15-1/2 bushels of corn to
the acre and the next year, on that corn land, had 27 bushels of heavy
wheat per acre. In another place he notes: "I put a parcel of it"
(plaster) "on some corn in the hill which produced about 22 bushels, the
other part of the field yielding about 12 bushels to the acre."
As an interesting sidelight he indicates that tobacco was being grown
around Leesburg at that time. In 1803, as he wrote his book, he expected
a crop of 40 bushels of wheat per acre on his farms. And by way of
summarizing his work
"There are several places on the Catocton Mountain, that some few years
past the corn stalks, when the tops were taken off, were not above three
feet high, and which would not produce more than two or three barrels of
corn to the acre, and from 5 to 6 bushels of wheat; and perhaps not
yield grass enough to the acre to feed a horse for two weeks after the
harvest was taken off; but from the use of plaster will now produce from
six to eight barrels of corn, and from twenty to twenty-five bushels of
wheat per acre; the luxuriant growth of the white and red clover after
harvest gives the fields which once looked like a barren waste of
country, the appearance of a beautiful meadow."
And upon sanitation he has this to say:
"... These circumstances made me anxious to cleanse my stables,
stockyards, cow-pens, hog-pens, wood-yards and ash-heaps by the first
June. This rule I have always followed ever since I began to farm for
myself, and can say that my family have never experienced an
intermittent or remittent" (fever) "unless attacked with them from home
first, and upon their return they have immediately left them. In my
travels where ever I have discovered those kind of fevers, I have always
observed either dirty, filthy stables, hog-pens or water standing in
their cellars or ponds of water not far off; I have also observed those
places most liable to dysentaries...."
In contrast to present-day views, he was wholly opposed to growing rye
on Loudoun lands, believing that it impoverished the soil and that wheat
yielded more in bushels; that rye destroyed grass and clover and injured
orchards. He approved the growing of wheat and oats in orchards to
maturity and strongly recommended the use of plaster in them.
The result of Binns' work was acclaimed throughout Virginia. His methods
became known as the "Loudoun system" and the term became as significant
and popularly familiar as the "Norfolk system" of farming in England. Of
his work and his book True says:
"In spite of the fact that 'it is not written in a scholastic style,'
few books have been written in which more sound practical agriculture is
crowded into so small a space. Binns' chapter on the life history of the
Hessian fly stands as a piece of careful observation that might have
done credit to Dr. Thomas Say himself. The three fundamental supports on
which agriculture prosperity in Loudoun County rests were never more
clearly or soundly appreciated: gypsum, clover and deep plowing. This
was the background of the famous 'Loudoun System' which came to be
recognized as the progressive practice for that part of the country a
hundred years ago."[122]
[122] See article on Binns by Rodney H. True in 2 William and Mary
Quarterly (2) 20.
Binns died in 1813. His will, dated the 11th January in that year, was
offered for probate on the 1st November following. In it he makes
provision for freeing his slaves after a certain period. As he left his
estate to his wife and nieces, it is surmised that no children survived
him. The family, however, is still represented in Loudoun. Captain John
A. Tebbs, U.S.M.C., is a descendant of Charles Binns, Jr., the younger
brother of our agronomist.
It is difficult to escape the conclusion that religious thought and
observance were at a low ebb in Virginia in the latter part of the
eighteenth century. It was an age of transition, in some respects not
unlike that of today. Old ties were being broken, tradition and old-time
loyalties no longer received their former adherence. No small
responsibility attaches to that negligent and selfish minority of the
clergy of the colonial church and to an equally reprehensible element in
the early Federal days for remissness in their duties; and their
culpable behavior tends to attract more attention than the loyal
devotion of the majority of their brethren. It was inevitable that the
established church should be regarded as a part of the repudiated
British government and when its civil powers and ecclesiastical
predominance were taken from it and much of its property ruthlessly
confiscated, there ensued a period of confusion in religious matters,
with an unfortunate colouring of vindictive animosity on the part of
other communions. Concurrently the spread of Methodism took from the
older church many of its erstwhile adherents. Indeed, for a
disconcertingly long period after its "erection" in 1758, Leesburg
appears to have had no building devoted to religious purposes, services,
when held, having been at the courthouse. Cresswell, in his journal,
confirms this as does the first Shelburne Vestry book and also an
advertisement in Leesburg's '_True American_' of the 30th December,
1800: "The Reverend Mr. Allen" it reads "intends to perform divine
service in the Court House, on the 4th January, at half past eleven
o'clock; he also proposes preaching every fortnight from that date."
This situation was repaired between 1780 and 1785, when the Methodists,
organized as a separate denomination in 1784, erected their stone church
on Cornwall Street with galleries around three of its sides and with
its interesting old-fashioned sounding board, which church came to be
endowed with many associations until its needless destruction about
1901. Then, in 1804, the "Presbyterian Society of Leesburg," which had
probably existed since 1782, was more formally organized as a church by
the Rev. James Hall, D.D., of Concord, North Carolina, at that time the
Moderator of the Presbyterian General Assembly. The erection of the
present quaint old brick church on Market Street, the oldest church
building now standing in Leesburg, had already been begun in 1802 and
was completed in 1804. It was dedicated in May, 1804, by Dr. Hall. Its
first pastor was the Rev. John Mines, who served until 1822 and the
first Elders were Peter Carr, Obadiah Clifford, and John MacCormack.
Through the courtesy of the Presbyterians, their neighbors of the
Episcopal faith held their services from time to time in this old church
until the erection of the first Saint James Church on Church Street in
1812, long delayed because of conflicting views as to whether the new
building should be in town or country.
This first Saint James Church "was built of brick and quite small, the
windows not arched and there was a yard in front. This church was torn
down in 1836 and a new one, much wider and larger built, the foundation
brought more to the front. It was enlarged in 1848, the vestibule built
over the remainder of the yard, bringing the front of the church even
with the street."[123] This building continued to be used until the
present Saint James Church of gray stone on the corner of Cornwall and
Wirt Streets was completed in 1897.
[123] _Old Saint James Episcopal Church_, by Miss Lizzie Worsley.
To the diversity in origin of the county's population frequent reference
has been made. The inhabitants of the southern part were far more in
sympathy in political philosophy, in manner of living, in agricultural
practices and in traditional background with the people of Fairfax than
were they with, perhaps, the majority of the heterogeneous population of
upper Loudoun. Also their leaders belonged to the class which has ruled
in Tidewater Virginia since its English beginnings and they none too
willingly faced the prospect, after the Revolution, of dividing their
authority with and perhaps losing their dominance to the upper-country
people. In 1782 they sought to create a new county coextensive with
Cameron Parish; failing in that, a compromise was reached in 1798 by
which the erstwhile area of Loudoun, south of Sugar Land Run, was
returned to Fairfax--"All that part of the County of Loudoun" reads the
act of division "lying between the lower boundary thereof and a line to
be drawn from the mouth of Sugar Land Run, to Carter's Mill on Bull Run,
shall be and is hereby added to and made a part of the County of
Fairfax."[124] This action had the immediate result of greatly
strengthening the political power of the Quakers, Germans and
Scotch-Irish in the remaining part of the county and correspondingly
diminishing the influence of the descendants of the old Tidewater
aristocracy there.
[124] 2 Shepherd, 107.
In the year 1787 Colonel Leven Powell laid out the town of Middleburg on
the road running to Ashley's Gap, for his purpose devoting fifty acres
on the southerly edge of the 500 acre tract of land he had purchased
from Joseph Chinn in 1763;[125] the town, of course, obtaining its name
from the position it occupied approximately halfway between the major
towns of Alexandria and Winchester as well as halfway between the
courthouses of Loudoun and Fauquier. The first trustees were Francis
Peyton, William Bronaugh, William Heale, John Peyton Harrison, Burr
Powell, Josias Clapham, and Richard Bland Lee.[126]
[125] See Chapter VII ante.
[126] 12 Hening, 605.
The much older town of Waterford did not receive formal legislative
sanction until 1801. Then by the fifth section of an act of the
Legislature, the place is recognized as already in existence: "the lots
and streets as the same are already laid off at the place known by the
name of Waterford." The first trustees were James Moore, James Griffith,
John Williams, and Abner Williams. Section 7 of the act further provided
"that as soon as Mahlon Janey and William Hough, shall lay off into lots
with convenient streets, so much of their lands not exceeding ten acres
adjoining the said town of Waterford, the same shall thence-forth
constitute and be deemed and taken as a part of the said town."[127]
[127] 2 Shepherd, 270.
The next year another old settlement was, in its turn, given legislative
acknowledgment. Hillsborough, somewhat belatedly, was "established" on
twenty-five acres already divided between a score or more of owners:
Mahlon Hough, Thomas Purcell, the representatives of John Jenny (sic),
deceased, Thomas Leslie, Thomas Hepburn, Joseph Tribby, Josiah White,
John Foundling, Edward Conrod, Mahlon Roach, Thomas Stevens, Thomas
Hough, Samuel Purcell, John Wolfcaile, Richard Matthews, James Prior,
John Stevens, Richard Copeland, and Mahlon Morris. The first trustees
were Mahlon Hough, Thomas Purcell, Thomas Leslie, Josiah White, Edward
Conrod, Mahlon Roach, and Thomas Stevens.[128]
[128] 2 Shepherd, 549.
In 1810 Aldie makes its appearance. It was laid out by Charles Fenton
Mercer, a great Loudoun figure in his day,[129] on a part of his
plantation to which he had given the name of Aldie in tribute to Aldie
Castle in Scotland, the seat of that Mercer family from which he
believed himself descended. The act of establishment describes the
town's location as "thirty acres of land lying on the westerly extremity
of the Little River Turnpike road, in the county of Loudoun, the
property of Charles F. Mercer, as soon as the same shall be laid off
into lots with convenient streets." The Little River Turnpike road had
been extended to that point but a few years before. The town's first
trustees were named as Israel Lacey, William Cook, Matthew Adams, John
Sinclair, James Hexon, David Gibson, Charles F. Mercer, and William
Noland.[130]
[129] See Chapter XIV post.
[130] Acts 1810, p. 37.
Bluemont, under its earlier name of Snickersville which it bore until
the year 1900, was established in 1824. As early as 1769 Edward Snickers
had obtained a grant from John Augustine Washington of 624 acres at this
point and before and after that time had acquired other lands in the
neighbourhood. He it was who, according to our local tradition, conveyed
the first bushel of wheat easterly across the Blue Ridge and gave his
name not only to the village but to the gap through the Blue Ridge and,
on the other side, to the historic ferry across the Shenandoah which he
owned for many years. He was born about 1735, married Elizabeth
Toliaferro about 1755 and died in 1790. In 1806 a postoffice had been
established at the little village with Lewis Stevens acting as
postmaster. When the town came to be formally "established" in 1824, its
location was described as being upon "ten acres at the entrance of
Snickers Gap, of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the county of Loudoun,
property of Amos Clayton, Martha Clayton, William Woodford and others,
as soon as the same shall be laid off into lots with convenient streets
and alleys." The first trustees were James Cochran senior, Craven
Osburn, Mordecai Throckmorton, Stephen Janney, Doctor E. B. Brady, Amos
Clayton, and Timothy Carrington.[131]
[131] Acts 1824-5, p. 86. For historical sketch of village see 2 Balch
Library Clippings, 1. For Snickers also see 2 Landmarks, 509.
The above list, with Leesburg, is the roll of earlier incorporated towns
of the county. Hamilton (1875), Lovettsville (1876), Purcellville
(1908), and Round Hill (1900), as the dates indicate, were not formally
organized until much later. The pleasant little village of Lincoln
remains unincorporated.
As the eighteenth century neared its end, an increasing number of
representatives of the Tidewater gentry came to Loudoun and with their
neighbours already living there, built far more pretentious homes than
the county had theretofore known. As has been stated in the preface, to
tell something of the stories of these old estates was the original
incentive to the writing of this book; but those stories, involving as
they do their share of romance, tragedy and drama, must in their more
extensive narration, be left for a later volume. It is appropriate
however, in this place, to very briefly comment on a few of these old
plantations.
SPRINGWOOD
Among the newcomers, in this post-revolution period, was Colonel Burgess
Ball, a great-grandson of that dignified old aristocrat Colonel William
Ball of Millenbeck on the Rappahannock, in Lancaster County, who had
come to Virginia in 1657. During the Revolution Burgess Ball had served
on the staff of General Washington, his first cousin, then as a captain
in the Continental Line and later had raised and equipped a Virginia
regiment at his own expense and served with it as lieutenant colonel.
After the war, his health broken and his generous fortune seriously
impaired by his expenditures for military purposes and by his
extravagant hospitality at his home, Travellers Rest in Spotsylvania
County, he in 1795, was obliged to seek refuge in what was still known
in Tidewater as the Loudoun wilderness. On the 4th November, 1795, he
purchased for £1741 (the proceeds of his back pay for military services
it is said) from Abraham Barnes Thomson Mason, only acting executor and
trustee under the will of Thomson Mason, a tract of 247 acres including
the Great Spring and running to the Potomac. Here Colonel Ball either
built a rustic lodge for his home or, as has been surmised, occupied and
improved the old home of Francis Aubrey, calling his estate Springwood.
On that same 4th November, 1795, there was purchased in trust for
Colonel Ball from Stevens Thomson Mason by William Fitzhugh, Mann Page,
and Alexander Spotswood "three of the trustees appointed by an Act of
General Assembly to sell certain lands devised by James Ball deceased to
his grandson Burgess Ball for his life," another tract of 147 acres
about two miles north of the Great Spring for £441, current money of
Virginia. Other adjacent tracts were purchased by Colonel Ball or by his
trustees until he controlled a very large estate from the Great Spring
to the Limestone Run of the most fertile land in the county.[132] Far
from his old military companions, he kept up a correspondence with them
in his distant abode and many of them visited him there from time to
time; for whether surrounded by the refinements of Travellers Rest or
the wilderness of Springwood, Colonel Ball's lavish hospitality was a
part of the very man himself. He died on the 7th March, 1800, and was
buried just outside the graveyard surrounding the old chapel above Goose
Creek on the hill above the Great Spring. This first Springwood dwelling
was not on the site of the present mansion but is believed to have been
on the south side of the present road on what is now a part of the Big
Spring estate, in recent years known as Mayfield. The existing
Springwood residence was built by George Washington Ball, later Captain
C.S.A., grandson of Colonel Burgess Ball, between 1840 and 1850. Louis
Philippe is said to have been an overnight guest there and, during the
Civil War, General Lee, a cousin of Captain Ball who had served on his
staff, held a military conference in the present dining room. The estate
was acquired in 1869 by the late Francis Asbury Lutz of Washington who
substantially remodelled the mansion very soon thereafter. Since then it
has been in the possession of the Lutz family, its present occupants
being Mrs. Samuel S. Lutz, her son-in-law and daughter, Judge and Mrs.
J. R. H. Alexander and the latter's two sons.
[132] See Loudoun Deeds W271, W263, Y132, etc.
RASPBERRY PLAIN
The genesis of Raspberry Plain, just north of Springwood, has already
been given. As shewn in Chapter VII, the property had been originally
acquired from Lord Fairfax by Joseph Dixon in 1731 and he had sold the
farm which he had improved with a dwelling, orchard, etc., to Aeneas
Campbell in 1754. Campbell, as we have seen, was Loudoun's first
sheriff. He maintained the county jail and the ducking-stool at his home
while he held that office. He sold the place in 1760 to Thomson Mason.
So far the residence, long since vanished, was near the large spring,
now a part of Selma. Mason is said by T. A. Lancaster, Jr., to have
built a new house about 1771 (on the site of the present beautiful
home). He then conveyed it to his son Stevens Thomson Mason,
subsequently confirming his action in his will. Later, according to
local tradition, another Mason descendant, Colonel John Mason McCarty
was living there when he killed his cousin, General A. T. Mason in the
famous duel in 1819, perhaps as a tenant, for the county records show
that in 1830 the estate, then of about 250 acres, was conveyed by the
executors of General Mason's will to George, John, Peter and Samuel
Hoffman of Baltimore for $8,500. It remained in the Hoffman family for
over eighty-five years and until sold by the Hoffman heirs on the
29th April, 1916, to Mr. John G. Hopkins who built the present imposing
brick edifice of colonial architecture. The estate was purchased by Mr.
and Mrs. William H. Lipscomb of Washington in 1931 and, until Mrs.
Lipscomb's death, was the scene of many a gay and picturesque hunt
breakfast given in honour of the Loudoun Hunt of which Mr. Lipscomb was
Master.
[Illustration: OATLANDS. Built by George Carter from 1800 to 1802. Now
the home of Mrs. W. C. Eustis.]
BELMONT
Ludwell Lee, a son of Richard Henry Lee, built Belmont in 1800 and lived
there until his death in 1836. He rests in its garden. Soon after he
died the estate was acquired by Miss Margaret Mercer who, born in 1791,
was the daughter of Governor John Francis Mercer of Cedar Park,
Maryland. Miss Mercer conducted a school for young ladies at Belmont
until her death in 1846. She was a woman of broad education with
pronounced views on the abolition of negro slavery and she it was who
built the nearby Belmont Chapel on a part of her estate. After passing
through the hands of many owners the property was purchased in 1931 by
Colonel Patrick J. Hurley, Secretary of War under President Hoover, and
since then he and Mrs. Hurley have made it their country home. For
several years he has invited the Loudoun Hunt to hold its annual horse
show there.
COTON
Across the highway Thomas Ludwell Lee, cousin to Ludwell Lee, about the
same time built his home Coton, naming it after an English home of the
earlier Lees. On Lafayette's visit to America in 1825, he was a guest of
Ludwell Lee and a great festival, in honor of his visit, was staged at
both Belmont and Coton. It is said that after nightfall a double line of
slaves, each holding aloft a flaming torch, was stationed between the
two mansions to light the way of the celebrants as they passed from one
house to the other. The original mansion has long since disappeared save
for parts of its foundations. A second mansion was later erected on
another part of the estate and in turn was destroyed by fire. The
present stone dwelling, the third to bear the name, was erected by Mr.
and Mrs. Warner Snider, the present owners of the estate, in 1931.
OATLANDS
George Carter, great-grandson of Robert Carter, the "King Carter" of
early Colonial days, received in 1800 from his father, Councillor Robert
Carter of Naomi Hall, a tract of 6,000 acres south of Leesburg, a small
part of the vast Carter holdings. Upon this land during the ensuing two
years he built Oatlands, the most pretentious and elaborate of the
Loudoun homes of that day. George Carter did not marry until attaining
the discreet age of sixty years when he took as his bride Mrs. Betty
Lewis, a widow, who had been a Miss Grayson. Both George Carter and his
wife are buried in the gardens of Oatlands. The estate was acquired in
1903 by the late William Corcoran Eustis of Washington and is now the
country home of his widow under whose care both residence and extensive
gardens retain their justly celebrated charm and beauty. Mrs. Eustis, a
daughter of the late Levi P. Morton, at one time Governor of New York
and later Vice-President of the United States, has long been the Lady
Bountiful of Loudoun. None of the county's residents has ever equalled
her benefactions to its poor and to its public institutions of every
kind.
ROKEBY
Rokeby, on the old Carolina Road south of Leesburg, so long the home of
the Bentley family, also belongs to this period. It acquired its claim
to fame during the War of 1812 when, in 1814, President Madison, in
expectation of the capture of Washington, sent many of the more valuable
Federal archives, including the _Declaration of Independence_ and, it is
said, the Constitution of the United States, to Leesburg for safekeeping
whence they were removed to Rokeby and stored for two weeks in its
vaults. It is now the home of Mr. and Mrs. B. F. Nalle who, upon its
purchase by them many years ago, made great changes in the old building.
FOXCROFT
When, in the year 1914, Miss Charlotte Noland purchased the lovely old
estate of Foxcroft, four miles north of Middleburg, there began a new
era both in its interesting story and in the educational standards of
Loudoun. No modern institution of the county has spread more generally
knowledge of its charms than the famous school which Miss Noland then
founded; and it is particularly appropriate that the institution should
owe its inception and development to one who in singular degree is a
representative of Loudoun's founders. Those Loudoun citizens of today
who trace their descent to one of the earlier Nabobs of the county feel
a complacent satisfaction therein; but Miss Noland unites lineal descent
not only from Francis Aubrey and Philip Noland but from Colonel Leven
Powell and Burr Harrison, the earliest explorer, as well, thus
inheriting an early Loudoun background believed to be unique.
[Illustration: Photograph by Miss Frances B. Johnston
FOXCROFT, Garden Front.]
As is the case with so many of the older houses of the county, the age
of Foxcroft and the identity of its builder are uncertain; but the local
tradition is that it is one of the earliest of the many old brick houses
to be found in that part of the county and that its builder was one Kyle
who had married a daughter of the Balls. The story goes on that Mrs.
Kyle lost her mind after the birth of one of her children and that for a
long time thereafter she was enchained in the garret of the old house
until, during the absence of her husband on a journey, she freed herself
and fell to her death down the stairs. Another local story is that the
building of the house was under the supervision of William Benton, the
land-steward and friend of President Monroe who, it is said learned
brick-making in his native England, discovered good brick-clay in the
Middleburg neighborhood and made the brick for most of the early brick
houses in that part of the County.
With these local stories as a guide, an examination of the county
records show a John Kile to have been a purchaser of land as early as
1797 and also a deed to John Kile from William Shrieves, then of
Kentucky, on the 8th February, 1814, of 189 acres "on the waters of
Goose Creek" for £320. The description, running as it does from one
marked tree in the forest to another, requires a long search and careful
plotting to definitely place the property, but it suggests the Foxcroft
estate. That these Kiles or Kyles were quite certainly people of
standing is indicated by their marriages. John Kile, Jr., presumably
the son of the first John Kile, married Winney Powell, a daughter of
Elisha Powell and her sister Mary became the wife of Pierce Noland.[133]
It all goes to suggest that the old Foxcroft mansion was built by John
Kile from brick made under the supervision of William Benton sometime
during the 1820's.
[133] Loudoun Deeds Y20, 2 R287 and 2 W208.
Foxcroft School has become so much a part of Loudoun that it is as
difficult to picture the Middleburg neighbourhood without it as it would
be to think of Middleburg without its famous fox-hunting. The school has
eighty-five students, representative of the most prominent families in
the United States from coast to coast, with students from abroad as well
and there is always a long waiting list of applicants for admission. A
healthy outdoor life is combined with carefully planned study. The young
ladies are all expert riders, follow the Middleburg Hunt at its numerous
meets and every year, since 1915, have their own horse show in May at
Foxcroft which is always a brilliant affair.
LLANGOLLAN
Llangollan was built about 1810 by Cuthbert Powell, (1775-1849) a son of
Colonel Leven Powell from whom he had inherited the land upon the
latter's death at Fort Bedford, Pennsylvania, on the 6th August, 1810.
Few families in Virginia are more deeply rooted in her history than the
Powells. Captain William Powell, who, as a gentleman adventurer,
accompanied Captain John Smith to Virginia in 1607 is claimed in the
family chronicles to be one of the clan. Whether he was kinsman to that
Nathaniel Powell who was with Smith in his brush with the Manahoacs on
the Rappahannock in the summer of 1608 does not appear. After spending
some years in business pursuits in Alexandria, Cuthbert Powell returned
to Loudoun where he served as a justice, represented the county in the
Virginia Legislature as a Whig and was a member of Congress from 1841 to
1843. Chief Justice Marshall once described him as "the most talented
man of that talented family." In 1930 Llangollan was acquired by Mr. and
Mrs. John Hay Whitney of New York who have greatly enlarged the old
stone mansion and made the estate the home of one of the most famous
racing establishments in America. They organized in 1932 and hold there
each year the Llangollan Gold Cup races.
