Important Announcement: Bowman Library Renovations

Bowman Library will be installing new carpeting from January 12–23. During this time, some services will be limited:

  • Printing will be limited
  • Only laptop computers will be available
  • Study rooms will be unavailable
  • Access to many adult materials will be limited
  • Faxing and scanning will be unavailable

Thank you for your patience as we make improvements to your library.

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Fairfax Grant to Henry Baker of Frederick County, Virginia, July 8, 1777

Lorna Loring

Archives Manager
Posted on:
Image of Fairfax grant

Out of the Archives is a weekly blog highlighting items in the collections of the Stewart Bell Jr. Archives.

Thomas, Lord Fairfax Collection, 56 WFCHS THL

Today’s out of the Archives blog features a land grant from Thomas, Lord Fairfax, to Henry Baker for a “certain tract of waste and ungranted land called the Horse Lick on the Drains of Back Creek” that amounted to 195 acres. The grant was signed and sealed by Fairfax on July 8, 1777.

This Fairfax grant is one of several held by the Stewart Bell Jr. Archives. These records document the division of land that belonged to Lord Fairfax in what is commonly referred to as the Northern Neck Proprietary. 

The origins of the Proprietary lie in the Interregnum, a period of the English Civil War when England was under republican government. The exiled King Charles II awarded a grant of land between the Rappahannock and Potomac rivers to seven loyal supporters in 1649. The grant was not realized until the restoration of the monarchy in 1660. In 1719, through a combination of purchase and inheritance the entirety of the approximately five million acres of land became the property of one man, Lord Thomas Fairfax, 6th Baron of Cameron (1693-1781). 

Fairfax, who was born in Kent, England, came to Virginia in 1735 to take charge of his land and its income. Any person wishing to obtain a tract of land from Fairfax would first get a warrant which permitted a surveyor and crew to map out the land. Once completed, the person would take the survey, plat, and any other documents to the Proprietor’s land office to obtain a grant.  

Most of these grants survive to this day and are valuable sources of information about settlement and the early growth of the counties that emerged from the boundaries of the Proprietary, including Frederick County.