Place:Dettingen Parish, Prince William, Virginia, United States

Dettingen Parish was carved out of Hamilton Parish in 1745.

Taken from "Records of Dettingen Parish, Prince William County,Virginia"
Vestry Book 1745-1785,
Minutes of Meetings of the Overseers of the Poor,1788-1802,
Indentures, 1749-1782
(Historic Dumfries Virginia, Inc., Dumfries, Virginia, 1976)

Dettingen Parish was, like other Virginia parishes in the pre-revolutionary era, both a civil and an ecclesiastical Juristiction. Among other duties, the Vestry levied taxes for the support of the Church and of its police and local government functions, administered poor relief, processioned the boundaries of lands, educated and apprenticed poor children, and exercised police powers relating to the personal condut of the people within the Parish, These vestries served as training grounds for the members in broader public service in county, commonwealth and national governments. The nature and extent of the exercise of these public responsibilities are clearly visible in the minutes of Dettingen Parish which cover the period 1745-1785.