USA > Virginia > Virginia counties : those resulting from Virginia legislation > Part 2
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Virginia Counties
GEOGRAPHICAL
As the rivers, streams, mountain barriers and natural defences in- fluenced the routes of migration into the wilderness more than anything else, it seems appropriate to base the geographical treatment of the coun- ties upon the grand geological divisions of the State,-the counties in each of these geological divisions being arranged chronologically in accordance with the plan used in Part II,-as the best manner in which to show the gradual development of population in each of these sections, and how the ever-restless settler pushed on into the wilderness, as each section of the colony was securely peopled.
Disregarding the popular interpretation of "Southside" and "Southwest" and following the geological divisions of the State in a general, though not in a technical, sense, the counties fall into the following groups:
(For map illustrating these geological divisions, see frontispiece. )
Tidewater (Coastal Plain), extending from the ocean to the fall- line, containing counties to the number of. 39 Piedmont, extending from the fall-line to the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains, containing counties to the number of .. . .. 41 Valley, extending from the crest of the Blue Ridge to the crest of the Alleghanies, containing counties to the number of ...... 17 Trans-Alleghany, extending from the crest of the Alleghanies, west- ward to the limits of Virginia jurisdiction, containing counties to the number of 75
Counties here listed 172
The popular interpretations having been disregarded, it will doubtless not seem so odd to have Hanover and Henrico classified as Tidewater Counties, and to find that Chesterfield, Grayson, Floyd and Carroll have been assigned to the Piedmont section. We believe that an examination of the geology of the State will justify this rather unusual classification. One should not omit to note that the "Southside" has fallen mostly in the geological Piedmont Plateau, while the "Southwest" is given its natural geological position as a portion of the Valley and Trans-Alleghany areas.
The maps (# 1 to 9) show the settlement of the Coastal Plain up to 1702; and # 10 shows the drift of population on through the Piedmont Plateau to the Blue Ridge Mountains up to 1729, except that Brunswick and Caroline are not indicated; while # 11 completes the occupation of the present limits of Virginia by county formations up to 1775, except that the following are not indicated : Amherst, Bedford, Botetourt, Buckingham, Char- lette, Dinwiddie, Dunmore, Fauquier, Fincastle, Halifax, Loudoun, Mecklen- burg, Pittsylvania, Prince Edward, Prince William and Sussex.
The text varies from the maps in the following instances :
(a) In names, on map # 6 (1634), York appears instead of Charles River, and Warwick appears instead of Warwick River.
(b) In dates, reference to the name of any particular county in Part I, Alphabetical Arrangement, will show why the dates in the text vary from those on the maps,-the fact that the maps ob- viously deal with the counties as of the date of the passage of the Acts authorizing them, while the text deals with them as of
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the date of actual existence, and the further fact that the full- text copies of Acts of Assembly in Part VI furnish data which were not available at the time the maps were delineated. The following variations of dates cover the whole series of maps, the black-faced dates following the text, while the dates in paren- theses are those which appear on the maps,-the figures follow- ing these dates being the numbers of the individual maps on which the variations appear,-
* Amelia, 1735 (1734),-# 11.
*Brunswick, 1732 (1720),-# 11.
** Caroline, 1728 (no date on map),-# 11.
** Chesterfield, 1749 (1748),-# 11.
** Culpeper, 1749 (1748),-# 11.
** Cumberland, 1749 (1748),-# 11.
** Goochland, 1728 (1727),-# 10, 11.
** Hanover, 1721 (1720),-# 10, 11. Isle of Wight, 1637 (1634),-# 7, 8, 9, 10, 11.
** King George, 1721 (1720),-# 10,11.
*King William, 1702 (1701),-# 9, 10,11. Lancaster, 1651 (1652),-# 7, 8, 9, 10, 11.
