Tag Archives: “Wealthy in Heart”

The first Englishman to see the land that would be Caroline County was Captain
John Smith during his explorations of the Tidewater between 1607 and 1609. According to
Smith’s 1624 account of Virginia, forty-three tribes inhabited the area. Thirty of these tribes
were united within the Powhatan Confederacy. Their territory ranged from south of the
Potomac River to the Falls, including areas along the Rappahannock River (Roundtree 1989:
17). For nearly 40 years, the Pamunky tribe, the most powerful of the Powhatan
Confederacy in the vicinity, blocked attempts to settle along the Rappahannock and interior
land that would one day be Caroline County.
As settlement radiated beyond Jamestown, plantations were built along the James
and Potomac Rivers. Initially, a treaty in 1646 with Necotowance prohibited settlement from
the Wicomico River to the Rappahannock; however, the Act of September 1, 1649 by the
Virginia General Assembly resulted in opening the territory to settlers. The first recorded
land transfer in the area was conducted between Accopatough, the Rappahannock Chief,
and Moore Fauntleroy in 1651. Fauntleroy purchased lands situated in two necks on the
north side of Rappahannock Creek to the bounds of the Potomac River. Soon afterward in
1652, land was acquired by Colonel John Catlett I and his half brother Ralph Rowzee in the
area that is now Port Royal (Fall 1982:4). Over the next several decades, area residents
participated in building the agrarian economy that would power Virginia and the South
through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Caroline County was formed from portions of Essex, King and Queen, and King
William counties in 1727. Encompassing 529 square miles, the county was named for Queen
Caroline, King George the second’s wife (Gray 1985:12) Similar to other tidewater counties
of Colonial Virginia, the raising, harvesting, processing, and shipping of tobacco dominated
commerce. Warehouses and docks at what would become Port Royal facilitated the brisk
tobacco trade, making the small port town a focal point of commerce throughout the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Corn, peas, wheat, and other grains were exported in
much smaller quantities from the county’s rich soil. Imports from England such as finished
textiles, ceramics, glassware, and exotic cargo like thoroughbred horses were off-loaded at
the docks located at the present-day town of Port Royal (Fall 1982:195-217). Continue reading →