Trading Towns and Ports
In the early days of the colony after tobacco had become a commodity for export, ships moored at the wharves of the plantations along the James, York and Rappahannock rivers and their estuaries. As trade increased, larger ships were used which anchored in the channels of the rivers, and the tobacco and other exports were carried to them by small boats—shallops, sloops, and barges. The government complained that it was losing revenue by this individualistic and unorganized shipping of the planters, and steps were taken to correct this. In 1633, it was enacted by the General Assembly that all goods entering in any vessel—ship, bark or brig, should discharge at Jamestown. This Act applied to the colonists in their exports as well, but the law was disregarded.
In 1680, places were selected in the different counties that had the advantage of accessibility and deep water where ships could gather to receive and discharge their cargoes. The establishment of these trading towns, as they were called, was by an Act as follows:
The General Assembly having taken into consideration the great necessity, usefulness and advantages of cohabitation … and considering the building of storehouses for the reception of all merchandizes imported, and receiving and laying ready all tobacco for exportation and sale … that there be in every respective county fifty acres of land purchased by each county and laid out for a town and storehouses….
The price of the fifty acres of land was set at 10,000 pounds of tobacco and casks. Lots of one-half acre were to be sold to individuals by a stated time at the price of one hundred pounds of tobacco. Twenty places were named in the counties where trading towns were to be established:
Henrico, at Varina. Charles City, at Flower de Hundred opposite Swinyards. Surry, at Smith's fort. James City, at James City. Isle of Wight, at Pate's Field, Pagan creek. Nansemond, at Huff's point. Warwick, at the mouth of Deep creek. Elizabeth City, west side of Hampton river. Lower Norfolk, on Nicholas Wise's land. York, on Mr. Reed's land. New Kent, at the Brick House. Gloucester, at Tindal's point. Middlesex, west side of Wormley's creek. Rappahannock, at Hobb's hole. Stafford, at Peace point. Westmoreland, at Nomini. Accomack, at Onancock. Northampton, north side of King's creek. Lancaster, north side of Corotomond creek. Northumberland, at Chickacone creek.
The towns were building up. Warehouses, churches, and prisons were erected in many of them, as well as private dwellings. An occasional court house could be found where legal proceedings were enacted. In 1691, however, an Act of the General Assembly changed many of the trading towns to ports, but was suspended later until the pleasure of the King and Queen on the subject should be learned. No definite action was taken until 1705, when Queen Anne, who ascended the throne in 1702, expressed approval. Then an Act for ports of entry and clearance was passed to be in use from the 25th of December, 1708. This Act provided that naval officers and collectors at the ports should charge Virginia owners of vessels no more than half of the fees required for the services of entering and clearing. The sixteen towns to become ports were named as follows:
Hampton. Norfolk. Nansemond. James City. Powhatan (Flower de Hundred). Yorktown. Queensborough, at Blackwater. Delaware, at West Point. Queenstown, at Corrotoman. Urbanna, at Middlesex. Tappahannock, at Hobb's hole. New Castle, at Wicomico. Kingsdale, at Yohocomoco. Marlborough, at Potomac creek. Northampton, at King's creek. Onancock.
The names of some of the trading towns were changed when they became ports, and soon became important and well-known throughout the country. Hampton, known first by the Indian name Kecoughtan (spelled in various ways) was settled in 1610. Although the name had been changed to Elizabeth City by the Company in May, 1620, upon the petition of the colonists, the old Indian name was still in use occasionally in the 18th century. In papers relating to the administration of Governor Nicholson is a list of vessels about to sail from "Keccowtan" in July 1705, sixty-seven sail of merchant ships bound for various ports of Great Britain. The names Kecoughtan, Elizabeth City, Lower James, and even Southampton were used interchangeably, and shown on records of the colony, until the Act of 1705, named the port Hampton. In British colonial records of 1700, we find Hampton Town, Elizabeth City and Keccowtan used in the same chapter.
