It's like the question itself is a fiendish parasite deriving a sinister thrill from the torment of obfuscating every effort to find the truth.
You pick at loose threads hoping to unravel the tightly-wound mystery. Sometimes you luck out, yet other times you come up empty-handed,
That's how I feel about my efforts to locate George William Fairfax's 1700-acre tract of land colloquially known as Poplar Spring.
Fairfax was a member of the landed gentry of Colonial Virginia who was a contemporary and friend of George Washington and owned vast amounts of land in Virginia's Northern Neck, including the elusive Poplar Spring.
Located in modern-day Berkeley County, West Virginia, I've had little success in identifying the exact location of the Poplar Spring property where my suspected sixth great-grandparents Joseph and Sarah Kirk leased 100 acres for 25 years between 1773 and 1798.
What telltale clues would surface during a review of surviving land records?
Two Competing Land Plats
In November 2018, I spent hours in the Family History Library trawling through land deeds for Berkeley and Frederick counties (Berkeley was carved from Frederick County, Virginia in 1772).
I discovered not one but two land surveys conducted by Thomas Rutherford. I knew immediately that he was important to my research because several of the Poplar Spring land transactions that I had previously reviewed cited a survey conducted by Rutherford.
Was this it? Was I looking at Poplar Spring?
A few items initially grabbed my attention about the two maps:
- Both surveys were conducted for George William Fairfax (proprietor of the lands in Virginia's Northern Neck and owner of the Poplar Spring tract);
- Both surveys were conducted by Rutherford on February 20, 1763 (the surveyor cited in later Poplar Spring transactions and surveyed before the 1773 lease by the Kirk family); and
- At a glance, both surveys appeared to survey the same land but with a 600-acre discrepancy between them (one covering 2,680 acres and the second 2,080 acres).
2680 Acres
Rutherford's 2680-acre map, "surveyed for George William Fairfax Esq.," examined "a parcel of land lying at the dry marsh on the drains of [the] Opequon, including the place which formerly belong to Nicholas Mercer in Frederick County." The survey name drops each of the men whose land borders the property mapped for Fairfax. In total, I counted 12 individuals:
- Samuel Littler
- Robert Milburn (deceased)
- Peter Falkner (deceased)
- Joseph Parrell
- Richard Calbert
- Benjamin Blackburn
- Captain Angus McDonald
- McMachen men: William, John, and Rush
- George Hollingsworth
- James Wright
- Josiah Ballinger
- John Nickland
2080 Acres
Rutherford's 2080-acre map, also "surveyed for George William Fairfax Esq," examined a "parcel of land lying at the dry marsh one of the drains of Opequon, including an improvement which formerly belonged to Nicholas Mercer in Frederick County." This survey also named men whose property bordered Fairfax's land. But this time I counted 13 individuals:
- Samuel Littler
- Andrew Milburns, late survey of a 200 assigned to Thomas McClane a major (illegible)
- The heirs of Roger/Robert Milburn
- Formerly Peter Falkner
- Joseph Parcell
- Richard Calbert
- Benjamin Blackburn
- Captain Angus McDonald
- Henry Hath
- William McMachen
- David Brown
- Mr. Charles Dick, late survey 400 acres taken off
- The heirs of John Nickland
Curiously, two men are associated with acreage: Andrew Milburns (200 acres) and Charles Dick (400 acres). In total, that's the 600-acre difference between the two maps. Although I'm unclear why they're "taken off" the survey.
Bottom line, the border contours and matching names of the neighboring property owners indicate that both maps plat the same area but one includes the combined 600 acres of Milburns and Dick while the other has them "taken off".
What can I learn from these men that might help me pinpoint the location of the Fairfax land on a modern-day map?
Of course, I could trace land ownership forward in time beginning after the February 20, 1763 survey and see whether any names match neighbors of the Poplar Spring tracts.
Any names that match Poplar Spring ownership would help verify that the above maps encompassed the land where Joseph Kirk lived.
Unfortunately, this search needs to wait until I'm next in the Family History Library since the digitized Frederick County land records are only viewable in a Family History research center or library. It's a time-consuming, tedious research undertaking, but there certainly seems to be promising rewards.
