Wicocomico

The Wicocomico lived near the Little Wicomico River, in the peninsula between the Potomac and Rappahannock. John Smith encountered them in 1608 and recorded a village near the Potomac's mouth. In the 1650s the colonial court ordered the Wicocomico and neighbouring Chicacoan to combine and move to land near Dividing Creek. Colonial officials appointed a leader, Machywap, but in 1659 the community replaced him with Pekwem. Encroachment led to repeated disputes in colonial courts, and the land retained by the community diminished over the following decades.