Powhatan County (Va.) Board of Overseers of the Poor Minutes, 1852-1870

Access and use

Location of collection:
Library of Virginia
The Library of Virginia
800 East Broad Street
Richmond, VA 23219
Contact for questions and access:
POC: Archives Reference Services
Phone: (804) 692-3888

Summary

Creator:
Powhatan County (Va.) Circuit Court
Language:
English

Background

Scope and content:

The Powhatan County (Va.) Board of the Overseer of the Poor Minutes are two volumes dated 1852-1859 and 1860-1870. The minutes give the names of people receiving financial support, food, and clothing, as well as those moved to the poor house and the burial of the deceased. At the end of the volume, Minutes 1852-1870, are accounts for the years 1853-1856 and 1859.

Found in the volume, Minutes 1860-1870, is a page torn from the book. There ia a list of people on the page.

Biographical / historical:

Powhatan County was named for the Indian chieftain who ruled the native inhabitants of tidewater Virginia in the early seventeenth century. It was formed from Cumberland County in 1777, and part of Chesterfield County was added later.

In 1780 the Virginia General Assembly replaced the Anglican vestries and churchwardens of the colonial period with elected bodies called Overseers of the Poor. The Overseers provided food, clothing, shelter, and medical treatment for the persons who were too poor to support themselves or too ill to provide for their basic needs. The Overseers took over the supervision of the poorhouses and workhouses built by the vestries and built new poorhouses and workhouses where they were needed.

Acquisition information:
These items came to the Library of Virginia in shipments of court papers from Powhatan County.
Arrangement:

Chronological

Physical location:
State Records Center - Archives Annex, Library of Virginia
Physical description:
2 v.