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Questions
What type of document common in colonial Virginia is this? Looking at the second section, how does it relate to Christ Church? What person active in the parish in the seventeenth century does it concern?
Answers
This document is a copy of a land patent issued by Richard Bennett, governor of Virginia under the Commonwealth, to John Carter in September of 1664 for 1600 acres of land in Lancaster County. The patent actually consolidated lands that Carter had received in two earlier patents: 1,300 acres issued 25 March 1642 and 300 acres issued May 3, 1652. These 1,600 acres stretched between the Corotoman River and what was then referred to as Slaughter’s (or John’s) creek but by 1668 had become known as Coll. Carter’s Creek. Carter transformed these lands into his Corotoman plantation, which sons John II and then Robert “King” Carter would inherit and make the center of their estates. |
| This patent did not include those lands which became the site of Christ Church. Instead, these were part of a 560-acre tract John Carter I purchased from merchant George Marsh in March 1660 and on which he would construct the first Christ Church, the frame building completed in 1670, six months after his death. Noteworthy in this 1664 patent, though, is a reference to lands held by William Clapham, who would go on to sell Christ Church Parish a 500-acre tract the parish used to establish its glebe (to which the parish added another 339 acres in November 1666). |
