James Gibson at Falling River, 1748

SUNLIGHT ON THE SOUTHSIDE

Transcribed by Thomas Walter Duda

{page 57} CHAPTER TWO LIST OF TITHES, LUNENBURG COUNTY, VIRGINIA 1748, 1749, 1750, 1751

The lists of tithes for the years 1748, 1749, 1750 and 1751 embrace the entire area of ancient Lunenburg or the whole of the County, before it suffered any loss of territory, by the subdivision of its area into other counties. In other words, these lists embrace the census of tithables of the area which is now embraced in whole or in part in eleven counties. These counties are Lunenburg, Mecklenburg, Charlotte, Halifax, Pittsylvania, Henry, Patrick, Franklin, Campbell, Bedford and Appomattox. Campbell and Bedford Counties embrace a little territory not originally within Lunenburg, while only about a fourth of the area of Appomattox is from territory originally within Lunenburg County. It is believed that all the lists for all these years except 1751 have been found, and are embraced herein. Only four lists for 1751 have been discovered. There were almost certainly four, and very probably five other lists for this year, which have not been found. A map of the County as it was when organized in 1746, and as it stood in 1748, is herewith presented. It is laid off into precincts for the taking of tithes that year. The boundaries of these precincts cannot be drawn with exact certainty, but from a study of the map and the brief description of the orders designating the territory within which each justice should take the lists, an approximation of the boundaries of the precincts has been attempted. It is felt they are, at least, accurate enough to serve a useful purpose. The designation of these precincts indicates that the most thickly populated area of Lunenburg County at that time was that section north of Roanoke River westward to Falling Creek, and that probably the most thickly settled part of that territory was that lying upon the watershed of Meherrin River. The site of John Phelp?s precinct from Falling River westward indicates that this was sparsely settled; and this was true in greater degree of the precinct of Cornelius Cargill. Theoretically his precinct embraced, presumably, all the territory from Butchers Creek westward, and in the Forks of Roanoke (and Dan) rivers, and from the North Carolina line northward to the boundaries of other precincts, and westward to the limits of the County. But probably such inhabitants as were then in the area were clustered in and about ?the fork? of the river. There were probably but few persons then resident in what is now Patrick, Henry, Franklin and a considerable part of Halifax Counties.

A List of Tithables from the Mouth of Falling River Upwards for the Year 1748. Taken by John Phelps.

{page 85} Tithes

Thomas Pitman .............................................. 1

James Gibson, Archblad [Archibald?] Gibson ............................. 2

Randol Gibson .............................................. 1