In 1634, just one hundred years before the formation of Orange, "the country was divided into eight ,shires which are to be governed as the shires in England. And lieutenants to be appointed the same as in England, and in a more especial manner to take care of the war against Indians. Sheriffs shall be elected as in England, to have the same powers as there; and sergeants and bailiffs, where need requires." (1 Hen., 224.)

Of these original shires one was named Charles River; so called after the river as named by the colonists in honor of King Charles. The Indian name of the whole river had been Pamaunkee (spelled Pomunkey by Hening) which means, according to Campbell the historian, "where we took a sweat."

It is not known when these political divisions ceased to be called shires and became known as counties, but in 1642-3 the name of the shire Charles River, then called County, was changed to York, and the river below the confluence of the Mattaponi was called York River. The boundaries of these counties were not defined towards the frontiers, and it is assumed that, like Spotsylvania, they extended as far "as might be convenient."

The genesis here becomes somewhat confused. Lancaster County is first mentioned by Hening in 1652, when it had two representatives at a session of the House of Burgesses.

It is included because subsequent formations relate back to it and seem to constitute it a link in the line.

New Kent was formed from York in 1654.

Old Rappahannock from Lancaster in 1656, ceasing to be a county name in 1692, when two counties, Richmond and Essex, were formed from it.

And thus Orange, as will be seen later, furnishes the paradox of being alike the daughter and the mother of a Rappahannock County.

King and Queen was formed from New Kent in 1691 .

Essex from old Rappahannock in 1692.

King William from King and Queen in 1701.

Spotsylvania from Essex, King William, and King and Queen in 1720; and

Orange from Spotsylvania in 1734.

This is believed to be the genealogy of Orange, direct and collateral. To complete its geography, its dismemberment and line of descent is here added.

Augusta and Frederick, embracing all the territory of Orange lying north and west of the top of the Blue Ridge, were formed in 1738,

Culpeper, embracing Madison and Rappahannock, was formed from Orange in 1748.

Madison was formed from Culpeper in 1792, and named for James Madison.

Rappahannock was formed from Culpeper in 1833.

Greene, named in honor of Gen. Nathaniel Greene, was formed from Orange in 1838, the last dismemberment.

While it might be interesting, it would be beyond the scope of this book to attempt even an outline history of the many counties named in this genesis. Spotsylvania, as the immediate territory from which Orange was formed, must be briefly considered.

In 1720, the seat of government being at Williamsburg, the following Act "for erecting the counties of Spotsylvania and Brunswick" was passed by the "General Assembly, " for so the law-making power was called even at that early date:

"Preamble, That the frontiers towards the high mountains are exposed to danger from the Indians, and the late settlements of the French to the westward of the said mountains.

Enacted, Spotsylvania County bounds upon Snow Creek up to the Mill, thence by a southwest line to the river North Anna, thence up the said river as far as convenient, and thence by a line to be run over the high mountains to the river on the northwest side thereof, so as to include the northern passage through the said mountains, thence down the said river until it comes against the head of Rappahannock, thence by a line to the head of Rappahannock river, and down that river to the mouth of Snow Creek; which tract of land from the first of May, 1721, shall become a county, by the name of Spotsylvania County." 4 Hening, 77.

The County was named for Lieutenant-Governor Spotswood, then acting governor of the Colony.

Without the help of boundaries subsequently established and maintained to this time, it would be difficult to define the lines laid down in the statute. Interpreted by these it may be safely affirmed that on the east and south the County was bounded as now; "Snow Creek, " the line with Caroline County, empties into the Rappahannock ten or fifteen miles below Fredericksburg : the North Anna is the southern boundary up to the Orange line: "up the North Anna as far as convenient" is obscure but unimportant, and may be interpreted as meaning all the way to its source. The ultimate source of this river is a spring on the Johnson place, near the top of the Southwest mountains, and but a few feet from the turnpike leading from Gordonsville to Harrisonburg. Taking this spring, which is not far from the Albemarle line, as the starting point for the "line over the high mountains to the river on the northwest side thereof so as to include the northern passage through the said mountains, " we have approximately the present lines of Orange and Greene counties with Albemarle to the top of the Blue Ridge. This about forces the conclusion that the "northern passage " means Swift Run Gap, through which this same 'pike crosses the Blue Ridge. At the time the County was formed the only passage across the mountains had been made by Governor Spotswood in 1716, known as the "Expedition of the Knights of the Horseshoe." The "river on the northwest side" of the mountain is our Shenandoah, then called "Sherrando" and "Shenando", and by Spotswood "the Euphrates;" down this river until it comes "against the head of Rappahannock : " this would bring us about Front Royal, the county seat of Warren; thence by a line to the head of Rappahannock River, say about the corner of Fauquier, Warren, and Rappahannock, and then down to the beginning, following the line of the sources of the Rappahannock, and the Rappahannock itself to Snow Creek. These boundaries can be easily traced on any modern map of Virginia.

By the same Act fifteen hundred pounds was appropriated, to be paid to the Governor, of which five hundred for a church, courthouse, prison, pillory and stocks where the governor shall appoint them in Spotsylvania, he to employ workmen, provide material, etc.: one thousand pounds, of which one-half to Spotsylvania, to be distributed in arms and ammunition among such persons as shall hereafter go to seat the said County; that is, to each Christian titheable one fire lock musket, one socket, bayonet fitted thereto, one cartouch box, eight pounds bullet, two pounds powder, until the whole one thousand pounds be laid out, the account to be laid before the General Assembly. The arms appropriated to the defence of the County, and both the real and personal estate of the persons taking them made liable to their forthcoming in good order; and to be stamped with the name of the County, and liable to seizure of any militia officer if found without the bounds. Inhabitants made free of public levies for ten years, and the whole County made one parish by the name of St. George. Because foreign Protestants may not understand English readily, they and their titheables made free for ten years if any such shall entertain a minister of their own. This last clause was for the benefit of the Germans settled at Germanna.

While Orange was yet a part of Spotsylvania, and, indeed, before Spotsylvania itself was formed, thousands and thousands of acres of land to the westward, even as far as to the Mississippi, had been granted to individuals by the Crown, acting mainly through the Governors of the Colony; and titles to much land in Orange of today are traced back to Spotsylvania, King and Queen, and the land office at Richmond. The Madison Grant, " for example, was made while the grantee was still a resident of King and Queen.

ORANGE COUNTY was formed from Spotsylvania in 1734, and was named not from the "color of its soil" as erroneously stated by Howe and others, for there is no soil of orange color in the County; but for William, . Prince of Orange one of England's most worthy kings: Next to "good Queen Anne" he appears to have been the best beloved by the colonists of all their kings; King William, King and Queen, Williamsburg, and William and Mary College were all named in his honor, two of them in honor of him and his Queen.

In colonial times it was not uncommon for parishes to be formed before the counties which afterwards con:;.ined them were established. Such was the case with Orange, and the boundaries of the County can only be stated in connection with those of the parish of St. Mark. The Act defining St. Mark is as follows:

Enacted, Whereas many inconveniences attend the parishioners of St. George parish, in the county of Spotsylvania, by reason of the great length thereof, that from January 1 1730, the said parish be divided into two distinct parishes: From the mouth of the Rapidan to the mouth of Wilderness Run; thence up the said Run to the bridge; and thence southwest to Pamunkey River: the part below the said bounds to be known as St. George Parish, and all that other part which lies above the said bounds be known as St. Mark.

The freeholders were required to meet at Germanna on that day and there " elect and choose twelve of the most able and discreet persons of their parish to be vestrymen. " When Orange was established, just four years later, the dividing line between these parishes was made the boundary line between Orange and Spotsylvania, so it becomes necessary to determine what that line was. It is manifest that Orange never touched the Pamunkey River as we now know that river, and the conclusion is unavoidable that we must understand some point on the North Anna, which probably, at that time, was called the Pamunkey, because it was the main branch of that stream; which point is the present corner of Spotsylvania with Orange on the North Anna.

The Act establishing the County was passed at the August session, 1734. (4 Hen., 450.) Leaving out unnecessary words it reads:

An Act for dividing Spotsylvania County.

Whereas divers inconveniences attend the upper inhabitants of Spotsylvania County, by reason of their great distance from the Courthouse and other places usually appointed for public meetings: Be it therefore enacted, by the Lieutenant-governor. Council and Burgesses, of this present General Assembly, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same; That from and immediately after the first day of January now next ensuing, the said County of Spotsylvania be divided by the dividing line between the parish of St. George and the parish of St. Mark; and that that part of the said county which is now the parish of St. George remain and be called and known by the name of Spotsylvania County; and all that territory of land adjoining to and above the said line, bounded southerly by the line of Hanover County, northerly by the grant of the Lord Fairfax, and westerly by the utmost limits of Virginia, be thenceforth erected into one distinct county, to be called and known by the name of the county of Orange.

A Court for the County was directed to be constantly held by the justices thereof on the third Tuesday in every month.

For the encouragement of the inhabitants already settled and which shall speedily settle on the westward of the Sherrendo River, it was further enacted that they should be free and exempt from the payment of public, county and parish levies for three years next following, and that all who might settle there in the next three years should be so exempt for the remainder of that time.

The terms of the statute need explanation in this, "southerly by the line of Hanover." Louisa was then part of Hanover. "The grant of the Lord Fairfax" on the north. As then understood, Lord Fairfax's southern limit was the Rappahannock River, as it is known to-day. There was much and long continued contention and litigation about this line, however, between Fairfax and the colonial authorities, but it was finally settled that the Fairfax grant embraced all the land lying between the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers up to the head springs of each river, and that the head spring of the Rappahannock was the source of what is now known as Conway or Middle River, which source is near the corner of Greene and Madison counties, near the crest of the Blue Ridge. As this contention was not settled till long afterwards, the northerly boundary of Orange continued to be the present Rappahannock River until Culpeper was cut off in 1748, and it remains the boundary of Culpeper to this day.

A map showing a " survey according to order in the years 1736 and 1737 of the Northern Neck of Virginia, being the lands belonging to Lord Fairfax, " is published in the report of the commissioners appointed to settle the boundaries between Maryland and Virginia in 1873. On it South River is called "Thornton, " the Rapidan above the mouth of South River, is called "Staunton's River," and below the mouth is put down as " Rappahannock River, South Branch, called Rapidan, " and the Rappahannock above the mouth of the Rapidan is called "Cannon", and, higher up, "Hedgeman's River."

It must be borne in mind that "Old Style" was yet in effect in the Mother Country and her colonies when Orange was established: that is, that the New Year was reckoned from March 25, and not from January 1 ; and that the New Style did not become effective until 1752. Thus, though the first court was held in January 1734, there were yet two months to elapse before the year 1735 began: that is, that January, February, and March came after December of the same year. This will make plain the otherwise apparently curious date of the appointment of Col. Henry Willis, the first county clerk.

