 | A history of Caroline county, Virginia |  |
EARLIEST DIVISIONS
The earliest groups in Colonial Virginia were known as
Plantations, Congregations, Hundreds and Cities. These several
names signified very nearly the same thing. As to the origin of
these first divisions, or groups, but little is known, save that
the hostility of the Indians made it safer for the colonists to
maintain such local organizations for purposes of defense, and
the social and religious life of the people was better served by
such grouping, which gave to every settlement its own house of
worship. The civil and political life also functioned through
these divisions, each group having representation in the General
Assembly. As early as 1619, burgesses were sent to the General
Assembly from "James City," "Captain Ward's Plantation,"
"Stanley Hundred," and other units of the colony, eleven places
all told.
In "The List of the Living on February 16, 1623," as
preserved in the Colonial Records of Virginia, we learn that the
colony contained twenty-four settlements after the fearful massacre
of 1622. The list of burgesses elected to the Assembly of 1629,
discloses the fact that each of the twenty-four settlements had
representation in that body. Immediately after 1629, the Plantations
began to consolidate, and in the next General Assembly
only thirteen groups or Plantations were represented.
| A history of Caroline county, Virginia | |