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Official Records - County Records - Accomack County

Accomack County is the northernmost county on Virginia's Eastern Shore. As one of the original counties established in 1634, Accomack has a large collection of records dating back to the earliest years of local government in colonial Virginia. In the first federal census of 1790, Accomack contained 4,262 slaves, or 31 percent of the total population of 13,959. The county also contained a large population of free blacks, and interactions between black and white Virginians in Accomack reveal much of the complexity of Virginia's society. You may read excerpts from county order books for the following years.

Trial of Bett, March 1766.
Arson was a common way slaves might get back at their masters. Poison was another.

Examination of George Scott, July 1766.
Scott was accused of hiding and aiding runaway Diah, who had been tried and sentenced to hang in December 1764. He may have broke jail.

Complaint of an apprentice, July 1766.
Servant William Martin in successful in his complaint against his master. A servant such as Martin might sue for cruel treatment, or his master failing to fulfill his agreement to teach him a trade. Slaves, of course, could not sue their masters, unless they could claim that they were free. See the runaway ad for Aaron, Virginia Gazette (Purdie and Dixon), January 3, 1771, who was unsuccessful in his suit.

Trial of George Scott, July 1766.
At the same session, July 30, 1766, George Scott is tried for receiving stolen goods from runaway outlaw Diah. The jury listing offers a cross section of the county's ordinary folk.

A petition presented by John Smith against Job, a free black, August 1766.
Free blacks had an anomalous position in colonial Virginia's slave society. They did not possess the same rights as whites. Virginia's Eastern Shore had a fairly large proportion of free blacks among its population, dating back to the seventeenth century.

Trial of Diah (Dyah), August 1766.
The court had tried Diah in December 1764 for stealing a sheep. He apparently escaped and was outlawed. In July 1766, a white man named George Scott was convicted for receiving stolen goods from Diah. Since Diah had already been outlawed his conviction here was a foregone conclusion.

John Smith's petition against Job dismissed, October 1766.
Unfortunately the records do not indicate the nature of the complaint Smith made against Job.