The first minute on the records of the County is in these words:

Orange County.-Be it remembered that on the twenty-first day of January, in the year 1734, a Commission of the Peace directed to Augustine Smith, Goodrich Lightfoot, John Taliaferro, Thomas Chew, Robert Slaughter Abraham Field, Robert Green, James Barber, John Finlason, Richard Mauldin, Samuel Ball, Francis Slaughter Zachary Taylor John Lightfoot, James Pollard, Robert Eastham, Benjamin Cave, Charles Curtis, Joist Hite, Morgan Morgan, Benjamin Borden, John Smith and George Hobson, and a dedimus for administering the oaths etc., to the said justices being read, the said John Finlason and Samuel Ball pursuant to the said dedimus administered the oaths appointed by Act of Parliament to be taken instead of the oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy the oath appointed to be taken by an act of Parliament made in the first year of the Reign of his late Majesty King George the First, entituled an Act for the further Security of his Majesties Person and Government and the Sucession of the Crown in the heirs of the late Princess Sophia, being Protestants and for extinguishing the hopes of the pretended Prince of Wales and his open and secret Abettors, unto Augustine Smith and John Taliaferro who severally subscribed the Test and then the said John Finlason and Samuel Ball administered the oaths of a justice of the Peace and of a Justice of the County Court in Chancery unto the said Augustine Smith and John Taliaferro. And afterwards the said Augustine Smith and John Taliaferro pursuant to the said dedimus administered all and every of the said oaths unto Thomas Chew, Robert Slaughter, Abraham Field, Robert Green, James Barber, John Finlason, Samuel Ball, Francis Slaughter, John Lightfoot, James Pollard and Benjamin Cave who severally subscribed the Test.

At a Court held for the County of Orange on the twenty-first day of January, 1734, Present Augustine Smith, John Taliaferro, and the justices to whom they had just administered the oaths:

A Commission to Henry Willis, Gent., under the hand and Seal of office of the Honorable John Carter, Esq., Secretary of Virginia, bearing date the thirtieth day of October, 1734, to be clerk of the Court of this County being produced in Court and read the said Willis having taken the oaths, etc., and subscribed the Test, was sworn Clerk of this County.

This Henry Willis was the same gentleman mentioned by Colonel Byrd as the "top man of Fredericksburg. " Note the date of his commission. October was then really the eighth month and January was the eleventh month of the calendar year. He was the ancestor of Col. George Willis of Woodpark ; of Mr. Henry Willis and of Mrs. Ambrose Madison, of Woodbury Forest. Why a person not a citizen of the County should have been made clerk does not appear, but he continued to be such until his death, in the summer of 1740. Jonathan Gibson, Gent., was appointed and qualified as clerk at the September term of that year.

Mr. William Robertson's house, on Black Walnut Run, was designated as the place where court should be held, by the Governor's order, till the court could agree upon a place and have the Governor's approbation.

Benjamin Cave qualified as sheriff, with Thomas Chew and James Barbour as his sureties, and William Henderson as under-sheriff.

James Wood, Gent., produced a commission from the president and masters of William and Mary College, dated November, 1734, to be surveyor for the county. Zachary Lewis and Robert Turner were sworn as attorneys to practise in the County. The court unanimously recommended John Mercer to the Governor for appointment to prosecute the King's causes in their court. James Coward and John Snow were named as overseers of the highway.

A number of the justices were desired to view the Rapidan above and below Germanna for a convenient place to keep a ferry, and to wait on Colonel Spotswood to know on what terms he would let such a place. Later he agreed that he would let his land for a ferry there for 630 pounds of tobacco, with sufficient land for two hands to work, but debarred the keeping of tippling houses and hogs running at large, and public notice was ordered of the letting of the ferry and plantation at a subsequent term, and that advertisements be set up at the churches.

The minutes were signed by Augustine Smith and attested by Henry Willis " Cl. Cur., " a Latin abbreviation for clericus curiae, clerk of the court, which attestation was continued throughout his and his successor's terms, and then abandoned. Similarly, they always endorsed indictments found, Vera Billa, a true bill.

At the next term many constables and surveyors of the highway were appointed, among the latter Christopher Zimmerman, "from the German Road to Potatoe Run; " John Howard, " from the Chapple Road to the Rapidan Cave's Ford;" John Garth, "from the fork of Elk Run to Staunton's River," as the north branch of the Rapidan was then called; Alexander Waugh, "from Germanna Road to Pine Stake;" Benjamin Porter, "from Todd's Branch to mouth of Robinson;" Edward Haley, "from Taliaferro Road to the Tombstone;" William Smith, "from the Tombstone to the Chapple;" and John Snow "from Todd's Path to Chew's Mill. " It would be interesting to designate many of these localities to-day, especially the Tombstone, but the names have nearly all passed out of the public memory.

Three justices, who afterwards became famous in Frederick and Augusta, qualified at this term: Joist Hite, Morgan Morgan, and Ben Benjamin Borden; and John Barnett, from whom no doubt comes our Barnett's Ford of to-day, was appointed surveyor of the highway from the Mountain Road along Mr. James Taylor's &growling" road and thence to the Rapidan. A rowling road was one over which tobacco hogsheads were rolled to market.

At June term, John Mercer, Gent., produced in court a commission from Hon. William Gooch, his Majesty's lieutenant-governor, which was approved by the Court, and the said Mercer admitted accordingly.

The first jury ever impanelled in the County was at the August term following, to try an action for assault and battery between James Porteus and Jonathan Fennell, alias Fenney, as follows: Benjamin Porter, foreman; Francis Browning, Francis Williams, James Stodgill, Leonard Phillips, William Richeson, George Head, John Conner, John Bomer, William Bohannon, William Crosthwait, Isaac Bletsoe. The verdict was for fifteen shillings damages. The first grand jury appeared in November, Robert Cave, foreman; Abraham Bletsoe, Francis Browning, William Bryant, William Pannill, Edward Franklin, Philip Bush, Anthony Head. William Kelly, Henry Downs, John Bransford, David Phillips, John Howard, George Anderson, Mark Finks, William Carpenter and George Woods.

The following minutes seem worthy of notice: in 1738, a petition for division of the county by inhabitants of Sherrando. This was effective the same year, when Augusta and Frederick counties were formed, embracing all of Virginia lying beyond the Blue Ridge. But Augusta, though formed in 1738, did not really organize as a separate county until about 1745.

Petition of John Lewis and others, of Beverley Manor, for a road to the top of the Blue Ridge, and of Joist Hite, who lived in Frederick County, for a road through Ashby's "bent" (gap),

Ordered, that the County Standard be removed from the house of Colonel Lightfoot, deceased, to that of Major Robert Slaughter.

In 1739 the road was laid off from Beverley Manor, beginning at the North mountains, in Augusta, and ending at the top Of the Blue Ridge, " to the bounds of Goochland County," now Albemarle, probably Rockfish Gap, where the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway now crosses.

In 1741 a road was ordered to be opened from Evan Watkins's ferry by a course of marked trees to the head of Falling Spring and over the Tuscarora branch, thence to Opequon Creek, thence to Spout Run, by the King's road leading by joist Hite's to a fall in the same near the Sherrando ford, and that all tithables from the Potomac between Opequon and the mountain this side the little Cape Capon, and many others, proceed to work the same.

Two more roads, to show the dimensions of the County: May, 1745, James Patton and John Buchanon, Gent., having viewed the way from Frederick County line through that part of this County called Augusta, made their report: " Pursuant, etc., we have viewed, laid off and marked the said road as followeth to begin at Thom's Brook at Frederick County line, thence to Benjamin Allen's ford and Robert Calwell's path, thence across Beard's ford on North River and Alexander Thompson's ford on Middle River, thence to the Tinkling Spring, to Beverley Manor line, to Gilbert Campbell's ford on north branch of James River, thence to Cherry Tree bottom on James River, thence to Adam Harmon's on the New or Wood's River."

In August of the same year: "Ordered, that George Robinson and Simon Akers view the way from the forks of Roan Oak (Roanoke) to the gapp over the mountains to meet the line of Brunswick County, and from the Catawba Creek into the said way."

In 1748 Culpeper, including all of Orange lying between the whole length of the Rapidan and the Rappahannock rivers, was cut off, and our former " principality" is reduced to the dimensions of Orange and Greene of to-day.

And to dispose of Greene once for all, it may be said here that there was angry contention about this dismemberment, with numerous petitions and counter petitions and protests, but the separatists finally prevailed in 1838.

The old County, though shorn of her territory, has never been shorn of her good name; and her illustrious offspring who have made her famous and historic, were born and reared in the limits of the Orange of to-day!

Mr. William Robertson's house, on Black Walnut Run, was designated as the place where court should be held, by the Governor's order, till the Court could agree upon a place, and have the Governor's approbation, and there the first term was held on the gist of January, 1734, (Old Style.)

At the same term the sheriff, Thomas Chew, was ordered to build a prison at his plantation, " a logg house, seven and a half feet pitch, sixteen long and ten wide, of loggs six by eight at least, close laid at top and bottom, with a sufficient plank door, strong hinges and a good lock, and that two hundred pounds of tobacco and cask be paid him for building the said house."

A debate was had as to the most convenient place to build a courthouse. The Court divided, one party for the centre of the County and the other for the Raccoon Ford, then some distance higher up the river than now, eight for the former and six for the latter. The question was whether the mouth of the Robertson or Raccoon Ford was nearer the centre, justices Smith, Taliaferro, Chew, Barbour and Taylor favoring a point just below the mouth. of the Robertson on the south side of the Rapidan. Mr. Lightfoot agreed that this was nearest the centre, but insisted on the north side of the Rapidan. Robert Slaughter was in favor of the centre, when the same should be ascertained. Messrs. Field, Green, Finlason, Ball, Pollard, and Francis Slaughter declined to answer the last question, as to the centre, but insisted on Raccoon Ford, or thereabouts, and the north side of the river. All which the Court ordered should be particularly represented to the Governor.

At the March term ensuing there was an order from the Governor that some of the justices attend the general court and have a hearing about placing the courthouse, and they agree to go at their own charges.

At this term also the following letter from Colonel Spotswood was ordered to be recorded:

Whereas I have been desired to declare upon what terms I will admit the Courthouse of Orange County to be built upon my land in case the Commissioners for placing the same should judge the most convenient situation thereof to be within the bounds of my Patent. And forasmuch as I am not only willing to satisfy such commissioners that no obstruction in that point will arise on my part, but am also disposed to make those terms as easie to the County, as can well be expected; I do therefore hereby declare that consent to the building of a courthouse, prison, pillory and stocks on any part of my lands not already leased or appropriated; and that I will convey in the form and manner which the justices of the County can in reason require such a quantity of land as may be sufficient for setting the said buildings on, with a convenient courtyard thereto, for the yearly acknowledgment of one pound of tobacco. And moreover, that I will allow to be taken gratis off my land all the timber or stone which shall be wanted for erecting and repairing the said buildings.

Given under my hand at Germanna the 6th day of January 1734-5<

A. SPOTSWOOD.

The date of this letter would indicate that negotiations had been begun with Colonel Spotswood before the formal organization of the County. The records disclose no appointment by the court of commissioners to confer with him.

At the June term, 1735, Charles Carter and William Beverley reported as to the agreement they had been ordered to make with Colonel Spotswood for land to set the courthouse on, but nothing appears to have come of it, for in Ocober, 1736, a proposal being made where to build it, the Court, after debate, agreed that it be built at the place appointed by the commissioners " near the Governor's Ford on the south side of the Rapidan. " At the same term application was made to the Governor for orders to alter the place of holding court from Black Walnut to Mr. Bramham's house in December next, "it being near where the courthouse is, with all expedition, going to be built, " and notice was given that workmen meet at the November term to undertake the building.

At November, after debate where to build, the Court agreed with John Bramham that he lease twenty acres of land to build it on for 120 pounds of tobacco per annum, and that the plot should" include the convenientest spring to Cedar Island ford."

Thomas Chew and William Russell were appointed to lay off the land and designate the location of the Courthouse.

The next term was accordingly held at Bramham's house, and it was at this location of the courthouse that Peter was decapitated and his head stuck on a pole, and that Eve was burned at the stake, as appears from the orders published in the text.

