Sarah and William reared a family of five sons. Colonel Fitzhugh became one of the largest landowners in the Northern Neck. At the time of his death in 1701 he owned 54,054 acres of land.

_INDIAN VISITORS_

When the French Huguenot, Monsieur Durand, was in Stafford County in 1686 he described the Indians who lived along the Rappahannock River as follows:

"As we were about to take horse all those savages, men, women & little children, came to return our visit. Those who had been able to procure jerkins from the Christians were wearing them, as also the women who wore some kind of petticoats, others wore some pieces of shabby cloth from which were made the blankets they had traded on some ships in exchange for deer skins. They had a hole in the center to put their heads through & fastened it around their body with deer-thongs. The women were wearing theirs as a mantilla, like the Egyptian women in Europe, & their children were entirely naked. They had taken to adorn themselves some kind of pure white fishbones, slipping a strand of hair through a bone, & so on all around their head. They also wore necklaces & bracelets of small grains which are found in the country."

_HORSE RACING_

Horse racing was the most popular form of amusement in Virginia in the seventeenth century. The lower counties of the Northern Neck were the center of horse racing in the colony at that time.

These races had many spectators, including women, but only gentlemen could participate. Racing was considered "a sport for gentlemen alone,"

and records show that if one not of that class presumed to enter his horse in a race he was heavily fined.

The races were taken seriously and conducted with fairness, even if it might be necessary to be assisted to this end by the courts. There are many records of contested decisions decided by jury.

Saturday was the customary day for the races. These occasions when a crowd was gathered together were used by the public authorities for making announcements to the people.

In 1696 citizens of Northumberland complained to the House of Burgesses that the races on Saturday often caused the Sabbath to be profaned. The races may have been carried over into Sunday, or they may have ended in drinking and fighting bouts which continued on that day.

There were three racing tracks in the lower Neck: Coan Race Course, Willoughby's Old Field, located in Richmond County, and a third course at Yeocomico. Of these the principal and the most popular was the Coan track. These race-tracks were kept in good condition. Early race-courses were not always oval. Some were over "race paths." The "quarter race"

was the outcome of this--where two horses ran a straight quarter of a mile. The stretch was sometimes a quarter and a half-quarter of a mile.

Smoker, owned by Mr. Joseph Humphrey, was one of the most famous race-horses in the colony. He was later owned by Captain Rodham Kenner, who was High Sheriff of Northumberland. Prince, owned by Captain John Haynie, II, was another noted race-horse. In 1695 Smoker was run in a race against Prince on Coan Race Course. The stake was four thousand pounds of tobacco and forty shillings. The race was won by Smoker.

Betting was part of the pleasure of the races. The stakes ran high--they were usually made up of a large amount of tobacco with a small addition of metallic coin.

Another horse celebrated in the region was Young Fire, owned by John Gardiner. This horse was snow-white in color. Captain John Hartley owned a horse called Campbell. Folly was a mare owned by Mr. Peter Contanceau.

The owners were sensitive as to the reputations of their horses and would go to great lengths to preserve them.

Other Northern Neck turfmen mentioned in seventeenth century records were: Mr. Yewell of Westmoreland, John Hartridge, Daniel Sullivant, Mr.

Raleigh Travers, Mr. John Clemens, Captain William Barber and John Washington.

_MANUFACTURE_

Early attempts at manufacture were begun in Virginia. The Assembly estimated that five children not over thirteen years of age could spin and weave enough to keep thirty persons clothed. In 1646 it was ordered that two houses be erected in Jamestown for spinning-schools.

These "Flax-Houses," as they were called in some records, were to be "one-storey, measuring eight feet from floor to ceiling, with a loft of sawn boards above." A "stack" of brick chimneys were to stand in the middle of each house, and suitable partitions were to be made.

Each county was to send to these schools two "poor children," about seven or eight years old, who were to work at carding, knitting and spinning. For their maintenance the county authorities were to supply each of their children when they were admitted with: "6 barrels of Indian corn, a pig, 2 hens, clothing, shoes, a bed, rug, blanket, 2 coverlets, a wooden tray, and 2 pewter dishes or cups."

This plan was not very successful and it probably failed before the counties of the Northern Neck had advanced far enough to send children to the spinning-schools.

To encourage manufacture in early Virginia, prizes in tobacco were given for every pound of flax raised, for every skein of yarn, and for every yard of linen produced.

In 1697, Tobias Hall of Lancaster County, claimed the reward for the production of linen. Inventories of Lancaster disclose woolen-wheels and wool cards. A loom was owned by Charles Kelly. Flannel, and even blankets, were manufactured on these looms.

Between 1660 and 1702 there were at least two tailors in Lancaster County. Daniel Harrison, of the same county, must have manufactured quite a lot of shoes, for the time and place. He employed three shoemakers, and his personal estate included: "122 sides of leather, 72 pairs of shoes, 37 awls, 26 paring knives, 12 dozen lasts and numerous curriers' and tanners' tools."

