The Fairfax Line: Thomas Lewis' Journal of 1746

The 'Fairfax Line' marks the western end of the enormous Northern Neck grant made to Lord Fairfax by the English Crown. It stretches between the headwaters of the Rappahannock and Potomac Rivers and,even today, it marks the boundary of a portion of a state line as well as county lines and property holdings.

For four months in 1746, an expedition of four surveyors, including Peter Jefferson, father of Thomas Jefferson, and their associates undertook to blaze this line in the Virginia wilderness. Thomas Lewis, another surveyor in the group, recorded in daily notes the story of their adventure in a small pocket-sized notebook. First published in 1925, it details in brief form the mechanics of the survey, interspersed with personal notes on the expedition.

Lewis presents a vignette of every-day events of the early American frontier that no official government document could relate. His evening summaries record the trials of the expedition, treacherous mountain crossings as well as encountering 'poor Dutch families' already settled on the land. This facsimile is taken from the 1925 edition.

Originally published by John W. Wayland, New Market, Va, 1925; facsimile edition, 2024.