In July, 1738, notice was given that at the next term the Court would agree with workmen to finish the courthouse, and at the February term following Peter Russell was employed to keep the building clean, and " provide candles and small beer for the Justices;" so it appears that it had taken nearly two years to complete it after work was actually begun. And it seems certain that the first real courthouse owned by the County was located near the present Somerville's Ford, and on land now belonging to the Hume family. Henry Willis was paid 13,100 pounds of tobacco for building the prison, and 3,350 pounds for finishing the courthouse. He took out license to keep an ordinary there November, 1739.

January, 1742-,3. Ordered, that the sheriff cause the lock provided for the justices' room to be put to the door; that he provide glass for the windows of the said room, and cause the windows to be glassed; and that he cause the tops of the chimneys to be pulled down and amended to prevent it from smoking.

June 1749. "The Court judging the present situation inconvenient to the inhabitants are of the opinion that the court ought to be held near the dividing line of the lands of Erasmus Taylor and Timothy Crosthwait, " appointed Benjamin Cave, Geo. Taylor, Taverner Beale, Wm. Taliaferro, John Willis, Francis Moore and Henry Downs, or any five of them, to meet and agree on the most convenient place for a courthouse, with power to agree on the manner thereof, and with workmen to erect a prison, pillory, and stocks.

No doubt the occasion of this removal was the fact that Culpeper, then embracing Madison and Rappahannock, had been cut off from Orange the year before, leaving the courthouse absurdly near the very edge of the County.

A proclamation under the hand of Hon. Thomas Lee, president of His Majesty's Council and Commander-in-Chief of the Colony and Dominion of Virginia, dated the 4th inst., adjourning the Court from the courthouse to the house of Timothy Crosthwait was read, and adjournment was immediately had to the said house "till to-morrow morning at 8 o'clock," and on the 24th day of November, 1749, Court began its sessions at our present County seat. And it was ordered, that Thomas Chew, Geo. Taylor, and Joseph Thomas provide deeds for two acres of land from Timothy Crosthwait to build a courthouse on, and that they lay off the " prison bounds."

1751, August. Ordered, that workmen be engaged to build an addition to the courthouse for the justices' room, sixteen feet by twelve. September: Crosthwait agreed to make a deed for the two acres whereon the courthouse and prison are now built, for five shillings.

May 30, 1752. Note that now the year begins on January 1st, and not March 25th as heretofore. Court agreed with Charles Curtis, builder of the courthouse, to receive the same and to allow him £ 72 as a full reward for the same, he having already received £ 32, equal in all to about $350. The first term of the court in this building was held July 6th, 1752, and this was the building next preceding the "old courthouse" standing to-day, and remodeled into the storerooms occupied as drug and hardware stores, facing the railroad.

1754. An addition ordered to the courthouse twenty feet long, same pitch and width as the building, "to have a brick chimney, " and be according to dimensions to be indicated by Thos. Chew, Wm. Taliaferro, and James Madison.

1764. Prison repaired; iron grating, and iron spancel and chain ordered.

1768. Pillory and stocks ordered, and extensive repairs to the courthouse.

1787. Court received prison on the undertaker's double ceiling the walls with one and a half inch oak plank inside, to be nailed on with a proportion of 20-penny nails.

1799. Ordered that the sheriff make known by advertisement and proclamation that proposals will be received by the Court for building a new courthouse where the present one stands.

1801. Robt. Taylor, Francis Cowherd, Robt. T. Moore, and John Taylor appointed commissioners to let building of an office 16 wide, 20 long, and 10 pitch, of brick.

1802. The three last named, with Dabney Minor and William Quarles, appointed commissioners to have laid off by Pierce Sandford two acres of ground at this place on which to erect the public buildings, and that Robt. Taylor be appointed to let the building of the office formerly ordered, 24 feet long, 16 wide, and 10 feet pitch. This was probably the old clerk's office in rear of the Bank of Orange.

1802, April. Ordered, that the building of the courthouse and office be let at the same time, and either publicly or privately.

1804, March. Commissioners appointed to view courthouse and office, and receive or condemn same, or make any compromise as to deductions which the undertakers may be willing to agree to. At the April term this item appears in the County levy: " To balance for building new courthouse and office, including additional work and painting, $62,340.47." This is the building now standing and facing the railroad, as above referred to.

July. Commissioners appointed to sell the old court house and office and apply proceeds to enclosing the public lot with post and rail fence in a strong and neat manner, and to building pillory, stocks, and whipping post.

1836. Jail ordered built, and probably completed within the year. This jail stood nearly in front of the old courthouse as it now is, and just across the railroad from it.

In 1852 the Legislature authorized the County Court to sell all or a part of the then public lot, and apply the proceeds of sale to the purchase of another lot, on which to erect a new courthouse and any building proper to be attached thereto.

The site on which the present courthouse stands, known as the"Old Tavern lot"was obtained by exchange, and the edifice constructed thereon after the plans of a paid architect, is not a very good one. The clerk's office remained for many years on the old lot, the Board of Supervisors neglecting all appeals for a fireproof building.

Finally, on the motion of the writer, a rule was issued against them by the Court to shew cause for not complying with the statute requiring a fireproof building for the public records, and they proceeded at once to build the little structure now known as the clerk's office, which if fireproof is also convenience proof, and a reproach to the County. It was completed in 1894. The present jail was built, nearly on the site of the first Baptist church in the town, in 1891.

In January, 1832, a petition numerously signed was presented to the Legislature asking for authority to organize a lottery to raise $5,000, "to pave roads in Courthouse Village. " Among the signers were Reynolds Chapman, James B. Moore, Joseph Hiden, Lewis B. Williams, Thos. A. Robinson, Mann A. Page, John Woolfolk, Philip S. Fry, Wm. B. Taylor, Geo. P. Brent, R:: Richard M. Chapman, Peyton Grymes, John H. Lee, and many others. The Act authorizing the lottery was duly passed, and Messrs. Woolfolk, Williams, Richard Chapman, Hiden, and James G. Blakey named therein as commissioners to conduct the same. Nothing appears to have come of it, and the streets were first paved, or macadamized, by the Army of Northern Virginia in the winter of 1863-64, as a military necessity.

The village was first incorporated in 1834, as the Town of Orange, with James Shepherd, Richard Rawlings, Richard M. Chapman, Garland Ballard, Albert Nichols, Samuel Dinkle and Mann A. Page as trustees. The charter was repealed some years later, the petitioners for the repeal asserting that it had remained a dead letter. It was again incorporated in 18 5 5, but seems not to have assumed any special municipal functions until the present charter of 2896 was passed by the Legislature.

There appear to have been four State Churches in Orange in colonial times, the first at Germanna, built under the direction of Governor Spotswood about 1724 with the fund of five hundred pounds appropriated for that and other purposes when Spotsylvania was formed.

The next oldest was in the Brooking neighborhood near (old) Cave's ford, about three miles northwest of Somerset, and was later removed to the vicinity of Ruckersville. Capt. May Burton, a Revolutionary officer, was long a lay reader there.

In Bishop Meade's " Old Churches and Families of Virginia a "is a chapter by Rev. Joseph Earnest, who was for some years rector of the church at Orange, about the early churches in the County. While his information was not exact, this chapter is the most valuable account of them now obtainable. He narrates that he had been told that the second oldest church was frequented as a place of worship as early as 1723, which is manifestly an error. Most probably it was built about 1740 when St. Thomas Parish was cut off from St. Mark.

The "Middle," or "Brick," church, stood on the hill rear where the Pamunkey road crosses Church Run. It was built between 1750 and 1758 of durable materials, and as late as 1806 time had made little impression on it. One of the first effects of the " freedom of worship " and the practical confiscation of the glebes and church properties was, that the people's consciences became very " free " also to do as they pleased with the church belongings.

This church was actually and literally destroyed, the very bricks carried off and the altar pieces torn from the altar and attached to pieces of household furniture.

The ancient communion plate, a massive silver cup and paten, with the name of the parish engraved on it, came to be regarded as common property. Fortunately by the exercise of vigilance the plate was rescued, and is now in possession of St. Thomas Church at Orange.

Nor did the despoilers overlook the churchyard when the work of destruction began. Tombstones were broken down and carried off to be appropriated to unhallowed uses. The Rev. Mungo Marshall, of hallowed memory, rector from 1753 to 1758, was buried there, but his grave was left unmarked. Years afterward a connection of his bequeathed a sum of money upon condition that the legatee should not receive it until he had placed a tombstone over Mr. Marshall's grave, which condition was soon fulfilled. That slab was taken away and used first to grind paints upon, and afterwards in a tannery on which to dress hides! What an injury was done to the history of the County in the destruction of the many tombstones there! for not a vestige remains of church or churchyard.

At a meeting of the vestry of the parish Sept. 1, 17 69, there were present: Rev. Thomas Martin, Erasmus Taylor, James Madison, Alexander Waugh, Francis Moore, William Bell, Rowland Thomas, Thomas Bell, Richard Barbour, and William Moore.

In 1786 the congregation in Orange, there being no Episcopal clergyman in the County, engaged the services of James Waddel, the blind Presbyterian minister, to preach for them two years. Forty pounds were subscribed, and the subscription was expected to reach sixty pounds. He not only preached for them but also administered the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper.

The Pine Stake Church, supposed to have been built about the same time as the last, was several miles below " Hawfield, " and about a mile and a half east of Everona, near the road to old Verdiersville. It was standing in1813. During the Revolution" Parson" Leland, as he was called, a Baptist preacher who is referred to at length elsewhere, asked to preach there, which the vestry declined to permit, James Madison, the elder, writing the letter for them.

The principal families connected with the Church in colonial times were the Barbours, Bells, Burtons, Campbells, Caves, Chews, Conways, Daniels, Madisons, Moores, Ruckers, Shepherds, Scotts, Taylors, Taliaferros, Thomases, Waughs, Whites, and Willises.

The glebe farm was near the courthouse, and is now owned by Mr. Wambersie.

In 1739 John Becket, clerk, a synonym for clergyman., was presented for not giving his attendance according to law, and for not administering the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper at his chapel in St. Mark Parish. The presentment was dismissed.

In 1741 Rev. Richard Hartswell of the Parish of St. Thomas, lately cut off from St. Mark, was presented for being drunk on the information of one Tully Joice who had been presented the same day for swearing an oath, thus indicating spite work, as the presentment was promptly dismissed.

As early as 1763, on motion of James Madison, the loss of two duplicate bills of exchange was ordered recorded. These bills represented a subscription of twenty-five pounds sterling to the "Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts," and show how soon missionary work was begun in Orange.

In a County where so many denominations exist, prudence impels strict adherence to the records in narrating their history.

When the County was formed and until the end of the Revolution, the Church of England was the Established or State Church, and church matters were regulated by laws passed by the "General Assembly" or law-making power. Thus it was the civil authorities, mostly composed of State Churchmen, however, not the church authorities, which enforced the law; and if this fact had always been borne in mind it is likely that much polemical asperity and recrimination might have been avoided.

The ecclesiastical regulations of those days would be deemed tyrannical and oppressive in these, but they applied alike to all citizens. The laws compelled everybody to attend religious worship, and numerous were the fines imposed with great impartiality on persons for absenting themselves from the parish church; Churchmen as well as dissenters. At one period, 1 69o to 1720, the law was that if the fine was not paid, the offender should be imprisoned and even receive corporal punishment; so it seems that it was not dissenters only who were "persecuted." And, as early as 1714, the German Protestants at Germanna were exempted by statute from paying parish levies, and authorized to employ a minister of their own faith.

