Accomack (Virginia) Land Causes, 1728-1825

Accomack County is one of the two ancient counties on Virginia's Eastern Shore, a region of much genealogical and historical interest. The "land causes" abstracted here refer to chancery suits regarding dower rights, divisions of land among heirs, ejectment proceedings, etc. These files are likely to contain the declaration of the plaintiff, the answer of the defendant, depositions by various parties which frequently give dates of birth, death, or marriage for key parties to the suit, and the verdict of the jury. In many cases ownership of the land is traced down from the original grant showing the various owners, and several generations of descendants in the process. Where parties to the suits have left the county, their new addresses are generally given. The abstracts given here are mainly taken from the verdicts which give concise summaries of the declarations and answers, but where there were depositions of unusual interest, or which provided additional information not in the verdicts, they have been abstracted also. These records were taken from both the county and district court files. This compilation is one of numerous valuable genealogical works self-published by Nottingham in the 1930s in mimeograph format. The present edition has been made by completely re-typesetting the material in standard book size. However, it has not been practical to check Nottingham's abstracts against the original records, so errors or omissions which he may have made are reproduced here. The re-formatting of the material has, of course, required the compilation of a completely new index. As is always the case, researchers finding critical information of interest to them in these abstracts should examine the original files for verification and additional details.