A History of the Boundaries of Arlington County, Virginia Part 1

A History of the Boundaries of Arlington County, Virginia.

by Office of the County Manager, Arlington.

FOREWORD.

This collection of doc.u.mentary references to the boundaries of Arlington County was first published in 1957. This new edition contains revisions made in the light of fuller knowledge, and brings the story up-to-date by taking account of the change in the common boundary with the City of Alexandria which went into effect on January 1, 1966.

This pamphlet can serve as a guide for those who need to know what jurisdiction covered this area at any particular time. It provides information for the student as well as the t.i.tle searcher--in fact, for anyone interested in the history of what is now Arlington County.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Signature of Bert W. Johnson]

Bert W. Johnson County Manager

A History of The Boundaries of Arlington County, Virginia

It is one of those paradoxes so characteristic of Arlington that the area composing the County did not exist as a separate ent.i.ty until it was ceded by Virginia to form part of the District of Columbia. The Act by which the Congress of the United States took jurisdiction over this area directed that that portion of the District which had been ceded by Virginia was to be known as the county of Alexandria.[1] (It was not until 1920 that it received the name of Arlington.)[2]

[1] Acts of Congress, February 27, 1801 and March 3, 1801. U.S.

Stat. at Large, Vol. 2, pp. 103, 115.

[2] Acts of a.s.sembly, 1920, Chapter 241.

The present boundaries of Arlington may be described as: Beginning at the intersection of Four Mile Run with the west sh.o.r.e line of the Potomac River, westwardly, in general along the line of Four Mile Run, without regard to its meanders, intersecting the south right-of-way line of the Was.h.i.+ngton and Old Dominion Railroad, then 1,858.44 feet to where the center line of s.h.i.+rlington Road intersects the said south right-of-way line; thence south and slightly east to the center line of Quaker Lane, then following the center line of Quaker Lane to a point short of Osage Street in Alexandria where it moves to the north line of Quaker Lane; thence to the east right-of-way line of Leesburg Pike (King Street); thence with this line to the east side of 30th Street, South, in Arlington, northeast on 30th Street, South, to the circle; around said circle to the north side of South Columbus Street, along this line to 28th Street, South, returning for a short distance to Leesburg Pike, jogging east and north to 25th Street, South, and then back to Leesburg Pike; thence along the Pike to the common boundary of Alexandria and Fairfax; thence northeast along the former Alexandria-Fairfax boundary until it intersects the original boundary between Arlington and Fairfax; thence due northwest to a stone and large oak tree approximately 200 feet west of Meridian Avenue (North Arizona Street); thence due northeast to the sh.o.r.e of the Potomac; thence along the mean high water mark of the sh.o.r.e of the Potomac River, back to the point of beginning. This line encloses roughly 16,520 acres, or approximately 25.7 square miles, thus making Arlington the third smallest county in the United States in respect to area.[3]

[3] The smallest is Kalawao County, Hawaii, and the second smallest, Bristol County, Rhode Island.

The boundaries of this area have been changed many times since it was first sighted by Captain John Smith on his voyage up the Potomac in 1608--the year which can be said to mark the beginning of Arlington's history.

_1608-1789_

The circ.u.mstances which placed Arlington in Virginia began to take shape even earlier than 1608. The two companies organized to colonize Virginia were granted their first charter by James I of England on April 10, 1606.[4] This was styled "Letters Patent to Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Somers, and others, for two several Colonies and Plantations, to be made in Virginia, and other parts and Territories of America." The patentees were authorized "... to make habitation, plantation, and to deduce a colony of sundry of our people into that part of America, commonly called Virginia ..." between 34 north lat.i.tude and 45 north and within 100 miles of the coast. Within this area the spheres of operation of the two companies (which came to be known as the London and Plymouth Companies because their princ.i.p.al backers hailed from one or the other of these English towns) were delineated. To the former was given the right to plant a colony within the area from north lat.i.tude 34 to 41, and to the latter within the area from 38 to 45 inclusive. The overlapping area from 38 to 41 was open to settlement by either company, though neither might establish a settlement within 100 miles of territory occupied by the other. The actual jurisdiction of each company was limited to 50 miles in each direction from the first seat of plantation. This last restriction was not carried over into the second charter. (Map I.)

[4] Hening, Vol. i, p. 57. Cf. also t.i.tle 7.1, Sec. 1, _Code of Virginia, 1950_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MAP I Bounds Set by First Two Charters of the Virginia Company Drafted by W. B. Allison and B. Sims]

Although the Plymouth Company sent out s.h.i.+ps in the spring of 1607, the settlement attempted by them on the coast of Maine was abandoned the following year. The first settlement which was to prove permanent was made by the London Company whose s.h.i.+ps, sailing from London in December 1606, reached the mouth of the James River in Virginia in April 1607. The founding of "James Cittie" provided a point of reference for the second charter of the London Company (which came to be known as the Virginia Company). This charter,[5] granted in 1609, gave it jurisdiction over

"all those lands, countries, and territories, situate, lying, and being, in that part of America called Virginia, from the point of land, called Cape or Point Comfort, all along the sea coast, to the northward 200 miles, and from the said Point or Cape Comfort, all along the sea coast to the southward 200 miles, and all that s.p.a.ce and circuit of land, lying from the sea coast of the precinct aforesaid, up into the land, throughout from sea to sea, west and northwest; and also all the islands lying within one hundred miles, along the coast of both seas of the precinct aforesaid;..."

