Between Noland and Josias Clapham there was a controversy for many years over which of the two should control the very profitable ferry business over the nearby stretches of the Potomac. Both had powerful associations and friends and both were, through their own activities and characters, outstanding figures in the Loudoun of their day. Noland as the son-in-law of the most prominent of Loudoun's earliest settlers, Francis Aubrey, and through his wife in possession of part of Aubrey's great land-grants, could well have entertained a conviction that he was Aubrey's representative and as such entitled to especial consideration as well as for his own accomplishments; while, on the other hand, Clapham's inherited friendship with Lord Fairfax and his own recent military services as a lieutenant in the troublous times following Braddock's defeat and death, his early and continued ownership of extensive tracts of land, his sound personal qualities and the high esteem in which he was held by his neighbours, made him a formidable opponent and rival. He successfully fought Noland's application to the Legislature for a ferry license in 1756 and in 1757 obtained one himself for the operation of a ferry below that of Noland, "from the lands of Josias Clapham, in the County of Fairfax, over Potowmack river, to the land on either side of Monochisey creek, in the province of Maryland; the price for a man four pence & for a horse the same."[97] Though this license was afterwards suspended, Clapham appears to have operated his ferry until 1778 when the Legislature ordered it discontinued as inconvenient. As Clapham at that time was himself a member of that body, it is probable that the old rivalry between the neighbours had ended.
We learn something of yet another ferry from this same act of the Legislature passed in the war year of 1778. Therein it was also provided "that publick ferries be constantly kept at the following places and the rates for passing the same be as follows, that is to say: From the land of the earl of Tankerville, in the County of Loudoun (at present in the tenure of Christian Shimmer) across Potowmack river to the opposite shore in the state of Maryland, the price for a man eight pence, and for a horse the same: ..." The act authorized Noland to collect the same tolls at his ferry, thus permitting the doubling of the ferry charges by the act of 1757.[98]
