County Formations in Southern Virginia

In searching for the location of an ancestor's will, it can be helpful to familiarize ourselves with counties in the area, when and where they were formed, and their specific boundary changes over time. The following may help to clarify where our Brewer ancestors lived while south side of the James River in southern Virginia.

1619          Charles Cittie

1619 James Cittie (Included Jamestown)

↓ 1634 Charles City Shire ↓ 1647 Charles City County ↓ 1703 Prince George County ↓ ↓ 1720        Brunswick County ← ← (also from Isle of Wight       and Surry Counties) ← ← ↓ 1780 Greensville County

↓ 1634 James City Shire ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ← ← ← ←↓← ← ← ← 1652 ← ← Surry County          (South side of James River)

↓ 1634 Warrosquyoake Shire ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ 1637 ← ← Isle of Wight County         ↓ 1749 Southampton County

The following map shows the regions mentioned above. It is very hard to wrap my head around where some of the original boundaries were, when compared to modern counties. This is the best I was able to come up with after several hours of research and map editing.

The slanted lines through Isle of Wight County extend to show the approximate total area that it originally covered. The same goes for the horizontal lines through Surry County, the slanted lines through Prince George County, and the upright ones through Brunswick County. I hope this helps to visualize the boundary changes and the various county formations applicable to our Brewer ancestors.

Original map source - Public Domain ➚
Map editing - myself

A large proportion of the old Brewer families lived south of the James River for a great number of years. This region was generally comprised of rugged, industrious people who tended to be less loyal to the king.