[Illustration: THE FRONT PORCH AT ROCKLAND, Home of the Rusts. Built in
1822 by General George Rust and still owned by his family.]
MORRISWORTH
The 750 acres which originally composed Morrisworth were given by
William Ellzey to his daughter Catherine who married Mathew Harrison of
Dumfries. After his death his widow, with her children, took possession
of her patrimony and in 1811 built thereon the main part of the stone
mansion. There she resided for the remainder of her life and reared her
large family. Her children continued to own the estate until they sold
it about 1870 to their kinsman Dr. Thomas Miller of Washington who,
dying about two years later, never resided there. He left the property
to his daughters, the mansion and about 550 acres going to Miss Virginia
Miller and Mrs. Arthur Fendall. In turn these ladies deeded the estate
in 1900 to Mrs. Fendall's son Thomas M. Fendall, the present owner, who,
in 1915, added the south wing to the house. Mr. and Mrs. Fendall have
greatly enlarged and developed the gardens, specializing in iris to such
an extent that Morrisworth has become widely known not only for the
beautiful scene when the five thousand plants are in bloom but for the
many new varieties of iris originated there.
CHESTNUT HILL
Chestnut Hill near the Point of Rocks, so long identified with the Mason
Family, is another of the mansions built about 1800. Samuel Clapham, the
son of the second Josias Clapham, was the builder on land he had
acquired in 1796 from his father. It came to Thomas F. Mason through his
marriage to Betsey Price, a granddaughter of the second Josias as
related in Chapter VII. It is now owned and occupied by Mr. and Mrs.
Coleman Gore.
ROCKLAND
Rockland, four miles north of Leesburg, was built by General George Rust
in 1822 on land acquired by him in 1817 from the heirs of Colonel
Burgess Ball and is unique among the county's old estates in that today
it still is owned by a descendant of its builder, Mrs. Stanley M. Brown,
who before her marriage was Miss Elizabeth Fitzhugh Rust, the only child
of the late owner, Mr. Henry B. Rust. Mr. and Mrs. Brown, with their
children, spend each summer at Rockland. The 419 acres of the present
estate border for a long distance on the Potomac and are regarded as
equalling in fertility any land in the county. During the War Between
the States the old house witnessed the alternate passing and repassing
of the armies of the North and South in front of it along the old
Carolina Road. Hospitality and gracious living have long been synonymous
in Loudoun with the very name of Rockland.
[Illustration: GENERAL GEORGE RUST (1788-1857). The builder of
Rockland.]
EXETER
The plantation that became Exeter was inherited by Mary Mason Seldon; a
sister of Thomson Mason, from their mother Ann Thompson Mason. This Mary
Mason Seldon married, first, Mann Page and upon his death took as her
second husband her first cousin Dr. Wilson Cary Seldon who, born in
1761, had served as surgeon in a Virginia artillery regiment during the
Revolution. Though she had children by Page and none by Seldon, the
latter secured this land and between 1796 and 1800 built the main frame
dwelling with its pleasing design and interesting detail. The large
brick extension in the rear was added by General George Rust about 1854
during his ownership of the estate. By his second wife, Dr. Seldon had a
daughter, Eleanor, and it was at Exeter on the 16th February 1843, that
she married John Augustine Washington, the last of his family to own and
occupy Mount Vernon. When the War Between the States broke out, he at
once volunteered for service, became an aide on the staff of General Lee
with the rank of lieutenant colonel and was killed in a small
engagement, which otherwise would have been unimportant, at Cheat
Mountain, now West Virginia, on the 13th September, 1861. In 1857 Exeter
was purchased by the late Horatio Trundle. It was inherited by his son
Mr. Hartley H. Trundle who with his family resides there.
SELMA
Selma, another part of Mrs. Ann Thomson Mason's great purchase of "wild
lands," saw its first mansion built between 1800 and 1810 by General
Armistead Thomson Mason, United States Senator from Virginia
(affectionately known as "the Chief of Selma") when he was killed by his
cousin, John Mason McCarty, in the famous duel at Bladensburg on the 6th
February, 1819. He had inherited the land from his father Stevens
Thomson Mason of Raspberry Plain. The property was purchased in 1896 by
the late Colonel Elijah B. White, who afterward represented the Loudoun
district in the Virginia Senate and was for many years a prominent
Leesburg banker. He was a son of the much-loved leader of White's
Battalion in the War of 1861. Upon his purchase of the estate, Colonel
White built the present stately mansion, so famed for its hospitality,
in which he incorporated parts of the older house, burned some years
before. Selma is now owned by Colonel White's widow (who before her
marriage was Miss Lalla Harrison) and his daughter, Miss Elizabeth
White. It long has had the reputation of being one of the most fertile
and successfully managed farming estates in the East.
ALDIE MANOR
Aldie Manor, in the present town of Aldie, was built by Charles Fenton
Mercer and named for Aldie Castle in Scotland, the home of the Mercer
family. The town in turn was named for the estate and the Magisterial
District in which both lie is named for Mercer. The mansion has long
been owned and occupied by the diZerega family.
MORVEN PARK
Morven Park was acquired by Governor Thomas Swann of Maryland who, about
1825, built the imposing mansion there. It was inherited by his daughter
who became the wife of Dr. Shirley Carter and for many years much of the
neighbourhood's social life centered about it. In 1903 this estate of
over 1,000 acres was purchased by Mr. Westmoreland Davis, later Governor
of Virginia, who now resides there and carefully supervises the many and
varied agricultural activities of his domain.
[Illustration: OAK HILL, NORTH FRONT. Built by President James Monroe in
1820. Now the home of Messrs. Littleton.]
OAK HILL
But to the nation the best known of all the old homes of Loudoun has
always been Oak Hill. When James Monroe, after long years of service to
his country, came to look forward to his retirement, he owned a large
tract of land on the Carolina Road nine miles south of Leesburg, long in
the possession of his family, which had occupied a dormer-windowed
cottage there. On a gentle elevation on the plantation, President
Monroe, in the year 1820, erected the great brick house, three stories
in height with its porticos and Doric columns which he named Oak Hill.
It was designed by Monroe's friend Thomas Jefferson and the plans were
completed by James Hoban the designer and builder of the White House and
the supervising architect of the Capitol. President Monroe employed
William Benton, an Englishman (who is said to have "served him in the
triple capacity of steward, counsellor and friend") to superintend the
construction of the mansion under Hoban's supervision and to manage the
extensive farming operations of the estate which he did most
successfully. It was here that President Monroe wrote his famous message
to Congress, delivered in December 1823, embodying what since has been
known throughout the world as the "Monroe Doctrine" and it was here also
that he entertained Lafayette in 1825. Mrs. Monroe died at Oak Hill in
1830. On Mr. Monroe's death in 1831, the property went to his daughter
Mrs. Gouveneur of New York by whom it was sold in 1852 to Colonel John
M. Fairfax, who set out the large orchard of Albemarle Pippins some of
the fruit from which, sent to Queen Victoria gave her such pleasure that
thereafter it enjoyed her preference over all other apples. Later when
his son, the much-loved State Senator Henry Fairfax, owned the estate he
became known throughout the nation for the Hackney horses he raised
there. In 1920 the property was acquired by Mr. and Mrs. Frank C.
Littleton who greatly enlarged the old building by the extension of both
wings. When Mr. Littleton was quarrying sandstone on the place in 1923
there were found numerous imprints of prehistoric dinosaurs--the first
known evidence that these monsters had inhabited this portion of the
eastern part of the present United States.
The estate took its name from a group of oaks planted on the lawn by
President Monroe, one from each of the then existing States, each tree
presented to him for that purpose by a congressman from the State
represented.
Mrs. Littleton died in 1924. Mr. Littleton and his son Frank C.
Littleton, Jr., continue to make the historic old place their home,
carrying on extensive farming operations on its broad acres.
On the 20th March, 1793, the first postoffice was established in
Leesburg. The first postmaster was Thomas Lewis, who was succeeded on
the 1st April, 1794, by John Schooley, who in turn gave way to John Shaw
on the 1st April, 1801. Then came Thomas Wilkinson on the 1st April,
1803; William Woody on the 1st January, 1804, and Presley Saunders on
the 12th February, 1823.
At the end of the eighteenth century Loudoun was, in politics, a Federal
stronghold. Colonel Leven Powell has long been credited with being the
founder of that party in the county. The momentous election for members
of the Convention of 1788 was bitterly fought. Stevens Thomson Mason and
William Ellzey, both lawyers, were opposed to the adoption of the
Federal Constitution. For its adoption stood Colonel Powell and Colonel
Josias Clapham. Both of the latter, as we have seen, were old soldiers
but no match as orators to their opponents and thus were at a great
disadvantage in the contest. Powell's great personal popularity alone is
said to have secured his election. Mason also won but the county
remained so strongly Federal that its vote dominated its Congressional
District.
When war with Great Britain was forced upon us in 1812, a cavalry
regiment was raised in Loudoun of which Armistead Thomson Mason of Selma
became colonel. But the incident in that war which most prominently
stands out in Loudoun's memory came in 1814.
[Illustration: OAK HILL. EAST DRAWING ROOM, showing mantel presented to
Monroe by Lafayette, and other historical furniture.]
After the American forces under General William H. Winder had been
defeated by the British at Bladensburg in August of that year, it was
apparent that the capture of Washington was highly probable. Madison's
Secretary of State, James Monroe, had been in the camp of General
Winder, closely studying with him the enemy's movements and seeking to
appraise the ability of the Americans to successfully defend the
Capital. That he was not reassured by what he thus learned is shewn by
the letter he sent to President Madison wherein he advised him to remove
from Washington the government's more important records. The President
recognized, none too soon, the imminence of the danger. The more
valuable of the government archives were ordered to be taken from
Washington and Stephen Pleasanton, then a clerk in the State Department,
was placed in charge of their removal. He caused to be made a large
number of linen bags in which were placed the government's books and
documents, including the _Declaration of Independence_ and the
Constitution. It is said that the painting of Mrs. Dolly Madison,
hanging in the White House, was cut from its frame and accompanied the
government's records. Some accounts aver that, so numerous were the
archives, twenty-two two-horse wagons were used in their transportation
from Washington; others who have written of the incident say that four
four-horse wagons only were used, while still others claim the method of
transportation to have been by ox-teams. However they were carried, they
left Washington across the old Chain Bridge and sought their first
safety in the grist mill of Edward Patterson on the Virginia side of the
Potomac two miles above Georgetown. So threatening was the British
advance, however, that it was deemed prudent to carry the precious cargo
further up-country; the wagons were duly reloaded and the caravan
continued to Leesburg, where the sacks were placed for one night in the
courthouse according to some writers or, on the authority of others, in
a vacant building in the town, the key of which was given to a certain
Rev. Mr. Littlejohn, a young clergyman then recently ordained. The next
day the sacks were again placed in the wagons and driven to the nearby
plantation of Rokeby where in its vaults they were stored for two weeks
until it was safe to return them to Washington.
During those two weeks President Madison was a guest of Ludwell Lee at
Belmont, whence he directed National affairs; and ever since that time
it has been a primary and essential asseveration in the credo of
every true Leesburger that the town was, during that stirring fortnight,
the de facto Capital of the United States.
Proud as that memory may be today, the event itself is said to have
caused great anxiety to the more substantial citizens of the town and
nearby country for fear lest their sudden prominence in the affairs of
the nation would invite a swift and disastrous foray upon them by the
temporarily triumphant Britons; a denouement which, happily, did not
ensue.
CHAPTER XIV
MATURITY
When Patrick McIntyre published the one hundred and tenth number of _The
True American_ in Leesburg on Tuesday the 30th December, 1800, he,
following the tradition of his craft, probably left his office with a
lively sense of anticipation of the town's forthcoming celebration of
the advent of a new century; that he could have foreseen that a single
copy of that issue would be the sole available survivor of his journal
in 1937 is not to be presumed. Yet in the Library of Congress that
single copy begins its collection of Leesburg's newspapers and no copy
of the paper is known to survive today in Loudoun. Its four pages devote
themselves to the proceedings of Congress, to European affairs, to the
activities of the Virginia House of Delegates and to the new treaty with
France. The local news must be gleaned from the advertisements. The Rev.
Mr. Allen advertises religious services to be held in the
courthouse;[134] one W. C. Celden, a slavedealer, informs the public
that he "has some likely young NEGROES which he will dispose of
reasonably for cash;" and on the 4th page is found an item, obviously
inserted by a private individual protecting himself with a cloak of
anonymity, "For Sale. A likely NEGRO GIRL who has to serve for the term
of nineteen or twenty years. She is now about twelve years of age, and
very well grown, and will have to serve one year for every child which
she may have during the term of her servitude. The terms of sale may be
known by application to the Printer." The widow of Colonel Burgess Ball
asks that those having claims against his estate will send them to her
as the Administrators were anxious to make provision for their immediate
payment.
[134] See Chapter XIII ante.
The ultimate fate of _The True American_ is unknown. In 1808 there was
established in the town the _Washingtonian_ which became the recognized
organ of the Democratic party in Northern Virginia for many years. No
surviving copy of any issue of the first year of this paper has been
found by the present writer. Until 1841 it divided the Loudoun field
with Whig competitors; after that date its journalistic rivals appear
to have been of its own political faith, notably the _Loudoun Mirror_,
established in 1855. In its early years the _Washingtonian_ had a sturdy
competitor in the Whig _Genius of Liberty_, copies of which are now
rarely to be found. The most numerous available are in a broken file in
the Library of Congress, beginning with numbers issued in 1817 and owing
their conservation to the fact that they had been sent by the editor to
the Secretary of State. As with the earlier _True American_ these
newspapers contain much foreign news and correspondence with lengthy
reports of legislative activities in Richmond and Washington; and, in
addition, an acrimonious and undignified exchange of long-winded and
abusive letters in the Mason-McCarty-Mercer controversies. But that a
county paper should find its first duty in presenting local news was not
within the philosophy of the editor. Only here and there may one find a
paragraph recording some local incident--but patient search is
occasionally rewarded. A branch of the Bank of the Valley had been
opened in Leesburg in 1818 with local subscribers to its stock and T. R.
Mott acting as cashier. Then in the issue of the 31st March, 1818, we
read:
"Specie. Arrived on Wednesday last at this port after a pleasant passage
of two days from Alexandria, the waggon Perseverance--Grub, Master,
laden with SIXTY FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS IN SPECIE for the Branch Bank of
the Valley in this place. The Specie is deposited in the 'Strong box'
thus laying a foundation for the emission of a paper currency predicated
upon Specie Capital, which is the chief corner stone in all monied
institutions; without it they must eventually fail."
That Leesburg was provided with its first street pavements through the
proceeds of a public lottery has long been town gossip. By way of
confirmation, there is an advertisement in the 12th May, 1818, issue of
the _Genius of Liberty_: "By authority. Scheme of Lottery to raise $8000
for the purpose of paving the streets of the town of Leesburg, Va."
providing a first prize of $4000 and 2011 other prizes running from
$1000 down to $6 each, totalling $30,000. Against these 2012 prizes were
to be 3988 blanks, to be represented by 6000 tickets to be offered at
$5 each; but the astute managers stipulated that many of the larger
prizes were to be paid in part by other tickets and that each of the
prizes were to be "subject to a deduction of $15 to $100." To inspire
the confidence of the public, the notice was signed by the following
representative citizens as Commissioners: Prestley Cardell, C. F.
Mercer, George Rust, Joseph Beard, Richd H. Henderson, Samuel Clapham,
John Humphreys, John I. Harding, Sampson Blincoe, Fleet Smith, Samuel
Carr, and John Gray. So successful was the lottery, avers tradition,
that with its profits not only was the town able to pave its principal
streets but also brought in, through wooden pipes, a much needed supply
of water from Rock Spring, the present home of Mrs. H. T. Harrison. To
the community that system of finance exerted an appeal so strong that
once again it was used in 1844, to raise the necessary money to build an
office for the County Clerk. The present County Office Building was
purchased from the trustees of the Leesburg Academy in 1879.[135]
[135] 6 Ns Deeds 272, Loudoun County records.
Always has Loudoun been a horse-loving country; but it may surprise some
of her people of today to know that in 1817 the county seat possessed a
"Jockey Club" which was sufficiently strong and well supported to
conduct a four day racing meet with more generous prizes than are now
offered. In the _Genius of Liberty_ of the 14th October 1817 there is
this advertisement:
"Leesburg Jockey Club. RACES will be run for on Wednesday the 15th
October, over a handsome course near the town. A Purse of 200 Dollars
three miles and repeat, and on Thursday the 16th day, two miles and
repeat a Purse of $100 Dollars, and on Friday the 17th and repeat, a
Towne's Purse of at least $150 and on Saturday the 18th an elegant
SADDLE, BRIDDLE and MARTINGALE, worth at least FIFTY DOLLARS. P.
SAUNDERS, sec'y & treas'r."
Thus, although the local reporting was definitely remiss in those days,
the advertising columns yield much treasure. The times were hard, land
sales forced by worried creditors were frequent and often in the sales
advertisements a note is made of log-houses on the land, shewing how
numerous that form of habitation still must have been in the Loudoun of
that time. With the land sales are many offerings of negroes, not
infrequently with a humanitarian undertone pleasant to read, for in
Loudoun then there was much anti-slavery sentiment not only among
Quakers and Germans but, more significantly, among the wealthy planters
and educated town folk. Thus in the issue of the 26th October 1818:
"Negroes for Sale. For Sale, a family of Negroes, consisting of a woman
and children. To a good master they will be sold a great bargain. They
will not be sold to a southern trader."
The financial stress of the day then, as later, bred much discontent if
we may judge from the frequent notices of runaway white apprentices and
negro slaves, the latter of both sexes; but while in the case of the
slaves rewards are offered for their return of varying amounts from $5
to $200, the masters of the white apprentices, apparently appraising
their services somewhat dubiously, offered but from one to six cents for
their apprehension and return!
Though times were hard and money scarce there was, in the community, a
healthy appreciation of the cultural side of life. George Carter of
Oatlands advertises the services of a professor of music, seemingly
brought into the county by him, who "now offers to teach the fundamental
rules of this science in 8 lessons so as to enable those who are taught
by him, to pursue their studies by themselves until they may obtain a
perfect practical knowledge of musick."[136] Music seemed to have been
in the air. Eighteen months later, there is notice given by Henry Krebs
that he has commenced teaching the piano and German flute and the French
language. He could be found at Mrs. Peers' boarding house.[137] Lectures
on English grammar are announced by E. Hazen at the house of Mrs.
McCabe[138] and Charles Weineder, a miniature painter, came to Leesburg
for two weeks to take orders in his art.[139]
[136] Issue of 12th October, 1818.
[137] 2nd Nov., 1819.
[138] 9th Nov., 1819.
[139] 26th Oct., 1818.
The profession of the law was followed in Leesburg by Richard Henderson,
Burr William Harrison, L. P. W. Balch (who was also secretary of the
school board) and John K. Mines. Dr. J. Clapper practiced medicine at
Hillsboro "where he may be found at Mr. Hough's tavern," we trust not
indicating undue conviviality of the gentleman's disposition. There was
ample accomodation for travellers, their servants and horses. Enos
Wildman announced that he had lately acquired the Eagle Tavern, formerly
run by W. Austen;[140] while Samuel M. Edwards presided at the "Leesburg
Hotel & Coffee House" which he had recently purchased from Mr. H. Peers
and which was "situated on the main street leading from Winchester to
Alexandria, George Town and the City of Washington." Yet another tavern
was operated by one "Mr. Foley" and, as we have seen, there were
boarding-houses as well. Their bars were stocked without difficulty, for
Lewis Mix & Co. had a distillery near the mouth of Sugar Land Run and
called for rye, corn and oats.
[140] 20th Jan., 1818.
But perhaps the most impressive picture painted by these old
advertisements is that of the teeming industrial and commercial life of
the town. It was still, happily, the age of the handicraftsman; the
machinery age was yet to come. Transportation was uncertain and slow,
and country towns largely produced the furniture, tools, clothing and
other needed articles for their own inhabitants and those of their
surrounding communities. The variety of the activities of the artisans
and merchants of the Leesburg of that day paralleled those of other
similar towns throughout the nation. John Carney had a "Boot & Shoe
manufactory" which was conveniently located "on King street, next door
to Messrs. Humphreys and Conrad and immediately opposite the Court
House." In advertising his wares, he added that he wished to take on two
or three apprentices of from thirteen to fifteen years of age. He had a
business rival in William King, who conducted a similar activity and
confidently announced that he had "some of the first rate workmen in the
State."
Hats were made and sold by Jacob Martin "at his shop opposite the
market house" who duly proclaimed "a very large assortment of hats on
hand from the first quality to those of lowest prices; including a large
assortment of Good Wool Hats, likewise some Morocco Caps."
If the Loudoun citizen of President Monroe's day needed the services of
a tailor, they were made available by Thomas Russel whose business
apparently flourished; for he advertised for "one or two journeymen
taylors to whom constant employ and the best wages will be given." He
also sought one or two apprentices to learn his craft.
Jonathan C. May was opening a dry goods and clothing shop under charge
of D. Carter, next to the drug store of Robert R. Hough. As a competitor
he had Joseph Beard with his "General and Seasonable assortment of Dry
Goods" and Daniel P. Conrad who, "at the Stone House opposite the Court
House" offered "a seasonable supply of Fall Goods"; he and George
Richards meanwhile publishing notice of the dissolution of their former
partnership. In nearby Waterford, B. Williamson and C. Shawen also
dissolve their partnership in a general store, on account of Williamson
moving to Baltimore and Shawen carries on under the name of C. Shawen &
Co.
Samuel Tustin was engaged in a coachmaking business in Leesburg and
sought "good tough white ash plant and timber--also a quantity of poplar
half inch plank." He, too, wanted an apprentice, seeking one who was
fifteen to seventeen years old. There was no lack of opportunity to earn
a living offered to a steady lad with an inclination to work and a taste
for trade. To the more mature, Aaron Burson offered to rent his fulling
mill and dwelling house near Union, describing them as being in "an
elegant neighbourhood for the fulling business."[141] John B. Bell,
occupying a part of William Drish's house on King Street, was a
bookbinder. Not daunted by the slump in business, James G. Jones and
Company notify the Loudoun public that they have commenced the brush
making business "at Mr. Wetherby's stone house, King Street, nearly
opposite Mr. Murrays and that they want a large quantity of hog's
bristles" for which a liberal price will be given "IN CASH."
[141] i.e. the thickening and cleansing of woollen cloth.
S. B. T. Caldwell advertised for sale writing paper, wrapping paper and
medium printing paper.
The present day collectors of old furniture will note that David Ogden
had removed his business to the southeast corner of King and Cornwall
Streets where he had on hand and offered "some fashionable sideboards,
Eliptic Dining Tables, Secretary, Bureaus etc., etc., which I will
dispose of on moderate terms. Orders from the adjacent country will be
thankfully received." In the same year of 1818, Jacob and Isaac Thomas
of Waterford announced that they had on hand a general assortment of
Windsor and fancy chairs and were also prepared to do "house, sign and
fancy painting with neatness and dispatch."
