Marriages of Culpeper County, Virginia, 1781-1815

By: Catherine L. Knorr, Pub. 1954, reprinted 2022, 120 pages, Index, soft cover, ISBN #0-89308-253-8.

Culpeper County was created from the northern part of Orange County in 1749. Culpeper itself gave birth to two new counties: 1793 to Madison and 1833 to Rappahannock. Before the Revolutionary War, the ministers were compelled by law to keep a record of the lists of baptisms and marriages but after the Revolution, every marriage had to be reported to the Clerk of Court. These are called Ministers’ Returns. Since the Culpeper marriage bonds do not exist, the ministers’ returns are all we have. Then in 1802, a blow fell. All the parish registers were seized as property of the State and many were lost in the court houses. Culpeper County held its first court in 1749 but due to its first court minute book being lost, these marriages are all we have from this early period.