Northampton County Virginia History and Genealogy

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Northampton County Virginia

The earliest settlement of the region known as the Eastern Shore dates from 1614, when twenty men were sent to Smith's Island (sic) to make salt for the colony. In the reorganization of the colony in 1634, the Eastern Shore began an original shire known as "Accawmak". That name continued from 1632 to 1642; from 1642 to 1663 it was designated Northampton County, named for an English county; in 1663 the Eastern Shore was divided into Accomack and Northampton counties and continued thus to the present, except for the three-year period of 1670-1673. During that time these two counties were united under the name Northampton County, with Accomack being called Upper Northampton. The records for the period 1632-63 are in the custody of the clerk of Northampton County. Northampton's records, which begin in 1633 and thus predate the county itself, comprise the oldest continuous group of county records in English America. There have been no courthouse fires or other destruction of the clerk's records.

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NORTHAMPTON COUNTY, VA 1810 "SUBSTITUTE CENSUS" [Abstracts from the 1810 Personal Property Tax List] by John Vogt, 2011, 5 1/2"x 8 1/2" format, viii, 17 pages, map.
Northampton is one of eighteen Virginia counties for which the 1810 census is lost. In August, 1814 British troops occupied Washington, DC and public buildings were put to the torch. In the destruction that followed, numerous early records of the government were lost, including all of Virginia's 1790 and 1800 census reports, as well as eighteen county lists for the state's most recent [1810] federal census. Although two "fair copies" of each county's census had been left in the counties for public display, these were ephemeral lists and not preserved, and by 1814 they too had been mislaid, lost, or destroyed. Hence, the closest document available we have to reconstruct a partial image of the missing county lists is the personal property tax list.
According to research notes by Minor T. Weisiger, Library of Virginia archivist: "Information recorded in Virginia personal property tax records changed gradually from 1782 to 1865. The early laws required the tax commissioner in each district to record in "a fair alphabetical list" the names of the person chargeable with the tax, the names of white male tithables over the age of twenty-one, the number of white male tithables between ages sixteen and twenty-one, the number of slaves both above and below age sixteen, various types of animals such as horses and cattle, carriage wheels, ordinary licenses, and even billiard tables. Free Negroes are listed by name and often denoted in the list as "free" or "FN."
The present abstract of Northampton's 1810 personal property tax list is NOT a transcript of the entire document; rather, it is a summary of three items important in delineating the 1810 "substitute" census for this county, i.e., number of male tithables 16 and older, number of slaves twelve years and older, and the number of horses. The original form of the census was in alphabetic order by date and letter. The substitute list presented here is in absolute alphabetic order for easy reference.

In the current volume, the data is recorded thus:
Bruce, James 1/- 43 29
Column one represents two values: the number to the left of the slash represents the householder named in the document; a "1" indicates he is tithable; a hyphen marks him or her as exempt from the tithe. The number to the right of the slash in column one represents the number of additional tithable males 16 years and over in the household; column 2 is the number of slaves over 12; and the final column is the number of horses, mares or mules.
For genealogical researchers in this 1810 period, personal property tax records may provide additional important information. Oftentimes, juniors and seniors are listed adjacent to one another and recorded on the same day. When a taxpayer is noted as "exempt", it can be a clue to someone holding a particular position in government or being elderly, infirm, or for some other reason no longer required to pay the tithable tax. Women, both black and white, appear occasionally as heads of households when they own property in their own right or as the widow of a property owner.
Another valuable source for filling in information about an ancestor is the land tax record, and especially the one for 1815. In that year, the enumerators began to add the location of the property in relation to the county court house. Roger Ward has abstracted all of the 1815 land tax records, and they are available from this publisher below.
The 1810 substitute census list for Northampton County contains 936 households, 1,000 tithables, both white and free black, 2,001 slaves over the age of twelve, and 1,716 horses.

