Eighty-seven residents of Clarksville ask that John and Lewis Wimbish be permitted to operate a ferry across the Roanoke River. Currently, the only ferry is operated by James Somerville, who charges them "the full charges allowed by Law," sixteen cents for each "boy and horse with his bag." They also pay the same when they have business across the river at the court house. Moreover, Somerville "keeps no person to attend to the ferry, except his own slaves, having not even an overseer on his large Estate to superintend." The ferry "is notoriously the very worst Kept" on the river. Wimbish, on the other hand, will "allow them to take the Ferry by paying a reasonable Yearly amount So that the poor man Can carry his grain to the Mills."
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Repository: Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia
