Order books contain records of all matters brought before the court when it was in session and may contain important information not found anywhere else. A wide variety of information is found in order books including appointments of county officials and militia officers, records of legal disputes heard before the county court, appointments of guardians, apprenticeships of children by the overseers of the poor, naturalizations, road orders, and registrations of free Negroes. This volume contains entries from Richmond County Order Book No. 4, 1704-1708 for Courts held November 1, 1704, through February 7, 1705/6. Originally printed in 1996, reprinted 2016.

In this book, John Nelson reconstructs everyday Anglican religious practice and experience in Virginia from the end of the seventeenth century to the start of the American Revolution. Challenging previous characterizations of the colonial Anglican establi

Virginia men of law constituted one of the first learned professions in colonial America, and Virginia legal culture had an important and lasting impact on American political institutions and jurisprudence. Exploring the book collections of these Virginians therefore offers insight into the history of the book and the intellectual history of early America. It also addresses essential questions of how English culture migrated to the American colonies and was transformed into a distinctive American culture. Focusing on the law books that colonial Virginians acquired, how they used them, and how they eventually produced a native-grown legal literature, this collection explores the law and intellectual culture of the Commonwealth and reveals the origins of a distinctively Virginian legal literature. The contributors argue that understanding the development of early Virginia legal history—as shown through these book collections—not only illuminates important aspects of Virginia’s history and culture; it also underlies a thorough understanding of colonial and revolutionary American history and culture.

Co-authored by Virginia D. Harrington. 2nd printing, 1997. Prepared under the auspices of the Columbia University Council for Research in the Social Sciences.