[5] Hening, Vol. i, p. 80. Cf. also t.i.tle 7.1, Sec. 1, _Code of Virginia, 1950_.

This grant reflects the view of the best geographers of the day that the Pacific Ocean lapped the western side of the as yet unexplored and unnamed Appalachian Mountains.

The third charter of the Virginia Company,[6] granted in 1612, extended the eastern boundaries of the colony to cover "... all and singular those Islands whatsoever, situate and being in any part of the ocean seas bordering upon the coast of our said first colony in Virginia, and being within three hundred leagues of any the parts heretofore granted ..." This was done to include Bermuda which had been discovered in the meantime. The charter of the Virginia Company was annulled in 1624 by King James I, and its lands became a Crown Colony. By this time, however, the Virginia settlements were firmly established on and nearby the James River, and the Potomac River to the falls was well known to traders with the Indians.

[6] Hening, Vol. i, p. 100.

The first limitation upon the extent of the "Kingdom of Virginia," as it was referred to by King Charles I, who succeeded his father in 1625, came with the grant to Lord Baltimore of a proprietors.h.i.+p over what became Maryland. This patent was granted in 1632; the first settlers reached what became St. Mary's on the Potomac in 1634. That part of the grant which is pertinent to the boundaries of Arlington reads:

"Going from the said estuary called Delaware Bay in a right line in the degree aforesaid to the true meridian of the first fountain of the river Potomac, then tending downward towards the south to the farther bank of the said river and following it to where it faces the western and southern coasts as far as to a certain place called Cinquack situate near the mouth of the same river where it discharges itself in the aforenamed bay of Chesapeake and thence by the shortest line as far as the aforesaid promontory or place called Watkins Point."[7]

[7] Report of the District of Columbia-Virginia Boundary Commission, 74th Congress, 2nd Session, _H.D. 374_, p. 3.

Cf. also, Hall, _Narratives of Early Maryland, 1633-1684_, p. 102.

The most significant words of this grant, from the point of view of Arlington, are "the farther banks of the said river." They explain why the boundary between Arlington and the District of Columbia runs along the Virginia sh.o.r.e of the river and not in midstream, and why Roosevelt Island, which lies nearer Arlington than to the District, is not a part of Arlington. The Const.i.tution of Virginia adopted in 1776 acknowledges this grant:

"The territory contained within the charters erecting the colonies of Maryland ... are hereby ceded, released, and forever confirmed to the people of those colonies ..."[8]

[8] Paragraph 21, Virginia Const.i.tution of 1776. Hening, Vol.

i, p. 56. Cf. also, _Code of Virginia, 1950_, t.i.tle 7.1, Sec.

1.

Although at the time Charles I gave this grant to Lord Baltimore Virginia was a Crown Colony and thus it could not be contended that he was giving away lands he had no power to cede since they already had been given to others, the Maryland-Virginia boundary became a subject of controversy as soon as the first Maryland settlers arrived, and has continued so until almost the present time. Indeed, one might say that the ghost has been laid only temporarily since echoes of the dispute appear in today's newspapers: "Maryland and Virginia Start New Round in Oyster War"--"Pentagon Area a No Man's Land." These headlines derive in a direct line from the grant of King Charles I to Calvert, Lord Baltimore, in 1632.[9]

[9] Conway, _The Compacts of Virginia_, p. 8.

To leave, for a time, the Potomac boundary of Arlington, let us turn to the narrowing of the boundaries of the landward side of the County.

In the development of governmental administration, counties began to be created in Virginia in mid-17th Century. The area which became Arlington was successively in Northumberland, Westmoreland, Stafford, Prince William, and finally, Fairfax counties. (Map II.) Consequently, the history of land tenure and legislation for Arlington must be sought in the records of these counties for the relevant period.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MAP II Development of Northern Neck Counties Drafted by W. B. Allison and B. Sims]

Northumberland County was definitely created in 1648 by an Act of the General a.s.sembly[10] which provided

"that the said tract of land ['Chickcoun and other parts of the Neck of land between Rappahonock River and Potomack River'] be hereafter called and knowne by the name of the county of Northumberland...."

[10] Hening, Vol. i, p. 352. Northumberland was first mentioned by name in an Act (IX) of February 1645, and sent its first representative to the Legislature for the session of November 1645.

and was given power to elect Burgesses. A later Act[11] declared:

"_It is enacted_, That the inhabitants which are or shall be seated on the south side of the Petomecke River shall be included and are hereafter to be accompted within the county of Northumberland."

[11] Act III, October 1649. Hening, Vol. i, p. 362.

Settlement was pus.h.i.+ng north, however, and in July 1653, Westmoreland was carved out of the then existing Northumberland. It was decreed:

"ordered by this present Grand a.s.sembly that the bounds of the county of Westmorland be as followeth (vizt.) from Machoactoke river where Mr. Cole lives: And so upwards to the falls of the great river of Pawtomake above the Necostins Towne."[12]

[12] Hening, Vol. i, p. 381.

Conditions on the frontier, however, made it necessary in 1662 to unite Westmoreland and Northumberland counties for administrative purposes "until otherwise ordered by the governor."[13] There is no record of the date of his later decision to separate the two counties but he must have done so.