Originally inhabited by eight Virginia Indian tribes who established villages along its shores, Virginia's Northern Neck is one of the most historic regions in. There are some straight lines south of James, and in other county boundaries in Virginia, but in Tidewater the straight-line boundaries for a county are the exception rather than the rule. Virginia's Northern Neck is the northernmost of the three peninsulas on the western coast of Chesapeake Bay, bounded by the Potomac River in the north and the Rappahannock River in the south. In late 1637 or early 1638, Lord Baltimore's son and heir, Cecil Calvert, sent his brother Leonard to occupy Kent Island by force, hence the exodus to the coast of Virginia.
The Northern Neck is the northernmost of the three peninsulas that together form Virginia's “tidal water region”. In February 1766, 115 prominent Northern Neck citizens signed the Leedstown Resolutions, named after Leedstown, an active port in (then) King George County. From Northern Virginia and points west, begin your drive on State Route 3 entering the Northern Neck through your entrance to King George County or head south from Maryland via the Nice Bridge or from the southeast through the Norris Bridge accessing the lower “Neck”. In addition to facilitating trade in local produce, seafood and tobacco for manufactured goods, spices and fruits, the steamship made the Northern Neck more accessible to Baltimore and provided residents with entertainment from the James Adams Floating Theater that circulated ports of call throughout the Chesapeake Bay Region.
However, many of the original English settlers were Marylanders, who had settled on Kent Island, but were embroiled in a long controversy between Virginia merchant (and bourgeois) William Claiborne and Lord Baltimore over ownership of the island. The following year, Northern Neck was the scene of another uprising attempt, this one led by Sam, a black servt of Richard Metcalfe. Two bridges cross the Rappahannock River and provide access from the Middle Peninsula to the Northern Neck. The defining natural feature of Virginia's Lower Potomac is the Northern Neck, a peninsula of forests and farmland bounded by the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers and the Chesapeake Bay.
Northumberland, called the “Mother County of the North Neck”, at one time included the adjacent counties of Richmond and Lancaster. Tourism is also an important source of economic activity in the region, as visitors are drawn to the natural resources, history and heritage of Northern Neck. While trying to evade Union cavalry, on April 21, 1865, co-conspirators John Wilkes Booth and David Herold rowed across the Northern Neck in King George County from Maryland after assassinating President Abraham Lincoln. Autonomy and excellent natural resources allowed wealthy planters to emerge who established tobacco plantations in Northern Neck.
