Mason Locke Weems

05/05/2026

https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/parson-weems

Written a year after Washington's death, Weems' biography served as the point of origin for many long-held myths about Washington, in particular the famous cherry tree story.

05/05/2026

https://npg.si.edu/blog/truth-lies-parson-weems-and-walt-disney

Mason Locke Weems / Unidentified artist / Oil on canvas, c.1810 / National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of the Weems family It is a fun, though misleading byproduct of the way history is written that legends and myths appear. Did Lady Godiva ride naked on horseback through the str...

05/05/2026

https://allthingsliberty.com/2013/09/history-parson-weems/

Mason Locke Weems, better known as Parson Weems, considered himself an historian. But, he was far more interested in pleasing people than he was with writing history. His exaggerations and fabrications of fact led one commentator to remark that Weems had “a touch of the confidence man in him.” W...

02/22/2023

Love.

02/20/2023

Happy to add my stories to all this history! https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/2296/text

We're happy to share the good news! After more than 20 years of work, the long-running effort to designate the Northern Neck as a National Heritage Area is now law.

By officially designating the region as a National Heritage Area (NHA), the Northern Neck National Heritage Area Act will deliver critical federal dollars, encourage public-private partnerships, and assign a specific entity – the Northern Neck Tourism Commission – to help protect the Northern Neck’s natural, cultural, scenic, and recreational resources.

To learn more, please visit: https://bit.ly/3vVj1ZZ

01/08/2023

My biography of Washington remains a classic: “A History of the Life and Death, Virtues and Exploits of General George Washington”

CHAPTER I
Ow! as along the stream of time thy name Expanded flies, and gathers all its fame;
May then these lines to future days descend, And prove thy country's good thine only end!

" AH, gentlemen!"-exclaimed Bonaparte--'twas just as he was about to embark for Egypt-some young Americans happening at Toulon, and anxious to see the mighty Corsican, had obtained the honour of an introduction to him. Scarcely were past the customary salutations, when he eagerly asked, " how fares your countryman, the great Washington?"
"He was very well," replied the youths, brightening at the thought, that they were the countrymen of Washington; "he was very well, general, when we left America."_"Ah, gentlemen!" rejoined he, " Washington can never be otherwise than well.--The measure of his fame is full. Posterity will talk of him with reverence as the founder of a great empire, when my name shall be lost in the vortex of Revolutions!"

https://books.google.com/books?id=kQEJhFWnyLUC&pg=PA5&source=kp_read_button&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&gboemv=1

George Washington Birthplace National Monument makes this shortlist of charm! https://www.worldatlas.com/historic-sites/10-most-charming-historic-sites-in-virginia.html

12/21/2022

These tours sound terrific!

Throughout this past year, our staff experts who live in the Northern Neck authored guides and itineraries for visiting the Northern Neck, including touring by car, food adventures, waterways and more. We compiled them for you to view and share in one place. These guides are written in lively and informative ways to ensure fun for all!

They include:

What is the Northern Neck? by Alice French
Food of the Northern Neck by Juliana Grassia
Architecture Adventures in the Northern Neck Parts I and II by Alice French
Natural Northern Neck by Juliana Grassia
History of the Waterways by Alice French

Click here to access the guides: http://bit.ly/3j0UEGO

Northern Neck Tourism
Virginia is for Lovers

12/20/2022

Really cool. We need more of this kind of 7-generation stewardship and less blue crab and menhaden aquatic strip-mining.

The Rappahannock Tribe in the : https://www.audubon.org/magazine/winter-2022/how-tribes-are-reclaiming-and-protecting-their https://www.rappahannocktribe.org/return-to-the-river/

12/20/2022

Those belching beasts of smoke and cinder are quite lovely at rest. Who would have thought that generations later one would bear my name and give rise to a wharf that became the village of Weems, Virginia.

Excellent early view of Kinsale Wharf in Westmoreland County, Virginia.

Postcard image from the Efford Family Collection, Northern Neck of Virginia Historical Society.

11/18/2022

Some great pics of those days o’steam!

Coan Wharf, Northumberland County, Virginia, ca. 1910.