Hampshire County was formed from the Virginia counties of Augusta and Frederick in 1754. Later, during the American Civil War, it became the first Virginia county wholly in the territory that is now West Virginia. Mrs. Vicki Horton is the compiler of a number of Hampshire County genealogical source record collections, six of which are available from Clearfield Company(see also Items Item 9734, Item 9336, Item 9340, Item 9339, and Item 9335). The Hampshire County Minute Book abstracts in this volume comprise some of the earliest records of the state of West Virginia. The dates of coverage of the various Minute Books are 1788-1791, 1795-1799, and 1799-1802, respectively. The contents of Mrs. Horton"s abstracts range over orders to bind orphaned and poor children (sometimes mentioning complete families), grand jury lists, indictments, commissions, overseers of the roads, ordinary licenses, suits, oaths of office, militia lists, and more.