USA > Virginia > Virginia counties : those resulting from Virginia legislation > Part 6
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[Brown's "First Republic", p. 254 (see also p. 313), says under date prior to June 17, 1617, "It seems certain, however, that he (Argall) located definitely the then bounds of the four great 'Incorporations and Parishes of James Citty, Charles Citty, the citty of Henricus and Kiccowtan'" (afterwards Eliza- beth City County) ]
And Lieuten'ts. to be appointed the same as in England, and in a more especial manner to take care of the warr against Indians. And as in England sheriffs shall be elected to have the same power as there; and sergeants, and bailiffs where need be.
Commissioners, instead of £5 causes, may determined £10 causes and one of the council to have notice to attend and assist in each court of shire." (H. i, p. 224.)
2 Accawmack was formed in 1634 (H. i, p. 224), but the name was changed to Northampton in 1642 /3 (H. i, p. 249).
$ The Accomack records begin April 21, 1663. The exact date of the formation of the county seems to be unavailable, but we know that the Act of March 1661/2 says (H. ii, p. 122) that * . the use of the mony raised this yeare out of the two shillings per hogshead in Northampton County [the name given to the whole of the Eastern Shore in 1642/3 (H. i, p. 249) ], * * " while the Act of September 1663-in referring to this Act of 1661/2,-says (H. ii, p. 186) " ** *
* prohibits the importation of any salt in the counties of Northampton and Accomack, *
* * for the said counties, * * * ",-specifying and twice referring to both counties, which must have been in existence at that time.
Also we are indebted to the Hon. John D. Grant, Jr., Clerk of Acco- mack, for the following caption of the first court of that county, as it appears in the earliest volume of records, (D. & W., 1663-1666) :
"At a Court held in Accomack County ye 21st Aprill by his Majesty's justices of the Peace for ye said County in ye fifteenth year of the Raigne of our Sovreign Lord Charles ye Second by ye Grace of God of Great Britain, France, and Ireland,-King defender of ye faith, and in ye year of our Lord God 1663. Present, Anto. Hodgkins, Captain George Parker, Mr. Rev. Brown, Mr. West, Mr. John Wise." (See also Green's "Genesis of Counties" in Slaughter's "Brief Sketch of William Green, LL. D.", p. 101; and Wise's "Early History of the Eastern Shore of Virginia", p. 173).
4 In regard to the lost and destroyed records of Albemarle County, Wood's "History of Albemarle County in Virginia", p. 25, says:
"Allusion has been made [p. 13] to the great misfortune sustained in the loss of the early records. The gap thus occasioned reaches from 1748 to 1783, a period of thirty-five years, and one intensely interesting in the history of the country at large. The loss was caused by the wanton ravages of the British troops near the close of the Revolutionary War [Tarleton's raid of June, 1781: see p. 44]. Many references to this event are met with in the subsequent proceedings of the County Court. In 1794 it recommended
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John Key, - * as 'Commissioners to reinstate such records as had been lost or destroyed'. These persons or others were certainly appointed for this purpose, as the Court in one place ordered the transactions of the Commissioners 'for reinstating the records destroyed by the enemy', to be recorded."
This entry of the 16th of June, 1794,-obviously in accordance with the Act of Assembly of 1787 (H. xii, p. 497),-is to be found in Order Book, County Court of Albemarle County, 1793-'95, p. 177, and is as follows:
"John Key, George Divers, Thomas Garth, Thomas W. Lewis, Garland Carr, Thomas Bell, Robert Jouett, W. W. Hening and Cornelius Schenk be nominated and recommended to the Governor and Council as proper persons to be Commissioners to reinstate such Records as have been lost or destroyed."
5 On Dec. 3, 1789, the Virginia Assembly passed "An Act for the cession of ten miles square, or any lesser quantity of territory within this State, to the United States, in Congress assembled, for the permanent seat of the general government" (H. xiii, p. 43). By Act of Congress of Feb. 27, 1801 (U. S. Stats. 2, pp. 103, 115), the United States took over exclusive jurisdiction of that portion of Fairfax County, therein named Alexandria County. By Act of Congress of July 9, 1846 (U. S. Stats. 9, p. 35), the United States retro- ceded to Virginia the territory comprising the County of Alexandria, and by Act of Assembly of Mar. 13, 1847 (Acts, 1846-7, pp. 41, 48), Virginia extended her jurisdiction over the retroceded territory.
