County still using wrong founding year in some places

Middlesex County was founded in 1668 but it took centuries to establish that date. Even today, some of the signage in the county, along with the official county website, have the incorrect date of establishment as 1673.

On the 350th anniversary in 2018, Claudia Soucek, chairman of the 2007 Jamestown Celebration Book Committee, asked Middlesex County Board of Supervisors (MCBS) to change the signage to reflect the 1668 date. MCBS agreed to allow 1668 signage on the entrance signs into the county but due to “expense” would not change interior signage or the website.

This has contributed to further confusion as recently a historical group read that signage and thought 2023 was the 350th anniversary and were thinking of celebrating.

History surrounding the confusion

By the time Middlesex County was settled by the English in the 1640s, British culture and customs of civilization were well established in the New World and were a part of the lives of the first Middlesex County residents. The courts, courthouse system and county clerk were all part of our county’s beginnings, but permanency has not always been the case.

The reason historians and county officials have for years used the 1673 date is because five years of ancient county records are not in the courthouse in Saluda. Over the centuries this has led to speculation and debate as to the actual birth year of Middlesex County.

How MC lost its early records

The first written mention of the location of our courthouse in Middlesex was that it was on Urbanna’s Town Bridge Road in the home of Richard and Ann Robinson. Supposedly it was there from “1673 to 1695” when it was moved to Stormont on what is today Courthouse Road…