In the language of the Indians, Onancock means "Foggy Place," and there was an Indian town near here when the white men first ventured into the area. In 1680 the Virginia Assembly authorized the creation of a port town in each county, and in Accomack County the site chosen was the small peninsula at the head of Onancock Creek where four of five Indian families lived. Daniel Jenifer was paid 540 pounds of tobacco for taking out the towne," and Port Scarburgh was born, named for Charles Scarbourgh from whom the land was purchased. In time the new Port Scarburgh became known as Onancock, a flourishing town now for more than 300 years.

Onancock Towne developed quickly into an important community. From 1680 until 1693 the county court was located here, and there was an Anglican church. In the early years Quakers lived in Onancock, and the town was home to the Presbyterian pioneer Francis Makemie. But no permanent church was established until Francis Asbury, the Methodist bishop, preached here in 1788 and a Methodist congregation was founded.

In November 1782, a full year after the surrender of the British at Yorktown, a Marylander named Zedekiah Whaley put into Onancock seeking aid against the Tory ships that were still marauding up and down the Chesapeake, and which had just been sighted at the entrance of Onancock Creek. Colonel John Cropper and 25 of this men from the Accomack militia volunteered to lend a hand, and they set sail from Onancock on board Whaley's fleet of barges. On November 30, 1782, the very day that the articles of peace were signed in Europe, the "Battle of the Barges" took place in Dedge's Straits above Smith Island in Maryland. At the first sign of battle all the American barges fled except Whaley's "Protector," which there upon bore the brunt of the battle. When an ammunition chest aboard the "Protector" exploded, members of the crew who were not killed outright were thrown overboard. or jumped into the water with clothes ablaze. The British easily had the better of the engagement, and among those who died was Commodore Whaley.  Cropper, though defeated, arranged an exchange of prisoners, and the Americans put back into to Anechoic with 25 drowned or killed, 29 wounded, and only 11 unscathed. Whaley was buried in Onancock, and in Maryland an official government investigation of the cowardice of the other American commanders was launched.

By the beginning of the 19th century Onancock was outgrowing its original boundaries and pushing eastward. In 1826 a post office was established, and in 1832 a ferry to Norfolk. Many homes in town today date from the first half of the 1800's. When the Union army occupied the peninsula during the Civil War, they singled out Onancock as the place that had "concocted more mischief....in the way of blockade running and disloyalty" than any other community on the Shore.

After the Civil War, Onancock became one of the major stops for the colorful steamboats that ferried both  passengers and freight up and down the Chesapeake. This direct link with the larger cities of Virginia and Maryland boosted the town's prosperity and growth, and much of the town dates from this period. The town was incorporated in 1882. Two years later the railroad lines missed Onancock by about two miles, but the town, which lies four miles inland from the bay, benefited from its presence and became even more important as a commercial center and port.

With a population of 1,455, Onancock is today the second largest community on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. Though almost all commerce is by land on the Shore today, the old wharf (obviously remodeled) at Onancock is still in use, more than three centuries after its founding.

The sign says:   Two miles west is Onancock, founded in 1680.  A courthouse was then built and used for a few years.  Militia barracks were there in the Revolution.  From Onancock, Colonel John Cropper went to the aid of Commodore Whaley in the last naval action of the Revolution, November 30, 1782.  Nearby is Onley, home of Henry A. Wise, Govenor of Virginia 1856-60.

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