Virginia Memory, Library of Virginia
THIS PAGE HAS BEEN FORMATTED FOR EASY PRINTING

THIS DAY IN VIRGINIA HISTORY

Click image for larger view.

September 13, 1723

Virginia (Colony), Colonial Papers, Petition of Meherrin, 12 or 13 September 1723, Accession 36138, State Government Records Collection, Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Indians at Nansemond Town Petitioned the Governor

The Nansemond tribe was a part of Powhatan's paramount chiefdom when the English arrived in Virginia in 1607. The Meherrin were an Iroquoian-language tribe who lived near the Nansemond. By the eighteenth century, some of the Nansemond lived on a reservation near the North Carolina border. The Meherrin had a reservation near their original settlement, but some had also joined the Nansemond. In this petition the Indians asked Lieutenant Governor Hugh Drysdale (ca. 1670–1726) to protect the Native Virginians' lands from encroachment by North Carolina colonists.