LUNENBURG COUNTY, VIRGINIA

COLONIAL TITHABLES LISTS 1748 - 1764

Abbreviations and Notes

See Also

Abbreviations and Notes

Table of Content

District Boundaries Table

Abbrev

Notes

LVA

Library of Virginia, Richmond, VA

PTLT

This is an abbreviation for Precinct Tithable List Taker. The tax districts for tithables were known as “Precincts” in the enabling colonial statutes. The precincts were generally loosely defined in court orders each year. These precinct boundaries were very fluid, often being adjusted, recombined, split from year to year as the population shifted. Early Lunenburg County split off other counties that have no subsequent tithables lists. These precincts just dropped off as new counties were formed. Landon C. Bell in his book Sunlight on the Southside also used the term precinct. Local court minutes named certain persons to make a lists of tithes, but they had no official title such as tax collector. Herein, they shall be simply referred to as the Precinct Tithable List Takers.

The “Aa PTLT Aa” code in the “Names” Column is simply a way to sort the precincts by the PTLTs (Precinct Tithable List Taker)

SS

Landon C. Bell, Sunlight on the Southside, Originally Published Philadelphia, 1931, Reprinted Genealogical Publishing Company, Inc. Baltimore, 1994, Reprinted for Clearfield Company, Inc. by Genealogical Publishing Company, Inc., Baltimore 1991, 1998.

Notes:

1. This summary is a small sampling of the surnames that appear in the tithables records. There are hundreds of surnames and thousands of names in the lists for Lunenburg County.

2.This summary combines names abstracted by Landon C. Bell in Sunlight on the Southside (1748 - 1752, 1764), as well as names abstracted by the author for (1) years not covered in Sunlight on the Southside (1753-1759, 1761, 1762), as well as (2) a few precinct lists that were found by LVA after Landon C. Bell published his book.

3.Selected Surnames: Only the surnames: Bruce, Green, Gregory, Haile, Overby, Pettypool, Sizemore, Smith, Vaughan, and Wilkins, including variant spellings, have been abstracted. The Bruce and Haile surnames have no substantial associations with any of the other surnames abstracted. All of the rest are directly or secondarily associated with the Vaughan surname. A few more surnames may appear incidentally.

4.Landon C. Bell Selected the order of the Precincts prior to microfilm being made. Data rows for: 1748-1852, 1764 are in the order published in SS; and Data rows for: are in the order published in LVA Microfilm. 1764 also lists and land own

5.The greyed out table cells, are either for: (a) years, or districts that are missing; or (b) page numbers that were missed in the initial abstract.

6.Years after 1764 (in present day Lunenburg Co.) were not abstracted and are available in Landon C. Bell, Sunlight on the Southside.

7.On its face, tithables lists are very simple. It is a count of white males over the age of 16. The nuances of the count are not so simple. The head of household may be female. She pays for all males over 16, which may include males not hers such as male children of her deceased husband. The count is under the head of household. Generally, but not always, males over 21 are listed under their own household. Males under 21 that have married may be counted under their parent or under their own name. Hired male farmhands, indentured servants, farm managers (called overseers) are counted under that household, not under their father’s household. Males living in a relatives household are counted under that household. Males that are not counted and do not pay their tax on time are considered defaulters and will be found in various other court records. Accordingly, you can come to some tentative conclusions, which may be disproved by other sources. However, in the colonial time period, the tithables lists are most often the only evidence that can be found of date birth of tithable, when a tithable moved from one place to another, or when a tithable died.

8.Lists for 1748-1752, 1764 are from SS; and Lists for 1753-1759, 1761, 1762 are from Microfilm borrowed from LVA.

Sources:

Landon C. Bell, Sunlight on the Southside, List of Tithes Lunenburg County, Virginia 1748-1783; and microfilm from the Library of Virginia.

Library of Virginia, Lunenburg County Microfilm: 411 (1748-1750, 1753-1756) Filmed 2007; Lunenburg County Microfilm 429 (1751-1752) Filmed 2008 and Lunenburg County Microfilm 411 (1748-1750, 1753-1756) Filmed 2007.

Compiled By: David H. Robertson, 159 Hickory St., Roswell, GA 30075 davidhr@hushmail.com