- Captain John Smith, one of the original tourists to the area, visited Essex during the winter of 1607-08, when he wrote of the "excellent, pleasant, fertile, and goodly navigable" Rappahannock Valley. On his first visit he did not linger. While he was trying to disembark near what is now the county seat of Tappahannock, the Native Americans drove him back to his ship. Rest assured, present day visitors will not meet with this hostile welcome! Using the river as their highway, people and goods moved along its shores.
- During Bacon's Rebellion in 1676, armed men gathered near Piscataway Creek and defeated Governor Berkeley's cavalrymen. Later they prevailed in the Dragon Run Swamp, but eventually English warships and troops suppressed the uprising. Frontier patrols, however, were maintained against hostile northern Indians into the early 1700's.
- In 1692, the now extinct Rappahannock County split into Essex and Richmond Counties. Still heavily influenced by British domain, the county name of Essex may have come either from the shire or county in England, or as a nod to the Duke of Essex himself (patrons are often generous!). Essex County Virginia today still maintains links with Essex County Council and the people of Chelmsford, Essex, England.
- The British Stamp Act of 1765 led directly to the American Revolution, and it was in Tappahannock that one of the first confrontations occurred.
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