Dumfries history began as early as 1690 when
Richard Gibson erected a grist mill on Quantico Creek. A custom and warehouse were
established in 1731. Many other warehouses cropped up along the estuary in 1732.
The Town of Dumfries was formally established on 60
acres of land at the head of the harbor of Quantico Creek, provided by John Graham, who
named the town for his birthplace, Dumfrieshire, Scotland. After much political
maneuvering, the General Assembly established Dumfries as the first of seven townships in
the county. Dumfries received its charter May 11, 1749, making it the oldest continuously
chartered town in Virginia.
Dumfries became a thriving community, receiving
tobacco from recently cleared upland plantations, and thus fostering the Scottish
merchants of the early establishments. By 1759, the town’s importance as a center of
commerce and society, with theaters, opera house, racetrack, cockpit, taverns, ordinaries,
school, and artisans of all kinds, prompted the legislature to grant the request for
moving the county courthouse from Cedar Run to Dumfries.
The town thrived and peaked in size and importance
with its finest year being 1763. Dumfries was the second leading port in Colonial America,
rivaling New York, Philadelphia, and Boston. Dumfries was a thriving port for about 15
years, and then various factors aided its demise,-the siltation of the harbor, the
Revolutionary War, and the commodity changing from tobacco to wheat and sugar. The
following decade saw a slowdown, and after 1785, the town’s importance continued to
wane. The post Revolutionary War period did not improve and found the town trustees
selling land for delinquent taxes.
As a result of a shift in population, the Prince
William County Courthouse
was moved for its fourth time to
Brentsville, and Dumfries lost its lucrative trade of courthouse days. From 1822 until the
Civil War, Dumfries again became a sleepy little town. The Civil War brought many changes
to Dumfries, as it did the rest of the nation.
Dumfries, Virginia, is a town rich in history whose
forefathers have made many contributions to our nation’s establishment and
development.
