Doeg Indians (Historical Marker)

Here follows the inscription written on this roadside historical marker:

A group of Virginia Indians referred to as the Doeg (but also Dogue, Taux, and other names) occupied villages and settlements along the Potomac and Occoquan Rivers by 1607. They included Tauxenent, near the mouth of the Occoquan River, Namasingakent near Mount Vernon and Assaomeck near Alexandria. The Doeg lived a semi-sedentary lifestyle that involved farming and extended hunting and fishing trips. The English forced many of the Doeg out of this region by the late 17th century. Nearby Dogue Creek is named for them.

Erected 2003 by Department of Historic Resources. (Marker Number E-67.)


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Here follows an article on the Doeg people from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

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 Nanticoke considered the Algonquian Lenape as "grandfathers". The Doeg are known for a raid in July 1675 that contributed to colonists' uprising in Bacon's Rebellion.

Background:
The Doeg (or Dogue) tribe of Virginia were part of the coastal Algonquian language family. They probably spoke Piscataway or a dialect similar to Nanticoke.

According to one account, the Doeg had been based in what is now King George County, but about 50 years before the founding of Jamestown (ca. 1557), they split into three sections, with groups going to Caroline County and Prince William County, and one remaining in King George.

When Captain John Smith visited the upper Potomac River in 1608, he noted that the Taux lived there above Aquia Creek, with their capital Tauxenent located on "Doggs Island" (also known as Miompse or May-Umps, now Mason Neck, Virginia.) They gathered fish and also grew corn. Other hamlets were at Pamacocack (later anglicized to "Quantico"), along Quantico Creek; Yosococomico (now Powells Creek); and Niopsco (Neabsco Creek). Associated with them were other nearby Algonquian peoples — the Moyauns (Piscataway) on the Maryland side, and the Nacotchtank (Anacostan) in what is now the Washington, DC area. Smith's map also shows a settlement called Tauxsnitania, thought to be near present-day Waterloo in Fauquier County, within the territory of the Siouan-speaking Manahoac tribe.

John Lederer, who visited the Piedmont region of Virginia in 1670, wrote that the entire area had been "formerly possessed by the Tacci, alias Dogi, but... the Indians now seated here, are distinguished into the several nations of Mahoc, Nuntaneuck alias Nuntaly, Nahyssan, Sapon, Managog, Mangoack, Akernatatzy and Monakin etc."

Further, "The Indians now seated in these parts are none of those whom the English removed from Virginia, but a people driven by the enemy from the northwest, and invited to sit down here by an oracle above four hundred years since, as they pretend for the ancient inhabitants of Virginia were far more rude and barbarous, feeding only upon raw flesh and fish, until they taught them to plant corn..."

Frontier:
In the 1650s, as English colonists began to settle the Northern Neck frontier, then known as Chicacoan (Secocowon), some Doeg, Patawomeck and Rappahannock began moving into the region as well. They joined local tribes in disputing the settlers' claims to land and resources. In July 1666, the colonists declared war on them. By 1669, colonists had patented the land on the west of the Potomac as far north as My Lord's Island. By 1670, they had driven most of the Doeg out of the Virginia colony and into Maryland—apart from those living beside the Nanzatico/Portobago in Caroline County, Virginia.

Tensions between English colonists and the Doeg on the Northern Neck continued to grow. In July 1675, a Doeg raiding party crossed the Potomac and stole hogs from Thomas Mathew, in retaliation for his not paying them for trade goods. Mathew and other colonists pursued them to Maryland and killed a group of Doeg, as well as innocent Susquehannock. A Doeg war party retaliated by killing Mathew's son and two servants on his plantation.

A Virginian militia led by Nathaniel Bacon entered Maryland, attacked the Doeg and besieged the Susquehannock. This precipitated the general reaction against natives by the Virginia Colony that resulted in "Bacon's Rebellion". Following this conflict, the Doeg seem to have become allied with the Nanzatico tribe, who paid for the release of some Doeg jailed for killing livestock in early 1692.  The Doeg maintained a presence near Nanzatico at "Doguetown" (around Milford in Caroline County) as late as 1720.

