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Preferred Citation

King and Queen County (Va.) Tax Accounts and Executions, 1779-1790 (bulk 1785-1787.) Local government records collection, King and Queen County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia 23219.

Acquisition Information

The original manuscript volume was lent, by Dr. Garnett Ryland, to the Virginia State Library (now the Library of Virginia) in 1938 for the purpose of making a copy of the volume for the Library's archival collection.

A negative photostatic volume was created, under the accession number 21228, by the staff of the Virginia State Library's Archives Division.

Historical Information

King and Queen County was formed from New Kent County in 1691. The county was named for King William III and Queen Mary II, who were called to the English throne in 1688.

The sheriff was "the most powerful and the best paid of any county official in colonial times." Among his many duties, he collected the taxes, which were paid in tobacco, took custody of it and paid the county expenses as directed by court. By doing so, he acted as a combination of both the commissioner of revenue and the county treasurer. The sheriff was also responsible for services rendered in the prosecution of court cases (law enforcement.) He was appointed by the governor from a list of three names submitted by the county court. His term of office was for one year until 1731, after which it was two years. His two deputies, also known as sub (under) sheriffs, did most of the work as in the case of this volume--where deputy sheriff William Lyne collected the tax accounts of behalf of sheriff William Richards. An execution is a court order directing a sheriff to enforce a judgment.

In 1782, the General Assembly of Virginia enacted a major revision of the tax laws of the Commonwealth. The act provided for the statewide enumeration on the county level of land and certain personal property. The act created a permanent source of revenue for the operation of government in Virginia.

The original tax and court records, from which this volume was compiled, were created by the county court.

Records were lost in courthouse fires in 1828 and 1833. Records were again destroyed by a courthouse fire set by Union troops on 10 March 1864 during the Civil War.

Scope and Content

King and Queen County (Va.) King and Queen County (Va.) Tax Accounts and Executions, 1779-1790 (bulk 1785-1787) is an eighteenth century volume originally kept by the county sheriff. The volume is essentially comprised of tax accounts from 1786-1787 and executions issued from 1785-1786. Similar to early Virginia tax records, the volume contains a small booklet of manuscript lists that record the names of property owners arranged, for the most part, by the intial letter of the surname. These accounts record the tax on the number of black and white tithes, personal property and land tax. The pages of this booklet number from 1 to 105. The index to this booklet is numbered with roman numbers (ix, x, and xi) and is found in the beginning of the volume. It is arranged by the last letter of the surname from A-W.

The executions issued by the deputy sheriff are numbered 114-136. Information includes the date, the parties involved (for and against whom) and how returned. An index to the executions, numbers 111-113, is arranged by the last letter of the surname. Receipts issued to deputy sheriffs, in 1787 and 1790, for their work are numbered 139-140. When the copy of the volume was made by the staff of the Virginia State Library's Archives Division, items were numbered 1-150. However, items found in the front of the volume before the tax accounts are numbered with faint roman numerals. These items include undated tax assessements involving a certificate tax on the militia (unnumbered and ii) , a explanation of tax revenue laws for the years 1784-1785 (i and iii), blank copies of bail bonds, bills of sale and replevin bonds (v, vi, vii and viii) and an undated inventory of earthenware found in a press (closet or cupboard)--item xii.

There are additional interesting items dispersed throughout the volume. A lengthy account in the form of a letter, from 1779, describes instructions in how to organize troops to fight--numbers 106-110. Other instructions include on to force fruit trees to bear fruit--item 143, dying cotton--items 141 and 142 and creating various textile patterns (herring bone, chambray, birds eye and satin) for weaving--items 144-150.

Related Material

Additional King and Queen County Court and Tax and Fiscal Records can be found on microfilm at the Library of Virginia. Consult "A Guide to Virginia County and City Records on Microfilm."

See 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 .

For description of the role of the sheriff in colonial times, consult "A History of Early Spotsylvania" by James Roger Mansfield, pages 112-113 found in the Library of Virginia's book collection.

Index Terms

Corporate Names:

• King and Queen County (Va.) Circuit Court.

Subjects:

• Costs (Law)--Virginia--King and Queen County.
• Debt--Virginia--King and Queen County.
• Land value taxation--Virginia--King and Queen County.
• Personal property--Virginia--King and Queen County.
• Public records--Virginia--King and Queen County.
• Sheriffs--Virginia--King and Queen County.
• Tax collection--Virginia--King and Queen County.
• Taxation of personal property--Virginia--King and Queen County.
• Taxation--Virginia--King and Queen County.
• Weaving--Virginia--King and Queen County.

Geographical Names:

• King and Queen County (Va.)--History--18th century.

Genre and Form Terms:

• Accounts--Virginia--King and Queen County.
• Bonds (legal records)--Virginia--King and Queen County.
• Decisions--Virginia--King and Queen County.
• Instructions--Virginia--King and Queen County.
• Inventories--Virginia--King and Queen County.
• Judicial records--Virginia--King and Queen County.
• Local government records--Virginia--King and Queen County.
• Military records--Virginia--King and Queen County.
• Receipts (financial records)--Virginia--King and Queen County.
• Tax records--Virginia--King and Queen County.

Adjunct Descriptive Data