The first book of Accomack County's court orders (1663-1666) documented the county's infancy; newly formed from Northampton County (Virginia), Accomack's court looked to Col. Edmund Scarburgh for leadership. The second book of court orders (1666-1670) laid bare the Henry Smith and Col. Scarburgh scandals that rocked the county and apparently contributed to its disbanding. In the third book of court orders (1671-1673) the county, renamed "Upper Northampton," was placed under the control of commissioners from Northampton County, Accomack's neighbor on the Eastern Shore. In the fourth book,...

Accomack County's eleventh book of court orders began in May 1710, and continued through November 1714. Either the populace was generally satisfied with the court's judgments or the citizenry had learned that criticism was counterproductive; complaints about the court and its justices are not as evident as in previous years. The introduction spotlights the more interesting, revealing or unfortunate incidents found among the court orders issued during those years. These pages comprise a fascinating collection of accounts of assault, fornication and adultery, thievery and wills. Much can be...

Accomack County's seventh book of court orders began with the court session held on 19 February 1682/83. For more than seven years, John Washbourne, the court clerk, took quill in hand to record the court's decisions. After the court met in September of 1690, Washbourne began using a new book for recording the orders, but he did not waste the blank pages remaining in the old one. He filled these with lists of tithables, deeds, inventories, cattle marks and odd entries dated as late as February 1697/8. These pages comprise a fascinating collection of accounts of boundary disputes, crime and...

Accomack County's eighth book of court orders began with the court session held on 8 November 1690. The original court order book still survives, in which John Washbourne, the court clerk, took quill in hand to record the court's decisions. The courthouse where the orders were issued was deteriorating in the 1690s. Toward the end of 1692, it was decided that the next court session (which was scheduled for the third Tuesday in February) would be held in Scarburgh Port Town at Onancock. The last court date in this volume is 6 October 1697. These pages comprise a fascinating collection of...

Accomack County's tenth book of court orders begins with the court session held June, 1703, and concludes with March, 1710. The introduction spotlights the more interesting, revealing or unfortunate incidents found among the court orders issued during those years. These pages comprise a fascinating collection of accounts of assault, accidents, fornication, illness and death, crime and punishment, and slander. Much can be learned about domestic affairs, household items, orphans, religion, roads and waterways, servants and slaves, taxes and more. This chronological collection of court orders is...

Books Twelve and Thirteen of the court orders of Accomack County, Virginia, are treated as a single volume in this work because they both contained less than half the number of pages as the previous Accomack County court order books. Book Twelve covers the period from November 1714 through August 1717, while Book Thirteen covers the period from September 1717 through June 1719. News of the death of Queen Anne on August 1, 1714 had only just reached Virginia in November of that year. King George I had ascended to the English throne, an event commemorated by two epithets on the first page of...

Accomack County's fourteenth book of court orders covers just over five years, beginning in June of 1719 and ending in July of 1724. The introduction to this volume spotlights a selection of the more interesting, revealing or unfortunate incidents found among the court orders issued during those years. These pages comprise a fascinating collection of accounts of assault, fornication and adultery, theft, property disputes and wills, disorderly conduct, drunkenness-truly a representative sampling of legal transgressions in a Colonial community. Much can be learned about our Virginia ancestors'...