Names on the petitions to divide Frederick County, 1831-1836
Every name line on the Library of Virginia’s thirty files of petitions and remonstrances for and against the new counties that became Clarke and Warren, as written on the scans, with its reading grade and the side its document took.
- In
- 6,972 name lines on 28 of the Library of Virginia's 30 files of petitions, remonstrances and papers on dividing Frederick County, 1831-1836: 5,917 signatures, 1,031 names in clerks' copies and 24 officials' signatures. They cover the petitions for the eastern county that became Clarke and for the Front Royal county that became Warren, and the remonstrances against both.
- Not in
- Names on sheets that are lost. Some 130 supporters' names in a Prince William County case filed with the papers. The text of the petitions, which the founding story quotes and cites.
- Effective date
- October 17, 2026
- Download
- CSV 1.9 MB
SHA-256b2bc98ec2c90f28563a7706bdd8cd4f521d7475ff50ebc745a93166f44088253 - XLSX (spreadsheet) 700 KB
SHA-256fdadd43a2258ae3cbb6010947f0eb291382ce09f12ce49cc1a22a851ab269986
- CSV 1.9 MB
- Version
- 1.0.0
- Published
- October 17, 2026
- License
- CC BY 4.0. Credit the Library of Virginia's Legislative Petitions Digital Collection and the file whenever these names are reused, in addition to the Our Clarke citation.
- Cite as
- Our Clarke. "Names on the petitions to divide Frederick County, 1831-1836." Dataset, version 1.0.0, published 2026-10-17. Library of Virginia. Transcribed from the scans by Our Clarke. https://ourclarke.com/data/#clarke-founding-petitions-1831-1836. License: CC BY 4.0.
- Documentation
- README.md · schema.md · datapackage.json · manifest.json
- Browse
- How Clarke left Frederick
README
Rendered from README.md, the file this directory serves.
Names on the petitions to divide Frederick County, 1831-1836
Every name line on the Library of Virginia’s thirty files of petitions and remonstrances for and against the new counties that became Clarke and Warren, as written on the scans, with its reading grade and the side its document took.
- Dataset ID:
clarke-founding-petitions-1831-1836 - Tier: 1 (Genealogy)
- Version: 1.0.0
- Publication date: 2026-10-17
- Records: 6,972
- License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
- Source of truth: https://ourclarke.com/stories/clarke-founding-1836-story/
Coverage
- In: 6,972 name lines on 28 of the Library of Virginia's 30 files of petitions, remonstrances and papers on dividing Frederick County, 1831-1836: 5,917 signatures, 1,031 names in clerks' copies and 24 officials' signatures. They cover the petitions for the eastern county that became Clarke and for the Front Royal county that became Warren, and the remonstrances against both.
- Not in: Names on sheets that are lost. Some 130 supporters' names in a Prince William County case filed with the papers. The text of the petitions, which the founding story quotes and cites.
- Effective date: 2026-10-17
Source
Legislative Petitions Digital Collection, Frederick County, 1831-1836 (Library of Virginia). Library of Virginia. Transcribed from the scans by Our Clarke. https://ourclarke.com/stories/clarke-founding-1836-story/
Source file SHA-256: undefined
Attribution: Credit the Library of Virginia's Legislative Petitions Digital Collection and the file whenever these names are reused, in addition to the Our Clarke citation.
Files
| File | Format | Size | Rows | SHA-256 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| clarke-founding-petitions-1831-1836-2026-10-17.csv | CSV | 1,990,121 bytes | 6,972 | b2bc98ec2c90f28563a7706bdd8cd4f521d7475ff50ebc745a93166f44088253 |
| clarke-founding-petitions-1831-1836-2026-10-17.xlsx | XLSX | 716,700 bytes | 6,972 | fdadd43a2258ae3cbb6010947f0eb291382ce09f12ce49cc1a22a851ab269986 |
Column definitions are in schema.md. Machine-readable metadata is in datapackage.json. Every file in this directory, with its size and SHA-256, is listed in manifest.json.
Held fields
- scan images: The scans are the Library of Virginia's; each row links its catalog record.
Row filters
Every row passed the download boundary's two filters before it was written: rows about a person who may be living are excluded, and rows whose state is unresolved (verify, lead, ambiguous and similar) are excluded. This publication excluded 0 rows as possibly living and 0 as unresolved at that boundary.
Reading the data
A name line is not a person. A man who signed more than one sheet appears once for each, and names in clerks' copies usually repeat signatures elsewhere.
Two lines with the same name are not thereby the same man, and a name here is not matched to any other record.
Names are as written, never corrected. A doubtful reading keeps its ? marks.
A signer did not always live in the county the document concerns: some sheets carry names from Winchester and Jefferson County.
How to cite
Our Clarke. "Names on the petitions to divide Frederick County, 1831-1836." Dataset, version 1.0.0, published 2026-10-17. Library of Virginia. Transcribed from the scans by Our Clarke. https://ourclarke.com/data/#clarke-founding-petitions-1831-1836. License: CC BY 4.0.
Versions
Each publication is dated in its filenames. Earlier publications are kept unchanged at https://ourclarke.com/data/snapshots/.
Column schema
Rendered from schema.md, the file this directory serves.
Schema: Names on the petitions to divide Frederick County, 1831-1836
Dataset clarke-founding-petitions-1831-1836, version 1.0.0, published 2026-10-17. One row per record; the CSV and the "Records" sheet of the XLSX carry the same columns in the same order.
| Column | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
line_id | string | Stable Our Clarke identifier for the name line: petition, scan page, side and column, line. Does not change between versions. |
petition_id | string | Our Clarke identifier for the Library of Virginia file (LP-001 to LP-030). |
lva_file | string | The Library of Virginia's file name for the scan. |
file_date | string | The date the Library of Virginia catalogs for the file, usually the day the House received it. |
catalog_title | string | The Library of Virginia's title for the file. |
stance | string | What the document the name is on asks for, read from its own words: for, against, or neither. Several catalog summaries get this wrong. |
county | string | Which proposed county the stance is about. |
line_is | string | signature: a name signed on the sheet. clerk copy: a name written out by a clerk or copyist, usually repeating a signature elsewhere. official: an official's signature on a certificate or letter, not a petitioner. |
scan_page | integer | Page of the Library of Virginia scan (PDF), counted from 1. |
side | string | L or R of a two-page opening, or W for a single page. |
column | integer | Signature column on that side, from the left. |
line | integer | Position in the column, from the top. |
name_as_written | string | The name as written on the sheet: the writer's spelling and abbreviations, ? for a letter not read, [...] for a run not read. Never corrected or matched to anyone. |
reading | string | clear: every letter read. probable: read, a letter or two doubtful. doubtful: the surname itself uncertain. illegible: a line that could not be read; it is kept so the count stays true. |
mark | string | yes when the line is a mark ("his X mark") with the name written by someone else. |
note | string | The transcriber's note: alternative readings, "Jr." or a title on the page, a struck line, a residence written beside the name. |
source_url | url | The Library of Virginia catalog record for the file, with its scan. |
An empty cell means the value is not recorded in the source, or could not be read from it. It never means zero.