Accomack County (Va.) powers of attorney and letters relating to slaves of Bull and Warner, 1839

Access and use

Location of collection:
Library of Virginia
The Library of Virginia
800 East Broad Street
Richmond, VA 23219
Contact for questions and access:
POC: Archives Reference Services
Phone: (804) 692-3888

Summary

Creator:
Accomack County (Va.) Circuit Court.
Language:
English

Background

Scope and content:

Accomack County (Va.) powers of attorney and letters relating to slaves of Bull and Warner, 1839, includes three letters from William Hugg of Camden, New Jersey to James Ailworth of Accomack County. Hugg notified Ailworth that he had captured and imprisoned slaves that belonged to the estates of John Bull, Sr., and Jacob Warner. Ailworth was the administrator of Bull's estate. Hugg requested Ailworth to send someone to recover the slaves. In one of the letters, he references abolitionists. The collection also includes two powers of attorney that gave representatives of Warner and Bull's estates the authority to recover the slaves.

Biographical / historical:

Accomack County was named for the Accomac Indians, who lived on the Eastern Shore at the time of the first English settlement in Virginia. The word means "on-the-other-side-of-water place" or "across the water." It was one of the original eight shires, or counties, first enumerated in 1634 and spelled Accomac without the k. The county's name was changed to Northampton County in 1643. The present county was formed from Northampton about 1663. In October 1670, the General Assembly temporarily reunited Accomack and Northampton Counties as Northampton County. In November 1673, Accomack County was again separated from Northampton. In early records, the county's name was spelled many ways. In 1940 the General Assembly adopted the present spelling, Accomack. The county gained a small part of the southern end of Smith's Island from Somerset County, Maryland, in 1879, after the United States had approved boundary changes between Virginia and Maryland that had been agreed to in 1877. The county seat is Accomac.

Acquisition information:
These items came to the Library of Virginia in a transfer of court papers from the circuit court of Accomack County under the accession number 44262.
Physical location:
Library of Virginia
Physical description:
10 p.