treaty mirrored the Lancaster County treaty from 
1653, and added 2 points: Rappahannocks were to 
be rewarded, in Roanoke, for returning English fugi-
tives 
and 
the 
English 
encouraged 
the 
Rappahannocks to send their children to live among 
the English as servants, who the English promised 
would be treated well. 
(7) In 1658, the Virginia assembly revised a 
1652 Act stating that ‘‘there be no grants of land 
to any Englishman whatsoever de futuro until the 
Indians be first served with the proportion of 50 
acres of land for each bowman’’. 
(8) In 1669, the colony conducted a census of 
Virginia Indians. At that time, the majority of the 
Rappahannocks were residing at their hunting vil-
lage on the north side of the Mattaponi River. At 
the time of the visit, census takers were counting 
only the tribes along the rivers. This explains the 
low number of 30 Rappahannock bowmen counted 
on the river. The Rappahannocks used this hunting 
village on the north side of the Mattaponi River as 
their primary residence until they were removed in 
1684. 
(9) In May 1677, the Treaty of Middle Planta-
tion was signed with England. The Pamunkey 
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Queen Cockacoeske signed on behalf of the 
Rappahannocks ‘‘who were supposed to be her tribu-
taries’’. However, before the treaty could be ratified, 
the Queen of Pamunkey complained to the Virginia 
Colonial Council ‘‘that she was having trouble with 
Rappahannocks and Chickahominies, supposedly 
tributaries of hers’’. 
(10) In November 1682, the Virginia Colonial 
Council established a reservation for the Rappahan-
nock Indians of 3,474 acres ‘‘about the town where 
they dwelt’’. The Rappahannocks ‘‘town’’ was their 
hunting village on the north side of the Mattaponi 
River, where they had lived throughout the 1670’s. 
The acreage allotment was based on the 1658 Indian 
land act (seen above), which translated into a bow-
man population of 70, or an approximate total Rap-
pahannock population of 350. 
(11) In 1683, following raids by Iroquoian war-
riors on both Indian and English Settlements, the 
Virginia 
Colonial 
Council 
ordered 
the 
Rappahannocks to leave their reservation and unite 
with the Nanzatico Indians at Nanzatico Indian 
Town, which was located across and 30 miles up the 
Rappahannock River. 
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(12) 
Between 
1687 
and 
1699, 
the 
Rappahannocks migrated out of Nanzatico, return-
ing to the south side of the Rappahannock River at 
Portobacco Indian Town. 
(13) In 1706, by order of Essex County, Lieu-
tenant 
Richard 
Covington 
‘‘escorted’’ 
the 
Portobaccos and Rappahannocks out of Portobacco 
Indian Town, out of Essex County, and into King 
and Queen County where they settled along the 
ridgeline between the Rappahannock and Mattaponi 
Rivers, the site of their ancient hunting village and 
Mattaponi Rivers, the site of their ancient hunting 
village and 1682 reservation. 
(14) During the 1760s 3 Rappahannock girls 
were raised on Thomas Nelson’s ‘‘Bleak Hill’’ Plan-
tation in King William County. One girl married a 
Saunders man, one married a Johnson man, and the 
third had 2 children, Edmund and Carter Nelson, 
fathered by Thomas Cary Nelson. In the 19th cen-
tury, these Saunders, Johnson, and Nelson families 
are among the core Rappahannock families from 
which the modern tribe traces its descent. 
(15) In 1819 and 1820, Edward Bird, John 
Bird and his unnamed wife, Carter Nelson, Edmund 
Nelson, and Carter Spurlock (all Rappahannock an-
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