Library of Virginia
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Middlesex County (Va.) Registers of Free Negroes and Mulattoes, 1800-1862. Middlesex County (Va.) Reels 74 and 126. Local government records collection, Middlesex County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia 23219.
These items were microfilmed by the Library of Virginia's Imaging Services Division and Backstage Library Works.
Middlesex County was formed in 1669 from Lancaster County.
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.
Middlesex County (Va.) Registers of Free Negroes and Mulattoes, 1800-1862, consist of two volumes. Both registers list the certificate number, age, name, color, stature, marks or scars, in what court or by whom the person was emancipated or whether the person was born free. Some clerks recorded additional information not required by law. There is no index to either volume.
The first volume is a transcription covering the years 1800-1826 and 1827-1862. The first section covering the years 1800-1826 is noted to be "copied from Court Order Book 4 on January 1939." The full original of this register has yet to be located. A portion has been located on the final page of Order Book 1799-1803. The rest may be scattered throughout other order and minute books. The second section covering the years 1827-1862 is a transcription of the "Old Register" which is the free negro register with those same dates that follows the transcription on this same reel. This volume is found on Reel 74.
The second volume is a free negro register and convers the years 1827-1862. It is not a transcription but the original volume created by the clerk of court's office. This volume is found on Reels 74 and 126.