Records Of Colonial Goucester County Virginia

The middle chapters of this book are given over to Wilkes County genealogy and biography, with chapters on the buyers and sellers of lots and the early settlers of the county. The work as a whole is crowded with references to ministers, officials, teachers, and soldiers, so much so that an index of more than 2,000 entries was created by Mrs. Hays to encompass them.

By: Polly C. Mason, Pub. 1946, Reprinted 2016, 166 pages, Index, ISBN #0-89308-248-1. Gloucester County was created from York County in 1651. Its courthouse suffered two burnings, one in 1820 and the second in 1865. Most of the records were presumed destroyed or lost forever due to these fires. The author had discovered numerous files and records concerning this county located within the numerous volumes of records concerning the Colony of Virginia the clerk's office in Yorktown (York County), and various other county courthouses of Virginia. Records within this book are: Land Patents 1642-1790, Rent Rolls 1704/5, Tax Lists 1770-1782, Mathews County Tax Lists 1774-1791, members of the Burgesses Council and Court, and Land Patents for Gloucester in King & Queen County, VA.

Gloucester County was erected in 1751 and consisted of four parish subdivisions, including Kingston Parish, which was cut off from Gloucester in 1791 to form the present county of Mathews. The Register of Kingston Parish is one of the few colonial records from this area to have survived more or less intact. The authors have painstakingly copied the marriages, births, and deaths recorded in the Register, with the result that 530 marriages, 1750 births, and 120 deaths are incorporated into this present work. Some 6,000 persons are cited in the index.

Book lists records from 27 different archives and other sources, mainly found in Virginia. It supplements an earlier work: Records of Colonial Gloucester County, Virginia / by Polly Cary Mason.

"In this reprint edition the contents [of the original 34 volumes] have been rearranged, re-typed, and consolidated in three hardcover volumes, each with its own master index."--Title page verso.

Dr. Malcolm Harris' two-volume history and genealogy of "Old" New Kent County (the three present-day counties in the aggregate) is one of the great achievements of Virginia local history of the last century. Clearfield Company is honored to have been selected by the Harris family to produce this hardcover edition of "Old New Kent County." Privately published and out of print for many years, this work takes on even greater importance in light of the loss of county records in New Kent and in King & Queen counties and the survival of mere fragments for King William County prior to 1865.