[log in to unmask] wrote:

> I am seeking information on the depth of the upper Chickahominy in the mid
> 17th century.  For instance, was this river navigable by 17th century ships
> as far west as the Black Creek and Clopton's Swamp area?

That's actually on the Pamunkey drainage. The Pamunkey was apparently navigable
to about the Hanover line and perhaps a bit farther west.

The Chickahominy was navigable to about a mile below Providence Forge. A canal
was dug to the Forge there for small boat transport. Above the head of
navigation, it is far too shallow to have been used by anything bigger than a
canoe or batteau. There was a good amount of somewhat interesting activity
within the Chickahominy Swamp on the Henrico County margins. There is a system
of ditches in place which are probably late 18th or early 19th century land
reclamation projects as was in vogue at that time. Individual owners played
around with these sorts of projects. Below the 360 bridge, there appears to have
been done very little in that regard. Most of the drowned floodplains of the
watercourses have some sort of similar activity, nearly always on an ad hoc
basis by individual owners. One of the most magnificent is on the Ni River where
it I-95 crosses in Spotsylvania County. A system of banks designed to keep water
out as far as I can work out stretches for over a mile along the north bank of
the river.

All in all, nothing is set regarding what was done in the Chickahominy swamps.
Bill Trout will be working on Atlases for those rivers over the next few years
which will be the up to date statements on the subject.

> During this period,
> ocean going vessels were able to sail as far west as Aylett on the Mattapony,
> thereby promoting settlement of the upper Mattapony. The Black
> Creek/Clopton's Swamp area of the Chickahominy is on approximately the same
> longitude.
>
> Also, how accessible was/is Henrico from the Black Creek/Clopton's Swamp area
> of New Kent?  I understand that some steep bluffs rise on the Henrico side;
> but is this true in all areas in the upper Chickahominy, or just around
> Chickahominy Bluff area which became famous during the Civil War?

There are fairly steep bluff along the entire upper drainage.

>  There are
> a couple of old bridge sites in the area, such as Bottoms Bridge; and an
> Ordinary was in operation on the New Kent side, perhaps as early as 1680.

That appears to be activity along the present Rt. 60 corridor rather than
interior development by that early a date. The land patents for that part of the
world start to get serious after the middle of the 18th century on the Henrico
side. There's an iron mine near Bottom's Bridge which is quite fascinating for
the times.

>
>
> It seems that a fairly large early community grew up in this area, so it
> seems equally likely that it may have been an early trading center for the
> back areas of New Kent and Henrico in the early years of the colony.

Settlement in New Kent follows the typical fashion of river accessible lands and
arable floodplains went first to big grants and the upland interior inferior
quality lands went later on to small subsistence type farm grants and in some
cases they were a hundred years after the floodplain settlements.

I was trying to find patents for the Elko area of Henrico some years ago and was
surprised to find how late they were, relatively, settled. They remained small
farms on marginal soils throughout.

Hope this helps.

Lyle

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