History of Popes Creek (Virginia)
Popes Creek is a small tidal tributary stream of the Potomac River in Westmoreland County, Virginia. The George Washington Birthplace National Monument lies adjacent to Popes Creek estuary.
The following variant names for the creek have been listed:
A patent for 1,200 acres (4.9 km2) was issued on February 24, 1643, to Edward Murfey and John Vaughan. It is said to be the first patent for land that became Westmoreland County. It bounded on the “Easternmost side of Cedar Island Creek.” The name is suggestive of the several little islands that dominate the mouth of the creek.
Governor Berkeley’s treaty of peace after the end of the 1646 War with Opechancanough prohibited all emigration to the north side of the Rappahannock River. When this restriction was repealed in 1648, immigrants poured in from England, Maryland, New England, and previously settled portions of Virginia.Hercules Bridges, Henry Brooks and Nathaniel Pope were the early patentees of the Mattox Neck area (of three creeks, Mattox, Bridges, Popes) destined to become part of Westmoreland County.
The Henry Brooks patent of 1657 (reissued in 1662), included 1,020 acres (4.1 km2) bounded: “on the northwest side to a marked corner hickory with a creeke [unnamed Bridges] that divideth this land and the land now in possession of Daniel Lisson on the northeast side with potomack river on the southeast side with the Creeke [unnamed Popes] dividing this land from the land of Colo. Nathaniel Pope to a marked red oake on the southwest thence with a line of marked trees running west and northwest 60 poles northwest half a point more westerly 310 poles and west northwest somewhat more westerly 140 poles to the aforementioned hiccory and place.”
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