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REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02375 6742
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494
BULLETIN
of the Virginia State Library
(Issued quarterly
Vol. 9. JANUARY, APRIL, JULY, 1916.
Nos. 1, 2 and 3.
nos.1.2.3
Virginia Counties:
Those Resulting from Virginia Legislation.
DE PUBUING ZIERT
VIRGINIA
STALLEN CHE
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By MORGAN POITIAUX ROBINSON Archivist.
RICHMOND: DAVIS BOTTOM, SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC PRINTING.
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BATPELIN sily to Visidil 91812 sinigriV (herzeup bones!) .doijeleiged sinigriV mon goisluasH saoffT ИОСИШАЯ ХШАЕТТОЧ ИАЗЯОМ « IGHOMBOTH COMITATO 9 SIAWUS TO THROWITMUSTDE MOTTONI ETVACI No. 12. Y N GHA L.LE NS - A HIGHLAND - KING GLORCE GREENE GUSTA POTTSYLVANI/ BATH ALBEMARLE - CAROLINEL U S UND ALLEGHANY ROCKBRIDGE INELSON CINC YLANCA37 BUCKINGHAM! R NEW KENT R -- R ... BUCHANAN . ROANOKE BEDFORD J.PRINCE EDWARD NOTT DINWIDDIE WISE RUSSELL ISMYTH 7 $ ASHINGTON CARROLL HENRY GRAYSON MECKLENBURGI CREST CF. ALLESHANIES CREST OF BLUE RIDGE FALL - LINE 31 FREDERICKI CLARI) UDO WARREN F MANDOAN i .-. PRINCE WILL 2 ROCKINGHAM LP IMADISON STAFFORD - WESTMOREL RICHMOND A OCHLAND WILLIAM 1 'BOTETOURT -- CHESTERFIELD ICHVALES CIS iro y DICKENSON. 1 ASK YO FRANK CHARLOT LUNENBURG SVGSEX PRINCE CEONCE VIELE OF WWHITE WYTHE ALIFAX P ITTSYLVANIA BRUNSWICK ENVILLE SOUTHAMPTON NANSEMOND ORFORK P ES APPOMATTOX CUMBERLAND A - € NN SAND QUEEN H AMHERST IPOWHATAN - NAICO PTON M MONTGOMERY AZEWELL CAMPDE LL RAPPAHARRACH AGE 1912242 State Library Board of Virginia Armistead C. Gordon, Chairman Staunton, Va. R. T. W. Duke, Jr. Charlottesville, Va. Egbert G. Leigh, Jr. Richmond, Va. Edmund Pendleton Richmond, V.a. Lyon G. Tyler Williamsburg, Va. H. R. McILWAINE, Librarian, Ex officio Secretary of the Board. State Library Staff ) HI. R. Mellwaine Librarian Earl G. Swem Assistant Librarian J. R. C. Brown Head of Traveling Library Department Morgan P. Robinson Archivist Miss Coralie H. Johnston Reference Librarian Miss Elise T. Clark In Charge of Periodicals F. II. Moore . Cataloguer Miss Ethel I. Nolin Assistant Cataloguer Miss Rose Goode Stenographer Miss Virginia Jones . Copyist John D. Snyder Janitor S. T. Taylor .Assistant Janitor ١٠٩ 1 CONTENTS Frontispiece (map). Preface, 5 General section, Alphabetical section, 14 6 Chronological section, 14 Geographical section, 15 "Genealogical" section, 16 Origin of County Names section, 18 Texts of Acts of Assembly section, 18 Bibliographical section, 19 Acknowledgments, 20 Introductory, 23 Part I, Alphabetical Arrangement, 41 Part II, Chronological Arrangement, 89 Part III, Geographical Arrangement (with maps), 123 Part IV, "Genealogical" Arrangement (with charts and index), 161 Part V, Origin of County Names, 173 Part VI, Texts of Acts of Assembly (concerning counties) not in Hening, 197 Part VII, Bibliography, 209 General Index, 277 BULLETIN of the Virginia State Library (Issued quarterly.) No. 9. JANUARY, APRIL, JULY, 1916. Nos. 1, 2 and 3. Virginia Counties: Those Resulting from Virginia Legislation By MORGAN P. ROBINSON PREFACE The compiler of this BULLETIN will be glad to have his attention called to such errors and omissions as almost necessarily occur in a compilation of this character,-and the more especially to any sources which may have escaped him,-while the student is warned that this does not claim to be an absolutely final list of the Virginia Counties, but only such as the compiler has been able to identify. Although these pages will doubtless be of convenience to title examiners, as well as to genealogists and to students of Virginia history, there are several items of particular historical value to which attention should be called,-in the order in which they occur : FIRST: an attempt has been made to print in full the proceed- ings of the first court of each of the counties, the exact date of the actual origin of which is unavailable, as in the cases of Lancaster and Stafford (see also the captions of the first courts of Accomack and Middlesex )-these pro- ceedings giving the earliest positive dates for these coun- ties which we have been able to ascertain,-while a copy of the proceedings of the first court of Brunswick is quoted in full, not only because the original has been de- stroyed, but also because It shows that the county was not organized until 1732,-nearly twelve years after the passage of the act authorizing Its formation. 