1782 Recruitment Quota List for New Kent County, Virginia

By Act of Assembly, Virginia ordered men (and women) to be recruited for service in some capacity during the War of Independence. Here is New Kent County’s recruitment quota list, containing 428 names, done in August 1782.

The clerks’ (evidently more than one) penmanship was so well done and legible that I didn’t transcribe the list.

Here is a transcription of the cover page (not shown in the old script, below):

Copy of the classes laid off by the field officers of New Kent County in August 1782 – men. – 24. One-eight taxes 337.8.9. New Kent.

Here’s a transcription of the Preamble (shown on the first page, below):

Pursuant to Act of Assembly for recruiting this state’s quota of troops to serve in the Army of the United States, the field officers of the County of New Kent met at the courthouse of the said county on Friday the 9^th day of August 1782 for the purpose of laying off the county into classes agreeable to the directions of the said act, but not having time to finish the same, they adjourned from day to day until the 17^th day of the month when they were finished and are as follows:

The Cloptons figure in this list. See, for example, Class 14 and no. 6 for William Clopton, “son to Walter.”

CLASSES 1-2