The County Court minutes just might give you the reason. There is an entry in Louisa County: 11 July 1743 a petition was filed by Benjamin BERRYMAN, a cripple lately come from Gloucester County, stating that he was unable to labor for his living and asking to be exempted from the county levy. Good information! Mickey -----Original Message----- From: Marge Stockton [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Wednesday, July 09, 2003 11:54 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [VA-SOUTHSIDE-L] Parish Exemptions My local genealogy library director (highly knowledgeable) once told me a person was exempted only because he could not pay the tax -- usually because he could not work for whatever reason. But that doesn't quite seem to fit the case you refer to. Perhaps in the case of your Thomas it was a temporary situation -- illness, failed crop or something. Marge ==== VA-SOUTHSIDE Mailing List ==== Problems Subscribing or Unsubscribing ? Contact: G. Lee Hearl List Adm. at: [email protected] Hosted by Rootsweb http://www.rootsweb.com ============================== To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237