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New Kent County (Va.) School Board Records, 1872-1922; 1947. Local government records collection, New Kent County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Va. 23219.
These items came to the Library of Virginia as a gift from the long time Clerk of the Board of School Trustees under the accession numbers 20720-20722.
The first public school system for all children in Virginia was established with ratification of a new state constitution in 1870. In 1875, the Superintendent of Public Instruction directed school district clerks to complete a census of school-age children in their district, give a copy of the County Superintendent of Schools, and file the original census with the official papers of the district board of trustees. Schools were segregate until the mid-twentieth century.
New Kent County may have been named either for the English county of Kent or for Kent Island, in the upper waters of the Chesapeake Bay. William Claiborne, a native of Kent who had been driven from Kent Island by Lord Baltimore, was a prominent resident of the New Kent area about 1654 when the county was formed from York County. Part of James City County was added in 1767. The county seat is New Kent.
Records were destroyed when John Posey set fire to the courthouse on 15 July 1787. Many records were lost when the courthouse was partially destroyed by fire during Civil War hostilities in 1862. Additional records were burned in Richmond on 3 April 1865, where they had been moved for safekeeping during the Civil War.
New Kent County (Va.) School Board Records, 1872-1922; 1947, are comprised of a Cumberland District school census, 1875; Clerk of the Board of District School Trustees, Cumberland District, annual reports, 1874-1879, 1881-1882; and a report and recommendations on the program and administration of the public school system in New Kent County, schools, 1947. Also included are bonds, commissions, and oaths for the Superintendent of Schools, 1872 and 1897; and condemnations of land for public schools, 1872-1922.
Clerk of the Board of District School Trustees annual reports, 1874-1879, 1881-1882, document total school population, by race and gender, number of schools, and number of teachers, school funds received, and school funds expended on teachers' wages and other expenses. Also included are letters notes, and accounts pertaining to hiring and pay of teachers, 1874-1882.
The report and recommendations on the program and administration of the public school system in New Kent County, 1947, was compiled by a research association at the University of Virginia Bureau of Public Administration at the request of the New Kent County Board of Supervisors and School Board. It addresses issues of declining population and accreditation for white and Negro high schools in the county.
Condemnations of land for public schools, 1872-1922, contain commissioner's reports, correspondence, plats, court orders, deeds, and petitions for sale.
Superintendent of Schools Bonds, Commissions, and Oaths, 1872 and 1897, document the hiring of Superintendents of Schools in 1872 and 1897.
Additional New Kent County records can be found on microfilm at The Library of Virginia. Consult
New Kent County is one of Virginia's Lost Records Localities. Additional New Kent County Records may be found in the Virginia Lost Records Localities Collection at the Library of Virginia. Search the
For more information and a listing of lost records localities see