"Welsh" identity:
A centuries long investigation into the existence of “"Welsh Indians"” has connected the Doeg to an apocryphal 12th century Welsh prince named Madoc, who, according to folklore, visited North America. The theory followed claims during the late 17th century that people calling themselves "Doeg", living in the Province of North-Carolina, understood the Welsh language.

A clergyman of Welsh origins, the Reverend Morgan Jones, told Thomas Lloyd, lieutenant-governor of the Province of Pennsylvania that he had been captured in 1669, by members of a tribe that called themselves "Doeg". Jones said that his life had been spared by his captors only after their chief heard Jones speaking Welsh, a language that the chief understood. Jones reportedly claimed that he had stayed with the Doeg for months and preached to them in Welsh. Jones later returned to the English colonies and, much later, in 1686 wrote an account of his adventures. However, Welsh historian Gwyn A. Williams commented (in 1979) that the anecdote was "a complete farrago and may have been intended as a hoax".  Apart from the improbability of their connection with Madoc (if he existed), the "Doeg" encountered by Jones were described as a sub-group of Tuscarora – a people with little if any connection to the Doeg proper.

See also a prior similar confusion of a neighboring Native American people’s tongue with Welsh in 1608 among the Christopher Newport party exploring the Province of Virginia between the area that would later become Richmond and the Piedmont. A native Welch speaker, Peter Wynne, had been sent along as a translator, and could not understand the local Monacan language.

Legacy:
Dogue, Virginia is a town in King George County named in honor of this tribe. Dogue Creek, a tributary of the Potomac River in Fairfax County, Virginia is also named after this tribe.


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Here follows an article on the Doeg people from the Mason family archives:

THE DOEG AND THE EARLY MASON FAMILY:
NATIVE LAND, LIES AND DISPOSSESSION

The Mason Family’s influence on American colonies started early in the colonial period. George Mason I and George Mason II took part in the colonial experience that relied on the control and dispossession of Native people to gain wealth and power for themselves, mainly through land acquisition. While Mason I and Mason II relationships with Native people differ from each other in some aspects, each reflect the development of White-Native relations from the mid-17th century to the early 18th century in Colonial Virginia and Colonial Maryland.

Focusing on the experience of the Doeg Indians, this exhibit will show the Mason family’s relationships with Native people of the Potomac in their first two generations in America, and a family pattern of using their social prominence to further take power away from Native communities. The Mason’s achieved this by controlling Native people’s movement and dispossessing them of land through acts of violent conflict and government action.

This exhibit is researched and created by Janine Hubai in consultation with Dr. George Oberle and Dr. Gabi Tayac with contributions from Dr. James Rice, Greta Swaine, Tony Guidone. Techinal assistance from Alyssa Fahringer. A special thanks to Gunston Hall for use of their archives and conversations.

THE DOEG, LAND, AND WATER:
Native people inhabited Mason Neck and the Occoquan River for millennia. The first known written record of the inhabitants came from John Smith in 1608 when Smith visited Tauxenent, a Taux or Doeg, village.
During this period, the Doeg lived in large settlements that included long houses and a leader’s house with 40 bowman for protection. The village was enclosed in a palisade. Smaller satellite camps were used for seasonal resources that included hunting, fishing, gathering plants and growing corn. Multiple settlement sites have been found in the region during the English Contact period, including Doeg’s Neck, later named Mason Neck. While outside tribal nations, including the Iroquois, invaded Doeg space, the Doeg maintained relationships with other Chesapeake area Native tribes, although remaining independent from larger Native chiefdoms like Powhatan to the south and the Piscataway east across the river. There is some evidence that the Doeg may have offered tributes to Powhatan after he visited their territory, but most evidence points to their independence. They also may have allied with the Piscataway in this early period, although they often did find themselves at odds. The Doeg actively participated in economic exchange with English colonists.