The political dispute between Mason and McCarthy, mirrored in the pages
of _The Genius of Liberty_, was fated to resolve itself into a tragedy
that shook county and Commonwealth to their roots and caused no small
sensation throughout the youthful Republic. General Armistead Thomson
Mason of Selma,[142] a grandson of Thomson Mason, was a graduate of
William and Mary College, a veteran of the War of 1812 and a Senator of
the United States from Virginia as well as the leader of the Democratic
party in Loudoun. Opposed to him as a Federalist was his cousin, Colonel
John Mason McCarty, a grandson of George Mason of Gunston Hall, a
descendant of old Daniel McCarthy of Westmoreland[143] and who then
occupied Raspberry Plain. For a long time there had been political
rivalry and bickering between the two men and when Mason introduced a
bill in the Senate to permit Loudoun Quakers, when drafted for military
services in war-time, to furnish substitutes by the payment of $500
apiece, McCarthy seized upon its political possibilities and promptly
accused him of cowardice. The issue flared in the political campaign
then on and, to add to the fire, Mason challenged McCarty's vote at the
polls. Some accounts say that this so incensed McCarthy, described as
being generally a good-natured individual with a strong sense of humour
but also with a temper that upon occasion would break out beyond bounds,
that he thereupon, at the polling place, defied Mason to personal
combat, in his anger naming the weapons, contrary to a universally
recognized rule of the code. Mason decided to ignore the matter,
McCarthy taunted him in the public prints and although Mason's side had
been defeated at the election, the affair gradually might have blown
over and been forgotten had not Mason, returning from a journey to
Richmond, by evil chance found himself a fellow stagecoach passenger
with his old friend and superior officer, General Andrew Jackson. The
matter of the quarrel with McCarthy, in due course, came up for
discussion and Jackson, ever a fire-eater himself, is said to have told
Mason with some brusqueness that he should not let the matter drop. On
his return, therefore, Mason sent his cousin a letter in which he said
he has resigned his commission for the sole purpose of fighting McCarthy
and "I am now free to accept or send a challenge or to fight a duel. The
public mind has become tranquil, and all suspicion of the further
prosecution of our quarrel having subsided, we can now terminate it
without being arrested by the civil authority and without exciting alarm
among our friends." He informed his opponent that he had arranged his
family affairs and was "extreemly anxious to terminate once and forever
this quarrel." How recklessly eager was his wish was shewn by his
instructions to his seconds to agree to any terms at any distance--to
pistols, muskets or rifles "to three feet--his pretended favourite
distance, or to three inches, should his impetuous courage prefer it."
[142] See Chapter XIII ante.
[143] Chapter IV ante.
McCarthy, in the meanwhile, had cooled down and was inclined to turn
aside this new challenge in a humorous vein. He suggested to Mason's
seconds that the antagonists jump from the dome of the capitol; but the
matter had gone too far for joking and he was told his suggestion did
not comply with the code. Again and yet again he offered similar absurd
solutions and being rebuffed and in an effort to frighten Mason,
suggested shotguns loaded with buckshot at ten paces, suicidal terms
which were modified by the seconds to charging the weapons with a
single ball and the distance to twelve feet.
After the fatal outcome of the Hamilton-Burr duel in 1804, a wave of
hostility to the whole institution of duelling had swept the country. In
January, 1810, Virginia had passed an act making the death of a duellist
within three months of the encounter, murder, and providing that the
survivor should be hung. Moreover, it was provided that the mere act of
sending or accepting a challenge should make the offender incapable of
holding public office. Therefore it was expedient that the meeting
should not be held in Virginia and a field, along the side of which ran
a little brook, near Bladensburg in Maryland, was selected for the
affair. Principals, seconds and referee arrived at a nearby inn on the
night of the 5th February, 1819, and at 8:00 o'clock the next morning,
in the bitter cold and snow, the cousins confronted each other on the
field, standing so close to one another that their "barrels almost
touched." As the signal was given both fired and then fell to the
ground--Mason dying and McCarthy dangerously wounded. Mason's body was
brought back to Leesburg where it rested for a while in the old stone
house on Loudoun Street now owned by Mr. T. M. Fendall, before burial in
the St. James graveyard in Church Street with religious and Masonic
rites. There the grave is still to be seen. It is said that Mrs. Mason
locked the main entrance of Selma after the funeral and that no one
again used it until her only son came of age--a son destined to meet his
death, many years later, as an American officer, in the battle of Cerro
Gordo in our war with Mexico. Tradition has it that ever after the duel,
McCarthy was a morose and haunted man. A gruesome detail is added that
long after his death his marble gravestone was removed to the Purcell
drug store in Leesburg and there used for many years as a slab on which
prescriptions were compounded.
From such a sombre picture we may turn with relief to the spectacle of
Loudoun in gala attire indulging in the greatest and gayest county-wide
celebration her history affords.
Of all those who, from abroad, came to help the American Colonies in
their revolt, none so wholly captured the affections of her people as
the French Marquis de Lafayette and as the years after the war passed
by, that affection remained steadfast. In January, 1824, the American
Congress entertained the happy idea of authorizing the President to
officially invite the old general again to visit our shores, this time
as the guest of the whole nation. Lafayette sailed from France on an
American war ship in July, 1824, arriving in New York on the 14th
August. Then began the national welcome which, continuing for over a
year, stands by itself in our history.
In August, 1825, Lafayette, being in Washington, informed his hosts that
he wished, once again, to see his old friend James Monroe, then living
in retirement on his estate, Oak Hill. Arrangements were made
accordingly and on the 6th August the Marquis, accompanied by President
John Quincy Adams, left Washington in the latter's carriage for the long
drive to Oak Hill. On their arrival they were greeted by Monroe and a
number of his friends who had gathered to pay honour to the nation's
guest. For three days Lafayette tarried at Oak Hill, walking over the
farm with his host and reminiscing over the heroic days of nearly fifty
years before. Leesburg, determining to show its love and respect for the
general, sent a delegation to invite him to a celebration in his honour
in that town, to which Lafayette readily assented. On the morning of the
9th August, 1825, "Mr. Ball a member of the Committee of arrangements
and Mr. Henderson of the Town Council"[144] went to Oak Hill to escort
their guest to Leesburg. With them were two troops of cavalry commanded
by Captains Chichester and Bradfield. General Lafayette, President
Adams, former President Monroe and Mr. Henderson took their seats in the
carriage drawn by splendid bay horses which had been provided for the
occasion and the procession set out for the county seat. As it neared
the town, salvos of artillery greeted it and the roads and town itself
were so lined and filled with people that it was estimated that at least
10,000 (almost half of the county's population) were present. And now,
to quote the historian of the occasion:
"The guest of the nation, with his honoured friends, alighted in the
field of William M. McCarty, where in the shade of an oak, he was
introduced to Cuthbert Powell, Esq., chairman of the committee of
arrangements; who welcomed him in terms of respect and affection apt to
the occasion, and in a manner at once feeling and grateful; to which
General LaFayette replied, with the felicity which seems never to
forsake him. He was then introduced to the committee of arrangements and
to General Rust, the marshall of the day, and his aids. The General then
received the military, assembled to honour him, consisting of the
volunteer troops of cavalry, commanded by Captains Chichester and
Bradfield; the two rifle companies, commanded by Captains Henry and
Humphries; and the companies of light infantry, commanded by Captains
Moore and Cockerill, who, by their equipments and discipline did credit
to themselves and the county."[145]
[144] Presumably Fayette Ball of Springwood and Richard Henderson, a
prominent lawyer of Leesburg.
[145] _General Lafayette's Visit to Virginia_, by Robert D. Ward.
After being introduced to a few surviving soldiers of the Revolution,
the distinguished party was driven to Colonel Osburn's Hotel (the
present home of Mr. T. M. Fendall on Loudoun Street) the street in front
of which was filled with a great crowd of orderly and well-behaved
citizens. Here Lafayette was received by the Mayor of Leesburg, Dr. John
H. McCabe and the common council. The mayor made an address of welcome
and again Lafayette spoke in reply.
After a few minutes for rest and refreshment in the hotel, the carriages
were resumed and
"the procession moved through Loudoun, Market, Back, Cornwall and King
Street. Between the gate of the Court house square and the portico of
the court-house an avenue had formed, by a line on the right, of the
young ladies of the Leesburg Female Academy under the care of Miss Helen
McCormick and Mrs. Lawrence ... dressed in white, with blue sashes, and
their heads were tastefully adorned with evergreens. They held sprigs of
laurel in their hands, which they strewed in the way as the General
passed them."
Another account discloses that the other side of the "avenue," facing
the evergreen-crowned girls, was formed by a line of boys from the
Leesburg Institute, whose costumes were embellished with red sashes and
white and black cockades. As Lafayette, smiling and bowing, mounted the
portico steps, he was greeted by Ludwell Lee on behalf of the people of
Loudoun with a patriotic speech and once again the cheerful Marquis
managed to make yet another appropriate response. After a full year of
the young Republic's exuberant enthusiasm, the delivery of a mere
half-dozen or so of speeches of grateful acknowledgment in a single day
has lost its earlier terrors. At 4:00 o'clock a great banquet was spread
on the tables set up in the courthouse square, the guests' table being
protected by an awning. Toasts were enthusiastically given and drunk to
Adams, Lafayette and Monroe, each in turn replying. With that auspicious
start and the stimulus of the potent beverages, it is recorded that as
the time passed, the "volunteer toasts" waxed in number and ecstacy.
Afterward, the distinguished guests visited the home of Mr. W. T. T.
Mason for the baptism of his two infant daughters, Lafayette acting as
godfather for one and Adams and Monroe in similar capacity for the
other. More gayety in Leesburg, then a drive through the summer night to
Belmont and participation in the merry-making there, before the
illustrious visitors sought their rooms for the night in that gracious
mansion.[146] As they returned to Washington the next day, it must have
been with a profound, if weary, appreciation of the county's enthusiasm,
affection and hospitality.
[146] See Chapter XIII.
In this second quarter of the nineteenth century, to which we have now
come, the name of Charles Fenton Mercer, soldier, statesman and
philanthropist, is writ large in Loudoun's records. Already we have read
of him in his country home and of his founding the town of Aldie in
1810;[147] but the brief reference there made is wholly inadequate to
the man and his accomplishments. Born in Fredericksburg on the 6th June,
1778, he was the son of James Mercer and grandson of that John Mercer of
Marlboro whom we have already met.[148] His father, after a
distinguished career, left at his death an estate so much involved that
the son had some difficulty in securing his education. He, however, was
able to graduate at Princeton in 1797 and the next year, at the time of
friction with France, was given a commission by Washington as a captain
of cavalry. When the danger of war passed, he studied law and, admitted
to the Bar, practiced his profession with great success. He served as
brigadier general in command of the defense of Norfolk in the War of
1812, removed to Loudoun, was a member of the Virginia Legislature from
1810 to 1817 and, as a Federalist, was elected a member of Congress, in
1816, over General A. T. Mason, the election being so close, however,
that it had to be decided by the House of Representatives. In Congress
he served until 1840, a longer continuous service "than that of any of
his contemporaries." Always deeply interested in the project of the
Chesapeake and Potomac Canal, he introduced the first successful bill
for its construction and it was in tribute to him that those interested
in the plan met in Leesburg on the 25th August, 1823. When the canal
company was organized taking over, in effect, much of the plant of
General Washington's cherished project the Potomac Company, Mercer
became its first president and continued in that position during the
period of Federal encouragement. Then came the Jackson administration
and its opposition and, as a final blow, the organization of the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company. The day of the canals gave place to
that of the railroads; but that section of the canal in Maryland, across
the river from Loudoun, was completed and placed in successful
operation, affording to her people better and cheaper transportation to
Washington and Alexandria for their products than they before had known.
[147] See Chapter XIII.
[148] See Chapter VII.
Mercer was an ardent protectionist, intensely opposed to slavery and an
advocate of the settlement of freed slaves in Liberia. He died near
Alexandria on the 4th May, 1858, and was buried in the Leesburg
Cemetery. On his headstone it is justly reaffirmed that he was "A
Patriot, Statesman, Philanthropist and Christian."[149]
[149] _Charles Fenton Mercer_, by James M. Garnett.
Mercer's day well may be cited as the most active and, perhaps, the most
ambitiously progressive in business affairs in the county's history.
Space precludes enumeration and extensive description of all the
enterprises then undertaken but passing mention may be made of a few.
The improvement of transportation was a dominant motive. Canals,
railroads, turnpikes all were instruments to that end. An early railroad
was projected by the men of Waterford and incorporated in 1831 as the
Loudoun Railroad Company to run from the mouth of Ketoctin Creek on the
Potomac "passing Ketoctin mountain to the waters of Goose creek so as to
intercept the Ashby's Gap turnpike road"; a curious and impractical
route it may seem to us in the light of present conditions and that it
was just as well that the project died in birth. In 1832 another
railroad but sponsored in Leesburg, to be known as the Leesburg Railroad
and to run from that town to the Potomac, also came to naught. At length
in 1849 the Alexandria, Loudoun and Hampshire Railroad was incorporated
and built, and under various names has been since continuously operated,
thus giving the county its only railroad communication within its
boundaries.
In 1832 there was incorporated the Goose Creek and Little River
Navigation Company to make those streams available as highways of
traffic. Locks, dams, ponds, feeders, and other appurtenant works were
ambitiously undertaken. With assistance from the State and the proceeds
of the company's sales of stock much construction was accomplished; but
during the Civil War the works were destroyed by the Federal armies and
they never have been restored.
The Catoctin Furnace Company was another ambitious project. Iron ore was
mined in Furnace Mountain, opposite the Point of Rocks, and for a time
shipped away for smelting. In 1838 a furnace for treatment of the ore
was completed on the property and the ore smelted at first with
charcoal made at the plant and later, as operations increased, with coke
brought from a distance. The business was highly successful and
profitable until ruined by the Civil War. It was this activity that
caused the construction, in 1850, of the original Point of Rocks bridge
across the Potomac.[150]
[150] See Briscoe Goodheart in 4 Balch Clippings 33.
Reference to some of the many turnpike companies of the period already
has been made. Undertaken for the profit of the shareholders as well as
the convenience of the people they, for the first time in her history,
gave the county roads fit to bear heavy traffic and were another
exemplification of the energy of the time.
When the church was disestablished after the Revolution it was agreed
that it would be left in possession of her property. As time went on
there arose a clamour among those of other beliefs that her property and
particularly her glebe lands should be sold by the Overseers of the
Poor, to whom the proceeds should go, their argument being that having
been acquired by taxes laid on the whole community, the taxpayers as a
body should benefit therefrom. Bishop Mead describes what took place in
Loudoun concerning Shelburne's glebe:
"About the year 1772, a tract of land containing 465 acres, on the North
Fork of Goose Creek was purchased and soon after, a house put upon it.
When Mr. Dunn became minister in 1801 an effort was made by the
overseers of the poor to sell it, but it was effectually resisted at
law. At the death of Mr. Dunn, in 1827, the overseers of the poor again
proceeded to sell it. The vestry was divided in opinion as to the course
to be pursued. Four of them--Dr. W. C. Selden, Dr. Henry Claggett, Mr.
Fayette Ball and George M. Chichester--were in favour of resisting it;
the other eight thought it best to let it share the fate of all the
others. It was accordingly sold. The purchaser lived in Maryland; and,
of course the matter might be brought before the Supreme Court as a last
resort, should the courts of Virginia decide against the church's claim.
The minority of four, encouraged by the decision in the case of the
Fairfax Glebe, determined to engage in a lawsuit for it. It was first
brought in Winchester and decided against the Church. It was then
carried to the Court of Appeals in Richmond, and during its lingering
progress there, three of four of the vestrymen who engaged in it died,
and the fourth was persuaded to withdraw it."[151]
[151] Bishop Mead's _Old Churches of Virginia_, II, 274. Also see
_Landmarks_ 306 and Selden vs. Overseers, XI Leigh 127.
CHAPTER XV
CIVIL WAR
It was a happy, prosperous, and contented Loudoun that the sun shone
down upon in 1850. In politics the county was predominantly Whig and in
the growing national issues of States' rights, slavery and secession,
her sentiment clung to the preservation of the Union; but the seeds of
dissension had been sown. The repercussions of John Brown's insane raid
on the nearby Harper's Ferry arsenal on the 16th October, 1859, were
particularly severe in Loudoun. The madness of it all profoundly shocked
the community and seemed to strike at the foundations of existing
society, law, and order. Yet a dogged adherence to that Union, which
Virginia had been so instrumental in building, persisted. Little doubt
was felt concerning the _right_ of a sovereign State to withdraw from
what had been a wholly voluntary confederation, but sentiment and a deep
feeling of expediency strongly opposed such action. Elsewhere in the
State the tendency toward secession was stronger. As the fateful days
passed, Virginia was torn between conflicting views. It is probable that
the ranting of the extreme abolitionists in the North drove more
Virginians toward secession, and that against their will, than the most
persuasive arguments of its fieriest advocates.
The Legislature of 1861 recognized the peril of decision in favor of
either side, and the gravity of attendant consequences to be so great,
that it wisely decided to refer the issue to the people themselves. On
the 16th January of that year it therefore authorized that a convention
be called, to be made up of delegates elected from every county, for the
express purpose of deciding upon Virginia's course. Thereupon such
delegates, having been duly elected, the convention met in Richmond on
the 13th February, 1861, Loudoun being represented by John Janney, at
that time and until his death in 1872, a leader of her Bar, and John A.
Carter. Both opposed secession and voted against it in a convention in
which it was apparent that its proponents held a majority. Nevertheless,
Mr. Janney was elected permanent chairman by a majority of the
delegates--a great personal tribute to the man and evidence of the
respect in which he was held. Both those who favoured and those who
condemned withdrawal from the Union were given ample opportunity to
expound and urge their views. When the ominous vote was cast in secret
session on the 17th April, 1861, eighty-five of the delegates favoured
and fifty-five opposed an ordinance of secession; but their action was
conditioned upon the majority decision being referred back to the people
of Virginia for approval or rejection. Both Janney and Carter voted
against the measure but even while the convention was in session a mass
meeting, convened in Leesburg, passed resolutions advocating the
proposed ordinance. How great a change had taken place in the sentiment
of the county, during those early and fateful months of 1861, is shone
in the following table of the results in Loudoun of the election of the
23rd May in which the ordinance of secession was overwhelmingly ratified
there:
Precincts For Secession Against
Aldie 54 5
Goresville 117 19
Gum Spring 135 5
Hillsboro 84 38
Leesburg 400 22
Lovettsville 46 325
Middleburg 115 0
Mt. Gilead 102 19
Powells Shop 62 0
Purcellville 82 31
Snickersville 114 3
Union 150 0
Waterford 31 220
Waters 26 39
Whaleys 108 0
--- ---
Total 1626 726
The great mass of the American people, North and South, neither
expected nor wanted war. The overwhelming tragedy of it all lay in the
nation being caught and carried on in a flood of events beyond its
imagination or control and these, with sinister assistance from fanatics
and trouble-makers on both sides, brought on the devastating deluge.
With Lincoln's call for volunteers, Virginia rallied to resist what she
believed to be a threat of hostile armed invasion. The die was cast.
It is not the purpose of this book to attempt a detailed account of the
war-epoch in Loudoun. Much of her story during those dreary years
already has been recorded by other writers. The full narrative deserves,
and sometime undoubtedly will have, a volume to itself.
Inasmuch as fate had made it a border county, it was inevitable that
intense factional bitterness should exist and that much fighting should
take place within its boundaries; but no major engagements occurred
there. Loudoun at least was spared the terrible slaughter that destiny
staged in Tidewater, the Valley and north of the Potomac.
It required but little imagination on the part of the county government
to foresee the probability of fighting in the county and the subversion
of the civil authority, with the confusion and lawlessness that would
consequently ensue. Therefore the Loudoun Court, headed by its then
presiding Justice Asa Rogers, ordered the county clerk, George K. Fox,
Jr., to remove the county records to a place of safety and to use his
discretion for their preservation. Pursuant to these instructions, Mr.
Fox loaded the records into a large wagon and with them drove south to
Campbell County. For the next four years he moved his precious charge
about from place to place, as danger threatened each refuge in turn, and
in 1865 was able to bring back to Leesburg every record intact as will
appear in the following chapter. Thus to Mr. Fox's faithful performance
of his duty, Loudoun owes the preservation of her records in happy
contrast to the loss, damage and destruction which came upon the
archives of her sister counties during the ensuing conflict. From a
subsequent entry in the court's records, we also learn that no court
was held in the county from February, 1862, until July, 1865.[152]
[152] Loudoun Minute Book 1861-65, p. 69. Also statements to author by
Mr. Fox's daughter, Mrs. John Mason of Leesburg.
With the inception of actual warfare the county divided along the lines
forecast by the election in May, 1861. Those sections in which the
Quakers and Germans predominated, continued strong in their adherence to
the Union; the remaining people of the county, with comparatively few
exceptions, were so deeply and unswervingly attached to the Southern
cause as to suggest the burning conviction of religious zeal. To add to
the intensity of hostile feeling, there were, nevertheless, in all parts
of the county, as was inevitable in a border community, individuals who
passionately disagreed with the convictions of their neighbors and these
as occasion offered and to the detriment of their former friends,
reported surreptitiously upon local matters to the side with which their
sympathies lay.
The recruiting of soldiers began among the Confederates, to be followed
in due course by the Union men. "The 56th Virginia Militia" writes
Goodhart "commanded by Col. William Giddings, was called out and about
60 percent of the regiment that lived east of the Catoctin Mountain
responded."[153] Many of those who thus reported for duty were put to
work, it is said, building the fortifications around Leesburg, while a
number of their former comrades abruptly left Loudoun for the quieter
atmosphere of Maryland.[154] But the demand for men far surpassed the
resources of the organized militia. For the Confederates, new commands
sprang into being throughout Virginia. The 8th Virginia Regiment,
Company C (Loudoun Guard) of the 17th Virginia Regiment and White's
(35th Virginia) Battalion, known as the "Comanches," were largely made
up of Loudoun men and many of the county's sons also were to be later in
Mosby's famous Partisan Rangers as well as in many other commands. How
far flung in the forces of the Confederacy were Loudoun's soldiers is
suggested by a copy of the "Roster of Clinton Hatcher Camp, Confederate
Veterans," (organized in Loudoun County on the 13th February, 1888)
which, framed for preservation, hangs on the wall in the County Clerk's
Office. It gives the names and pictures of the original members and the
military organization in which each man served. Each of the following
commands are there represented by one or more former members:
1st Virginia Cavalry Stribbling's Artillery
2nd Virginia Cavalry Letcher's Artillery
4th Virginia Cavalry Gillmore's Battalion
6th Virginia Cavalry 34th Va. Artillery
7th Virginia Cavalry Loudoun Artillery
35th Va. (White's) Battalion 8th Virginia Infantry
43rd Va. Battalion (Mosby's Rangers)
1st Maryland Cavalry 17th Virginia Infantry
1st Richmond Howitzers 40th Virginia Infantry
Stuart's Horse Artillery 1st Georgia Infantry
Chew's Battery
7th Georgia Infantry
while, in addition, were many who served with staff rank or otherwise,
such as Dr. C. Shirley Carter, Surgeon on General Staff; John W.
