TIDEWATER FAMILIES of VIRGINIA, Page 544
WILLIAM SHORT II
William Short was the elder son of William and Elizabeth Short. 20 There is no record of where William II was born. Since his father was probably in the colony of Virginia before 1635, and would have been just over twenty years old by that date, it is likely that William was born in Virginia. While William must have lived as a child in Charles City County on the south side of the James River (later Prince George County), he evidently lived in Surry County after his father's death.

Surry County came into being as a separate entity from James City County in 1652. The early colonists looked upon the colony as a miniature London, lying on both sides of the James River, as London does upon the Thames. Since that part of London south of the Thames was in the shire of Surrey, the colonists on the Island (Jamestown) came to speak of the settlements on the south side
as "over on the Surrey sides. The name stuck and when it bcame a separate county it was called Surry, but without the "E" on the end.

Many colonists, on each side, owned land on both sides; the river was never a barrier. Surry was settled first, by those who had first established themselves on the Island. Later, by the time William Short patented land, it waas settled by those who came from England, and merely passed through Jamestown to settle in Surry. 22 William's mother, Elizabeth identified herself as being in Surry County when she was conducting her late husband's business. Since most of the Short land lay along Upper Chippokes Creek, it is hard to tell from the descriptions exactly which patent their home
was on.

By 1668, William II had begun to sell some of the land. It is evident that William I had owned more land than is indicated by the records that have survived today. When William sold the land on the western branch of Upper Chippokes Creek, he stated that he was moving. He must not have moved far, for he continued to be identified as living in Southwark Parish. It would seem that he sold off land that had originally been patented by his father, in Charles City County and the edge of Surry County.

In 1672, William repatented 1100 acres of land "above the head of Chippokes Creek about one and one-half miles up the western most branchn. The land patent date was blank, but the following patent was dated March 1671. He identified himself as "the son and heir of William Shorts. The land had been granted to Robert Moseley on January 7, 1649, and then assigned to William Short (father), on October 28, 1657. It seems that William settled on this land and it remained in the Short family. It is likely that it was a part of this patent that FRANCIS RUFFIN bought 150 years later.

William II married Mary before May 1673, when he and his wife sold 100 acres, lying in both Charles City and partly in Surry counties. 24 They evidently were not married in August 1668, when William first sold, land, as the wife of William was not required to relinquish her dower. There is no indication of her maiden name. They had only two children, WILLIAM III and Elizabeth, who survived to adulthood; they were named in William's will.