[3] Linguistic evidence indicates that these three groups share a common ancestry and likely all spoke the same Iroquoian language or similar dialects.

Virginia took their side in the quarrel, but in August 1707 Carolinian official Thomas Pollock, leading a troop of 60 men, attacked Meherrin Town, destroying crops, homes, and all belongings; his forces seized 36 men, depriving them of water for two days.

Col. Edmond Jennings, Virginia Council President, wrote a harsh reprimand to leaders of Carolina.

In 1713, they delivered two of their paramount chief’s sons as hostages to be kept by the colonists at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia to ensure that they would keep the peace.

[citation needed] In 1717 the Meherrin were given a reservation along the western shore of lower Chowanoc River, not far from its mouth in Albemarle Sound, near modern Colerain (Bertie County, N.C.).

The North Carolina authorities reviewed petitions from both the Meherrin and British colonists squatting on their land.

[12] In 1731, fewer than 20 surviving Meherrin families lived east of the Chowan River in North Carolina.

[10] By 1761, an estimated 20 Meherrin fighting men and their families lived along the Roanoke River, along with Saponi, Tuscarora, and Machapunga people.