Virginia - Jurisdictional History

The first settlement in Virginia, at Jamestown, was undertaken in 1607 by the Virginia Company of London. (Thus, like New Amsterdam and Massachusetts Bay Company, Virginia began life as a business operation.) The company was reorganised and rechartered in 1618, but in 1624 the charter was revoked, and Virginia became a royal colony for the remainder of the colonial period.

The county system in Virginia was not created all at once but grew in a series of stages from about 1618 to 1642. The Virginia Company in 1618 ordered the organisation of the colony into four jurisdictions known as cities or boroughs. Based on this beginning, various courts were established, which formed the basis for the full-blown counties.

By the end of this period, nine counties existed from which all other Virginia counties were descended: Charles City, Elizabeth City, Henrico, Isle of Wight, James City, Northampton, Northumberland, Warwick and York.

Middlesex County was founded in 1673. English settlement of the county began around 1640, with the county being officially formed in 1669 from a part of Lancaster County. Middlesex County is located in Virginia's Middle Peninsula region, on the eastern end. It is bordered by the Rappahannock River, the Chesapeake Bay, the Piankatank River and the Dragon Run swamp. The county's only incorporated town, Urbanna, was established by the colonial Assembly in 1680 as one of 20, 50-acre port towns designated for trade. It served initially as a port on the Rappahannock River for shipping agricultural products, especially the tobacco commodity crop. As the county developed, it became its commercial and governmental center.

Essex County was established in 1692. The original county was Northumberland County, established in 1645, and subsequently divided into Nothumberland,, Lancaster, and Westmoreland Counties. Eventually Lancaster became Lancaster, Rappahannock and Middlesex Counties. In 1692, the now extict Rappahannock County split into Essex and Richmond Counties. The port town of Tappahannock was to become a center of commerce during the 17th and 18th centuries establishing a crossroads.

John Hord of Shady Grove, Essex County, Virginia

Both the publications, A History of the Hord family by Robert Hord, and The Hord family of Virginia by the Reverand Arnold Harris Hord a complete history of the Hord family, are based on an original manuscript book owned by Henry Ewell Hord of Nashville, Tennessee.

Arnold H Hord states that the lineage of the Hord family of England has been traced back to Richard Hord of Shropshire 1275 A.D. And in 1553, Alan Hord, a member of this Shropshire family purchased the Manor of Cote, Oxfordshire. Other members of this family moved to London, to Ewell in Surrey and to the southern and southwestern counties of England. He states that May 22, 1650 Aalan Hoord came to Virginia, also Elias Hoard May 27, 1654 and that all people with the Hord surname in America are descended form this family, who has the right to bear a Coat of Arms

I find it quite amusing when you see other people's web sites concerning the Hord family, with the Coat of Arms in a prominent position, and they have copied word for word from these publications.

Unfortunately some of his work does seem to be flawed.

Since having a yDNA match with some descendents of John Hord we have been looking very closely to see if we can find the answer to this. My Hore family can be traced back to the early 1500's in villages to the north of Gloucester City. These villages were Charlton Kings, Leckhampton, Down Hatherley and Deerhurst. Although there are records earlier in 1327 of Hugh le Hore paying 9d in tax at Charlton Kings.

The Hore/le Hore/Hoore/Hoare/Hoar/Whore surname has never been spelt Hord.

Also you would expect a family who had a Coat of Arms to be quite well educated and usually had an Armorial Seal to sign their documents with. In the 1708 deed of William Gardner John HORE couldn't sign his name.

So what do we really know about John Hord. In the following early documents he spelt his name HOARE/HORE then for some reason he started using HORD/HOARD.

The earliest record documented so far is 1703.

Latest records added: Fredericksburg Court Records - as of 20th Jan 2017 - 51 new records added.
Also records of the HORD family added from George WASHINGTON papers - updated 20th Jan 2017.
Latest records added: From the Rouzie Baird Collection, held at Essex County Museum, only a short description of Hord family entries, the full entries not available online - 45 records added 17th Feb 2017.