SURNAMES included in the 1810 personal property list are:
Abdel; Adams; Addison; Ames; Andrew; Andrews; Antony; Armstead; Ashby; Asom;
Badger; Bain; Baker; Beach; Bearcroft; Becket; Bell; Belote; Benson; Bevans; Biggs; Bishop; Bloxom; Boggs; Bonniwell; Booker; Bool; Bowdoin; Bradford; Braggs; Bratton; Brickhouse; Brittingham; Brown; Buckner; Buket; Bunting; Burhas; Burk; Burkas;
Carey; Carmine; Carpenter; Carter; Chandler; Charnock; Church; Churn; Churn; Clark; Clay; Clegg; Cobb; Collins; Cook; Copes; Cople; Core; Costin; Cotterel; Coulbourn; Cropper; Crosley; Cummins; Curtis; Custis;
Dalby; Darby; Davis; Deal; Denney; Dennis; Dillian; Dixon; Douglas; Downing; Downs; Dowty; Drighouse; Drummond; Dunton;
East; Edmonds; Elligood; Elliot; Esham; Evans; Ewing; Eyre; Eyres;
Fatherly; Finney; Fisher; Fitchet; Fitzhugh; Fletcher; Floyd; Francis; Freshwater; Frost;
Gardiner; Garrison; Garter; Gayle; Gelden; Godwin; Goody; Gottigon; Graves; Greniway; Griffin; Griffith; Groten; Groves; Gustin; Guy;
Hadlock; Haggoman; Haley; Hall; Hallet; Hambleton; Hanby; Harboard; Harlon; Harmanson; Harrison; Harry; Heath; Henderson; Hickman; Hitckins; Holland; Holt; Hooten; Hopkins; Hosiak; Hosier; Howell; Hozur; Hutchins; Hyslop;
Ironmonger; Isdell;
Jackson; Jacob; James; Jarvis; Jaynes; Jefferson; Johnson; Joins; Jones; Joynes; Jubilaz; Judas;
Kelly; Kendal; Kendall; Killum; Kindal; Knight;
Lang; Lewis; Liliston; Luke; Luker; Lunn; Lyon;
Mapp; Marlin; Martin; Mathews; Matthews; McCredy; McElroy; McGagan; McGowan; Mears; Meholoms; Metcalf; Millner; Mills; Mingo; Minsen; Moore; Morris; Moses;
Nelson; Nevison; Nolen; Nottingham; Nutter;
O'Dear; Oague; Oldham;
Parker; Parkison; Parramore; Parrot; Parsons; Pettit; Pick; Pitts; Pool; Powell; Powers; Pratt; Prewit; Prise; Pritlove;
Rapper; Rayfield; Reed; Richardson; Riddex; Ridley; Riggs; Rippin; Rispiss; Roan; Robbins; Roberts; Robison; Rogers; Rooks; Ross; Ross; Rutherford;
Sample; Sanders; Sanford; Satchel; Savage; Scarborough; Scarbrough; Scisco; Scott; Seaton; Seeton; Semour; Sewell; Shay; Shoit; Short; Siliston; Simkins; Simpson; Smaw; Smith; Snead; Sobb; Somers; Spady; Speakman; Stephens; Stevens; Stockley; Stott; Stratton; Stratton; Stringer; Stripe; Sturgis;
Tankard; Taylor; Teach; Thomas; Thomson; Tomkins; Tomson; Toppin; Toyer; Travis; Trowers; Tunnel; Turner; Turpin; Twigg; Tyler; Tyson;
Underhilt; Upshur;
Waddy; Walker; Wallis; Walter; Ward; Warren; Warrington; Waterfield; Watson; Webb; Weeks; Welsh; Wescoat; West; Whaley; Wheeler; Wheelor; White; Whitehead; Wicks; Widgeon; Wilkins; Williams; Willis; Wilson; Winder; Wingate; Wise;
Yateman; Young;
[NHAMPP] $6.00 (printed version)

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[ENHAMPP] $3.50 (electronic version)

Northampton Co. 1815 Directory of Landowners by Roger G. Ward. 2005. 15 pages, map, 5 1/2X8 1/2.
For a full description of the 1815 LAND DIRECTORY Records and a listing of available counties, see combined volume below

[Vd74] $6.00

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[EVd74] $4.00 (electronic version)

