Bedford Co. 1815 Directory of Landowners
by Roger G. Ward. 2005. 39 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
[Vd08] $9.00 (printed version)
The above title is also available as a digital e-book in PDF format:
[EVd08] $6.00 (electronic version)
1815 DIRECTORY OF VIRGINIA LANDOWNERS & GAZETTEER, vol. 2 South Central Region
(Includes the counties of Bedford, Brunswick, Campbell, Charlotte, Franklin,
Greensville, Halifax, Henry, Lunenburg, Mecklenburg, Patrick, Pittsylvania, Prince Edward, Southampton, and Sussex) abstracted by Roger G. Ward. 1997, vi, 234 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:-
observe distinct clusters of the same surname within a county in order to clarify
the common surnames such as "Smith", "Anderson", etc;
- identify non-resident landowners and their county (or state) of residence (these
people often being former residents of the current county);
- determine neighbors with different surnames (often being relatives);
- 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;
- evaluate the 1810 to 1840 census information which generally grouped
neighbors;
- 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.)
[Vdl2] $32.00 (paper version)
The above title is also available as a digital e-book in PDF format:
[EVDL-2] $20.00 (electronic version)
Bedford Co. Revolutionary Public Claims
transcribed by Janice L. Abercrombie and Richard Slatten.. 2005. 64 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-Bedford
(Close the pdf file with the left arrow to return to Iberian's catalog)
[Pc06] $8.75 (printed version)
The above title is also available as a digital e-book in PDF format:
[EPc06] $5.25 (electronic version)
For more records pertaining to BEDFORD COUNTY, VIRGINIA see
also:
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
Index to the 1810 Virginia Census
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Bedford County was formed on 10 May 1754 from the western lands of Lunenburg County and named for John Russell, fourth Duke of Bedford, who as secretary of state for the southern department (1748-1751), had general supervision of colonial affairs. At the time of its creation the new county comprised the area from Falling River, in present Campbell County, to the mountains where it abutted with Augusta County. A year after its formation the portion of Albemarle County south of the James River and an additional part of Lunenburg County west of the present Charlotte-Campbell line was added to Bedford. In 1782 Campbell County was cut off, followed by a portion of newly-created Franklin County's land in 1785. At that point, Bedford achieved its present boundaries. The great landmark of the Peaks of Otter are located in this county, at the juncture of the Carolina Wagon Road and the Cumberland Trace.
BEDFORD CO., VA 1810 CENSUS transcribed and annotated by John Vogt. 10 1/2 x 8 1/2, x, 47 pages, illustrations, maps. This is the first surviving census for Bedford, since both the 1790 and 1800 censuses have been lost. Bedford was an important county with a heavy slave population (6,147), and the census records a large total population in excess of 16,000. The manuscript itself is in very poor condition.
BEDFORD COUNTY, VIRGINIA MARRIAGE BONDS, 1755-1800 Earle S. Dennis & Jane Estelle Smith, compilers, 1931,
8"x10" format, 110 pages,index. Earle Dennis, the county clerk of the Bedford Superior Court, compiled these marriage bonds from the originals. The original list was first published in 1931. Iberian has reformatted the text from the original typescript in the Library of Virginia, and a complete name index of grooms, brides, bondsmen, and parents where available has been created. These early marriage bonds cover the first half-century of Bedford's existence, and they span the French & Indian War as well as the American Revolution and its aftermath when Americans began moving west in greater numbers