** Nansemond, 1642 (1637),-# 9, 10.
** Nansemond, 1642 (1640), -- # 7, 8, 11. Norfolk, 1691 (1637),-# 9, 10, 11. Northampton, 1642/3 (1634),-# 9, 10, 11.
** Prince George, 1703 (1702),-# 10, 11.
*Prince William, 1731 (1730),-# 11.
** Southampton, 1749 (1748),-# 11.
*Spotsylvania, 1721 (1720),-# 10, 11.
** Stafford, 1664 (1666),-# 8, 9, 10, 11. Warwick, 1642/3 (1634),-# 7, 8, 9, 10, 11.
York, 1642/3 (1634),-# 7, 8, 9, 10, 11.
GENEALOGICAL
It is but natural that the eight original shires (or counties: Hening i, 224) and the "original county" of Northumberland (Hening i, 337-8) should be selected as the "immigrant ancestors" of the counties which have resulted from Virginia legislation, with the result that the charts which compose this part of the BULLETIN are numbered 1 to 9,-# 9 having four supplemental charts on account of the large number of counties de- scended through this line. In preparing these "family trees", it soon de- veloped that the lines often crossed from one chart to another, as in the case of Louisa, which came through the Charles River line and appears on chart # 3, a portion of which was added to Albemarle (Hening vii, 419),- a county which came through the Henrico line and appears on chart # 5. Thus, it was obviously difficult to present clearly the data for all the coun- ties on one chart, and show lines connecting every pair of counties which are territorially related. The complexity of such a task will be recognized
* As stated, the black-faced date is based upon the date of the actual ex- istence of this county, as used in the text, while the date in parentheses is based upon the passage of the Act of Assembly forming this county, as used on the maps.
** The black-faced date is based upon the full-text copies of recently dis- covered Acts of Assembly, which were not available at the time the maps were delineated, which Acts appear in Part VI, below, and are cited in the notes under Part I.
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Virginia Counties
more clearly when one considers the fact that Appomattox, Craig, Dodd- ridge, Fayette and Logan were each initially formed from portions of four counties, one of them (Craig) having as many as five additions to its area, while twenty-six were initially formed from portions of three counties,- to one of which (Giles) there were added six territorial increments.
For these reasons, it was decided to give to each of the "immigrant ancestors" a chart of its own, and to have an individual index for this Part of the BULLETIN,-chart 9 having four supplemental charts on ac- count of the large number of counties which descend through the Northumber- land line,-one hundred and sixteen in number.
The number of counties "descended" from each of the "immigrant an- cestors" is as follows :
1634,-Accawmack, 3;
Charles City,
18;
Charles River, 9;
Elizabeth City, 7;
Henrico, 11;
James City,
3;
Warrosquyoake,
3;
Warwick River,
2;
1648,-Northumberland,
30;
Augusta,
20;
Monongalia,.
18;
Botetourt,
39;
Kentucky 9; 116;
Counties here listed 172.
The horizontal lines on the charts have no significance other than the adjustment and balance of each individual chart, except, of course, that the earliest county from each parent-county appears at the left, while the vertical lines indicate in an approximately correct degree the chronological descent,-the "scale" being uniform on each chart, but not the same for all,-and where two or more counties on any chart come into existence in the same year, they appear at the same distance below the parent-county, er .- if formed from different parent-counties,-at the same distance below the "immigrant ancestor". If they be from the same parent-county, they are in alphabetical order from left to right, as can be seen by reference to chart 9, where it appears that Essex and Richmond were formed from Rappahannock in 1692; that Berkeley and Dunmore were formed from Fred- erick in 1772; and that Warren and Clarke, formed from different parent- counties in 1836, are on the same chronological line, though not in alpha- betical order, for reasons which have been given.
