Sedimentological analysis of Holocene marsh cores collected from the Rappahannock estuary in Virginia (tributary to Chesapeake Bay) records major climate and anthropogenic changes in the mid-Atlantic region. Grain-size data demonstrates a fining upward trend from coarse silt to clay with a marked increase in grain-size between 2.4 and 1.4 m. A unit of coarse material marks the uppermost section from 0.4 to 0.0 m. Magnetic susceptibility measurements decrease upward with the exception of a strong peak at 0.4 m depth. Fourteen peaks in magnetic susceptibility characterize the interval from 5.5 to 2.5 m depth. Loss on ignition measurements show organic matter content is low (~10%) from the base to 2.5 m, high (~75%) from 2.3 to 2.0 m, then low (~5%) again from 1.4 to the top of the core. This physical and geochemical data indicate significant environmental change. Three environmental facies are recognized: (1) organic-matter poor olive-grey mud representative of the central estuary corresponding from 5.5 to 2.5 m depth, (2) organic-matter rich peat associated with fine-muds and low magnetic susceptibility representative of the low to high marsh corresponding to the interval from 2.5 to 1.4 m, and (3) a coarsening-upward sandy-silt with anomalously high magnetic susceptibility which probably records an anthropogenically induced tidal flat/sandbar above1.4 m depth. The facies successions identified in this core record increasing eutrophication upcore that corresponds to the middle-Holocene onset of peat accumulation. The uppermost sandy unit records an increased sedimentation rates in the Rappahannock River valley which is likely a response to post colonial deforestation and agricultural development in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.