Morattico Time Line
(Please see comment at the end of this time line for a note on its sources)

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1608
John Smith encounters the Morauchtacunds (also referred to as Moraticonds, Maratticoes, and Morattico Indians).  The Maurauchtacunds were a tribe of the Algonquin Nation, presided over by its Chief Powhatan.The village of Morattico takes its name from what is thought to have been one of the earliest, perhaps the first,  habitation of the Morattico Indians, who, some believe, had lived in the area as early as 8, 000 B.C.  By 1650 this tribe had moved further west across Morattico Creek (so named for the second Morattico Indian habitation which existed there for a time).  Subsequent moves  produced place names in Richmond County that included the name “Morattico.”

1706
Joseph Ball I deeds property which he had purchased as late as 1698 and upon which he had already begun the plantation house to become known as Morattico Plantation, to his son, Joseph Ball II.  Part of this property had been bought from Charles Cale,  a relative of whom, Thomas Ives, continued to own land containing Ives Creek (now Ivey Creek),  the northern boundary of Joseph Ball’s Morattico Plantation.

1711
Joseph Ball I dies;  Joseph Ball II inherits Morattico Plantation.  He lives primarily in England,  making periodic trips to Morattico, which is overseen primarily by Ball’s nephew, Joseph Chinn.

1760
Joseph Ball II dies, leaving Morattico Plantation to his daughter, Frances Ravenscroft Ball Downman, wife of Rawleigh Downman II, son of Rawleigh Downman I of  Richmond County’s Mt. Sion.  The Downmans move from England to live at Morattico Plantation, whose main house was by this time in a poor state of repair.

1781
Rawleigh Downman  II dies at Morattico Plantation,  followed in death slightly  more than a year later by his wife. For copy of probate of Downman will, click here. Both are buried in the peach orchard close to the house.  Their son, Joseph Ball Downman, inherits Morattico Plantation.

1799
Joseph Ball Downman dies at age of  forty-four, leaving eight children and a soon-to-be-born son, James W.P. Downman, who inherited Morattico Plantation.

1834
James W. P. Downman dies at a young age,  leaving neither heirs nor will..

1835
Surviving  siblings of James W.P. Downman petition to have Morattico Plantation divided into eight equal parts.  William Webb completes survey, which  results in partitioning of the land.  The map coming from this survey remains one of the earliest documents visually representing Morattico Plantation and the surrounding properties.

1835-1845
George William Downman and Sarah Downman purchase from relatives most of original plantation.  George William Downman dies, leaving his share to his sister, Sarah.

1849
Sarah Downman dies and leaves to her nephew, Littleton Downman Mitchell,  nearly four hundred acres, including the plantation house and most of its original acreage.

Circa 1850
Littleton Downman Mitchell, dismantles the original dwelling, now nearly a century and a half old.  He constructs a large, new dwelling,  pictures of which survive from the turn of the century and are in the archives of the Mary Ball Washington Museum.  Bricks for the foundation of the house were made in the area of Brick Kiln Cove on Mulberry Creek.

1864-1868
Downman, in the course of the war and in its aftermath, loses everything, and as legend has it,  works finally in a nearby grist mill.  Morattico Plantation is purchased on behalf of Mitchell’s creditors and passes for the first time since Joseph Ball’s original purchase of it out of the Ball, Downman, Mitchell families.

circa 1880
Captain Raymond Sparrow, a Gloucester Point Oyster Merchant, builds a large house on Mulberry Creek, upcreek from Morattico Plantation house.

[1887
Mitchell dies ]

1889
Brothers John S. H. Whealton and John H. Whealton (known as Jack) purchase four hundred and eighty acres that had essentially been the original Morattico Plantation.  The Morattico Wharf was built at what is now the south end of Morattico Road during the Whealton years, serving as a major stop on the route for steamboats running between Baltimore and Fredericksburg until the mid-1930’s.

1890
L.C. Thrift rents Morattico Plantation house and forty surrounding acres, owned at this this time by the Whealtons.

11 August 1892
John H. Whealton (Jack) was appointed the village’s first postmaster, and the name of Morattico was changed to Whealton, Virginia, known also as Whealton’s.
 

[23 September 1911
The name of Whealton, Virginia is changed back to Morattico.]

1914
L.C. Thrift buys Morattico Plantation house, built by Littleton Downman Mitchell, and forty acres from the bank.
 

[Shortly before, during, and after the 1930’s]
S.H. “Sam” Colburn, later with the help of his son-in law, T. C. Slaughter, operates an oyster packing plant on Colbert Point, at the end of the “beach road,”  now Riverside Drive, on the approximate site of the present RCV Seafood.  This part of Morattico became during the Colborn-Slaughter years a virtually self-sufficient village apart from the village proper, with, among other businesses, a cafe.  The cove behind Colbert Point, previously known as “House Cove,” came to be known as Colbourn’s Cove.

August 1933
The infamous August storm of 1933 reportedly covered the first floors of all dwellings in the Morattico area except the Morattico Plantation house.  This storm, among other things, occasioned the move of many of Tangier Island’s residents to Morattico at about this time.

1935
L.C. Thrift dismantles Morattico Plantation house and uses some materials from it to construct the two-story frame farmhousethat now stands on the property, close to the site of the original Joseph Ball  house and the second plantation house, built by Littleton Downman Mitchell.

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Editorial Note:  This time line is intended for anyone with a general interest in Morattico and its history.  It relies heavily on the definitive study of Morattico Plantation done by Robert N. McKenney and cited in the bibliography.  Anyone interested in following the complete, complex  narrative should consult his article,  “Morattico Plantation--Lancaster County,” Northern Neck of Virginia Historical Magazine, xxxviii, no. 1 (December 1988), 4318-4336.  For additional sources consulted in the construction of this time line, refer to the bibliography.

Hypertext documents such as this time line and other information contained in “Moratticana” are by  necessity post-modern,  and these documents are intended for use as an adjunct to, not as a substitute for, traditional scholarship contained in refereed scholarly journals and history texts.  It is an evolving document that will change from time to time as additional information becomes available or as factual details contained in it require correction. Comments, changes, and additions are welcome.

                                                                                                          --abm
 

"... and soon now we shall go out of the house and  go into the convulsion of the world, out of history into history and the awful responsibility of Time."

                                                                               Robert Penn Warren, All the King's Men
 
 

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