GEOGRAPHICAL, STATISTICAL, POLITICAL, COMMERCIAL, RELIGIOUS, MORAL AND MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION, COLLECTED AND COMPILED FROM THE MOST RESPECTABLE,

AND CHIEFLY FROM ORIGINAL SOURCES:

BY JOSEPH MARTIN.

TO WHICH IS ADDED

A HISTORY OF VIRGINIA

FROM ITS FIRST SETTLEMENT TO THE YEAR 1754:

WITH AN ABSTRACT OF THE PRINCIPAL EVENTS FROM THAT PERIOD TO THE

INDEPENDENCE OF VIRGINIA,

WRITTEN EXPRESIY FOR THE WORK

BY A CITIZEN OF VIRGINIA.

CHARLOTTESVILLE:

PUBLISHED BY JOSEPH MARTIN.

MOSELEY & TOMPKINS, PRINTERS.

1835.

Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1835,

BY JOSEPH MARTIN,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Eastern District of Virginia.

ΤΟ

THE MEMBERS

OF THE

VIRGINIA HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY:

GENTLEMEN,

ces.

Excuse the liberty I take in asking the protection of your name, for a work which I am compelled to throw upon the world under the most inauspicious circumstanYou seem to constitute the most appropriate body, to which I can look for aid in perfecting the great work which I have undertaken, and of which this imperfect essay constitutes the first fruit. To render a work of this description a perfect picture of the moral and political condition of a state, and a faithful record of its progress to its present condition, the efforts of no single individual can be adequate ; but the united and persevering exertion of a number of gentlemen associated for the express pur

pose of investigating and developing the resources of the state, and finding and preserving the records of its history, are absolutely necessary. I now venture to call your attention to the first work which has ever appeared since the publication of Mr. Jefferson's notes, which professed to embrace all which could be ascertained of the present situation of Virginia, and some investigation of its past history. That materials for a much more copious detail of both subjects exists, no one can doubt, but with the hope that the information here collected may not be altogether useless, I venture to ask the protection of your countenance,

And remain, gentlemen,

With the greatest respect,

Your most obedient

And most humble Servant,

JOSEPH MARTIN.

PREFACE.

WE are well aware that it is considered by critics to be an act of unpardonable impertinence to obtrude an imperfect work upon the notice of the public, and then apologize for its imperfections. But we beg leave to assure their cynical Lordships that this is no meat for them, and of course they need not whet their beaks at our announcement of its imperfections. Our apology is not made to deprecate their wrath, but in deference to a generous public, which will be thankful to the enterprize which gives it a mass of information which was not sessed before, and not cavil because every fact is not given which exists, or those which are given are not in the very best form in which they could have been presented.

pos

The publisher of this work lays claim to no literary attainment whatever: he only claims the merit due to bold, ness in enterprize and unconquerable perseverance in execution. He has been upwards of two years collecting the materials for this work, from individuals residing in every quarter of the state, expending much money in the acquisition of his matter, at a time when he was scarcely able to support his family. But this method of collecting matter, although it produced considerable delay, ensured the most recent and authentic information which could be procured. The almost innumerable contributions when received had to be examined and arranged, and such parts as were thought either useful or interesting, culled from the mass of unnecessary matter which sometimes encumbered the communications.-When this was done, and the publisher thought he had obtained such an amount of information as would be highly useful, although it would not form a perfect Gazetteer of