Doeg and Early European Contact:
Conflicted rocked the Virginia Native communities in the early 17th century. The Doeg suffered invasions from the Massawomecks in the 1620s, possibly scattering the group known as the Tauxenent. It is possible that the Doeg, whose name first appears in the colonial records in the 1650s, were scattered members of the Tauxenant who took refuge with the Patawomeck after they were “expulsed” by the Nacotchtanks. Several places in the Chesapeake bare their name. The Doeg seemed “unwilling to accommodate their English neighbors,” and did not live a settled life as no colonial records speak of women or planting fields, and they left a record showing their geographic expanse. They seem to leave a more permanent home on Mason Neck by 1654 when the English government allowed settlement in Northern Neck and colonists start claiming Native land. Prior to 1649, White colonists could not settle on land north of the York and Rappahannock Rivers, else they face felony charges. As the English population expanded, Gov. Berkeley and the Council opened the land north of the York and Rappahannock in 1649 and repealed the punishment of felony. This had ramifications for the Doeg as White settlers claim that the Doeg abandoned the land on Doeg’s Neck in the 1650s and secured grants of the land.

Doeg and Mid-17th Century European Relations:
By the 1660s, the Doeg relocated to Piscataway territory on the Maryland side of the Potomac and south of the north bank of the Rappahannock. During this decade, relationships between the Doeg and English colonists appear highly conflicted. The Doeg were accused of killing a family in St. Mary’s County; some colonists said the Doeg defended their territory against English colonists. Maryland militias hunted the Doeg for retribution. To save themselves from the militia, the Doeg signed a treaty with the Maryland government but refused to be placed on reservation land. While the Doeg may have refused a reservation as an act of defiance against colonization, it often left the Doeg with little protection as they could not retreat to land set aside for them and the English did not recognize their rights as a tribe without land. Both Virginian and Maryland English dispossessed the Doeg of their land yet would not recognize them as a landless people, as the colonies only recognized Native people through land ownership. The colonies sought to dictate where the Doeg could live and where the Doeg would call home.

While they managed some reprieve in Maryland, their problems with Virginia English persisted. On July 10, 1666, Governor Berkeley of Virginia issued an order to the militia to annihilate the Doeg by destroying villages, killing men, and selling women and children into slavery. As colonists encroached more on their land, the Doeg pushed back on that encroachment in violent ways. We do not have any evidence how successful this order was, but we do know the Doeg continued to exist and influenced colonial relationships for a couple more decades.

Doeg and the Waterways:
The waterscape are important drivers in the Doeg narrative. The water allowed for easier access for Native communities to interact with each other, politically, socially, and economically. It provided food that was supplemented by agriculture. The water allowed John Smith to access these Native communities more easily than he could have by land and made it easier for the colonists to expand and “claim” land that Native people inhabited as travelling by water was easier. The Doeg appear in colonial records in various locations, as the map shows. They were a well-traveled people who took advantage of the waterways. Food that Native people grew were often traded with English colonists. The waterways also served as a conduit for cheap labor or free labor in the English agricultural economy. Once indentured servitude decreased, colonists used Native slave labor before the African slave trade became dominant. It is not known how many Doegs faced enslavement. Some scholars even suggest that the Doeg participated in the Native slave trade. There is evidence of at least one Doeg held captive by the Seneca for a number of years.

Virginia Native Policies:
Native policies in Early Colonial Virginia changed as the development of the settlements expanded, the English population increased while the Native population decreased, and the economy changed. While the biggest changes came in land ownership, Native people handled diplomatic situations delicately. Scholar Helen Rountree stated that around 1640-1641, actions by Opechancanough, leader of the Powhatan Confederacy, sought to excuse a fine the governor had placed on an Englishman who killed a Pamunkey man he accused of theft. Opechancanough recognized forcing the Englishman to pay the fine threatened the Native-Settler peace relations that were already fragile. The early colonial government took steps to keep both the settlers and Native people co-existing as peacefully as possible. Laws and policies existed and Native people and settlers sometimes worked within those frameworks, but often they worked outside of the law which led to conflict. A year after Opechancanough’s diplomatic decision, the law changed and required any person “wronged by a native person” needed to go to the militia as opposed to taking care of the matter themselves. While this may have an attempt to create order in a community with disorder (as the Englishman killed the Pamunkey man for theft instead of going through proper protocols), it gave the militia authority to intervene in disputes, and carry out violent acts against Native people that was state-sponsored. These policies would have tragic outcomes for the Doeg and other Native communities on both sides of the Potomac.

