Elizabeth City County (extinct) was named for Elizabeth, daughter of James I, and was one of the eight shires established in 1634. Elizabeth City County became extinct in 1952, when the county and the town of Phoebus were incorporated into the city of Hampton, which was the county seat. Hampton adjoins the Chesapeake Bay on the south and east, Newport News on the west, York County and Poquoson on the north.
Prior to the 1952 merger of Hampton, Phoebus, and Elizabeth City County, the Division Superintendent was the administrator for three separate school systems, each with its own school board. Robert M. Newton was Elizabeth City County Schools Division Superintendent from 1924-1948 (Herbert M. Spain served as Acting Division Superintendent for a period in 1931), and C. Aton Lindsay was Division Superintendent from 1948 to 1952.
On June 18, 1940, the U.S. Court of Appeals (4th Circuit) overturned a lower court's ruling in a pay equalization suit brought by Melvin Alston, a commerce teacher with the Norfolk schools, and the Norfolk Teachers Association. Richmond lawyer Oliver Hill was among the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) attorneys representing the plaintiffs. The City of Norfolk appealed the decision to the Supreme Court, but their appeal was denied and Norfolk entered into negotiations to equalize teacher salaries in Norfolk.
Records were burned or destroyed during the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. Additional records were burned in Richmond on 3 April 1865, where they had been moved for safekeeping during the Civil War. A few pre-Civil War volumes such as deed books, will books, and order books exist.
From the guide to the Elizabeth City County (Va.) Schools Correspondence, 1918-1952, (The Library of Virginia)