1815 DIRECTORY OF VIRGINIA LANDOWNERS & GAZETTEER, vol. 3 Eastern Region (Includes the counties of Accomack, Caroline, Elizabeth City, Essex, Gloucester, Isle of Wight, James City, King and Queen, King George, King William, Lancaster, Mathews, Middlesex, Nansemond, Norfolk, Northampton, Northumberland, Princess Anne, Richmond, Surry, Warwick, Westmoreland, York, and the independent city of Norfolk. ) abstracted by Roger G. Ward. 1997, vi, 252 pages, indices, maps.
In 1782 the General Assembly of Virginia enacted new tax laws which created within each county an enumeration of land and certain personal property. These early land tax laws required a tax commissioner in each district of a county to record a list of the names of persons owning land or town lots, the quantity of land owned and its value, and the amount of tax owed. By 1813, a brief geographic description (usually citing an adjacent stream, road, or other landmark) was required; in 1814, the distance and direction from the courthouse for each parcel was also added to the tax rolls.
The present work is an alphabetical listing of all 1815 landowners found in each county, as well as the accompanying description of the location of the said property. We have not included the number of acres, taxes assessed, or any transactions between landowners which may have been noted on the tax rolls; also, in many cases the geographic location was provided as "adjacent to John Smith", etc. and, while useful many times to a genealogist, was considered to be beyond the objectives of this project. The reader is encouraged to consider the information here-in as an "outline" of early landowners in Virginia rather than a "text" due to the year-to-year variation in information provided to the clerk (or recorded by the clerk), omissions, lack of "identifiers" to determine if "same name" was also "same person" within a district or across districts, marginal quality/clarity (in a few cases) of the microfilm copy, and, not least, errors on the part of either the original clerks or the current author while transcribing.
Some of the approaches to utilizing the 1815 landowner information include:
observe distinct clusters of the same surname within a county in order to clarify the common surnames such as "Smith", "Anderson", etc;
identify non-resident landowners and their county (or state) of residence (these people often being former residents of the current county);
determine neighbors with different surnames (often being relatives);
use the 1815 information as a "bridge" from the 18th and 19th century deed/will books to the 17th and 18th century land grants/patents in the county;
evaluate the 1810 to 1840 census information which generally grouped neighbors;
substitute this information for missing deed/will books in the "burned" counties; and, clarify/enhance vague deed/will information in the counties with more complete records.
FORMAT OF PRESENTATION: Each entry is listed as: Surname, name, personal identifiers (if any); location/place-name of land; miles/direction from the 1815 courthouse. If multiple owners are listed for a property, the listing is duplicated under each of the owner's surnames (i.e "Smith and Brown" is also listed as "Brown, --see Smith"); when multiple owners share a common surname, the property is only listed once. When a landowner had land at more than one location/place-name, the miles/direction listing for each parcel is in the same sequence as the location listing (i.e. James RV, Slate CK; 12N, 5SW.). In the few cases where a landowner had "many" parcels, the miles/direction notation is attached to the location listing (i.e. Sandy RV- 5NE, Willow CK-7S, etc.)

[Vdl3] $32.00 (paper version)

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[EVDL-3] $20.00 (electronic version)

Northampton Co. Revolutionary Public Claims transcribed by Janice L. Abercrombie and Richard Slatten.. 2005. 11 pages, 5 1/2X8 1/2.
For a full description of the Virginia Revolutionary Public Claims and a listing of available counties, see: Revolutionary "Publick" Claims series

To view a digital copy (pdf) of the index to this book, visit Index-Northampton
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[Pc50] $6.00 (printed version)

The above title is also available as a digital e-book in PDF format:

[EPc50] $3.50 (electronic version)

For records pertaining to Northampton COUNTY, VIRGINIA see:

Accomack County
Guide to Virginia Militia Units in the War of 1812
Chart on the Formation of Virginia Counties
Atlas of County Boundary Changes in Virginia, 1634-1895
Index to the 1810 Virginia Census

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Iberian Publishing Company's On-Line Catalog: Northampton County Virginia

Iberian Publishing Company's On-Line Catalog:
Northampton County Virginia