Virginia’s agricultural production, as well as its economy, was dominated by tobacco for over three centuries, ever since John Rolfe sent his first shipment of tobacco to England in 1614. Growth of the Virginia colony and extension into the interior meant more soil and larger crops of tobacco. Despite the continuous growth in production, the tobacco trade was plagued by falling prices and decreased quality. By the 1720s, tobacco exports included large quantities of inferior product that even included shipments of “trash” tobacco—shipments that diluted tobacco leaves with foreign substances such as household sweepings. Consequently the price of tobacco sank so low that many planters struggled to recover production costs.

In 1723 Virginia’s General Assembly passed the first of its Tobacco Acts that attempted to control the quantity and quality of tobacco grown in the colony because it was believed that “most of the ffrauds [sic] and mischiefs which have been complained of in the Tobacco Trade” had arisen from the “planting on land not proper for producing good Tobacco” and the production of “greater Crops than the persons employed therein are able duly to tend.” The 1723 act established limits on the number of plants that certain classes of persons could grow with slave owners being allowed fewer plants. Each vestry of every parish had to appoint two people every year to count the number of plants being grown and report the numbers to the clerk of court by the month of August. Any number of plants over the allowed number were to be destroyed by the planter or, if the planter would not, by the counters. The act of 1729 provided various adjustments to and elaborations on the 1723 act. (For full text of the acts see The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography Vol. 20, pp.158-178.)

Accomack County (Va.) Census of Tobacco Plants, 1725, 1728-1729, consists of three lists of tobacco plants created to comply with the Tobacco Acts. The 1725 list records the names of tithable persons, half shares, and the number of tobacco plants grown. The precinct is not given although the counters state that this list was drawn up at the order of the vestry at the MiddleChurch. The 1728 list records the names of all tithable persons and how many plants they were growing along with the number of plots or plantations in which the crop was being grown. Slave names are given along with their owners. A total of the number of plants in the county is given at the end of the list. The 1729 list is for the second precinct and records the same information as the 1728 list although without the land information.

The 1723 and 1729 Tobacco Acts led to the passing of the Virginia Tobacco Inspection Act of 1730 that transformed the tobacco trade by regulating the quality of tobacco exports which created increased revenues for Virginia planters.

The Accomack County (Va.) Census of Tobacco Plants, 1725, 1728-1729, (Barcode 1204975) is open for research and available at the Library of Virginia.

-Sarah Nerney, Senior Local Records Archivist

There are many noteworthy and valuable documents among the over 1,000 petitions currently digitized.  Accomack County alone includes several appeals of freed slaves for permission to remain in the state following their emancipation as required by law.   Similarly, there are petitions of slave owners petitioning the Assembly for leave to bring their slaves into the county from neighboring Maryland.  Accomack County’s close proximity to the Chesapeake Bay produced petitions concerning changes to the oyster laws especially as they relate to dredging.  Several citizens also petitioned the Assembly to establish ferries or packets between Accomack and the ports of Norfolk, Portsmouth, and Hampton.  One of the most interesting petitions within Accomack County consists of a printed address of E. P. Pitts to the “People of Accomac [sic] and Northampton Counties.”  Pitts, a judge and former state senator, voted against the secession candidate in the Convention and writes defending his decision to relocate his family to Howard County, Maryland, for health reasons during the war.

This is the first of an on-going series of Out of the Box posts highlighting the Legislative Petitions collection.  Future posts will announce when new localities become available.

-Craig S. Moore, State Records Appraisal Archivist

Plat, 1780, Fluvanna Co. Chancery Cause 1812-007 William I. Stone vs. William Galt &c

The Library of Virginia is pleased to announce that the Accomack County chancery causes, 1727-1805, and Fluvanna County chancery causes, 1779-1882, are now available on the Chancery Records Index.  The Accomack County material consists of chancery suits recovered from court records found in the attic of the clerk’s office in 1996. Additional chancery from Accomack County will be added at a later date. The Fluvanna County chancery causes were separated from court records housed at the Library of Virginia. Additional Fluvanna County chancery records are available at the Circuit Court Clerk’s office.

A number of the Accomack County chancery causes for this date range concern the division of slaves. An example is Accomack County chancery cause 1799-019. This suit includes a report of a division of slaves (image # 7) among the heirs of William Taylor.  Accomack County chancery cause 1783-013 (image # 13) contains a September 1777 letter that references British losses at the Battle of Brandywine.  Accomack County chancery cause 1801-005 is a freedom suit filed by a slave named Mary claiming freedom on the basis of her mother’s Native American ancestry. She argues that her mother, Mall Cook, was “one of the native aboriginal Indians of this country” (image #2).

