Download Free Gloucester County Book in PDF and EPUB Free Download. You can read online Gloucester County and write the review.

It has been said that if Williamsburg is the physical re creation of Colonial Virginia, then Gloucester is its spirit. When the age of photography dawned, it captured glimpses of this character in pictures both merry and melancholy, of old homes and newcomers, of stubbornly provincial clans yet generous and hospitable people. Soon after landing at Jamestown, land-hungry 17th-century settlers discovered Gloucester's fertile soils and abundant waters. Within a century, wealthy families and a vibrant port brought fame to the young county--preferred by Colonials as it had been by the indigenous people of the principal Powhatan chiefdom they replaced. Gloucester's Colonial and antebellum prosperity declined, though, as the American Revolution and Civil War sapped resources and left society changed. Photographs from the next hundred years until the modern age reveal the genteel, proud, and rural spirit that prevailed.
Reprint of the original, first published in 1877.
Washington Township, now the largest community in Gloucester County, was first incorporated in 1836. Its 22 acres of land, however, had been settled by Europeans as early as the 18th century, when farms were established near Lenni-Lenape encampments. By the mid-19th century, the area listed the communities of Hurffville, Turnersville, Spring Mills or Grenloch Terrace, Dilkesboro, Creesville, Bunker Hill, Chestnut Ridge, and Bells Lake within the township borders. While it remained a farming community throughout the first half of the 20th century, during the 1950s modern housing developments began to replace the farms and peach orchards. The vintage photographs in Washington Township, Gloucester County have been compiled to serve as an archive and assist in preserving the townships rich history.
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
More than a half-century ago, C. G. Chamberlayne, under the sponsorship of the Virginia State Library, transcribed, edited, and indexed a number of original Virginia parish vestry books, four of which are reprinted here. While the dates of coverage and lengths of the volumes vary, they are nonetheless similar in terms of scope and content. Each volume contains the oldest known records pertaining to that parish, in most cases beginning only a few years following the parish's date of formation. Mr. Chamberlayne begins each vestry book with an Introduction that pieces together the formation of the parish and important milestones in its history from published and original sources. Facsimilies of pages from the original vestry books, maps, and photographs help to put each volume into greater context, moreover. Appended to the vestry books are brief lists of the various parish ministers, with an indication of their earliest date of service as found in the records. The transcriptions themselves, ranging from about 250 to more than 600 pages of text, relate to the following issues growing out of the business affairs of colonial parish vestries; namely, payments to persons for services rendered to the parish, oaths and lists of oath-takers, news of the arrival of ministers, the appointment of church wardens, issues related to indentured servants, lists of tithables, payment of salaries and other obligations, the formation of parish precincts with the names of the families apportioned therein, the warding of children, and so on. In each case, these four scarce collections of colonial church records establish the existence of thousands of Virginia inhabitants, each of whom is easily found in the index or indexes at the back of the book.