Mathews County Virginia

A VAGenWeb & USGenWeb Project

Mathews County, VA VAGenWeb

This county project is up for adoption, If interested contact Jeff Kemp for more information.

The Temporary Coordinator is MaryAlice, contact her for the following reasons:

If you find a broken link.
If you have photos or other materials that are connected to Mathews county or the people who lived here, and want to share that with others.
Have or have access to books or other materials and would be willing to 'Look-Up' names for other researchers.
Live in or near Mathews County and would take photos of gravestones, historical markers or other items to be added to this site or for other researchers.

About Mathews County

Mathews County, the smallest of Virginia's rural counties, was originally delineated in 1651 as Kingston Parish, a part of Gloucester County. In 1791, the two were separated, and Mathews became an independent county. It was named for a prominent American Revolutionary officer, Major Thomas Mathews of Norfolk, who supported the separation legislation as Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates. From Cricket Hill, which overlooks Gwynn's Island, Continental cannons drove the last of Virginia's Royal Governors, Lord Dunmore, from Virginia's shores in 1776. The county, whose 94 square miles are surrounded by more than 200 miles of shoreline, is the site of numerous landmarks of historical significance. The county seat is Mathews.

Kingston Parish

Transcription of Marker Number N-35: "Kingston Parish was established about 1652. During colonial times, the Anglican parish administered the ecclesiastical and some civil affairs for the inhabitants of the area that later became Mathews County. The principal parish church is believed to have been located on this site since the early 18th century. In ruins by 1841, it was restored as Christ Church largely through the efforts of Elizabeth Tompkins, sister of Confederate Capt. Sally Tompkins. Both are buried here. After a fire in 1904, the church was rebuilt. Rev. Giles Buckner Cooke, former member of Gen. Robert E. Lee's staff during the Civil War, served as rector here from 1904 to 1915."

Captain Sally Louisa Tompkins, C.S.A. 1833-1916

Photograph from the Eleanor S Brockenbrough Library, The Museum of the Confederacy, Richmond, Virginia

Sally Louisa Tompkins was born at Poplar Grove in Mathews County, Virginia, November 9, 1833 and from early childhood exhibited a great love and aptitude for nursing.

Following the First Battle of Manassas, she established her own private hospital at 3rd and Main Streets in Richmond, Virginia. Later in 1861, private hospitals were no longer able to draw medical supplies from the government, and were forced to close. Because of its excellent reputation for cleanliness and highest recovery rate of any military hospital, North or South, President Jefferson Davis commissioned Sally a Captain in the Confederate Cavalry, thus allowing her to continue operating her Robertson Hospital with government supplies.

From THE RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH, July 26, 1916
"Captain Sally Louisa Tompkins, 83 years old, died yesterday of chronic nephritis at 8:45 o'clock in the morning, in the Home for Confederate Women. The funeral, with full military honors, will take place in Mathews County in the graveyard of the church which her sister, Miss Elizabeth Tompkins, helped to establish in 1841."

Book about her: 'Dearest of Captains: a biography of Sally Louisa Tompkins', by Keppel Hagerman, Brandylane Publishers

Adjacent Counties

Middlesex County - north

Gloucester County - south & west

York County - south

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What's New On This Site ?

This county is up for adoption, it is a basic HTML format.
Links have been updated.

General Resources

Mathews County VA Government Links for property tax & county clerk

Afro-American Historical & Genealogical Society (AAHGS)

Mathews Memorial Library

Historical Markers in Mathews County

Tidewater Genealogical Society

Virginia Genealogical Society

Mathews County Historical Society

Gloucester Genealogical Society

USGenWeb Archives for Mathews County

Use the Rootsweb Message Board to post your queries.

Old Tombstones in Mathews County

US African-American Griots

Births, Marriages & Deaths in Kingston Parish, Mathews County

On This Site

1909 Confederate Pension List

Old Surname List

Old Guestbook Entries

Interesting Books

Epitaphs of Gloucester and Mathews Counties in Tidewater Virginia through 1865 by APVA, Joseph Bryan Branch, Gloucester (Richmond, VA: Virginia State Library 1959)

Mathews Men Who Served in the War Between the States by B. F. Little (Norfolk, VA: Teague & Little 1961)

Mathews County, Virginia Death Register 1853 - 1896 8.5" x 11" format iv, 146 pp., fully indexed , by Jane B. Goodsell (Athens, GA; Iberian Pub. Co., 2001)

Mathews County, Virginia Records includes Executors' Bonds, 1795-1825; guardian books, book B, 1806-1822; marriages, 1827-50, performed by Rev. William A. Billups; marriage, 1817-70, and death, 1807-90, announcements from Virginia papers, by Jane B. Goodsell (Athens, GA; Iberian Pub. Co., 2000)

Publications available through the Mathews County Historical Society