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Lower Norfolk County was established in 1637. It was the parent county of Norfolk and Princess Anne counties, which today have been superseded by the metropolises Chesapeake City and Virginia Beach, Virginia. This publication by John A. Brayton is the first in a new series--the transcription of Lower Norfolk County's colonial records. The volume is a verbatim transcription of the county's oldest extant records, Wills and Deeds, 1656-1666, and quite a treasure it is. As a matter of fact, in addition to wills, deeds, and other land records, this volume contains hundreds of depositions, orphans' court proceedings, dispositions of widows' estates for second and third husbands, lawsuits resolved and unresolved, punishments for moral offences such as bastardy and truancy, powers of attorney, petitions of every fathomable variety, assignments of county precinct officers, announcements of travel "out of the county," lists of Quakers, and edicts from the Crown conveyed by Governor Berkeley. There are even some court records from Nansemond and James City counties, announcements of forthcoming marriages, and an entire page of Dutch.

See also Volume Two: Record Book C, 1656-1666.