6 Bulletin Virginia State Library SECOND : there appear under several counties statements of efforts made to save their records from fire, accident, and the public enemy,-an especially interesting one narrating the part played by a masonic flag in saving the records of Brunswick, during the War between the States. THIRD : there is a set of unpublished maps, which has been in- serted in Part III, the Geographical Arrangement, which maps,-prepared under the direction of Dr. Lyon G. Tyler, of Williamsburg, Va., and delineated in the United States Geological Survey,-were a part of the Library's exhibit at the Jamestown Exposition in 1907, and now hang in the Library. FOURTH : Part VI contains the full texts of two Acts of Assembly (concerning counties), of 1639 and 1643-1646, respectively, and of nine Acts of, Assembly (forming counties), none of which appears in Hening,-five of them not even being mentioned in Hening by title. Copies of the original manuscripts of the last nine texts were recently secured by the Library from the Public Record Office in London, for use in this connection. This Preface, in addition to the foregoing, is composed of a "general" section and of seven sub-sections, which might be called "departmental" sections for want of a better term,-these "departmental" sections dealing individually with the seven parts of the text, while the "general" section deals with those phases which concern the BULLETIN as a whole; and since this compilation has been prepared for ready reference and for con- venience, it has been thought better to re-print at the beginning of each Part the section of the Preface which deals with that portion of the text individually, appending thereto a list of the abbreviations which appear in that particular Part. GENERAL From February 7 to December 31, 1914, the undersigned (before assuming the duties of Archivist of the Virginia State Library) was stationed at this Library in the capacity of "Historian for the War and Navy Depart- ments", under authority of an Act of Congress of March 2, 1913, "authoriz- ing the Collection of the Military and Naval Records of the Revolutionary War, with a view to Publication" (United States Statutes at Large, vol. 37, pt. i, 723) ; and during that tenure he made to the Director of Publi- cation of Revolutionary War Records, Washington, D. C., a report upon the "Development of Virginia Counties",-of which the alphabetical portion of this text is substantially a copy. One of the most constant sources of annoyance to title examiners and to workers in genealogy and in Virginia history is the absence of some handy reference volume which gives in concise form reliable data concern- ing the dates of formation, the territory from which formed, and the origin of the names, of the counties which have resulted from Virginia legislation,- with references to the sources upon which these data are based. With this phase of the situation in mind, application was made for per- mission to print the material of the above-mentioned report as a number . 