the landward side of the County. In the development of governmental administration, counties began to be created in Virginia in mid-17th Century. The area which became Arlington was successively in Northumberland, Westmoreland, Stafford, Prince William, and finally, Fairfax counties. (Map II.) Consequently, the history of land tenure and legislation for Arlington must be sought in the records of these counties for the relevant period.

MAP II
Development of Northern Neck Counties

Drafted by W. B. Allison and B. Sims

Northumberland County was definitely created in 1648 by an Act of the General Assembly[10] which provided

and was given power to elect Burgesses. A later Act[11] declared:

Settlement was pushing north, however, and in July 1653, Westmoreland was carved out of the then existing Northumberland. It was decreed:

Conditions on the frontier, however, made it necessary in 1662 to unite Westmoreland and Northumberland counties for administrative purposes "until otherwise ordered by the governor."[13] There is no record of the date of his later decision to separate the two counties but he must have done so.

Similarly, there is no definite record of the establishment of Stafford County. The first legislative reference to Stafford is in an Act[14] exempting the inhabitants of Stafford because of the "newnesse of its ground" from a general requirement laid upon counties to employ a weaver and set up a public loom. In this year of 1666 Stafford sent a delegate to the General Assembly. The County, however, must have been in existence earlier since there is a record of the Stafford County Court Book which on page one relates to a meeting of the Court for the County on May 27, 1664.[15] The boundaries of the County are nowhere set forth at this early date, but that they encompassed the Arlington area is clear from a direction of the Legislature in 1676 that a fort be established "on Potomack river at or near John Mathews in the county of Stafford."[16] John Mathews' land was on the lower side of Great Hunting Creek[17] but there would have been no reason at that time to erect a separate county to the north.

There were no further changes affecting the county within which Arlington lay until 1730 when Prince William County was formed. An Act of the General Assembly declared that after March 25, 1731,

It was not many years until Fairfax County came into being:

Thus from December 1742 until the District of Columbia was formally organized by Act of Congress (February 27, 1801) what is now Arlington was part of Fairfax County.

1789-1847

Maryland and Virginia had agreed to meet in 1785 to discuss the controversy over the navigation of the Potomac and their joint boundary. The Commissioners who took part in this meeting did more than draw up a compact subsequently ratified by their respective States. From this meeting eventually came the call for the convention which resulted in the Constitution of the United States and the decision to set aside a tract of land ten miles square for the seat of the Federal Government.

The Maryland-Virginia compact on the Potomac was signed on March 28, 1785, and confirmed by the General Assembly of Virginia in 1786.[20] Although it was designed primarily to settle navigation and fishing rights, its seventh section provided: "The citizens of each State, respectively, shall have full property rights in the shores of Patowmack river adjoining their land...." This has been interpreted to mean property rights to low water mark. The dispute over this point became of significance in the 20th Century with the construction of the National Airport and the Pentagon Building.

Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution of the United States gives the Congress power to accept a territory not exceeding ten miles square to be set aside as the