Fairfax, Colonel, Adjutant and Inspector General's Department; J. R.
Huchison, Captain on Staffs of Generals Hunton and B. Johnson; A. H.
Rogers, First Lieutenant and Aide-de-Campe; William H. Rogers,
Lieutenant on Staff; Colonel Charles M. Fauntleroy, Inspector General on
Staff of General Joseph C. Johnston; H. O. Claggett, Captain and
Assistant Quartermaster; Arthur M. Chichester, Captain and Assistant
Military Engineer; L. C. Helm, scout for Generals Beauregard and Lee; B.
W. Lynn, First Lieutenant Ordnance Department; William H. Payne,
Brigadier General of Cavalry, A. N. V.; John Y. Bassell, staff of
General W. L. Jackson and midshipman C. S. Navy.
[153] _Loudoun Rangers_, by Briscoe Goodhart, p. 19.
[154] _The Comanches_, by F. M. Myers, p. 19.
In the northern part of the county, Union men joined two companies of
cavalry which were known as the Loudoun Rangers, an independent command
raised by Captain Samuel C. Means of Waterford, under a special order of
E. M. Stanton, the Secretary of War and later merged in the 8th U. S.
Corps. Between the troopers of this organization on the one side and
those of White and Mosby on the other, some of them former friends and
schoolmates, even brothers, there were frequent and vicious engagements
and mutual animosity ran high, as presently we shall see.[155]
[155] To get the full flavor of the bitterness engendered, read F. M.
Myers' _Comanches_, and Goodhart's _Loudoun Rangers_.
[Illustration: THE OLD VALLEY BANK, LEESBURG.]
With the intensity of recruiting, the county was soon drained of many of
its most vigorous and ablebodied men. At that time there was but one
bank in Leesburg--the old Valley Bank, concerning the founding of which
in 1818 we have read in the last chapter. One day, so runs the story,
there suddenly appeared in the town three bandits who, making their way
to the bank, then located in what has since been known as the "Club
House" on the northwest corner of Market and Church Streets, proceeded
to loot it. Tradition says that they found and seized over $60,000 in
gold and, placing it in sacks they had provided, fled with it south
along the Carolina Road. The greatly excited citizens hurriedly formed a
posse, made up largely of men who were too old for military service
together with a number of boys, which pursued the robbers so hotly that
the latter left the highway where it passes the woods on Greenway, south
of the mansion, and sought to hide themselves there. Here they were
surrounded in the woods and either made their escape or were killed, the
narrative at this point becoming somewhat vague. Be that as it may, they
disappear from the story and the pursuers turned to recovering their
booty. A diligent search, continued long after nightfall, failed to
reveal the hiding-place of the plunder. With daylight the search was
renewed and, although carried on for many days, during which much ground
was dug over, not a dollar ever was recovered; but for years the story
of the hidden treasure was repeated and even after the late John H.
Alexander purchased Greenway, long after the war, his children were
regaled by the negro servants with the story of the believed-to-be
buried gold.
Meanwhile the work of building fortifications of earthworks, begun by
Colonel Giddings' 56th Regiment of Militia, had so far progressed that
there were three forts on elevated ground on different sides of
Leesburg. One, known as Fort Evans, named in honour of Brigadier General
Nathan G. Evans, in command of the Leesburg neighborhood, was on the
heights on the part of the original Exeter between the Alexandria Pike
and the Edwards' Ferry roads, recently purchased by Mr. H. B. Harris of
Chicago from Mrs. William Rogers and Mr. Wallace George; another, known
as Fort Johnston, in honour of General Joseph E. Johnston, commander of
a portion of the Confederate troops at the first battle of Manassas,
(Bull Run), crowned the hill now covered by the extensive orchards of
Mr. Lawrence R. Lee, about one and one-half miles west of Leesburg on
the Alexandria Road; and the third, known as Fort Beauregard, was
constructed south of Tuscarora in the triangle formed by the old road
leading to Morrisworth, the road to Lawson's old mill and Tuscarora. The
property is now owned by the heirs of the late Mahlon Myers.
All of these fortifications were, at the time, considered of great
potential importance but in the course of events none, save for a
long-distance bombardment of Fort Evans on the 19th October, 1861, were
destined ever to be attacked nor, therefore, defended. The remains of
all remain largely in place, useful only as local monuments to Loudoun's
most tragic era.
The principal engagement in the county between the hostile armies took
place in the first year of the war. Soon after the first battle of
Manassas (Bull Run) the Leesburg neighborhood was held for the
Confederates by Brigadier General Nathan G. Evans and his 7th Brigade
made up of the 8th Virginia Infantry under Colonel Eppa Hunton; the 13th
Mississippi, under Colonel William Barksdale; the 17th Mississippi,
under Colonel W. S. Featherstone, together with a battery and four
companies of cavalry under Colonel W. H. Jenifer, all sent there by
General Beauregard to protect his left flank from attacks by General
McClellan, whose forces lay across the Potomac, and to keep open
communications with the Confederate troops in the Valley.
On the 19th October, 1861 Dranesville, a hamlet on the Alexandria
Road, fifteen miles southeast of Leesburg, was occupied by Federal
troops under General McCall. That evening his advance guard opened
artillery fire on Fort Evans, just east of Leesburg, and another
bombardment began at nearby Edwards' Ferry. Evans thereupon ordered
certain of his troops to leave the town and occupy trenches he had dug
along the line of Goose Creek, to meet the expected general attack. On
the following day, a Sunday, word came to McClellan that the
Confederates were evacuating Leesburg, whereupon that General sought to
make a "slight demonstration," as he termed it, that is an increased
firing by the pickets on the north side of the Potomac, with, perhaps, a
small force of skirmishers thrown across, to confirm the Confederates in
their belief that a general attack was impending and thus to hasten
their complete evacuation of the town. It was no part of McClellan's
plan, apparently, that troops should cross in force from the Maryland
side or that a major engagement should be precipitated. Brigadier
General C. P. Stone, in immediate command of the Federal forces along
the river, nevertheless ordered a considerable force to cross to the
Virginia side, both at Edwards' Ferry and also at Ball's Bluff, some
four miles up the Potomac. Apparently in ignorance of Stone's actions,
McCall, at about the same time, was retiring his men to their camp at
Prospect Hill, four miles west of the old Chain Bridge. Evans was in the
fort bearing his name. Early in the morning of the 21st, he learned that
the Federals had crossed the river at Ball's Bluff, driving back Captain
Duffy and a small force of Confederates. Thereupon Evans sent Colonel
Jenifer with four companies of Mississippi infantry and two of cavalry
to engage Stone. As a result, Stone's men were pressed back to the river
around Ball's Bluff.
[Illustration: BATTLE OF BALL'S BLUFF. (From an engraving published in
1862 by Virtus and Company. New York.)]
In his official report Gen. Evans wrote:
"At about 2 o'clock p.m. on the 21st a message was sent to Brigadier
General R. L. White to bring his militia force to my assistance at Fort
Evans. He reported to me, in person, that he was unable to get his men
to turn out, though there were a great number in town, and arms and
ammunition were offered them."
The Federal force which first had crossed to Ball's Bluff, was composed
of 300 men of the 15th Massachusetts under Colonel Devens. Later it was
augmented by a company from the 20th Massachusetts. No adequate
transportation across the river for a large force had been provided, so
that later it was difficult to send over needed Federal support. When
Evans became convinced that the main fight would be at Ball's Bluff, he
sent forward Colonel Hunton and his 8th Virginia Regiment of which
several of the companies had been recruited in Loudoun. To these forces
there were added, later in the day, the 17th and 18th Mississippi. Sharp
fighting, with advantage first to one side and then to the other,
culminated in a Confederate bayonet charge and the resulting route of
the Federals, many of whom were killed and wounded, others driven into
the river and drowned and by 8:00 o'clock the survivors surrendered and
were marched as prisoners to Leesburg. It is estimated that about 1,700
men were engaged on each side. The Confederate loss was reported as 36
killed, 118 wounded and 2 missing. The Federals reported losses of 49
killed, 158 wounded and 714 missing. The Confederate dead were interred
in the Union Cemetery at Leesburg; the Federal slain are buried at
Ball's Bluff where their lonely resting place long has been cared for by
the Federal Government.[156]
[156] Condensed from Hotchkiss' _Virginia Military History_ as quoted by
Head, p. 138. Also White's _Battle of Ball's Bluff_. For Gen. Evans'
report see "Official Reports, Sept. to Dec. 1861," published in Richmond
in 1862.
Among the killed were Colonel Baker of the Massachusetts troops and
Colonel Burt of the 18th Mississippi. Among the very dangerously wounded
was a young Massachusetts first lieutenant who, miraculously recovering,
later crowned a long judicial career as a venerated member of the
Supreme Court of the United States and conferred additional lustre upon
the name of Oliver Wendell Holmes.
The Confederates were led in the fighting by Colonel Eppa Hunton of the
8th Virginia. It was he who rallied that regiment when a part of it was
in retreat and turned threatened disaster into victory. Colonel Hunton
had been born in Fauquier on the 2nd September, 1822, of a family long
settled in that County. At the outbreak of the war he was practicing law
in Prince William and held a commission as brigadier general in the
Militia. After the Ordinance of Secession was adopted, he was
commissioned a colonel by Governor Letcher and ordered to raise the 8th
Virginia Infantry. For that purpose he proceeded to Leesburg and
recruited his command. Chas. B. Tebbs became Lieut. Colonel and Norborne
Berkeley, Major. Both were of Loudoun and Berkeley eventually succeeded
Hunton in command of the Regiment. Of the ten companies in the regiment,
six originally were made up of Loudoun men under Captains William N.
Berkeley, Nathaniel Heaton, Alexander Grayson, William Simpson, Wampter,
and John R. Carter. Of the remaining four companies, one was from Prince
William, one from Fairfax and two from Fauquier. During the war the
regiment covered itself with glory by its splendid fighting qualities
from the first Manassas to Pickett's charge at Gettysburg and suffered
frightful losses. It became known from these losses, as the "Bloody
Eighth." Hunton, shot through the leg at Gettysburg, was promoted for
his valour there to brigadier general. After the war he lived in
Warrenton, practicing his profession with marked ability in Fauquier,
Loudoun, and Prince William where juries, frequently including members
of his former regiment, seldom failed to give him their verdict. He
served as a member of the House of Representatives and later as United
States Senator from Virginia, holding in his professional and political
life the esteem and affection he had won on many a field of battle.
Acting as a volunteer scout for Colonel Hunton, that day of the Ball's
Bluff Battle was a young trooper of Ashby's Cavalry who, migrating from
Maryland to Loudoun in 1857, purchased a farm on the shore of the
Potomac and became very much of a Virginian. Elijah Viers White was born
in Poolesville, Maryland, in 1832, attended Lima Seminary in Livingston
County, New York, and later spent two years at Granville College in
Licking County, Ohio. With the restlessness of his age he went to Kansas
in 1855 and, as a member of a Missouri company, had some part in the
factional fighting then distracting that territory. At the time of John
Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry he served as a corporal in the Loudoun
Cavalry and soon after the outbreak of the war was transferred to
Ashby's Legion. By December, 1861, he was a captain, reporting to
General Hill, and in charge of a line of couriers between Leesburg and
Winchester. During the winter of 1861-'62 this force was quartered in
Waterford and, somewhat augmented in numbers, was assigned to scouting
and guarding the Potomac shore. Thus originated the unit which became so
famous in Loudoun's history--the 35th Virginia Cavalry[157] or, as it
was more generally known, "White's Battalion"--the "Comanches"
affectionately held in local memory. Although having but about
twenty-five men when wintering in Waterford, the organization increased
with such rapidity that before the war's end its rolls, according to
Captain Frank M. Myers, its historian, bore nearly 700 names. On the
28th October, 1862, it was formally mustered into the Confederate
service by Colonel Bradley T. Johnson of General J. E. B. Stuart's
staff. In its inception formed for scouting, raiding and other local
duty, and regarded as an independent organization, it was fated in
January, 1863, to become a part of Brigadier General William E. Jones'
Brigade and thenceforward continued a part of the regular military
establishment of the Confederacy.
[157] Myers' _Comanches_, p. 314.
As the fame and exploits of the command and its leader grew, the latter
was promoted major in October, 1862, and lieutenant colonel in February,
1863. That he was not made a brigadier-general in accordance with the
recommendation of the military committee of the Confederate Congress was
due chiefly to General Lee's personal disapproval of Colonel White's
lack of severity as a disciplinarian. Undoubtedly his men took advantage
of his protective attitude toward them and incidents of insubordination,
desertion, and even mutiny were not infrequent;[158] but as enthusiastic
and fearless fighters they won and held the respect of both sides alike.
How well and dearly this reputation as warriors was earned is shown by
their participation in no less than thirty-one battles, including Cold
Harbor, Sharpsburg (Antietam), Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Spotsylvania
and Appomattox and in fifty-nine recorded minor engagements as
well.[159] Colonel White himself was severely wounded on no less than
seven occasions. Such was the esteem in which he continued to be held in
Loudoun after the war, that he was elected sheriff of the county and
also its treasurer. He was a principal founder and the first president
of the Peoples National Bank of Leesburg which position he continued to
occupy until his death in 1907. General Eppa Hunton in his autobiography
has this to say of him: "No man in the Confederate Army stood higher for
bravery, dash and patriotic devotion than Colonel 'Lige' White."
[158] Same, pp. 148, 154, 242, 315, 342, 353, etc.
[159] See manuscript memorandum prepared by Mrs. Magnus Thompson and now
in possession of Colonel White's granddaughter, Miss Elizabeth White, of
Selma.
In the meanwhile, as we have seen, the Loudoun Rangers had been
organized on the territory west and north of the Catoctin Mountain by
Union men and had been taken into the Federal service. In August, 1862,
this command, then numbering about fifty, was making its headquarters in
the small brick Baptist Meeting House which still stands in Waterford,
whence it had been participating in raids on the Confederate portion of
the county. About 3:00 o'clock in the morning of the 27th of August,
while a certain number of the Rangers were away from the church on raids
or picket duty, Captain E. V. White, with forty or fifty men, made a
carefully planned attack on the building and after some sharp fighting,
in which one of the Rangers was killed and ten wounded, the men in the
church surrendered and were taken prisoners and paroled.
On the 1st September the Rangers were involved in another fight, this
time with Colonel Munford's 2nd Virginia Cavalry sent forward by General
Stuart for that purpose, the encounter taking place between the top of
Mile Hill and the Big Spring on the Carolina Road. The Rangers were at
the time reinforced by about 125 men of Cole's Maryland Cavalry but the
Confederates, by getting in their rear and completely surrounding them,
put them to route in a hot sabre fight. Goodhart, the Rangers'
historian, comments that these two defeats, coming so closely together,
almost broke up that organization and "did to a very large extent
interfere with the future usefulness of the command."[160] It continued
in service, however, until the end of the war, participating in the
battle of Antietam, in the Gettysburg campaign, and in the Shenandoah
Valley campaign in September, 1864.
[160] _The Loudoun Rangers_, by Briscoe Goodhart, 44.
It was in the same September of 1862, it will be remembered, that Lee
undertook his first invasion of Maryland. He and General Stonewall
Jackson spent the night at the residence of the late Henry T. Harrison
on the west side of King Street, now occupied by Mr. Harrison's
grandchildren, Mr. Cuthbert Conrad and his two sisters. "The triumphant
army of Lee," writes Head "on the eve of the first Maryland campaign,
was halted at Leesburg and stripped of all superfluous transportation,
broken-down horses and wagons and batteries not supplied with good
horses being left behind."[161] It is said that Jackson rose early in
the morning from his bed in the Harrison house to examine the several
suggested points for the Southern Army to cross the Potomac. He is
locally credited with the decision that the place known as White's Ford
was best for the purpose and it was there, on the 5th September, that
much of the Army crossed. With such a vast number to put across the
river, it is probable that all the ferries and fords in the Leesburg
neighborhood were used. It is well to note that White's Ford and the
present White's Ferry (then known as Conrad's Ferry) are two very
different places. The Ferry is at the end of the road now marked by the
State, running along the south side of Rockland; the Ford is to the
north thereof at the head of Mason's Island. Obviously the depth of the
water at White's Ferry would preclude its use as a ford. Goodhart says
Edwards' and Noland's Ferries were used,[162] while the report of the
Federal Signal Officer (Major A. J. Myers) made to Brigadier General S.
Williams, dated the 6th October, 1862, records the Confederates
"crossing the Potomac near the Monocacy, and the commencement of their
movement into Maryland."[163] Nevertheless the Confederate official
reports definitely shew that a great number, probably the major part of
the vast host, crossed at White's Ford, including Stonewall Jackson's
own men, General Early's Division (which had passed through Leesburg
the day before and camped that night "near a large spring"--whether Big
Spring or the old Ducking Pond of Raspberry Plain does not definitely
appear); General Hood's Division, Colonel B. T. Johnson's 2nd Virginia
Brigade, McGowan's Brigade, etc.[164] Never were the hopes of the
Confederates more rosy; it is recorded that, as the Army crossed the
river, the men sang and cheered with joy and that every band played
"Maryland, my Maryland." Twelve days later there was fought the battle
of Antietam, the bloodiest day's conflict of the whole war, and on the
night of the 18th September the Confederates, in retreat but in good
order, recrossed the Potomac.
[161] Head, 150.
[162] _Loudoun Rangers_, 44.
[163] _War of the Rebellion; Official Records_, Vol. 27, p. 118.
[164] "Reports Army of Northern Virginia," from June 1862 to Dec. 1862.
Vol. II, pp. 99, 187, 211, 246, 282, etc.
While the battle of Antietam was being so hotly fought in nearby
Maryland, Lieutenant Colonel (later Major General) Hugh Judson
Kilpatrick, advancing from Washington with ten companies of Federal
cavalry, reached Leesburg where there still remained a small Confederate
force made up of Company A of the 6th Virginia Cavalry and about forty
Mississippi infantrymen under Captain Gibson, then acting as Provost
Marshal of the town. Being largely outnumbered, the Confederates were
about to retire when they were joined by Captain E. V. White and thirty
of his men. Persuading the soldiers already there to make an effort to
hold the town, White and his men exchanged shots with the Federal
advance guard; but finding that Kilpatrick was bringing a battery
forward, the Confederates retreated through the town's streets.
Kilpatrick, however, had already trained his cannon upon Leesburg,
thereby subjecting it to its first and only artillery bombardment and
greatly terrifying the civilian population. Myers records that
"shrieking shells came crashing through walls and roofs" of Leesburg's
buildings. The Federal report avers that but a few shells were fired
"over the town."[165] After this brief artillery fire, Kilpatrick sent a
detachment of his 10th New York Cavalry through Leesburg's streets who
came in touch with the Confederates on the town's outskirts. Here
Captain White, about to lead his cavalry in a charge, was severely
wounded by the fire of the Confederate Infantry and as his men, in
retreat, carried him to Hamilton, the Confederate Infantry also fell
back, leaving the town to Kilpatrick. By way of souvenir of this little
engagement, there still remains a bullet-hole in the front door of the
house on the south side of East Market street then occupied by the late
Burr W. Harrison but now the residence of his grandson, the Hon. Charles
F. Harrison, Commonwealth's Attorney of Loudoun. According to the
official Federal report, already quoted, the Confederate "force at
Leesburg was principally comprised of convalescents and cavalry sent to
escort them. The whole country from Warrenton to Leesburg is filled with
sick soldiers abandoned on the wayside by the enemy."
[165] Myers' _Comanches_, 111; also report of Colonel J. M. Davis, _War
of the Rebellion: Official Records_, Vol. 27, p. 1091.
At the outbreak of the war Loudoun was, as it now again has come to be,
one of the most fertile, prosperous and best farmed counties in all
Virginia. When the fighting was fairly under way, it, from its position
as border territory, was dominated by one side after the other but at
almost all times was overrun by scouts and raiding parties from both
armies. Her farms and their abundant livestock and produce offered
constant, if unwilling, invitation to these soldiers to replenish their
need of horses, cattle, hogs, grain and forage; and every account of the
period refers again and again to instances of seizure of these supplies,
involving the greatest hardships, as they came to do, to the rightful
owners. It seems to have made little difference as to which side was
temporarily in control, so far as these levies were concerned, for both
Federals and Confederates appropriated supplies from the farms of foes
and friends alike, sometimes, it is true, giving receipts or
certificates covering what they had taken, with a cheerful promise of
ultimate compensation, and sometimes wholly waiving that formality.
Also, as the armies passed and repassed, there were roving deserters
from both sides and "the mountains were infested with horse-thieves and
desperadoes who were ready to prey upon the inhabitants, regardless as
to whether their sympathies were with the North or South."[166]
"Numerous raids" quoting Deck and Heaton, "made by both armies drained
the abundant food resources of the county. The women and the children
were hard pressed for food, but they met the privations of war bravely
and loyally."[167] Head, writing prior to 1908, when there still lived
many whose knowledge of war conditions in Loudoun was based on personal
experience and observation and who, on every hand, were available for
consultation, says that the people of the county
[166] Williamson, 105.
[167] _Economic and Social Survey of Loudoun County_, 22.
"probably suffered more real hardships and deprivations than any other
community of like size in the Southland.... Both armies, prompted either
by fancied military necessity or malice, burned or confiscated valuable
forage crops and other stores, and nearly every locality, at one time or
another, witnessed depredation, robbery, murder, arson and rapine.
Several towns were shelled, sacked and burned but the worse damage was
done the country districts by raiding parties of Federals."[168] Col.
Mosby, of the famous Partisan Rangers, adds his testimony, writing
particularly of the upper part of Fauquier and Loudoun:
"Although that region was the Flanders of the war, and harried worse
than any of which history furnishes an example since the desolation of
the Palatinates by Louis XIV, yet the stubborn faith of the people never
wavered. Amid fire and sword they remained true to the last, and
supported me through all the trials of the war."[169]
[168] _History of Loudoun County_, 149.
[169] Mosby's _War Reminiscences_, 41.
This last quotation brings to our story one of the most picturesque
figures in either army and one whose numerous exploits in Loudoun and
her adjoining counties were truly of that inherent nature from which
popular legend and folklore evolve. John Singleton Mosby was born at
Edgemont in Powhattan County, Virginia, on the 6th December, 1833. He
was educated at the University of Virginia, was admitted to the Bar and
when the war broke out was practicing his profession in Bristol.
Promptly volunteering for service, he became a cavalry private in the
Washington Mounted Rifles and when that became a part of the 1st
Virginia Cavalry, Mosby was promoted to be its adjutant. Subsequently he
served as an independent scout for General J. E. B. Stuart until
captured by the Federals and imprisoned in Washington. After his
exchange he was made a captain in the Provisional Army of the
Confederate States by General Lee,[170] later a major and then colonel,
serving on detached service under General Lee's orders. During the
winter of 1862-'63 he built up his command known as Mosby's Partisan
Rangers (which had more formal status as the 43rd Battalion, Virginia
Cavalry) in the territory between the Rappahannock and the Potomac,
where, for the remainder of the war, he continued to operate; but the
heart of his domain was thus described
"From Snickersville along the Blue Ridge Mountains to Linden; thence to
Salem (now called Marshall); to the Plains; thence along the Bull Run
Mountains to Aldie and from thence along the turnpike to the place of
beginning, Snickersville."[171]
[170] _Mosby's Rangers_, by J. J. Williamson, 15.
