Recently, we have been talking about lists of names that may prove helpful in research. In this day's note, we'll look at a source of information for Fauquier County. This is the book, " Fauquier Families, 1759-1799 " by John P. Alcock. It consists of comprehensive indexed abstracts of tax and tithable lists, marriage bonds, minute, deed and will books, and other sources. In its 400 plus pages (large sized pages), a coding scheme has been used to report ten of thousands of names. If a man lived in Fauquier County in the period from 1759 to 1799 and did not leave a record of some sort, then he was probably in an institution. Even then there is probably a court order which committed him to the institution.
Fauquier Co. is very much a Germanna county as it is the area in which the First Germanna Colony made their permanent homes. When they moved from Germanna in 1719, the area was Stafford County and then later was Prince William County. In 1759 it became Fauquier County with the same boundaries as it has today. The Germans, who moved to Germantown in 1719 in what became Fauquier County, were very likely the first settlers of the future Fauquier Co.
Fauquier Co. has been very stable. Essentially, all of its original records have been maintained without loss to fire or war. (The same cannot be said for Stafford or Prince William Counties.) Much of the growth within Fauquier Co. occurred after 1759, so the Fauquier records represent a good part of the history of the people who settled and remained in that part of the country.
Fauquier Co. has always been considered a part of the Northern Neck and within the domain of Lord Fairfax, the last of the proprietors. Much of the land in Fauquier Co. had been granted by 1750 by Lord Fairfax. Lord Fairfax became the owner of 120,000 acres by direct title. Within this Manor of Leeds, he leased land and thereby started a sub-history to the general history of the county.
In 1760, at its founding, Fauquier Co. is estimated to have had 3500 residents. By 1775, the start of the Revolution, the population had more than doubled to 8000 to 8500. Within this influx of new citizens, there were still Germans whose stories have been imperfectly and very incompletely told. In the next ten years during the war, the population was static. After the war, another boom brought the population to 15,000 by the turn of the century. The population peaked out at 30,000 about 1830, not to be exceeded for than a century.
Quite early in its history, there was an outflow from Fauquier Co. At first, the more popular destinations were the Valley and the interior of the Carolinas with some to southern and southwest Virginia. A "Carolina" road ran down the middle of Fauquier Co. After the war, the popular destinations were the Carolinas, Tennessee, and Kentucky. The latter region, a part of Virginia until 1792, was popular with veterans of the Revolution where they could have land for their war service.
The author of the book, " Fauquier Families ", lives in the county in a home where the original house was built in 1768. So his book is a labor of love for Fauquier Co. as much as anything. If you are interested in the book, you may contact him (John P. Alcock) at 3910 Lea Road, Marshall, VA 22115 . John has written several articles for Beyond Germanna which have clarified and corrected several aspects of the Rector family history. In the next note, I will talk more about the book.
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.