A special chapter has been devoted to the colonial churches of the establishment: only four others appear to have existed in colonial times; "Hebron," the Lutheran Church in Madison, built in 17 40 ; "the church of the blind preacher," James Waddel (for so he spelled his own name); old "Blue Run" and "Pamunkey." In those days these were always spoken of as "Meeting Houses," even in the records.

Of these in Orange County, old "Blue Run," situated about midway between Liberty Mills and Barboursville, is probably the oldest. It was constituted in 1769, by the "Separate Baptists," Elijah Craig being the first pastor. As early as 1774 there is record of a motion by Zachary Burnley "to turn the road that leads from the `Meeting House' down to Blue Run bridge;" and there is still standing near the church what appears to be an indestructible stone vault of the Webb family, erected in 1783. Since the war, the old wooden edifice, still in excellent preservation, has been turned over to the negroes, the Baptist congregation having erected a new building near Somerset.

It is not known when the Presbyterian Church of the blind preacher, rendered memorable by William Wirt, in the "British Spy," Alas built, but it was certainly one of the earlier churches of the county. It stood on the north side of the Orange highway, about a half mile northeast of Gordonsville: proper appreciation of its historical associations would insure a permanant marking of the site while it is yet remembered.

In the heyday of the "Sons of Temperance," 1850-56, the historic old building was taken down and the lumber used to build a temperance hall at Gordonsville, which after the war was used for some years as a schoolhouse. Finally it was condemned that a street might be opened, and the material was bought by a negro preacher, who reconverted in into another structure, a fate as pathetic as that of old Blue Run; for so we treat our historic treasures, having so many!

And it may as well be recorded here that an old Baptist church known as "Zion Meeting House," which stood about two miles south of Orange courthouse, on the Gordonsville road, was abandoned for a new church at Toddsberth shortly before the war, the lumber of which was sold and put into new buildings at the courthouse, one of which was for years used as a barroom!

North Pamunkey is another Baptist church edifice of historic association. It was organized in 1774 by Aaron Bledsoe and E. Craig with twenty members. Aaron Bledsoe was its first pastor and its original name was North Fork of Pamunkey, from the stream nearby. In 1792 the membership was about three hundred and fifty, and it was used as a place of worship for thirty- seven years before being heated in any way.

The present edifice, practically on the site of the old log structure, the fourth on the same site, was completed in 1849.

Modern churches abound, almost to the impoverishment of preachers. At Gordonsville the whites have six churches and a chapel, the negroes several; the whites have four at Orange; at and near Somerset there are three, at Barboursville three; at and near Unionville several; and the county is dotted with them from end to end, the whites having thirty-two in all, the negroes seventeen.

Saint Thomas, at the Courthouse, was frequently attended during the war by Generals Lee, Stuart, and other Confederate officers of distinction; and New Zion, at Toddsberth, was occupied as a shoe shop in the winter of 1863-4. General Mahone bought up all the leather that he could, detailed all the shoemakers of his division, and took possession of the church. To his and their credit, no injury was done to the church, and when the campaign opened in the spring, his command was well shod.

The following items are condensed from the order books. In 1737 William Williams, Gent., a Presbyterian minister, took the oaths, subscribed the test, and likewise a declaration of his approval of such of the thirty-nine articles of religion as is required, and certified his intention of holding his meetings at his own plantation and that of Morgan Bryan.

Subsequent records show him to have been very litigious and at odds with very many people for sundry years. He brought suit atone time against nearly one hundred persons, for damages for a certain scandalous paper reflecting on him, but recovered nothing, though some of the signers did retract.

Here is a very curious order of 1768:

"Elijah Morton is discontinued, the Court conceiving him to be an unfit person to act as justice of the Peace, for that in a plea of debt" he declined, when requested by James Madison to make a quorum to try the cause, because one of the parties told him he did not wish it to be tried at that term; and yet when said Madison and Zachariah Burnley went into court and made a quorum the said Morton ascended the bench and sat in the cause; "and for that," the order concludes, "the said Morton is a promoter of schisms and particularly of the sect called Anabaptists!"

In 1773 Joseph Spencer, being brought before the court by a warrant under the hand of Rowland Thomas, Gent., for a breach of his good behavior in teaching and preaching the gospel as a Baptist not having a license; and it appearing that he did teach and preach as aforesaid, he at the same time insisting that he decented [dissented] from the principles of an Anabaptist; ordered, that he be committed to the custody of the sheriff until he give bond conditioned not to teach or preach without first obtaining a license as the law directs. Bond was required in a penalty of one hundred pounds, and he was allowed the liberty of the prison bounds on giving security.

At the next term leave was given him to live in the courthouse, he indemnifying the County against loss, and on his petition, his bond was reduced to twenty pounds, and William Morton and Jonathan Davis became his sureties for his good behavior.

In 1781 Elijah Craig and Nathaniel Sanders, dissenting Baptist ministers recommended by the elders of their society, were licensed to perform the marriage ceremony.

These are the only items of note in the records as to the treatment of dissenters by the Court.

There is a notable Indian Mound near the Greene line. The following description of it is condensed from a special report of the United States Bureau of Ethnology in 1894:

"The country along the upper portion of the Rappahannock and its tributaries was inhabited by tribes known collectively as the Manahoac. They probably migrated westward and united with tribes beyond the Ohio whose names they took. They and the Monacan were allied against the Powhatan.

"It will be proper to describe here a mound, evidently a ; tribal burial place, situated in the former territory of the Manahoac, and due probably to their labor.

"The mound stands on the right bank of Rapidan river, a mile east of the boundary between Orange and Greene. Originally it was elliptical in form, with the longer axis nearly east and west; but the river in shifting its channel some years ago, undermined and carried away the eastern portion, probably from one-half to two-thirds of the entire structure. For several years, some of the earth fell in at every freshet, thus keeping a vertical section exposed to view. The different strata of bone were plainly visible, and when the water was low fragments of human bones were strewn along the shore beneath. The river shifted again, and the mound soon assumed its natural shape. At present the base measures 42 by 48 feet, with the longer axis nearly north and south. A considerable part of it has been hauled away, leaving a depression at the middle fully 20 feet across and extending almost to the bottom of the mound. As a result, the interior was very muddy, the bones extremely soft and fragmentary, and excavation difficult.

"The highest point left by these destructive agencies was six feet; the river had probably left it fully ten feet high. If the statements concerning its original form and extent be correct, the apex was at least twelve feet above the base, the latter being not less than 50 by 75 feet.

"The earth was removed from an area 28 by 40 feet. At seven feet was found the outer edge of a bone deposit measuring 6 by 15 feet. There were indications in several places that skeletons had been compactly bundled, but most of the bones were scattered promiscuously, as if they had been collected from some place of previous interment and carelessly thrown in, there being no evidence of an attempt to place them in proper order. In the mass were two small deposits of calcined human bones, and beneath it were graves or burial pits.

"This bone bed, which was at the level of the natural Surface, was the largest found. Two feet above it, and four feet within its outer margin, was another, much smaller; and numerous others were found in all the portion removed. There was no attempt at regularity in position or extent; in some places only such a trace as may have resulted from the decomposition of a few bones; in others, as many as fifteen or twenty skeletons may- have been deposited. They occurred at all levels below a foot from the upper surface of the mound, but no section showed more than four layers above the original surface of the ground, though it was reported that six strata had been found near the central portion, which would indicate that the burials were carried nearly to the top of the mound.

"In the skeletons all ages were represented, for among the bones were those of very young children, while of others many of the teeth were worn to the neck.

"Numerous small deposits of human bones, almost destroyed by fire, were scattered through the mound. The bones in some of the graves appeared to have been placed in their proper position, but it was impossible to ascertain this with certainty. One of the deeper pits had its bottom lined with charcoal; none of the others had even this slight evidence of care or respect.

"No relics of any kind were deposited with the bones; a rough mortar, two arrowheads, and some fragments of pottery were found loose in the debris.

"It is plain that this spot was for a long period the burial place of a small tribe or clan, among whom prevailed the habit of stripping the flesh from the corpse before interment, or of depositing the body elsewhere for a time and afterwards removing the bones to this ossuary. That no stated intervals elapsed between consecutive deposits is shown by the varying position and size among the different bone beds, and by the overlapping of many of the graves beneath.

" It is impossible accurately to estimate the number of skeletons found; certainly not fewer than 200, possibly 250, which figures represent approximately one-fourth of the number deposited, if the statements as to the original size of the mound be correct.

"In its construction this mound corresponds closely with one opened by Jefferson on the Rivanna, a few miles above Charlottesville. `The contents were such as on the whole to give the idea of bones emptied promiscuously from a bag or basket and covered with earth, without any attention to their order.' That the bones near the top were in a better state of preservation than those towards the bottom is due probably less to their being of much later deposit than to the dryness of the earth near the top. A party of Indians passing about 1751 where this barrow is, near Charlottesville, went through the woods directly to it, without any instructions or inquiry, and having staid about it some time, with expressions construed to be those of sorrow, returned to the high road, which they had left about six miles to pay this visit, and pursued their journey."

For a fuller account the reader is referred to a pamphlet of the Smithsonian Institution, entitled, " Archaeologic Investigations in the James and Potomac Valleys."

As so little is known about the Indians who once inhabitated this section, it has been thought worthwhile to transcribe the few orders relating to them made by the county court.

In 1730, "William Bohannon came into court and made oath that about twenty-six of the Sapony Indians that inhabit Colonel Spotswood's land in Fox's neck go about and do a great deal of mischief by firing the woods; more especially on the 17th day of April last whereby several farrows of pigs were burnt in their beds, and that he verily believes that one of the Indians shot at him the same day, the bullet entering a tree within four feet of him; that he saw the Indian about one hundred yards from him, and no game of any sort between them; that the Indian after firing his gun stood in a stooping manner very studdy [steady] so that he could hardly discern him from a stump, that he has lost more of his pigs than usual since the coming of the said Indians; which is ordered to be certified to the General Assembly. "

1742. Sundry Indians, among them Manincassa, Captain Tom, Blind Tom, Foolish Zack, and Little Zack, were before Court for "terrifying" one Lawrence Strother, who testified that one of them shot at him, that they tried to surround him, that he turned his horse and rid off, but they gained on him till he crossed the run. Ordered, that the Indians be taken into custody by the sheriff until they give peace bonds with security, and that their guns be taken from them until they are ready to depart out of this Colony, they having declared their intention to depart within a week. They gave bond.

There is no record extant of any Indian massacre, large or small, in the original limits of the County east of the Blue Ridge.

The Tomahawk branch, which crosses the Gordonsville road about a mile and a half south of the courthouse, is a preserved Indian name, one of the very few in the County. It was here that the organization known as the " Culpeper Minute Men " camped when first on their way to join the army of the Revolution. (Slaughter's "St. Mark's.")

If Orange as a County ever sent an organized command to any of the French and Indian Wars no record of it has been found. The records do disclose that sundry of her citizens participated in these wars, but in every instance in a company or regiment from some other county; the names of but few appear in the recordamong them that of Ambrose Powell, ancestor of Gen. A. P. Hill-who rose to the dignity of a commission during all the years that these wars were waged.

Therefore, any detailed account of these wars would be out of place here, and only such facts will be narrated as may throw some light on the services of citizens who did participate in them.

In 1758 an expedition, the second one, was set on foot for the capture of Fort Duquesne, (the modern Pittsburg, then believed to be in the limits of Augusta County), under General Forbes, a British officer. Washington was commander of the Virginia troops which consisted of two regiments, his own and Col. William Byrd's, about two thousand men in all. A Colonel Bouquet, of Pennsylvania, commanded the advanced division of the army, and Captain Hogg, of Augusta, had a company in Washington's regiment.