THE MASON FAMILY AND THE FRIENDS THEY KEEP
George Mason I and Old Friends in a New World:
George Mason I emigrated to Virginia in 1651. It is believed he was a Royalist who fought in the military and fled England after the Royalist’s defeat. In America, Mason quickly gained important roles in the new colony, serving as sheriff, Justice of the Peace, and using his military expertise as an officer in the militia, eventually achieving the rank of colonel. Mason moved nearby other English settlers who he associated with in England. This group of people were not of the social caliber of elites like Governor Berkely, Lord Culpepper, and Lord Fairfax, but had enough wealth to purchase land and slaves, and sponsor indentured servants. They increased their standing in the colony through public service, acquisition of land, and use of slave labor. These neighbors from England often married each other in British America, combining land and connections. The goals of these families were to increase prestige and wealth in the new colonies. They did this by their activity in public servant roles, which included membership and leadership in the militia. Many of these militia activities focused on violent acts against Native people who were trying to defend their lands and ways of life. Mason I and Mason II found themselves in a number of events with Native people that had significant repercussions for all involved. These men often created lies about Native people and acted rashly, and violently, when resolving conflicts. The Masons had friends to help climb their way to the top, most notably the Brent family.

The Brent Family and Native Relations:
One family Mason I connected with in America was the Brent family, Catholics from England who originally settled in Maryland, later obtaining land in Virginia. Mason I also obtained land near the Brents. Giles Brent (Sr.) came to America in 1637 and married a Piscataway woman named Mary Kittamaquund. As a Native woman from Maryland, Mary had rights to her Native lands that she would inherit from her father Chitamachon, a man who converted to Catholicism but then killed his non-converted brother to become the Tayac, or head, or the tribe. Mary received a western education from Margaret Brent, a formidable, powerful woman who owned land and conducted business at a time very few women did.

Giles Brent most likely married Mary as a way to gain access to her lands, and she may have married him as a way to gain advantages with the English newcomers. Mary died early in their marriage, but Lord Baltimore refused to grant Brent any land Mary was entitled to as a Piscataway woman. The Brents did have a son together in 1651 named Giles Brent (Jr.). Brent could have learned the Piscataway language from his mother, and we do not know any ties he kept with his Piscataway family, but we do know that he took advantage of Native people and their land, yet often found himself in their company, either. He certainly could speak some Doeg, as will be shown on the exhibit page about Mason I.

Brent Sr.’s land in Maryland was in the vicinity of Doeg land. On August 26, 1651, the Maryland Proceedings and Acts of the General Assembly recorded a statement by Cecilius Calvert, Lord Baltimore, for colonists to acquire land next to Doeg land. The letter points to the very thing that the Doeg struggled with, colonist encroachment and dispossession of their land. The colony drew maps of the area, passed acts, and gave proclamations for “Every Person of British or Irish descent” to acquire land, a statement that clearly defines who the colony views as appropriate land owners, White men of British descent. This leaves out any Native people of the region to own land as an individual, even if Native people tended to occupy land as a community. Even though there were some protections for Native land on reservations, these reservations were defined by the colonial governments. Further, Native women had rights to land, as was the case when Giles Brent Sr. tried to inherit Mary Kittamaquund’s land after her death.

The statement also defines the geographical space which also “runneth by the Piscattoway.” This encroachment also affected the Piscataway. As for the Doeg, the Proceedings read “for the better Encouragement of English to make Choice of their dividents of Land and to seat themselves in the places aforesaid…to any Adventurer or Planter that shall make Choice of his dividend and Seat a Plantation of English either on the said Eastern Shoar or on that Tract of Land wherein the Doages is included…to him and his heirs forever.” In 1651, the Doeg faced loss of land in Maryland. They left Doeg’s Neck in Virginia around 1654 most likely to escape encroaching English settlers. They faced the same predicament on both sides of the Potomac. On both sides of the Potomac, the Doeg found themselves in conflicts with the Brents and Mason I, of which both lived on or near Doeg land.

The Washington Family and Doeg Land:
Another prominent family of colonial Virginia took part in militia activities against Native people. John Washington is found in colonial records in activities against Native people, and like Mason, served in important political roles in the Virginia House of Burgesses and the militia. John Washington obtained some of his land from Lord Culpepper. Washington’s campaigns against Native people cleared the way for land grants he hoped to obtain. These land grants, made possible by dispossession of Native people, formed a land and wealth base for future generations of Washingtons, that used enslaved labor. Washington passed his land on Mattox Creek and Little Hunting Creek to his son Lawrence, who passed the land to his son Augustine, who passed the land to his son, George Washington, future first president of the United States.
Mount Vernon borders Doeg’s Creek.

