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John Mercer (1704-1768) immigrated to America in 1720 from Dublin, Ireland, settling first in Maryland and then in Virginia.  He was the son of John Mercer and Grace Fenton of Dublin.  John soon became a prominent entrepreneur, attorney, and landowner.  He arrived in Stafford around 1725 and almost single-handedly rebuilt the failed town of Marlborough.…

Col. Enoch Mason (c.1766-1828) was the son of John Mason (1722-c.1796) and the grandson of George Mason (16_-c.1729) of Aquia.  This seems to be a different family from that of  George Mason (1725-1792) of Stafford and Gunston Hall, Fairfax County.  Enoch Mason owned some 2,461 acres in Stafford and lived at Clover Hill in the…

The spelling of this surname varies in the surviving records between “Marquis” and “Marquess.”  Anthony Marquis (1752-1821) married Elizabeth Winlock (died 1825) and lived about a half-mile above the old Berea Post Office.  He purchased this farm in 1803 from the estate of James Hunter (1721-1784).  Anthony was a saddle maker by trade and is…

George J. Lightner (1839-1898) was the son of George W. Lightner (c.1805-1886) and Mary Roberson/Robertson of Falmouth.  In 1852 he was a member of the Falmouth Division #388, Sons of Temperance.  In 1859 he married Eliza T. Cox (born c.1835).  George served as postmaster of Falmouth from 1881 to 1885 and again in 1889.  He was…

Although he was raised at Stratford Hall surrounded by Virginia’s leading legal minds, Thomas Ludwell Lee (1730-1778) much preferred the solitude of remote  Stafford County to the busy atmosphere of Westmoreland.  He made his home at Bell View, which he’d inherited from his father.  This tract was on the south side of Potomac Creek and…

John W. Leddon (1876-1945) seems to have been a waterman on Aquia Creek and the Potomac River.  His mother was a Dickerson from Stafford.  John lived in a little shack on the lower end of Coal Landing.  He caught turtles in Aquia Creek and kept them in a pen next to his house.  Water turtles were…

James Leach (died c.1823) may have been the son of Benjamin Leitch (1754-1812) and Elizabeth Peyton (died after 1811).  He owned part of the  Richlands tract between U. S, Route 17 and the Rappahannock River near the present site of Richlands Baptist Church.  James was deputy surveyor of Stafford from at least 1787 to 1821).…

James Jarvis Knoxville (1840-1920) was listed in the 1870 Stafford census as a sailor.  In 1900 he was keeper of the R. F. & P. Railroad drawbridge over Aquia Creek.  Some of the Knoxville family lived near the junction of Hope Road (Route 687) and Hidden Spring Lane (Route 689) in northern Stafford County.

John Wesley Knight (1846-1937) was the son of Lewis K. Knight (c.1820-1893) and Roberta Garrison (c.1818-c.1905) of Stafford and was generally known as Capt. Wesley Knight.  Although he was of age to have served during the War Between the States, there’s no evidence he did so.  Uninterested in farming, as a young boy he took…

Clarence Newman Knight (1878-1945) often appears in records as C. Newman Knight, C. N. Knight, or Newman Knight.  He was the son of Capt. John Wesley Knight (1846-1937) who ran sailing ships out of Coal Landing and operated a store there.  Newman owned the Knight Motor Car Company in Fredericksburg.  He also operated a Ford…

Elias King (1795-1876) was the son of Basil King (1760-1844) of Port Tobacco, Maryland.  Basil moved to Prince William County where he was known for his exceptional cabinet making skills.  Elias settled on the south side of Chappawamsic Run and was listed in the 1850 and 1870 Stafford censuses as a wheelwright.  He married Nancy H.…

Absalom King (c.1791-1853) was the son of Daniel and Sarah King of Prince William County.  He was a cooper by trade, lived in the town of Falmouth, and served in the War of 1812.