Road Orders

Building and maintaining of public roads in Colonial Virginia was largely the responsibility of the citizens of each county, as dictated by the County Court. An Overseer of Highways was appointed by the Gentlemen Justices each year, and the overseer's job was to open and maintain roads. In order to carry out this work, all of the "Labouring Male Titheables" living on or near the road were assigned to work under him. They were expected to work 6 days/year, and supplied their own tools, wagons, teams, etc. Therefore, knowing who was assigned to work on a particular road, gives researchers an indication of where those people lived. This can be very useful in pinning down areas of residence when other records are lacking, and can also help us to determine when an ancestor no longer lived in the area. For projects that were not manageable by a small labor force, such as building large bridges over rivers, Commissioners were appointed by the court. They selected the appropriate sites for the bridges and also contracted workers. If a bridge connected two counties, two commissioners were appointed to work together, one from each applicable county.

Source - Brunswick County Road Orders 1732-1746, by Nathaniel Mason Pawlett ➚

"Tithables" were people subject to the poll tax, or a per person tax, which was used to fund the colonial civil government. By 1658, the term applied to anyone who could potentially be a part of the labor force. This came to include, not only white males aged 16 and over, but now also included imported Negro slaves and Native American servants, both male and female of the aforementioned age. The tax, or tithes, for servants or slaves would be paid by their masters, who were tithable for them, or on their behalf.
Source - Tithables ➚