After taking part in laying the dividing line between Virginia and North Carolina, William Byrd II wrote on March 28, 1728: Norfolk has most the air of a town of any in Virginia. There were more than 20 brigantines and sloops riding at the wharves and ofttimes they have more. It has all the advantages of a situation requisite for trade and navigation. There is a secure harbor for a goodly number of ships of any burthen. The town is so near the sea that a vessel can sail in and out in a few hours. Their trade is chiefly to the West Indies whither they export abundance of beef, pork, flour and lumber. In the _Journal_ of Lord Adam Gordon, Colonel of the 66th Regiment of Foot, stationed at the West Indies from 1763 to 1775, is extracted the following: "Norfolk hath a depth of water for a 40-gun ship or more, and conveniences of every kind for heaving down and fitting out large vessels; also a very fine ropewalk. There is a passage boat from Hampton to Norfolk and from York to Gloucester." In the third quarter of the 18th century, Norfolk became the principal seaport of Virginia. Yorktown was founded on land patented about 1635 by Nicholas Martiau, a Walloon who had come to Virginia in the summer of 1620. His grandson, Benjamin Read, sold fifty acres to the colony in 1691, and here Yorktown as a port built the first custom house, not only in Virginia, but in the country. A two-story brick building, erected about 1715, by Richard Ambler, who occupied the building as collector of customs for Yorktown in 1720. It became a port of entry for New York, Philadelphia and other northern cities, the importance of which was destroyed by the Revolutionary War. York County was one of the eight original shires in 1634, under the name, Charles river, changed in 1643 to York. The old custom house is still standing and is used as a museum for colonial and revolutionary relics. The location of Alexandria on a large circular bay in the Potomac river soon gave that town great importance as a port and shipyard. For generations, tobacco and grain were shipped from there, and imports of many kinds brought in. Master shipbuilders turned out vessels manned, owned and operated by Alexandrians. From her ropewalk came the rope to hoist the sails made in her sail lofts. On May 19, 1760, George Washington went to Alexandria to see Col. Littledale's ship launched. He tells of another launching he attended there on October 6, 1768, when he "stayd up all night to a ball."