In naming the parent-county in cases where portions of several counties were initially utilized to form the new county, only the name of the first county mentioned in the title of the Act has been used, as where Appo- mattox was formed from Buckingham, Prince Edward, Charlotte and Camp- bell, in which case the chart (# 5) shows only that Appomattox was formed from Buckingham; but in each of these cases an asterisk refers to a note which says, "Initially formed from portions of more than one county,-the parent-county here shown being the first one mentioned in
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the title of the Act of Assembly forming this county: for other counties, portions of which were utilized in the formation of this county, see Part I, Alphabetical Arrangement". Some such arbitrary treatment was neces- sary in order to evade the alternative of a confused tangle of crossing lines; and the plan adopted gives a direct and unconfused "line of descent" for each of the one hundred and twenty-three counties which were initially formed from but one county (which include the eight original shires; North- umberland, an "original county", which was formed from an indeterminate area called "Chickacoan"; Brunswick, which was formed from an area not named [Prince George] ; and Illinois, which was formed from territory "on the western side of the Ohio river" [Augusta], while the twenty-one which were initially formed from portions of two counties, the twenty-three which were initially formed from portions of three counties, and the five which were initially formed from portions of four counties are just as clearly set forth, with an asterisk and the corresponding note which explains that there was more than one parent-county and refers to direct data as to these additional parent-counties.
It is a source of the greatest regret to the compiler that the financial condition of the Library prevented the adoption of his suggestion that all these charts be assembled on one chart originating from "Virginia (1607)", which presentation he considered as necessary to a proper exhibition of the relativity of the counties, as is a map of the United States to the same status concerning the several States.
ORIGIN OF COUNTY NAMES
In the preparation of Part V no account has been taken of conflict- ing county traditions, nor has any attempt been made to harmonize such traditions with apparently correct interpretations, but an effort has been made to assemble, under an alphabetical arrangement of the county names, the most reliable and concise quotations bearing upon this phase of the subject.
Each quotation is immediately followed by a citation of the authority quoted, while additional references,-in alphabetical order,-furnish cor- roborative and cumulative evidence in support of the quotation actually offered.
In cases of widely varying interpretations, these several interpreta- tions have been given,-each with its own citation,-with a view to offering the student the greater scope in connection with this phase of the matter; but where the Acts of Assembly are quoted as to the origin of the name, no corroborative evidence is offered, as there is no appeal from such authority.
TEXTS OF ACTS OF ASSEMBLY (CONCERNING COUNTIES) WHICH DO NOT APPEAR IN HENING.
On April 20, 1916, Mr. Earl G. Swem, Assistant State Librarian, discovered in the Library a full-text copy of the Acts passed "at a Grand Assembly summoned the 6th Jany. 1639", which Acts appear in Hening (1, 224) only in the most abridged form,-one of which (see chap. i, below)
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defines the bounds of Isle of Wight, Upper Norfolk and Lower Norfolk counties ; while an Act [concerning the bounds of the counties of Nanse- mond and Isle of Wight], "passed at the sessions of 1643-1646", is quoted from the "Virginia Magazine of History and Biography", xxiii (July, 1915), 254-5.
The Library had before been fortunate enough to locate in the Public Record Office in London original manuscript copies of nine Acts of As- sembly (forming counties) which do not appear in Hening, copies of which are here printed in full (Chaps. ili to xi, below) for the first time, so far as we have been able to ascertain. Certain it is that those forming the following counties appear in Hening by title only, under the references cited :
Prince George, passed August 25, 1702 (Hening iii, 223) ; King George, passed November 24, 1720 (Hening iv, 95) ; Hanover, passed November 26, 1720 (Hening iv, 95) ; Goochland, passed March 6, 1727 (Hening iv, 240) ; Caroline, passed March 15, 1727 (Hening iv, 240) ;
while the following are not even mentioned by title in Hening (vols. 5 and 6) :
Culpeper, passed March 23, 1748; Cumberland, passed March 23, 1748; Southampton, passed April 30, 1749; Chesterfield, passed May 1, 1749.
The notes appended to the titles of these Acts (Chaps. iii to xi) carry the references current in the Public Record Office in London.
