User:Gwillhickers/Northern Neck of colonial Virginia

The Northern Neck of colonial Virginia, (also known as the Great Neck), consists of a peninsula approximately 150 miles long and that lies between the Potomac River to the north and by the Rappahannock River to the soputh, both of which feed into the Chesapeake Bay. The neck covers an area of approximately 5,000,000 acres. The first English settlers arrived there in the late 1500s but didn't begin to appear in any appreciable numbers until 1640.

British claims
The vast tract of land between the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers, and the huge area northwest of it, in Colonial Virginia, which amounted to 5000000 acre, was granted at different times, by Kings Charles I and II to Lord Hopton, the Earl of St. Albans, and others, and subsequently by King James to Lord Culpeper, who had secured the claims of other parties. Lord Fairfax, who married the daughter of Lord Culpeper, became the proprietor of this princely domain, commonly known as the Northern Neck.

Exploration and early settlers
Captain John Smith first visited the Great Neck as a captive when taken prisoner by the Powhatan Indians during his 4th journey to Virginia during the winter of 1607–1608. In a victorious Indian celebration, which was to include the ritual execution of Smith, the now famous Pocahontas threw herself between Smith and his would-be executioner and pleaded with her chieftain father to spare his life, which was granted. By the time Smith returned to the Jamestown colony seven weeks later he had gathered much knowledge though direct experience and by communicating with many of the Powhatan. Smith wrote of the giant trees and various plant life found in abundance in the Great Neck, along with accounts of the different animals found there.

The efforts of John Rolfe for having introduced tobacco as a commercial crop to Virginia colonists was a major factor in the colonial development of the Virginia colonies. production of this valuable commodity shaped the future development of the colony and provided an economic incentive for further expansion and settlement of the New World. Rolfe is famous also for his marriage to Pocahontas, which brought a period of peace between the settlers and the Indians.

Settlers first arriving to the Northern Neck wishing to procure land for planting had to do so through the authority of the British Crown. The Crown acted in this capacity through its Propriety, acting through official Proprietors.

John Mottrom (died 1655), or Mottram, was one of the first, if not the first, white settler in the Great Neck region between 1635 and 1640

Land granted by Charles II
Before the exiled Charles II left France in 1648, he granted lands in the Northern Neck to some of his most faithful supporters for their service in the Thirty Years' War, including Ralph Hopton, 1st Baron Hopton and Sir John Berkeley. Other notable figures included, Henry Jermyn and John Lord Culpeper.

Culpeper family
The Culpeper family papers are lost, so that accounting for the family has been largely based on public documents, various other correspondence and accounts taken from contemporaries, and subsequent historical deduction.

In 1649, exiled King Charles II gave the Northern Neck to seven of his supporters during the English Civil War, which included John Culpeper. John died in 1660 and land interests was bequeathed to his eldest son, Thomas Culpeper, who during the proceeding years purchased the shares of the others. At the death of Thomas in 1689, the Northern Neck Proprietary passed to Lord Culpeper's sole legitimate child, Catherine Culpeper who one year later married Thomas, Fifth Lord Fairfax.

Fairfax family
— Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron, was at the time the only resident peer in late colonial America He administered his vast Northern Neck Proprietary — a Virginia land grant dating back to 1649 — from his wilderness estate at Greenway Court, Virginia. In 1719 Thomas inherited the Northern Neck of Virginia, through his mother, Catherine, daughter of Thomas, Lord Culpeper, and wife of Thomas Fairfax, 5th Lord Fairfax of Cameron, of Cameron. It was by this marriage that the grant became known as the Fairfax Proprietary. Lord Fairfax (the 5th) had never crossed the Atlantic, however, when, in 1732, the death occurred of Robert Carter who had long served as his steward of the Northern Neck proprietary. He had no first hand knowledge of the vast holdings, lands that had not been surveyed and whose boundaries had not yet been officially established. Consequently large parcels of land were being granted to other settlers by the Crown in a region which Fairfax insisted was belonged to him; i.e. patented possessions.

— William Fairfax, acted as land agent for his cousin Lord Fairfax's vast holdings on the Northern Neck of Virginia. in 1746 he visited Virginia to inspect his domain. He had the ultimate authority to sell or lease lands in the Northern Neck.

Washington family
The Washington family were among the first prominent and successful families who lived in the Northern Neck of colonial Virginia.

—- John Washington, (1631–1677), a lieutenant colonel in the local militia. Born in Hertfordshire, England, he was the great-grandfather of George Washington. In 1656 he invested in a merchant ship, a Ketch named the Sea Horse of London, that transported tobacco from the Virginia colony to European markets. He was the ship's second officer. In 1657, he sailed for Virginia aboard this vessel, with his brother Lawrence. On the return trip his ship foundered in the Potomac River during a storm, destroying its cargo. John remained in the colony and settled in Westmoreland County in the Northern Neck. He marriage Anne Pope, and settled on 700 acres (2.8 km2) of land, a wedding gift from Anne's father, on Mattox Creek in Westmoreland County of the Northern Neck.

—- Lawrence Washington (1659–1698), was the paternal grandfather of George Washington. He was the owner of a substantial Virginia plantation that he inherited from his father, John Washington. Lawrence married the daughter of William Fairfax, the owner and master of Belvoir, a nearby plantation, and the manager of numerous estates owned held by the Fairfax family in Virginia.

— Augustine Washington, born in Westmoreland County, on November 12, 1694, and was the Father of future President George Washington Augustine was the son of Captain Lawrence Washington, a militia captain and a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses. He owned large tracts of land along the Potomac River where he grew tobacco and other crops, and soon acquired other acreage along the Accoleek Creek near Fredericksburg, rich in iron ore.

-- George Washington. In 1738, when George was a young boy, his family moved to their new home in December, 1738, on Ferry Farm. It was located on the northern bank of the Potomac River, across from the city of Fredericksburg, in King George County, which later became Stafford County.

Revolution era
Thomas, Sixth Lord Fairfax, assumed control of the Proprietary during the Revolutionary War as he was not considered a British loyalist. However, when he died in 1781, the Commonwealth of Virginia regarded Fairfax's heirs as loyalists and subsequently assumed control over the Proprietary. In 1748, Washington surveyed lands in the Shenandoah Valley, held by Thomas' cousin, William Fairfax, of Belvoir. In 1816 Northern Neck Proprietary ownership was finally decided in favor of Virginia, which was now a state.