113 ١ ١٠٫٠ 1 7 Virginia Counties of the BULLETIN of the Virginia State Library; and it is to the courtesy of Captain Hollis C. Clark, Director of Publication of Revolutionary Military Records, No. 25912 War Department Building, Washington, D. C., that the Virginia State Library owes this privilege. Permission having been obtained in May, 1915, it appeared desirable to re-arrange the same data in chronological form, in geographical form (in which part of the work are inserted eleven unpublished maps), and in what is called "genealogical" form (with an index),-to which are appended an alphabetical list of the counties, giving the source of the name of each one, and the full text of eleven Acts of Assembly (concerning counties) which do not appear in Ilening. There is also a bibliography and, of course, a general index. It is of more than ordinary interest to cite the fact that while there are at present only one hundred counties in the State of Virginia, yet at least one hundred and seventy-two counties have resulted from Virginia legislation. Naturally one asks, "What has become of the other seventy- two?" This question is answered in the following table. Of the one hundred and seventy-two counties here listed as resulting from Virginia legislation, the following are the ones which are at present extinct,* and which are in Kentucky, and are in West Virginia,-the remaining one hundred being still in Virginia : * A county is classified as "extinct", when it ceases to exist, either by a change of name or by a division of its area into new counties of different names. 8 Bulletin Virginia State Library EXTINCT,-t Accawmack, (1634-1642/3) ; Illinois, (1778-1784) ; Kentucky, (1777-1780) ; Lower Norfolk, (1637-1691) ; New Norfolk, (1636-1637) ; Rappahannock, (1656-1692) ; Upper Norfolk, (1637-1642) ; Warrosquyoake, (1634-1637) ; Warwick River, (1634-1642/3) ; Yohogania, (1776-1786),-13. ! KENTUCKY,- WEST VIRGINIA,-II Barbour, Berkeley, Charles River, (1634-1642/3) ; Dunmore, (1772-1778) ; Lincoln, Braxton, Madison, Brooke, Mason, Cabell, Fincastle, Mercer, Calhoun, (1772-1777) ; Nelson, Woodford,- -9. Clay, Doddridge, Fayette, Gilmer, Greenbrier, Hampshire, Hancock, Hardy, Harrison, Jackson, Jefferson, Kanawha, Lewis, Logan, McDowell, Marion, Marshall, Mason, Mercer, Monongalia, Monroe, Morgan, Nicholas, Ohio, Pendleton, Pleasants, Pocahontas, Preston, Putnam, Raleigh, Randolph, Ritchie, Roane, Taylor. Tucker, Tyler, Upshur, Webster, Wetzel, Wirt, Wood, Woodford,-50. " Each marked with a superior "E": ". # Each marked with a superior "K": k. || Each marked with a superior "W": w. Bourbon, Fayette, Jefferson, Boone, 9 Virginia Counties Counties listed in this BULLETIN as resulting from Virginia legislation ... 172 Counties here listed as resulting from Virginia legislation, but now extinct : Extinct (area now in Virginia) 10 Extinct (area now "on western side of the Ohio river [Illi- nois]") 1 Extinct (area now in State of Kentucky (Kentucky) ) 1 Extinct (area now in western Pennsylvania (Yohogania ) ) 1-13 Counties here listed as resulting from Virginia legislation, but now in Kentucky 9 Counties here listed as resulting from Virginia legislation, but now in West Virginia . 50- 72 Counties in Virginia, Census of 1910. 100 Each of the extinct counties shows the limiting dates of its existence in the parentheses immediately under the name, while these limiting dates are explained in the notes given under the Alphabetical Arrangement, Part I. No account is taken of the "County of Denbigh" (Denby), the only mention of which we have observed being in Hening i, 148, 179, 203, and In the "Virginia Magazine of History and Biography", ii, 68-9; iii, 177, 279; iv, 81, 83, 202; and xx, 34,-in which former its burgesses are noted, though at that time it was but a plantation : or of "James County" ("Journals of the House of Burgesses" (Virginia State Library) 1659 /60-1693, 32), which is obviously a transcriber's error for "James City County". "Chickacoan" ("Chickawane", "Chickcoun": H. i, 337, 352) is covered by Northumberland; while "West Augusta District" and "Kentucky District" find their places in the notes under Augusta and Kentucky Counties, re- spectively. In the selection of a proper caption for the date-columns, there were available the words, "create", "erect", "establish" and "form". An his- torleal study of the use of these words in the titles and the texts of the Acts of Assembly providing for new counties, and in the editors' marginal notes referring to these texts, shows that their usage was substantially as follows : - 10 Bulletin Virginia State Library 4 "formed." 7 "formed." 