Combing Shenandoah Valley Settlement Records for Our "Adventurous" Corder Ancestor

Originally published June 27, 2011

I continue to pick my way painstakingly through various records of the settlement of the northern Shenandoah Valley looking for clues that might shed light on the arrival in this area of our oldest known Corder ancestor, Edward Sr. I keep hoping to find some name, some place, some event that might begin to illuminate a path between Edward's arrival in Annapolis MD (1722) to his eventual settlement in northern Virginia (1738). 

After his arrest and transport to the colonies (arriving in Annapolis MD in July 1722), he is missing in action until he shows up in then Orange County VA in 1738 as a petitioner for a road to Jost Hite's mill near present-day Winchester. This absence from official records is not wholly unexpected during the period of approximately 1722-1727, as an indentured servant is unlikely to appear in court unless for some misdeed. On the other hand, given Edward's history, perhaps it is surprising that he managed to remain out of sight... But I digress.

Edward is called one of seven original "adventurers" to have settled on the property that Lord Fairfax would eventually (1745) designate as the manor of Greenway Court. Apparently Edward was a good judge of dirt since Fairfax subsequently decided to settle on the property himself, which was of course perfectly within his rights as proprietor. As an interesting aside, Lord Fairfax was the only titled member of the peerage to make his permanent home in the colonies.

Fairfax let Edward stay on the property for a token rent and the promise to make and maintain improvements to the property (which leads me to wonder whether Edward had made none prior to the lease). The rent for the tract of land was one fat Christmas turkey annually, resulting in the property being referred to as "The Turkey Tract." [Photo] According to the terms of the lease, which ran for Edward's lifetime, if the turkey, when delivered, was not sufficiently fat...game over.

And so, here I sit at the library once again, sifting through moldy tomes in the local history room. Brittle pages, smelling faintly of something I can only identify as age, yield a tidbit here, a snippet there. I add them to the timeline, trying to piece together a picture from all of the various oddly-shaped puzzle pieces. You are welcome to download the Excel spreadsheet from Box.net to refer to my notes. Please do NOT redistribute the document -- leave it to others to download the most updated version from Box when interest warrants.

Read more about Lord Fairfax's manors (including the Manors of Leeds and Gooney Run), and learn how the wily old fox protected his hereditary property rights in the event of such acts of God as, oh, say...revolution.