Prince William County Virginia History and Genealogy

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

Prince William County was formed on 25 March 1731 from the upper portions of King George and Stafford counties. The new county's name honored William Augustus, duke of Cumberland, third son of King George II. At the time of its inception, Prince William included all or part of the following counties: Prince William, Fairfax, Fauquier, Loudoun, and Arlington. Fairfax County was cut off in 1742. With the establishment of Fauquier in 1759, Prince William achieved its present boundaries. Although the first patent of land in Prince William dates from 1653, few settlers chose to settle in the area of the county until the early 1700s, because the region was the scene of the bloodiest fighting and slaughters in the Indian wars which continued throughout the seventeenth century. Many of Prince William's records were destroyed in both the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, and some deed and bond books were stolen by Federal occupation troops. these were later returned, but the early marriage records have been lost and are presumed destroyed. Most of the surviving original records are now housed in the Library of Virginia or the College of William and Mary Library in Williamsburg.

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Prince William County,Virginia 1810 Federal Census: A Transcription
John Vogt, 2008, x, 31 pp., 8x10 format, illustrations, maps, full name index. A faithful and accurate transcription of the first surviving census for this Virginia county. It includes not only the rural areas of the county, but separate listings for the communities of Buckland, Hay Market, Occoquan, and Dumfries. This work corrects many of the mistranslations currently on the Internet.

To view a digital copy (pdf) of the index to this book, visit Index-1810-Prwm
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[Pw10] $14.00 (printed version)

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[EPw10] $9.00 (electronic version)

THE REGISTER OF OVERWHARTON PARISH, STAFFORD COUNTY, VIRGINIA 1723-1758 AND SUNDRY HISTORICAL AND GENEALOGICAL NOTES
by George Harrison Sanford King, xii, 1961. AVAILABLE IN ELECTRONIC (PDF) FORMAT ONLY

The county and parish take their names from the corresponding ones in England. Stafford county once extended up to the Blue Ridge Mountain. In the year 1730, Prince William county was formed from the "heads of King George and Stafford." Overwharton parish was also coextensive with Stafford before Prince William was divided and Hamilton parish taken off. In the same year,--1730,--Overwharton parish was divided and Hamilton parish taken off. Overwharton covered the narrow county of Stafford, and Hamilton the large county of Prince William before Fauquier, Fairfax, and Loudoun were taken away. Stafford, in its original dimensions, first appears as a county in 1666 when it was created from Westmoreland County. When it was erected into a parish is not known,--but most probably about the same time. Its division in 1730 is the first mention of it. The Rev. Robert Rose in his account book mentions the Rev. Alexander Scott as a minister in it in 1727

The Register of Overwharton Parish, Stafford County,.... was an update to the original 1899 publication of William F. Boogher (also available on this page [below]). It includes Births, Baptism, Marriage and Death records as recorded in their original order along with a supplemental index.

The Overwharton Register is arranged alphabetically by surnames in chronological order and these names are not carried into the general index. To view a digital copy of the general index to this book, visit Index-Ovwp
(Close the pdf file with the left arrow to return to Iberian's catalog) [EOVWP] $18.00 (electronic version only)

OVERWHARTON PARISH, VIRGINIA REGISTER, 1720 TO 1760
by Wm. F. Boogher, 1899, xiii, 195 pages AVAILABLE IN ELECTRONIC (PDF) FORMAT ONLY

Overwharton Parish was formed in 1680 as the upper parish or Stafford Parish. The parish was co-extensive with Stafford County, covering a part of what was once Washington Parish, extending about eighty miles along the Potomac, in breadth about four and twenty miles, embracing within its territory what is now Prince William, Loudoun, Fairfax, Alexandria Counties and a part of Fauquier until 1730, when Prince William County was taken from Stafford, and Hamilton Parish was erected, succeeding Overwharton as the frontier parish. Of the early history of Overwharton Parish and its rectors, but little is known.

The entries in the parish register consist of births, marriages, and deaths and are arranged in one continuous alphabetical sequence. The marriage records take up nearly half of the register and provide the names of the bride and groom and the date of the marriage; the birth records include the name of the newborn, date of birth, and the names of parents; and the death records give the decedent by name and date of death. In all, more than 6,000 early inhabitants of Stafford County, Virginia are preserved in this valuable resource.

