Mathews County VirginiaA VAGenWeb & USGenWeb Project
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This county project is up for adoption, If interested contact Jeff Kemp for more information. |
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The Temporary Coordinator is MaryAlice, contact her for the following reasons: |
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About Mathews County |
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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. |
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Kingston Parish |
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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." |
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Captain Sally Louisa Tompkins, C.S.A. 1833-1916 |
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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 |
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Adjacent CountiesMiddlesex County - north Gloucester County - south & west York County - south |
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General Resources |
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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 |
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On This Site
Interesting BooksEpitaphs 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 |