-----Original Message----- From: VirginiaRitter@aol.com [mailto:VirginiaRitter@aol.com] Sent: Saturday, September 06, 2003 5:12 PM To: VASHENAN-L@rootsweb.com Subject: {not a subscriber} Fwd: [VAPITTSY-L] Tax Collection Procedure I had some trouble sending this message earlier today and Meg Brown has included some of the information, but the message does fill in around her note from Schreiner-Yantis: A fuller account of the tax collection procedures will appear in a future issue (probably sometime in 2004) of the _Dalton Journal_ published by Melanie Crain on-line at http://www.dalton-newsletter.com/ (By the way, currently serialized in the _Dalton Journal_ are articles on the ancestry of the famous Wild West Dalton Gang including information on their possible Pittsylvania origins.) Melanie Crain has indicated she will post a notice to the Pittsylvania List serv when the tax article runs. I extract from that article now. The procedure for collecting the tax varied as Virginia law changed. During the years 1787-92 (thus including 1789), the tax commissioners were charged with visiting the homesteads of taxpayers to make their assessments. Thus, for this tax list the dating suggests proximity of homestead and the list by date is a real service to us. Do remember that this was just the law; tax commissioners might well fudge a bit on how they did this. In addition, there were days when the commissioner would return to the homesteads where he found no one at home earlier, thus greater distances separated homesteads (although being away from home in 1789 Virginia was not as frequent as it is now; baseball games being in the back pasture rather than at the County rec center). During this time, assessment day in Virginia was March 9. That is, regardless of the date on which they visited the homestead the tax commissioners were to request information on the number of slaves or cattle owned on March 9. This also means that someone listed as over 16 or over 21 for the first time on a tax list would have turned 21 sometime between March 10 the previous year and March 9 the year of assessment. The 1789 tax list by date will be a great service. I would also call to your attention that Nettie Shreiner Yantis' 1787 tax booklet for Pittsylvania County (not the 3 volume set) has a date-organized list for that year. Happy hunting -- James F. Klumpp Department of Communication University of Maryland Email: jklumpp@umd.edu Voice: 301.405.6520 http://www.wam.umd.edu/~jklumpp/home.htm