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Mathews County, Virginia

Mathews County, Virginia
MATHEWS COUNTY COURTHOUSE SQUARE.jpg
Mathews County Courthouse Square
Seal of Mathews County, Virginia
Seal
Map of Virginia highlighting Mathews County
Location in the U.S. state of Virginia
Map of the United States highlighting Virginia
Virginia's location in the U.S.
Founded 1791
Seat Mathews
Area
 • Total 252 sq mi (653 km2)
 • Land 86 sq mi (223 km2)
 • Water 166 sq mi (430 km2), 65.9%
Population (est.)
 • (2015) 8,862
 • Density 106/sq mi (41/km²)
Congressional district 1st
Time zone Eastern: UTC-5/-4
Website www.co.mathews.va.us

Mathews County is a county located in the U.S. state of Virginia. As of the 2010 census, the population was 8,978. Its county seat is Mathews.

Located on the Middle Peninsula, Mathews County is included in the Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC Metropolitan Statistical Area.

At the time of European colonization, this area was inhabited by the Chiskiake tribe, one of the Algonquian-speaking tribes who were part of the Powhatan Confederacy. Lands in the area were transferred to English persons under suspicious circumstances. After the death of his father (and tribal head), a young "boy king", and his "protector", with a name sounding like "Pindavako" to English ears, supposedly signed over the northern areas of the county to the invaders.

During Virginia's colonial era, the area that later became Mathews County was a portion of Gloucester County. In 1691, the Virginia General Assembly had directed that each county designate an official port-of-entry. Established around 1700, the community of Westville was located along Put-in Creek, a tidal tributary of Virginia's East River feeding into Mobjack Bay, which was a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay.

In 1776 during the American Revolutionary War, Virginia's last Royal Governor, Lord Dunmore, left Virginia after pushed to the southeast to Gwynn's Island by General Andrew Lewis and the Continental Army. About 10 years after Virginia gained its independence from Great Britain, Mathews County was established in 1791 from part of Gloucester County. The county was named for Brigadier General Thomas Mathews, then speaker of the House of Delegates of the General Assembly of Virginia. Westville was designated at the county seat (later it became known variously as Mathews Court House or simply Mathews).


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