This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1890 edition. Excerpt: ... present generation, who encountered great perils and privations in subduing those lands on which their descendants now repose with none to make them afraid. Those who take pleasure in such researches must refer to the original records, which are too voluminous to be published. The reports of the processioners and counters of tobacco plants in this parish for the years 1726, '7, '8, and '9 are curious, as bringing to our minds the former inhabitants of that region of country lying upon the headwaters of the Mattapony and Rappahannock rivers, "even to the great mountains," and including the present counties of Spotsylvania, Culpeper, Rappahannock, and parts of Orange and Green. So full is the enumeration of names, and so minute the description of the country, that one who is familiar with it can people it with a past generation, assigning to many of them their estates, and designating the social circle in which they probably moved. I shall confine myself generally to such extracts from the books of the vestry as tend to illustrate our civil and church history, with an occasional incident throwing light upon the social state, and exhibiting our fathers and mothers, not in the dim outline of general history, but as they appeared to each other, in their own dress and ways and modes of speech. It has been already said that the Governor had fixed the seat of justice at Germanna, a village founded by him, and named from some Germans sent over by Queen Anne, upon whom the General Assembly conferred some peculiar privileges, allowing them to entertain a minister of their own, and exempting them from taxation for ten years. This act of humane and liberal legislation deserves to be held in lasting remembrance. The Rev. Hugh Jones, a cotemporary...