It is hoped that these full-text copies will be of interest to those who are preparing histories of the counties referred to.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
This bibliography in a way follows the plan of the preface as a whole, in that there is a "general" group, which contains the various official col- lections of information touching all the counties in a greater or less de- gree, while there are grouped under the name of each of the counties such additional titles as the Library contains (as of October 1, 1915) which relate to that particular county,-these county groups being based directly upon Assistant State Librarian Earl G. Swem's "Bibliography of Virginia, Part I" (Virginia State Library Bulletin, vol. 8, # 2-3-4, April-July-October, 1915), to which acknowledgment is hereby gratefully made, and to which the student is referred for fuller and more detailed data than are here given. As the Library does not contain separate histories of all the coun- ties resulting from Virginia legislation which are now in other jurisdic- tions, there have been utilized in those cases such available histories of Kentucky and West Virginia as seem to contain the desired information, although bearing the titles of state histories; and in the case of Yohogania County recourse has been had to a history of Westmoreland County in western Pennsylvania.
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One cannot but be struck by the fact that there are at least fourteen counties* in the present State of Virginia of which not a single separate title is now available in the Library; and it is hoped that this presentation of the paucity of such material will stimulate others to add to this all- too-meagre collection.
Such a compilation,-based, as it is, upon data collected from scattered sources and from various localities,-would, of course, have been an im- possibility in so short a time were it not for the liberal assistance of those who were in a position to aid. Ilence it is pleasing to make grate- ful acknowledgment to Dr. II. R. Mellwaine, State Librarian, for generous co-operation (and especially in connection with the maps), and for helpful criticisms : to Assistant State Librarian, Earl G. Swem, for his kindly encouragement, ever-constant co-operation, and unstinted suggestions of guid- ance and value: to Mr. W. W. Scott, State Law Librarian; Mr. William G. Stanard, Secretary of the Virginia Historical Society; Mr. William Clay- ton Torrence, Secretary of the Valentine Museum, and to Dr. Lyon G. Tyler, President of the College of William and Mary and Editor of the "William and Mary Quarterly", for critical examinations of Part V (Origin of County Names) and for adopted suggestions in connection therewith and to the last of these for generous aid in connection with the introduction: to Dr. Thomas L. Watson, State Geologist, for geological data : to the Hon. John W. Williams, Clerk of the House of Delegates, for correct interpretations of Acts of Assembly forming counties, and the more especially for the assistance afforded by his "Index to Enrolled Bills", without which the completeness of this BULLETIN would have been well-nigh impossible: to Mr. David I. Bushnell, jr., of the U. S. Bureau of Ethnology, for data concerning the county names of Indian origin : to the following persons and officials for extracts from and data concerning the records of their several counties, as stated in the respective notes,-Hon. W. C. Burnham, Clerk of Warwick; Hon. M. E. Bristow of Gloucester, for data concerning the records of Middlesex ; Mr. James H. Corbitt, of Nansemond ; Judge R. T. W. Duke, jr., and Mr. Allan W. Perkins, of Albemarle; Hon. C. W. Eastman, Clerk of Middlesex; Hon. John D. Grant, jr., Clerk. of Accomack; Hon. IIenry S. Green, State Historian and Archivist of West Virginia, for data concerning the Virginia counties which are now in West Virginia; Hon. George P. Haw, Commonwealth's Attorney of Hanover; Hon. George W. Herring, Clerk of Stafford; the late Mr. William H. Hill and the Hon. Robert Turnbull, of Brunswick ; Hon. H. H. Holt, Clerk of Elizabeth City ; llon. T. T. Hudgins, Clerk of York; Miss Sally Jackson, Librarian of the Kentucky State Historical Society, for data concerning the Virginia counties which are now in Kentucky; Hon. B. O. James, Secretary of the Com- monwealth, for data concerning the records of Norfolk County; Mrs. J. O. James, of Petersburg, for a copy of the proceedings of the first court of Brunswick ; Hon. A. S. Johnson, Clerk of Isle of Wight ; Hon. H. B. McLemore, Clerk of Southampton; llon. Alvah II. Martin, Clerk of Norfolk County ; Mr. Oren F. Morton, of Union, W. Va., for data concerning Virginia coun- ties which are now in West Virginia; Hon. J. B. Raines, Clerk of Rich-
* Bland, Buchanan, Carroll, Craig, Dickenson, Floyd, Giles, Greene, Lee, Nelson, Patrick, Pulaski, Rappahannock (1833) and Russell.
