These records are from the late 18th through the early 19th century. Over 6,000 individuals are named in the marriage records. The probate records identify heirs, with relationships, and give the probate date.
This is the definitive work on Americans taken prisoner during the Revolutionary War. The bulk of the book is devoted to personal accounts, many of them moving, of the conditions endured by U.S. prisoners at the hands of the British, as preserved in journals or diaries kept by physicians, ships' captains, and the prisoners themselves. Of greater genealogical interest is the alphabetical list of 8,000 men who were imprisoned on the British vessel The Old Jersey, which the author copied from the papers of the British War Department and incorporated in the appendix to the work. Also included is a Muster Roll of Captain Abraham Shepherd's Company of Virginia Riflemen and a section on soldiers of the Pennsylvania Flying Camp who perished in prison, 1776-1777.
"Bath County, in western Virginia, was formed from Augusta, Botetourt, and Greenbrier counties in 1791. It is itself the parent county for part of Alleghany County, Virginia, and Pocahontas County, West Virginia. This work consists of genealogical abstracts of the oldest surviving wills and inventories for Bath County--but that's not all. Interspersed with the inheritance records are abstracts of bonds, powers of attorney, estate settlements, articles of agreement, and other records of genealogical import. In general the will abstracts furnish the name of the testator, his county of residence, the names of witnesses and executors, the date of probate, and the names and relationships to the testator of the heirs to the will. All told, nearly 15,000 early residents of Bath County appear in these pages"--Publisher website (August 2007).
The Glazebrooks succeeded in extracting those documents pertaining to Hanover County that survived the burning of Richmond in April 1865 and that were not published in William Ronald Cocke's Hanover County Chancery Wills and Notes. The surviving materials consist of a great many deeds, wills, inventories, accounts, letters, depositions, etc., pertaining to Hanover County for the colonial and early Federal periods. Many of the suits, in particular, stem from the period prior to the French and Indian War. One of the richest sources examined by the Glazebrooks were the files of the United States District Court at Richmond. With references to nearly 5,000 early inhabitants of Hanover County, this hard-to-find sourcebook will unquestionably be in great demand among researchers.
Bath has a small number of people, and a considerable share of this small number is a new element. To many individuals of the latter class a history of the county will appeal very little. For the above reasons we confine ourselves to a presentation of the more striking and important features in the story of this county. But if, in a commercial sense, this county seemed only a moderately promising field for a local history, it remains very true that Bath is one of the best known counties of the Old Dominion. It is one of the older counties in the Alleghany belt, and it lies on a natural highway of travel and commerce. The story of its evolution is one of much interest. -- Foreword.