The Indians traveled through the woods over narrow footpaths not much over twenty inches wide. These had been made originally by animals. Now they were traveled by both Indians and wild beasts. These paths usually ran along high ground or where there was little undergrowth and few streams to cross.

When it was necessary for settlers to penetrate the interior they used these Indian and animal paths, or cut new paths and blazed the trees so that the blazes stood out clear and white in the forest.

Northumberland County records mention a horse path "wch leadeth from Wicocomoco to Chickacoon buttin upon the north west side of an Indian field knowne by the name of Fairefield." There was a cart path near the Corotoman river "knowne by the name of Morratico & Wiccomcomico Path."

Early land patents mention other paths, horse paths and Indian paths.

Rolling-roads were narrow roads cut through the woods over which hogsheads of tobacco fitted with axles could be rolled or drawn. In this way inland plantations could send their tobacco to wharves and warehouses on the waterfront for shipment overseas.

The parish church, court-houses, ferries and ordinaries became the focal points that led from crude interplantation lanes. In 1658 the General Assembly appointed surveyors whose responsibility it was to clear general ways from county to county. These roads were to be forty feet wide and the surveyors were to see that the citizens kept them up. This last order was hard to enforce because for a long time the planters had little interest in highways on land.

_MARKETS_

The custom of Market Day, which was a form of the English fair, was brought to Virginia by the colonists. In 1649 it was decided to hold markets every week in Jamestown, on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

The Assembly decided in 1655 to establish one or more market-places in each county. These were to be located on a river or creek, and all the trade of the surrounding country was to be concentrated at these places.

Imported articles were to be brought from certain ports to each market place. Here were to be built the court-house, prison, offices of the clerk and sheriff, ordinaries and churches. Nothing seems to have come of this attempt.

Again, about 1679, certain places were designated as public marts, to which all the Indians who were at peace with the white settlers were invited to come, one day in the spring and one day in autumn. A government clerk was to keep records of all the trading which took place at each mart.

One of these marts was situated in Lancaster County, and another in Stafford. In Northumberland, the Wicocomico Indians were to be permitted to trade with the English under special regulations adopted by the authorities in that county.

The purpose of these market places was to encourage the building of towns, but the attempts were all unsuccessful. The settlers preferred their independent way of life on the plantations.

_THE OLD DOMINION_

In May, 1660, Charles II returned to England by invitation of a new Parliament. Cromwell was dead and his son and successor, "Tumbledown Dick," had abdicated.

Charles rode into London, where the streets were dressed with green boughs and the windows hung with tapestry in his honor. Since everyone was so glad to see him he wondered why he had stayed away so long.

When the Virginians heard the news they went wild with joy!

Sir William Berkeley already had control of the Virginia government again. The Assembly at Jamestown had foreseen the restoration of the king and they had called Sir William back from his self-imposed exile at his plantation, Green Spring, in March, 1660--two months before Charles was actually crowned King of England.

It took four months for the news of the restoration to reach Virginia.

In September, Sir William issued a command that the news be proclaimed in every county in Virginia.

This was what the Virginians had been waiting for and they celebrated in their typical way--by drinking healths and by making every kind of noise that they could contrive to make.

Hundreds of pounds of tobacco were exchanged for barrels of gunpowder and kegs of cider. In some places "ye trumpeters" were paid as much as eight hundred pounds of tobacco for their music, and at least one minister was paid five hundred pounds of tobacco for a service of thanksgiving.

In recognition of Virginia's loyalty to him, Charles II caused her to be proclaimed an independent member of his Empire. He had it engraved on coins that the English Kingdom should henceforth consist of "England, Scotland, Ireland and Virginia." Virginia's coat-of-arms was added to those of the other three countries comprised in his dominions.

Traditions say that Charles wore a robe of Virginia silk at his coronation.

It was in this way that Virginia acquired the title of "The Old Dominion."

_THE PROPRIETARY_

The settlers of the Northern Neck had hardly ended their celebrations in honor of England's new king when they received a great shock.

One of the first things that Charles II did, at the insistence of those courtiers who had shared his exile, was to have the Northern Neck patent, which he had issued while he was in France, recorded and put on the market to be leased for the benefit of those courtiers to whom he had given it. Thus in 1661, the Northern Neck became a proprietary--that is, it was owned now by the seven courtiers.