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mond County ; Hon. Thomas B. Robertson, of Northampton, for data con- cerning the records of Accomack; Judge Frederick W. Sims, of Louisa ; Hon. Harrison Southworth, Clerk of Essex; Hon. W. D. Temple, Clerk of Prince George; Mr. William Clayton Torrence, of Richmond City, for data concerning the origin of Brunswick; Dr. Lyon G. Tyler, of Williams- burg, for data concerning the origin of eight of the earlier counties *; Hon. A. T. Wiatt, Clerk of Gloucester; Hon. W. W. Woodward, of Elizabeth City, for data concerning the records of Middlesex: to Miss Virginia E. Jones, of the Library Staff, for general assistance, and the more especially for the preparation of the Texts (Part VI) and the Bibliography (Part VII) : and to Miss Anna M. Bolton and Miss Lucy T. Throckmorton, of the Ap- prentice Class of the Library, for verifying the references. And, by no means least, to the Hon. Armistead C. Gordon, Chairman, and the gentle- men of the Library Board, for furthering the suggestion that the data in the original report to the War Department be used as the basis for a BULLETIN of the Library.
The following abbreviations appear in the text:
A .: Acts of the General Assembly of Virginia for the session indicated. Brock : R. A. Brock's "Virginia and Virginians".
Collins : Collins's "History of Kentucky" (1878).
E (superior) : resulted from Virginia legislation, but now extinct, as shown by accompanying dates.
Green : Green's "Word Book of Virginia Folk Speech" (1912).
H. : Hening's "Statutes at Large".
H. A. I .: "Handbook of American Indians" (Bureau of Ethnology Bulletin 30 : 1907).
H. B .: "Journals of the House of Burgesses, 1619-1776 (Virginia State Library : 1905-1915).
J .: "Journal of the House" ( Burgesses or Delegates, as the case may be, as interpreted in the note on the subject in the "General" section of the Preface, p. 12).
K (superior) : resulted from Virginia legislation, but now in Kentucky. Lewis: Virgil A. Lewis's "History of West Virginia" (1889).
Long: Charles M. Long's "Virginia County Names" (1908).
S. : Shepherd's "Statutes at Large" (continuation of Hening).
U. S .: United States Geological Survey, Bulletin 258 (1905).
U. S. Stats. : "United States Statutes at Large".
W (superior) : resulted from Virginia legislation, but now in West . Virginia.
MORGAN POITIAUX ROBINSON,
Virginia State Library, Richmond, Va., July 1, 1916.
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* Charles City, Gloucester, Lancaster, Middlesex, Northumberland, Rappa- hannock, Surry, and Westmoreland.
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INTRODUCTORY:
BEING A RUNNING SKETCH, SETTING FORTH HOW SUNDRY ENGLISH- MEN,-TRANSPLANTED INTO THE WILDERNESS OF VIRGINIA AND BRING- ING WITH THEM THEIR LAWS, RELIGION, USAGES, CUSTOMS AND TRADI- TIONS,-GRADUALLY EVOLVED CERTAIN POLITICAL AND CIVIL UNITS, WHICH IN TURN BECAME THE BASES OF THE COUNTIES OF THE PRESENT DAY, AS THE POPULATION INCREASED FROM DECADE TO DECADE. IT IS BASED DIRECTLY UPON THE DETAILED ACCOUNT IN STITH'S "HISTORY OF VIRGINIA", SUPPLEMENTED BY THE SOURCES CITED IN THE BIB- LIOGRAPHY AT THE END OF THIS INTRODUCTION.
