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New Kent County (Va.) Fee Book, marriage list, and tax list, 1850-1871. Accession 42127, Local Government Records Collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.
This item came to the Library of Virginia in a transfer of court papers from New Kent County.
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.
Records were destroyed when John Posey set fire to the courthouse on 15 July 1787. Many records were lost when the courthouse was partially destroyed by fire during Civil War hostilities in 1862. Additional records were burned in Richmond on 3 April 1865, where they had been moved for safekeeping during the Civil War.
A fee book shows the date of a duty performed by the clerk of court, the name of the person paying the fees, and the amount. It includes fees charged attorneys, cash accounts, and the clerk's fees in common law and chancery suits. This particular fee book is from the county court.
Prior to 1853, when the Commonwealth began recording vital statistics, Virginia marriages were recorded at the county or city level. Beginning in 1661, in order to be married by license, the groom was required to go before the county clerk and give bond with security that there was no lawful reason to prevent the marriage. The license, issued then by the clerk, was given to the minister who performed the service. Written consent from a parent or guardian was needed for individuals younger than twenty-one years.
An act passed by the Virginia legislature in 1803 required every free negro or mulatto to be registered and numbered in a book to be kept by the county clerk.
New Kent County (Va.) Fee Book, marriage list, and tax list, 1850-1871, for the county court includes the date of the charge, the person to whom charged, the reason, the style of suit, and the cost of the service to be paid to the clerk of court. There are also various lists of accounts received by the clerk for various licenses, taxes, and other services. There is no index.
Near the back of this volume there are seven pages of lists of marriage licenses issued to colored and white couples for the years 1865-1871. The lists are divided into colored and white sections and give the date the license was issued, the names of the bride and groom, and the fee charged. There is no index.
The final page of the fee book contains three lists for the years 1854, 1855 and 1856 noting persons who had paid tax on free negro registers. Listed are the date the tax was paid, the name of the person paying, and the amount of tax charged.
Additional New Kent County marriage records can be found on microfilm at the Library of Virginia. Consult
New Kent County is one of Virginia's Lost Records Localities. Additional New Kent County Records may be found in the Virginia Lost Records Localities Collection at the Library of Virginia. Search the
For more information and a listing of lost records localities see