Stafford, Virginia

Stafford is a census-designated place (listed as Stafford Courthouse) in and the county seat of Stafford County in the northern part of the U.S. Commonwealth of Virginia. The population of Stafford as of the 2010 United States Census was 4,320. It lies 10 mi north of Fredericksburg, approximately 40 mi south of Washington, D.C., and about 60 mi north of Richmond, the state capital. Marine Corps Base Quantico is located north of the community. Stafford Courthouse is located at the intersections of U.S. Highway 1, and Courthouse Road.

History
English sea captain Samuel Argall abducted the Pamunkey princess Pocahontas near this area on April 13, 1613, while she was residing with her Patawomeck husband, Kocoum, in an attempt to secure some English prisoners for release and ammunition held by her father. It occurred in the northeastern part of this county, from where the colonists took her to a secondary English settlement, known as Henricus or Henrico Town. The vicar Alexander Whitaker converted Pocahontas to Christianity during her captivity. He renamed her "Rebecca" at her baptism. Rebecca married English colonist John Rolfe on April 5, 1614, in Jamestown.

It was a stop on the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad in the nineteenth Century which was replaced by, CSXT.

Accokeek Furnace Archeological Site, Aquia Church, Public Quarry at Government Island, Redoubt No. 2, and Stafford Training School are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Notable people

 * Erin Cahill, actress
 * Elise Harris, Hell's Kitchen all-star contestant
 * Traci Hunter Abramson, novelist
 * Pocahontas, powhatan princess
 * George Washington, 1st President of the United states