13 "formed"; 1 "established". 5 "formed". 2 "formed". 12 "formed". 7 "formed". 2 no note; 2 "name of new county"; 1 "formed". 2 "established"; iji .. 3 2 "dividing"; 1 "forming". Word in text cf Act. Word in marginal note. Hening i .. 23 23 no title. 23 no text. 23 no note. 3 no text. 3 no note. iii .. 7 7 "dividing" .* 7 "called". 7 "formed". iv. 9 5 "dividing"; 4 "called"; 7 "formed"; 1 "established"; 2 "erected"; 1 no note. . V 6 4 "dividing"; 4 "erected"; 4 "formed"; 2 "erecting". 1 "shall be";t 2 no note. 1 "made". Not in Hening: see Part V 4 4 "dividing". 3 "shall be"; 4 no note. 6 "formed". vi. 6 6 "dividing". 5 "shall be"; 1 "be". 4 "shall be called". vii. 4 4 "dividing". viii. . 7 7 "dividing". 1 "shall be established". ix .. 14 9 "dividing"; 4 "forming"; 1 "establishing". x .. 5 3 "establishing"; 2 "dividing". xi. . 2 2 2 "dividing". xii. .. 12 10 "dividing"; 2 "forming". 3 "shall form";} 1 "called". xiii. 7 6 "dividing"; 5 "shall form"; 1 "forming". 2 "shall be". Shepherd ii. . 5 4 "dividing"; 1 "forming". 2 "shall form"; 1 "called". 1 "called". ii. .. 3 3 no title. "erecting". 2 "become"; 1 "made". 1 "erected". 6 "shall be"; 13 "shall be"; 1 "shall be established". 3 "shall be"; 2 "called". 2 "called". 8 "shall be"; ! 5 "shall form". Acts forming Counties. Word in title of Act. Acts of Assembly, 1808-9 to 1829-0. 10 5 "forming"; 4 "dividing": 10 "shall form". 5 "formed"; 3 "named"; 1 "called"; 1 "denominated". 11 "create". 1830-1 to 1836-7. 11 10 "forming"; 1 "creating". 11 "shall form". 13 "shall form". 13 "create". 1838 to 1845-6. 13 12 "establishing"; 1 "forming". 1846-7 to 1855-6. . 15 8 "establishing"; 5 "forming"; 1 "erecting"; 1 "constitute": 4 "boundaries of". 1 "formed". 1857-8 to 1879-0. .. . 6 4 "forming"; 2 "establishing". 4 "established". 172 172 172 172 * "dividing" [the parent county]. + "shall be" [one distinct county]. # "shall form" [one distinct county]. . A re-capitulation, omitting the twenty-six counties in Hening i and ii, shows the following situation: Acts forming Counties. Word in title of Act. Word in text of Act. Word in marginal note. Hening iii to Acts of Assembly, 1857-8 to 1879-0. 146 76 "dividing"; 34 "forming"; 27 "establishing". - 18 "called"; 7 "erected"; 10 "boundaries of". 9 no note; 4 "established"; 7 "erecting"; 5 "established"; 4 "shall be called" 2 "become"; 3 "named"; 2 "called"; 2 "name of new county"; 1 "denominated". 146 146 146 146 11 + Virginia Counties : 1 "extend jurisdiction". 1 "called" 2 "shall form"; 6 "boundaries of". 63 "shall form"; 41 "shall be"; 81 "formed"; 34 "created"; 1 "creating"; 1 "extend jurisdiction". 2 "made"; 2 "shall be established"; 1 "be"; 1 "constitute". 1 "establishing". 10 "create"; . 12 "shall form": 1 "established"; 12 Bulletin Virginia State Library Disregarding the seventy-six instances of the use of the word "dividing" in the title of the Acts, since the word refers only to the parent-county (as the "Act for dividing the County of Goochland" (H. v, 266), resulted in the formation of Albemarle County, although the name of the child-county does not appear in the title of the Act), we find that the word "forming" first appeared in 1778 (H. ix, 420) and appears with approximate uniformity until the early part of 1860 (A (1859-0), 151). In the texts of the Acts, it seems that the phrase "shall form" [one dis- tinct county] is in a large majority, while the next closest competitor is almost a synonym,-"shall be" [one distinct county]. In the marginal notes, it appears that Hening and Shepherd almost uni- formly used the word "form", while the editors of the following Acts of Assembly were even more uniform in the use of the word "create", which first appeared in 1831 (A (1830-1), 134),-though it seems to have dis- appeared after 1856. These facts, in addition to the further fact that it seems to be less tech- nical than the other words,-although one of the others seems to be ety- mologically more in harmony with the English Common and Statute Law,- have resulted in the choice of the word "form" as the caption for the date- columns. In all the