The fort was finally captured, but the loss in Washington's regiment alone was 6 officers and 62 privates. Colonel Byrd was of the " Westover " family, an ancestor of the Willises of Orange. The Captain Overton referred to in the extracts following, was from Hanover, but he was in an earlier expedition in 1755. His company was the first organized in Virginia after Braddock's defeat, and the great Presbyterian preacher, Rev. Samuel Davies, addressed it by request on the eve of its departure for the frontiers. The history of these wars is narrated at large in Waddell's " Annals of Augusta County, " second edition, and in Withers's " Chronicles of Border Warfare. " The order books show as follows:

August, 1779. David Thompson, soldier in Captain Hogg's Rangers, 1758; sergeant in Colonel Bouquet's regiment in 1764.

Jacob Williams and Jacob Crosthwait, in Colonel Byrd's regiment, 1758.

September Term. Benjamin Powell, sergeant, Thomas Fitzgerald and John Williams, soldiers, in Colonel Byrd's regiment, 1758.

Isaac Crosthwait, Thomas Walker, Charles Walker, in Hogg's rangers.

October. Daniel McClayland, Colonel Byrd's regiment, 1759. William Vawter, sergeant, John Fumes, (Furnace), Hogg's rangers.

James Cowherd, ensign, Colonel Bouquet's regiment; William Bullock and William Rogers, in Colonel Washington's regiment, 1758 ; Francis Hackley, John Lucas, Thomas Powell, Richard Lamb, John Lamb, James Gaines, Thomas Morris, Charles Pearcey, William Cave, soldiers, and Michael Rice, sergeant, in Colonel Byrd's regiment.

Henry Shackleford, Henry Hervey, John Warner, Simon Powell, soldiers, and James Riddle, noncommissioned, Hogg's rangers.

1780. William Brock, in Colonel Stephen's regiment, 1762. Colonel Adam Stephen was probably from Frederick County, where Stephensburg is named for him.

Patrick Fisher, Littleberry Low, William Lamb, David Watts, Charles Watts, James Lamb, soldiers, William Cave, non-commissioned, in Colonel Byrd's regiment; William Watson, in "Captain Overton's company of regulars for defence of this State, " in 1755.

William Sims and Francis Gibbs, in Hogg's rangers; James Roberts, in " Captain Wagoner's company of regulars for defense of this State," 1757; Ambrose Powell, Gent., staff officer in Virginia forces, 1755.

William Smith, Captain Hogg's rangers.

In Thwaites's edition of Withers it is said that Col. William Russell, at one time high sheriff of Orange, did some frontier service in the early part of these wars, and in 17 53 was sent as a commissioner to the Indians in the region where Pittsburg now stands. His son, of the same name, was at the battle of Point Pleasant; was second in command at King's Mountain, and retired at the end of the Revolution as brevet brigadier-general.

The records in the Land Office at Richmond show that the following Orange people received bounty land for service in these wars. Their names are also listed in Crozier's " Virginia Colonial Militia: " Jacob Crosthwait, Francis Gibbs, William Smith, William Brock, William Rogers, Richard Bullard, James Gaines, Michael Rice, John Lamb, Richard Lamb, William Cave, James Riddle, Thomas Morris, John Furnace, David Thompson, Isaac Crosthwait, William Vaughan, Ambrose Powell, Littleberry Lane, Henry Shackleford, Patrick Fisher, Charles Watts, Simon Powell, David Watts.

Francis Cowherd, long known as Major Cowherd, who was a justice of the peace and high sheriff of Orange after the Revolution and who attained the rank of captain in the Revolutionary army, was a soldier in Colonel Field's regiment at the battle of Point Pleasant. His home, " Oak Hill, " is about two miles northeast of Gordonsville, and is still owned by his descendants. Just before the battle he and a comrade named Clay were out hunting, a little distance apart, and came near to where two Indians were concealed. Seeing Clay only, and supposing him to be alone, one of them fired at him; and running up to scalp him as he fell, was himself shot by Cowherd, who was about a hundred yards off. The other Indian ran off. (Withers's Chronicles.)

Another anecdote related by his contemporaries is, that in the battle of Point Pleasant Cowherd was behind a tree, fighting in Indian warfare fashion, when Colonel Field ran up to the same tree. He offered to seek another, but the Colonel commanded him to remain where he was, saying it was his tree, and that he would go to another. In making his way to it he was killed by the Indians, greatly lamented by the army. He was of the Culpeper family of Field, was a lieutenant of a company from that county at Braddock's defeat, and was greatly distinguished as an Indian fighter. (See again Withers's Chronicles.)

Mention is made of the Chew brothers, distinguished in these wars, in the Biographical Sketches.

Hancock Taylor, a brother of Colonel Richard, father of the President, was killed by the Indians in Kentucky in 1774.

There is a so-called " patriotic " association, known as the " Society of Colonial Wars, " and descendants of those who participated in the French and Indian wars are eligible to membership therein.

The part the County took in the Revolution must be exhibited rather in details than by a connected narrative.

The royalist Governor, Lord Dunmore, often prorogued-that is, dissolved-the Burgesses from 1773 to 1776, for what he considered their contumacious attitude towards the Crown. The Burgesses, instead of going to their several homes, as he expected, began in 1774 to assemble at the Raleigh Tavern, at Williamsburg, then the capital, and form themselves into revolutionary conventions-one or more in 1774, two in 1775, in all of which Orange was represented by Thomas Barbour and James Taylor; and finally into the worldfamous Convention of 17 76, in which James Madison, Jr., and William Moore were the delegates from the County. So odious did the name of Dunmore become that a county named for him, once in the domain of Orange, lost its identity under that name, and was re-christened Shenandoah.

While these conventions were being held the people at home became greatly aroused and began to organize for a conflict that seemed inevitable, by choosing committees of safety, putting the militia on a war footing and selecting from them, for regular training and discipline, the more active and resolute, called "Minute Men."

By an ordinance of the Convention of 1775, the colony was divided into eighteen districts, one of which consisted of the counties of Orange, Culpeper, and Fauquier; each district was required to enlist a battalion of 500 men in 10 companies of 50 each, with the requisite officers, a colonel, lieutenant-colonel, and major, 10 captains and lieutenants, a chaplain, surgeon, etc.

The first organization from this district appears to have been designated " The Culpeper Minute Men, " supposedly because Culpeper was the middle county; for it is certain that Lawrence Taliaferro of Orange, was its first colonel.

It participated in the battle of Great Bridge, the first battle of the Revolution fought on Virginia soil, in December, 1775, and was then commanded by Stevens, afterwards General Stevens, of Culpeper.

The committees of safety were very great factors in the war, and really constituted a sort of military executive in each county.

It is not to be doubted that each committee kept a formal record of its proceedings, which would furnish invaluable historical data; but very few complete records have been found in any of the counties, and practically all that are preserved are in the fourth series of Peter Force's American Archives, published by order of Congress, and now become quite rare.

The following extracts, copied from these Archives, are believed to be the whole record of the Orange committee that has been preserved:

*At a meeting of the Freeholders of the County of Orange, Virginia, on Thursday the 22nd day of December, 17 74, the following gentlemen were elected a Committee for the said County, viz:

James Madison, James Taylor, William Bell, Thomas Barbour, Zachariah Burnley, Rowland Thomas, William Moore, Johnny Scott, James Walker, William Pannill, Francis Moore, James Madison, Jun., Lawrence Tahaferro, Thomas Bell, and Vivian Daniel.

And at a, meeting of the said Committee at the Court House, on Monday, the 2nd day of January, 1775, James Madison, Esquire, was elected Chairman, and Francis Taylor, Clerk of said Committee.

Published by order of the Committee.

FRANCIS TAYLOR, Clerk.

March 11, 1775.

t An accusation being lodged with the Committee of Orange County against Francis Moore, Jun., of his having violated the Eighth Article of the Continental Association by gaming: the said Moore was cited, and appeared before the Committee convened Feby. 23, ,775. The testimony of a witness, as well as the confession of the accused, convinced the Committee that the charge was well founded; but Mr. Moore gave such evidence of his penitence, and intention to observe the Association strictly for the future, and alleging, moreover, that he was not thoroughly aware of the extent of the prohibition contained in that Article, that the Committee think it proper to readmit him into the number of friends to the public cause, till a second transgression.

*Peter Force's American Archives, Fourth Series, Vol. I., p. 1056.
t Ibid: Vol. II. p. 126.
It need scarcely be added, that this mitigation of the punishment prescribed in the Eleventh Article, proceeds from a desire to distinguish penitent and submissive, from refractory and obstinate offenders.

FRANCIS TAYLOR, Clerk.
March 27, 1775.

The Committee of Orange County being informed that the Reverend Mr. John Wingate had in his possession several pamphlets containing very obnoxious reflections on the Continental Congress and their proceedings, and calculated to impose on the unwary; and being desirous to manifest their contempt and resentment of such writings and their authors, assembled on Saturday, the 25th of March, 1775, at the Court House of the said County. The Committee were the rather induced to meet for this purpose, as it had also been reported that there were a considerable number of these performances in the Country, introduced amongst us in all probability to promote the infamous ends for which they were written; that they were to be sold indiscriminately at Purdie's office in Wiliiamsburgh, and that unfavorable impressions had been made on some people's minds by the confident assertions of falsehoods and insidious misrepresentations of facts contained in them. The intentions of this Committee were made known to Mr. Wingate, and a delivery of the pamphlets requested in the most respectful manner, without the least suspicion that Mr. Wingate had procured them with a design to make an ill use of them, or that he would hesitate a moment as to a compliance; but to their great surprise, he absolutely refused, urging that they belonged to Mr. Henry Mitchell of Fredericksburgh, and he could do nothing without his express permission. The Committee then proceeded to expostulate with him on the subject, and to insist upon him that as he regarded his association engagements, the favour of the Committee or the good of the publick, he would not deny so reasonable a request. They told him they would engage to make ample satisfaction to Mr. Mitchell for any damage he might sustain and that there would not be the least reason to fear that Mr. Mitchell would be displeased, who was well known to be an associator, and acknowledged by himself to be a hearty friend to the cause which these pamphlets were intended to disparage and counteract; and that if Mr. Mitchell was not this hearty friend we hoped him to be, it must be an additional argument for the Committee to press their request, and for him to comply with it. Mr. Wingate still persisted in his refusal to deliver them up, but added that he would let the Committee have a sight of them, if they would promise to return them unhurt. This could by no means be agreed to, as they were justly apprehensive that it would be their duty to dispose of the pamphlets in a manner inconsistent with such a promise. At length the Committee, finding there was no prospect of working on Mr. Wingate by arguments or entreaties, peremptorily demanded the pamphlets, with a determination not to be defeated in their intentions. In consequence of which they were produced to the Committee who deferred the full examination and final disposal of them till the Monday following.

On Monday, the 27th instant, they again met at the same place, according to adjournment, and after a sufficient inquiry into the contents of five pamphlets under the following titles, viz: 1st, "The Congress Canvassed, etc.," by A. W. Farmer; 2nd, "A View of the Controversey between Great Britain and her Colonies," by the same; 3d, "Free Thoughts on the Proceedings of the Continental Congress, etc.," by A. Farmer; 4th, "Short Advice to the Counties of New York," by a Country Gentleman; 5th, "An Alarm to the Legislature of the Province of New York, etc. ;" most of them printed by Rivington of New York:

Resolved, That as a collection of the most audacious insults on that august body (the Grand Continental Congress) and their proceedings, and also on the several Colonies from which they were deputed, particularly New England and Virginia, of the most slavish doctrines of Provincial Government, the most impudent falsehoods and malicious artifices to excite divisions among the friends of America, they deserved to be publicly burnt, as a testimony of the Committee's detestation and abhorrence of the writers and their principles.

