4 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 89 



nists, and it is believed that the last of the Siouan tribes living be- 

 yond the mountains, in the direction of their earlier habitat, were 

 then compelled to move eastward to the lands which they occupied 

 in 1607. 



COMING OF THE COLONISTS 

 It is not known when a European first entered the region now 

 embraced within the bounds of Albemarle County, but the earliest 

 patents for land in parts of Albemarle " on the far side of the moun- 

 tains called Chestnut," were taken out June i6, 1727. Within the 

 next few years several large grants were secured in the southern sec- 

 tion of the county, bordering on the left bank of the James and ex- 

 tending some miles up the valley of the Rockfish, including the ex- 

 tensive soapstone quarries which had been worked by the native 

 tribes. And during the year 1735 Thomas Moorman was granted 

 650 acres extending from the branches of Meadow Creek to the 

 South Fork of the Rivanna "' including the Indian Grave low 

 grounds,"* so designated by reason of the large burial mound which 

 was then standing on the low ground a short distance from the right, 

 or south bank of the stream. Some years later the mound was care- 

 fully examined and described by Jefferson in his " Notes on the 

 State of Virginia." 



A few Indians may have been living in Albemarle County two cen- 

 turies ago, but nothing definite is known concerning them. How- 

 ever, it is within reason to believe that small scattered groups, one or 

 more families, would have been encountered throughout the sur- 

 rounding country, all of which they had, so short a time before, 

 claimed and occupied. 



About this time Indians are known to have been living on the 

 banks of the Rapidan, some miles below Orange Court House, as is 

 revealed in an order made by the County Court in 1730. This is in 

 part : " William Bohannon came into court and made oath that about 

 twenty-six Sapony Indians that inhabit Colonel Spotswood's land in 

 Fox's neck go about and do a great deal of mischief by firing the 

 woods, more especially on the 17th day of April last whereby sev- 

 eral farrows of pigs were burnt in their beds, and that he verily be- 

 lieves that one of the Indians shot at him the same day. . . ."^ 

 Fox's Neck, mentioned in the order of the court, is a narrow spur of 

 land, nearly a mile in length and bordered by the left bank of the 



* Woods, Rev. Edgar, Albemarle County in Virginia. Charlottesville, 

 1901. 



5 Scott, W. W., A history of Orange County, Virginia. Richmond, 1907. 



