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Dinwiddie County, Virginia

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Virginia Counties | Dinwiddie County, Virginia

See also the county categories for
and categories for the two parishes that served Dinwiddie County:[1]

Contents

Dinwiddie County

Dinwiddie County, formed 1 May 1752 from Prince George County, is named for Robert Dinwiddie, Lieutenant Governor of Colonial Virginia, 1751-58.[2][3]

The county seat is Dinwiddie and the county includes the incorporated town of McKenney.[4] Dinwiddie County covers 503.76 sq. mi. and its population is just under 25,000.[5]

Dinwiddie County is part of the Richmond, Virginia Metropolitan Statistical Area.[2]

A bit of history from Dinwiddie County: Carrefour of the Commonwealth..., published in 1976:[6]

"The settlement of Dinwiddie County took approximately sixty years (1690-1750). The largest patents were granted to Robert Bolling along Namozine Creek, the smallest to Nicholas Overby for islands in the Appomattox River (the greatest number of patents were recorded between 1715 and 1730)."[6]
page 35
"While most of the land in Dinwiddie County was patented before its organization in 1752, settlement was slow."[6]
page 46
Petersburg, established as a marketplace, was also "slow in developing. Old Street (Grove Avenue) was laid off in 1732, but it was 1748 before Abraham Jones II and his brother Peter [Jones] III petitioned for a town charter.... Acts of Assembly in 1750, and 1752, incorporated Petersburg, Blandford and Pocahontas into townships." Petersburg remained part of Dinwiddie County until 1784.[6]
page 50
The need for "an export, commercial and manufacturing center... resulted in the incorporation of a single incorporated town called Petersburg in 1784. The first mayor was John Bannister of Battersea, Dinwiddie County."[6][7]
page 98

The first mayor of Petersburg, Colonel John Banister (born 1734), was the grandson of the the naturalist, the Reverend John Banister (born about 1650).[8] His father, another John Banister, was the ward of William Byrd:

"The first Virginia naturalist was Rev. John Banister (c.1650-1692), a close friend of William Byrd I of Westover. Banister was accidently killed while exploring the lower Roanoke River with some men in Byrd’s entourage. After Rev. Banister’s death, . . . William Byrd became the guardian of Banister’s namesake son".[9]

His biography posted by Genealogy Trails summarizes Mayor Banister's political career: "member of the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1765, 1766-1774, and 1775; member of the conventions of 1775 and 1776; served in the State house of delegates in 1776, 1777, and 1781-1783; Member of the Continental Congress in 1778; one of the framers and signers of the Articles of Confederation".[10]

"Over the years many notables have called Dinwiddie County home, but one of the county's most famous natives is General Winfield Scott."[11]

Records

The bulk of Dinwiddie County's "court records prior to 1865 were stolen, mutilated, and/or destroyed by Union troops who ransacked the courthouse during the last months of the Civil War. Post-1830 volumes such as deed books, will books, chancery order books, and marriage registers exist."[12]

Existing Dinwiddie County records are listed on this page. This website says that pre-1833 records were destroyed in 1865, but this website notes that pre-1833 records were lost when the Dinwiddie Courthouse burned down in 1833.[13]

This Dinwiddie County page has a link to Land Tax Books 1782-1875: "The Clerk's Office has converted the Land Books on Microfilm with the Library of Virginia from 1782 to 1875 into a pdf format for each year. These records are especially helpful when searching the land records prior to 1833. Prior to 1833 the deeds and land records were destroyed and this is the only record of land owners in the county."

Resources

The associated projects may also list resources that may help your research. See Virginia (post-1776)[14] and US Southern Colonies Colony of Virginia Team. See also that project's Sources and Resources Directory.

Location

Northwest
Amelia County		 North
Chesterfield County		 Northeast
City of Petersburg
North arrow
West
Nottoway County		 West arrow Dinwiddie County, Virginia East arrow East
Prince George County
South arrow
Southwest
Brunswick County		 South
Greensville County		 Southeast
Sussex County

Categorization

Location categories are specific to the person, and Virginia counties that existed prior to 4 July 1776 - such as Dinwiddie County - have a "Virginia Colony" category. Profiles for people who died before 4 July 1776 should only be in Category: Dinwiddie County, Virginia Colony. Profiles for people who were born on 4 July 1776 or later should only be in Category: Dinwiddie County, Virginia. A person born before 4 July 1776 but with life events on or after that date might be in both.[15]

[[Category: Dinwiddie County, Virginia Colony]]
[[Category: Dinwiddie County, Virginia]]

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Parishes of Virginia, compiled by Freddie Spradlin (accessed 13 June 2020)
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Wikipedia: Dinwiddie County, Virginia
  3. ↑ The datafield for this page had 27 Feb 1752 as a start date, but I could not find a source for that date. ~ Noland-165, 11 March 2022
  4. ↑ McKenney
  5. ↑ 24,533 in 2014 (Virginia Counties)
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 Dinwiddie County: Carrefour of the Commonwealth. A History by Richard L. Jones, Published in connection with the celebration of the 200th Anniversary of the American Revolution by the Board of Supervisors of Dinwiddie County, under the direction of Dinwiddie County Historical Book Commission (1976). Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 76-47218.
  7. ↑ By the time Petersburg became an Independent City in 1850, it included land in Chesterfield, Dinwiddie, & Prince George Counties. ~ History of County Formations in Virginia 1617-1995 (accessed 2 March 2024).
  8. ↑ Wikipedia article on Col. John Banister
  9. ↑ "The Banister Family of Virginia," Rare Book Collection, Stratford Hall
  10. ↑ Genealogy Trails: "B" biographies (accessed 2 March 2024).
  11. ↑ Tim Talbott, "Random Thoughts on History: Dinwiddie County's Own Winfield Scott", blog post, 7 June 2015 (accessed 2 March 2024).
  12. ↑ Lost Records (pdf), Library of Virginia
  13. ↑ This website and this one disagree as to when fire destroyed pre-1833 records. I recall that I was told by Dinwiddie Courthouse staff that pre-1833 records were lost in a fire, and I presumed the fire was that year, but now I cannot find confirmation of an 1833 fire. The staff did tell me that Virginia required copies of land tax records to be sent to Richmond, and referred me to Land Tax Books 1782-1875, which has links to pdfs that the Dinwiddie County Clerk's office created from microfilm records of the Library of Virginia.
  14. ↑ For WikiTree purposes (for categorizing, database errors, etc.), the colonial period ends 4 July 1776.
  15. ↑ Note that no people profiles should be in either Category: Virginia Colony or Category: Virginia.
See also:






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Seal of Dinwiddie County, Virginia
Seal of Dinwiddie County, Virginia
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Noland-165 Liz (Noland) Shifflett
various plantation names given in this book, page 135
posted by Liz (Noland) Shifflett

Categories: Dinwiddie County, Virginia | Dinwiddie County, Virginia Colony