Forsythe Family Network

Straddling the fall line, Spotsylvania County was formed from Essex, King William, and King and Queen Counties in 1720. It was named for Alexander Spotswood, Colonial governor of Virginia from 1710 to 1722. Blacks first arrived in isolated and sparsely populated Spotsylvania County along with white settlers in the early 1700's. Through the years before the Civil War, as slaves and occasionally as free men and women, they were an important force in area development. Occupations included labor as farm and plantation workers, as domestic servants, and as artisans, such as blacksmiths, carpenters, coopers, and fine needleworkers. They also worked in the iron industries, mining, construction, shipping on theserved as local units of government and religious and community organizations. In colonial Virginia, parishes and their boundaries were established (and altered) by acts of the General Assembly Rappahannock River, and in their own businesses The Civil War battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, the Wilderness, and Spotsylvania were fought in this county. The county seat is Spotsylvania.

Parishes served as local units of government, religious and community organizations. In colonial Virginia, parishes and their boundaries were established (and altered) by acts of the General Assembly. St. Mark's Parish has served Spotsylvania, Orange, and Culpeper counties. Little Fork Church, which had originally been a chapel of ease,(a chapel of ease is a church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently) became the parish church.