Culpeper County, Virginia: History and Information

Culpeper County, Virginia

Culpeper County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Culpeper
Year Organized: 1748
Square Miles: 381

Court House:

302 N. Main Street
County Courthouse
Culpeper, VA 22701-2622

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Culpeper is named for either Thomas Colepeper, 2nd Baron Colepeper of Thoresway, who was a colonial governor of Virginia or for his first wife Margaretta van Hesse, called Margaret, Lady Colepeper, or for their daughter, Thomas's heir and only surviving issue, Catherine Colepeper. The family had significant land holdings on the Northern Neck and in the Shenandoah Valley, as well as family ties with Thomas Fairfax, 6th Baron Fairfax of Cameron.

Demographics:

History

Culpeper County, Virginia formed from Orange County. Legislative enactment in 1748. Organized in 1749. Later changes occurred in 1832-1833. [Virginia Counties: Those Resulting from Virginia Legislation, by Morgan Poitiaux Robinson, originally published as Bulletin of the Virginia State Library, Volume 9, January, April, July 1916, reprinted 1992 by Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., Baltimore, MD.]

Culpeper County probably was name for Catherine Culpeper, or for her mother, Margaret Lady Culpeper, or for Thomas Culpeper, second baron Culpeper of Thoresway, governor of Virginia from 1677 to 1683, or for their family, which long held proprietary right in the Northern Neck. It was formed from Orange County in 1749. Its area is 389 square miles, and the county seat is Culpeper.

Neighboring Counties:

Stafford County, Virginia - East

Orange County, Virginia - South

Madison County, Virginia - Southwest

Rappahannock County, Virginia - Northwest

Spotsylvania County, Virginia - Southeast

Fauquier County, Virginia - Northeast

Cities and Towns:

- Culpeper (County Seat)

town

Incorporated Area

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

The history of our nation can be seen as a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names we've given our counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of our country!"

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally."

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