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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 Ned and a chancery case involving a family's division of slaves, January 1, 1772.
Chancery was a special equity court that usually decided family disputs over inheritance.

Trial of Stepney and Sambo, April 30, 1772.
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A complaint of ill treatment brought by an apprentice's mother, May 27, 1772.
Such complaints were fairly common.

Trial of Will, September 30, 1772.
During the Revolution, Isaac Smith placed an ad for several runaways, who he asserted had joined a gang of runaways and loyalists led by Stephen Mister and Covington Carmine who were marauding the countryside. See Maryland Gazette, July 27, 1779.

A child accused of murder, November 14, 1772.
Because of the age of the defendant, the verdict was death by accident.

Covington Carmine accused of dealing with a slave, October 27, 1772. The charge was sent to the grand jury.
Carmine may have been related to James Carmine, who was a leader of a mixed gang of loyalists and runaway slaves operating on the Eastern Shore during the Revolution. They were captured and tried in summer 1779. See Maryland Gazette, July 27, 1779.

Trial of Shadrach and Joseph, November 19, 1772.
Joe was acquitted, Shadrach found guilty but received benefit of clergy and sentenced to be branded on the hand.

A session producing a number of orders, including slaves' ages judged and two free blacks bound out, November 24, 1772.
As slaves approached puberty, they were hauled before the justices who set their ages for the purposes of taxation.

The Grand Jury's presentment against Covington Carmine for dealing with a slave, December 30, 1772.
Carmine may have been related to James Carmine, leader of a mixed gang of loyalists and runaway slaves operating on the Eastern Shore during the Revolution. They were captured and tried in summer 1779. See Maryland Gazette, July 27, 1779.