After leaving his brother’s home GW rode about three miles below Leedstown to Southern’s (earlier Southings) ferry on the Rappahannock River, whose owner lived on the far side of the river in Essex County. In 1755 the ferryboat was manned by two Negroes (HENING description begins William Waller Hening, ed. The Statutes at Large; Being a Collection of All the Laws of Virginia, from the First Session of the Legislature, in the Year 1619. 13 vols. 1819–23. Reprint. Charlottesville, Va., 1969. description ends , 3:22; “Narrative of George Fisher,” description begins “Narrative of George Fisher. Commencing with a Voyage from London, May, 1750, for Yorktown in Virginia and Ending in August, 1755, on His Return from Philadelphia to Williamsburg.” William and Mary Quarterly, 1st ser., 17 (1908–9): 100–139, 147–76. description ends 170). GW then rode southwest through Essex and King and Queen counties to arrive at Todd’s Bridge, where he crossed the Mattaponi River into King William County a short way upriver from Aylett’s Warehouse (later the village of Aylett, Va.). In 1760 William Todd, who lived on the King and Queen side of the bridge, also had a warehouse and an ordinary at this crossing (GRAY [1] description begins Arthur P. Gray. “Washington’s Burgess Route.” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 46 (1938): 299–315. description ends , 303). Maj. Harry Gaines (d. 1767), a local planter, was elected a burgess for King William County in 1758.