Transcript for Report of division of slaves, 1792

Transcript for D. Bowman letter, 20 September 1777

Transcript for Petition of Mary, 1801

 Fluvanna County chancery causes suits of interest include 1812-007, concerning title to lands of British subjects escheated by Act of the Commonwealth in 1779. Exhibits include a 1725 patent, a list of landowners in Fluvanna County in 1796, and multiple plats (image# 146).  Fluvanna County chancery cause 1807-004 contains information on a mercantile partnership at Old Ferry, a house at Point of Fork, business interests in Richmond and Petersburg, a schoolmaster to the Cary family in Fluvanna County, the mental health of an African American woman named Mary, and the murder of an enslaved man by another enslaved man. The defendant in this suit was David Ross, a prominent Virginia businessman and landowner. His answer to the complaint includes details about his business with his business partner in the town of Columbia in the 1790s and early 1800s (image # 8). Finally, Fluvanna County chancery cause 1841-006 includes an 1840 letter from Crawford County, Arkansas, to a person in Kentucky, describing farm land in Arkansas, unhappiness with the current President of the United States, and a loud celebration of the Fourth of July (Image # 33 and 34).

Transcript to Answer of David Ross, 1806

Transcript to David Shepherd letter, 5 July 1840

 For more information on these collections and to see additional suits of interests, see the EAD guides for Accomack County Chancery Causes, 1727-1805 and Fluvanna County Chancery Causes, 1779-1882.

 These localities join forty-eight counties and cities whose chancery causes have been digitally reformatted and made available through the Library’s innovative Circuit Court Records Preservation Program, which seeks to preserve the historic records of Virginia’s Circuit Courts. 

To date, The Library of Virginia has posted over 5.7 million digital chancery images. Additional localities are presently being scanned and will be posted in the coming months. However, because of reductions to the Library of Virginia’s budget in recent years, the pace of the agency’s digital chancery projects will necessarily proceed more slowly. Please know these projects remain a very high priority for the agency and it is hoped that the initiative can be resumed in full when the economy and the agency’s budget situation improve. Please see the Chancery Records Index for a listing of the available locality chancery collections.

-Vince Brooks, Senior Local Records Archivist & Gregory Crawford, Local Records Coordinator

 

In 1996, Samuel Cooper, circuit court clerk of Accomack County, contacted the Library of Virginia about a large amount of county records he found in the attic of the clerk’s office.  He requested assistance from LVA to determine their value, with the possibility of transferring them to LVA.  A team of archivists travelled to Accomack County expecting to examine only a few boxes of old court papers.  After climbing through the narrow opening of the office ceiling, they discovered a treasure trove of court records dating from the late 1600s to the early 1700s.  Unfortunately, due to the poor environmental and storage conditions the records were in extremely fragile condition. Approximately 50 cubic feet of county records were transferred to the Library of Virginia where they were stabilized.

During the course of several years we examined these records to determine what they were and whether they could be recovered through conservation.  The examination revealed that the records were primarily wills, deeds, fiduciary records, judgments, and chancery suits dated from the colonial era of Accomack County.  Regrettably, the vast majority of these records are unsalvageable.  Victims of heat, humidity, and insects, they can never be recovered. (images above)  Fortunately we were able to identify a few gems that could be restored.  They include tobacco plant censuses, 1728-1729, tithable lists, 1738-1769, and oaths of allegiance, 1757-1758.  All have been expertly repaired by LVA’s in-house conservation lab with funding from the Circuit Court Records Preservation (CCRP) program.  Additional Accomack County court records recovered from the attic will be conserved in the near future.

This extraordinary conservation effort is made possible by funding provided through the CCRP, a part of the Library of Virginia’s Local Records Services Branch.  Since 1992, nearly 1000 records preservation grants totaling more than $15 million have been awarded to Virginia’s circuit court clerks’ offices. CCRP made possible the processing  and preservation of more than 16,000 boxes of Virginia’s local records, the posting of more than 5,000,000 digital images online, and the creation and storage of  more than 350,000 reels of security microfilm in the LVA vault.

 -Greg Crawford, Local Records Manager, and Carl Childs, Local Records Director