A reward of fifty pounds of tobacco was offered for any sea-going vessel built in Virginia. There was no lack of Virginia-built small vessels, such as barges, shallops and sloops.

Rural life was not favorable to manufacture, although each plantation manufactured those articles necessary to its needs. William Fitzhugh, a wealthy landowner of the upper Neck, wrote to his London agent in 1692 and requested him to send to his plantations several shoemakers, "with lasts, awls and knives, together with half a hundred shoemaker's thread, some 20 or 30 gallons of train oil and proper colorings for leather." He had set up a tan-house and wished to convert the product into shoes on his own plantation.

Later on, in the eighteenth century, Robert Carter of Nomini Hall, a grandson of King Carter, manufactured on quite a large scale.

_THE POTOMAC RANGERS_

The Potomac rangers were appointed by the governor for frontier duty.

The county lieutenant, in command of the county militia, was given the power to impress men who lived in the region for this service.

The outfit was composed of a commander and eleven men with horses, arms, and necessary equipment. The Rangers had orders from the Jamestown government to "seize any Indian or Indians whatsoever," and have him, or them, put in jail to remain there until "delivered by due process of law."

Indians were not the only public enemies in the frontier country. In 1698, the gentlemen of Stafford sent a letter of "grievances" to Jamestown asking that the "bloody villain, Squire Tom, a convict upon record," be demanded from the "Emperor of Piscataway," who was then protecting him from punishment.

The activities of the Potomac Rangers are described in a quaint journal kept by one of the Rangers in 1692:

"A Journiall of our Ranging. Given by me, David Strahan, Lieutenant of ye Rangers of Pottomack. June the 17th; We ranged over Ackoquane, and so we Ranged Round persi-Neck and ther we lay that night. And on ye 18th came to Pohike, and ther we heard that Capt. Mason's Servt-man was missing. Then we went to see if we could find him, and we followed his foot abut a mile, to a house that is deserted, and we took ye tract of a great many Indians and we followed it about 10 miles, and having no provisions we was forced to return. June 26th: We Ranged up to Jonathan Matthews hs. along with Capt. Masone, and ther we met with Capt.

Houseley, and we sent over for the Emperor, but he would not come, and we went over to ye towne, and they held a Masocomacko and ordered 20 of their Indians to goe after ye Indians that carried away Capt. Masone's man, and so we returned. July the 3d ... July 11th; We ranged up to Brenttowne and ther we lay.... The 19th we ranged up to Ackotink, and discovered nothing.... So we Ranged once in ye Neck till ye 20th Sept^{br}, then we mercht to Capt. Masone's and ther we met with Capt.

Houseley and his men; so we draved out 12 of our best horses, and so we ranged up Ackotink and ther we lay that night. Sept 22^d ... Sept. 23^d We marcht to the Suggar Land[7].... And the 24th we Ranged about to see if we could find ye tract of any Indians, but we could not see any fresh signe ...; the 26th marcht to Capt. Masone's, and ther dismissed my men till ye next March."

[Footnote 7: Suggar Land was named for the sugar maple trees that at that time grew in the region of what was later Fairfax and Loudoun counties.]

PART II

Eighteenth Century

_MURDERS IN STAFFORD_

Thomas Barton, of Stafford County, asked a neighbor to stay with his children while he and his wife went away for a day. The obliging neighbor, his wife and three children, came to the Barton plantation on a Sunday, June 16, 1700.

There were three children in the Barton family, and an orphan boy. On that peaceful June day all must have been drowsy contentment at the wilderness plantation--six children at play in the house, and the neighbor and his wife trying perhaps to take a nap. Only the orphan boy was outside, playing alone.

Suddenly the peaceful Sunday afternoon was turned into a nightmare. A party of Indian warriors swooped down in a sudden attack on the Barton place. All was over in a few minutes no doubt. Only the orphan boy escaped and ran to a neighboring plantation.

Meanwhile Barton was on the way home. His wife had probably decided to stay overnight wherever they had visited for he was alone. He stopped by a mill where he had left some corn to be ground and picked up his bag of meal. When he was almost home about twenty Indians started up from the woods and closed in about him in a "half-moon." They were naked and unarmed.

Barton had a good mount but the meal was heavy. He finally got the bag loose and threw it off, and then at full speed he "broke through the woods and got safe to a neighbor's house."

Colonel George Mason II, who was probably at the head of the Stafford militia, was notified of the outrage. When he and a "small parcel of men" arrived at the Barton place they found plenty of work to do. They "pulled out of the people and a mare, sixty-nine arrows." They also found five "ugly wooden tomahawks." Mason and the men buried the "poor people." Arrows had made holes in the roof of the house as "big as swan shot."