Place:Essex, Virginia, United States

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Essex County is a county located in the Middle Peninsula in the U.S. state of Virginia. As of 2010, the population was 11,151. Its county seat is Tappahannock.

History

'Old' Rappahannock County was formed from Lancaster County on 11 December 1656. It functioned as a county until 1692, when it was abolished and split into Essex County and Richmond County. At the same time, Farnham Parish was divided into North Farnham Parish (Richmond County) and South Farnham Parish (Essex County.) The Rappahannock County records were retained by Essex County. The main reason for the division was the physical separation of the two jurisdictions by the Rappahannock River.

An anomaly of this division was that the parent county, and its court, were abolished entirely and substituted by two new counties and two new parishes.

Timeline

Population History

source: Source:Population of States and Counties of the United States: 1790-1990

Research Tips

• Essex County, Virginia family history and genealogy research guide (FamilySearch Research Wiki).

• Statutes at Large, Being a Collection of All the Laws of Virginia from the First Session of the Legislature in the Year 1619 by W. W. Hening - online!