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Official Records - County Records - Essex County

Virginia Laws
County Records
       Accomack
       Augusta
       Essex        Richmond
House of Burgesses Journals
Other Documents

Essex County--Founded on the south side of the Rappahannock River in 1692, by the eighteenth century Essex County was one of the established Tidewater counties, its economy fully bound to tobacco and the number of slaves relatively high. In the 1790 census, of the total population of 9,122, 5,440, or 60 percent, were slaves. The county justices met at the town of Hobb's Hole, which today is called Tappahannock, and its prominent men included merchant-planter Archibald Ritchie, and Robert Beverley. Across the Rappahannock was Richmond County, whose planters, among them John Tayloe and Landon Carter, joined with those of Essex in family and business relationships.

1765 1766 1768 1769 1770 1771 1772