arrangements, the date of the origin of the county, as given in black-faced type, is the year when the county came into actual existence,- when it became a place of record,-reference to the text of the Act giving the month and the day. The date of the final passage of the Act forming the county follows each of these dates in parentheses, the letter "J"* in these parentheses referring to the "Journal of the House" (Burgesses, or Delegates, as the case may be) of the date indicated: nor does this close discrimination seem unwarranted, when one recalls the fact that forty-sevent of the counties came into actual existence during the year following the passage of the Acts authorizing the formation of these counties, while Augusta * This "J", from 1619 to 1775, refers to the "Journals of the House of Bur- gesses", published by the Virginia State Library, 1905-1915; from 1776 to 1790, to the 1828 re-prints of the Journals of those sessions, and from 1791 to 1879-80, to the Journals as printed after the close of each session of the General Assembly. + Amelia, Hanover, Nelson (1808), Bath, Hardy, Nottoway, Bedford, Henry, Patrick, Botetourt, Kanawha, Pendleton, Bourbon, Kentucky, Pittsylvania, Brooke, King George, Prince Edward, Campbell, King William, Prince George, Caroline, Lee, Prince William, Charlotte, Madison (1786), Randolph, Culpeper, Madison (1793), Spotsylvania, Cumberland, Mason (1789), Sussex, Franklin, Mathews, Tazewell, Goochland, Mecklenburg, Washington, Grayson, Mercer (1786), Woodford, Greensville, Montgomery, Wythe. Hampshire, Nelson (1875), . . : 11. ٠٠ ١٠ 13 Virginia Counties and Frederick, authorized in 1738, were not organized until 1745 and 1743 respectively ; and Brunswick, although authorized in 1720, was not finally organized until 1732,-nearly twelve years later. Thus, following the precedents of IIening (from p. 412 of vol. xii), Shepherd and the Acts of Assembly, the date of the signing of the bill has been disregarded as perfunctory and formal routine: and so it is that the in- vestigator has the year from which he can expect to find records at any county seat,-fire, accident and the public enemy excepted,-while those tracing the course of legislation are afforded a starting-point. Each county is set forth as formed from some named area, while the authority on which the statement is based is to be found in the column . to the extreme right; and, if any more territory has been added to the county, the addition is noted and the source of information given. If ref- erences intervene, or have no statements for which they seem to stand sponsor, it shows that some portion of that county has been cut off and added to another county, under which other county will be found a statement as to the item added, with the same authority cited; or the reference may be to an Act which defines, establishes, adjusts, confirms, marks, or otherwise involves the boundaries, and therefore the tertorial area of the county under consideration,-in which latter case, the same reference, of course, appears under all the counties affected by this Act relating to the boundaries. All references under each county are in chronological order. Thus, Albemarle is formed from Goochland (H. v, 266) ; then comes the reference, H. vi, 441, which takes "parts of Albemarle and Lunenburg" and adds them to Bedford, and this same reference, of course, appears under Lunenburg in its proper chronological order while Bedford shows the addi- tions and the reference; next we see that a "part of Louisa" is added to Albemarle by II. vii, 419, with the same reference appearing in its proper sequence under Louisa, from which the area was taken. In this way there are under each county references to every piece of legislation which we have been able to locate, which in any wise involves the territorial area of that county, with the result that the references under euch county are as near as may be a complete compendium of references to the legislation upon which that county bases its claim to its present metes and bounds. All dates are those of the English calendar