![]() To become a justice, sheriff, vestryman, etc., was to acquire the entitlement, at least, of “Gentleman.” The grades appear to have been servants, yeomen, planters, who appear to have been ” gentlemen ” or not, according to their property and family connections. “Gentleman.” This term then, as now, was one of great vagueness, but always imparted a certain social or official distinction. The pound was twenty shillings, the shilling twelve pence, equivalent to $3.33 1/3, and 16 2/3 cents, respectively. “The colonial pound was not the pound sterling. “Tithable.” For many years taxes were levied only on persons, not on property, and a tithable, generally speaking, was such a person as was subject to taxation usually all male persons sixteen years of age, and servants of that age of both sexes. The change of `style’ consisted in dating the year from January 1 st instead of March 25th and the addition of the eleven days was a mere incident. “Style.” The old style prevailed when the county was formed, and until 1752, when the year began March 25th January, February, and March, up to the 25th, constituting the last three instead of the first three months of the year. It has been written with no sordid motive, but I hope a sufficient number of copies may be sold to reimburse the cost of publication, and, perhaps with too much vanity, I look to the appreciation of my friends and of posterity for my main and enduring reward.Īs sundry archaic terms are unavoidably employed in this work the following definitions are deemed necessary. I submit the book to the public with the assurance that it is the truth as far as I have been able to ascertain it after diligent seeking the simple truth, unwarped by fear. Stanard, the well known antiquarian and editor of the Virginia Historical Magazine and to our courteous and obliging clerk, Mr. Kemper, of Staunton, himself a historian of excellent fame to Mr. Grateful acknowledgements are extended to Mr. I have gone but little into the deed and will books, fearing that there is already too much detail, which, for the benefit of the antiquarian, has generally been put into appendices of which there are so many that I look for the criticism that ” the book has appendicitis:” which, however, is the prevailing fashion.Īnd genealogy has been altogether eschewed. Otherwise there could be no orderly narration of them. Facts, far apart in time but relating to the same general subject, have to be grouped in the chapter treating of that subject. The sequence of the chapters, though far from being chronological (which is the ideal sequence) is the best I could devise. cruel episodes in the state of society then existing redound rather to the credit than to the reproach of our ancestors when sternness in the administration of the law was an essential, not to say a cardinal, virtue. ![]() I have not been able to take this view, deeming it but a sorry attempt at writing history to suppress the truth. I have been advised by judicious and well meaning friends to omit some of the more shocking details, such as the burning of Eve at the stake, the beheading of Peter, the cutting off of ears, burning in the hands, etc. Regret is vain, and can not restore what is lost my effort has been to save what is left, and to perpetuate it for posterity.įortunately the county records are in excellent preservation, and the order books of the county court contain the history of the county, in the main, so far as it may now be written. Name after name of places and people once locally historic has passed into oblivion and beyond the reach of the investigator. I have read with diligence the minute books of the county court from its organization in 1734 down to 1870 and can assert with complete candor that no known resource which I thought might afford information as to the past has been neglected. It is much to be regretted that some competent person did not do this work long ago for in the lapse of time and the neglect of opportunity many things that ought to have been preserved can not now be narrated with confidence as history, hardly as tradition. ![]() I have undertaken to write this book because I thought that the history of Orange was notable enough to deserve preservation.
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