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Official Records - County Records - Richmond County
Richmond County, on Virginia's Northern Neck between the Rappahannock and Potomac Rivers, was formed in 1692. A tidewater county, it was home to a large slave population, amounting to 57 percent of the total in the 1790 census. Richmond County's more prominent residents included Virginia leaders such as Landon Carter of Sabine Hall and John Tayloe of Mt. Airy. Excerpts from its order books below show the activities of Richmond's justices as well as their relations with neighboring counties such as Essex across the Rappahannock River.
Records for 1762
Public Claims Court, November 1762.
A meeting of the justices, November 1, 1762, was to examine requests for compensation for various acts of service, including capturing runaways.
Runaway servant James Harringham, alias Harn, is captured and given extra time by the court, December 1762.
Runaway James Harringham, also known as James Harn or Hamm, has extra time added on to his service for running away. A mulatto servant, Harringham ran away again in July 1763, upon which his master Colonel William Peachey placed an ad in the Virginia Gazette, (Royle), November 4, 1763. Captured again, he received almost seven more years added time. See Richmond County Orders, 1764. Colonel William Peachey (1729-98) was one of Richmond County's most prominent planters and an intimate of Landon Carter. See Jack Greene, Diary of Landon Carter, vol. 1, p. 255.
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