6 "Provided always, That the said new counties [Augusta and Frederick]
* * shall remain part of the county of Orange, * until it shall be made appear to the governor and council, for the time being, that there is a sufficient number of inhabitants for appointing justices of the peace, and other officers, and erecting courts therein, for the due adminis- tration of justice". (H. v, p. 79). But Augusta was "not fully organized until the 30th October, 1745". (Waddell's "Annals of Augusta County, Vir- ginia, 1902, p. 52; "Virginia Magazine of History and Biography", ii, p. 426).
West Augusta District (17 ??- 1776), says Waddell's "Annals of Augusta County, Virginia", 1902, p. 251, appears to have been evolved, rather than created by law. Its existence was first recognized by the Legislature during the session which began October 7, 1776, when an act was passed [H. ix, p. 262] "for ascertaining the boundary line between the county of Augusta and the district of West Augusta [and for dividing the said district into three dis- tinct counties]".
An examination of the "Journals of the House of Burgesses" (Virginia State Library, 1905-1915),-all of which have appeared since Waddell's "Annals" was published, -- does not throw any additional light upon the subject; but the 1828 re-print of the "Journal of the House of Delegates for 1776", p. 4,- in support of a petition of the inhabitants of the western parts of Fin- castle county",-says, "* * *; that they consider themselves, and the said lands, to be within the State of Virginia, whose Legislature they acknowledge, and to which State they conceive they justly belong; that having assembled together, after due notice, they had elected two members to represent them in this House, and hoping that they may be received as their delegates; that they are ready and willing, to the utmost of their abilities, to assist in the support of the present laudable cause, by contributing their quota of men and money; and that, in order to preserve good order, they had, as was done in West Augusta, elected a committee of 21 members, * * *".
Obviously the result of the exigencies of frontier life, but without legis- lative or legal status, the District of West Augusta was, nevertheless, repre- sented in the Convention of March, 1775 (Peyton's "Augusta County, Virginia", pp. 173, 176, 206), the "Journal" of which (1816 re-print) says, p. 4, "A Letter from the inhabitants of that part of Augusta county which lies to the west- ward of the Alleghany mountains, desiring that John Nevill and John Harvie, Esqrs. may be admitted into this Convention as their delegates, being read; upon a motion, Resolved, That the said John Nevill and John Harvie be ad- mitted as delegates for the county of Augusta", even though the same "Jour-
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nal", p. 3, shows among the delegates listed, "Thomas Lewis, Samuel McDowell and John Harvie Esqrs. for Augusta", and Lewis's "Report of the Depart- ment of Archives and History of the State of West Virginia", 1908, p. 153, shows that Nevill and Harvie were delegates from the "District of West Augusta; and also (p. 154) that John Harvie and George Rootes were the delegates from the same district in the Convention of July, 1775, while the "Journal of the Convention of May, 1776" (1816 re-print), p. 3, contains this in the list of delegates,-"West Augusta, John Harvie and Charles Simms, Esquires".
- There is every reason to believe that the District of West Augusta was represented in the House of Delegates of October, 1776, which session passed the act "for ascertaining the boundary, etc", as this bill was "committed to Mr. Treasurer, Mr. Simms, and the members for Augusta, Frederick, Dun- more, Hampshire, Botetourt and Fincastle, as can be seen by referring to pp. 31, 33, of the 1828 re-print of this "Journal",-Mr. Simms being the fast delegate from the District of West Augusta whose name we have.
On the other hand, West Augusta does not seem to have been represented in the Convention of August, 1774, although after its abolition by the formation of Monongalia, Ohio and Yohogania in 1776 (H. ix, p. 262) it appears to have been represented in the Virginia Assemblies of May, 1777, May, 1778, October, 1778, May, 1779, and October, 1779, by David Rogers as Senator from the "District of West Augusta" (see Lewis, above, pp. 103-4),-though a careful analysis will show that this "District of West Augusta" was evi- dently the senatorial district composed of Monongalia, Ohio and Yohogania Counties, simply retaining its old and popular designation, for at the session of May, 1780, we find that the "District of West Augusta" has disappeared, while the senatorial district of "Monongalia, Yohogania and Ohio" appears for the first time,-such a district not appearing at the same time as the "District of West Augusta", although there were delegates from these individual counties.
7 The title in Hening (vi, p. 381) is not the same as the title used in the "Journal of the House of Burgesses", under the date indicated.
