Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Mathews County (Va.) Overseers of the Poor Records, 1863-1931, Local government records collection, Mathews County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Va. 23219.

Acquisition Information

These items came to the Library of Virginia in a shipment of court papers from Mathews County.

Processing Information

Mathews County (Va.) Overseers of the Poor records, 1863-1899, were flat-filed and described by S. Walters around 2012. The Superintendent of the Poor annual reports and vouchers have been identified but are unprocessed.

Encoded by S. Walters: April 2012; Updated by V. Brooks: August 2025

Historical Information

Context for Record Type:

Overseers of the Poor

In 1780 the Virginia General Assembly replaced the Anglican vestries and churchwardens of the colonial period with elected bodies called Overseers of the Poor. The Overseers provided food, clothing, shelter, and medical treatment for the persons who were too poor to support themselves or too ill to provide for their basic needs. The cites had Almshouses to board invalids and paupers living in their cities. They also obtained employment for those who were able to work.

Superintendent of the Poor

The Virginia Constitution of 1869 provided for the election of a superintendent of the poor in each county, who would be charged with operating the county poor house. Overseers of the poor in each district or township would send indigent citizens from their area to the superintendent for housing at the county poor house. The superintendent was required to report to the board of supervisors annually the number of paupers at the poor house, their race, their names, and length of stay, along with they year's revenue expenditures.

Locality History: Mathews County was named for Thomas Mathews, of Norfolk, the Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates when it was formed from Gloucester County by a statute passed on 16 December 1790 to take effect on 1 May 1791.

Scope and Content

Mathews County (Va.) Overseers of the Poor Records, 1863-1931, consists of reports, notices, and vouchers for supplies provided to the poor house by the Overseer of the Poor. Also included are annual reports and vouchers from the Superintendent of the Poor.

Arrangement

This collection is arranged into

Related Material

Additional Mathews County Records can be found on microfilm at the Library of Virginia. Consult "A Guide to Virginia County and City Records on Microfilm."

See the Lost Records Localities Digital Collection available at Virginia Memory.

Adjunct Descriptive Data