public highways were built at the cost of the counties in which they were situated, and were maintained by means of the county levies, the justices of the peace prescribing the amount of tobacco needed to keep them in repair.[1] In some instances these structures seem to have been erected at the expense of private individuals. In 1648, Oliver Segar was presented by the minister and church wardens of the new Pocosan parish, on the ground that in fishing on the Sabbath he had disregarded the sacred character of the day, and to expiate this offence against good morals they required him to build a bridge over a swamp lying between the plantations of Lieutenant William Would and Captain Christopher Calthorpe, and crossed by a public road. When the structure to be erected was situated partly in one county and partly in another, an order was obtained from the Governor and Council, by the authority of which the court of each county appointed commissioners, who were to assemble at a designated place and confer about the work to be executed.[2]
There is evidence that public ferries were established in Virginia as early as 1640. A petition was offered in that year by Henry Hawley, in which he prayed for the right to keep a ferry at the mouth of Southampton River, and the request was granted; he received the concession for life under a patent stamped with the seal of the Colony, on condition that he should impose only a penny for the transportation of each passenger.[3] Free ferries were formally established in 1641-43 by an Act of Assembly, which required a levy to be made by each county for the remuneration of every ferryman engaged in the public service in its boundaries. Where a ferry united two