8 The "Journal of the House of Delegates", 1861, p. 252, carries these data under an obviously incorrect date-line of "1860".
º See note 17.
10 The date of passage here given is taken from Shepherd, il, p. 54, but has not been checked against the "Journal" of the date indicated, as we have been unable to locate a copy for the session of 1796-7.
11 "which land from and after the time that it shall be laid off and bounded, shall become a county by the name of Brunswick county". (H. iv, p. 77). And certain it is that the county was not fully organized until 1732 (see also note 11, a, below),-nearly twelve years after the passage of the Act of Assembly authorizing its formation, as will be seen by the following copy of the proceedings of the first court (now destroyed: formerly in Order Book 1, page 1),-this copy having been made "about four years" prior to May, 1916, and now generously contributed for use in this connection by Mrs. J. O. James, of Petersburg, Va .:
"Meeting of the Justices for Brunswick County at the Court House of the said County II [Second] day of May in the fifth year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord George II. by the grace of God of Great Britain France and Ireland King Defender of the faith in the year of our Lord Christ M. D. CC. XXXII,
Henry Fox
A Commission from the Honorable Gooch Esq. His Majestys said Gov and Commander in Chief of the Colony and Dominion of Va Directs to Henry Fox, Henry Embry, John Wall, John Irby George Walton, Richard Burth,, Nathaniel Edwards Wm, Wyns, Charles, King & Wm. Marking,
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Assigning the Kings Justices for the County of Brunswick, Situated [dated] at Williamsburg the twenty second day of April MD. CC. XXXII. being read as usual any one of you the said Justices pursuant to Henry Fox & Henry Embry, having first taken the oaths appointed to be taken by act of Parliament instead of the Oaths of Allegiance & Supremacy. The Oaths appointed to be taken by an act of Parliament, made in the [5th] year of the Reign of his late Majesty King Geo 1st: Our Royal Father, Instituted [Intituled] An Act for the further, Security of his Majesty's Person and Government, and The. Succession of the Crown in the heirs of the late Princess Sophia, being Protestants and for extinguishing the Hopes of the pretended Prince of Wales & his open & secret abettors: & also the text together with the oaths appointed ac- cording to the act of the general assembly of the Colony of Va to be taken by the said Justices of the said County.
You the said Justices administer the same to George Walton & Wm. Marking who have also prescribed & taken their bench accordingly"
(Rest torn away)
Upon the suggestion of the late Mr. William H. Hill of Lawrenceville, Va., and through the generous co-operation. of the Hon. Robert Turnbull, of the same address, we are able to offer the following letter in regard to the escape of the records of Brunswick County, during the War between the States:
Lawrenceville, Va., Oct. 16th, 1915.
"Mr. Morgan P. Robinson, Archivist,
Virginia State Library, Richmond, Va.
Dear Sir:
Mr. W. T. Sledge, who is at present Clerk of the County, has handed me your letter of the 15th inst. for reply.
My father, Edward Randolph Turnbull, was County Clerk at the time Kautz's [1864] raid came through this section. I was a small boy at the time, about twelve or thirteen years old, and was in the office of my father when he left it just before the raiders came into our town, and he took a Masonic flag that was in the office and spread it out on the office table before he left. I helped do this. About twenty minutes after the raiders came into town a guard was sent to my father's house, who gave him the flag. After the raiders left we went back to the office and it looked as if all the records were destroyed, or a great part of them, as the floor of the office was about a foot deep in papers, but upon careful examination we found nothing was injured that was of any value. We had a case in the office that was filled with old blanks and they threw these all over the floor. They tore the leaves out of the old register of births and deaths and the leaves out of a lot of blank books, and scattered these over the floor and then put ink over the top of this stuff they had thrown on the floor; otherwise nothing was injured, and the records are still intact beginning with 1732, and down to the present time.
With kind regards, I am,
Yours very truly,
R. Turnbull."
To Mr. William Clayton Torrence, Secretary of the Valentine Museum, Richmond, Va., we are indebted for the following invaluable note which estab- lishes beyond question that the area of the initial Brunswick County was taken out of Prince George:
11," The genesis of the County of Brunswick seems heretofore to have been enveloped in a maze of tradition. The statement made by Howe in his "Virginia", p. 205, that Brunswick was erected from Surry and Isle of Wight Counties has been accepted without critical examination. The statement by Howe is in all probability based on the fact that small portions of Surry und Isle of Wight were added to Brunswick in 1732 ( Hening iv, p. 355). The following facts have been brought together to prove that Brunswick
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County (while it unquestionably received later accessions of territory from Isle of Wight and Surry Counties) was in its original formation created from part of the territory of Prince George County.
