How Justice Grew: Virginia Counties, An Abstract of Their Formation

by Martha W. Hiden

When New Kent was formed in 1654 its western bounds were indefinite. By 1721, however, the "Upper Inhabitants" of this county were sufficiently numerous to petition for division on account of their great distance from court. It was ordered that "that part of the county lying below the Parish of St. Paul" was to remain New Kent and the part lying in St. Paul's Parish was to be known as Hanover County. The name again honors the reigning monarch.

Also in 1721, a third new county was formed and called Spotsylvania for the energetic and capable Governor. Spotsylvania was taken from Essex, and parts of King and Queen and King William. The bounds of Spotsylvania specifically laid out in the Act creating it were "upon Snow Creek up to the mill, thence by a southwest line to the river, North Anna, thence up the river as far as convenient and thence by a line to be run over the high mountains to the river on the northwest side thereof, so as to include the northern passage through the said mountains, thence down the said river until it comes against the head of Rappahannock thence, by a line to the head of Rappahannock River; and down that river to the mouth of Snow Creek." Within the portion of Spotsylvania that was taken from Essex, the Governor, some years before, had located a group of German immigrants at a place called Germanna on the Rapidan River.

Besides the Germans, there was a group of Huguenots who had come over a few years earlier and settled on the James River some 20 miles above the Falls. There were also immigrants, both from England and Scotland, who were loyal to the Stuart cause, and its leader, James, son of James II by his second wife, Mary of Modena. The rising of the Scotch clans in his favor in 1715 was crushed by the battle of Preston. Many of the captured Highlanders were deported to America and others, fearing capture, emigrated. These three new factors in the life of the colony are worthy of notice.

In 1727/28, an Act was passed by the Assembly to take effect the next year dividing the county of Henrico. The division was to be "by a line on the north side James River beginning at the mouth of Tuckahoe Creek thence up the said creek to Chumley's Branch thence along a line of marked trees north twenty degrees east to Hanover County and on the south side James River beginning at the Lower Manachin Creek from thence along a line of marked trees in a direct course to the mouth of Skinquarter Creek on Appomattox River." The land to the east of this line was to remain Henrico and that to the west to comprise the new county of Goochland. Sir William Gooch had become Lieutenant Governor of Virginia in 1727 and served 22 years. He was probably the most popular of the colonial governors, seemingly able to work harmoniously with the Council which was necessary for success.

At the same time that Goochland was formed another new county came into being. This was described in the bill brought before the House of Burgesses as "An act for erecting a new county on the heads of Essex, King and Queen and King William Counties and for calling the same Caroline County." The name derives from Caroline of Anspach, Queen of George II who had succeeded his father, George I as King the year before. It will be recalled that Queen Caroline gave money to Thomas Lee to aid him in building "Stratford" when his former house had been burned by criminals whom he, as a magistrate, had sentenced for their misdeeds. Caroline County was not an expansion of settlements as most of the other counties had been for it was bounded completely by already established governments. Its creation, however, was in line with the thesis already laid down "to make justice accessible to all", and made court attendance more convenient for dwellers in the northwest portions of Essex, King and Queen and King William.

Three years later, in 1731, a new county was created from the northwest portions of Stafford and King George "above Choppawomsick Creek on Potomac River and Deep Creek on Rappahannock River and a southwest line to be made from the head of the north branch of the said creek to the head of the said Deep Run." This area was to be known as Prince William County honoring by this title, William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, the King's brother. He was later known as "The Butcher of Culloden" because of the ferocity of his treatment of the Scotch Highlanders after the battle of Culloden in 1745. This battle, so sanguinary and devastating in its effects, wiped out the Stuart sympathizers and there were no further attempts to depose the Hanoverian dynasty from the British throne. The county seat is Manassas, near which were fought two battles of the Civil War.

Brunswick and Migration Southward

In 1720, the Assembly passed an act to be effective in 1721, creating Spotsylvania County as has been mentioned. At the same time, there was an act to form a county from the southern part of Prince George County and name it Brunswick for the Duchy of Brunswick which was then a possession of the Electorate of Hanover. The description is as follows: that Brunswick County should begin "on the south side of the River Roanoke at the place where the line lately run for ascertaining the uncontroverted bounds of this colony towards North Carolina intersects the said river Roanoke and to be bounded by the direction of the governor with consent of council so as to include the southern pass." No steps were taken for carrying out this act because of the small number of settlers in the area, until May 1732, when it was enacted that the earlier legislation become effective the first of January ensuing. Setting up the county government had been made possible by adding parts of Surry and Isle of Wight, thus increasing the the number of tithables and lessening the amount of taxes each would pay. The preamble to the act expresses this thought in more precise phrase when it says "whereas by reason of the small number of tithables in the county of Brunswick the poll taxes must necessarily be very grievous and burthensome to them, which by an addition of parts of the counties of Surry and Isle of Wight would be remedied, and divers of the inhabitants of the two last mentioned counties would thereby also be freed from hardships and inconveniences which at present they labour under."

The reference to the line lately run "between Virginia and North Carolina" is the famous survey made by Col. William Byrd, Major William Mayo, John Irvine and others which forms the subject of The History of the Dividing Line written by Colonel Byrd. The Mayo River in Patrick and Henry Counties perpetuates the name of Major Mayo, the skilled surveyor in the party. The entire boundary was not surveyed then, in fact it was a good many years later before it was necessary to have a clear limit between the two colonies for the entire area.