[EOVRP] $15.00 (electronic version only)

COLONIAL SUPERMARKET: DANIEL PAYNE'S LEDGER FOR HIS STORE AT DUMFRIES IN PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY, VIRGINIA FOR THE YEARS 1758-1764

Charles and Virginia Hamrick, xxi, 2007, 163 pp.The authors have provided a faithful and accurate transcription of this early store ledger for a county which has lost many of its colonial records. This is a fascinating foray into the life and times of Dumfries. Most of the community's inhabitants had accounts with Payne's store, and he stocked more than four hundred different items. This ledger demonstrates the complex society of colonial Virginia, and it portrays a rich panoply of life during the supposed "hard times" of the French and Indian War. For many of these people, Payne's ledger demonstrates their lifestyle and daily activities. A must for anyone interested in colonial Virginia and its lifestyle. A brief biography of Payne is included, along with an index listing of his clientele and a glossary of all the various products carried by the merchant in his establishment
To view a digital copy (pdf) of the index to this book, visit Index-Vmdp
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[Vmdp] $31.95 (printed version)

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[EVmdp] $20.00 (electronic version)

PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY, VIRGINIA MINUTE BOOK, 1752-1753
Charles and Virginia Hamrick, 2003, 293 pp., index.
The authors have provided a faithful and accurate transcription of this early minute book for a county which has lost many of its colonial records.
To view a digital copy of the index to this book, visit Index-Pw52
(Use your back arrow to return to Iberian's catalog) [Pw52] $31.95 (printed version)

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Prince William Co. 1815 Directory of Landowners by Roger G. Ward. 2005. 19 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

[Vd85] $7.00 (printed version)

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[EVd85] $5.00 (electronic version)

1815 DIRECTORY OF VIRGINIA LANDOWNERS & GAZETTEER, vol. 4 Northern Region (Includes the counties and cities of Alexandria (i.e., present-day Arlington), Culpeper, Fairfax, Fauquier, Frederick, Loudoun, Madison, Orange, Prince William, Rockingham, Shenandoah, Spotsylvania, Stafford, and the independent cities of Alexandria, Fredericksburg, and Winchester ) abstracted by Roger G. Ward. 1997, vi, 220 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.)

[Vdl4] $32.00 (paper version)

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[EVDL-4] $20.00 (electronic version)

Prince William Co. Revolutionary Public Claims transcribed by Janice L. Abercrombie and Richard Slatten.. 2005. 20 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-Prince William
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[Pc70] $6.00 (printed version)

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[EPc70] $2.80 (electronic version)

NORTHERN NECK (LAND) WARRANTS & SURVEYS, 1710-1780: DUNMORE, SHENANDOAH, CULPEPER, PRINCE WILLIAM, FAUQUIER & STAFFORD COUNTIES by Peggy Shomo Joyner. 1986, xx, 197 pp., map, illust. Published as the third volume in a series of Northern Neck Warrants & Surveys, this collection has become a standard reference work for researchers in the period of colonial Virginia history for this area.
Contents: Dunmore (pp. 1-26); Shenandoah (pp. 27-40); Culpeper (pp.41-88); Prince William (pp.89-135); Fauquier (pp.137-144); Stafford (pp.145-174); George Washington surveys (pp.175-176); index.

The Northern Neck Proprietary, also called the Fairfax Proprietary, or Fairfax Grant, was a land grant first created by the exiled English King Charles II in 1649 and encompassing all the lands bounded by the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers in colonial Virginia. This constituted up to 5,200,000 acres of Virginia's Northern Neck and a vast area northwest of it.

The grant became actual in 1660 when Charles was restored to the English throne. By 1719, these lands had been inherited by Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron (1693-1781). By that time the question of the boundaries of the designated lands had also become highly contentious. It was decided in 1746 that a line between the sources of the North Branch of the Potomac and the Rappahannock River (the "Fairfax Line") would constitute the western limit of Lord Fairfax's lands. The early 17th century decade was witnessing a wave of pioneer settlement throughout the region.

To obtain land a person purchased a warrant from the proprietor's agent specifying the precise location of the desired land. The warrant was then given to a surveyor, who surveyed the land. The plat, warrant, and any related papers were returned to the proprietor's office, and if the title was clear, a grant was recorded and then issued. At any point after the warrant was purchased the land could be assigned (sold) to another person, and years could elapse between the purchase of the warrant and the issuance of a grant.

The volume is arranged first by county, then alphabetic by grantee. Please note: The index provided at the end of the volume contains only those persons whose reference occurs outside the alphabetic listing in the volume. It is NOT a complete index of names or places.

[NNW3] $27.00 (printed version)

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[ENNW3] $20.00 electronic version; please note: this is a large .pdf file and will be sent as a .zip file.

SOME WILLS FROM THE BURNED COUNTIES OF VIRGINIA compiled by William Lindsay Hopkins. 6x9 format. Wills from circa 1670-1830 for the counties of Brunswick, Buckingham, Caroline, Charles City, Dinwiddie, Elizabeth City, Gloucester, Hanover, Henrico, James City, King George, King and Queen, King William, Mathews, Nansemond, New Kent, Prince George, Prince William, Stafford, and Warwick Counties, Va.

To view a digital copy of the index to this book, visit Index-Swbc
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[Swbc] $32.00 (printed version)

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[ESwbc] $20.00 (electronic version)

For more records pertaining to PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY, VIRGINIA see also:
King George, Stafford, Prince William, Fairfax, Fauquier, Loudoun and Arlington Counties
Men in Gray Interments series
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: Prince William County Virginia

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