T
HE JAMES RIVER BATTEAU AND FESTIVAL HISTORY-page 4
In 1735, Dr. Cabell was called back to England to take care of personal
family business. Although he left attorneys in Virginia to oversee his holdings, the chief
responsibility for protecting the first English patent in the hunting grounds of the
Indian, east of the Blue Ridge rested for several years on "his loving wife",
Elizabeth. A colonial dame who mounted her good steed and attended by her trusty men, rode
fearlessly to overlook these lands, the planting of them and the preventing of
encroachment upon them. She paid the rents, taxes, attended to all the legal requirements
and on her husbands return in 1741, turned his affairs over to him in comparitively good
shape. In January of 1737, Dr. Cabell wrote in a letter to his wife and begged of her to
keep his children to their books and tell them if they are diligent that he will reward
them when he returns. Although his wife had sold some of his lands, she was able to turn
over to him, with a clear right and title 7,952 acres with all levies, rents, clerk's and
sheriff's fees and taxes paid in full to September of 1741 when he returned in June of
1741. This amazing woman lived in the wilderness, dealt with the Indians and wild animals,
oversaw the workings of the homestead, the clearing of property, the planting and
harvesting of tobacco, managing the slaves, raised and educated her children, bought and
sold land and almost doubled her husband's land holdings in the six years he was absent.
Dr. Cabell was a man of science, but from the first he was a frontiersman, a pioneer, a
pathfinder in the new world. Not enough is recorded about the accomplishments of his
dynamic wife and her contribution to the settling of the new west as was the case with
most of the woman that went with their husbands into this wilderness.
Goochland County in 1728 had a population of 1,132. By 1744, it had grown to 3,512 and the General Assembly then divided Goochland with the new county being Albemarle, named for William Anne Van Keppel, second earl of Albemarle and then governor-in-chief of Virginia. Peter Field Jefferson, Thomas' father was the third or fourth settler in this new area, the year was 1737. Peter was born in 1707, married Jane Randolph in 1739 at the age of 19. Peter's education had been quite neglected, but being of a strong mind, sound judgement, he read much and improved himself that he was chosen with Joshua Fry, professor of mathematics at William and Mary College, to continue the boundary line between Virginia and North Carolina. He was afterwards employed again with Mr. Fry to make the first map of Virginia which had never been made, that of Captain Smith being merely a conjectual sketch. He died in 1757 at age 49, leaving his widow, six daughters and two sons, Thomas being the eldest, who inherited his birthplace in Shadwell.
Francis Meriwether, another early settler, owned land on the Rockfish River and on Harris Creek. He was the uncle to explorer Meriwether Lewis.
Albemarle's first court meeting was in January of 1745 and included present day counties of Fluvanna, Buckingham, Nelson, Amherst, most of Albemarle and Appomattox with parts of Campbell, Bedford and Cumberland. In court records of May, 1745, William Cabell listed persons living on the north side of the Fluvanna River as 106 whites, 117 negros and 1 Indian. According to the August court records, Charles Lynch was "given leave to keep a ferry from his land across the north river (Rivanna) to the opposite side." William Cabell was his security. Other court records showed that in June of 1746, population was listed as 160 whites and 200 negros. May of 1747, there were 180 whites and 205 negros. March of 1748, William Cabell procured a license for an ordinary, in those days a house for public entertainment, at his ferry. Benjamin Harris was his security.
From 1746-1753 during the spring, late fall and winter, weather permitting, Dr.Cabell was constantly employed in surveying. During this period 1,209 entries for land were made and nearly all the good land in old Albemarle was taken. In 1749, Goochland was again divided which formed Cumberland for William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, second son of George II. In 1777, Powhatan County was formed from Cumberland.
In 1753, he gave up his surveying business to his son, William. He had increased his land holdings by 26,000 acres of picked land, the best of which he gave to his children. Since settlements had become numerous, he resumed his medical practice.
In 1761, Albemarle was divided making Buckingham and Amherst Counties named for General Jeffry Amherst, hero of Ticonderosa (1759) and Governor General of British North America. Dr. William Cabell located lands in present Amherst County 30 years before old Amherst County was formed.
By 1767, William Cabell had a grist mill on Rucker's Run and in 1768 shipped an unusually large amount of tobacco from his Swan Creek warehouse.