Prince William County Virginia USGenWeb Archives History - Books .....Prince William County History From Historical Collections Of Virginia By Henry Howe 1845
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Alice Warner http://www.rootsweb.com/~archreg/vols/00015.html#0003503 April 1, 2008, 1:32 am

Book Title: Historical Collections Of Virginia By Henry Howe, 1845

Prince William, p. 442-443.

Prince William was formed in 1730, from Stafford and King George. It is about 35
miles long, and 12 wide. The Potomac forms its eastern boundary. Pop. 1n 1840,
whites 4,867, slaves, 2,767, free colored 510; total, 8,144.

Brentsville, the county-seat, is situated 101 miles from Richmond, and 33 N. of
Fredericksburg, in the heart of the county, and the head of Occoquan River. It
is a small village, containing 3 stores and about 20 dwellings. The county
buildings are handsomely situated on a public square, containing 3 acres.
Thoroughfare and Liberia are small places in the county, containing each a few
dwellings. Dumfries is situated on Quantico creek, near the Potomac. It was once
the county-seat; but in 1822 the courts were removed to Brentsville, and the old
court-house is converted into an Episcopal church. Dumfries is a very old town,
and once had considerable commerce; but from a combination of causes it has gone
rapidly to decay, and many of the houses have been removed out of town. 

Occoquan, situated near the mouth of a river of the same name, was established
by law in 1804. It contains a large cotton factory, an extensive flouring mill,
several stores, and about 40 dwellings. A handsome bridge is erected over the
river at this place. The Occoquan here has a fall of 72 feet in one and a half
miles, affording excellent sites for manufactories. This is the market for many
of the most important shad and herring fisheries on the Potomac. The scenery
around this village is uncommonly picturesque.

---

William Grayson died at Dumfries, whither he had come on his way to Congress,
March 12th, 1790, and his remains were deposited in the family cault, and the
Rev. Mr. Spence Grayson's. He was first appointed a member of Congress from
Virginia, in 1784, and continued a number of years. "In June, 1788, he was a
member of the Virginia convention which was called for the purpose of
considering the present constitution of the United States. In this assembly,
rendered illustrious by men of the first talents, he was very conspicuous. His
genius united with the eloquence of Henry, in opposing the adoption of the
consitution. While he acknowledged the evils of the old government, he was
afraid that the proposed government would destroy the liberty of the states. His
principal objections to it were, that it took from the states the sole right of
direct taxation, which was the highest act of sovereignty; that the limits
between the national and state authorities were not sufficiently defined; that
they might clash, in which case the general government would prevail; that there
was no provision against raising such a navy, as was more than sufficient to
protect our trade, and thus would excite the jealousy of European powers, and
lead to war; and that there were no adequate checs against the abuse of power,
especially by the president, who was responsible only to his counsellors and
partners in crime, the members of the senate. After the constitution was
adopted, Mr. Grayson was appointed one of the senators from Virginia, in the
year 1789; his colleague was Richard Henry Lee. His great abilities were united
with unimpeached integrity."

---

Immediately after Dunmore was driven from Gwyn's Island, in July, 1776, he
sailed up the Potomac to this section of the state. The reception he met with
from the inhabitants is thus related by Girardin:

Ascending the Potomac, he left, on many parts of its banks, hideous traces of
piratical and depredatory warfare. A little above the mouth of Aquia creek, Mr.
William Brent's elegant brick house was burnt to the ground. The neighboring
militia, seized with causeless alarm, retired without opposing the ravages of
the lawless freebooters, who, after the destruction of the house, were
proceeding to burn a valuable merchant mill, at a small distance, when 30 of the
Prince William militia happily arrived, advanced with fearless step, and drove
them on board. The spirit and bravery of the people of Stafford Ccounty in
general, amply redeemed, on subsequent occations, the momentary disgrace of that
unaccountable panic; but the circumstance is yet well remembered in the
environs; and we have heard more than once, on the very ruins of the prostrated
edifice, the ludicrous account which the senile garrulity of some among the
surviving actors in that scene, was ever ready to give. It appears that the
Stafford militia mistook the detachment from Prince William for Englishmen, and
exerted all the agility and ingenuity of which they were capable to avoid
falling into their hands. Dunmore's fleet, consisting of the Roebuck, Mercury,
Otter, an armed ship, some gondolas, and several tenders, having taken in fresh
water, fell down the river on the ensuing day. They had, in this expedition, met
with a severe gale of wind, which drove on shore several small vessels with the
friends of the British government on board.  These were made prisoners, and sent
to Williamsburg under an escort. The third regiment and other troops had been
stationed along the banks of the Potomac, to watch the motions of the enemy,
while the infant Virginia fleet, consisting of some armed brigs and row-galleys,
was cruising for them in the bay. The Roebuck alone could protect Dunmore and
his wretched followers. The expected conflict was prevented by the flight of the
foe. The excessive heat of the season, the putridity of the water, the
scantiness and bad quality of the provisions on board, and the crowded and
inconvenient situation of the people there, engendered complicated and malignant
diseases, which hourly plunged into a watery tomb multitudes of the motley band.
Thus, loaded with the execration of the country; defeated in all his schemes of
civil discord, and of servile and savage hostility; hunted from station to
station by the resentment of an injured people, naturally prone to loyalty,
gratitude and attachment; pursued, as it were, by heaven and the elements
themselves, Dunmore, with a wounded and humbled spirit, saw himself reduced to
flee from these shores, where he had hoped triumphantly to plant the standard of
despotism, and to satiate his vindictive and haughty passions with the tears and
abjection of the feeble, and the blood of the brave. After burning such vessels
as he was able to spare, to prevent their falling into the hands of the
Americans, he steered for Lynnhaven Bay with about 40 or 50 saidl; and then
parting with the miserable companions of his disastrous fate, he sent some of
them to St. Augustine, under convoy of the Otter, some to Bermuda, some to the
West Indies and some to Europe. With the rest, he repaired to Sir P. Parker's
fleet, and on the 14th of August, reached Staten Island, where General Howe had
lately been joined by his brother, and the fleets under convoy of Commodore
Hotham, and the Repulse. Towards the close of this eventful year, he returned to
England in the Fowey.

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