By Act of Assembly, November 1720, the counties of Spotsylvania and Brunswick were created. "Brunswick County, begins on the south side the river Roanoke, at the place where the line lately run for ascertaining the uncontroverted bounds of this colony toward North Carolina, intersects the said River Roanoke, and to be bounded by the direction of the governour with consent of council, so as to include the southern pass; which land from and after the time that it shall be laid off and bounded shall become a county by the name of Brunswick county". (Hening, iv, p: 77, et seq.) After directing the erection of public buildings and the distribution of arms, recit- ing the privileges of inhabitants and declaring the jurisdiction for Spotsyl- vania County to reside in the justices of Essex, King and Queen and King William Counties, the act further recites, "And the court of Prince George county has the same power in Brunswick:"
It will be noticed that the act does not state from what counties Spotsyl- vania and Brunswick Counties were erected but the settling of jurisdiction in the magistracy of specifically named counties is very good circumstantial evidence that Spotsylvania and Brunswick were erected from parts of the territory of the counties whose magistrates were invested with jurisdiction until a final organization should be effected. Therefore from the provisional jurisdiction given the magistracy of Prince George County in the new county of Brunswick we infer that the first territory laid off into Brunswick was taken from Prince George.
The Land Patents seem, however, to settle definitely that Brunswick County was set off from Prince George. Reference to any map of Virginia will show that the dividing line between the present Dinwiddie County (which was until 1752 a part of Prince George) and the present counties of Greens- ville (which was until 1781 a part of Brunswick) and Brunswick is the Nottoway River. Now, in the year 1720, when the act establishing Bruns- wick County was passed, there were no Dinwiddie and Greensville Counties; therefore the Nottoway River was in Prince George County, as is also well established by the following patents: in August 1720 John King was granted 97 acres in Prince George County on south side of the Nottoway River beginning at the first falls above Sturgeon Run; at the same time John Wall was granted 185 acres in Prince George County on south side Nottoway River above the mouth of Waquiyoah (at present Waqua) Creek (Register of the Land Office, Patent Book, no. 11, pp. 39, 40). All maps show that the territory to the south of Nottoway River is in either Brunswick or Greens- ville County. The Sturgeon Run (now Creek) and Waquiyoah (now Waqua) Creek are today in the county of Brunswick.
Though the act creating Brunswick County was passed in 1720 there was apparently no court held for that county until 1732, when on May 2, 1732, by commission from the governor, dated April 22, 1732, a court met and organized. No records of proceedings in Brunswick County prior to this date have ever been found.
From the evidence adduced it seems quite clearly to have been the case that in 1720 Brunswick County was created from Prince George, and that on account of the sparseness of population no court was held until May 1732, and that at that time territory was added to Brunswick from the Counties of Isle of Wight and Surry, thereby adding more tithables and by the increase in population warranting the establishment of a regular court and forever removing jurisdiction over Brunswick affairs from the hands of the Prince George magistracy.
12 The "Journal of the House of Delegates" (1857-8), p. 323, gives the date as Feb. 16, 1858, but A (1857-8), p. 108, gives the date as Feb. 13, 185S, the former, of course, being the correct one.
18 The "Act for erecting a new County on the heads of Essex, King and Queen and King William Counties; and for calling the same Caroline County" appears in Hening (iv, p. 240) by title only; but reference to Part VI, chapter vii, below, will show the full text of this Act, a copy of which was recently
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secured by the Library from the Public Record Office in London, for "use in this connection. It will be noted that Caroline County,-although authorized by an Act passed in 1727,-came into actual existence in 1728,-the former date being the general and more popular interpretation of the earliest actual existence of this county.
14 See note 62.
14, a "It took in the portion of Wallingford Parish west of the Chickahominy River (the Sandy Point region previously in James City County)"-Lyon G. Tyler.
15 Charles River County was formed in 1634 (H. i, p. 224), but the name was changed to York in 1642/3 (H. i, pp. 224, 249).