Land Entitlement:
These English men arrived in British America with a sense of entitlement to the land, whether they wished to wrap their exploits as religious benevolence, government rights, or marriage rights. Men like Brent Jr., who was half Piscataway, had a choice as to how to live within the context of his intercultural background. Brent Jr. chose to take advantage of his knowledge of Native people and languages, and could have felt a particular sense of entitlement to the land, one as a child of prominent English settler families and second as a child of a Native woman who had access to Piscataway land. For the Brent family, these feelings extended across the family as another Brent in 1697, Giles, Jr.’s cousin Captain George Brent, found himself associated with a murder trial after ten Natives were accused of murdering local White people after visiting George Brent’s house. George Mason II was in charge of investigating this trial. Cpt. George Brent was the great-grandfather of Sarah Brent, the wife of George Mason IV.

These families took full advantage of the predicament that Native people found themselves in. Native people and English settlers very much cohabitated these lands and interacted in both times of peace, times of war, in economic situations, and in marriage. And while they did abide by laws, their thirst for land and control of Native people often ended in tragedy, and worse- wide spread war by direct actions of Mason I and Giles Brent Jr. Scholar James Rice said that Mason I was an anti-Indian militia officer, and we can add to that list men like William Byrd, Bacon, and Giles Brent, Jr., some of them Indian slave owners and slavers.

GEORGE MASON I: LIES, VIOLENCE AND LAND:
George Mason I used his prominence in the community, his role in public servant positions, and leadership in the militia to cause harm to Native communities in Northern Virginia, along the Potomac. One act in particular was the spark to ignite Bacon’s Rebellion, a violent clash in Virginia that left many dead and had ramifications for decades. The following three incidents shed light on the way Mason I lied for his own benefit, took revenge on Native people in violent ways that violated intra-colonial polices, caused suffering among the Doeg, and sought to dispossess Native people of their land.

Mason I’s relationship with Native people first entered the record in 1662 when the House Of Burgesses suspended Mason I of all civil and military positions. Mason I, along with Giles Brent Sr., Col. Gerrard Fowke, and Mr. John Lord, framed Potowmeck Indian chief, Wahanganoche, for murder. Brent and Fowke issued illegal warrants and imprisoned and bound Wahanganoche as they illegally charged him with treason and murder. They also went against colonial laws ensuring safe conduct and protection of Native-Settler interactions. All paid fines to both Wahanganoche and the public. Mason I paid Wahanganoche “one hundred armes length of roanokae” and 2,000 pounds of tobacco to the public for their deceit. He could not take military office until he cleared his charges and paid his fines. Within a short time, Mason I returned to his civil and military positions. Fowke obtained Potomac Indian lands in 1664 and more land was recognized in 1679, clearly showing that the men sought to disrupt the Potomac Indians structure for their own gain, namely in land acquisition. Mason I also shows his disdain for the law of the land when it suited his needs, an issue that would later cause Mason I to throw the region into war.

Mason I and the Annihilation of a Doeg Family and the Spark that Ignited Bacon’s Rebellion:
In July of 1675, Thomas Mathew, an English Virginian colonizer, did not give payment to the Doeg for economic transactions made between the two, and the Doeg stole hogs from Mathewss for compensation and killed his herdsman. In a skirmish related to the hog incident Mathew’s son was killed as the English Virginians pursued the Doeg across the Potomac, battling each other on the river. The Doeg lost men in the pursuit. The Doeg returned to Virginia to take revenge on Mathews and killed two of Mathew’s servants and one of his sons.

