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Official Records - County Records - Essex County
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.
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