On May 13, 1607,-after a voyage of something over four months and a sojourn of several days at Cape Henry after the landing there on April 26,-the one hundred and five colonists*, who were to found the first permanent English settlement in North America, cast anchor off James- town Island, Virginia, in their three vessels,-the ship, Sarah Constantt (one hundred tons), Captain Christopher Newport; the ship, Goodspeedt (forty tons), Captain Bartholomew Gosnold; and the pinnace, Discoveryt (twenty tons), Captain John Ratcliffe.
After disembarkation (on the 14th), the first thoughts of the colonists were of gratitude for a safe passage through the terrors of the uncharted ocean, which the witch-craft imagination of the period filled with squirm- ing masses of indescribable monsters; and for this purpose, there was hung from the trees an old sail-cloth, under which the Rev. Robert Hunt led in prayer, and so the thanks of our forefathers at Jamestown first went up to God :
"the awning made of an old sail hung to three or four trees; the seats from unhewn trees; the bar of wood between two of them for a pulpit; later the old rotten tent; and then later still 'a homely thing like a barn, set with crotchetts, covered with rafts, sedge and earth', and 'yet we had daily common prayer, morning and evening, every Sunday two sermons, and every three months the holy com- munion, till our minister (the Rev. Mr. [Robert] Hunt) died; but our prayers daily, with homily on Sundays, we continued two or three years, till more preachers came' all make a graphic picture of the first religious exercises in the wilderness".#
* Arber's "Travels and Works of Captain John Smith", pp. Ixx, cxxix.
; While Purchas' "Pilgrims", ed. 1705, iv, p. 1625, gives the names as Susan Constant and Godspeed, with no name for the pinnace, to which the name "Discoverer" is often attributed, yet we find that Brown and Neill quote the original official documents which carry the names "Sarah Constant", "Goodspeed" and for the pinnace, "Discovery" (Brown's "Genesis", i, pp. 76, 85; "First Republic", p. 22; Neill's "History of the Virginia Company of London", p. 5), though it must be confessed that Neill's own text (p. 15) follows Purchas, except that he gives the name "Discovery" to the pinnace in spite of the fact that the quotation on p. 5 has it otherwise. See also Tyler's "Cradle of the Republic" (1906), pp. 8-9.
# Barton's "Virginia Colonial Decisions", i, p. 77.
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Amongst the "Instructions by way of Advice for the intended Voyage to Virginia", were these :*
"When it shall please God to send you to the coast of Virginia, you shall do your best endeavour to find out a safe port in the entrance of some navigable river, making choice of such a one as runneth farthest into the land, and if you happen to discover divers portable rivers, and amongst them any one that hath two main branches, make choice of that which bendeth most toward the sea.
When you have made choice of the river on which you mean to settle, be not hasty in landing your victuals and munitions; but first let Captain Newport discover how far that river may be found navi- gable, * *
You must observe if you can, whether the river on which you plant doth spring out of the mountains or out of lakes. If it be out of any lake, the passage to the other sea will be more easy, and [it] is like enough, that out of the same lake you shall find some spring which run[s] the contrary way towards the East India Sea ; for the great and famous rivers of Volga, Tan[a]is and Dwina have three heads near joyn[e]d; and yet one falleth into the Caspian Sea, the other into the Euxine Sea, and the third into the Paelonian Sea".
Immediately the work of home and defense were organized, and, in accordance with these instructions, Captain Newport set out from James- town on a voyage of discovery on May the 21st, accompanied by five gentle- men, t four mariners,¿ and fourteen sailors, | explored the Powhatan (James) River to the Falls (14th Street and Mayo's Bridge in the present City of Richmond) and on Whit Sunday, May the 24th (June the 3rd, N. S.) T "upon one of the little Isletts at the mouth of the falls he sett up a Crosse with the inscription 'Jacobus Rex 1607' and his owne name below" ; ff on which occasion they named the stream "King's River". Then they started the return trip to Jamestown, rather than displease Powhatan by making an exploration into the country of his enemies, the Monacans
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