Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Collection is open to research.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

A Guide to Virginia Bound Volumes, Accession 3653, Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library

Acquisition Information

This collection was purchased by the Library on February 13, 1951, from Mrs. Sterling Graydon of Greenwood, South Carolina.

Funding Note

Funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities

Scope and Content

This collection consists of two bound volumes, a ledger from the general store of Abram Riddick , 1853-1859, of [ Nansemond ? County ] and a copy of the early tax records for the section of Albemarle County which later became Nelson County and which also includes additional accounts of legal fees, 1804-1823.

The tax volume contains an index of names in the front and lists the amount of tax levied against each person, including militia fines, levies against each white male over twenty-one, horses, both stud horses and mares, the land tax, and slaves. It also contains many general legal accounts of payments to various courts, lawyers and other individuals, perhaps belonging to a lawyer or clerk of the court. The volume contains a "list of the age of negroes" with their names under the letter Q of the index at the beginning of the volume but no owner is noted.

The settlement of the estates of Elizabeth Harris and William Harris lists payments to an overseer, a coffin maker, the sale of named slaves, and a sum left for the support of "liberated negroes" (p. 265).

This copy of the tax lists may have belonged either to the sheriff as the collector of public taxes or to the clerk of the county court who was supposed to post them in the court house on the next court day after their compilation.

The 1806 tax list totals on page 205 were as follows: 1017 negroes $ 447.48 1225 horses $ 147.00 8 stud horses $ 62.00 1 ordinary license $ 12.50 1 stage wagon $ 3.36 1 coach and gig $ 5.86 merchants and pedlars license $ 120.00 land tax $ 535.89