S
ince before the colonists and early settlers first landed on Lancaster’s shores, she has
mesmerized and captivated those who have come in contact with her rich fertile land, deep waters, tranquil bays, meandering tidal waterways and sandy beaches. She is the product of natural beauty, abundant resources and the visionaries who have called her home. Once the ancestral lands of ancient American Indian tribes whose names live on today as Corrotoman, Wicomico, and Morattico—the coastal character and regal tidewater charm of Lancaster County remains undeniable, to this very day.
The Moraughacund’s and Captain John Smith
John Smith made his first landfall in Lancaster County sometime during the summer of 1608 when he met with members of the Moraughtacund tribe near present day Morattico. With the aid of one of the tribe’s members, named Moscoe, John Smith was successful in mediating an Indian dispute between the Moraughtacund and Rappahannock Indians. These two tribes were part of the great Powhatan Confederacy. In another event, it was John Smith
who would be the recipient of vital, life-saving assistance and medical care. It is recorded that Smith was badly wounded by a stingray that pierced his flesh near Stingray Point in the waters off of Middlesex County. Were it not for the special mud found at the bottom of Antipoison Creek in Lancaster County and Smith’s Native American friends who knew to apply it as a poultice to the wound, he might have expired of life. How tragic that would have been for John Smith, his contemporaries and for us today.
Early Beginnings and Lancaster’s First County Seat
Lancaster County was formed in 1651 from Northumberland and named for Lancaster, England. The first county seat was at Queenstown—created in 1692 by the Virginia General Assembly’s passage of the Act of Ports. This legislation, for lack of a better word, was passed as a way to encourage and establish the creation of port towns that would centralize trade for
The House & Home Magazine 41
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