About

Essex and Middlesex Counties are adjacent to one another, and in many ways are quite similar. They share the same geographical setting-the south bank of the Rappahannock River-and families have moved over time from one county to the other. Both counties were supportive of the American cause in the American Revolution, but they reacted to the Revolution in some distinctly different ways. One county, for example, sent church representatives to seek support for the patriot cause, while the other sent a sheriff to demand a 10% share of livestock and crops for support of American troops. One county was the first in Virginia to send aid to Massachusetts after the British responded to the Boston Tea Party by closing Boston Harbor, while the other included in the county resolves the reflection that "reason and policy reclaim" against the destruction of property that had taken place in the Tea Party. Representatives from the Middlesex County Museum and Historical Society, and the Essex County Museum and Historical Society will meet in two sessions in November-one to be held in each county-to discuss those differences and to ponder reasons for which they might have existed. The first presentation will take place on Sunday, November 16 at 4 PM in the Historic Middlesex County Courthouse’s courtroom located at 865 General Puller Highway. Middlesex Journalist and Historian Larry Chowning and Robert W. Prichard, Vice President of the Middlesex County Museum and Historical Society, will serve as hosts to Essex participants on that occasion. This will be followed by a second event in Tappahannock, tentatively scheduled for Saturday Morning, November 22, in which the county societies will reverse roles, with Tim Manley, Director of the Essex County Museum and Historical Society, hosting participants from Middlesex