Which sentence was speedily executed in the presence of the Independent Company and other respectable inhabitants of the said County, all of whom joined in expressing a noble indignation against such execrable publications, and their ardent wishes for an opportunity of inflicting on the authors, publishers, and the abbettors, the punishment due to their insufferable arrogance and atrocious crimes.

Published by order of the Committee,

FRANCIS TAYLOR, Clerk.
May 9, 1775

The Committee for Orange County met on Tuesday, the 9th of May. Taking into their consideration the removal of the powder from the public magazine, and the compensation obtained by the Independent Company of Hanover; and observing also that the receipt given by Captain Patrick Henry to his Majesty's Receiver General refers the final disposal of the money to the next Colony Convention, came to the following Resolutions:

I . That the Governour's removal of the Powder lodged in the Magazine, and set apart for the defence of the Country, was fraudulent, unnecessary, and extremely provoking to the people of this Colony.

2. That the resentment shown by the Hanover Volunteers, and the reprisal they have made on the King's property, highly merit the approbation of the publick, and the thanks of this Committee.

3. That if any attempt should be made, at the ensuing Convention, to have the Money returned to His Majesty's Receiver General, our Delegates be, and they are hereby instructed, to exert all their influence in opposing such attempt, and in having the Money laid out in Gunpowder for the use of the Colony.

4. That the following Address be presented to Captain Patrick Henry, and the gentlemen Independents of Hanover:

GENTLEMEN : We, the Committee for the County of Orange, having been fully informed of your seasonable and spirited proceedings in procuring a compensation for the Powder fraudulently taken from the County Magazine by command of Lord Dunmore, and which it evidently appears his Lordship, notwithstanding his assurances had no intention to restore, entreat you to accept their cordial thanks for this testimony of your zeal for the honour and interest of your Country. We take this occasion also to give it as our opinion, that the blow struck in the Massachusetts Government is a hostile attack on this and every other Colony, and a sufficient warrant to use violence and reprisal, in all cases where it may be expedient for our security and welfare.

This address is signed by all the members of the committee except Messrs. Wm. Bell, Pannill, Francis Moore and V. Daniel, and was prepared by James Madison, Jr., according to Mr. Wm. C. Rives's "Life of Madison." As he was then only about twenty-three and at no time much of a warrior, the statement seems improbable; nor does his fame need bolstering by mere conjecture.

It will be observed that this record ends on May 9, only a few days after the "Embattled farmers" of Massachusetts had " fired the shot heard round the world, " the opening gun of the Revolution at Concord, April 19, 1775.

Membership of the Committee was quite a badge of distinction, and descent from a Committeeman constitutes a clear title to membership in the societies known as " The Sons " and "The Daughters of the Revolution. "

Recurring to the order books, the first record of impending disorder is in 1775, when nine patrolmen are paid 1,679 pounds of tobacco for patrolling the county the preceding year.

In March, 1776, Thomas Barbour is appointed sheriff "agreeable to an order of the Convention," the first official recognition by the Court of existing Revolution. In July of that year the justices take the oath prescribed by the Convention, "to be faithful and true to the Commonwealth of Virginia, and to the utmost of their power support, maintain and defend the constitution thereof as settled by the General Convention, and do equal right and justice to all men." A noble oath! It was first administered to Francis Moore who then administered it to the other justices, to James Taylor, clerk, and to John Walker, " King's Attorney."

Virginia had declared her independence of the Crown on the 29th of June, 1776, five days before the general Declaration in July. The public officers appear to have simply held over by taking the Convention oath. But in May, 1777, commissions from Patrick Henry, the first governor of the new " Commonwealth, " directed to James Madison, Francis Moore, William Bell, Rowland Thomas, Reuben Daniel, Zachary Burnley, Thomas Bell, William Moore, Andrew Shepherd, Thomas Barbour, Johnny Scott, Benjamin Grymes, James Madison, Jr., Uriel Mallory, Catlett Conway, and Jeremiah White,were received: and they constituted the first bench of justices under the new regime. It does not appear that James Madison, Jr., ever qualified.

Richard Adams was ordered to deliver to Johnny Scott 60 bushels of salt belonging to the County, agreeable to an order of his Excellency, the Governor.

These companies are named in current orders Johnny Scott's, Captain Bruce's, Captain Craig's, Captain Conway's, Francis Moore's, Captain Smith's, Captain Mills', and Captain Conney's. Captain seems to have distinguished sufficiently without the Christian name.

William Bell was appointed to administer the prescribed oath, "to oblige all the inhabitants to give assurance of allegiance to the State," and certain dissenting ministers, John Price, Elijah Craig, Nathaniel Sanders, Bartlett Bennett, and Richard Cave, took the oaths of allegiance and fidelity.

In 1778 allowances of money were ordered to Peter Mountague, Jere Chandler, and Joseph Edmondson, soldiers in service; to Sarah Staves, a poor woman having two sons in service; to Usley McClarney, widow of Francis who had died in service; to Margaret Douglas, a poor woman, son in Continental army; and to Solomon Garrett's family, he being in Continental service. Thirty-six pounds were allowed Mountague's family. Zachary Burnley becomes county lieutenant in place of James Madison, resigned. He resigns in 1781, and is succeeded by James Madison, Jr. Jane Hensley, having son in Continental Army, is allowed 25 pounds.

In 1781, Ordered, agreeably to Act of Assembly for supplying army with clothes, provisions, and wagons, that each tithable person pay the sheriff seven pounds, current money, to purchase a wagon and team and hire a driver. This tax realized about $50,000, and the purchase was made and the outfit delivered to Benjamin Winslow, deputy commissioner.

The sheriff was ordered to pay James Madison $6,500 for repairing public wagons, Benjamin Head $36,000 to purchase a wagon and team for the public, and Edmund Singleton $800 for collars for the team. John Coleman is named as an ensign in Continental service.

In 1782 the companies in the County were commanded by Captains Miller, Burton, Buckner, Herndon, Hawkins, Lindsay, Waugh, Graves, Stubblefield, and Webb.

A special term of the court was held for several days in April, 1'782, to adjust claims for property impressed or furnished for the public service. These claims cover nearly forty full pages of the order book, and only a few of the more notable ones can be inserted here. They were mostly for provisions, horses, brandy, guns, etc.; a great many supplies having been furnished when the " Convention Troops, " as the prisoners taken at Saratoga were called, subsequently confined in barracks near Charlottesville, were marched through the County.

A guard was constantly kept at Brock's Bridge, quite a detachment to judge from the quantity of supplies furnished it.

James Madison's name often appears. He owned quite a blacksmith's shop, and appears to have got good prices for all his supplies, which generally are rated as something extra. He furnished supplies to Halifax and Pittsylvania militia returning from Noland's Ferry where they had escorted prisoners taken at York; Indian meal to Convention troops marching from the barracks to Winchester in 1781 ; was paid $35 "for a gun, one of the best, imported," impressed for the Orange militia, and for "a well fixed wagon, the naves (hubs) of the wheels boxed with iron," impressed at Richmond by Stephen Southall, assistant quartermaster general.

Robert Thomas's gun was impressed for the Orange militia guarding the Convention prisoners in 1778. Moses Hase was paid for two bushels of " country-made salt, " impressed by George Morton, commissary, Orange militia.

There is incontestible evidence that the Orange militia were several times in actual service in the field, a fact that no history of the Revolution discloses, certainly not so as to identify them. How long and on what occasions they served can not now be ascertained, but these selected entries prove the fact:

William Hawkins furnishes supplies to Prettyman Merry, lieutenant Orange militia for I8-months men marching from Orange to Fredericksburg; allowances to William Webb, for beef for Orange militia on march to camp; to James Coleman, for supplies impressed by William Thomas, commanding officer of guard at Brock's Bridge; to William Morton, for wagon impressed for Orange militia from August 17 to October 31, 1781, and for ? wagon impressed at Guilford courthouse, North Carolina, October, 1781, by order of General Stevens; to Zachary Herndon, for wagon with Orange militia 27 days, October and November, 1781, and to same in May, June, and July, 1781, 75 days; to George Morton, for wagons impressed for Orange militia 13 5 days, John Taylor, colonel commanding.

In a cotemporaneous official manuscript volume labeled, " Virginia Militia " in the State library, published in full in the "Virginia Magazine of History and Biography," see volume 14, page 8o, are to be found these entries:

"1777, Sept. 29. Scott, Captain John, for pay of his company of Orange Militia to 28 inst, and 9 days to return, £ 211. 5s. 3d.

September ,30. Ditto for ditto. For one day detained, per account, £ 8. 7s. 5d."

These examples must suffice. They seem to indicate that certainly part of the service was at the seige of York, as Yorktown was then called. Other items of general interest are these: Benjamin Johnson, supplies for prisoners and militia marching from Fredericksburg to Charlottesville or Staunton, and for oats for wagon horses with the " Flying Hospital. "

Charles Porter, for use of his house taken for quarters for Marquis de Lafayette by C. Jones, assistant quartermaster general, June, 1781, 3 days. Daniel Thornton, for guarding the Marquis on his march through Orange.

It has been impossible to locate with exactness Charles Porter's house, thus rendered historic, but it is believed to have been near the old Raccoon Ford, some distance above the present ford, it being known that the Marquis was delayed some days there awaiting reenforcements. In an order of March, 17 86, laying off the County into districts for overseers of the Poor, Middle District begins " at Charles Porter's and runs along the Marquis's road to Brockman's Bridge, " which almost identifies the house as being on the river where this road crossed it.

Mary Bell, for entertaining William Clark, express rider and his horse, stationed at her house by H. Young, quartermaster general, State volunteers.

This Mary Bell was afterwards County jailer for several years.

Andrew Shepherd, for a mare rode express, by order of the County Lieutenant, to give notice to captains of militia to assemble their companies, May, 1781, by order of the Executive.

Other items pertaining to the Revolution, and giving names of Orange people who participated in it will be found in condensed form in an appendix. The curious reader is referred to the order book for 1782, April Special Terms, for further information.

In order to verify the statement heretofore made as to the Orange soldiers being designated at first as " Culpeper Minute Men, " the following petition, from the original, now on file in the State library, is published at length. It is endorsed, "The Petition of Philip Ballard praying for a pension, December 28th, 1829, referred to Revolutionary claims, and is in the words following:

To the Senate and House of Representatives of VirginiaYour petitioner begs leave to represent that he enlisted in the service of the State of Virginia as early as 1775 in what was then called the Minute Service in Captain Joseph Spencer's Company from Orange County, Va., who was attached to Col. Tolerver's (Taliaferro), of said County, Regiment, and was from thence marched to Culpeper C. H. and thence to what was called the Great Bridge, at which place your petitoner was engaged in the Battle that took place between the British and General Wolford, after which your petitioner was discharged. Your petitioner then enlisted in the service for two years in Captain Burley's (Burnley) Company who was commanded by Major Robert and Col. Francis Taylor. After the expiration of that time your petitioner enlisted two years more and was attached to Captain Chapman's Company who was commanded by Major Wails (?) and Colonel Crocket. etc.

The affidavit of G. Stallings was filed in verification of this petition.

