by Larry Chowning –
The eighth annual Urbanna Founders Day celebration will be presented on Saturday, August 7, to commemorate the colonial history of the Town of Urbanna.
The town was created in June 1680 on paper by the Colonial Assembly through the Act of Cohabitation that was designed to establish port towns throughout Virginia.
The act specified that 19 tobacco ports of entry towns throughout Virginia be established and that each county set aside 50 acres for a port and market town. Town development started in 1705.
The 50 acres in Middlesex was cut from Rosegill, the colonial planation of the Ralph Wormley family, one of the most powerful families in Virginia’s colonial history.
During those times, the economic engine of England’s Southern Colony (Virginia) was the business of growing and selling tobacco. By 1680, the assembly recognized that there was a growing need for economic diversity to create a broader job base to support a growing population.
The Northern Colony (New England) had focused their economic endeavors on commercial fishing and towns were already growing in that region–creating jobs and providing a more diverse economy.
Events
The Town Crier (town administrator Garth Wheeler) will open the celebration at 10:30 a.m. at 51 Cross Street.
Fife and Drum players will perform and then lead citizens to the Woman’s Club building, 210 Virginia Street, which was the Colonial courthouse building of Middlesex County, for live performances at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Urbanna was the county seat of Middlesex from 1748-1852.
A live presentation written by Paul Malone and Barbara Lovelace will be held at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. at the Women’s Club building depicting “A visit to the 18th Century Scottish Factor Store” inviting you to observe activities on a busy day at the store in the summer of 1774. The scenes will include shopkeeper James Mills and an assistant preparing the Factor Store for the day’s activities and general maintaining of the books and accounts of a day in the store.
Scenes will also include the arrival of a merchant ship, Good Ship Ocean with Captain Ewing, bringing goods in from Glasgow and bringing payment for goods shipped from here; the anticipation by Mr. Wormley of what amount is to be paid for the shipped tobacco and what is on the ship and the new products coming from the ship and being for sale in the store.
The sloop Luna comes to port with Captain Collamore bringing news from around the Chesapeake, including that the Continental Congress is meeting and that there is some discussion by the local citizens of breaking free of the taxes imposed by England.
There is a prologue to set the stage for the audience and an epilogue to wrap up the story.
The Fife and Drummers will march around town to perform and lead visitors to the town museum, which is in the town-owned Colonial Scottish Factor store. The Town Crier will walk around town ringing his bell and announcing activities and attractions for “all to enjoy”.
A tent on the back lawn at the museum will have Colonial games.