10 The "Act for dividing the County of Henrico into two distinct Counties" does not appear in Hening (1748,-vols 5 and 6) either by title or in full text; but reference to Part VI, chapter xi, below, will show the full text of this Act, a copy of which was recently secured by the Library from the Public Record Office in London, for use in this connection. It will be noted that Chesterfield County,-although authorized by an Act passed in 1749, and coming into actual existence in that year,- is usually credited to the year 1748,-this latter date being the general and more popular interpretation of the earliest actual existence of this county.
17 The enrolled bills and the Acts (1850-1, p. 21) give this order as "Botetourt, Roanoke, Giles and Monroe", while a typographical error makes Williams's "Index to Enrolled Bills" (p. 104, 1. 30), under the caption "Craig County", give the order as "Roanoke, Giles, Monroe and Botetourt".
18 The "Act for dividing the County of Orange" does not appear in Hening (1748,-vols. 5 and 6) either by title or in full text; but reference to Part VI, chapter ix, below, will show the full text of this Act, a copy of which was recently secured by the Library from the Public Record Office in London, for use in this connection. It will be noted that Culpeper County,-although authorized by an Act passed in 1748,-came into actual existence in 1749,- the former date being the general and more popular interpretation of the carliest actual existence of this county.
19 The "Act for dividing the County of Goochland" does not appear in Hening (1748,-vols. 5 and 6) either by title or in full text; but reference to Part VI, chapter viii, below, will show the full text of this Act, a copy of which was recently secured by the Library from the Public Record Office in London, for use in this connection. It will be noted that Cumberland County,-although authorized by an Act passed in 1748,-came into actual existence in 1749,-the former date being the general and more popular in- terpretation of the earliest actual existence of this county.
20 The "Journal of the House of Delegates", 1879-80, p. 376, gives this date as February 27, 1880, while A (1879-'80), p. 125, gives the date as March 3, 1880,-the former, of course, being the correct one.
21 Dunmore County was formed in 1772 (H. viii, p. 397), but the name was changed to Shenando[ah] in 1778 (H. ix, p. 424).
22 Through the generous co-operation of the Hon. H. H. Holt, Clerk of the Circuit Court of Elizabeth City County, we are able to offer the following letter in regard to the destruction of the records of that County:
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Hampton, Va., March 13th, 1916.
"Mr. Morgan P. Robinson, Archivist,
Virginia State Library, Richmond, Va.,
Dear Sir :-
In reply to your communication of the 10th, I have the honor to say that I am not sure whether the records of this office which have been lost or destroyed were so lost or destroyed during the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, or the Civil War, or during all of them. The Town of Hampton was burned during each of these wars, but whether or not the records were preserved through any of them I do not know. I do know, however, that our records are very much broken from 1634, the date of the organization of this County, up to 1861, the date of the Civil War. During this period there are only a few scattering books concerning deeds, wills and in some instances Court proceedings and bonds. The beginning of our records which are now complete is 1865, after the end of the Civil War. The others prior to that time, as I said before, are scattering and there are lapses of fifty or sixty years be- tween some of the books.
Regretting that I cannot give you definite information as to the destruction of these records, I am
Very respectfully,
H. H. Holt, Clerk.
23 See note 13.
24 See note 35.
25 Fincastle County was formed in 1772 (H. viii, p. 600), but became extinct in 1777, when its territory was divided into Kentucky, Montgomery and Washington Counties (H. ix, p. 257).
26 See note 6; but "'Owing to some delay of the population in these parts, not being able to support a sufficient number of competent men able to officer the new County', the Courts for all this section were held at Orange. C. H., until Nov. [11th], 1743, when the first Court was held for Frederick County". (Cartmell's "A History of Frederick County, Virginia", p. 18).
27 See note 17.
28 We are indebted to Doctor Lyon G. Tyler, of Williamsburg, Va., for the following data concerning the early history of Gloucester County:
"Lands in Gloucester are shown by the Land Grants previous to 1651 to have been in York. As its first delegates appeared in April, 1652 (H. i, p. 371), it must have been formed in 1651".
20 The "Act for dividing the County of Henrico" appears in Hening (iv, p. 240) by title only; but reference to Part VI, chapter vi, below, will show the full text of the Act, a copy of which was recently secured by the Library from the Public Record Office in London, for use in this connection. It will be noted that Goochland County,-although authorized by an Act passed in 1727,-came into actual existence in 1728,-the former date being the general and more popular interpretation of the earliest actual existence of this county.
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