How Justice Grew: Virginia Counties, An Abstract of Their Formation

A concise administrative history tracing how English law and local necessity shaped Virginia's local government, from the first corporate divisions and the convening of an early legislative assembly through the creation of shires that became counties, the establishment of monthly inferior courts to relieve central authorities, and the demarcation of county boundaries. It explains the origins of county names, the pattern of settlement that drove repeated subdivision, and later westward extensions of jurisdiction into frontier districts, showing the legal and territorial evolution of colonial administration.