In 1662, several English merchants took a lease of the proprietary from the original courtiers who owned it. The merchants hoped to settle new "adventures" in the land between the Potomac and the Rappahannock. King Charles then wrote a letter to Governor Berkeley instructing him to assist these men who had leased the patent.

Even Sir William who had always been fanatical in his loyalty to the Crown was shocked. The royal order aroused the opposition of both the governor and the council to the proprietorship and to the lease of it.

It was a threat to the colonial government and they were afraid that they would lose their power to defend themselves. They felt that the rights of the colonists should be protected.

Before 1661, a total of 576 grants of "headright" lands in the Northern Neck had been made in the King's name by the Colonial Governor. The meaning of "headright" was that any person who paid his own way to Virginia would receive 50 acres of land. He would also be assigned 50 acres for each person he transported "at his own cost."

Now titles to these lands previously taken would be clouded. Or the lands might be completely lost.

Instead of assisting the lessees of the patent the colonial government at Jamestown prepared an address to the Crown and sent one of their ablest citizens to England to act as an agent for Virginia.

The King ignored this protest, rebuked the colonial government and sent their representative back to Virginia with a renewed petition of the proprietors and orders to "protect his agents and encourage them."

Nevertheless, no more was heard of the English merchants. The colonials had scored their first victory in the war over the Northern Neck patent, but many troublesome years were still to follow.

_A FIRST LADY OF JAMESTOWN_

While life flowed on at Chicacone, what had become of little Frances Mottrom?

Frances had been growing up. She was now, in 1662, seventeen years old and about to become the bride of one of the most important men in Virginia.

Since her step-mother's marriage Frances had probably been living with her sister, Anne, who had been married for five or six years to Richard Wright, formerly a merchant of London. The Wrights lived part of the time at Coan Hall and part of the time at Cabin Point, in Westmoreland County. The latter estate had been left to Anne by her father, Colonel John Mottrom.

And how did Frances find a suitable bridegroom in the wilderness of the Northern Neck? Probably through her brother-in-law, Richard Wright. Her future husband, the Honorable Nicholas Spencer, Esq., had also been a London merchant who had taken up lands in the Neck. He was now a neighbor of the Wrights, in Westmoreland County.

And where was the wedding to take place? There are no records to tell us, but a deed made a few years after Frances' marriage refers to her as being "late of Chickacone." It is doubtful if a church had been built as yet, although the Parish of Chicacoan had been established in 1653, and the Reverend David Lindsaye, of the Established Church of England, had arrived in the Northern Neck as early as 1656.

Let us assume that Frances and Nicholas were married at Coan Hall by the new minister, who would have been dressed for the occasion in a white surplice with bands and a "close" cap of black velvet.

The ceremony would probably have taken place on a Wednesday morning between eight and noonday.

The bride was doubtless radiant in a low-cut gown of the latest London fashion. It may have been pink, yellow or some other pastel shade but we can be sure that it was not white. The gown, no doubt fell in soft folds to the ground, as hoops had not yet come into vogue. Her hair was probably arranged just as she wore it as a child, with a veil in place of the cap.

Coan Hall was no doubt "passing sweet trimmed up with divers flowers" or evergreens. All the kettles were doubtless a-bubble in the kitchen, and the silver, pewter, brass and copper gleamed in the firelight.

There seem to be no surviving records of the festivities accompanying a seventeenth century wedding in Virginia, but we may be sure that there was "an open cellar, a full house and a sweating cook," three things dearly loved by these transplanted English people.

They also loved noise--the sound of guns and firecrackers, bells and music. They liked to sing the old ballads brought from "home," as they still called England.

The wedding guests may have brought small spiced buns to the wedding and piled them high in the center of the table. If the bride and groom succeeded in kissing each other over the mound, lifelong prosperity was assured.

Dancing and games were very likely to have followed the feasting. The wedding guests may have lingered on a week or more at Coan. It is possible that the wedding party followed the bride and groom to the groom's house in Westmoreland and continued the festivities for awhile there.