College Landing on the south side was the other "port" of  
Williamsburg. Neither was by any stretch of the imagination a major  
port. Check with any good map source and the physical/topographical  
limitations are glaring. Both were ports because Williamsburg was the  
Capital at the time. I can't think of a major VA port not on a large  
river, unless at a creek mouth providing some limited upstream access  
for boat traffic.

Lyle Browning, RPA


On Mar 13, 2007, at 3:20 PM, Henry Wiencek wrote:

> In his 1873 newspaper statement about being the son of Thomas  
> Jefferson and
> Sally Hemings, Madison Hemings stated that his ancestor Capt.  
> Hemings was
> "captain of an English trading vessel which sailed between England and
> Williamsburg, Va., then quite a port."  He is speaking about the  
> 1730s.  Is
> it correct to say that Williamsburg was "quite a port"?  Though  
> Williamsburg
> had a landing accessible from the York River by Queen's Creek, and  
> I found a
> reference to a "Comptroller of the port of Williamsburg" in 1773, I  
> have
> never heard Williamsburg described as a major port. This may seem  
> like a
> trivial point, but it is one of several assertions in Madison Hemings'
> narrative that seem to be wrong and I am trying to pin them all down.
>
> I am not trying to launch a general Hemings/Jefferson discussion,  
> and if
> anyone has any comments on that broader subject I will be happy to  
> receive
> them off-list.
>
> Henry Wiencek
> Charlottesville