Granville County, North Carolina Genealogy

United States   North Carolina    Granville County

History
Granville County was formed in 1746 from Edgecombe County, in honor of the Earl of Granville, "the owner of the soil". As Edgecombe came out of Craven about 1733, Granville is therefore a grandson of Craven. When it was first established in 1746 Granville embraced for a period of five years, until 1751, all of present Warren Franklin and Vance, most of Orange, including the present Person, Caswell,, Orange, and Wake, Chatham, Durham, Alamance, a part of Guilford and perhaps all of Rockingham, a vast territory, of which one William Person was the first Sheriff. After 1751 Orange County and Granville dominated this wide Virginia line area until Wake and Chatham were formed around 1770, for the evident purpose of forestalling the restless and embryonic "regulator" element, who were becoming enraged over the aggravating fees and burden levied by the prosperous "office holders" of the two large domains. In 1764, Bute County was established out of the territory now embraced by Warren and Franklin Counties, and thus Granville's size was again appreciably reduced. From 1764 until 1851, a period of eighty-seven (87) years, Granville County included its present boundaries plus most of present Vance Co. The first officers of the County were Wm. Person, 1st Sheriff; Robert Foster, Clerk ; Robert Jones, Jr., King's Attorney; Wm. Eaton, William Person, James Payne, Edw'd Jones, Edw'd Martin, John Wade, Lemuel Lanier, Gideon Macon, John Brantly, West Harris, Lemuel Henderson, and Jonathan White, Justices of the Peace. According to the earliest records of North Carolina, the area that became Granville was first settled around 1715, at which time most of the Native American Indians migrated to other locations leaving it ripe for new settlements. Among the first settlements in Granville were those along the northern border on Nutbush and Grassy Creek, and on Tar River.

Parent County
1746--Granville County was established 28 June 1746 from Edgecombe County. County seat: Oxford

Boundary Changes
Granville County has gone through many boundary changes over the years since it was originally an extremely large area that engulfed all of the known land of the territory not already named. As stated above, most

Neighboring Counties

 * Durham
 * Franklin
 * Halifax County, Virginia
 * Mecklenburg County, Virginia
 * Person
 * Vance
 * Wake

Web Sites

 * USGenWeb Project. May have maps, name indexes, history or other information for this county. Select the state, then the county.
 * Granville County NCGenWeb Project
 * Granville County USGenWeb Archives
 * Family History Library Catalog