county
A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...
North Carolina
North Carolina () is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 28th largest and List of states and territories of the United ...
.
History
Albemarle County was named for
George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle
George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle JP KG PC (6 December 1608 – 3 January 1670) was an English soldier, who fought on both sides during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. A prominent military figure under the Commonwealth, his support was cruc ...
Province of Carolina
Province of Carolina was a province of England (1663–1707) and Great Britain (1707–1712) that existed in North America and the Caribbean from 1663 until partitioned into North and South on January 24, 1712. It is part of present-day Alabam ...
, for whom the Albemarle Sound is also named. It contained approximately 1,600 square miles of territory, though its boundaries were not precise.Baxley, Laura Young and William S. Powell Albemarle County ncpedia.org (2006) (State Library of North Carolina) Under the original divisions of the province, the county to the south of Albemarle was called Clarendon County and centered on the Cape Fear region, but was only briefly occupied in the 1660s. Bath County was organized in 1696 and lay more closely to the south.
By 1670, four precincts of Albemarle County had been formed: Shaftesbury, Currituck, Pasquotank, and Berkeley. In 1681, Berkeley was renamed Perquimans, and by 1685 Shaftesbury became Chowan. By 1689 the county ceased to function as a governmental unit, replaced by the four "precincts" (which would later become counties themselves):
Chowan County
Chowan County () , from the North Carolina Collection's website at the
Perquimans County
Perquimans County () , from the North Carolina Collection's website at the
Bertie Precinct was formed from part of Chowan in 1722, consisting of all territory west of the
Chowan River
The Chowan River (cho-WAHHN) , from the North Carolina Collection's website at the Tyrrell Precinct was created in 1729. Local residents asked that the western part of Bertie be divided into a new precinct as early as 1732, which led to the creation of Edgecombe Precinct (dates of the formation of Edgecombe vary from 1732 to 1741).
Albemarle County was officially abolished as an entity in 1739, and all the "precincts" were designated as "counties".History of County Formations in North Carolina 1664-1965 Rootsweb, Retrieved July 16, 2014Albemarle County and the Original Precincts of Carolina, Later North Carolina ''North Carolina Historical and Genealogical Register'', pp. 304-310, Vol. III. No. 2 (April 1903)
Albemarle Settlements
The Albemarle Settlements were the first permanent English settlements in what is now North Carolina, founded in the Albemarle Sound and Roanoke River regions, beginning about the middle of the 17th century. The settlers were mainly Virginians, m ...
County
A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...