Archive for the ‘John Ferebee’ tag
The Cedar
Our trip away from Town Point Park will wait one more day, as I discovered photos of a couple more markers I found before leaving the park for lunch.
Cannonball Trail
The Cedar
Location: West end of Town Point Park, near Nauticus museum.
Visited: July 3, 2009, 12:40pm
Transcription of marker: A cedar tree near this location, then known as Foure Farthing Pointe, was described in the original patent describing the western boundary of the 50 acres that comprised Norfolk Town. In August 1680 John Ferebee, surveyor for Lower Norfolk County, was instructed to survey a town site on the Elizabeth River. This was completed in October 1680, but it was not until August 1682 that the county, through its agents Anthony Lawson and William Robinson, bought the town site from Nicholas Wise, a shipwright. The price was ten thousand pounds of tobacco. The surveyed town site extended eastward from this point along Main Street, formerly Front Street, on a ridge of high land to Dun-in-the-Mire, generally where Harbor Park is now located. The other principal road, “the road that leadeth out of town,” went north from the current intersection of Main Street and St. Paul’s Boulevard. The original town site was laid out with half acre lots for houses and business. The lots were priced at 100 pounds of tobacco.
My impressions: This is a newer look at much of the same history as was found in the Four Farthing or Town Point marker I posted about on Thursday. As somebody attempting to transcribe markers, one of the things it highlights for me is how much easier it is to fully understand a marker when it is written in mixed case. A case in point: it wasn’t until I read this marker that I was sure that I had correctly transcribed “Lower Norfolk County” in the previous marker. In the earlier marker (written entirely in capital letters) there was no way to know if this was just the lower part of Norfolk County or a separate jurisdiction. It’s also nice to have the map illustration on this marker, even though these markers seem less permanent than those with raised letters.
Markeroni status: Direct-logged.