Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1910-10-28
NORTHERN NECK
OF VIRGINIA.
Interesting History of This Section
From the Early English Settlers
Down TO Present.
TOLD BY DIFFERENT WRITERS.

AT the far eastern end of the Northern
Neck are the two old counties of Ian.
caster, 1852, and Northumberland, 1913.
All about them are great waters; the
Potomac on the north, the Rappahan-
mock on the south, with a long, much
iDdented shore on the Chesapeake.
Steamboats, and sails go to and fro on
the waters, and no scream of locomo-
tive is tobe heard for hundreds of miles.
They are a gentle and happy folk, who
gladly dwell among their own people,
and the mails come, with papers from
Richmond and Baltimore, not too fire.
quently TO disturb their peace. Here
were the homes of the earliest English
settlers, who came across the seas to
make their primitive seat with English
names, TO clear the forest and plant TO.
bacco and liv-in seIf-respect and sim
plicity, riding. fishing, hunting as well
as tisling the new fields, and visiting
each other for days and weeks at a
time. Here were the first seats of the
sires of great families; King Carter,
who lived and ruled his domain i'm lower
Lancaster like king. Lees and Harri-
sons, Balls and Churchills. Seldens and
Madisons and others just as well bred
and as worthy. The blood of five or
six American presidents. beginning with
the Country's Father, came from these
old plantations. Their descendants are
the people of today. v it'll scarcely any
mixture in the strain.
In the courthouses are the county
portrait galleries, thanks very much to
Judge T. r. b. Wright; the walls are
covered with the pictures of the worthless
of past generations, governors, senators,
judges, statesmen. soldiers. jurists, who
lived in these old homesteads and went
out TO council and congress. and pulpit
and battlefield. And the county records
are unbroken from the beginning in the
seventeenth century, keeping the his
tory complete, not only of lands and
deeds and wills, but of marriages and
deaths, of doings good and bad.
Last week we went ashore from the
RappahanDock steamboat, twenty-four
hours from Fredericksburg, at Merry
Point in the Corrotoman river. 1t might
have been called Ferry Point, for q
ferry-boat will take you over to the
kingdom of King Carter, where he ruled
in State and Church with a strong
hand. There is old Christ Church,
most venerable, long strangely neg
lected and dismantled, and now some
what restored for at least an oc-
casiOnal service. With the escort of
an intelligent friend, drive of two or
three miles brought US to ''Verville, I"
1.-THE great house" of one of the earliest
plantations, built no one knows when
by Madison at least fifty years before
the Revolution, and for thirty years the
home of Col. James Gordon. 1t is a
long. brick mansion, with spreading
wings, and the second story has great
dormer windows. 1t is on an elevation,
and looks to the east, far over the fields
and low-grounds across the Corrotoman
river.
A mile or two away, in the midst of
the forest .and overgrown with vines
and underground are the mounds that
mark the lines of the Presbyterian
church built by Colonel Gordon, of which
in his early ministry the Rev. James
Waddell was the pastor. Large con-
gregations assembled to hear the elo-
quent young preacher. At one commu-
MON service there were 115 white and
80 negro communicates. Here Samuel
Davies, of Hanover, preached, and
John Todd, of Louisa. And here George
Whitfield preached to crowds more than
the house could hold. There were two
other churches. one called the Fores,
Church and one in Northumberland. The
Gospel was ably and earnestly preached
and for years evangelical religion Dor.
it's fruit throughout these counties
When Mr.. Waddell removed from Ian
caster because of impaired health, anc
then the strong pillar of the church, Col
Gordon died, there was no supply, an,
in few years these churches becam,
extinct.
caster County, was remarkable man
a Scotch-Irish merchant and planter,
gentleman of wealth and social culture
and devout and active Christian man
ruling elder of the Presbyterian church
He kept journal of his daily life, muc
of which is still extant i'm manuscrip
copies among his descendants, and som
of which has been printed in Foote'
Sketches, and later in the William an
Mary College Magazine. He was Dor
, lat Newry. County Down. Ireland, an
came to Virginia in 1888, about twent,
four years of age. With him was h
, younger brother. John, who settled ;
Urbanna, in Middlesex. Both of the
y were the ancestors of Gordon familie
with wide connections and most homo
a able service to State and Church.
The Journal of Col. Gordon is mo
interesting reading. 1t shows Chri
tian man of earnest piety, intelligen
jealous and faithful. He was the he,
I" of Christian household, instructir
his children and servants in Gosp
truth. earnestly striving to lead the
and his friends and neighbors to sa
ing knowledge of Christ. 1t is pictu
of conditions and social life in coloni
. times; the generous hospitality, busine
relations with the old country. the u
certain coming and going of sailil
vessels to Liverpool, the Bahamas a
Antigua, the purchase of negroes fre