Early Ferries in Virginia
During the first quarter of the seventeenth century, the settler in Virginia used any kind of craft he possessed to cross the streams that separated him from his neighbor or for transacting business. Canoes, flatboats, scows, even sailing boats were pressed into service. These he propelled himself until he acquired a slave or two. Communication was aided by bridges across the smaller streams, and when horses became available, by crossing the rivers at the fords whenever possible.
The steady increase of settlers, however, created a demand for public transportation across creeks and rivers at the most travelled points. One of the first public ferries on record was started as a private enterprise in 1636, by Adam Thoroughgood. A skiff was rowed by slaves across the waters of Lower Norfolk, between what are now the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth. In a few months the demand for transportation became so strong that the ferry was taken over by the county, increased to three hand-powered vessels and supported by a levy of six pounds of tobacco on each taxable person in the county.
A second early ferry was that of Henry Hawley in 1640, when he was granted a patent by the court to keep a ferry at the mouth of the Southampton River in Kequoton, now Hampton, for the use of the inhabitants and other passengers during his natural life, not exacting above one penny for ferriage according to the offer in his petition.
"For the more ease of travellers," it was enacted by the General Assembly in January 1642, that the country provide and maintain ferries and bridges and the levy for payment to the ferrymen be made by the commissioners where the ferry is kept. This Act, establishing ferries at public expense, was repealed later and the court of each county given power to establish a ferry, or ferries in the county where needed at the instance of individuals. The court had authority to appoint and license the ferry keeper, to require of him a bond of twenty pounds sterling payable to His Majesty as security for the constant use and well-keeping of the boats. It was the duty of the court to order and direct the boats and hands in use at the ferries.
To encourage men to engage in operating ferries, it was enacted in 1702 that all persons attending on ferryboats should be free from public and county levies and from such public services as musters, constables, clearing highways, impressment, etc., and should have their licenses without fee or paying a reward for obtaining them. And if the ferryman desired to maintain an ordinary (public inn) at the ferry, he should be permitted to do so without fee for the license, but should be required to give bond for security. No other person should be permitted to establish an ordinary within five miles of such a ferry keeper. A warning was issued that any person not a ferryman who for reward should set any person over the river where there was a ferry, except for going to church, should pay for every such offense five pounds sterling, one-half to go to the ferryman and one-half to the informer, the full amount to the ferryman should he be the informer.
The county court was authorized in 1705 to make an agreement with the keeper of the ferry to set over the county militia on muster days and to raise an allowance for this in the county levy. All public messages and expresses to the government were to be allowed to cross ferry free. The adjutant general with one servant and their horses were exempted in 1738 from any payment on any ferry in the colony. Ministers of the church were likewise exempt from paying ferriage.
Dugout canoes of the Indians were among the first ferries used in Virginia and when more space was needed, two canoes were lashed together and secured by means of heavy cross pieces. In the Journal of Thomas Chalkley, a traveller in Virginia, he tells of a ferry crossing made at Yorktown in 1703: "We put our horses into two canoes tied together, and our horses stood with their fore feet in one and their hind feet in the other." Later, flatboats, scows, barges, and more carefully planked boats were put into use. Rope ferries were necessary wherever the current was swift, but used as little as possible on navigable rivers because of the obstruction to navigation.
The number of ferries in the colony increased steadily from year to year. At nearly every session of the General Assembly some law was enacted "for the good regulation of ferries." In 1705, the Assembly published a list of ferries with corresponding rates of ferriage that crossed the James, York, and Rappahannock Rivers and their branches. The ferries but not the rates are given herewith as follows:
Ferries on JAMES RIVER and branches thereof—