Payne's Mill

In 1758 my 6th great grandfather William Payne II leased from Henry Fitzhugh a small piece of land on the Accontink Creek in Fairfax County Virginia to setup a Mill which was called "Payne's Mill". John Browne the author of "The story of Ravensworth" wrote an excellent article about Payne's Mill (Much of the information is taken from John's site).

Payne's Mill was a grist mill that processed corn and wheat. Colvin Run Mill in Fairfax County is what Payne's Mill might have looked like.

The original deed is in the Fairfax County court records.

This land was part of larger land grant known as Ravensworth.  Ravensworth was the largest colonial landgrant in Fairfax County – 24,112 acres (37.7 square miles), about one-half the area of nearby Washington, DC in 1685.

The land was repeatedly carved into smaller and smaller parcels through inheritance, sale and subdivision. The light green almost triangle shape on the right side of this colored map was Ravensworth.

In the upper right hand corner of Ravensworth you will find the piece of Land William Payne II owned, along with his son William Payne III and son Sanford Payne. The Mill is represented by a "M"

The picture below is right about where the "M" (Mill) symbol is on the map.

This Google Map overlay shows the boundaries of Henry Fitzhugh Land. Payne's Mill was on the bottom left right on the Accotink Creek. 

Event though I almost fell in and I scratched up my good ankle, I had to go down to the creeks edge and put my fingers in and felt the cool stream trickling by. 

On May 27 1782 William Payne II left the land to 2 of his sons, William Payne III (my 5th great grandfather) and brother Sanford Payne.

In this very same will on the next page William states that he leaves his 10,000 acres of land warrants to be divided equally among his children in the "Back Inhabatance" (his spelling). This land that he is referring to is now known as Kentucky (Kentucky didn't become a state till 1792).

Some more pictures.

Deep in the woods I found three stones lined up in a row, it appears some of them were cut or flat faced, I could see anything else under the snow on them, Not sure what they are.

And here is a little shaky video.

Today there is a public trail that leads through the land and there is a community center on the north side with a swimming pool overlooking the creek.