[171] Same, 175.
This was the true "Mosby's Confederacy," as it became known, and Mosby's
Confederacy in very fact it was, albeit a precarious and but loosely
held realm. By Mosby's orders, no member of his command was to leave
these bounds without permission.
Mosby's purpose, always governing his operations, is thus described by
him:
"To weaken the armies invading Virginia by harassing their rear--to
destroy supply trains, to break up the means of conveying intelligence,
and thus isolating an army from its base, as well as its different corps
from each other, to confuse their plans by capturing despatches, are the
objects of partisan war. I endeavoured, so far as I was able, to
diminish this aggressive power of the army of the Potomac, by compelling
it to keep a large force on the defensive."[172]
[172] Mosby's _War Reminiscences_, 44.
He was amazingly successful. His men had no camps. To have had definite
headquarters would have been to invite certain destruction or capture.
When too hotly pursued, they scattered over the friendly countryside,
hiding in the hills, the woods, farmhouses or barns and often, if
discovered, appearing as working farmers. "They would scatter for
safety" says Mosby, "and gather at my call, like the Children of the
Mist." Their attacks frequently were made at night; but whether by day
or night so unexpectedly as always to utterly confuse their foes and
keep them in such nervous anticipation of attack at unknown and
unpredictable points that Mosby became to them a major scourge. Branded
as "guerilla," "bushwhacker," and "freebooter," Mosby stoutly and
logically maintained that his method of fighting was wholly within the
rules of war and when General Custer took some of his men prisoners and
hanged them as thieves and murderers, Mosby, acting on Lee's
instructions, promptly retaliated by hanging an equal number of Custer's
men as soon as he was able to capture them. That appears to have ended
the execution of captured Mosby men, save for rare individual and
heinous offences.
One of the most spectacular and, upon the local imagination, lastingly
impressive forays made by him was the so-called "Greenback Raid" in
which, on the 14th October, 1864, his men wrecked a Baltimore and Ohio
train near Brown's Crossing. Among the passengers were two Federal
paymasters, carrying $168,000 in United States currency. This was seized
by Mosby's men, carried to Bloomfield in Loudoun, and divided among the
raiders, each receiving about $2,000. It is related that thenceforth,
until the end of the war, there was ample Federal currency circulating
in Loudoun.
His men were volunteers, many having served in other Confederate
commands and thence attracted to Mosby by his romantic reputation and
his greater freedom of operation. Numerous Loudoun men were in the
organization[173] but they made up a much smaller proportion than in
White's Battalion or in the 8th Virginia Regiment. Many of his men were
very young. One of these youths who survived the constant perils which
surrounded the band was John H. Alexander, born in Clarke County. After
peace was declared, he completed his interrupted education, was admitted
to the Bar and, eventually taking up his permanent residence in Loudoun,
very successfully practiced his profession there until his death in
February, 1909. He wrote an interesting book, _Mosby's Men_, covering
his experience with that leader, which was published in 1907. His only
son, the Hon. John H. R. Alexander, one of the most esteemed and
efficient judges Loudoun has contributed to the Virginia Bench, now
presides over the Circuit Court for Loudoun and adjacent counties. Two
more of Mosby's youths, these both of Loudoun, were Henry C. Gibson and
J. West Aldridge. After the war Mr. Gibson married Mr. Aldridge's
sister. Dr. John Aldridge Gibson and Dr. Harry P. Gibson, prominent
Leesburg physicians, are the sons of this marriage. Did space permit
many others Loudoun members of the command could be mentioned. The
instances given go to show how the sons of Mosby's Rangers still carry
on in Loudoun.
[173] See rosters in Williamson, pp. 475 and 487.
On the 17th June, 1863, Lee's Army was on its way north for its second
invasion of Maryland and toward the fateful field of Gettysburg. General
J. E. B. Stuart, in command of the Confederate Cavalry, had established
his temporary headquarters at Middleburg. Early that morning Colonel
Munford, with the 2nd and 3rd Virginia Cavalry, acting as advance guard
of General Fitzhugh Lee, was foraging in the neighborhood of Aldie with
Colonel Williams C. Wickham, who had with him the 1st, 4th, and 5th
Virginia Cavalry. While Colonel Thomas L. Rosser was carrying out
Colonel Wickham's orders to select a camp near Aldie, he came in contact
with General G. M. Griggs' 2nd Cavalry Division of Federals made up of
General Kilpatrick's Brigade (2nd and 4th New York, 1st Massachusetts
and 6th Ohio Regiments) the 1st Maine Cavalry and Randol's Battery.
These forces attacked each other with the greatest determination and
courage. Charges were followed by counter-charges and desperately
contending every foot of ground the adversaries surged up and down the
Little River Turnpike and the Snickerville Road, where two squadrons of
sharpshooters from the 2nd and 3rd Virginia Cavalry were holding back
Kilpatrick's men. Says Colonel Munford in his report of the fight:
"As the enemy came up again the sharpshooters opened upon him with
terrible effect from the stone wall, which they had regained, and
checked him completely. I do not hesitate to say that I have never seen
so many Yankees killed in the same space of ground in any fight I have
seen on any battle field in Virginia that I have been over. We held our
ground until ordered by the major-general commanding to retire, and the
Yankees had been so severely punished that they did not follow. The
sharpshooters of the 5th were mostly captured, this regiment suffering
more than any other."[174]
[174] _Life and Campaigns of General J. E. B. Stuart_, by H. B.
McClellan, 301.
In truth the Federal soldiers had paid dearly for their victory. Dr.
James Moore, who was acting as surgeon with Kilpatrick and afterward
wrote a life of that General, calls this engagement "by far the most
bloody cavalry battle of the war."[175]
[175] Moore's _Kilpatrick and Our Cavalry_, 71.
While all this desperate fighting was going on around Aldie, Colonel A.
N. Duffie, with the 1st Rhode Island Cavalry, was on a scouting
expedition, having crossed the Bull Run Mountain at Thoroughfare Gap and
being headed for Noland's Ferry. His orders were to camp on the night of
the 17th at Middleburg. Approaching that town about 4:00 o'clock in the
afternoon, he drove in Stuart's pickets "so quickly that Stuart and his
staff were compelled to make a retreat more rapid than was consistent
with dignity and comfort."[176] The Confederate forces at Aldie were
notified of the situation and ordered to Middleburg but Duffie
apparently was not aware of the heavy fighting that had taken place at
Aldie. When he at length succeeded in getting a message through to
Aldie, asking reinforcements, Kilpatrick replied that his brigade was
too exhausted to respond, though he would report the situation at once
to General Pleasanton, in command of the Federals. "Thus" writes H. B.
McClellan, "Col. Duffie was left to meet his fate.... His men fought
bravely and repelled more than one charge before they were driven from
the town, retiring by the same road upon which they had advanced." But
during the night Duffie was surrounded by Chambliss's Brigade and
although Duffie himself, with four of his officers and twenty-seven men,
eluded their foes and reached Centreville the next afternoon, he was
obliged to report a loss of twenty officers and 248 men. Some of these,
at first thought killed or captured, also succeeded in getting back to
the Federal lines but the defeat had been crushing.
[176] _Life and Campaigns of Maj.-Gen. J. E. B. Stuart_, 303.
After Gettysburg, General Lee's Army passed through Loudoun, followed by
General Meade. Again, on the 14th July, 1864, General Early, after the
battle of Monocacy, crossed with his Army from Maryland to Virginia at
White's Ford. After resting his men in and around Leesburg he proceeded
by way of Purcellville and Snickers Gap to the Valley.
All this time Mosby had been active in his "Confederacy" and attacks on
the Federal communications also had been made by White's Battalion when
in and around Loudoun. These attacks, frequently successful and always
without warning, had caused great losses to the Federals and forced them
to keep a large number of men engaged in their rear who badly were
needed elsewhere. On the 16th August, 1864, General Grant, determining
to end the menace, sent the following order to Major General Sheridan:
"If you can possibly spare a division of Cavalry, send them through
Loudoun County to destroy and carry off the crops, animals, negroes and
all men under fifty years of age capable of bearing arms. In this way
you will get many of Mosby's men. All male citizens under fifty can
fairly be held as prisoners of war, and not as citizen prisoners. If not
already soldiers, they will be made so the moment the rebel army gets
hold of them."
But Sheridan at that time was far too busy with his campaign in the
Valley immediately to comply. It was not until after his decisive
victory over Early at Cedar Creek on the 19th October, that he felt he
could act. On the 27th November he issued the following orders to Major
General Merritt in command of the 1st Cavalry Division:
"You are hereby directed to proceed, tomorrow morning at 7 o'clock, with
two brigades of your division now in camp, to the east side of the Blue
Ridge, via Ashby's Gap, and operate against the guerillas in the
district of country bounded on the south by the line of the Manassas Gap
Railroad, as far east as White Plains; on the east by the Bull Run
Range; on the west by the Shenandoah River; and on the north by the
Potomac.
"This section has been the hot-bed of lawless bands who have from time
to time depredated upon small parties on the line of the army
communications, on safeguards left at houses, and on small parties of
our troops. Their real object is plunder and highway robbery.
"To clear the country of these parties that are bringing destruction
upon the innocent as well as their guilty supporters by their cowardly
acts, you will consume and destroy all forage and subsistence, burn all
barns and mills and their contents and drive off all stock in the
region, the boundaries of which are above described. This order must be
literally executed, bearing in mind, however that no dwellings are to be
burned and that no personal violence be offered the citizens.
"The ultimate results of the guerilla system of warfare is the total
destruction of all private rights in the country occupied by such
parties. The destruction may as well commence at once and the
responsibility of it must rest upon the authorities at Richmond, who
have acknowledged the legitimacy of guerilla bands.
"The injury done to them by this army is very slight, the injury they
have indirectly inflicted upon the people and upon the rebel army may be
counted by millions.
"The reserve brigade of your division will move to Snickersville on the
29th. Snickersville should be your point of concentration, and the point
from which you should operate in destroying toward the Potomac.
"Four days' subsistence will be taken by your command. Forage can be
gathered from the country through which you pass.
"You will return to your present camp, via Snickersville, on the fifth
day.
"By command of Major-General Sheridan.
James W. Forsyth,
Lieutenant-Colonel and Chief of Staff.
"Brevet Major-General Merritt
Commanding First Cavalry Division."
In pursuance of these orders Federal soldiers in three bodies entered
the county on their devastating work. Williamson, himself a member of
Mosby's band and an eyewitness of what followed, writes:
"The Federals separated into three parties, one of which went along the
Bloomfield road and down Loudoun, in the direction of the Potomac;
another passed along the Piedmont pike to Rectortown, Salem and around
to Middleburg; while the main body kept along the turnpike to Aldie,
where they struck the Snickersville pike. Thus they scoured the country
completely from the Blue Ridge to the Bull Run Mountains. From Monday
afternoon, November 28th, until Friday morning December 2nd, they ranged
through the beautiful valley of Loudoun and a portion of Fauquier
County, burning and laying waste. They robbed the people of everything
they could destroy or carry off--horses, cows, cattle, sheep, hogs etc;
killing poultry, insulting women, pillaging houses and in many cases
robbing even the poor negroes. They burned all the mills and factories
as well as hay, wheat, corn, straw and every description of forage.
Barns and stables, whether full or empty, were burned--Colonel Mosby did
not call the command together, therefore there was no organized
resistance, but Rangers managed to save a great deal of livestock for
the farmers by driving it off to places of safety. In many instances,
after the first day of burning, we would run off stock from the path of
the raiders into the limits of the district already burned over, and
there it was kept undisturbed or in a situation where it could be more
easily driven off and concealed...."[177]
[177] Williamson, 317.
The loss to the county was enormous. Although many old and well-built
mills, and barns of brick or stone were not destroyed, as is
conclusively proven by their survival to this day, and the devastation
did not equal that in the Valley,[178] yet how great was the aggregate
damage is suggested by a report submitted to the second session of the
Fifty-first Congress (1890-91) in which sworn claims of adherents to the
Union alone amounted to $199,228.24 for property burned and to an
additional $61,821.13 for live stock taken; the report adding that
there had been no estimate of the losses sustained by those whose
sympathies were with the Confederates.[179] That the total loss to the
people of the County, as a result of Sheridan's order, was over a
million dollars well may be believed--and this in a community which had
been raided and robbed and levied upon by both armies, as well as many
outlaw bands for over three years of warfare! The privations and
suffering of the following winter and spring can but be imagined. It may
be noted that a Federal Brigade, under General Deven, established its
headquarters at Lovettsville about Christmas time and that, although his
soldiers patrolled all parts of Loudoun during that winter, yet in spite
of all the war-time strain and hatreds, their relations with the people
of the county were far better than usually prevailed.
[178] _Comanches_, 356.
[179] House Report No. 3859.
"The year 1864 closed with a gloomy outlook for the Confederacy" writes
Williamson and adds that "the winter in Virginia was very severe and the
ground was covered with snow and sleet for the better part of the
season." About all the comfort Loudoun had was in the repeated rumours
of peace to which the people eagerly listened and repeated one to
another.
And so the bitter winter passed and in the spring came Appomattox.
CHAPTER XVI
RECOVERY
From east to west, from north to south, her farm lands ravaged,
plundered and made desolate, many of her sons dead or incapacitated by
wounds or sickness, her barns, outbuildings and fences burned, her
horses, cattle and other livestock stolen, confiscated or wantonly
driven away, Loudoun presented, in that summer of 1865, a sad and
dispiriting contrast to the fruitful abundance of five years before. By
the terms of the surrender at Appomattox the Southern cavalryman had
been allowed to retain the horse or horses owned by him; but as the
infantry started on their long trudge homeward, they carried with them
little beyond the ragged clothes they wore and their determination to
begin life anew. How slowly and with what unremitting toil and
self-denial the ruined farms were restored, the fields again made to
yield their corn and wheat and clover, rails split to rebuild the
vanished fences, makeshifts at first and then better structures erected
to replace those burned, only the people who lived through those years
of poverty could tell; and on that slow path upward from ruin and
desolation the part borne by the women equalled, perhaps surpassed, that
enacted by the men. The County still reverently relates the
uncomplaining toil and sacrifices of mothers, wives and daughters during
that grievous time.
Bad as conditions were for the majority, they were even worse for the
large landowners, the former wealthier class. Gentlefolk, wholly unused
to manual labor, perforce turned to tasks theretofore the work of their
slaves. The men ploughed and hoed, their women cooked, performed every
household task and somehow kept up their homes. One of the few bright
spots in the drab picture was that dwelling-houses seldom had been
destroyed; thus at least there was human shelter. Also the small towns
and hamlets, having escaped the devastation of the farm lands, were to a
certain extent nuclei from which the new life could be built.
County government had well-nigh ceased to function during the war. All
those who had borne arms against the United States or otherwise aided
and abetted the Confederacy--that is, a very definite majority of the
men of the county--now found themselves disfranchised; the minority of
Union men, Quakers, Germans or others who had discreetly avoided acting
with one side or the other, controlled the first local election after
the peace. It was held on the 1st day of June, 1865. The court record,
after a long silence and copied into its books later, begins again on
the 10th of the following month:
"At a County Court held for Loudoun County on Monday the 10th day of
July, 1865, present: George Abel, R. M. Bentley, Francis M. Carter, John
Compher, Thomas J. Cost, John P. Derry, Enoch Fenton, Herod Frasier,
Fenton Furr, Henry Gaver, John Grubb, William H. Gray, Eli J. Hoge,
Joseph Janney, Alexander L. Lee, Charles L. Mankin, Asbury M. Nixon,
Rufus Smith, Basil W. Shoemaker, Jno. L. Stout, Mahlon Thomas, Lott
Tavenner, Henry S. Taylor, Michael Wiard, Jno. Wolford, Thomas Burr
Williams and James M. Wallace. Gentlemen Justices elected who were on
the 1st day of June 1865 duly elected Justices of the peace for the
County of Loudoun, and who have been commissioned by the Governor, were
duly qualified as such Justices by William F. Mercer, one of the
Commissioners of Election for said County, appointed by the Governor by
taking the several oaths prescribed by law."[180]
[180] 17 Loudoun Minute Books, 70.
The new county officers were William H. Gray, presiding justice of the
court; Charles P. Janney, clerk of the county; Samuel C. Luckett,
sheriff; William B. Downey, commonwealth's attorney; Samuel Ball,
commissioner of revenue.
On the 11th July, 1865, there appears the following:
"George K. Fox Jr., as Clerk of this Court having removed from the
County the records of this Court, under an order of Court heretofore
made, he is now ordered to return the said records to the Clerks office
as soon as possible."[181]
[181] Idem, 2.
These instructions were carried out by Mr. Fox. For over three years he
had guarded his trust, without opportunity to return to Leesburg or see
a member of his family during that time. He now found himself
disfranchised; but between him and Charles P. Janney the new county
clerk, who before the war had worked in his office, there was a strong
friendship so that Mr. Janney appointed Mr. Fox his assistant, in which
position he served until his reëlection as county clerk, which occurred
as soon as the civil disabilities of the former Confederates were
removed. He continued as county clerk until his death on the 14th of
December, 1872, at the early age of forty years. How truly valued was he
in Loudoun was shown at his funeral which is said to have been the
largest the county had known to that time.
On the 2nd March, 1867, the Congress passed that indefensible
Reconstruction Act which was to leave more bitterness in the South than
the war itself, but, in all that followed, Virginia suffered less than
other States of the old Confederacy. Under that act Virginia became
Military District Number One and General John M. Schofield, formerly the
head of the Potomac Division of the Federal Army, was given command. His
choice was a most fortunate one for Virginia. Of him Richard L. Morton
writes:
"He was conservative, just and wise; and it was due to his moral courage
that Virginia was spared the reign of terror that existed in most of the
Southern States during the Reconstruction period. His policy was to gain
the confidence and support of the people of the State and to interfere
as little as possible with civil authorities."[182]
[182] _The Negro in Virginia Politics_, 27.
General Eppa Hunton came to know him well and between the two men there
developed mutual respect and friendship. Hunton, in his biography, has
this to say of conditions under Schofield's rule:
"Fortunately for us the commanders in this district were good men--not
disposed to oppress us--and we had for several years a fairly good
military government in Virginia--our judges were military appointees;
our Sheriff and all the officers in this State owed their appointment to
the military Governor of Virginia. Our military judge was Lysander Hill.
We had great apprehensions of him as our circuit judge when he took the
place of Judge Henry W. Thomas, of Fairfax, but Hill turned out to be a
first rate man and a fine judge. He was the best listener I ever
addressed on the bench. His decisions were able and generally
satisfactory. He certainly was not influenced in the slightest degree by
politics on the bench--(Schofield) tried in every way to mitigate the
hardships of our situation and gave us the best government that was
possible under the circumstances."[183]
[183] _Autobiography of Eppa Hunton_, pp. 147, 148.
But even Schofield could not protect Virginia from the more vicious
legislation of the unscrupulous radicals then in control in Washington.
At the close of the war the necessities of the situation were working
out, in Virginia at least, a reasonable and moderate readjustment of
relations between the white people and the former slaves. The negroes
looked to their old masters for employment and the whites, in their own
great poverty, gave to them what they could; and while wages were very
low, the negro was assured of shelter and food. The enfranchisement of
the negroes in March, 1865, the establishment of the Freedman's Bureau
in the following June but more particularly the organization of the
Union League late in 1866 broke down the friendly relations between the
races. The representatives of those politically begotten organizations
taught the ignorant and always credulous negroes that the whites were
their enemies and oppressors, discouraged them from working and
persuaded them to ally themselves with the disreputable "carpetbaggers"
and "scalawags" who were perniciously active in their efforts to foment
trouble, for their own profit, between white and black. The worst
results were registered in the eastern and southern parts of the State
where the more extensive of the old plantations and consequently the
densest negro population existed; in Loudoun, most fortunately, there
was little or no racial animosity and the negroes appear to have been
more content and appreciative, as well as dependable in their work, than
in many of the other counties.
To meet the confusion and turmoil in the State and the threatened
complete overthrow of white supremacy, the best and most representative
men in Virginia formed, in December, 1867, the Conservative Party,
drawing its membership from former Whigs and Democrats alike. In the
election of 1869, to accept or reject a new Constitution, the
Conservatives were successful, the proposed Constitution adopted and the
State rescued from fast developing chaos. It is remembered that in this
election John Janney made what was practically his last public
appearance. He had been an outstanding leader of the Whigs in Virginia,
had opposed secession but, at the end, stood with Lee and many other
Virginians in the belief that coercion of the States by the Federal
Government was the worse evil of the two. Before this decisive election
of 1869, he had suffered a stroke of paralysis; but to set an example to
his former Whig associates, he had himself driven in his carriage to the
polls to vote the Conservative ticket. It was a last and effective act
of patriotism. He died in January, 1872.[184]
[184] _Loudoun Mirror_ of the 10th January, 1872.
By the Act of Congress of the 26th January, 1870, the civil disabilities
of the former Confederates were removed, Virginia was enabled to take
her rightful place again as a sovereign State in the Union and a
cleaning up of the carpetbaggers and scalawags was begun; but it is said
to have taken nearly another ten years to rid the people of the last of
them in those counties with the greater negro population.[185]
[185] R. L. Morton's _The Negro in Virginia Politics_ and H. J.
Eckenrode's _Political Reconstruction in Virginia_.
[Illustration: THE OLD JOHN JANNEY HOUSE, East Cornwall Street,
Leesburg.]
In this period of confusion there came to Shelburne parish in 1869, as
its Rector, the Rev. Richard Terrell Davis of Albemarle who had served
as a Chaplain in the Confederate Army and whose sympathetic
ministrations to his new neighbours were of county-wide solace. About
that time the late Charles Paxton of Pennsylvania came to Loudoun,
purchased that part of Exeter which lies near the northerly boundary of
Leesburg and began the building of the great house which he named
Carlheim and which many years later was to become the Paxton Memorial
Home for ailing children, established and endowed by his widow in her
will in memory of their daughter. Dr. Davis and Mr. Paxton became firm
friends and through that friendship and Dr. Davis' knowledge of those
most needing help, many a poor man in Loudoun was able to earn a sadly
needed living wage during the long construction of Carlheim. It is
remembered that on Dr. Davis' greatly lamented death in 1892, so deeply
had he engaged the affections of his adopted county, the negroes, upon
learning of a project of his white friends to erect in his memory a
suitable tombstone, begged that they too might contribute to its cost.
It was during the rectorship of Dr. Davis, and largely through his
influence, that the building of the present large gray stone church
edifice of Saint James in Leesburg was undertaken.
Slowly, very slowly, the people doggedly fought their way up the long
and often discouraging hill of recovery. The Spanish-American War, petty
in itself, was in its foreign and, particularly, in its domestic
implications, of major importance; for it showed that, with a new
generation of Americans taking its place, the old sectional tears and
rents were growing together and that the national fabric once again was
becoming truly restored. In the last decade of the nineteenth century
there was a notable inflow of new residents, new money, new
determination, which continued with the succeeding years and of which
the most significant result was the vigorous growth of the horse and
sport-loving community in and around Middleburg, resulting in the
development of one of the great, perhaps the greatest, centers of
fox-hunting and horse-showing in America. It should be here recorded
that to the purchase by Mr. Daniel C. Sands of an estate near Middleburg
in 1907 and to his love of horses and country life, as well as his
tireless energy in spreading among his many Northern friends knowledge
of the charm of his new neighbourhood and building on the Loudoun
horse-loving traditions, existing since early settlement, may be
ascribed the great prosperity and international repute of the Middleburg
environment of today. But the county at large, as well as Middleburg,
has reason to be grateful to Mr. Sands. During his more than thirty
years of residence here he, consistently and continuously, has been not
only one of the county's most constructive citizens but one of the most
generous and public-spirited as well.
