Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Chesterfield County, VA Early Records

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From:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chesterfield_County,_Virginia


History

[edit]Part of Henrico Cittie, Henrico Shire, Henrico County

During the early 17th century, shortly after the settlement pf Jamestown in 1607, English settlers and explorers began settling other areas. One of the more progressive developments in the colony was Henricus, founded under the guidance of Sir Thomas Dale. It was to include a college to help educate Virginia Indians, as well as the children of settlers. Dale was accompanied by men known as the "Hammours". These veterans of the Low Country wars were heavily armed and better trained than settlers of Jamestown.[citation needed]
Dale wrote about the site: "Eighty miles up our river from Jamestown, I have surveyed a convenient, strong, healthie and sweete site to plant a new towne (according as I had instructions upon my departure) there to build whence might be removed the principal site."[citation needed] Today known as Farrars Island, the site was on a neck of land with 5,000 acres (20 km2) and a shoreline of seven miles (11 km) on the James River. The English settlers soon built a palisade and moat-like ditch to protect entrance to the 174-yard (159 m) wide neck from the shore area.
Dale named the new settlement Henricus in honor of Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, the elder son of King James I. When finished in 1619, "Henricus Citie" contained three streets of well-framed houses, a church, storehouses, a hospital, and watchtowers. 1619 was a watershed year for the Virginia Colony. Henrico and three other large citties (sic) were formed, one of which included what is now Chesterfield County. That year Falling Creek Ironworks, the first in what is now the United States, was established slightly west on the creek near itsconfluence with the James River. In the Indian Massacre of 1622, Native Americans destroyed Henrico City and the ironworks to try to drive away the English. These were not rebuilt. The colony did not gain a college until 1693, when the College of William and Mary was awarded a royal charter in the capital.
In 1634, the King of England directed the formation of eight shires (or counties) in the colony of Virginia. One of these was Henrico County, which incorporated a large area on both sides of the James River.

[edit]Chesterfield County formed

On 25 May 1749, the Virginia House of Burgesses separated Chesterfield from Henrico County and created the new county. The first county seat was established at Chesterfield Court House. It has continued as county seat except for 1870–1876, during Reconstruction, when the county government was located at Manchester. The latter community has been subsumed by South Richmond.[4]
The legislature named the county for the former British Secretary of StatePhilip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield. Lord Chesterfield was famous for his "good manners and writings". One of his most frequently used sayings implies avoiding rudeness; "An injury is much sooner forgotten than an insult." Many years later, Chesterfield Cigarettes were named after this county.
In 1939 during the Great Depression, the Virginia State Police moved their offices from downtown Richmond to a seven-room farmhouse located on 65 acres (260,000 m2) of land 3½ miles west on route 60. This structure served as administrative headquarters and barracks. The State Police have since built a new administrative headquarters and an academy here.


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Chesterfield County, Virginia Wills 1774-1802
Abstracted and Compiled by Benjamin B. Weisiger III

Court 8 October 1798
p.587 Overseers of Poor, District 2, bind William Hubbard and Wille Goins.

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From http://www.freeafricanamericans.com/revolution.htm

Charles Barnett was a "mulatto" who enlisted in Charlottesville in the 7th Virginia Regiment. Sharod Going testified that he was with him at Chesterfield Courthouse. In 1800 he moved to Carter County, Tennessee, then to Georgia, and to Granville County, North Carolina, about 1808 [Dorman, Virginia Revolutionary Pension Applications, IV:87]. He obtained a certificate of freedom in Albemarle County on 2 August 1796: a Dark mullatto man aged about thirty years, of a yellow complexion, five feet seven and three quarter inches high, having proved to the satisfaction of this Court that he was born a free man within this County [Orders 1795-8, 137].

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