Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Fauquier County   (Va.) Township Records, 1870-1875. Local government records collection, Fauquier County   Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia 23219.

Acquisition Information

Some of these items came to the Library of Virginia in a transfer of court papers from Fauquier County  . Some volumes came to the Library of Virginia under the accession number 40529.

Historical Information

Fauquier County   was named for Francis Fauquier, lieutenant governor of Virginia from 1758 to 1768. It was formed from Prince William County   in 1759.

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.

Scope and Content

Fauquier County   (Va.) Township Records, 1870-1875, consist of six volumes of minutes, accounts, and tax records relating to township activities and duties.

Cedar Run Township Record, 1871-1875, contains minutes and accounts. Information recorded includes division of the township into road districts, appointment of road overseers, qualification of road overseers, appointment of election judges, accounts claimed against the township board for road work, other accounts claimed against the township board for business of the board, establishment of tax and levy rates, occasional overseer of the poor claims, payments to township officials, reports of taxes collected, and other financial reports of the township collector.

Cedar Run Township Tax Book, 1873-1874, consists of taxes kept by the township collector. The volume pages are divided in half down the center. The left side of the page contains the taxed person's name and the amount of tax due to land, town lots, and personal property. The right hand of the page contains a form for each taxed person calculating the amount of tax including acres of land and total value of that land as well as whether or not payment was received. This form was filled out by the collector and could be torn off and returned to the individual as receipt of payment. Some of these have been cut or torn out and presumably returned to the taxed person as their receipt of payment, but many have not. The volume is organized more or less alphabetically by surname for 1873 and then 1874. There is no index.

Centre Township Accounts, 1872-1875, consists of warrants issued by the township clerk (1872) and reports of the township in account with the clerk and treasurer (1873-1875). In the reports of the township, the reason for the payment is usually given, beginning in 1874. References are made to payments related to township officials, small pox, road work, and goods or services provided to township paupers.

Centre Township Board Minutes and Accounts, 1871-1875, contains minutes and accounts. Pages 2-51 consist of accounts with various merchants and banks. Pages 60-109 contain the township board minutes and records information such as division of the township into road districts, appointment of road overseers, establishment of prices allowable for road work claims, appointment of election judges and clerks, establishment of levy and tax rates, accounts allowed against the township including what service the payment is made for, overseer of the road financial reports, town official compensation payments, ordering of supplies for township use, instructions on how to keep the various township record books, instructions to road overseers on how to keep their accounts and books, orders to issue various warrants for payment, orders to hold elections, and instructions to officials about how to handle an outbreak of smallpox (p. 87-88).

Rappahannock   Township Board Minutes, 1870-1875, contain minutes and accounts. Information recorded includes an order for the clerk to post public notices of board meetings, an order for all persons having claims against the township to present them on the board meeting days, accounts allowed against the township board for such things as road work, supplying or attending on paupers, and township official duties, division of the township into road districts, appointment of road overseers, establishment of rates allowed for road work, division of the township into election districts, changes in the boundary lines of road districts, establishment of tax and levy rates, establishment of rates allowable for physician visits to paupers, an order to take bids to build a township hall, references to providing payments and locations for vaccinations that might related to small pox (p. 36), and an order for the collector to take the taxes. There is an index at the front of the volume but it was very little used.

Index Terms

Corporate Names:

• Fauquier County   (Va.). Circuit Court.

Subjects:

• County   government -- Records and correspondence -- Virginia -- Fauquier County  .
• Local finance -- Virginia -- Fauquier County  .
• Local government -- Virginia -- Fauquier County  .
• Public records -- Virginia -- Fauquier County  .

Geographical Names:

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

Genre and Form Terms:

• Account books -- Virginia -- Fauquier County  .
• Accounts -- Virginia -- Fauquier County  .
• Local government records -- Virginia -- Fauquier County  .
• Minute books -- Virginia -- Fauquier County  .
• Tax and fiscal records -- Virginia -- Fauquier County  .
• Tax records -- Virginia -- Fauquier County  .

Added Entry - Corporate Name:

• Township of Cedar Run (Fauquier County  , Va.)
• Township of Centre (Fauquier County  , Va.)
• Township of Rappahannock   (Fauquier County  , Va.)