1. Nathaniel Bradford of Accomack County, Virginia - Lower ...

In 1665, Nathaniel was one of only three surveyors for Accomack, but when appointed again in 1683, he
was one of 17. 113 The multiplication of the office was a clear result of the spread of settlement within
Accomack and the building-up of the county’s infrastructure. In addition to their maintenance duties, the
surveyors were also responsible for seeing that new roads were laid out when necessary. It’s tempting to
imagine that during his time as surveyor Nathaniel must have overseen the creation of a significant number
of the county’s roads whose essential routes have remained unchanged to this day; although most of the
major roads were probably based on old Indian paths.
As they continued to improve and subdivide their land, landowners sometimes found that the public roads
which ran over their property ran directly contrary to their interests, preventing a more rational use of the
land or seeming to divide it arbitrarily. It was sometimes possible in such cases to alter a road, provided one
filed a petition with the court requesting permission to do so. Quite often, though, a landowner would
simply alter the road without asking permission from the court. Anyone who found the new road to be a
hindrance could then lay a complaint before the court, and if the alteration was found to be detrimental to
the public, the landowner would be ordered to return the road to its previous condition. For instance, in
1674 a complaint was registered before the court against Nathaniel’s neighbor Richard Kellam for
“[enclosing] an ancient useful road and [denying] the same to be a road.” Nathaniel and neighbors John
Smith, Robert Watson and Jonas Jackson, were ordered to determine “whether it had once been used by the
inhabitants and whether it was a necessary road.” Nathaniel and the others judged that the old road was
even more necessary than it had been in years past and Kellam was ordered to return the road to its former
condition. 114 Nathaniel’s son William confronted a similar situation in the year after Nathaniel’s death,
when he tried to alter the road leading north from Arthur Upshur’s land in Matchapungo Neck. 115
Page 22 of 74 Copyright 2008 Adam M. Bradford