The Stronghold: A Story of Historic Northern Neck of Virginia and Its PeopleHaynie, Miriam
History
The Stronghold: A Story of Historic Northern Neck of Virginia and Its People
Haynie, Miriam
Northern Neck (Va.)
A London merchant at that time held a high social rating. In England he
owned a country estate three miles from London. Whether Richard had
inherited the estate or purchased it himself is not known. This was the
property that caused him to sign his will, "lately of Stratford-Langton
in the County of Essex, Esquire." The "Esquire" signified that he was
the proprietor of land with tenants of his own.
Each morning Richard's coach appeared at his door and he emerged
"silver-buckled and knee-breeched" and rumbled away along the road
called "Strat-by-ford" toward London and his counting-house. And back
again each evening, just like a modern American business man shuttling
between his city office and his suburban home. But Richard finally sold
his home and furnishings in England and returned to his home at Dividing
Creek.
Richard Lee was the largest landowner in Virginia at the time of his
death in 1664. He left his family firmly established with probably more
than thirteen thousand acres of virgin tobacco land. He left his son,
Hancock, land near Cobbs Hall. This son established his home there,
called Ditchley.
Richard Lee stated in his will that he desired his family to live in
Virginia. Perhaps after all that was his greatest legacy to his family.
It turned out to be an important legacy not only to the Northern Neck,
but to the American nation.
_THE INDIAN DEED_
Perhaps one of the strangest deeds on record is the one signed by
Accopatough, King of the Rappahannock Indians.
An Englishman named Moore Fauntleroy came to the Northern Neck about
1650, settling on the Rappahannock, rather far up from its mouth. He
must have been very exact in his business dealings, because when he
purchased a tract of land from the Indians it was conveyed to him by a
written deed, dated April 4, 1651, and signed by:
"Accopatough, the true and right Born King of the Indians of Rappahannoc
Town and Towns."
For the land, it is said, Fauntleroy paid the Indians "ten fathoms of
peake and thirty arms lengths of Rhoanoke." The tract is said to have
been a vast domain which extended from the Rappahannock to the Potomac
and some distance along both rivers.
Later, after the Northern Neck became a proprietary, Moore Fauntleroy
had his Indian deed confirmed at Jamestown:
"Act I, the grande assemblie at James Cittie, Va., the 23rd March,
1660-1; Sir William Berkeley, his Majesties Governor, 13th year of
Charles II."
Fauntleroy's "ancient mansion seat" was located on the Rappahannock,
above Cat Point Creek, and it was known as Naylor's Hole. This section
of the Neck was established as Richmond County in 1692.
Colonel Moore Fauntleroy was said to have been the great-great grandson
of Edward Lord Stourton. He came to the Northern Neck during the
Cavalier migration.
_A SUMMONS TO JAMESTOWN_
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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