A new county was set out on 2 Nov. 1720 and named in honor of the duchy of Brunswick-Lünenburg, one of the possessions of George I, who had recently (1714) ascended to the throne of England. Brunswick County included the present Virginia counties of Brunswick, Charlotte, Halifax, Lunenburg, Mecklenburg, a small portion of western Greensville, the southwestern corner of Nottoway, the majority of Prince Edward, the southern portion of Appomattox, almost all of Campbell, and the land to the west with an indeterminate western boundary.
Like many of the frontier counties, at the time of its creation, Brunswick did not possess sufficient population and tithables to support its own county court administration. Therefore, it was not until 2 May 1732 that the first court was held in the county.
In 1735 Amelia County was formed from Prince George County, and Brunswick contributed to the new county land north of the Great Nottoway River and the ridges creating the watershed between Roanoke and Appomattox rivers. When Lunenburg County was cut off in 1745 the western line for Brunswick became fixed. In 1781 the formation of Greensville County fixed Brunswick's eastern line. The final border adjustment came in 1787 when a triangular portion south of Meherrin River was transferred to Greensville County.
Brunswick's population grew rapidly as tobacco farmers from eastern counties pushed into the virgin soils of the new county and began the tobacco planting cycle anew.
The court records for the county are virtually intact and, although the courthouse was the object of a Union raid in 1864, the vandalism of the building did not destroy the records themselves.
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