Trial of a Slave 1794

- from Calendar of Virginia State papers and other manuscripts: Vol. 7

New Kent in 1882

- from The Chesapeake & Ohio Railway directory, containing an illustrated history and description of the road ...1882

The Geographical Transformation of New Kent County, 1654

Charles River was one of the eight original shires of Virginia. Named after the Charles River (for Charles I) the county was later renamed York after the name of the river was also changed.

New Kent was formed in 1654 from the upper section of York county, encompassing the watersheds of the Pamunkey and Mattaponi. Probably named after after the county of Kent in England it was possibly named  after Kent Island in the Chesapeake Bay. William Claiborne, the most prominent man in the county in the mid-seventeenth century, had been born in Crayford parish in Kent. Claiborne was responsible for an abortive settlement on Kent Island in the early 1600s that was eliminated by the Maryland authorities.

Images created through the Virginia Historical Counties website.
More on Virginia "shires" here.

This series is called the "Geographic Transformation" because I think "Cartographic Transformation" doesn't really trip off the tongue.

"unattractive and ill-constructed"

Meeting of the Freeholders and Inhabitants . . .

 The "Acts"spoken of are the "Intolerable Acts" passed in the summer of 1774 to punish Massachusetts for the Boston Tea Party.

Bartholomew Dandridge was the brother of Martha Washington, Burwell Bassett I was the husband of Anna Maria Dandridge, Martha's sister.

Found Dead

-from the Richmond Dispatch, February 19, 1891

Eltham Battle Site

"Map from the Confederate Engineer Bureau in Richmond, Va. General J.F. Gilmer, Chief Engineer[.] Presented to the Virginia Historical Society by his only daughter, Mrs. J.F. Minis, Sav[ana]h, Ga."



...and zoomed in a bit more

map site