Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

Patrons are to use digital images with searchable transcription available through the Library of Virginia's Virginia Memory website.

Preferred Citation

Richmond County (Va.) Register of Colored Persons of Richmond County, State of Virginia, cohabiting together as Husband and Wife on 27th February 1866. Local Government Records Collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Acquisition Information

This item came to the Library of Virginia in a transfer of court papers from Richmond County.

Historical Information

Richmond County may have been named for Richmond borough in Surrey, England, or for Charles Lennox, first duke of Richmond and a son of King Charles II. It was formed from Old Rappahannock County in 1692. The county seat is Warsaw.

Some volumes were burned and mutilated through unknown causes; in addition, the will books prior to 1699 were missing as early as 1793, and order books for the period 1794-1816 are also missing. Numerous loose records prior to 1781 are missing as well.

The Virginia legislature passed an act on 27 February 1866 to legalize the marriages of former slaves who had been cohabiting as of that date. See Virginia Acts of Assembly, 1866-1867, Chapter 18, An act to amend and re-enact the 14th section of chapter 108 of the Code of Virginia for 1860, in regard to registers of marriage; and to legalize the marriages of colored persons now cohabiting as husband and wife.

The Federal Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands directed the Assistant Superintendents of the states to order the county clerks to make a registry of such cohabiting couples. See Circular No. 11, dated 19 March 1866, in Orders, Circulars, Circular Letters, and Letters of Instruction, vol. 2 (1866). Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, Records of the Assistant Commissioner for the State of Virginia, 1865-1869. Miscellaneous reel 3880, Library of Virginia. National Archives microfilm M1048 (reel 41), Record Group 105.

Scope and Content

Richmond County (Va.) Register of Colored Persons of Richmond County, State of Virginia, cohabiting together as Husband and Wife on 27th February 1866 records the name of the husband, his age, place of birth, residence, occupation, last owner, last owner's residence; the name of the wife, her age, place of birth, residence, last owner, last owner's residence; the name of the children with the age of each; date of commencement of cohabitation.

Related Material

Additional Richmond County Court Records can be found on microfilm at The Library of Virginia. Consult "A Guide to Virginia County and City Records on Microfilm."

Additional cohabitation registers are available digitially with searchable transcriptions through the Library of Virginia's Virginia Memory website.

Richmond County is one of Virginia's Lost Records Localities. Additional Richmond County Records may be found in the Virginia Lost Records Localities Collection at the Library of Virginia. Search 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:

• Richmond County (Va.). Circuit Court.

Subjects:

• African Americans -- Virginia -- Richmond County.
• Freedmen -- Virginia -- Richmond County.
• Slaveholders -- Virginia -- Richmond County.

Geographical Names:

• Richmond County (Va.) -- History -- 19th century.

Genre and Form Terms:

• Birth registers -- Virginia -- Richmond County.
• Free negro and slave records -- Virginia -- Richmond County.
• Local government records -- Virginia -- Richmond County.

Added Entry - Corporate Name:

• United States. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands

Adjunct Descriptive Data