Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Accomack County (Va.) Petitions to Remain in the Commonwealth, 1846-1854, are digitized and available through Virginia Untold: The African American Narrative Digital Collection on the Library of Virginia website. Please use digital images.

Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Accomack County (Va.) Petitions to Remain in the Commonwealth, 1846-1854. Local government records collection, Accomack County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Acquisition Information

These records came to the Library of Virginia in a transfer of court papers from Accomack County (Va.) as part of an undated accession.

Processing Information

Accomack County Petitions to Remain in the Commonwealth were originally described as part of the Accomack County (Va.) Free and Enslaved Records, 1758, 1799-1861, but were removed to the present Accomack County (Va.) Petitions to Remain in the Commonwealth, 1846-1854, record to enhance discoverability in August 2024.

These records were processed, scanned, and indexed by LVA staff for the purposes of digitizing them for the digital project Virginia Untold: The African American Narrative at an unknown date.

Encoded by C. Collins: August 2024.

Historical Information

Context for Record Type: Sometimes referred to as "Applications to Remain," these records are applications that formerly enslaved individuals submitted to state and local courts for permission to remain in Virginia with their free status. The Virginia General Assembly passed a law stating that all formerly enslaved people freed after 1 May 1806 who remained in Virginia more than twelve months could be put on trial by the state. Individuals who wished to remain in the commonwealth were to petition the state legislature. In 1816, a new Act of Assembly gave the local courts power to grant permission to remain. The documents in these cases will include: the name(s) of the petitioner(s), the circumstances of free status, and a request to remain in the county. Individuals needed to prove that they had in fact been emancipated. Therefore, application packets might also include supporting documents such as the formerly enslaved person's register, a copy of a will or deed of emancipation, or witness statements known as affidavits.

Locality History: Accomack County was named for the Accomac Indians, who lived on the Eastern Shore at the time of the first English settlement in Virginia. The word means "on-the-other-side-of-water place" or "across the water." It was one of the original eight shires, or counties, first enumerated in 1634 and spelled Accomac without the k. The county's name was changed to Northampton County in 1643. The present county was formed from Northampton about 1663. In October 1670, the General Assembly temporarily reunited Accomack and Northampton Counties as Northampton County. In November 1673, Accomack County was again separated from Northampton. In early records, the county's name was spelled many ways. In 1940 the General Assembly adopted the present spelling, Accomack. The county gained a small part of the southern end of Smith's Island from Somerset County, Maryland, in 1879, after the United States had approved boundary changes between Virginia and Maryland that had been agreed to in 1877. The county seat is Accomac.

Lost Locality Note: A significant number of loose records from the 1700s suffered extreme water and pest damage. Volumes that record deeds, court orders, and wills exist.

Scope and Content

Accomack County (Va.) Petitions to Remain in the Commonwealth, 1846-1854, consist of records related to the petitions of over 40 individuals. These petitions are applications that formerly enslaved individuals submitted to state and local courts for permission to remain in Virginia with their free status. The petitions often include the formerly enslaved individual's name, their method of emancipation, name of their former enslaver, and whether the application/petition was successful or not. Petitions may also include affidavits signed mainly by white residents or witness statements again provided by white residents. Additional names of enslaved or free Black and multiracial individuals can be found in these records.

The records include orders, 1850-1854, summoning justices of the peace to hear applications to remain in the Commonwealth submitted by the following individuals: Moses Bagwell, Abel Bagwell, Littleton Bagwell, Peter Ewell, Edmund Ewell, James Dennis, George Evans, Esther Evans, Dennis Shield, John Nock, Samuel Burton, James Ashby, Edmund (or Edmond) Ashby, Charles Ashby, Joshua Laws, James Laws, George Piper, Peter Piper, Joseph Piper, Matilda Bird, Guy Downing, John Fisher, Judy Fisher, Mary Fisher, Arthur Nock, Ritter Nock, Esan Nock, Amy (or Amie) Nock, Esther (or Easther) Nock, Rachel Phillips, Isaac Logan, James Marshall, Bill Taylor, Ginny Taylor, Peter Taylor, Elsey Watson, Jacob Wharton, Lucy Evans, Mary Phillips, and Nat Nock. The orders do not specify whether the applications were granted or denied.

The records are also comprised of petitions to remain, 1846-1851, undated, submitted on behalf of Branson Ashby; Samuel Burton; James and Edmond Ashby; Joshua Laws; Mary Bevans; Dennis Shield and John Nock; Charles Ashby; George Piper, Peter Piper, and Joseph Piper; Peter Taylor, James, Bill, and Jinney and her children; Dublin Lyon; and Benjamin Bradley. The petitions include the signatures of Accomack County citizens in support of the applications.

Arrangement

This collection is arranged

Related Material

See also: Accomack County (Va.) Free and Enslaved Records, 1758, 1799-1861

Records related to free and enslaved people of Accomack County (Va.) and other localities are available through the Virginia Untold: The African American Narrative Digital Collection on the Library of Virginia website.

Additional Accomack County (Va.) court records can be found on microfilm at The Library of Virginia web site. Consult "A Guide to Virginia County and City Records on Microfilm."

Accomack County is one of Virginia's Lost Records Localities. Additional Accomack County Records may be found in the Lost Records Localities Digital Collection available on the Library of Virginia website.

Adjunct Descriptive Data