Was recently corresponding with a Longmire cousin who was inquiring about the grave site of William Longmire. I offered that he was probably buried at what was then called Strother’s Church but that you will not find his grave as it is long past gone. Swept away by the winds of time, and progress. And then I began ruminating for a while about why this was so and my reasoning. Well, to put it bluntly, it was the closest church to where he worked but not necessarily where he lived. I will get to that part further down. But that doesn’t quite answer the question in such a way as to imply that a more intelligent explanation might avail itself. And so, said I boldly to myself “to the availing part I will go”. Sadly, this entailed locating one of many, many notebooks with various notes, dates, people, places, and things. All in no particular order of course. Yes, I kick myself sometimes …

So, in one of the red notebooks I spied a note with a star (that usually means something:) Nov 1738 Henry Long property. Hmmm, I remember why now as the stars meant at the time of writing that it had locations and directions centered around Thomas Turner’s plantation house. And for those of you not in the know T. Turner’s home plantation was at the upper confines of a larger property known as “Walsingham”, a place I have written about in these very pages. Suffice to say that if you were to take Rte 301 across the Rappahannock River into Port Royal and gaze back across the shores, to the right was Turner’s and to the left is Belle Grove, birthplace of one President James Madison. Strother’s Church would be about a mile upriver from Belle Grove at Millbank Creek from this same vantage point. And if you brought your binoculars and got to higher ground looking past or over Millbank Creek you would be staring off in the distance towards Wm Longmire’s home, which he rented from Lovell Harrison. I would be remiss to state that the courthouse where William worked on various Fridays and Saturdays was also located near Strothers Church. For those of you who like official archeological locations that would be an area known as Site 44KG0227 which is located on the west bank of Millbank Creek, an area known as Canning.

Getting back to where William Longmire lived. Though I have similar earlier documents to draw upon other than the Nov 1738 example mentioned above I elucidate this one for several reasons: by 1738 William had witnessed a court order for Elizabeth Lomax, a very wealthy lady whose residence placed her near the courthouse. This also placed William near the courthouse. Secondly, the property boundaries described provide a nice geographic overview of the neighborhood landmarks and names various property owners. In this case we find that the County Road leading from the Gingoteague Bridge at Peck’s and which runs to the church (Strother’s) bounded the property of Henry Long to the north and ran southward. To arrive at the courthouse or church one would take Canning Way travelling from the north and follow that along the river where you would find yourself on the west side of Milbank Creek. Other people named as bordering east and south were Turner, Thornley, and two Arnold properties. Using this information as a general guide I then waded through various court orders and deed descriptions to solidify my understanding of William’s neighbors and where they lived. One family name which fixes William’s home location were the Berrys whose property lied west of him and just beyond the bridge from Peck’s. Charles Holdsworth was another whose property was located by Harrison, Peck, Arnold, and others. I then used two other pieces of information to triangulate William’s home. One was the entry from the Dixon Papers from Library of Congress which shows that William rented from Lovell Harrison in the late 1740’s. This property was originally owned by Andrew Harrison and noted in my forays as being located north of Dogue, Va. And the last piece of the puzzle is solidified by who was ordered by the court to appraise the estate of Wm Longmire. Those lucky fellows were: William and Robert Peck, Charles Holdsworth, and Joel Berry. All located north and west or northeast from what was then a little village called Dogue, named after local Indians and located at the intersection of Port Conway Road and Cleve Drive. Suffice to say that William lived south of the Kings Highway, today’s modern Rte 3, which leads you into Arnold’s Corner and then to King George if traveling west from Fredericksburg. His home would have been located south of Arnold’s Corner and mostly west, perhaps southward too, from King George and northeast of Dogue. I have misplaced some notes which will pinpoint his location much better and will update as soon as I locate them.

Now that William’s home location is somewhat verified I will note how this was perfectly suited for his work for Lord Fairfax, Col Thomas Turner and his court work. Let’s start with the Wm Fairfax first. When he was appointed by Lord Fairfax to be his land agent in 1734 he originally arrived at an area “situated on a ridge between the Rappahannock and Potomac”. Shortly thereafter he appears to have rented the Stanstead Plantation owned by Charles Carter, located just outside of Falmouth. At the time this was technically in King George County but about 14 miles distant from the courthouse. This probably prompted him to relocate to what was called the Indiantown House located then at the corner of Rte 206 (Dahlgren Rd) and Indiantown Rd – the latter an old Indian footpath leading back to the King’s Highway where it led to the outskirts of King George. As the crow flies that would place it about 3 and a half miles northeast from Wm Longmire’s place. Next, we look at the direction from the Longmire home towards the courthouse. My best guess at present is that William would have travelled by horse along Powhatan Rd to Port Conway Rd leading into Dogue. From there I believe he would have taken Canning Way as it meandered southeasterly until it turned more south along the Rappahannock River eventually passing Henry Long’s place leading up to the church and courthouse complex. This trip would have been 3 or 4 miles. If William was heading on over to Thomas Turner’s house he would instead continue along Port Conway Rd to where it intersects with modern Rte 301, make a right and after a mile make a left, trotting along Walsingham Rd up to Turner’s mansion house – about 5 miles travel. Incidentally, in 1738 young George Washington moved to Ferry Farm, a mere 12 miles westerly from William’s home, and remained there until he moved to Mt Vernon in 1754.

For those of you who wonder where William Longmire was buried I add in a few notes here. Since he lived in Hanover Parish, and rented his home, he most likely was buried at Strother’s Church Cemetery located on the west side of Millbank Creek, not far away from the end of Canning Way.

As there are a few more details and possible minor corrections to be made to this post, as Arnold would say, I’ll be back …