1663 John Rutherford: land granted Charles City County /border Surry County across from Thomas Felton Plantation. South Side of James River and on the West of Indian Swamp Commonly Called Ohoreek
1765 George Washington was a trustee of Alexandria-Fairfax co. House of Burgess
Mount Vernon: the Potomac River plantation-- Washington's father Augustine had established-1730s. Brother Lawrence held until 1752
1770s and 1780s two of Washington's three younger brothers: Samuel and Charles lived west of the Blue Ridge, a few miles of Bullskin.
Westmoreland County, 40 miles along the Potomac, was the first home of the Washington family in the New World. Washington's half brother Augustine and his younger brother, Jack lived on the bank of Pope's Creek where Washington was born.Up the Potomac, halfway between Westmoreland County and Mount Vernon, was the Chotank area, part of Stafford County until 1776 and then of King George County. In that locality lived a number of Washingtons: brother Sam until 1770, and many distant cousins, some of whom Washington had known from his childhood. Several miles west of Chotank, at Fredericksburg on the south bank of the Rappahannock, was the home of Fielding Lewis, husband of Washington's sister Betty, and before 1780, the home of brother Charles. Across the river from Fredericksburg was the Ferry Farm, where Washington lived as a boy and where his mother, Mary Ball Washington, resided until old age obliged her in 1771 to retire to a house in the town, there to spend the last eighteen years of her life. To the south is the capital of Williamsburg and near it, on the York and Pamunkey rivers, were the principal lands of the Custis family and the homes of their relations, the Dandridges and the Bassetts. Washington was a burgess who settled accounts with merchants.
From Tappahannock, intersection of Queen St. (Rt. 360) and Rt. 17 take Rt. 17 north 168 miles on right. Vauter's Episcopal Church, the upper church of St. Anne's Parish, was built in 1731 on Virginia. The masonry is among the finest of any colonial church. Bricks, which are laid in a Flemish bond pattern, were probably fired on site and the mortar made from oyster land belonging to Bartholomew Vauter (originally spelled Vawter). One of the county's oldest structures, it is the eleventh oldest of 48 colonial churches still standing in shells. Noteworthy inside are the high vaulted ceilings and T-shaped floor plan. Since 1704 there has been a long succession of clergymen, among them Parson Robert Rose, who was an attorney, a physician, a surveyor of the city of Richmond and an active participant in Virginia politics. In 1761 the parish became embroiled with political authorities over the selection of its minister. Gov. Alexander Spotswood selected one man while the vestry chose another, and a lengthy debate ensued. Although the governor prevailed, it was enacted shortly thereafter that vestries in Virginia had the right to select their own ministers. Subsequent to the Revolution, Vauter's Church passed out of service, but it was given protection and saved from vandalism by Mrs. Muscoe Garnett of Elmwood, who claimed the building as standing on her property. At an undetermined time, the Queen Anne communion silver, made in London in 1724, was removed from the church, except for one chalice. In 1909 Mrs. Minnie Garnett Mitchell of Elmwood was instrumental in restoring the pieces to the church from a collection in the north. The flagon has not been found. The 1739 Lectern Bible, published in England, will be on display. Open for the first time to Historic Garden Week visitors.
Land Patent: William Rutherford
lib of Congress
In addition to numerous published accounts documenting white fear of slave uprisings, many private letters discuss problems brewing on individual plantations. In this letter, John Rutherford, an agent for Virginia plantation owner William B. Randolph, wrote to Randolph indicating that a concerned neighbor near Randolph's Chatworth plantation feared "fatal consequences" if the overseer did not cease his "brutality" toward the Chatworth After the Chatworth overseer received a demanding letter of inquiry from Randolph, he slaves. answered on September 14, 1833, stating that he had whipped some of the slaves because they were idle or had escaped. Although three escapees had not returned, the situation was under control and work was proceeding as usual.