The Nanzatico (Nantaughtacund) community was a group of Native Americans that included remnants of earlier tribes displaced by English settlers in and around

King George County, Virginia King George County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population sits at 26,723. Its county seat is the town of King George. The county's largest employer is the U.S. Naval Surface Warfare Center ...

. The group was made up of Portobagos from Maryland,

Patawomeck Patawomeck is a Native American tribe (Native American), tribe based in Stafford County, Virginia, along the Potomac River. ''Patawomeck'' is another spelling of Potomac. The Patawomeck Indian Tribe of Virginia is a state-recognized tribe in Vi ...

s from the Northern Neck area, Matchotics, and

Rappahannock tribe The Rappahannock are a federally recognized tribe in Virginia and one of the eleven state-recognized tribes. They are made up of descendants of several small Algonquian-speaking tribes who merged in the late 17th century. In January 2018, they we ...

members along with others. The original Nantaughtacund were noted by that name living on the

Rappahannock River The Rappahannock River is a river in eastern Virginia, in the United States, approximately in length.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 It traverses the entir ...

by John Smith on 1608, represented on his map as a "king's house". They occupied land on opposite sides of the Rappahannock in present-day Caroline and King George counties. The town of Nanzemond was recorded by 1654, and the towns of Warisquock and Ausaticon in 1655. The Portobacco town was south of the river, about where Smith's "king's house" was shown. The only surviving deed for a land sale by the tribe was signed by their ''

weroance Weroance is an Algonquian word meaning leader or commander among the Powhatan confederacy of the Virginia coast and Chesapeake Bay region. Weroances were under a paramount chief called Powhatan. The Powhatan Confederacy, encountered by the coloni ...

'' Attamahune in 1662. The Matchotic (Mattehatique) formed a section of them on the 1669 census. In that census, the Nanzatico counted fifty bowmen, and the Portobacco sixty. In 1680, the ''weroance'' Pattanochus signed onto an annexe of the 1677

Treaty of Middle Plantation The Treaty of 1677 (also known as the Treaty Between Virginia And The Indians 1677 or Treaty of Middle Plantation) was signed in Virginia on May 28, 1677, between the English Crown and representatives from various Virginia Native American tribes ...

for both groups. In 1684, the Colony ordered the 70 total remaining Rappahannock to join with the Portobacco, for their protection against Seneca Iroquois raids. These groups were allied with the

Doeg tribe The Doeg (also called Dogue, Taux, Tauxenent) were a Native American people who lived in Virginia. They spoke an Algonquian language and may have been a branch of the Nanticoke tribe, historically based on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. The Na ...

, who held land just upriver in Caroline as late as 1720. In the 1697 census, both the Nanzatico and Portobacco groups were counted together with 40 bowmen, and in 1702 they had 30 bowmen between them. In April 1704, the Nanzatico complained to the House of Burgesses that English settlers were encroaching onto their remaining enclave, on both sides of the river. These complaints were never acted upon by the Virginia Colony, and on August 30, a war party of ten Nanzatico men killed one of the encroaching settlers, John Rowley, and his family. A company of the

Richmond County Richmond County may refer to places: Australia *Richmond County, New South Wales, a cadastral division Canada *Richmond County, Nova Scotia United Kingdom *Richmondshire, the original Richmond County in Yorkshire, England United States ...

militia hunted down and captured 49 Nanzaticos and tried them for murder. 5 men were hanged for the murder, and all the other Nanzaticos over age 12 were sold into slavery in the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

under a 1665 law that held communities responsible for any murders of English settlers. Children were forced to work as servants for officials of the Virginia Colony. The affiliated Portobacco / Rappahannock tribe were not deported at this time, and were noted by Robert Beverley in 1705 as living north of the river with five bowmen. The Name Nanzatico means warrior chief.

Notes

References

*Gwenda Morgan, "Sold into Slavery in Retribution against the Nanziattico Indians," Virginia Cavalcade, 33 (Spring 1984):168-73. {{National Register of Historic Places in Virginia Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia History of slavery in Virginia Powhatan Confederacy King George County, Virginia Caroline County, Virginia Native American history of Virginia Slavery in the United States 1704 in the Thirteen Colonies National Register of Historic Places in King George County, Virginia Former National Register of Historic Places in Virginia