Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Collection is open to research.

Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Preferred Citation

New Kent County (Va.) Circuit Court. Records, 1688-1858, Robert Alonzo Brock Collection, Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Acquisition Information

The Robert Alonzo Brock Collection was filmed by The Huntington Library in cooperation with The Library of Virginia with funding provided by The Library of Virginia Foundation with the support of The Roller- Bottimore Foundation and The Robins Foundation. Microfilm received 15 April 2004.

Historical Information

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.

Scope and Content

Records, 1688-1858, of New Kent County Circuit Court consist of wills (1688, 1835, 1853, 1858), marriage licenses (1835, 1840, 1841), a commonwealth claim (1770), a bill of complaint in the chancery suit John Coalter vs. the trustees of John D. Watkins and others (no date.)

Wills include Moses Davis (1688), Robert Pollard (1835), Dr. Samuel Webb (1853), and Richard B. Taylor (1858.)

Related Material

Additional New Kent County court records, marriage records, and wills can be found on microfilm at the Library of Virginia. Consult "A Guide to Virginia County and City Records on Microfilm."

Digital images of additional New Kent County chancery causes be found at the web site of the Library of Virginia. Consult the Chancery Records Index .

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 Lost Records Localities Digital Collection available at Virginia Memory.

For more information and a listing of lost records localities see Lost Records research note .

Access Terms

Corporate Terms

• New Kent County (Va.)--Circuit Court.

Subject Terms

• Equity--Virginia--New Kent County.
• Public Records--Virginia--New Kent County.

Geographic Terms

• New Kent County (Va.)--History.

Record Type

• Claims--Virginia--New Kent County.
• Courts of chancery--Virginia--New Kent County.
• Judicial records--Virginia--New Kent County.
• Marriage licenses--Virginia--New Kent County.
• Marriage records--Virginia--New Kent County.
• Wills--Virginia--New Kent County.

Added Entry - Personal Name

• Brock, R. A. (Robert Alonzo), 1839-1914, collector.

Adjunct Descriptive Data

Originals are located at the Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, California.