of the date cited, unless otherwise stated; and an attempt has been made to preserve the then current orthography, but no effort has been made to set forth the promoting causes which resulted in the formation of the various counties, for the reason that the necessary data are not at present available. Where a county has been initially formed from parts of several different counties, the order in which the names of the parent-counties are mentioned in the title of the Act has been most scrupulously preserved throughout the BULLETIN, for the reasons set forth in the "Genealogical" portion of this P'reface. The notes are serial throughout the whole of the BULLETIN, (except in several cases, where an asterisk seems to simplify matters), but are as- sembled in full-text form at the end of Part I, the Alphabetical Arrange- ment; while under each recurring appearance of the same county a note - د1 ٠١٠٠ .1 14 Bulletin Virginia State Library refers back to the full-text note under the Alphabetical Arrangement. Thus there is but one presentation of the text of the notes, some of which are quite lengthy and cumbersome, as is the case with those under Accomack, Brunswick, Augusta and Kentucky. And we count ourselves particularly lucky in that we have secured for these notes reliable statements setting forth the efforts which have been made,-especially during the War between the States,-to save the records of Albemarle, Brunswick, Elizabeth City, Han- over, Henrico, Louisa and Middlesex; but have been no little disappointed that we were unable to secure similar data concerning such efforts as may have been made in other counties. ALPHABETICAL The Alphabetical Arrangement needs no comment other than the state- ment that in the several instances in which there are two counties of the same name (Accomack, Fayette, Jefferson, Madison, Mason, Mercer, Nelson and Rappahannock) the arrangement is chronological under __ each of these pairs of names. Of course, no two counties of the same name existed in Virginia at the same time, as will be seen below : Accawmack of 1634 having been changed to Northampton in 1642/3, Accomack of the present day was formed in 1663. Rappahannock of 1656 having become extinct in 1692, when its terri- tory was formed into Essex and Richmond, Rappahannock of the present day was formed in 1833. Fayette of 1780, Jefferson of 1780, Nelson of 1785, Madison of 1786, Mercer of 1786, and Mason of 1789, all passed into the new State, when Kentucky was admitted to the Union in 1792. Virginia, ever-mindful of her ideals, again formed Madison of 1793, Jefferson of 1801, Mason of 1804, Nelson of 1808, Fayette of 1831, and Mercer of 1837; but the formation of West Virginia in 1863 carried all of these out of the jurisdiction of Virginia, except Madison and Nelson,-and thus it happens that, after twice honoring Jefferson, La Fayette, Mason and Mercer in this manner, the Old Dominion has at the present time no county of one of these names within her borders. CHRONOLOGICAL In the Chronological Arrangement, the date of the operation of the Act of Assembly has, of course, been the. guide, but when several Acts became operative in the same year, the dates of the final passage of these Acts decide the chronology; while resort has been had to alphabetizing the names where two or more counties came into actual. existence in the same year as the result of Acts finally passed on the same date. Striking illustrations of this appear under the years 1777, 1778 and 1786. Kentucky, Montgomery and Washington came into actual existence in 1777 as the result of an Act passed Dec. 7, 1776. Hence these counties appear under this date in the order named. Fluvanna and Powhatan came into actual existence in 1777 as the result of two acts finally passed on June 3, 1777, and therefore appear in alphabetical order under the latter date. Ilenry, however, is the first of those listed under 1777, because it came into actual existence that year, and the Act forming it was passed earlier than the other three. Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.