Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Preferred Citation

New Kent County (Va.) Records, circa 1820-1936. Local government records collection, New Kent County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia 23219.

Acquisition Information

These records came to the Library of Virginia in a transfer of court records from New Kent County under the accession numbers 42124,43653 and 45139.

Historical Information

New Kent County may have been named for the English county of Kent or for Kent Island, in the upper waters of the Chesapeake Bay. The county was formed from York County in 1654. Part of James City County was added on 1 May 1767.

Records were destroyed when John Posey set fire to the courthouse on 15 July 1787. Many records were lost when the courthouse was partially destroyed by fire during the Civil War hostilities in 1862. Additional records were burned on 3 April 1865, in Richmond, where they had been moved for safekeeping during the Civil War.

Scope and Content

New Kent County (Va.) Records, circa 1820-1936, consist of the following series: Court Records (subfield series include Jury Records), Bonds/Commissions/Oaths, Land Records, Wills, Miscelleanous Records, Tax and Fiscal Records, Justice of the Peace Records, Business Records and Election Records.

Related Material

Additional New Kent County Records can be found on microfilm at the Library of Virginia. Consult "A Guide to Virginia County and City Records on Microfilm" found on the Library of Virginia's web site.

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

For more information and a listing of lost records localities see Lost Records research note .

Index Terms

Corporate Names:

• New Kent County (Va.) Circuit Court.

Subjects:

• Public records--Virginia--New Kent County.

Geographical Names:

• New Kent County (Va.)--History.

Genre and Form Terms:

• Local government records--Virginia--New Kent County.

Adjunct Descriptive Data