Again we are reminded of the extraordinary part horses and the various
sports connected with them play in Loudoun's life. And all that is no
matter of present day chance but the legitimate flowering of very old
and greatly cherished traditions. Archdeacon Burnaby, in writing of his
travels in Virginia in 1759-1760, was moved to remark that Lord
Fairfax's "chief if not sole amusement was hunting; and in pursuit of
this exercise he frequently carried his hounds to distant parts of the
country; and entertained any gentleman of good character and decent
appearance, who attended him in the field, at the inn or ordinary, where
he took up his residence for the hunting season."[186] One of the
ordinaries thus frequented by Lord Fairfax was West's on the old
Carolina Road, just south of the present Lee-Jackson Highway, and in the
territory now hunted by the Middleburg pack.
[186] _Travels through the middle settlements in North America_ by Rev.
(afterward Archdeacon) Andrew Burnaby, DD. 3rd Edition. 1798. Appendix
p. 163. The first and second editions do not include the interesting
little biography of Lord Fairfax.
The county supports two hunts--the great Middleburg Hunt, turning out
upon occasion a field of over three hundred riders, under the joint
mastership of Miss Charlotte Noland and Mr. Sands and hunting the
territory around that town; and the smaller but hard-riding Loudoun
Hunt, covering the Leesburg neighborhood and of which Judge J. R. H.
Alexander is Master. In legitimate succession to those of long ago,
annual horse shows are held at Middleburg, Foxcroft, Leesburg, and
Unison-Bloomfield, the great Llangollan races are run annually on that
beautiful and historic estate, while just over the Fauquier boundary is
Upperville with its annual horse show, the oldest in America. In short
Loudoun is and always has been a horse-loving county and thus very
naturally it is widely known as the Leicestershire of America. Today the
raising and training of fine horses, together with the maintenance of
numerous herds of dairy cattle (especially of the Guernsey breed) the
fattening of great numbers of beef cattle, the raising of hogs, sheep
and poultry, the growth and development on her many hillsides of
extensive and well cared-for apple orchards, all augment the
agricultural revenue Loudoun derives from her ever smiling fields of
corn and wheat, grass and clover.
In the year 1900 the Southern Railway Company, then in control of the
old Alexandria, Loudoun and Hampshire Railroad, extended it to
Snickersville, encouraged by many people from Washington and elsewhere
who had built summer homes at and around Snickers' Gap. The railroad
company named its new station near the village Bluemont and the
postoffice authorities were persuaded also to adopt the new name.
Thereafter the old but not very euphonic appellation disappears, save in
history and memory of the inhabitants, and the village became known by
its new and present designation.
In the World War the county played its part in a manner worthy of its
heritage. Her sons to the number of nearly six hundred joined the
military and naval forces and during that period the local Red Cross
Chapters and other civilian organizations were active and efficient. The
list of those Loudoun patriots who responded to their country's call at
that time is too long and their services too varied to be fully
recounted here; but no narrative, however greatly curtailed, should fail
to name those who then laid down their lives for their country. A
dignified monument, now standing in the grounds surrounding Loudoun's
courthouse in Leesburg, bears these words in letters of bronze:
"Our Glorious Dead
'Their Bodies are buried in peace
but their names liveth for evermore.'
1917-1918.
Russell T. Beatty, Corp. Frank Hough, Lt.
Charles A. Ball, Pvt. Alexander Pope Humphrey, Pvt.
Charles E. Clyburn, Pvt. Robert Martz, Pvt.
Thubert H. Conklin, Sgt. Harry Milstead, Pvt.
Nealy M. Cooper, Pvt. Judge McGolerick, Pvt.
Mathew Curtin, Pvt. John O. McGuinn, Pvt.
Leonard Darnes, Wag. Edward Lester Nalle, Pvt.
Franklin L. Dawson, Pvt. Ernest H. Nichols, Pvt.
John Flemming, Pvt. Linwood Payne, Pvt.
Edward C. Fuller, Captain Charles Carter Riticor, Capt.
Gilbert H. Gough, Pvt. Ashton H. Shumaker, Pvt.
Grover Cleveland Gray, Corp. Henry Grafton Smallwood, Pvt.
Leonard H. Hardy, Sgt. John Edward Smith, Corp.
Bolling Walker Haxall Jr., Maj. Valentine B. Johnson, Pvt.
Ernest Gilbert, Pvt. Samuel C. Thornton, Pvt.
Erected By
The people of Loudoun County
in memory of
Her Sons who made the Supreme Sacrifice
In the Great War."[187]
[187] On every anniversary of the Armistice commemorative services are
held before it.
Memory also should be kept afresh of the names of eleven Loudoun men who
between them, for their services in the war, received no less than
nineteen American and foreign decorations: Colonel Arthur H. Carter,
Captain Edward C. Fuller, Major William Hanson Gill, William R. Grimes,
Samuel C. Hirst, First Lieutenant William P. Hulbert, First Lieutenant
James F. Manning, Jr., Colonel Thomas Bentley Mott, Bryant Rust, Captain
Edward H. Tebbs, Jr., and Lieutenant Colonel Harry Aubrey Toulmin. This
list is incomplete; as given it is copied from the publications of the
Virginia War History Commission, Source Volume I, 1923.
During the war, as Federal Food Administrator of Virginia, there also
served Colonel Elijah B. White of Selma so effectively that among the
recognitions of his work that he received was the Agricultural Order of
Merit bestowed by the Republic of France.
In 1918, in the midst of the war, a new State Administration assumed the
reins of government under the leadership of Westmoreland Davis of
Loudoun who became Governor of Virginia in that year and whose
administration was accepted by the people as efficient, sound and well
balanced.
In culture the county is recovering the position it proudly held one
hundred years ago before ground down by war and poverty. Its public
schools, then nonexistent, now under the supervision of Superintendent
O. L. Emerick, grow and improve and are supplemented by several
excellent private institutions of which Foxcroft, near Middleburg, has
been described and the very successful Llangollan School for younger
children, opened in 1937 near Leesburg by Mrs. Frances L. Patton (Miss
Louise D. Harrison) also may be mentioned. Loudoun has produced a naval
architect of international reputation in Lewis Nixon (1861- ), two well
known artists in Hugh A. Breckenridge (1870-1937) and the late Lucian
Powell and a number of writers upon her history whose works have been
referred to frequently in the foregoing pages. Supplementing her schools
and extending their educational work the county has two large libraries,
the older founded in Leesburg in 1907 as the Leesburg Library largely
through the efforts of the late Mrs. Levi P. Morton and her daughter,
Loudoun's benefactress, Mrs. William C. Eustis of Oatlands. In the year
1918 the Thomas Balch Library was incorporated and at once, on land
bought for that purpose through public subscription, the late Edwin
Swift Balch and Thomas Willing Balch of Philadelphia, sons of Thomas
Balch of international arbitration fame (who was born in Leesburg in
1821) began the construction for it of the beautiful library building on
West Market Street, Leesburg, which so enhances the charm of the town.
Mr. Waddy B. Wood, a Washington architect of recognized authority on the
early Federal period of American architecture, drew the plans and in
1922 the building was completed and dedicated and the collection of
books of the old Leesburg Library was presented and moved to the new
institution. That collection, since then much enlarged, now numbers well
over 10,000 volumes and is of a very definite value to town and
county.[188]
[188] For a history of the Library see article in _The Northern
Virginian_, Vol. 4, No. 1, p. 22, by the present author who is deeply
interested in the institution of which he has been President and a
Director since 1925. Of its fine collection of historical material on
Loudoun free use has been made in the present work.
There had been a small library at Purcellville for a number of years
when in 1919 it was reorganized as the Blue Ridge Library and continued
its activities until about 1926. There followed a period in which the
library was closed. Then in 1934, largely through the leadership of Mrs.
Clarence Robey, a Federal grant was obtained which, with about twice its
amount in many smaller private subscriptions, made possible the
completion in 1937 of the present imposing Purcellville Library building
at a cost of nearly $30,000. It is rapidly augmenting its collection of
books and to its primary function of library is adding that of civic
centre, where lectures, concerts and other entertainments are frequently
given and enthusiastically attended by the people of the neighbourhood.
The new building is expected to be dedicated during the summer of 1938.
St. John's Roman Catholic Church, the first of its faith in Loudoun, was
erected in Leesburg in 1878 and was dedicated on the 13th October of
that year by the Right Rev. John J. Keane who was an orator of wide
reputation and who later became the Archbishop of Dubuque. Among those
most active in raising the necessary funds for its construction was Miss
Lizzie C. Lee of Leesburg. Until 1894 mass was said but once a month by
priests who came from Harper's Ferry, West Virginia. In the latter year
it became a mission of St. James' Catholic Church at West Falls. Later,
through the untiring efforts of Father A. J. Van Ingelgem, masses were
said each Sunday. Father Van Ingelgem continued to guide the
congregation and church until Father Govaert was appointed the first
regular pastor in July, 1926. Soon thereafter the frame church was
greatly enlarged and beautified, largely through the generosity of the
late Mrs. Henry Harrison (Miss Anne Lee) of Leesburg, and was opened
with services conducted by the Right Rev. Andrew J. Brennan of Richmond.
At that same time the attractive rectory, adjoining the church, was also
opened. The Leesburg parish of this church covers a territory of 2,000
square miles, extends from the West Virginia line to that of Maryland
and operates two missions, one of which is at Herndon and the other at
Purcellville. The Rev. Father John S. Igoe, a native Virginian who
enjoys the affectionate esteem of the whole community, is the present
pastor.[189]
[189] I am indebted to Father Igoe and to Mr. John T. Hourihane of
Leesburg for the facts concerning St. John's.
As throughout Virginia, hospitality is inherent in the people of
Loudoun. Especially is this so at Christmas time when, from early days,
the old English custom of stopping all farm work (save only necessitous
care of the live stock) from Christmas Eve to the second day of January
still obtains. Then scattered Loudoun folk seek to return, if but for a
day, to their native soil bringing back with them friends and
acquaintances that they may show their birthright; then open house
prevails, time-honoured eggnogg and appletoddy greet all guests and the
Leesburg Assembly, following its custom handed down through the
generations, holds its eagerly awaited Christmas Ball.
With an unusually healthy climate the county is fortunate in the rarely
efficient and devoted corps of physicians, both general practitioners
and specialists, who faithfully guard the physical condition of its
people. Of their number the Virginia State Medical Society has honored
itself and Loudoun by electing as its President Dr. G. F. Simpson of
Purcellville. And to the marked ability of her physicians is added the
Loudoun Hospital, founded in 1912, first occupying a building on Market
Street, Leesburg, and later erecting and in 1917 moving into the fine
modern hospital building it now occupies. "To Mr. P. Howard Lightfoot's
interest and untiring efforts" wrote the hospital's historian "is due
the actual bringing together of those factors and conditions which
developed into the Leesburg Hospital." Now called the Loudoun County
Hospital, it has a large nurses' home, beautiful grounds, fruitful
gardens and withal has so splendidly grasped its opportunities for
service that it has become essential to the county's welfare. To the
physicians of the county, many very generous contributors and to the
selfless and untiring work of Loudoun's women may all this great success
be ascribed. To add to this full measure, Mrs. Eustis supports in memory
of her mother Mrs. Morton, a visiting nursing service in and around
Leesburg through which the kindly professional care of a registered
nurse (now Mrs. Louise King) is at all times at the disposal of the
people for cases of an emergency nature or those not needing continuous
attention, entirely without cost to the patient, irrespective of the
desire and ability of its beneficiaries to pay therefor.[190]
[190] For a history of the hospital see article by Mrs. Arthur M.
Chichester in _The Northern Virginian_, Vol. 4, No. 1, p. 25.
In this all too brief summary of her present day institutions at least a
word should be said of the county's banks. The Peoples National Bank,
the Loudoun National Bank, both in Leesburg; the Middleburg National
Bank, the Purcellville National Bank, the Hamilton National Bank and the
Round Hill National Bank, each in its community, serves the local
interest and all unite in this enviable record: that not one bank in the
County failed during the great financial depression of recent and
unhappy memory.
The exceptionally healthy climate, the rich and well watered lands of
Loudoun, together with the fine sport for horse lovers carried on
through its long hunting season, have proved a potent magnet to draw new
residents to the county. Country homes are constantly being created or
restored and surrounding farms are, for the most part, self-sustaining
and well handled. With Virginia's assumption of the rôle of a leader in
good roads, the old reproach of impassable highways has vanished.
And Loudoun is proud of her people. It is an American community, its
roots very deep in soil and tradition. It believes that it occupies that
part of the Commonwealth and Nation most conducive to a sane and healthy
life. Its sons and daughters sometimes, in following the beckoning
finger of fortune, wander far afield; but are prone to return equally
convinced with those who seldom leave the county that all in all no
better homeland anywhere can be found--devoutly believing that though
God might have made a fairer land, yet remaining strong in their
reasonable conviction that God never did.
INDEX
Abel, George, 223
Acquia Creek, 20
Adams, Francis, 127
Adams, George, 70
Adams, John, Pres't, 157
Adams, John Q., Pres't, 191, 193
Adams, Matthew, 167
Adams, Nathaniel, 126
Akernatatzy, 9
Alden, John, 42
Anderson, John, 79
Aldie, Battle of, 216
Aldie Castle, 167, 177
Aldie Manor, 177
Aldie Town, 62, 105, 167, 193, 214, 216, 217, 220
Aldridge, J. West, 216
Alexander, Ann, 160
Alexander, John, 127, 160
Alexander, John H., 203, 215
Alexander, John R. H., Judge and Mrs., x, 170, 216, 228
Alexandria, Christ Church, 119
Alexandria City, 86, 106, 119, 133, 166, 194
Alexandria, Loudoun and Hamp. R. R., 195, 229
Alexandria Pike, 21, 64, 66, 68, 74, 88, 90, 205
Alleghany River, 83
Algonquins, 2, 4, 16, 18, 20
Allen, Rev., 164
Alsop (Quoted), 15
Amidas, Philip, 10
Ameroleck, 7, 8
Anacostans, 20
Ancram, George, 131
Andrè, Major, 143 et seq.
Andrews, John, Rev., 72, 91
Anne, Queen, 45
Antietam Battle, 211
Appomattox, 221
Apprentices, 185, 186, 187
Arlington, Earl of, 14
Armand, Charles, 136
Armand's Legion, 136
Arnold, Benedict, 142 et seq.
Asbury, George, 127
Ashby's Gap, 39, 70, 99, 168, 218
Aubrey, Elizabeth, 42
Aubrey, Francis, 38, 39, 40, 42, 62, 72, 74, 120, 169, 173
Aubrey, Thomas, 120
Aubrey's Ferry, 120, 121
Austen, W., 186
Awsley, Henry, 125
Awsley, Poins, 125
Awsley, Thomas, 125
Bacon, Nathaniel, 16, 18
Bacon's Rebellion, 9, 15, 18
Bagley, John, 128
Bagnall, Anthony, 5
Baker, Col., 206
Balch, Edwin S., 231
Balch, L. P. W., 186
Balch, Thomas, 231
Balch, Thomas, Library, vii, ix, 231
Balch, Thomas W., 231
Ball, Burgess, Col., 168, 176, 182
Ball, Charles A., 229
Ball, Esther, 80
Ball, Fayette, 191, 196
Ball, George W., Capt., 170
Ball, James, 169
Ball, Mary, 38, 80
Ball, Samuel, 223
Ball, Sarah, 38
Ball, William, Col., 80, 168
Ball's Bluff, Battle of, 204
Baltimore, Lord, 43
Baltimore and Ohio R. R. Co., 194, 215
Bank of County, xii, 183, 203, 234
Baptists, 78 etc., 114
Barber, John, 81
Barksdale, Wm., Col., 204
Barlow, Arthur, 10
Bassell, John Y., 202
Bayley, Joseph, 125
Beard, Joseph, 184, 187
Beatty, Russell T., 229
Beatty, Thos., 127
Beaty, David, 128
Beaver, 2, 18
Beaver Dam, 70
Beavers, James, 126
Bell, John B., 187
Belle Air, 118
Belmont, 36, 171, 180, 193
Belmont Chapel, 171
Belvoir, viii, 73
Benham, Samuel, 125
Benham, Peter, 126
Bennett, Chas., 127
Bentley family, 172
Bentley, R. M., 223
Benton, Wm., 173, 174, 178
Berkeley, John, Sir, 12, 13
Berkeley, William, Sir, 8, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17
Berkeley, William N., 207
Berry, Withers, 128
Beauregard, Gen'l, 204
Beverley, Robert, 32, 55, 57
Big Spring, 38, 62, 63, 169, 211
Binns, Charles 102, 104, 159
Binns, Charles, Jr., 102, 128, 160, 164
Binns, John A., ix, 128, 159, et seq.
Bishop family, 82
Bladensburg, 179, 190
Blincoe, Sampson, 184
Bloomfield, 215, 228
Bloomfield Road, 220
Bluemont (see Snickersville), 70, 167, 229
Blue Ridge, 1, 29, 37, 39, 46, 49, 66, 72, 73, 79, 83, 92, 95, 115,
168, 214, 218
Blue Ridge Library, 232
Bohannan, A., Capt., 140
Booker, 131
Booram, Wm., 125
Boston, 124
Botts, Joshua, 126
Boundaries, 1, 23, 26, 65, 69, 159, 166
Boyne, Battle of, 52, 57
Braddock, Edward, Gen'l, 86
Braddock's Army, xi, 66, 86, 87
Braden, Robert, 157
Bradfield, Capt., 191
Brair, James, 125
Brady, E. B., Dr., 168
Breckenridge, Hugh A., 231
Brennan, Andrew J., Bishop, 232
Brent, Giles, 20
Brent Town, 53, 60
Bridges, 68
Broad Run, 38, 66, 69, 70
Broad Run Bridge, 66, 68
Broad Run Church (Baptist), 79
Bronaugh, William, 166
Brown, Mrs. (Journalist), 90
Brown, John's raid, 197
Brown, Stanley M., Mr. and Mrs., 176
Brown, William, 159
Brown's Crossing, 215
Buffalo, 1, 65
Bull Run, 39, 67, 99, 166, 204
Bull Run Battle (See Manassas), 29
Bull Run Mountains, 1, 214, 217, 219
Burgess, Chas., Col., 80, 81
Burkley, Scarlet, 126
Burnaby, Archdeacon, 228
Burns, Ignatius, 127
Burson, Aaron, 187
Butcher, Sam'l, 126
Butler, Joseph, 127, 128
Butler, Sam'l, 125
Caldwell, S. B. T., 188
Cameron, Barony, 34, 72
Cameron, Captain, 154
Cameron, Glebe, 116
Cameron Parish, 40, 72, 97, 114, 166
Campbell, Aeneas, 77, 96, 102, 103, 110, 170
Campbell County, 200
Campbell, John, Earl of Loudoun, x. (See Loudoun.)
Canals, 194, 195
Canavest. (See Conoy.)
Cardell, Presley, 184
Carlheim, 226, 227
Carnan, Wm., 126
Carnes, Capt., 146
Carney, John, 186
Carolina Road, 38, 42, 49, 60, 67, 105, 106, 120, 121, 172, 176,
178, 228
Carpetbaggers, 225, 226
Carr, Peter, 165
Carr, Sam'l, 184
Carrington, Timothy, 168
Carroll, Charles, 43
Carroll, Charles, of Carrollton, 43
Carter, Arthur H., Col., 230
Carter, Charles, 67
Carter, D., 187
Carter family, 35, 100
Carter, Francis M., 223
Carter, George of Eglesfeld, x
Carter, George of Oatlands, 36, 172, 185
Carter, John A., 197, 198
Carter, John R., Capt., 207
Carter, Robert, Councillor, 172
Carter, Robert, "King," 34, 35, 53, 67, 172
Carter, Robin, 67
Carter, Shirley, Dr. and Mrs., 177, 202
Carter's Mill, 166
Carthagena, 30, 59
Catawbas, 63, 64
Catoctin Church, 79
Catoctin Furnace Co., 195
Catoctin Hills, 1, 32, 46, 49, 65, 71, 73, 162, 201
Catoctin Run, 47, 69, 70, 73, 195
Caton, Jacob, 127
Cattle, 228
Cattle thieves, 61
Cavaliers, 12, 13, 18
Cavan, P., 131, 132
Cavan vs. Murray, 107
Cedar Creek, 218
Celden, W. C., 182
Centreville, 217
Champ, John, Sgt. Major, 142, et seq.
Champ, John, Mrs., 155, 156
Champ, Nathaniel, 157
Champ, William, 158
Champ's Spring, 157
Chancellor, Ashby, Mrs., x
Chapawamsic, Baptists, 80
Chapel above Goose Creek, 39, 62, 169
Charles I, 11, 51
Charles II, 12, 13, 14, 17
Cherokees, 2
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, 194
Chesapeake Bay, 5
Cheat Mountain, 176
Chestnut Hill, 74, 175
Chicheley, Henry, Sir, 17
Chichester, Arthur M., Sr., Capt., 202
Chichester, Arthur M., Jr., Mrs., 234
Chichester, George M., Capt., 191, 196
Chinn family, 142
Chinn, Joseph, 81, 166
Chinn, Raleigh, I, 80, 81
Chinn, Raleigh, II, 82
Chinn, Thomas, 81, 125
Christmas, 233
Churches, Christ at Lucketts, 62, 164
Churches, (See separate names or locations.)
Church Disestablishment, 159, 196
Civil War, viii, 50, 170, 176, 195, 197, etc.
Claggett, Henry, Dr., 196
Claggett, H. O., Capt., 202
Clapham family, 74, 142
Clapham, Josias, Sr., 74
Clapham, Josias, Jr., Col., 74, 96, 102, 112, 121, 122, 126, 134,
136, 138, 141, 166, 175, 179
Clapham, Josias, Jr., Mrs., 134
Clapham, Samuel, 74, 175, 184
Clapham's Ferry, 121
Clapper, J., Dr., 186
Clark's Gap, 65
Clayton, Amos, 168
Clergy, Established Church, 130
Cleveland, James, 127
Clifford, Obadiah, 165
Climate, 1
Clinton, Henry, Sir., 143, et seq.
