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

From Corporations to Counties: The Early Framework

The earliest excerpts reveal a gradual shift from the four corporations—James City, Charles City, Henrico, and Kikotan (later Elizabeth City)—to a county system. Hiden emphasizes that the 1619 Assembly arranged burgesses by “cities and plantations,” while the 1623/24 journal grouped them under corporations for the first and only time. This detail signals her attention to administrative change. She notes that the Eastern Shore remained a separate entity, a pattern that recurs throughout the book. The language is precise: “incorporations and parishes” are treated as overlapping units, reflecting the fusion of civil and ecclesiastical boundaries in early Virginia. Readers should watch for how Hiden uses parish lines as a consistent reference point, as seen later in the division of Amherst County along parish boundaries in 1808.

Boundary Descriptions as Historical Documents

A striking feature of the later excerpts is the inclusion of full boundary descriptions from legislative acts. The creation of Giles County in 1806 is described with a metes-and-bounds recitation that begins “Beginning at the end of Gauley mountain on New River” and winds through creeks, mountain tops, and straight lines to the mouth of Guyandotte River. Similarly, Scott County’s 1814 bounds run “from the head of Reedy creek where the wagon road crosses the same” to the Kentucky line. These passages are not decorative; they are the raw material of the book’s argument that county formation was a legal and geographical process. Hiden treats each boundary as a primary source, letting the language of the original acts speak for itself. The reader gains a sense of how surveyors and legislators thought in terms of natural landmarks and plantation boundaries.

Naming Patterns and Political Memory

Hiden observes that Virginia “has believed in honoring the men who have held the gubernatorial office,” noting that nineteen governors have been commemorated in county names. She provides examples: William H. Cabell (Cabell County, 1809), William B. Giles (Giles County, 1806), and Thomas Nelson (Nelson County, 1808). The excerpts also mention General Winfield Scott, for whom Scott County was named in 1814, and note that George Mason, Thomas Jefferson, and the Marquis de Lafayette are absent from the list. This pattern of naming is presented without commentary, but the reader can infer that the choice of honorees reflects political priorities of each era. Hiden also notes when counties later fell into West Virginia, as with Cabell and Giles, adding a layer of geopolitical change to the naming tradition.

The Role of Natural Features in County Definition

Throughout the excerpts, rivers, mountains, and creeks serve as the primary markers of county boundaries. The Giles County description relies on New River, Gauley mountain, Wolf creek mountain, and Flat-top mountain; Scott County uses Clinch River, Powell’s mountain, and Cumberland mountain. Hiden also includes a brief aside about Mountain Lake in Giles County, noting its use as a summer resort and a field station for the University of Virginia’s Biology Department. This detail, while seemingly tangential, underscores how the same natural features that defined political boundaries later became sites of scientific and recreational interest. The reader should note that Hiden’s method is cumulative: each county entry builds on previous ones, and the repeated use of landscape language creates a consistent geographical vocabulary.

Hiden’s work is best read as a reference abstract rather than a continuous narrative. The excerpts suggest that each county entry follows a pattern: date of formation, parent counties, boundary description, and naming rationale. Readers interested in a particular county can jump to its entry, but the book rewards sequential reading by showing how boundaries shifted and names recurred. The lack of a conclusion in the excerpts leaves the story open-ended, reflecting the ongoing evolution of Virginia’s counties. Approach the text with a map at hand, and let the boundary descriptions guide your understanding of how justice—as administrative order—grew across the landscape.

Sometimes I think about how boundaries get drawn—on maps, between counties, even inside ourselves. That old Virginia booklet traced lines through legislative records, yet felt oddly human. It reminded me of Within Prison Walls being a narrative during a week of voluntary confinement in the state prison at Auburn, New York — Background and Themes, where walls become surprisingly tender. Both lingered with me as quiet meditations on enclosure and what remains visible.