New Kent County (Va.) Processioner's Records, 1880

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
Restrictions:

There are no restrictions.

Terms of access:

There are no restrictions.

Preferred citation:

New Kent County (Va.) Processioner's Records, 1880. Local government records collection, New Kent County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia 23219.

Summary

Creator:
New Kent County (Va.) Circuit Court
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

New Kent County (Va.) Processioner's Records, 1880. Local government records collection, New Kent County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia 23219.

Background

Scope and content:

New Kent County (Va.) Processioner's Records, 1880 typically record an area of land processioned with geographical landmarks, roads, property lines noted, the names of the persons present, the date(s) when the processioning occurred, the names of the processioners, and the date that the return was recorded by the local court.

Biographical / historical:

New Kent County may have been named either for the English county of Kent or for Kent Island, in the upper waters of the Chesapeake Bay. William Claiborne, a native of Kent who had been driven from Kent Island by Lord Baltimore, was a prominent resident of the New Kent area about 1654 when the county was formed from York County. Part of James City County was added in 1767. The county seat is New Kent.

New Kent County is one of Virginia's Lost Records Localities. Records were destroyed when John Posey set fire to the courthouse on July 15, 1787. Many records were lost when the courthouse was partially destroyed by fire during Civil War hostilities in 1862. Additional records were burned on April 3, 1865, in Richmond, where they had been moved for safekeeping during the Civil War.

Two freeholders were appointed on order of the county court to procession or review the bounds of farms or tracts of land in each precinct in order to renew or replace old landmarks. This was originally a function of the church vestry, but was continued by the court after disestablishment. Persons who walked the boundaries were called processioners.

Acquisition information:
These items came to the Library of Virginia in a transfer of court papers from New Kent County under the accession number 42171.
Arrangement:

Chronological.

Physical location:
Library of Virginia
Physical description:
1 v.