Clyburn, Charles E., 229
Clover, 160, 162, 229
Cochran, Chas F., 107
Cochran, James, 168
Cocke, Catesby, 47, 70, 72
Cocke, William, Dr., 71
Cockerell, Capt., 192
Cole, Josiah, 49
Colechester Road, 65, 67
Coleman, James, 105, 127
Coleman, Richard, 89, 91, 102
Colepeper, 1st Lord, 12
Colepeper, 2nd Lord, 14, 17, 32
Colepeper, Alexander, 17, 33
Colepeper, Catharine, Lady Fairfax, 32, 34
Colepeper, Margaret, Lady, 32, 33
Colepeper, Thomas, 12
Colvil, Thomas, 40, 73
Colvin, John, 71, 72, 73
Colvin, John B., 160
Combs, Joseph, 125
Combs, Robert, 125
Combs, Stephen, 125
Committee of Correspondence, 125
Committee of Safety, 131, 132, 133, 134, 136, 139
Compher, John, 223
Confederate sentiment, 201
Conklin, Thubert H., 229
Conoy Island, 21, et seq., 24, 25, 26, 65
Conrad, 186
Conrad, Daniel P., 187
Conrad family, 210
Conrad's Ferry, 210
Conrod, Edward, 167
Conscription, 88
Conservation Commission, vii
Conservative Party, 225
Convicts, 44, 56, 138, 139
Cook, William, 167
Cooper, Alexander, 133
Cooper, Appollos, 125
Cooper, Neally M., 134
Copeland, Richard, 167
Copper, 67, 73
Corn, 53, 54, 162, 229
Cornelison, John, 127
Cornwallis, Lord, 30, 153
Cost, Thos. J., 223
Coton, 35, 36, 171
Country homes, vii, 168, 234
County Clerk's Office, 184
County Officers, First, 102, etc.
County records, 200, 223
Courthouse, First, 108
Courthouse Church services, 164
Courtald, S. A., 90
Covenanters, 51
Cox, Samuel, 126
Craighill, G. P., Rev., x
Cresswell, Joseph, x
Cresswell, Nicholas, xii, 74, 77, 128, et seq., 136, 164
Cromwell, Oliver, 13, 34, 57
Cromwell, Richard, 13
Crooked Billet, 134
Crown Point, 85
Cub Run, 70
Culpeper. (See Colepeper.)
Culture, 185
Cumberland, Duke of, 85
Cumberland, Maryland, 84
Curtin, Mathew, 229
Custer, Gen'l, 215
Dairy Cattle, 228
Darnes, Leonard, 229
Davis, James, 126
Davis, John, Capt., 140
Davis, Richard T., Rev. Dr., 226, 227
Davis, Westmoreland, Governor, 177, 230
Davis, William, Col., 140
Dawson, Franklin L., 230
Debell, John, 127
Debell, William, 127
DeButts, Lawrence, Rev., 39
Deck, Patrick A., iii, 212
Declaration of Independence, 43, 133, 172, 180
Deer, 2
Dehaven, Abraham, 128
Dehaven, Isaac, 128
Delancey, Governor of New York, 86
Delawares, 64
Democrats, 182, 188, 226
Derry, John P., 223
Deserters, 212
Detroit, 157, 158
Deven, Gen'l, 221
Devens, Col., 206
Difficult Run, 40, 68, 69, 72, 73, 87, 97, 98, 115
Dinker, John, 126
Dinosaurs, 178
Dinwiddie, Governor, 83, 84, 86
Disfranchisement, 222
Diskin, Daniel, 70
Distilleries, 89, 186
Dixon, Joseph, 77, 170
Dizerega family, 179
Doctors, 186
Dodd, John, 126
Doeg, 9, 16
Dogi, 9
Dongan, Governor, 18
Dorman, George, 138
Douglas, Earl of, 77
Douglas, George H., 27
Douglass, Hugh, 77, 126, 127, 128
Douglass, William, 77, 131, 134
Downey, Wm. B., 223
Drake, Jonathan, 125
Drake, Thomas, 125
Dranesville, 204
Drish, W., 187
Drunkenness, 131
Dry Mill Road, 65
Ducking-spring, 102, 211
Ducks, Wild, 26, 130
Dudley, Thos., 82
Duelling, 190
Duffy, A. N., Col., 217
Duffy, Capt., 205
Dulaney, Benj., 159
Dunbar, Col., 86
Dunn, Rev., 196
Dutch, 15, 60
Eagle Tavern, 186
Early, Gen'l, 218
East India Co., 104
Edwards, Samuel W., 186
Edwards, Thomas W., Mr. and Mrs., vi
Edwards Ferry, 205
Elgin, Francis, Jr., 127
Elgin, Gustavus, 126, 128
Elizabeth, Queen, 10, 11, 51
Elk Lick, 67
Elk Marsh, 53
Elliott, William, 126
Ellzey, Catharine, 175
Ellzey family, 25, 40, 142
Ellzey, William, 104, 125, 159, 175, 179
Ely's Corner, 65
Emerick, Oscar L., x, xii, 231
Enfranchisement of Confederates, 226
English Board of Agriculture, 161
Episcopal Theological Seminary Library, 117
Eskridge, Chas. G., 126
Eskridge, George, 72
Eustis, William C., Mr. and Mrs., 172, 231, 233
Evans, Nathaniel G., Gen'l, 204, et seq.
Evans, Thomas, 42
Exeter, 176, 204
Fairfax, Calharme, Lady, 32, 34
Fairfax Family, Sketch, 33
Fairfax, Ferdinando, 2nd Lord, 34
Fairfax, 5th Lord, 33, 34
Fairfax, George W., 67, 73
Fairfax, Henry, Col., 178
Fairfax, John M., Col., 178, 202
Fairfax, Richard, 33
Fairfax, Thomas, 1st Lord, 33
Fairfax, Thomas, 3rd Lord, 34
Fairfax, Thomas, 6th Lord, 18, 33, 35, 107, 122, 228
Fairfax, William, 35, 72, 73
Fairfax County, 40, 69, 71, 87, 89, 96, 97, 102, 113, 159, 166, 207
Fairfax County Court, 69, 113
Fairfax Courthouse, 67, 89
Fairfax, Glebe, 196
Fairfax Meeting, 78
Falkner, 91
Farnesworth, Henry, 126
Fauna, 1, 2
Fauntleroy, Chas. M., Col., 202
Fauquier County, 99, 207, 220
Featherstone, W. S., Col., 204
Federalists, 179, 188
Fendall, Arthur, Mrs., 175
Fendall, Thomas M., x, 25, 190
Fendall, Thomas M., Mrs., 25
Fenton, Enoch, 223
Ferries, 68, 120, et seq., 168
Ferries, Clapham's, 121
Ferries, Edwards, 205
Ferries, Noland's, 113, 120, et seq., 131, 139, 140, 217
Ferries, Point of Rocks, 120
Ferries, Snickers, 168
Ferries, Vestal's, 66
Fevers, 163
Finnekin, William, 125
First Colony, 11
Fitzhugh, William, 169
Flat Spring, 74
Flemming, John, 230
Foley, Mr., 186
Forbas, John, 139
Forbes, Gen'l, 94
Fords, 68, 210
Forests, 1, 154
Forests Burned, 6, 9, 13
Forsyth, Jas. W., Lieut. Col., 219
Fort Beauregard, 204
Fort Cumberland, 93
Fort Du Quesne, xi, 85, 86, 93, 100
Fort Evans, 204, 205
Fort Johnston, 204
Fort Necessity, 66, 84, 85
Fort Niagara, 85
Fort Ontario, 100
Fort Oswego, 100
Foundling, John, 167
Fox, George, 48
Fox, George K., Jr., 200, 223 et seq.
Foxcroft, xii, 172, 228, 231
Foxes, 2
Fox-hunting, 59, 227, 228
Franklin, B. W., 108
Frasier, Herod, 223
Frederick, 160
Freedman's Bureau, 225
French, Mr., 40
French and Indian War, 72, 83
French and Indians, 46
Fruitland, 88, 89, 91, 107
Fulford, John, Major, 103
Fuller, Edward C., Capt., 230
Furr, Enoch, 128
Furr, Fenton, 223
Fry, Joshua, Col., 66, 84
Fry, Major, 90
Fry-Jefferson Map, 66
Frying Pan Run, 67
Gage, Lieut. Col., 86
Garalland, 77, 131
Garden Club of Virginia, vii
Garver, Henry, 223
Gates, General, 143
Geese, Wild, 26, 130
"Genius of Liberty," 183, 188
George II, King, 107
George III, King, xi
George, Wallace, 204
George, William, 128
Georgetown, D. C., 66, 180
Georgetown, Virginia, 68, 106
German Reformed Church, 80
German Settlement, 46, 80
Germans, 45, 72, 80, 114, 135, 159, 166, 185, 201, 223
Gerrard, John, Rev., 79
Gettysburg, Battle of, 207, 216, 218
Gibbs, James L., 128
Gibson, Capt., 211
Gibson, David, 167
Gibson, Harry P., Dr., 216
Gibson, Henry C., 216
Gibson, John A., Dr., 216
Giddings family, 104
Giddings, William, Col., 201
Gilbert, Ernest, 230
Gilbert, Humphrey, Sir, 10
Gilbert, Silas, 128
Gill, Wm. H., Major, 230
Gold, 13
Goodhart, Briscoe, ix, 139, 201, 209
Gore (Coachman), 92
Gore, Coleman, Mr. and Mrs., 175
Goose Creek, 1, 25, 37, 62, 63, 69, 70, 80, 112, 141
Goose Creek and Little River Navigation Company, 195
Goose Creek Meeting, 78
Gough, Gilbert H., 230
Gouveneur, Mrs., 178
Govaert, Rev. Fr., 232
Graffenreid, Christopher, Baron de, 25
Graham, Margaret, 120
Grant of 1649, 12
Grant of 1669, 14, 15
Grant of 1673, 14, 15
Grant, Isaac, 126
Grant, Jasper, 126
Grant, U. S., Gen'l, 218
Grass, 1, 229
Gray, Grover C., 230
Gray, John, 184
Gray, William H., 223
Graydey, James, 125
Grayson, Alex., Capt., 207
Grayson, Benjamin, 71, 72, 118
Grayson, Spence, Rev., 118
Grayson, William, Col., 71, 118, 135
Great Hunting Creek, 73
Great Meadows, 85
Great Spring. (See Big Spring.)
Green, Charles, Rev. Dr., 40, 118
Green, Colonel, 135
Green, Nathaniel, Gen'l, 154
Greenback raid, 215
Greenway, 63, 203
Gregory's Gap, 73
Griffin, Walter's Rolling Road, 67
Griffith, David, Rev. Dr., 118, 132
Griggs, G. M., Gen'l, 216
Grimes, William R., 230
Grubb, John, 223
Guerillas, 219
Gun factory, 136
Gunn, John, 139
Gypsum. See Plaster(land)
Habeas Corpus in Virginia, 27
Hague, Francis, 112
Hale, Horatio, x
Halkett, James, 94
Halkett, Peter, Sir., xi, 66, 86, 87, 92, etc.
Halkett, Peter, Sir, (Jr.), 95
Halifax, 101
Hall, James, Rev. Dr., 165
Hall, Wilbur C., vii, x
Hall, William, Jr., 70
Hamilton, James, 96, 102, 104, 109, 112, 113
Hamilton Parish, 39
Hamilton Town, 168, 212
Hammerley, Nellie, Miss, x
Hampton, Anthony, 69
Hancock, John, 133
Hancock, Lina, 125
Hanson, Richard, 125
Harding, John I., 184
Hardy, Leonard H., 230
Harper, Capt., 61
Harper, John, 159
Harper's Ferry, xi, 73, 197, 207, 232
Harris, H. B., 204
Harrison, Burr, 21, 24, 65
Harrison, Burr (2nd), 173
Harrison, Burr W., 186, 212
Harrison, Catharine, Mrs., 175
Harrison, Charles F., x, 212
Harrison, Cuthbert, 25
Harrison, Fairfax, viii, ix, 12, 67, 72
Harrison, Harry T., 184
Harrison, Henry, Mrs., 232
Harrison, Henry T., 210
Harrison, John Peyton, 125, 166
Harrison, Lalla, Miss (Mrs. White), 177
Harrison, Louise D., Miss (Patton), 231
Harrison, Mathew, 25, 175
Harrison, Rebecca, Miss, vii
Harte, John, 69
Hassininga, 6
Hawling, William, 69
Haxall, Bolling W., Major, 230
Hazen, E., 185
Head, James W., viii, 13, 32, 123, 126, 213
Heale, William, 166
Helm, L. C., 202
Heaton, Henry, ix, 212
Heaton, Nathaniel, Capt., 207
Henderson, Richard H., 184, 186, 191
Henderson, Samuel, 125
Henry, Capt., 192
Henry, John, 126
Henry, Patrick, 129
Hepburn, Thos., 167
Hessian Fly, 163
Hessian Prisoners, 139
Hews, Edward, 70
Hexon, James, 167
Highwaymen, 61
Highways, vii, 60, et seq.
Hill, Lysander, Judge, 224
Hillsborough, 65, 167, 186
Hinds, David, 138
Hirst, Richard, 126
Hirst, Samuel C., 230
Hixon, Timothy, 128
Hoban, James, 178
Hoboken, 153
Hoffman family, 170
Hoge, Ei J., 123
Hogs, 120, 228
Holmes, John, Rev., 40
Holmes, Oliver W., Justice, 206
Hopkins, David, 127
Hopkins, John G., 171
Hopton, Ralph, Lord, 12
Horses, 59, 184, 227, 228
Horse Racing, 184
Horse Shows, 227, 228
Horse thieves, 61, 212
Hough, Emerson, 82
Hough, Frank, Lieut., 229
Hough, John, 82, 107, 113, 159, 167
Hough, Joseph, 128
Hough, Mahlon, 167
Hough, Robert H., 187
Hough, Thomas, 167
Hough, William, 166
Hough's Tavern, 186
Hourihane, John T., 233
Howard of Effingham, Lord, 18, 28
Howe, Lord, 129, 154
Huchison, Andrew, 106
Huchison, Daniel, 106
Huchison family, 106
Huchison, J. R., Capt., 202
Huchison, John, 106
Huchison, William, 127, 128
Hugh, John, 112
Hull, Samuel, 40, 42
Hull's Army, 157
Humphrey, 186
Humphrey, Alexander P., 229
Humphrey, Benj. I., 125
Humphreys, John, 184
Humphries, Capt., 192
Hulbert, Wm. P., Lieut., 230
Hunting Creek, 65
Hunton, Eppa, Gen'l, 204, 206, 207, 209, 224
Hurley, Patrick J., Col. and Mrs., 171
Igoe, John S., Rev., 233
Indentured servants, 53, 88
Indians, 1, 12, 15, 18, 20, 85, 89, 99
Indian Mounds, 63
Indian Tribes, Akernatatzy, 9
Indian Tribes, Algonquins, 2, 3, 4, 16, 18, 20
Indian Tribes, Anacostans, 20
Indian Tribes, Catawbas, 63
Indian Tribes, Cherokees, 2
Indian Tribes, Delawares, 64
Indian Tribes, Doegs, 9, 16
Indian Tribes, Dogi, 9
Indian Tribes, Hassininga, 6, 7
Indian Tribes, Iroquois, 2, 3, 4, 6, 9, 15, 16, 18, 20, 24, 60
Indian Tribes, Mahocs, 9
Indian Tribes, Managogs, 9
Indian Tribes, Manahoacks, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 15, 18, 32, 60
Indian Tribes, Mangoacks, 9
Indian Tribes, Massawomecks (See Iroquois)
Indian Tribes, Monacans, 6, 8, 9
Indian Tribes, Nacothtanks, 20
Indian Tribes, Nahyssans, 9
Indian Tribes, Nantaughtacunds, 6
Indian Tribes, Nanticokes, 9
Indian Tribes, Nottoways, 2
Indian Tribes, Nuntaneuck, 9
Indian Tribes, Nuntally, 9
Indian Tribes, Piscataways, 20, 21
Indian Tribes, Potomacs, 7
Indian Tribes, Powhatans, 3, 6
Indian Tribes, Sapon, 9
Indian Tribes, Senecas, 16, 21, 24
Indian Tribes, Shakahonea, 6
Indian Tribes, Sioux, 3
Indian Tribes, Stegarake, 4
Indian Tribes, Stegora, 6
Indian Tribes, Susquehannocks, 2, 9, 15, 16, 18, 20, 24, 28, 60
Indian Tribes, Tacci, 9
Indian Tribes, Tauxuntania, 6
Indian Tribes, Tuskaroras, 2
Innes, James, Col., 86
Intermarriage, 37
Irish, 43, 114, 138
Iroquois, 2, 3, 4, 6, 9, 15, 16, 18, 20, 24, 60
Iselin, Oliver, 82
Jackson, Andrew, Gen'l, xi, 189
Jackson, Level, 70
Jackson, Stonewall, Gen'l, 210
Jail, County, 102, 110
James I, 11, 51
James II, 44, 58
James River, 12
Janney, Amos, 47, 69
Janney, Charles P., 223, 224
Janney, Hannah, Mrs., 78
Janney, Jacob, 78
Janney, John, xii, 167, 197, 198, 226
Janney, Joseph, 132, 159, 223
Janney, Lilias, Miss, x
Janney, Mahlon, 166
Janney, Samuel, 167
Janney, Stephen, 168
Jefferson, Thomas, President, 129, 133, 161, et seq., 178
Jeffries, Herbert, Sir, 17
Jenifer, W. H., Col., 204, 205
Jenings, Edmund, 34
Jermyn, Lord, 12, 13
Johnson, Bradley T., Col., 208
Johnson, George, 126, 131
Johnson, Joseph, 39, 42
Johnson, Rebecca, 120
Johnson, Robert, 126
Johnson, W., 131
Johnson, William, Col., 86
Johnson, Valentine B., 230
Johnston, Frances B., Miss, xii
Johnston, Joseph E., Gen'l, 204
Jones, Rev., 118
Jones, James G., 187
Jones, John, Jr., 127
Jones, William E., Gen'l, 208
Jumonville, 85
Keane, John J., Bishop, 232
Keith, Donald, 139
Keith, James, 104
Kelly, William, 139
Kendrick, John, 125
Kennan, Thos., 128
Kentucky, 81, 157, 159
Kercheval, Sam'l, 137
Ketocton. (See Catoctin.)
Key's, Gap, 66
Key's Gap Ferry, 88, 90
Keys, Gersham, 66
Key's plantation, 92
Kile (See Kyle), John, 173, 174
Kile, John, Jr., 173, 174
Kilgour, George, 127
Kilpatrick, Hugh J., Gen'l, 211, 216, 217
King George County, 99
King, Louise, Mrs., 234
King, Smith, 128
King, Thomas, 126, 128
King, William, 186
Kirk, Mr., 130, 131
Krebs, Henry, 185
Kyle family, 173. (See Kile)
Labour supplies, 54
Lacey, Israel, 167
Lacey's Ordinary, (See West's)
Lafayette, de Marquis, 140, 171, 178, 191, et seq.
Lancaster County, 99
Lancaster, T. A., Jr., 170
Lane, Hardage, 126
Lane, James, 126
Lasswell, Jacob, 70
Lasswell, John, 69
Lawrence, Mrs., 192
Lawyers, 186
Lederer, John, 8
Lee, Alexander L., 223
Lee, Anne, Miss, 232
Lee family, 35, 100, 142
Lee, Fitzhugh, Gen'l, 216
Lee, Francis Lightfoot, 104, 110, 112, 129, 133
Lee, Henry, Gen'l, ix, 142
Lee, Lawrence R., 204
Lee, Lizzie A., Miss, 232
Lee, Ludwell, 36, 171, 180, 193
Lee, Philip Ludwell, 111
Lee, Richard Bland, 166
Lee, Richard Henry, 71, 171
Lee, Robert E., Gen'l, 142, 170, 176, 208, 210, 214, 216, 218
Lee, Thomas, 34, 35, 42, 104
Lee, Thomas Ludwell, 36, 171
Lee-Jackson Highway, 62, 228
Leesburg, vii, 62, 65, 68, 75, 105, 107, 111 et seq., 119, 129, 134,
140, 141, 164, 165, 172, 179, 180, 190, 191 et seq., 195, 198,
203, 205, 206, 211, 228, 232
Leesburg Academy, 184, 192
Leesburg Assembly, 233
Leesburg, Battle of, 211
Leesburg Industries, 186
Leesburg Institute, 193
Leesburg, King Street, 62, 113
Leesburg Library, 231
Leesburg, Loudoun Street, 65, 75
Leesburg, nursing service, 233
Leesburg, pavements, 183
Leesburg, Postmasters, 179
Leesburg Railroad Company, 195
Leesburg, stockade, 112
Leesburg, taverns, 43
Leesburg, and Snickers Gap Turnpike Co., 66
Leslie, Thomas, 167
Letcher, Governor, 207
Lewis, Betty, Mrs., 172
Lewis, Daniel, 126
Lewis, Thomas, 126, 179
Liberia, 194
Library of Congress, ix, x, xii, 90, 101, 108, 161, 182, 183
Lightfoot, P. Howard, 233
Little River, 67, 69, 70
Little River Turnpike, 62, 67, 167, 216
Little Rocky Run, 67
Littlejohn, Rev., 180
Littleton, Frank C., Mr. and Mrs., x, xi, 178, 179
Littleton, Frank C., Jr., 179
Littleton, John, 128
Limestone Run, 69, 75, 77, 169
Lincoln, Town of, 168
Linden, 214
Lintner, J. Ross, x
Linton, John, 127
Lipscomb, Wm. H., Mr. and Mrs., 171
Llangollan, 174
Llangollan Races, 175, 228
Llangollan School, 231
Log houses, 31, 185
London Company, 11
London Magazine, v
Loomis, John T., iv
Lotteries, 183
Loudermilk & Company, iv
Loudoun County Hospital, 233
Loudoun, Earl of, x, 77, 100
Loudoun Hunt, 171, 228
Loudoun, Mirror, 183
Loudoun, Railroad Company, 77
Loudoun, Rangers, 202, 209
Loudoun, System, 163
Loudoun, Valley, 49
Louis Philippe, 170
Louisburg, 101
Love, Sam, 138
Lovettsville, Town, 168, 221
Loyalists, 138
Loyd, John, 79
Luckett, Sam'l C., 223
Lucketts, 62
Luttrell, Thos., 125
Lutz, Francis A., 170
Lutz, Samuel S., Mrs., 170
Lynn, B. W., Lieut., 202
Lynsville Creek, 79
MacCormack, John, 165
Madison, Dolly, Mrs., 180
Madison, James, President, 179, 180
Maffet, Josias, 127
Magisterial Districts, 69
Mahoc, 9
Managog, 9
Manahoacks, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 15, 18, 32, 60, 174
Manassas, Battle, 204
Manassas Gap R. R. Co., 218
Mangoack, 9
Mankin, Chas. L., 223
Manning, James F., Jr., 230
Manors, 36
Mansions, County, Erection of, 159 et seq.
Maps, Emerick, x
Maps, Fry and Jefferson, 66
Maps, Graffenreid, 25
Maps, Leesburg, First, 107
Maps, Taylor, viii
Marks, John, 79
Marks, Thomas, 127
Marshall, John, Ch. J., 81, 174
Marshall, Thomas, Col., 81
Marshall, Town of, 214
Martin, Jacob, 186
Martin, Lawrence, Col., 108
Martin, W. H., Mr. and Mrs., 63
Martz, Robert, 229
Maryland boundary, 26
Maryland, Invasion of, 210, 216
Mason, Abraham B. T., 169
Mason, Ann Thomson, Mrs., 74, 75, 76, 77, 177
Mason, Armistead T., Gen'l, 170, 177, 179, 188 et seq.
