Library of Virginia
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Use microfilm, Gloucester County (Va.) Reel 8
Gloucester County (Va.) Township Records, 1871-1875. Local government records collection, Gloucester County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia 23219.
These items came to the Library of Virginia in a transfer of court papers from Gloucester County.
Gloucester County was probably named for the English county, although it may have been meant to honor Henry, duke of Gloucester, the third son of Charles I. It was formed from York County in 1651.
The 1870 Virginia Constitution required that each county in the state be divided into no less than three townships (see Article VII, section 2). Based on the New England administrative organization of a county, each township would elect the administration officials for the offices of supervisor, clerk, assessor, collector, commissioner of the roads, overseer of the poor, justice of the peace, and constable. The supervisors of each township would comprise the board of supervisors for the county, and would be responsible for auditing the county accounts, examining the assessors' books, regulating property valuation, and fixing the county levies. The Acts of Assembly provided that each township be divided into school and electoral districts (see Acts of Assembly 1869-1870, Chapter 39). A constitutional amendment in 1874 changed the townships into magisterial districts and each district elected one supervisor, three justices of the peace, one constable, and one overseer of the poor. The supervisors of the districts made up the county board of supervisors whose duties were identical as those set out in 1870. The published Acts of Assembly appended a list of township names by county following the acts for every year that townships existed in Virginia.
All records were destroyed by an 1820 fire, and most of the records created after 1820 were destroyed by fire in Richmond on 3 April 1865, where they had been moved for safekeeping during the Civil War.
Gloucester County (Va.) Township Records, 1871-1875, are 2 volumes of minutes and accounts relating to the administrative functions of township boards of the county.
Abingdon Township Records, 1871-1874, consist of minutes. Information recorded includes the boundaries of the township, division of the township into road district, appointment of road overseers, establishment of rates allowed for road work, order for road signs to be made, appointment of election judges, reports and accounts allowed of road overseers, establishment of township levy and rates, and orders to collect delinquent taxes.
Petsworth Township Records, 1871-1875, consist of minutes and accounts. Information recorded includes the division of the township into road accounts, establishment of rates allowed for road work, appointment of road overseers, scheduling of elections, road overseer reports, payments allowed to township officials, township levy accounts, appointment of election judges, notes about bridge construction, and accounts allowed for claims against the township. Pages 45-47 contain the charter of the Gloucester Point Land Wharf Warehouse and Transportation Company from 1882.
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 .