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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.

Servant Betty Barber complains of mistreatment, May 1766.
Betty Barber, a servant?, lodges a complaint against Griffin Garland for ill treatment, May 5, 1764. In 1768 Garland and Samuel Hipkins advertised for runaway servants Henry Valentine and George Pitt, who were eventually captured (see Virginia Gazette (Rind), Williamsburg, August 25, 1768; and Richmond Co. Orders, 1768). Garland later placed ads for runaway slaves belonging to John Tayloe, and continued advertising for runaways into the 1790s.

Landon Carter prosecutes a slave for stealing bacon, July 1766.
Carter, himself a justice, brings his slave Johnny before the court charged with stealing bacon. In his diary Carter repeatedly complains about "Gardner Johnny," who sold stolen goods to a local white farmer named Robert Smith, whom Carter also prosecuted (see Carter Diary, ed. Greene, vol. 1, pp. 396-397; Richmond County Orders, 1767.

A father grants his son property, November 1766.
In a transaction recorded before the county justices, a father grants his son what every white Virginian needed to succeed in life: land and slaves. Fauntleroy was one of the leading men of Richmond County.

A mother complains of ill treatment of her apprentice son, and a servant contract is transferred, December 1766.
Parent Ann Claxton complains about ill treatment her son, an apprentice, received from his master. In another entry from the same date, an apprenticeship agreement (indenture) is transferred from one master to another. William Porter, of Hobbs Hole, just across the Rappahannock River from Richmond County, advertised for runaway Tom in January and February 1768 (see Virginia Gazette (Purdie & Dixon), Williamsburg, January 28, 1768; and Virginia Gazette (Rind), Williamsburg, February 4, 1768, and petitioned the Essex County Court in July 1766 to allow him to castrate another slave, Jack, for repeatedly running away. (See Essex County Orders, 1766). In September 1768 Porter was one of three subscribers to an ad for servant runaways George Eaton, Thomas Davis, and mulatto Jack: Virginia Gazette (Rind), Williamsburg, September 22, 1768.