Administrative Information

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Preferred Citation

Accomack County (Va.) Lists of tithables, 1738-1769 and undated. Local government records collection, Accomack County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia 23219.

Acquisition Information

These items came to the Library of Virginia in a transfer of court papers from Accomack County.

Historical Information

Accomack County was named for the Accomac Indians, who lived on the Eastern Shore at the time of the first English settlement in Virginia. The word means "on-the-other-side-of-water place" or "across the water." It was one of the original eight shires, or counties, first enumerated in 1634 and spelled Accomac without the k. The county's name was changed to Northampton County in 1643. The present county was formed from Northampton about 1663. In October 1670, the General Assembly temporarily reunited Accomack and Northampton Counties as Northampton County. In November 1673, Accomack County was again separated from Northampton. In early records, the county's name was spelled many ways. In 1940 the General Assembly adopted the present spelling, Accomack. The county gained a small part of the southern end of Smith's Island from Somerset County, Maryland, in 1879, after the United States had approved boundary changes between Virginia and Maryland that had been agreed to in 1877. The county seat is Accomac.

A significant number of loose records from the 1700s suffered extreme water and pest damage. Volumes that record deeds, court orders, and wills exist.

In seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Virginia, the term "tithable" referred to a person who paid (or for whom someone else paid) one of the taxes imposed by the General Assembly for the support of civil government in the colony. In colonial Virginia, a poll tax or capitation tax was assessed on free white males, African American slaves, and Native American servants (both male and female), all age sixteen or older. Owners and masters paid the taxes levied on their slaves and servants. For a more detailed history of tithables, consult "Colonial Tithables" found on the Library of Virginia's web site.

Scope and Content

Accomack County (Va.) Lists of tithables, 1738-1769 and undated. Consists of manuscript lists of tithable heads of household in the county including in some instances the names of slaves, and squirrel and crow scalp and head claims.

Related Material

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

Accomack County is one of Virginia's Lost Records Localities. Additional Accomack 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:

• Accomack County (Va.). Circuit Court.

Subjects:

• Slaves -- Virginia -- Accomack County.
• Taxation -- Virginia -- Accomack County.

Geographical Names:

• Accomack County (Va.) -- History -- 18th century.

Genre and Form Terms:

• Local government records -- Virginia -- Accomack County.
• Tax and fiscal records -- Virginia -- Accomack County.
• Tithable lists -- Virginia -- Accomack County.

Adjunct Descriptive Data