Charles II was very grateful for a few friends when he had no throne. In gratitude, he gave a little bit of Virginia to the friends, namely, the land between the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers. No further description clarified the actual extent of the land; the simple statement, that it was the land between these two rivers, sufficed.
After a half century of settlement, it began to be more important to define more exactly the area that he had given away. Taking the Potomac River, for example, the start of it was well defined, as it had been known for a long time. It started at the Atlantic Ocean and was so broad that ocean going vessels could easily navigate for a long distance up the river. But, after a while, the river became much smaller, changed its name, and divided into other streams which were known by other names. Something quite similar occurred also with the Rappahannock River, which had a major branch above the future town of Fredericksburg, one branch being called the North Branch and the other the South Branch.
When Alexander Spotswood came as Lt. Gov., he changed the name of the South Branch of the Rappahannock to the Rapidan, and the northern branch became just the Rappahannock. I have often wondered if this was not an attempt to define more narrowly the region between the Rappahannock and the Potomac by fiat. Just simply by renaming the branches, he was reducing the area under the control of the proprietors of the Northern Neck, as the region, which Charles II had given away, was called. It is possible that Queen Anne, who sat on the throne at the time, was behind this maneuver, but I suspect Spotswood did it on his own initiative as a way of currying favor. The area between the northern and southern branches of the Rappahannock is the modern counties of Madison, Rappahannock, and Culpeper, so quite a bit of land was involved. The Colony of Virginia took control of this area and issued the original deeds to the land as patents.
As the eighteenth century progressed, the proprietors of the Northern Neck became more aggressive in asserting their claims. They said that the southern branch of the Rappahannock, now called the Rapidan, was the larger of the two branches and that the Rappahannock should be judged, not by the names which were arbitrarily bestowed, but by the amount of water which flowed in the stream. Commissions were appointed, surveyors measured the water, and testimony was taken. William Russell testified, for example, that he had hunted through the area where the branch, now called the Rapidan, flowed but he had known the river as the South Rappahannock. Thus he was helping to establish that the Rapidan originally had the name of Rappahannock.
The Colony of Virginia, on behalf of George I and George II, used other arguments. They said for example that the extent of the Potomac was limited to the region where the name applied. Since the name changed to other things, the extent of the Potomac was limited to the part of the river where the name "Potomac" was actually used. The surveyors submitted their report on the flow of water in the Rappahannock's branches and it was decided that the north branch of the Rappahannock was the larger. Round one went to the Throne.
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.