Elizabeth City County Probate Records

Elizabeth City County was created in 1634 as the Elizabeth River Shire, being one of eight shires in the Virginia Colony by the order of the King of England. The county is located in southeastern Virginia and survived from 1634 to 1952. It was subdivided in 1636 and that portion located north of the harbor of Hampton Roads became known as Elizabeth City Shire, afterwards renamed Elizabeth City County. When the Englished arrived in 1607, the area was known as Kikotan after the native Indians. The shire and county were named for Elizabeth of Bohemia, daughter of King James I, sister of Princes Henry and Charles.The county seat is Hampton, established in 1680. In 1952, Elizabeth City County merged with Hampton and is today the independent city of Hampton. The city also includes the former Town of Phoebus.

Notes

"The Tristram and Jane of London left England in the late summer or early fall of 1636, arriving in Virginia in time for the fall tobacco crop ready for the market in December. Daniel Hopkinson, merchant, was in charge of the cargo, but dying before the ship's return to England, he requested to be "decently" buried at the Kecoughtan (Elizabeth City) Church."

"The first wedding in Virginia took place in 1608, not long after the arrival of Mrs. Forest and her maid, who, as may be surmised, did not long remain a maid. John Laydon, who had come as a laborer in 1607, took her, a girl fourteen years old, then of marriageable age, for a bride. In 1625, they were living with their four daughters in Elizabeth City Corporation."

"Unfortunately, there is no complete list of the women who came to Virginia prior to 1616, but, in addition to those heretofore named, the presence of others is recorded. Joane Salford, wife of Robert Salford of Elizabeth City, came by 1611, and Salford's sister Sarah reached Virginia at the same time, or just a year or so later. Susan, wife of John Collins of West and Shirley Hundred, came in the Treasurer, 1613. Elizabeth, wife of Lieutenant Albiano Lupo, came in the George, 1616, and little Susan Old was brought by her cousin Richard Biggs, when she was only two years of age; eight years later she was reported living with the Biggs family in Charles City Corporation. Martha Key was with her husband Thomas by 1616."

"The Company lands in Elizabeth City were the fertile fields of the Kecoughtan Indians, who had been driven from their habitations there, in 1610, after the murder of a colonist, Humphrey Blount."

" Captain Christopher Calthrope, the Virginia planter, served both York and Elizabeth City in the House of Burgesses during the period, 1644-1660, and also was one of the Commissioners for York County."

Source: Domestic Life in Virginia in the Seventeenth Century by Annie Lash Jester