A Select History of Mathews County, Virginia

This book is a selected history of Mathews County, Virginia, in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries, and prior to 1791 an area known as Kingston Parish, Gloucester County, Virginia. It begins with a detailed analysis of original land patents and settlement patterns including a listing of all families and names of headrights. The social and economic development during the colonial period is explored including demographic information, agriculture, and labor systems utilizing indentured servants and African slaves. Chapters devoted to the Revolutionary War include the local militia, the Battle of Gwynn’s Island, and the formation and activities of the Virginia State Navy. Original sources, including logbooks of the British navy, are used to present a detailed account of Revolutionary War naval activity in the vicinity of Mathews County. Shipbuilding, agriculture, and other economic factors are explored during the years preceding the Civil War, including the War of 1812. Genealogical histories of Robert and Ann Hall and their descendants are woven into the narrative as an example of an average family of the times. The book is designed to appeal to students of Tidewater Virginia and Mathews and Gloucester Counties and family historians in search of a rigorous analysis of the Hall family of Mathews County, Virginia.

Conrad Mercer Hall is a lifelong resident of Norfolk, Virginia. In his early teens, his father bought a small farm on Billups Creek in Mathews County, and over more than 40 years his family spent many summers and weekends living in an old house surrounded by fields and woods.  He earned a BS degree from the Virginia Military Institute and served as an artillery officer in the United States Army, including duty with the 8th Army in the Peoples Republic of South Korea. He received a MBA from the Darden Graduate School of Business at the University of Virginia and has an Honorary Doctoral Degree in Humane Letters from Old Dominion University. He retired as the CEO of Dominion Enterprises after a 40-year career in the media and information services industries.