Later, Mason I and Brent Jr. gathered militia men and crossed the Potomac into Maryland, outside of their colonial jurisdiction where they did not have permission to engage in acts of war. Furthermore, the Governor of Maryland stated that they were “at a time in Peace” with the Native people on the Maryland side of the Potomac. Brent Jr. called out to the Doeg in their language, asking to have a council about the issue regarding Thomas Mathew. It should be remembered that the Brent’s land abutted Doeg land in Maryland and he was half Piscataway; Brent Jr. was close enough to their culture to speak their language and have an understanding of Doeg culture. Brent Jr. did not enter the village to speak with the Doeg; instead he attacked the village. A fight ensued where Brent Jr. killed the chief and ten other Doeg, and took the chief’s eight year old boy hostage.

Not far from where Brent Jr. attacked the Doeg, Mason I attacked another village he thought was a Doeg village, but turned out to be Susquehannock Indians who were wrongfully killed by Mason’s militia. One Susquehannock person tugged on Mason I’s arm saying, “Susquehannock! Netoughs (Friends)!” By that time it was too late. Brent Jr. annihilated a family. Mason I started a conflict as his mistake upset the delicate balance that existed between Native peoples and English colonizers in Virginia and Maryland. Brent Jr. and Mason I violated intra-colonial laws and used state-sponsored violence, through the use of the militia, to attack the Doeg.

Mason I and the Doeg Chief’s Son:
Mason I’s took the chief’s son to his house where his wife tended to the boy. The boy laid in a catatonic state for ten days. Mason I, his wife, and Brent Jr. suggested the boy was bewitched, as they believed Native people practiced witchcraft. Today we would recognize that the boy suffered from trauma after witnessing the events that destroyed his family. Brent Jr. and Mason I decided to baptize the boy, without receiving consent from the boy or the family, by a clerk Mr. Dobson, who legally could baptize people into the Church of England. Shortly after the ceremony, the boy regained consciousness and was sent back to his tribe, although we do not know the details of his return. This is an example of how colonial thought about Native culture viewed them as heathens and practitioners of witchcraft and baptized Native children without permission. It also shows the trauma which Native people experienced, and the denial of that trauma by colonizers.

The Susquehannock led a number of attacks to avenge the deaths that Mason I caused, but the number of English colonizers killed was far less than the number of Native people killed. As more Native attacks raged through the colonies, settlers frustrated by their own ability to obtain land allowed their own hunger for Native land to lead to widespread war. The consequences of these killings led to Bacon’s Rebellion. Brent Jr. would go on to fight in Bacon’s Rebellion, until Bacon turned on the government of Virginia, while Mason I chose to obey Governor Berkely’s orders not to fight in the rebellion. However, Mason I hired “certaine Indians” to kill or capture Native people they both viewed as enemies. While the Maryland government complained of the actions of Mason I and Brent Jr., neither faced consequences for their actions.

As for the Doeg boy, he would be held again by the Mason family later in his life.

GEORGE MASON II: RUMORS, GOVERNMENT INFLUENCE, AND THE FRONTIER:
George Mason II, born in 1660, continued to expand the Mason family’s prominence and land holdings in Virginia. He served in the House of Burgesses for Stafford County for a number of years, served as a Justice of the Peace and sheriff of Stafford County, and served in the militia reaching the rank of colonel. Mason II acquired land through inheritance, purchasing, from gifting, and from marriage to the Fowke family, another Mason family connection from England. Mason II increased his holdings of enslaved people, securing the family’s place in the plantation economy that would eventually have Mason IV owning hundreds of enslaved people.

Mason II’s interactions with the Native people expanded beyond Mason I’s. Mason II influenced government policy regarding Native people and took part in a number of Indian-relations activities for the government, investigate incidents of conflict between Natives and settlers, and carried on economic activities. But Mason II believed the frontier regions of Virginia remained open to Indian attacks and he called for consistent expansion of the militia, forming a group of rangers to police and defend the frontier borderlands. The colonies of Maryland and Virginia had their disagreements as far as religion was concerned, but often agreed to combine resources to defend their settlements from what they perceived as Indian attacks. As those in the more settled places of Virginia grew more concerned about the economy and tobacco, Mason II’s power in the militia grew as the Rangers became the frontier’s defense.

