By 1634, when Henrico became one of the eight original Virginia shires, its boundaries encompassed present-day Chesterfield and Powhatan counties on the south of the James River, and Goochland County on the north. Henrico's parish lines were co-terminus with the county and originally embraced the entire valley of the James River and westward. The early records of the parish are fragmentary, but enough exists to reward the careful investigations of...