Iberian Publishing Company's On-Line Catalog:
Independent City of Alexandria

Located in Fairfax and Arlington Counties; established in 1748 as a small trading post, but the earliest settlement on the site dates from ca. 1669; First known by the name of Hunting Creek Warehouse, then Belhaven; incorporated as a town in 1779 and named for John Alexander, an early property owner of the tract on which the town was located; organized as an independent municipality 27 February 1801 from a portion of Fairfax County; established as a city in 1852. During 1863-65 the city served as the capital for the "Restored Government of Virginia" as designated by Union forces. In 1870 Alexandria became an independent city and organized a Corporation Court, equivalent to the county Circuit Court system. Alexandria County was extinguished in 1920 when the remaining portion not within the city's limits were renamed Arlington County. Alexandria City's court records begin in 1780-82; however, its marriage records date from 1870.

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VIRGINIA MERCHANTS: WILLIAM HODGSON OF ALEXANDRIA: HIS DAYBOOK FOR 1800-1803 by Charles Hamrick. 1997,2011 IV, 111 pp., index of names.William Hodgson (1765-1820) was a native of White Haven, England, born in 1765; emigrated to America, and settled in Alexandria, about the year 1785. In 1790, Hodgson bought a house at 207 Prince Street. After his marriage to Portia Lee (1777-1840) in May1799 he conducted a dry goods business on the first floor, using the upper floors for family quarters. From the Day Book presented here, it is clear that Hodgson’s commercial ventures were spread across a vast area, with Hodgson frequently involved with ship cargoes from the Caribbean, England, and the Continent. Hodgson’s business thrived, and in 1806 he acquired a second house on Prince Street, between Fairfax and Water Streets, to handle the growing stocks of goods. In addition, Hodgson maintained a frame warehouse adjoining his primary business at 207 Prince Street.

More than 700 items are listed in Hodgson’s inventory of goods, ranging from the finest livery for ladies and gentlemen to the ordinary nails, axes, adzes, and tools for the workman. Through his wife, Hodgson had access to the elite of the city at that time, and the most notable of his clients was Martha Washington. He also conducted long-range ventures in the Caribbean and Europe. The entries not only give an accurate account of business dealings of the time, but they offer a rare window into the lifestyle and buying habits of early nineteenth century townfolk. What is remarkable is the prolific selections of goods which were purchased from this “drygoods” dealer.

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[VMWH] $27.00     (printed version)

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[EVmwh] $16.00     (electronic version)

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VIRGINIA MERCHANTS: ALEXANDER SMITH & SON, ALEXANDRIA CO., VA, HIS LETTER BOOK OF 1803-1811 by Charles & Virginia Hamrick. 2004, x, 211 pp., index of names. The authors have provided a transcription of a letter book for Alexander Smith & Son, who operated a store at Alexandria, Virginia, This work elucidates the workings of the merchant and business class in Virginia during the period of the enormous growth of the new nation following the Revolution. It also points out the difficulties faced by merchants in a period of economic disruption just prior to the War of 1812. Eventually Smith was forced to close his business enterprise in 1811 and he became one of the entrepreneurial victims of the times.
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[VMAS] $32.00     (printed version)

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[EVmas] $20.00     (electronic version)

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Alexandria City 1815 Directory of Landowners by Roger G. Ward. 2005. 62 pages, map, 5 1/2X8 1/2.
For a full description of the 1815 LAND DIRECTORY Records and a listing of available counties, see combined volume below

[Vd43] $11.00     (printed version)

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[EVd43] $8.00     (electronic version)

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1815 DIRECTORY OF VIRGINIA LANDOWNERS & GAZETTEER, vol. 4 Northern Region (Includes the counties and cities of Alexandria (i.e., present-day Arlington), Culpeper, Fairfax, Fauquier, Frederick, Loudoun, Madison, Orange, Prince William, Rockingham, Shenandoah, Spotsylvania, Stafford, and the independent cities of Alexandria, Fredericksburg, and Winchester ) abstracted by Roger G. Ward. 1997, vi, 220 pages, indices, maps.
In 1782 the General Assembly of Virginia enacted new tax laws which created within each county an enumeration of land and certain personal property. These early land tax laws required a tax commissioner in each district of a county to record a list of the names of persons owning land or town lots, the quantity of land owned and its value, and the amount of tax owed. By 1813, a brief geographic description (usually citing an adjacent stream, road, or other landmark) was required; in 1814, the distance and direction from the courthouse for each parcel was also added to the tax rolls.
The present work is an alphabetical listing of all 1815 landowners found in each county, as well as the accompanying description of the location of the said property. We have not included the number of acres, taxes assessed, or any transactions between landowners which may have been noted on the tax rolls; also, in many cases the geographic location was provided as "adjacent to John Smith", etc. and, while useful many times to a genealogist, was considered to be beyond the objectives of this project. The reader is encouraged to consider the information here-in as an "outline" of early landowners in Virginia rather than a "text" due to the year-to-year variation in information provided to the clerk (or recorded by the clerk), omissions, lack of "identifiers" to determine if "same name" was also "same person" within a district or across districts, marginal quality/clarity (in a few cases) of the microfilm copy, and, not least, errors on the part of either the original clerks or the current author while transcribing.
Some of the approaches to utilizing the 1815 landowner information include:

1. observe distinct clusters of the same surname within a county in order to clarify the common surnames such as "Smith", "Anderson", etc;
2. identify non-resident landowners and their county (or state) of residence (these people often being former residents of the current county);
3. determine neighbors with different surnames (often being relatives);
4. use the 1815 information as a "bridge" from the 18th and 19th century deed/will books to the 17th and 18th century land grants/patents in the county;
5. evaluate the 1810 to 1840 census information which generally grouped neighbors;
6. substitute this information for missing deed/will books in the "burned" counties; and, clarify/enhance vague deed/will information in the counties with more complete records.

FORMAT OF PRESENTATION: Each entry is listed as: Surname, name, personal identifiers (if any); location/place-name of land; miles/direction from the 1815 courthouse. If multiple owners are listed for a property, the listing is duplicated under each of the owner's surnames (i.e "Smith and Brown" is also listed as "Brown, --see Smith"); when multiple owners share a common surname, the property is only listed once. When a landowner had land at more than one location/place-name, the miles/direction listing for each parcel is in the same sequence as the location listing (i.e. James RV, Slate CK; 12N, 5SW.). In the few cases where a landowner had "many" parcels, the miles/direction notation is attached to the location listing (i.e. Sandy RV- 5NE, Willow CK-7S, etc.)

[Vdl4] $32.00    (paper version)

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[EVDL-4] $20.00     (electronic version)

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For more records pertaining to the Independent City of ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA see:

• Fairfax County
• Guide to Virginia Militia Units in the War of 1812
• Chart on the Formation of Virginia Counties
• Atlas of County Boundary Changes in Virginia, 1634-1895

 

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