Mason II: Rumors, Land, and Native People:
Mason II followed his father Mason I in the realms of public and militia service. He also, like his father, engaged in activities that caused his suspension from his public appointments and militia duties. Mason I was punished for framing the Potomac Chief Wahangonche for murder. On April 26, 1689, Mason II received suspension from public duties for inciting rumors and revolt regarding the long-lasting fight between Catholics and Protestants that started in England and boiled over into the colonies. Mason II spread rumors that George Brent, a Catholic, conspired with Native people of the region to overthrow leaders in the colony who were Protestant. The argument centered not only religion, but also land ownership as men siding with Mason fought for individual land ownership, as opposed to proprietor ownership. The Mason family not only used violence and land claims to dispossess Native people of land, they also used lies and rumors to ensure enough land stayed available for English settlers. Mason II quickly recovered from this incident as he found himself reinstated by December 1689. During this time, Mason II, a Protestant, found himself at odds with Captain George Brent, a Catholic and cousin to Giles Brent, who both fought political battles against the other. Eventually, the families would reunite as Mason IV married George Brent’s great-granddaughter, Sarah Brent.

Mason II’s Government Duties Related to Native People:
Mason II interacted often with the Piscataway of Maryland who, much like the Doeg, found their land increasing surrounded and encroached upon by Native people. On July 15, 1697, Captain Richard Brightwell told Maryland Authorities about rumors of the Piscataway and the Seneca planning to war with the colonies. Brightwell said that a Virginia man claimed that the Seneca War Captain asked the Emperor of the Piscataway which side of the war he would be on and the Emperor replied, “it was all a case to him for one side drove him from his home and the other side has Robed him of his Corn and goods.” Whether this account was part of Mason II’s plot to incite rumors or not, it does give us insight into life of the Piscataway at the time. If this account is true, the Piscataway spoke with the pressures they felt from colonial encroachment and Native attacks. If the account was a rumor started by Virginian English and not the words of the Emperor, it is evidence that Virginian and Maryland English understood the predicament that Native tribes, like the Piscataway, were under.

In July of 1697, Mason II took part in an investigation of murders committed by Native people that combined the efforts of those in Maryland and Virginia. It was a complex case that included both colonies and Piscataway, Seneca, and Susquehannock people. The incident started on July 8, 1697 in the house of Captain George Brent where ten Native people “got in drink and were troublesome” and Brent demanded they give their weapons to him. Five obliged, but three escaped and committed the crime. As the case wore on and both the Virginian and Maryland Englishman and the Piscataway Emperor tried to make sense of the case, important aspects of the roles of both Mason II and Brent emerge.

Mason II caught Esquire Tom (Piscataway) and Choptico Robin, who Mason II allowed to find the guilty party (although Esquire Tom ended up being guilty). Tom and Robin claimed three were guilty, two of which Mason II said “I know not but both Neighboring Indians” but the other he asked the Emperor of the Piscataway to turn over to him, “whom I know.” On Tuesday, July 27, 1697, Mason II ordered “all our Justices & Militia Officers to meet me at our Court House, I have sent for the Emperor and his great men to be there.” In this incident, Mason II showed the influence he has over Maryland and Virginia Englishman and the power to assert authority. He was a man who pushed his influence on both sides of the Potomac and had frequent encounters and relationships with Native people in the region, although the Emperor of the Piscataway did not always follow Mason II’s orders.

George Brent collected testimony from Choptico Robin. He said that a group of Native people conspired to frame the Emperor of the Piscataway for murder in a complex case that included Piscataway, Seneca. Robin said a Susquehannock named Monges, who then lived with the Seneca, met with Esquire Tom, to seek revenge on the English and the Piscataway. Monges said his “Nation was Ruin’d” by both and “now they were no People, that he has still tears in his Eyes when he thought of it and not being able to doe any thing in Publique he must take his revenge in private” and asked Esq. Tom to kill English settlers and frame the Emperor of the Piscataway. Brent also interacted with local Natives. Some had cabins near his land and trusted him enough, and understood his influence enough, to tell their testimony to him. We do not know if the incident started with Brent entertaining this group of Native people or if they visited him once already drunk, but either case they felt it appropriate and safe to pay him a visit.

