On April 13, 1813, Lieutenant Richard Claughton and two other members of the 37th regiment, Virginia militia began a journey from Northumberland County in order to deliver two British prisoners of war to General Andrew Moore in the city of Richmond. The prisoners, James Lucas and William Jones were sailors from HMS Saint Domingo, which only ten days earlier had taken part in a naval battle between British and American forces in the Chesapeake Bay.

The four day, round-trip journey from their base in Northumberland County to Richmond and back again to Northumberland County was recorded in the receipts and expense report submitted by Lt. Claughton. These receipts chronicle the out-of-pocket expenses incurred by Claughton as well as what ferry crossings the party used, where they lodged, and what provisions they purchased and who they bought them from. In all, Claughton paid $31.69 for the men's food, horse fodder, sleeping quarters, and whisky rations.

Although the military refused to compensate Claughton, the Northumberland County government eventually reimbursed him 11 months later.

Northumberland County probably was named for the English county. It was formed about 1645 from the district of Chickacoan, the early-seventeenth-century name for the region between the Potomac and the Rappahannock rivers.