There are no restictions.
Use microfilm copy, Gloucester County (Va.) Reel 7.
Gloucester County (Va.) Tax Accounts, 1770-1771. Gloucester County (Va.) Reel 7, Local government records collection, Gloucester County. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia 23219.
The original volume was purchased from Virginia resident, Sallie Perrin on April 7, 1938 for $20.00. It was accessioned under the number 21341 on April 3, 1939.
Gloucester County was formed from York County in 1651. The county was named probably for the English county, although it may have been intended to honor Henry, duke of Gloucester, the third son of King Charles I.
The sheriff was "the most powerful and the best paid of any county official in colonial times." Among his many duties, he collected the taxes, which were paid in tobacco, took custody of it and paid the county expenses as directed by the court. By doing so, he acted as a combination of both the commissioner of revenue and the county treasurer. The sheriff was also responsible for services rendered in the prosecution of court cases (law enforcement.) He was appointed by the governor from a list of three names submitted by the county court. His term of office was for one year until 1731, after which it was two years. His two deputies, also known as sub (under) sheriffs, did most of the work.
In 1782, the General Assembly of Virginia enacted a major revision of the tax laws of the Commonwealth. The act provided for the statewide enumeration on the county level of land and certain personal property. The act created a permanent source of revenue for the operation of government in Virginia.
The original tax records, from which this volume was compiled, were created by the county court.
All records were destroyed by an 1820 fire, and most of the records created after 1820 were destroyed by fire in Richmond on 3 April 1865, where they had been moved for safekeeping during the Civil War.
Gloucester County (Va.) Tax Accounts, 1770-1771, was used by county sheriff, Thomas Smith, to record early tax information. The volume lists individual tax accounts--noting parish and county levies, quit rents, muster fines as well as tax on each set of wheels under a passenger vehicle as well as county accounts. The volume has an unnumbered internal index. The index lists surnames A-Y. For the most part, the individual's last name appears according to its order within the volume. As noted by a researcher transcribing the volume, the volume is " a list taken in the parishes of Abingdon, Petsworth and Ware. The book gives only a partial list of those names in the three parishes, as a number of pages are missing and torn. Many of the names are found only in the index, which is also incomplete and for those no record can be given of land or property." The volume was conserved at some point and preserves some later doodles and poetry--added perhaps when the volume was in private hands.
Arranged chronologically.
Additional Gloucester County Tax and Fiscal Records can be found on microfilm at the Library of Virginia. Consult
Gloucester County is one of Virginia's Lost Records Localities. Additional Gloucester County Court Records may be found in the Virginia Lost Records Localities Collection at the Library of Virginia. Search the
The volume is mentioned in "Records of Colonial Gloucester County, Virginia, Vols. I and II," compiled by Polly Cary Madison in 1946 and 1948 and found in the Library of Virginia's book collection.
The sheriff's appointment in 1769 is mentioned in the "Executive Journals of the Council of Colonial Virginia," Vol. VI, page 332.
For a description of the role of the sheriff in colonial times, consult "A History of Early Spotsylvania" by James Roger Mansfield, pages 112-113, found in the Library of Virginia's book collection
See the
For more information and a listing of lost records localities see