Virginia, the old dominion state, was the oldest of the thirteen colonies, and also was the largest state in the United States for approximately thirty-three years, formerly occupying a vast expanse of land, but why did it include that strange peninsula floating out in the ocean? It would appear that Maryland should have a more sensible claim to that land, being directly connected to it.
There are apparently four peninsulas of Virginia: the Northern Neck, the Middle Peninsula, the Virginia Peninsula, and the Eastern Shore. For this post, we will be focusing on the Eastern Shore, which is the southern section of the Delmarva Peninsula, which is named after the states of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, which are the states present on the peninsula.
Why does Virginia have the Eastern Shore?
Again, the internet didn’t provide any information explaining why Virginia has this bottom portion of Delmarva Peninsula, and I wasn’t able to find an intuitive reasoning for the Eastern Shore’s inclusion in the state of Virginia, but I did discover that it has been with Virginia since Virginia’s colonial days.
For some insufficiently explained reason, Virginia’s borders were set roughly from the point 38º1’N, 75º14’W on the Delmarva Peninsula, almost due west to the Pocomoke River, to the mainland where it followed the Potomac River, then following a couple meridians and a parallel to the Ohio River, to the Mississippi River, then back to the Atlantic Ocean along the parallel 36º30’N. These were the borders of Virginia before Kentucky’s and West Virginia’s separation from Virginia, which I have written a post about!
It appears that during America’s colonial development, England extended the Virginia Colony-Maryland Colony border eastward onto what would become the Delmarva Peninsula, but these two colonies did not occupy this peninsula alone, the northeastern portion of the peninsula was given to and governed by Pennsylvania, but later gained independence from Pennsylvania and became the first state; the state of Delaware.
Do you have more information about Virginia’s acquisition of the Eastern Shore?
Onward American 