Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Suffolk (Va.) City Administrative Records, 1917-1949, Local government records collection, Suffolk (City)/Nansemond County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Va. 23219.

Acquisition Information

These items came to the Library of Virginia in a shipment of court papers from Suffolk (City).

Historical Information

Nansemond County was created as Upper Norfolk County by 1640 and in 1642 was renamed Nansemond County for the Nansemond Indians, who lived in the area in the early seventeenth century. The county seat was Suffolk. The county became the independent city of Nansemond on 1 July 1972, and on 1 January 1974 Nansemond merged with the city of Suffolk. The entire area is now known as Suffolk.

City of Suffolk was located in Nansemond County, which is now extinct. It was named probably for the county of Suffolk in England. Established as a town in 1742 on the site of John Constant's warehouse, Suffolk was incorporated as a town in 1808 and as a city by court order in 1910. On 1 January 1974 the city was enlarged when it merged with the former county of Nansemond, since 1 July 1972 the city of Nansemond, which then became extinct.

Nansemond County court records were destroyed in three separate fires: the earliest consumed the house of the court clerk in April 1734 (where the records were kept at that time), the second was set by British troops in 1779, and the last occurred on 7 February 1866.

Scope and Content

Suffolk (Va.) (Va.) City Administrative Records, 1917-1949, consist of City Council papers.

Related Material

Additional City of Suffolk and Nansemond County 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 .

Index Terms

Corporate Names:

• Suffolk (Va.) Circuit Court.

Subjects:

• Public records--Virginia--Suffolk.

Genre and Form Terms:

• Local government records--Virginia--Suffolk.

Adjunct Descriptive Data