Mason, Armistead T., Mrs., 190
Mason family, 75, 76, 142
Mason, George, 126, 188
Mason, George III, 75
Mason, George IV, of Gunston, 75, 188
Mason, John, Mrs., x
Mason, Mary, 75
Mason, Stevens T., 169, 170, 177, 179
Mason, Thomas F., 174, 175
Mason, Thomson, 74, 75, 76, 77, 129, 132, 133, 135, 136, 169, 170, 176
Mason, Thomson S., 76, 103, 111, 125
Mason, William T., 128
Mason, W. T. T., 193
Mason-McCarty Duel, 38, 177, 183, 188 et seq.
Massawomecks. (See Iroquois)
Massey, Lee, 104
Mathews, Governor, 13
Mathews, Thos., 131, 132
Matthews, Richard, 167
May, Jonathan C., 187
Mayfield, 170
McArdell, P., xi
McCabe, Capt., 131
McCabe, Mrs., 185
McCall, Gen'l, 205
McCarty, Daniel, 37, 44, 188
McCarty, Dennis, Col., 38
McCarty family, 37
McCarty, John M., Col., 170, 177, 188 et seq.
McCarty, William M., 192
McCarty-Mason Duel, 38, 177, 183 et seq.
McClain, Robt., 126
McClellan, Geo. B., Gen'l, 204
McClellan, H. B., 217
McClellan, William, 126, 128
McCormick, Helen, Miss, 192
McGeath, John, 127
McGeath, William, 127
McGolerick, Judge, 229
McGuinn, John O., 229
McIntosh, Alex., 139
McIntyre, Patrick, 182
McKay, Hugh, 139
McLeod, Dan'l, 139
McLeod, John, 139
McLeod, John, Jr., 139
McLlaney, James, 127, 128
McVicker, John, 125
Mead family, 64
Mead, Bishop, 196
Meade, Gen'l, 281
Means, Sam'l C., Capt., 202
Mercer, Chas. F., 167, 177, 184, 193
Mercer family, 142, 167
Mercer, James, 194
Mercer, John, 72, 194
Mercer, John F., Gov'r, 171
Mercer, Margaret, Miss, 171
Mercer, William F., 223
Merritt, Gen'l, 218, 219
Metcalf, Joseph, 79
Methodists, 130, 164, 165
Methuen, Paul, 28
Metzger, W. A., Justice, iv
Middleburg, 81, 166, 172, 173, 216, 220, 227, 228
Middleburg, Battle of, 216, 217
Middleburg Hunt, xi, 174, 216, 228
Middleton, Cornet, 147
Middleton, John, 70
Miles, Josiah, 126
Milhollen, Hirst, x
Military Organizations, Civil War, 201 et seq.
Military Organizations, Colonial Rangers, 23
Military Organizations, French and Indian War, 84, 86
Military Organizations, Revolution, 126, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136,
138, 141, etc., 169
Military Organizations, War of 1812, 157, 179, 194
Military Organizations, World War, 229
Militia, 123, 132 etc., 201 et seq.
Mill Creek, 79
Millan, Thos., 127
Miller, Edward, 125
Miller, John, 126
Miller, Thomas, Dr., 175
Miller, Virginia, Miss, 175
Mills, Samuel, 125
Milstead, Harry, 229
Mines, John, Rev., 165
Mines, John K., 186
Minor, Nicholas, 89, 95, 96, 102, 107, 108, 109, 112, 127
Minor, Thomas, 127
Mix, Lewis & Co., 186
Moffet, Mr., 130
Mohascahod, 6
Monacans, 6, 8, 9
Monakin, 9
Moncure, John, Rev., 76
Monguagon, Battle of, 158
Monocacy, 43, 62, 210, 218
Monongahela River, 83
Monroe, James, Pres't, x, 178, 179 191 et seq., 193
Monroe, Susan, 118
Monroe Doctrine, 178
Monroe Highway, 134
Morton, John, 125
Morton, Levi P., Mrs., 231, 233
Morton, Richard L., 224
Morton, William, Sir, 12
Montgomery, J. S., Rev., 4
Montressor, 77
Mooney, Jas., 3, 4, 9
Moore, Asa, 45
Moore, Captain, 192
Moore, James, Dr., 217
Moore, John D., Mrs., x
Moore, M. Bernhard, 30
Moore, William, 69
Moraughtacund, 8
Morison, Murdock, 139
Morris, Governor, Pa., 86
Morris, Mahlon, 167
Morrisonville, 46
Morrisworth, 175, 204
Morven Park, 62, 177
Moryson, Francis, 14
Mosby, John S., Col., ix, 203, 213 et seq.
Mosby's Confederacy, 214, 218
Mosby's Rangers, 203, 214 et seq., 220
Mosco, 5, 6
Moss, John, 96, 102, 105, 113
Moss, John, Jr., 86, 111
Moss, William, 96
Mott, T. R., 183
Mott, Thos. B., Col., 230
Mount Defiance, 82
Mount Pleasant, 35
Mount Recovery, 82
Mount Vernon, 129
Moxley, John, 42
Mucklehany, John, 102
Munford, Col., 209
Murray, Mr., 188
Myers, Albert J., Major, 210
Myers, F. M., Capt., ix, 208
Myers, Mahlon, 204
Nahyssan, 9
Nalle, B. F., Mr. and Mrs., 102, 172
Nalle, Edward N., 229
Nantaughtacund, 6
Nanticoke, 9
National Portrait Gallery, xi
Necessary house, 111
Negroes, 12, 56, 59, 139, 141, 182, 185, 194, 203, 225
Neilson, Hugh, 131, 135
Nelson, Arthur, 120
Newport, Christopher, Sir, 11
Newspapers, 182
Nichols, Edw. H., 230
Nicholson, Governor, 21
Nixon, Asbury M., 223
Nixon, Lewis, 231
Noland, Charlotte H., Miss, 172, 173, 228
Noland family, 142
Noland House, 42, 62, 139
Noland, James, 125
Noland, Phillip, 42, 69, 72, 120, 173
Noland, Pierce, 178
Noland, Samuel, 128
Noland, Thomas, 121
Noland, William, 167
Noland's Ferry, 113, 120 et seq., 131, 139, 140, 217
Norbeck, Wm. F., 108
Norfolk System, 163
Nornail, Wm., 125
Norris, Samuel, 65
Northern Neck, (See also Proprietary), 9, 13, 14, 15, 32, 53, 65,
72, 73, 104, 114, 140
Northumberland County, 12, 99
Nottoways, 2
Numtaneuck, 9
Nuntally, 9
Oak Hill, x, xi, xii, 62, 178, etc., 191
Oatlands, 36, 62, 172, 231
Ockoquan River, 39, 67, 99
Ogden, David, 187
Ohio Company, 84
Oliphant, Sam'l, 127
O'Neal, Edward, 125
Oneale, Conn., 127
Opossum, 2
Orchards, Apple, 163, 228
Orchards, Peach, 130
Ordinaries, 62, 67, 104 et seq., 134, 228
Organization of County, 97
Orkney, Earl of, 27
Osburn, Craven, 168
Osburn family, 70
Osburn, Richard, 70
Otter, 2, 18
Overfield, Benj., 125
Owsley, John, 96
Ox Road, 67
Paeonian Springs, 65
Page, Frederick, Mrs., x
Page, Mann, 169, 176
Palatinate, 45
Palma, Valta, x
Parishes, 97
Parliament, (See Puritans), 12, 13, 57
Patterson, Flemming, 134
Patton, Francis, Mrs., 231
Paulus Hook, 143, 147, 148
Paxton, Chas., Mr. and Mrs., 226, 227
Paxton Memorial Home, 226, 227
Payne, Linwood, 230
Payne, Wm. H., Gen'l, 202
Payne's Church, 67
Peach Orchards, 130
Peers, H., 186
Peers, Mrs., 185
Penn, William, 49
Pepperell, Wm., Sir, 101
Perfect, Chro., 136
Perry, Micajah, 35
Petersburg, 153
Peugh, Sam'l, 125
Peyton, Francis, 102, 123, 125, 126, 166
Peyton family, 142
Pickett's Charge, 207
Piedmont Manor, 73
Pioneers, 31, 43
Piscataway Creek, 20
Piscataways, 20, 21, 24
Pittsburg, 83
Plantations, 1, 168
Plains, The, 20, 214
Plaster, (Land), 160 et seq.
Pleasanton, Gen'l, 217
Pleasanton, Stephen, 180
Plymouth Company, 11
Point of Rocks, 21, 42, 43, 74, 120, 175, 195
Point of Rocks Bridge, 120, 121, 196
Pope's Head, 70
Population, 72, 123
Postmasters, 179
Potomac Company, 159, 194
Potomac Islands, 26
Potomac River, 1, 20 etc., 25, 26, 29, 43, 65, 98, 120, 141, 159,
169, 195, 204, 208, 210, 219
Potomacs, 7
Potts, David, 47
Poultry, 228
Powell, Burr, 82, 166
Powell, Cuthbert, 174, 192
Powell, Elisha, 174
Powell family, 142, 174
Powell, Leven, Col., 81, 125, 126, 136, 159 166, 173, 174, 179
Powell, Lucian, 231
Powell, Mary, 174
Powell, Nathaniel, 5, 174
Powell, William, 81, 174
Powell, Winney, Miss, 174
Powell vs. Chinn, 81
Powhatans, 3, 6
Presbyterians, 51, 52, 114, 165
Price, Betsy, 74, 175
Prince William County, ix, 21, 39, 42, 71, 99, 141, 207
Primogeniture, 75
Prior, James, 167
Profiteers, War, 137
Proprietary, (also see Northern Neck), ix, 9, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17,
18, 32, 34
Purcell, Thos., 167
Purcell, Samuel, 167
Purcellville, 168, 218
Purcellville Library, 232
Puritans, 12, 13, 18
Putman, Herbert, Dr. 108
Quakers, ii, 32, 45, 47, 48, 78, 91, 92, 114, 123, 132, 166, 188,
201, 223
Quaker Settlement, 32, 49, 50, 70, 159, 185
Quantico, 71
Racoons, 2
Raiding parties, 212
Railroads, 195
Raleigh, Walter, Sir, 10, 11
Ramsay, Allan, xi
Rappahannock, 4, 5, 8, 9, 60, 99, 174
Raspberry Plain, 62, 74, 76, 77, 102, 103, 132, 170, 177, 188, 211
Ray, Thomas, 125
Reardon, John, 125
Reconstruction, 224 et seq.
Records, Colonial, ix
Records, County, ix, 102, 103, 106, 223
Records, U. S. to Leesburg, 180
Rectortown, 220
Red Cross, 229
Reed, Jacob, 126, 127
Reichel, John F., Bishop, 121
Religion, 114, 164
Respas, Thos., 128
Revolution, 30, 52, 59, 73, 76, 81, 103, 117, 119, 123 etc., 169
Reynolds, Joshua, Sir, xi
Richards, George, 187
Richardson, John, 42
Ridge Road, (See Alexandria Pike).
Riticor, Chas. C., Capt. 230
Roach, Mahlon, 167
Roads, Early condition of, 67
Roads, Bazzell, 125
Robey, Clarence, Mrs., 232
Robinson, Peter, 139
Robinson, William, 127, 139
Rock Spring, 184
Rockefeller, John D., Jr., i
Rockland, xi, 62, 175, 210
Rogers, A. H., Lieut., 202
Rogers, Asa, Justice, 200
Rogers, John, 133
Rogers, William, Mrs., 204
Rogers, William H., Lieut., 202
Rogues Road, 61
Rokeby, 102, 172, 180
Rolling roads, 67
Roman Catholics, 43, 52, 232
Rosser, Thos. L., Col., 216
Round Hill, 168
Roundheads, See Puritans.
Roxbury Hall, 65
Rozell, Stephen, 117
Ruin of Loudoun, 220, 222
Russell, Anthony, 102, 126
Russell, Edward O., xii
Russell, Francis, 126, 127
Russell, John, 126
Russell, Robert, 127
Russell, Thomas, 187
Rust, Bryan, 230
Rust, E. Marshall, x, xii, 108
Rust, Elizabeth F., Miss, 176
Rust family, 142
Rust, George, 128
Rust, George, Gen'l, xi, 175, 176, 184, 192
Rust, Henry B., 108, 176
Rust, John Y., xi
Rust, Matthew, 124, 127
Rye, 163
Ryswick, Treaty of, 45
Saint James' Church, Leesburg, 165, 190, 227
Saint John's Church, Leesburg, 232
Salem, 214, 220
Salt, 133
Sanders, Isaac, 125
Sands, Daniel C., 227, 228
Sanitation, 163
Sangster, Adam, 125
Sapon, 9
Saratoga, Battle of, 139
Saunders, Presley, 179
Scalawags, 225, 226
Schlatter, Michael, Rev., 80
Schofield, John M., Gen'l, 224, 225
Schools, 171, 172, 173, 184, 192, 193, 231
Schooley, John, 179
Scotch, 44
Scotch, Irish, 45, 50, 114, 135, 166
Scotch Prisoners, 139
Sebastian, Benj., 104
Secession, 197
Secession Convention, 197
Secession Ordinance, 198
Second Colony, 2
Selden, Ann T., 176
Selden, Eleanor, 176
Selden, Mary M., 176
Selden, Mary T., 75
Selden, Samuel, 75
Selden, Wilson C., Dr., 176, 196
Selma, x, 62, 76, 170, 177, 188, 190, 230
Senecas, 16, 21, 24
Settlement, 31
Settlers, 95
Shakahonea, 6
Shannondale, 73
Sharp, Governor, Maryland, 86
Shaw, John, 179
Shawen, 187
Sheep, 228
Shelburne, Earl of, xi, 116
Shelburne, Glebe, 177, 196
Shelburne, Parish, x, xi, 116, 118, 196, 226
Shelburne Vestry, 196
Shelburne Vestry books, 164
Shenandoah Hunting Path, 60
Shenandoah River, 66, 84, 168, 219
Shenandoah Valley, 25, 37, 46, 99, 218
Sheridan, Philip, Gen'l, 218
Shimmer, Christian, 122
Shirley, Governor, Massachusetts, 86
Shoemaker, Basil W., 227
Shore, Richard, 126
Shore, Thos., 126
Short Hills, 1, 32, 46, 73
Shreve, Benj., 159
Shrieve, George, 127
Shrieves, William, 173
Shumaker, Ashton H., 230
Silver, 13, 130
Simpson, Geo. F., Dr., 233
Simpson, William, Capt., 207
Sims, Barney, 125
Sinclair, John, Sir, 161, 162, 167
Singleton, Joshua, 125
Sioux, 3
Slaves, 56, 59, 182, 185, 194
Smallwood, Henry G., 230
Smith, Fleet, 184
Smith, John, Capt., 2, 4, 5, 11, 15, 20, 174
Smith, John E., 230
Smith, Rufus, 223
Smith, Samuel, 128
Smith, Wethers, 127
Smith, William, 126
Smithsonian Institution, ix
Smitley, Matthias, 128
Snickers, Edward, 167
Snickers Ferry, 167
Snickers Gap, 168, 218, 229
Snickersville, 167, 214, 219, 229
Snickersville Road, 216, 220
Snider, Warner, Mr. and Mrs., 171
Soil improvement, 159 et seq.
Sorrell, Thos., 113
Southern Railway Company, 229
Spain, 10, 11
Spanish-American War, 227
Spanish Succession, War of, 45
Speake, Capt., 131
Spitzfathen, John, 127
Spooner, Chas., xi
Spotswood, Alex., Sir, 27 et seq.
Spotswood, Alex., Jr., 169
Spotswood, Catharine, 30
Spotswood Treaty, 24, 29, 99
Springwood, 62, 168
Stafford County, 21, 42, 71, 99
Stamp, William, 81
Stanton, E. M., 102
Stegarake, 4
Stegora, 6
Stephens, Wm., 96
Stephensburg, 111
Stevens, Lewis, 168
Stevens, Thos., 167
Stocks, 110
Stone, C. P., Gen'l, 205
Stone, Thos, 133
Stout, John L., 223
Stover, 46
Strahane, David, 23
Straughan, David, 24
Strictland, William, 161
Stuart, J. E. B., Gen'l, 208, 209, 214, 216, 217
Sugarland Run, 23, 25, 166
Sugarlands, 23, 37, 105
Summers, George, 126
Susquehannocks, 2, 9, 15, 16, 20, 24, 60
Sutton, Isaac, 79
Swann, Thos., Governor, 117
Swans, Wild, 26, 130
Swem, E. G., Dr., ix
Tacci, 9
Talbot, William, Sir, 8
Taliaferro, Elizabeth, 168
Tankerville, Earl of, 73, 122
Tavenner, Lott, 223
Taxuntania, 6
Tayler, John, 127
Tayloe, Rebecca, Miss, 104
Taylor, Henry S., 223
Taylor, Lawrence, 78
Taylor, William, 127
Taylor, Yardley, viii, 32, 47
Tebbs, Charles B., Col., 207
Tebbs, Edward H., Jr., Capt., 230
Tebbs, John A., Capt., 164
Temple Farm, 30
Terrick, Bishop, 119
Thatcher family, 82
Thatcher, John, 126
Thomas, David, 79
Thomas, Enoch, 128
Thomas, Evan, 106
Thomas, Henry W., Judge, 224
Thomas, Isaac, 188
Thomas, Jacob, 188
Thomas, John, 126
Thomas, Mahlon, 223
Thomas, Moses, 126
Thomas, Robert, 96
Thomas, Thomas, 129
Thompson, Edward, 84, 88, 90, 91
Thomson, Stevens, 75
Thomson, William, Sir, 75
Thorneley, Sam'l, xii
Thornton, John, 125
Thornton, Samuel C., 230
Thornton, Thomas, 81
Thoroughfare Gap, 217
Throckmorton, Mordecai, 168
Thurston, Thos., 49
Ticks, 92
Tidewater Virginians, 28, 43, 59, 65, 97, 114, 135, 159, 165,
166, 168
Tillett, Giles, 24
Tobacco as Money, 39, 98, 106, 110, 140
Tobacco planting, 53, 54, 162
Todhill, Anas, 5
Toleration Acts, 49, 52
Toulmin, Harry A., Lt. Col., 230
Towns, 166
Trammell, John, 69
Trammell, Samson, 128
Trammell, William, 96
Tribley, Joseph, 167
Triplett, Francil, 125
Triplett, Simon, 125, 127
True, Rodney H., 160
"True American," (newspaper), 164, 182
Trundle, Hartley H., 176
Trundle, Horatio, 176
Truro Glebe, 116
Truro Parish, 39, 68 etc., 72, 97, 116
Tuckahoes, (See Tidewater Virginians). 28
Turley, Giles, 128
Turner, Fielding, 102
Tuscaroras, 2
Tuscarora Creek, 63, 204
Tustin, Samuel, 187
Tyler, Charles, 102, 128
Tyler, George, 126
Tyson's Corner, 89
Ulster, Province of, 51
Union League, 225
Union men, 223
Union sentiment, 201
Union, Town of, 187
Unison, 228
Upperville Horse Show, 228
Valley Bank, xii, 183, 203
Valley Forge, 137
Vandercastel, Giles, 21, 24, 65
Vandevanter, Chas. O., 65
Vandevanter, Isaac, 126
Van Ingelgen, A. J., Rev., 232
Vernon, Admiral, 30
Vert's Corner, 62
Vestal family, 66
Vestal, G., 66
Vestal, John, 84
Vestal's Ferry, 66
Vestal's Gap, 66, 83, 84
Vestries, 68, 114
Vestry Books, 72, 117 et seq., 164
Victoria, Queen, 178
Vince, Thomas, 128
Virginia Historical Index, ix
Virginia Historical Society, ix
Virginia State Library, 117
Virginia, troops in French and Indian War, 87 etc., 96
Wagener, Mary E., 118
Wagener, Peter, Col., 118
Waggoner, Capt., 87, 95
Wallace, James M., 223
Walnut Cabin Branch, 70
Wampter, Capt., 207
War of 1812, 172, 179 et seq.
Warner's Crossroads, 65
Warrenton, 212
Washington, Augustine, 38, 80
Washington, City of, 20, 62, 172, 179, 194, 229
Washington, George, Gen'l, 30, 33, 38, 54, 66, 67, 81, 83, 84,
85, 86, 93, 119, 129, 136, 138, 142 etc., 159, 169
Washington, John A., 167, 176
Washington's Journal, 84
Washingtonian (Newspaper), 182
Waterford 45, 47, 73, 78, 132, 137, 166 et seq., 187, 195, 202, 208
Wayne, Anthony, Gen'l, 141
Weidener, Chas., 185
Wenner, William, 80
West, George, 102, 104, 127, 128
West, Hugh, 104
West, John, 40
West, William, 70, 102, 105, 109, 112
West's Ordinary, 62, 67, 228
Westmoreland County, 99
Wetherby, 187
Whaley, James, Jr., 126
Wheat, 162, 167, 229
Wheatland, 65
Whig Party, 182, 197, 226
White, Bishop, 119
White, Elijah B., Col., 170, 230
White, Elijah B., Mrs., x, 177
White, Elijah V., Col., ix, 177, 203, 207 et seq., 211, 212
White, Elizabeth, Miss, x, 177
White, James, 138
White, Joel, 127
White, Josiah, 167
White, R. L., Gen'l, 205
White Plains, 218
White's Battalion, 208 etc., 215, 218
White's Ferry, 210
White's Ford, 210, 218
Whitney, John H., Mr. and Mrs., 174
Wiard, Michael, 223
Wickham, Williams C., Col., 216
Wigginton, Spence, 128
Wildey, John, 125
Wildman, Enos, 186
Wildman, Joseph, 127
Wilkinson, Thos., 179
Wilks, Francis, 96
William, III, 44, 58
William and Mary College, 104
William and Mary College Quarterly, ix
Williams, Abner, 166
Williams, John, 126, 166
Williams, Thomas, 125, 127
Williams, Thomas Burr, 223
Williamsburg, vii, 21, 29, 30, 125
Williams' Gap, 67, 70
Williamson, B., 187
Williamson, J. J., Rev., ix, 220, 221
Willock, James, 96
Wills Creek, 84, 86, 92
Winchester, 86, 92, 112, 166
Winder, Wm. H., Gen'l, 179
Wolfcaile, John, 167
Wolford, John, 223
Wolves, 2, 119
Wood, Waddy B., 231
Woody, William, 179
World War, 229
World War Monument, 229
Worsley, Lizzie, Miss, 63
Wyatt, Dudley, Sir, 12
York River, 8, 12
* * * * *
Transcriber's note: Research indicates the copyright on this book was
not renewed.
There are many inconsistencies in the spelling of names, such as McCarty
and McCarthy.
Obvious printer errors have been silently normalised, except for the
following:
On page 25: "In the 1712 another courageous adventurer" ... A missing
word was added: "In the 'year' 1712" ...
Regarding the ad on page 184: The original ad in the _Genius of Liberty_
of the 14th October 1817 reads as follows:
"LEESBURG JOCKEY CLUB. RACES will be run for on Wednesday the 15th
October, over a handsome course near the town, A Purse of 200 Dollars,
three miles and repeat, and on Thursday the 16th day, two miles and repeat
A Purse of 100 Dollars, and on Friday the 17th one mile and repeat, a
Town's Purse of at least $150, and on Saturday the 18th an elegant SADDLE,
BRIDLE and MARTINGALE, worth at least FIFTY DOLLARS, P. SAUNDERS, sec'y &
treas'r."
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Legends of Loudoun, by Harrison Williams
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