Who were the first English settlers may be best ascertained from the family names mentioned in the earlier court proceedings as narrated in other chapters. In most instances these were the people who resided in the County before and at the time of its formation, though some that are oftenest named, and appear to have been of the most conspicuous of the landed gentry, never became actual residents. The great Baylor and Beverley grants, and other very large ones, appear to have been speculative only, for the grantees never lived in the County. Their lands were under the management of bailiffs, as they were then called, who had large numbers of servants under their control. Thus the census of 1782 (Appendix) shows that on the Baylor estate there were 84 blacks and not one white person. The real owners of the land attended court regularly, to acknowledge their many deeds of bargain and sale, and then returned to their homes in Tidewater.

Yet a good many people did actually take up their abode in this frontier county while it was still a part of Spotsylvania, and some of their names are household words to-day; Spotswood, Chew, Cave, Madison, Moore, Willis, Taliaferro, Thomas, Barbour, Scott, Smith, Taylor, Waugh, Porter, Head, Fry, Lightfoot, and many more; the general narrative must be looked to to learn who they were, and what they did. They all appear covetous of great landed possessions, but they appear also to have been resolute and public-spirited citizens, an ancestry of which their descendants may well be proud.

Far and away the most ancient and most historic settlement was Germanna, "in the peninsula formed by the Rapidan." Indeed there are few places in all Virginia, which is to say in all America, that surpass Germanna in historic interest during the colonial period; Jamestown, Williamsburg, York, and a few more; yet to-day Germanna constitutes not much more than a name and a memory, rich as are its associations with the past, with the beginnings that foreshadowed Orange at its zenith.

It is first mentioned in a statute, that somehow escaped the vigilance of Hening when compiling that vast ' treasure house of Virginia history, the "Statutes at Large." In the State library is an old volume entitled "Acts of Assembly passed in the Colony of Virginia from 1662 to 1725, " printed at London in 1727.

About the last Act in it is one to exempt certain German Protestants from the payment of levies for seven years, and for erecting the parish of St. George, passed in 1714: "Whereas certain German Protestants, to the number of forty-two persons or thereabouts, have been settled above the falls of the River Rappahannock, on the southern branch of the said river, called Rapidan, at a place named Germanna, in the County of Essex, and have there begun to build and make improvements for their cohabitation, to the great advantage of this colony and the security of the frontiers in those parts from the intrusions of the Indians, " it is enacted that they shall be free from the payment of all public and county levies for seven years, as should be any other German Protestants who might settle there, always providing, however, that they did not leave Germanna and settle elsewhere.

The next section creates the parish of St. George extending for five miles on each side of the town exempts it from all parish levies from the Parish of St Mary, in Essex, and from the cure of the minister thereof, and "from all dependencies, offices, charge; and contributions" of the same, and of "all levies oblations, obventions and all other parochial duties whatsoever" relating to the same.

Here are disclosed some interesting historical facts that Germanna was in Essex County at that time that a special parish was established of which the ecclesiastical historians have taken no note whatever, the St. George parish of subsequent years being a wholly distinct one, though embracing the original parish o: that name; and, most of all, that these "Strangers in a strange land" were placed there as a sort of buffer against the Indians, a rather cool and somewhat crue thing to have done.

These German Protestants who came in 1714 were in fact the "First Settlers" of Orange, then a part of Essex, afterwards of Spotsylvania, and not caller Orange until 20 years later; arid as such their name; ought to be chronicled, and something of their history narrated. In brief it is as follows:

All these first colonists belonged to the German Reformed Church, the great German branch of the Presbyterian family of churches. They were natives of the old principality of Nassau-Siegen, now a part of Westphalia, Germany, and their homes were in and near the city of Siegen and the town of Muesen. They organized, at Germanna, the first congregation of the German Reformed church in the United States, and John Fontaine records in his journal the first description of a religious service in America conducted by the adherents of this denomination. They removed from Germanna in 1721 and settled on Licking Run, about eight miles south of Warrenton near present Midland station, where they first acquired lands. The locality was then in Stafford, later Prince William. and is now Fauquier. Their new home was known as Germantown.

Rev Henry Haeger was their pastor. He was a man of much erudition, lived to a great age, and died in 1737. These colonists were induced to leave their homes in Germany by the Baron de Graffenreid, acting for Governor Spotswood who was then making preparations to develop his iron mines in the vicinity of Germanna, and this business enterprise of the Governor was the sole cause of their coming to America and Virginia.

The second colony, which came in 1717, was entirely distinct from the first; in fact, when leaving Germany its destination was Pennsylvania, and not Virginia, and it finally reached Virginia through force of circumstances for which they were not responsible and which they could not control. This colony was composed chiefly of Lutherans. It numbered about eighty persons, comprised in twenty families, coming from Alsace, the Palatinate and adjacent districts in Germany.

In 1719 a third colony, also mostly Lutherans, consisting of forty families, came to Virginia and settled in the vicinity of Germanna. Comparatively nothing is known of the antecedent history of this last group of Germans. The colony of 1717 became involved in litigation with Governor Spotswood, of whose treatment they more than once complained.

The records of Spotsylvania show their names as follows: John Broil, Frederick Cobbler, Christopher Zimmerman, wife Elizabeth, children John and Andrew; Henry Snyder, wife Dorothy ; Michael Smith, wife Kathrina ; Michael Cook, wife Mary; Andrew Kerker, wife Margarita, daughter Barbara; William Carpenter, wife Elizabeth; Christopher Pavler, (or Parhir wife Pauera; Jacob Broil; John Broil, wife Ursley, children Conrad and Elizabeth; Nicholas Yeager, wife Mary, children Adam and Mary; Philip Paulitz ; Robert Turner, wife Mary, children Christopher, Christianna, Kathrina, Mary and Parva ; Conrad Auberge, Balthaser Blankenbaker, Michael Clore, Andrew Ballenger, George Sheible, George Meyer, Michael Kaffer, Matthias Blankenbaker, Michael Holt, Zerechias Fleshman, Hendrick Snyder, George Utz.

Quite a number of them proved their importations at Germanna in 1726 and 1727, and their names are given in the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, April No., 1906

The colonists of 1717 and 1719 seem to have remained at Germanna, or in that neighborhood, until 17 2 5 or 1726, when they removed to the Robertson river section (in Madison County), where they had acquired lands.

In the same magazine, Vol. XIV. pp. 136-17o, Rev. William J. Hinke, of Philadelphia, contributes a number of valuable documents relating to the German element of Madison County, which, with Mr. Hinke's notes, constitute the most valuable sources of history of these two colonies, and tell best the story of their early fortunes in Virginia. Many of these names are familiar in Madison to-day, and the list last given sounds like an echo of the roll-call of the Madison Troop in the Confederate war. Hebron church, near the Robertson River, remains a monument of their devotion and Christian character.

The history of these Germans is very interesting, and has been written at large by several authors, the best and most comprehensive account of them being the "Kemper Genealogy," which treats of the earliest colony, that of 1714. Gen. James L. Kemper, Governor of Virginia soon after the war, was a descendant of one of these colonists; and their descendants are to be found not only in Virginia, but throughout the South and West.

The limitations of this book preclude the following up of their fortunes, but the truth of history impels the statement that the colonists of 1714 were the real first actual settlers of Orange. And if Governor Spotswood were in fact the "Tubal Cain of Virginia," it was these Germans who won that title for him. In the "Kemper Genealogy" it is stated with emphasis that the colony of 1714 was not a Palatinate Colony. "They did not leave their homes not knowing where they were going, nor because they were compelled to. They were engaged to go, and knew where they were going, and what they were to do. They came from one of the thriftiest and most intelligent provinces of Germany; they were master mechanics, and were an intelligent, progressive set of people."

The Rev. Hugh Jones, in his " Present State of Virginia, " published about 1724, thus describes Germanna "Beyond Governor Spotswood's furnace above the Falls of Rappahannock River, within view of the vast mountains, he has founded a town, called Germanna from the Germans sent over by Queen Anne, who are now removed up further. He has servants and workmen at most handicraft trades, and he is building a church, courthouse, and dwelling house for himself; and with his servants and negroes he has cleared plantations about it, proposing great encouragement for people to come and settle in that uninhabited part of the world, lately divided into a county," that is Spotsylvania.

This would seem to fix the date of the first English settlement there as about 1724; and incidentally to dispose of the rather incredible statement made by Mr. William Kyle Anderson, in his "Taylor Genealogy" that " Bloomsbury, " the former home of Col. James Taylor, now owned by the Jerdone family, about three miles below present Orange courthouse and some twenty above Germanna, was built so early as 1722.

A subsequent chapter, "The Progress to the Mines," is the best extant description of this historic old place. That there was a "palace" there, with a terraced garden connected by an underground passage with a fort, there is no reason to doubt. Indeed, the terraces remain to this day. It was certainly the county seat of Spotsylvania, as the statute shows. In May, 1732, a statute was passed, " Whereas, the place for holding courts in the County of Spotsylvania, is appointed and fixed at Germanna, and it is found by experience that great inconveniences attend the justices and inhabitants of the said county and others whose attendance is required or who have business to transact at the said courts, for want of accommodation for themselves and their horses, which by reason of the fewness of the inhabitants for many miles round the said place cannot be had, " and enacting that these courts be held only at Fredericksburg from the ensuing first day of August.

Then began, no doubt, the decadence of this historic hamlet, which has continued till now. But "a merry place it was in days of yore, " where the gentry were feasted at the palace, and "Miss Theky " dispensed other beverages than coffee that would not give a man the palsy. But it ought never to be forgotten that at Germanna began that great adventure, the tramontane ride of the " Knights of the Horseshoe, " the first body of Englishmen to cross the Blue Ridge and discover the Goshen beyond; and hence, it may be truly said, the " star of empire began its westward course, " nor stopped until the Mississippi had been passed and the Golden Gate to the Pacific had been reached. In later times, mighty armies crossed and recrossed the Rapidan at Germanna, and the thunders of Chancellorsville and the Wilderness shook its ruins to their foundations. Ichabod! The glory of Israel is departed; let the memory of it remain forever!

The following sketch of a visit to Colonel Spotswood and his mines in 1732 by Col. William Byrd is inserted with full knowledge of the proverb that " comparisons are odious.

A just consideration of the rights of the readers of this book impels its insertion, the cost of the Westover Manuscripts, from which it is extracted, rendering them practically inaccessible to the average reader.

Colonel Byrd was one of the commissioners to run the boundary line between Virginia and North Carolina, and also a commissioner on the part of the colony to define the southwestern limit of Lord Fairfax's grant, reporting strenuously and conclusively that the modern Rappahannock River was the true boundary; which report, however, did not finally prevail.

He held many positions of dignity and trust in the colony and, it is said, was the friend of Addison, and an occasional contributor to the " Spectator. " He amassed the finest private library which had then been seen in America. Born March 28, 1674. Died August 26, 1744.

I took my leave about ten, and drove over a spacious level road ten miles, to a bridge built over the river Po, which is one of the four branches of Matapony, about forty yards wide. Two miles beyond that we passed by a plantation belonging to the company of about five hundred acres, where they keep a great number of oxen to relieve those that have dragged their loaded carts thus far. Three miles farther we came to Germanna road, where I quitted the chair, and continued my journey on horseback. I rode eight miles together over a stony road, and had on either side continual poisoned fields, with nothing but saplings growing on them. Then I came into the main county road, that leads from Fredericksburg to Germanna, which last place I reached in ten miles more. This famous town consists of Colonel Spotswood's enchanted castle on one side of the street, and a baker's dozen of ruinous tenements on the other, where so many German families had dwelt some years ago; but are now removed ten miles higher in the fork of Rappahannock, to land of their own. There had also been a chapel about a bowshot from the Colonel's house at the end of an avenue of cherry trees, but some pious people had lately burnt it down, with intent to get another built nearer to their own homes. Here I arrived about three o'clock, and found only Mrs. Spotswood at home, who received her old acquaintance with many a gracious smile. I was carried into a room elegantly set off with pier glasses, the largest of which came soon after to an odd misfortune. Amongst other favorite animals that cheered this lady's solitude, a brace of tame deer ran familiarly about the house, and one of them came to stare at me as a stranger. But unluckily spying his own figure in the glass, he made a spring over the tea table that stood under it, and shattered the glass to pieces, and falling back upon the tea table, made a terrible fracas among the china. This exploit was so sudden, and accompanied with such a noise, that it surprised me and perfectly frightened Mrs. Spotswood. But it was worth all the damage to show the moderation and good humour with which she bore the disaster. In the evening the noble Colonel came home from his mines, who saluted me very civilly, and Mrs. Spotswood's sister, Miss Theky, who had been to meet him en cavalier, was so kind, too, as to bid me welcome.

