Iberian Publishing Company's On-Line Catalog:
Amherst County Virginia

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Amherst County was formed on 1 May 1761 from territory then part of Albemarle County. It was so named for Major General Jeffrey Amherst, who had commanded the British forces in the colony during the latter part of the French and Indian War, and governor of Virginia from 1759 to 1768. The new county then included territory in the present counties of both Amherst and Nelson. Augusta County formed its western and northern boundary until Rockbridge replaced it in 1778; on the east Amherst was bounded by Albemarle County. In 1769, the Virginia General Assembly settled a dispute between Albemarle and Amherst by dividing the jurisdiction of certain islands in the James River between these two counties. To the south, Amherst was separated from Buckingham and Bedford (after 1782, Campbell) by the James River. Nelson County was separated from Amherst in 1808 from the northern part of Amherst. At that time Amherst reached its current configuration.

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Publications:

WOLF HUNTERS ON THE VIRGINIA FRONTIER, 1776-1818 [bounty lists & certificates from Amherst, Augusta, Bath, Botetourt, Grayson, Greenbrier, Hampshire, Hardy, Mopntgomery, Patrick, Pendleton, Rockbridge, Russell, Shenandoah, Washington, and Wythe counties [dates vary] transcribed & edited by Karen Wagner Treacy. 8 1/2 x 11, vi, 169 pages, full name index.

Locating an ancestor on the Virginia frontier in the late colonial and early republican period can be a daunting task. As the historian and archivist Robert Clay once remarked in a lecture, an individual he was researching in Virginia’s frontier region "appeared in a random document one morning, fully grown, and disappeared the following morning never to be heard from again.”

Oftentimes, early frontiersmen created few records and left little trace of their passing. Nowhere is this more evident than in the rapidly changing frontier west of the Blue Ridge. Starting with a trickle of settlers, there probably were no more than 160 families residing west of the mountains by 1735. By 1776 and the American Revolution, the number of settlers had grown to tens of thousands, attracted by the rich soils and pasture lands of the Shenandoah Valley and beyond, into Kentucky.

As the new government sought to bring order to the region, parent counties like Augusta and Lunenburg, which originally were little more than artificial lines when first drawn by surveyors in the wilderness, underwent division and subdivision into smaller political units to accomodate the new settlers. The trio of counties on Virginia’s frontier in the early 1740s [Frederick, Augusta, Lunenburg] would be divided and further subdivided over the next seven decades into more than sixty political units.

Author Karen Treacy has discovered an enlightening and unexpected record in the bounty system for wolf hunters. Early farmers and herders sought legislative relief from the scourge of wolf packs. The Virginia legislature responded by establishing the bounty system. In a time when an average laborer’s earning was $6-10/month, the $1 to $6 or 100# tobacco from a wolf scalp (depending on the currency and inflation of the time) was an attractive economic draw for every class of frontiersman, even those constantly moving folk mentioned by Clay.

This book is an important record not only for the two and a half thousand individuals cited but also for a valuable historical window into the activities and growth of Virginia’s frontier society.


To view a digital copy (pdf) of the index to this book, visit Index-Bounty Lists
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[WOLF] $34.95    

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AMHERST CO., VA 1810 CENSUS transcribed by John Vogt. 10 1/2 x 8 1/2, x, 29 pages, illustrations, map, full name index. This is the first surviving census for Amherst, since both the 1790 and 1800 censuses have been lost. The transcription is in the order in which the enumerator took his census. Thus, neighbors appear together and this will assist the genealogist. Amherst was an important and populous county at the western edge of Virginia's Piedmont with a heavy slave population [5,600+].

This and other 1810 censuses are transcribed by the author from the original images, and while many of Virginia's censuses are available online, they oftentimes are replete with misreadings.Caveat emptor!

To view a digital copy (pdf) of the index to this book, visit Index-1810-Amhe
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[AMH10] $9.95     (printed version)

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The above title is also available as a digital e-book in PDF format:

[EAMH10] $6.00     (electronic version)

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Amherst Co. 1815 Directory of Landowners by Roger G. Ward. 2005.20 pages, map, 5 1/2X8 1/2.
For a full description of the 1815 LAND DIRECTORY Records and a listing of available counties, see: Individual County Booklets, 1815 Directory of Virginia Landowners

[Vd05] $7.00     (printed version)

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The above title is also available as a digital e-book in PDF format:

[EVd05] $4.50     (electronic version)

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Amherst Co. Revolutionary Public Claims transcribed by Janice L. Abercrombie and Richard Slatten.. 2005. 50 pages, 5 1/2X8 1/2.
For a full description of the Virginia Revolutionary Public Claims and a listing of available counties, see: Revolutionary "Publick" Claims series

To view a digital copy (pdf) of the index to this book, visit Index-Amherst
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[Pc04] $7.75     (printed version)

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The above title is also available as a digital e-book in PDF format:

[EPc04] $4.65     (electronic version)

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For other records pertaining to Amherst COUNTY, VIRGINIA see:

• Albemarle County
• Nelson County
• Guide to Virginia Militia Units in the War of 1812
• Index to the 1810 Virginia Census
• Chart on the Formation of Virginia Counties
• Atlas of County Boundary Changes in Virginia, 1634-1895

 

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