Accopatough

Accopatough (also spelled Acapataugh; died between 4 April and 11 May 1651) was a seventeenth-century weroance and hereditary leader of the Rappahannock people in what is now eastern Virginia. He is principally known from an April 1651 deed conveying a large tract of Rappahannock land on the north side of the Rappahannock River to English colonist Moore Fauntleroy. Accopatough died while traveling toward Jamestown to certify the Fauntleroy transaction and was succeeded by Taweeren, who ratified the deed on 11 May 1651.

Background

The Rappahannock were an Algonquian-speaking people whose homeland extended along both sides of the Rappahannock River. When John Smith explored the river in 1608, he recorded fourteen Rappahannock settlements on its northern bank. Their capital, which Smith called Topahanocke, was associated with the river from which the English derived the name Rappahannock.

A weroance was the leader of an Indigenous town or political district in the Powhatan political world. The office was ordinarily inherited through the female line, and the weroance governed with the advice of councillors. His responsibilities could include allocating the communal use of land, judging disputes, organizing military defense, receiving visitors and representing the community in relations with neighboring peoples.

Colonial documents rendered Indigenous leadership in European terms and described Accopatough as the "right-born and true king" of the Rappahannock towns and their associated territory.

English settlement in the Rappahannock River valley began during the 1640s, much of it without the consent of the region's Indigenous inhabitants. After the Third Anglo-Powhatan War and the death of Opechancanough, colonists increasingly patented land along the river. The Rappahannock consequently concentrated more of their settlement and agricultural activity on the river's northern side, although they continued to use their traditional hunting grounds to the south.

Deed to Moore Fauntleroy

On 4 April 1651, Accopatough executed a deed in favor of the English planter and politician Moore Fauntleroy. The document identified Accopatough as weroance of the Rappahannock towns and purported to convey territory on the north side of the Rappahannock River. Its described boundaries extended from the vicinity of Morattico or Moraughtacund Bay along the river to the waterway identified as Totosha or Totuskey Creek, and eastward toward the Potomac River. The transaction is therefore often described more simply as the conveyance of Rappahannock territory east, or downstream, of Totuskey Creek.

According to the deed, the consideration consisted of ten fathoms of peake, or shell beads, together with goods valued at thirty arm-lengths of roanoke, another form of shell currency. The document described Fauntleroy as Accopatough's "loving friend and brother" and stated that Fauntleroy was to accompany Accopatough and his men to the colonial governor and return them safely to Rappahannock territory. The deed was witnessed by several Rappahannock leaders and formally delivered through the ceremonial transfer of "tree and turf."

On 11 May, his successor Taweeren ratified the transaction. Their statement called Fauntleroy their "loving brother" and confirmed the land to him and his heirs. The colonial government issued Fauntleroy a patent for the tract on 22 May 1651.

In July 1660, the colonial governor directed the Lancaster County Court to investigate the Rappahannocks' complaint against Fauntleroy. The court reported that it could find no proof of payment. In March 1661, the Virginia General Assembly ordered Fauntleroy to deliver thirty matchcoats to the Rappahannock, including one decorated with copper lace for their weroance. When he continued to resist, the assembly again ordered payment, restricted his use of the disputed property to the land he had already cleared, and removed him from his civil and military offices for extorting property from the tribe.

The conveyance signed by Accopatough marked the beginning of a sustained period of Rappahannock land loss. Colonial expansion pushed the Rappahannock inland from the river's northern bank and later toward their traditional hunting territory on its southern side. In 1662 the colonial government formally treated Totuskey Creek as the eastern boundary of the remaining Rappahannock lands, with Cat Point Creek forming the western boundary. A section of the northern shore of the Rappahannock River in present-day Richmond County, Virginia, is known as Accopatough Beach. The site is near the former Cobham Park Farm and west of Totuskey Creek. During the twentieth century, Rappahannock families used the area for gatherings and collected clay from its eroding riverbank for making pottery.

The 1651 transaction has also been cited in federal legislation concerning the history and eventual federal recognition of the Rappahannock Tribe. Congressional findings identified Accopatough by name as the weroance who signed the tribe's first documented conveyance to an English colonist.