We talked over a legion of old stories, supped about nine, and then prattled with the ladies till it was time for a traveller to retire. In the meantime I observed my old friend to be very uxorious and exceedingly fond of his children. This was so opposite to the maxims he used to preach up before he was married, that I could not forbear rubbing up the memory of them. But he gave a very good-natured turn to his change of sentiments, by alleging that whoever brings a poor gentlewoman into so solitary a place, from all her friends and acquaintances, would be ungrateful not to use her and all that belongs to her with all possible tenderness.

28th. We all kept snug in our several apartments till nine, except Miss Theky, who was the housewife of the family. At that hour we met over a pot of coffee, which was not quite strong enough to give us the palsy. After breakfast the Colonel and I left the ladies to their domestic affairs, and took a turn in the garden, which has nothing beautiful but three terrace walks that fall in slopes one below another. I let him understand that besides the pleasure of paying him a visit, I came to be instructed by so great a master in the mystery of making of iron, wherein he had led the way, and was the Tubal Cain of Virginia. He corrected me a little there, by assuring me he was not only the first in this country, but the first in North America, who had erected a regular furnace. That they ran altogether upon bloomeries in New England and Pennsylvania, till his example had made them attempt greater works. But in this last colony, they have so few ships to carry their iron to Great Britain, that they must be content to make it only for their own use, and must be obliged to manufacture it when they have none. That he hoped he had done the country very great service by setting so good an example. That the four furnaces now at work in Virginia circulated a great sum of money for provisions and all other necessaries in the adjacent counties. That they took off a great many hands from planting tobacco, and employed them in works that produced a large sum of money in England to the persons concerned, whereby the country is so much the richer. That they are, besides, a considerable advantage to Great Britain, because it lessens the quantity of bar iron imported from Spain, Holland, Sweden, Denmark and Muscovy, which used to be no less than 20,000 tons yearly, though at the same time no sow iron is imported thither from any country, but only from the plantations. For most of this bar iron they do not only pay silver, but our friends in the Baltic are so nice, they even expect to be paid all in crown pieces. On the contrary, all the iron they receive from the plantations, they pay for it in their own manufactures, and send for it in their own shipping. Then I inquired after his own mines, and hoped, as he was the first that engaged in this great undertaking, that he had brought them to the most perfection. He told me he had iron in several parts of his great tract of land, consisting of 45,000 acres. But that the mine he was at work upon was 13 miles below Germanna. That his ore (which was very rich) he raised a mile from his furnace, and was obliged to cart the iron, when it was made, fifteen miles to Massaponax, a plantation he had upon Rappahannock River; but that the road was exceeding good, gently declining all the way, and had no more than one hill to go in the whole journey. For this reason his loaded carts went it in a day without difficulty. He said it was true his works were of the oldest standing: but that his long absence in England, and the wretched management of Mr. Greame, whom he had entrusted with his affairs, had put him back very much. That, what with neglect and severity, above eighty of his slaves were lost while he was in England, and most of his cattle starved. That his furnace stood still a great part of the time, and all his plantations ran to ruin. That indeed he was rightly served for committing his affairs to the care of a mathematician, whose thoughts were always among the stars. That nevertheless, since his return, he had applied himself to rectify his steward's mistakes, and bring his business again into order. That now he had contrived to do everything with his own people, except raising the mine and running the iron, by which he had contracted his expense very much. Nay, he believed that by his directions he could bring sensible negroes to perform those parts of the works tolerably well. But at the same time he gave me to understand, that his furnace had done no great feats lately, because he had been taken up in building an air furnace at Massaponax, which he had now brought to perfection, and should be thereby able to furnish the whole country with all sorts of cast iron, as cheap and as good as ever came from England. I told him he must do one thing more to have a full vent for those commodities-he must keep a shallop running into all the rivers, to carry his wares home to people's own doors. And if he would do that, I would set a good example, and take off a whole ton of them. Our conversation on this subject continued till dinner, which was both elegant and plentiful. The afternoon was devoted to the ladies, who showed me one of their most beautiful walks. They conducted me through a shady lane to the landing, and by the way made me drink some very fine water that issued from a marble fountain, and ran incessantly. Just behind it was a covered bench, where Miss Theky often sat and bewailed her virginity. Then we proceeded to the river which is the south branch of Rappahannock, about fifty yards wide, and so rapid that the ferry boat is drawn over by a chain, and therefore called the Rapidan. At night we drank prosperity to all the Colonel's projects in a bowl of rack punch, and then retired to our devotions.

29th. Having employed about two hours in retirement, I sallied out at the first summons to breakfast, where our conversation with the ladies, like whip sillabub, was very pretty, but had nothing in it. This it seems was Miss Theky's birthday, upon which I made her my compliments, and wished she might live twice as long a married woman as she had lived a maid. I did not presume to pry into the secret of her age, nor was she forward to disclose it, for this humble reason, lest I thould think her wisdom fell short of her years. She contrived to make this day of her birth a day of mourning for having nothing better at present to set her affections upon, she had a dog that was a great favorite. It happened that very morning the poor cur had done something very uncleanly upon the Colonel's bed, for which he was condemned to die. However, upon her entreaty, she got him a reprieve; but was so concerned that so much severity should be intended on her birthday, that she was not to be comforted; and lest such another accident might oust the poor cur of his clergy, she protested she would board out her dog at a neighbour's house, where she hoped he would be more kindly treated.

We had a Michaelmas goose fordinner, of Miss Theky's own raising, who was now good natured enough to forget the jeopardy of her dog. In the afternoon we walked in a meadow by the riverside, which winds in the form of a. horse-shoe about Germanna, making it a peninsula, containing about four hundred acres. Rappahannock forks about fourteen miles below this place, the northern branch being the larger, and consequently must be the river that bounds my Lord Fairfax's grant of the Northern Neck.

30th. The sun rose clear this morning, and so did I, and finished all my little affairs by breakfast. It was then resolved to wait on the ladies on horseback, since the bright sun, the fine air, and the wholesome exercise, all invited us to it. We forded the river a little above the ferry, and rode six miles up the neck to a fine level piece of rich land, where we found about twenty plants of ginseng, with the scarlet berries growing on the top of the middle stalk. The root of this is of wonderful virtue in many cases, particularly to raise the spirits and promote perspiration, which makes it a specific in colds and coughs. The Colonel complimented me with all we found in return for my telling him the virtues of it. We were all pleased to find so much of this kingof plants so near the Colonel's habitation, and growing too upon his own land; but were surprised, however, to find it upon level ground, after we had been told it grew only upon the north side of stony mountains. I carried home this treasure with as much joy as if every root had been a graft of the tree of life, and washed and dried it carefully. This airing made us as hungry as so many hawks, so that between appetite and a very good dinner, it was difficult to eat like a philosopher. In the afternoon the ladies walked me about amongst all their little animals, with which they amuse themselves and furnish the table; the worst of it is they are so tender-hearted, they shed a silent tear every time any of them are killed.

October 1st. Our ladies overslept themselves this morning, so that we did not break our fast till ten. We drank tea made of the leaves of ginseng, which has the virtues of the root in a weaker degree, and is not disagreeable.

2d. This being the day appointed for my departure from hence, I packed up my effects in good time; but the ladies, whose dear companies we were to have to the mines, were a little tedious in their equipment. However we made a shift to get into the coach by ten o'clock ; but little master, who is under no government, would by all means go on horseback. Before we set out I gave Mr. Russel the trouble of distributing a pistole among the servants, of which I fancy the nurse had a pretty good share, being no small favourite. We drove over a fine road to the mines, which lie thirteen measured miles from the Germanna, each mile being marked distinctly upon the trees. The Colonel has a great deal of land in his mine tract exceedingly barren, and the growth of trees upon it is hardly big enough for coaling. However, the treasure under ground makes amends, and renders it worthy to be his lady's jointure. We lighted at the mines, which are a mile nearer Germanna than the furnace. They raise abundance of ore there, great part of which is very rich. We saw his engineer blow it up after the following manner. He drilled a hole about eighteen inches deep, humouring the situation of the mine. When he had dried it with a rag fastened to a worm, he charged it with a cartridge containing four ounces of powder, including the priming. Then he rammed the hole up with soft stone to the very mouth; after that he pierced through all with an iron called a primer, which is taper and ends in a short point. Into the hole which the primer makes, the priming is put, which is fired by a paper moistened with a solution of saltpetre. And this burns leisurely enough, it seems, to give time to the persons concerned to retreat out of harm's way. All the land hereabouts seems paved with iron ore; so that there seems to be enough to feed a furnace for many ages. From hence we proceeded to the furnace, which is built of rough stone, having been the first of that kind erected in the country. It had not blown for several moons, the Colonel having taken off great part of his people to carry on his air furnace at Massaponax. Here the wheel that carried the bellows was no more than twenty feet diameter; but was an overshot wheel that went with little water. This was necessary here: because water is something scarce, notwithstanding it is supplied by two streams, one of which is conveyed 1900 feet through wooden pipes, and the other 6o. The name of the founder employed at present is one Godfrey, of the kingdom of Ireland, whose wages is three shillings and sixpence per ton for all the iron he runs, and his provisions. This man told me that the best wood for coaling is red oak. He complained that the Colonel starves his works out of whimsicalness and frugality, endeavouring to do everything with his own people, and at the same time taking them off upon every vagary that comes into his head. Here the coal carts discharge their loads at folding doors, made at the bottom, which is sooner done, and shatters the coal less. They carry no more than one hundred and ten bushels. The Colonel advised me by all means to have the coal made on the same side the river with the furnace, not only to avoid the charge of boating and bags, but likewise to avoid breaking of the coals, and making them less fit for use. Having picked the bones of a sirloin of beef, we took leave of the ladies, and rode together about five miles, where the roads parted. The Colonel took that to Massaponax, which is fifteen miles from his furnace, and very level, and I that to Fredericksburg, which cannot be less than twenty. I was a little benighted, and should not have seen my way, if the lightning, which flashed continually in my face, had not befriended me. I got about seven o'clock to Col. Harry Willis's, a little moistened with the rain; but a glass of good wine kept my pores open, and prevented all rheums and defluxions for that time.

3d. I was obliged to rise early here that I might not starve my landlord, whose constitution requires him to swallow a beef-steak before the sun blesses the earth with its genial rays. However, he was so complaisant as to bear the gnawing of his stomach, till eight o'clock for my sake. Colonel Waller, after a score of loud hems to clear his throat, broke his fast along with us. When this necessary affair was despatched, Colonel Willis walked me about his town of Fredericksburg. It is pleasantly situated on the south shore of Rappahannock River, about a mile below the falls. Sloops may come up and lie close to the wharf, within 30 yards of the public ware-houses, which are built in the figure of a cross. Just by