In 1676, John Custis II was recognized as a wealthy and powerful man on the Eastern Shore and in Jamestown. When Nathaniel Bacon assembled a militia to overthrow the royal government at Jamestown, Governor William Berkeley fled to the safety of Arlington on Old Plantation Creek near the southern tip of the Eastern Shore. While living there at the home of John Custis, he established Arlington as the temporary capitol of the colony, conducted the day-to-day activities of the government, and raised financial support for an army to fight Bacon. When Bacon sent four ships across the Chesapeake Bay toward Old Plantation Creek in an effort to capture Berkeley and John Custis, local residents set out in their own boats to aid the government's supporters. Berkeley's forces won the day, and he eventually returned to Jamestown to find it burned to the ground. With the unexpected death of Nathaniel Bacon in October 1676, the rebellion ended, and Berkeley returned to Jamestown grateful to John Custis and the residents of the Eastern Shore who had supported him and the royal government.
