| From the information contained in the Deed of William Barrett to John Loy 1779 it is clear that William Barrett purchased his land from Darby Reagan who obtained it from Lord Fairfax. Search of Northern Neck Proprietership Grant records demonstrates that Lord Fairfax did indeed grant Darby Regan 295 acres of land on Babb's Creek (Babb's Run) in 1770. Careful examination of the dimensions of the land clearly indicate that Darby's land was largely rectangular with one side running along the top of Hunting Ridge to the West of Babb's Run and the other side to the East of Babb's Run from near the foot of Babb's Mountain to just beyond where Babb's Creek divides into Babb's Run and Parish Run (Forks of Babb's Creek) There is a potential anomaly in that the Creek that it is indicated that Darby's land crossed as it came down from the ridge is not Babb's run as the document would suggest but Parish Run. Babb's run turns sharply east and exits the property's eastern boundary without mention in the deed. The Barrett Loy deed indicates that William Barrett and then from him John Loy purchased the northern half (147 acres out of 295) of this rectangle. This is clearly demonstrated as to the Northern boundary (though TLFIA transcription of the Barrett Loy deed which I rely on on this site for the time being at first gives the impression that Darby was merely John's neighbor. This is later in the deed clarified when the deed specifices that the Loy land was originally Reagan land. There is only one record of Darby Reagan receiving land from the Proprietor Lord Fairfax and that is the 295 acre grant. The other problem with the TLFIA deed (I know I sound like a broken record) is that at some point in the transcription (and here I do not think it was necessarily the compilers but probably one of their sources) dropped half of the dimensions. To describe a piece of land you must have at an absolute minimum 3 sides and more generally four or more. TLFIA deed only has two sides. Fortunately these sides match up (down to the marker trees on the property corners) with the northern half and part of the eastern half of Darby Regan's land. I am assuming that when Darby sold to Barrett he essentially split the north south lines near the halfway point and drew a line between these points and kept what was on the south. On the East boundary the Loy line runs for 102 Poles of the Darby REagan 218. That is slightly less than half the distance suggesting that perhaps on the western side Darby had Barrett take more than 105 Poles of the 210 Pole line. (It could also be accounted for by the southeastern extension of Darby Regan's land.) That is the simplest way it could be done. But we will not know until we see the orignal Loy Barrett deed. As to the location, since the Loy Land was more than half of the distance on the ridge and since it is my guess that the Baltimore Road (Winchester to Hampshire County) crossed the SW corner of the Regan Property, there was probably a right of way there since it was the main road (there is now a smaller road that travels up the ridge as well) However, I suspect the road remained on Regan's property. This probably explains the easy access the Loys seemed to have to Hampshire County. Hampshire County, the Sandy Ridge Portion, was fairly close to the Loy place. Perhaps as close as the town of Winchester in the other direction. I have not checked but I suspect the Muehlschlaegels were just over Back Creek and the next Montain a short horse ride away. Furthermore, the Hotts would have been accessible through the gap where Cedar Grove now is. After learning that Winchester was a major apple orchard area I wondered if the Loys had done that but I am not so sure. The Hotts were in the middle of Apple growing country but I did not see on the map that there were any orchards west of Babb's Mountain. Apples as the gentle reader will remember were not grown then as fruit (though they were sometimes used as such) but primarily as a raw material for hard cider which until about 1850 was the drink of choice on the American frontier. Finally the sense of the documents (though we will need the corrected Barrett Loy deed to be sure) is that the "forkes of Babb's Creek" were in John Loy's half of the original grant and the Loys had the turn in Babb's Creek. There is a small lake or called Sinclair Lake at the Babbs Creek forks that is easily identifiable from modern maps and satellite photos and the Loy place very probably extended from there a way to the north. I will later try to upload a crude map until such time as we find better survey maps or modern property maps corresponding to the area. The little quip about copper, lead and iron was serious. This was blue ridge country and by the standards of the day the Blue Ridge was quite rich in these minerals. As to coal, there was more of that then they could even magine then. |