Mason II and the Piscataway:
As stated above, Mason II knew the Emperor of the Piscataway enough to call him to a joint meeting between colonial leaders and Native people. Sometimes the Emperor took part in Mason II’s request and other times he did not. The Piscataway left Maryland in the early 1690s, and moved into Virginia, a movement that deeply concerned Virginian English. Virginian English did not want Native people claiming more lands that could be used by White owners to enhance their wealth. Mason II asked the Emperor to leave their village in Virginia and go back to Maryland, which the Emperor refused to do. On March 8, 1692/3, Mason II pushed to limit Piscataway movement to Maryland only due to “the Apprehension or fear occasioned thereby he had dissired the Emperor of the said Indians (Piscataway) that neither his nor any other Indians should come on our Side the River till further Order from his Excelly.” However, the Executive Council did not agree with Mason II’s attempts to limit Piscataway movement as it interfered with the 1691 9th Act of the Assembly which enacted free trade with Native people and said “Indians be not restrained.” A divide is evident between those interested in expanding trade in the colonies and those interested in controlling Native movement and securing land acquisition. Much of White-Native trade took place north of Stafford County, an area that Mason II and his friends looked to expand land holdings and an area that the Potomac Rangers patrolled. Again in 1697, Mason II informs the Executive Council of “Piscataway and Aecokik Indians on this side of the Potowmek River, and their refusing to return to Maryland.” The Council tells Mason II to inform the Piscataway and Aecokik that it is not “advisable or safe for them, and take especial care that they are nowayes hurt by any of our inhabitants.” Here we see the Council taking a paternalistic tone towards the Piscataway and Aecokik, as if they cannot assess the risk and make decision that are best for their people.

Mason II visited the Piscataway for government business. In October 1699 and again in April 1700, Virginian Governor Francis Nicholson asked Mason II to investigate the condition and population count of the Piscataway. Clearly he viewed Mason II as a person appropriate for colonial needs to maintain relationships with local Native people. Mason II seems to haves sent Charles Wells to visit the Piscataway in July, August, and September of 1699, before the governor’s orders which shows an ongoing relationship with the Native nation. These visits required lodging and an interpreter. All these incidents show ongoing relationships with Native people that fluctuated between tense peacemaking and tests of imposing limitations on Native movement by Mason and acts of resistance by Native people.

Mason II continued to monitor the frontier and involved himself in Indian affairs. He acquired land on Doeg’s Neck and later willed the former land of the Doeg to his son, George Mason III.


THE DOEG BOY'S LEGACY AND THE MASON CONNECTION:
In December 1691, “the King of the Doegs” (who by most scholars believe is the boy who was taken to Mason’s house after Mason killed his family) was captured, by Mason II’s Potomac Rangers, along with five other Native men for killing a mare belonging to Robert Brent’s brother. Mason II held him and his friends as prisoners for 106 days. From testimony, it seems that the group relied on the Doeg as their leader. The Doeg Chief’s son relayed his life story after being captured by Brent Jr. and Mason I in 1675. His tale is an example of many experiences Native people faced with European colonization. About a year after his capture, he became a prisoner of “the Senecar Indians from the Nanjatica Indians” and had lived with the Iroquois until 1690 when he moved to Maryland with the Mattawomans. He then moved to Virginia to try to return to the Nanzaticos. The Doeg man was said to speak Piscataway and some English, though it is likely he also spoke Seneca having lived with them for many years. He may have lived with other Native people in two houses with their families and may have tried to live with the Piscataway.

He was released to return to the Nanzaticos as they agreed to pay his fine and guarantee his future “fidelity.” This man’s story shows colonial violence, family loss and trauma, imprisonment, migration, and adoption by other Native tribes. By the early 18th century, the Doeg no longer appear in colonial records and seem to have ceised to exist as an independent people.

Mason II would go on to continue monitoring the frontier and involving himself in Indian affairs. He acquired land on Doeg’s Neck and later willed the former land of the Doeg to his son, George Mason III.

The Mason Family, on the other hand, continued to rise in prominence. George Mason IV became an influential statesman who helped craft the U.S. Constitution and supported the continued practice of slavery. The Mason Family lived in Doeg’s Neck for almost two centuries, evening renaming the land Mason Neck. While the Mason family’s prominence declined after their support of the Confederacy in the Civil War, the Doeg’s land continues to carry the name of the family who acts of war and actions aided in the dispossession of the Doeg and ultimately the destruction of the tribe. The name Mason Neck continues to erasure of the Doeg and their history and legacy.