Mattox Creek

Mattox Creek is a tributary of the Potomac River in the Washington District of Westmoreland County, Virginia, near the colonial stagecoach stop of Oak Grove. The creek is 13.9 miles (22.4 km) long, and the lower 3 miles (5 km) of the creek is navigable. It lies between, and only minutes from, the birthplaces of George Washington and James Monroe.

Washington's great-grandfather, John Washington, came to the area in 1656 aboard an English merchant ship which ran aground in the vicinity. After the ship was refloated, Second Officer Washington decided to stay in the area as a guest of Col. Nathaniel Pope, whose daughter, Anne, he fell in love with. Lawrence Washington, grandfather of George Washington, was born in 1659 at Mattox Creek. The land along Mattox Creek on which he was born was the wedding gift to his father and mother, by Lawrence's grandfather Pope. Lawrence was the first child born in the colonies of America to a Washington family seeking a new life and fortune following the English Civil War. His father John Washington's purchase of 5,000 acres (20 km²) of land and his appointments to county and colony leadership positions were in keeping with the family's English royalist allegiances. A prominent Washington name had thus been established in the Colony of Virginia.