I don't believe that there is much info on Belhaven as distinct from Alexandria. The two names were apparently rival alternatives at the time of the town's founding. Alexandria obviously won out, and it was probably proposed to curry favor with the Alexander family, which owned most of the land upon which the town was founded. The Alexanders did not support the establishment of the town, but the House of Burgesses chartered the town nonetheless. Perhaps because of this or because of the sympathies of the local Scottish element, the Belhaven name persisted for at least a few years. "Belhaven" was probably the preference of the Scottish portion of the town's founders. It was apparently bestowed in honor of John Lord Hamilton, the Baron of Belhaven, a Scottish critic of the 1707 Act of Union and of the prerogatives of the Church of England (Alexandria was founded only four years after "the Forty-Five," Jacobite Rebellion or Stuart Rising; there were still frictions between Scots and English). The name lives on, in altered form, as Belle Haven, a mid 20th-century subdivision just south of Alexandria. The Scottish merchants petitioned the House of Burgesses to have the name of the town changed to Belhaven and were denied in 1752. The Belhaven name appears, of course, on George Washington's "Plan of Alexandria, now Belhaven" of 1749 and on the Fry and Jefferson map of 1750-1755. There is little evidence that the name persisted beyond this time. The name does appear on the John Henry 1770 Virginia counties map, but this is probably due to the influence of the popular Fry and Jefferson map. Tim Dennee On 22 Jul 2001 16:41:50 -0600 [email protected] writes: > > Looking for any published information on Belhaven or Belhaven on the > Potomac prior to becoming Alexandria, VA. Any help is appreciated. > Thanks! > > > ==== VAFAIRFA Mailing List ==== > E-mail List Mom at mailto:[email protected] > http://www.rootsweb.com/~vafairfa/ > > ============================== > Ancestry.com Genealogical Databases > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/rwlist2.asp > Search over 2500 databases with one easy query! >