Northampton County, Virginia
| Northampton County, Virginia | ||
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Northampton County Courthouse Historic District
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 Location in the U.S. state of Virginia |
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 Virginia's location in the U.S. |
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| Founded | 1634 | |
| Seat | Eastville | |
| Largest town | Exmore | |
| Area | ||
| • Total | 795 sq mi (2,059 km2) | |
| • Land | 212 sq mi (549 km2) | |
| • Water | 584 sq mi (1,513 km2), 73.4% | |
| Population (est.) | ||
| • (2015) | 12,155 | |
| • Density | 15/sq mi (6/km²) | |
| Congressional district | 2nd | |
| Time zone | Eastern: UTC-5/-4 | |
| Website | www |
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Northampton County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2010 census, the population was 12,389. Its county seat is Eastville.
Northampton and Accomack Counties comprise the Eastern Shore of Virginia.
The county is the center of the late Eocene meteor strike that resulted in the Chesapeake Bay impact crater. The Northampton County Courthouse Historical District is part of the Eastville Historical District at the county seat.
When English colonists first arrived in the area in the early 1600s, the Virginia Eastern Shore region was governed by Debedeavon (aka "The Laughing King"), paramount chief of the Accawmacke clans who numbered around 2000 at the time. The former name of the county was Accomac Shire, one of the original shires of Virginia. In 1642, the name was changed to Northampton County by the English, to eliminate "heathen" names in the New World. (In England, "shires" and "counties" were the same thing). In 1663, Northampton County was split into two counties that still exist today. The northern two thirds took the original Accomac name, while the southern third remained as Northampton.
Northampton County is notable for a colonial court case involving an indentured servant. The first free negro (a term used prior to the abolition of slavery) in North America was Anthony Johnson of Northampton County. Johnson was also the first African-American to own land.
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