[1][2][3] When English first visited the town, in 1634, they learned it was named after the relatively new Tayac (Emperor) Kittamaquund, who had assumed power the previous year after killing his brother Wannas.

[6] Previously, the Piscataway's principal town (and the site of its cemetery and holy places) had been Moyaone on the Accokeek Creek near the Potomac River, which was abandoned after a fire.

Wahunsenacawh, the former paramount chieftain of the Powhatan Confederacy across the Potomac River, had died in 1618, and in his last years had convinced his subordinate tribes near Jamestown, Virginia (including the Kecoughtan and Chickahominy) to stop trading grain to the English settlers, who he wished would leave.

The Piscataway (later called the Piscataway-Conoys), who although speaking a related Algonquin tongue were not under Powhatan's control, remained willing to trade foodstuffs with the English who sailed to their village, since they sought assistance against Susquehannock and Seneca raiders.

White wrote of curing Kittamaquund and his son of an illness with a combination of a powder, holy water, and blood letting and baptizing a condemned tribesman before execution.

[citation needed] By 1675, Susquehannock displaced by English settlers had taken over Kittamaqundi's agricultural fields and built a 180 foot long palisade wall.