F. C. Huntley in his Seaborne Trade in Virginia in Mid-Eighteenth Century, published in the Virginia Magazine of History, vol. 59, makes the statement that in the 18th century, Port Hampton handled the largest amount of shipping of all the Virginia ports, judging from the total tonnage of vessels entering and clearing as given in the records of the Naval Officers. He uses 1752, as a normal trade year of which he gives interesting statistics. He states that the tonnages that entered and cleared the Port Hampton naval office were distributed among five different types of rigging. Cleared: 64 sloops, 46 schooners, 16 ships, 20 brigs, 10 snows. Entered: 59 sloops, 40 schooners, 40 ships, 18 brigs, 12 snows. Of these a goodly portion were built in Virginia.
After taking part in laying the dividing line between Virginia and North Carolina, William Byrd II wrote on March 28, 1728:
Norfolk has most the air of a town of any in Virginia. There were more than 20 brigantines and sloops riding at the wharves and ofttimes they have more. It has all the advantages of a situation requisite for trade and navigation. There is a secure harbor for a goodly number of ships of any burthen. The town is so near the sea that a vessel can sail in and out in a few hours. Their trade is chiefly to the West Indies whither they export abundance of beef, pork, flour and lumber.
In the Journal of Lord Adam Gordon, Colonel of the 66th Regiment of Foot, stationed at the West Indies from 1763 to 1775, is extracted the following: "Norfolk hath a depth of water for a 40-gun ship or more, and conveniences of every kind for heaving down and fitting out large vessels; also a very fine ropewalk. There is a passage boat from Hampton to Norfolk and from York to Gloucester." In the third quarter of the 18th century, Norfolk became the principal seaport of Virginia.
Yorktown was founded on land patented about 1635 by Nicholas Martiau, a Walloon who had come to Virginia in the summer of 1620. His grandson, Benjamin Read, sold fifty acres to the colony in 1691, and here Yorktown as a port built the first custom house, not only in Virginia, but in the country. A two-story brick building, erected about 1715, by Richard Ambler, who occupied the building as collector of customs for Yorktown in 1720. It became a port of entry for New York, Philadelphia and other northern cities, the importance of which was destroyed by the Revolutionary War. York County was one of the eight original shires in 1634, under the name, Charles river, changed in 1643 to York. The old custom house is still standing and is used as a museum for colonial and revolutionary relics.
The location of Alexandria on a large circular bay in the Potomac river soon gave that town great importance as a port and shipyard. For generations, tobacco and grain were shipped from there, and imports of many kinds brought in. Master shipbuilders turned out vessels manned, owned and operated by Alexandrians. From her ropewalk came the rope to hoist the sails made in her sail lofts. On May 19, 1760, George Washington went to Alexandria to see Col. Littledale's ship launched. He tells of another launching he attended there on October 6, 1768, when he "stayd up all night to a ball."
The two creeks flowing from near Williamsburg to York river on one side and the James on the other, played an important part in early colonial history. From York river sloops, schooners, barges and all manner of flat-bottomed craft sailed up Queen's creek to Queen Mary's port with its Capitol Landing within a mile of Williamsburg. The same kind of watercraft sailed from James river up College creek to Queen Anne's port with its College Landing near the city. Cargoes of mahogany, lignum vitae, lemons, rum, sugar and ivory were discharged. Received in return were tobacco, grain, flour and other commodities. Vessels on Queen's creek were required to pass through the custom house at Yorktown after that office had been established.
Because of a general complaint by masters of ships that there were neither pilots nor beacons to guide them in Virginia waters, the General Assembly appointed Captain William Oewin chief pilot of James river in March, 1661, to be paid five pounds sterling for the pilotage of all ships above eighty tons if he be employed, and if not employed due to the presence of the ship's pilot who guided the vessel, he received forty shillings. The pilot was required to maintain good and sufficient beacons at all necessary places, and toward this expense, the master of every vessel that anchored within Point Comfort, having or not having a pilot, was required to pay thirty shillings. Later the pilot or the company to which he belonged was required to keep one pilot boat of 18 foot keel at least, rigged and provided for use at all times.