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Virginia Major General Abraham Wood sent out
Thomas Batts and Robert Fallam in 1671 to discover something
of the west for King Charles II and for trade. Those emissaries
proclaimed King Charles at New or Wood River, but dreading the
Salt Indians of the misty beyond, they returned to the Appomattox
River, having contributed little to knowledge. At the Totero
town, on the upper Roanoke, near the mountains, they learned
that Captain William Byrd of James River Falls was in the neighborhood
with a company of explorers. Captain Byrd and General Wood were
in 1671 competitors in the Indian Trade to the south. In 1671, an expedition led by Thomas Batts and Robert Fallam visited the Saponi town near Charlotte Court House, and then a second Saponi village on Long Island at Pittsylvania's northeastern boundary. The same group moved on to a Tutelo town at Radford. Click Here to read about the 1671 expedition of Thomas Batts and Robert Fallam. Thomas Batts (Batt, Batte) was in Virginia as early as 1667. He was a son of John Batts and grandson of Robert Batts, fellow and vicarmaster of University College, Oxford. With his brother Henry, to whom Beverly ascribes the leadership of the present expedition, he patented five thousand, eight hundred, seventy eight acres of land in the Appomatox Valley, August 29, 1668. Henry Batts was burgess for Charles City County in 1691. Thomas Batts died in 1698, and his will is on record in Henrico County. |
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