Virginia
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Virginia
This jurisdictional hub aggregates FRC holdings related to Virginia. It supports research on the Commonwealth’s firearms history, technology, law, policy, and culture from the colonial period through statehood to the present.
- Legal sources: statutes and session laws, administrative code, attorney general opinions, appellate decisions, and select municipal ordinances.
- Historical materials: newspapers, photographs, maps, catalogs, colonial and militia records, maritime and manufacturing archives, agricultural and law-enforcement collections, and oral histories tied to Virginia people and places.
- Research outputs: technical reports, academic studies, training manuals, and curated datasets relevant to the Commonwealth.
Cite the Firearms Research Center and the item’s handle/DOI when using materials. Rights and licensing vary by item.
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Item type:Item, 9 William Waller Hening, Stat. at Large: Being a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia 267-68 (1823)(1777)Applied to "all free male persons, hired servants [not indentured], and apprentices, between the ages of sixteen and fifty years." "The county lieutenant, colonels, lieutenant colonels, and major" had to appear "with a sword." Every captain and lieutenant needed a "firelock and bayonet, a cartouch box, a sword, and three charges of powder and ball." Ensigns needed a sword. Non-commissioned officers and privates had to have a rifle and tomahawk, or good fire-lock and bayonet, with a pouch and horn, or a cartouch or cartridge box, and with three charges of powder and ball; and, moreover, each of the said officers and soldiers shall constantly keep one pound of powder and four pounds of ball, to be produced whenever called for by his commanding officer.Item type:Item, 9 William Waller Hening, Stat. at Large: Being a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia 16, 28 (1823)(1775)Established militia age limits of 16 and 50. Every militiaman had to "furnish himself with a good rifle, if to be had, or otherwise with a tomahawk, common firelock, bayonet, pouch, or cartouch box, three charges of powder and ball, and appear with the same at the place appointed for mustering, and shall constantly keep by him one pound of powder and four pounds of ball."Item type:Item, 11 William Waller Hening, Stat. at Large: Being a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia 476-78 (1823)(1784)Increased its militia's minimum age to 18, and kept the maximum age at 50. Militiamen were required to appear "armed, equipped, and accoutred" according to rank. "The county lieutenants, lieutenant colonels commandant, and majors, with a sword; the captains, lieutenants, and ensigns, with a sword and espontoon." Noncommissioned officers and privates needed to supply themselves "with a good clean musket, carrying an ounce ball, and three feet eight inches long in the barrel, with a good bayonet and iron ramrod well fitted thereto." Plus also "a cartridge box properly made, to contain and secure twenty cartridges" and "a good knapsack and canteen."Item type:Item, 3 William Waller Hening, Stat. at Large: Being a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia 13 (1823)(1684)"every trooper of the respective colonies of this country, shall furnish and supply himself with a good able horse, saddle, and all arms and furniture, fitt and compleat for a trooper, and that every foot soldier, shall furnish himselfe, with a sword, musquet and other furniture fitt for a soldier, and that each trooper and foot soldier, be provided with two pounds of powder, and eight pounds of shott, and shall continually keep their armes well fixt, cleane, and fitt for the king's service."Item type:Item, 3 William Waller Hening, Stat. at Large: Being a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia 335-38 (1823)(1705)The militia included "all male persons whatsoever, from sixteen to sixty years of age ... to serve in horse or foot." An infantryman needed "a firelock, muskett or fusee well fixed, a good sword," cartridge box, and ammunition. He had to bring six rounds of ammunition to muster. Additionally, he had to "have at his place of abode two pounds of powder and eight pounds of shott, and bring the same into the field with him when thereunto specially required." A horseman needed the usual tack and ammunition accoutrements along with a pair of pistols and a sword. He had to bring eight rounds of ammunition to muster. At his usual place of abode, he also had to keep a well fixed carabine, two pounds of powder and eight pounds of shot. The act made it unlawful for creditors to seize a militiaman's arms as payment for debts. If a creditor nevertheless took someone's militia equipment, the seizure would "be unlawful and void." Any "officer or person that presumes to make or serve the same" (e.g., a sheriff serving a writ of attachment) would "be lyable to the suit of the party grieved, wherein double damages shall be given upon recovery."Item type:Item, 7 William Waller Hening, Stat. at Large: Being a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia 93-94 (1823)(1757)Restored the minimum militia age to 18 and set the maximum age at 60. Soldiers had to furnish themselves with "a firelock well fixed, a bayonet fitted to the same," and keep an extra pound of powder and "four pounds of ball" at home.Item type:Item, 3 William Waller Hening, Stat. at Large: Being a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia 205-07 (1823)(1701)Provided 500-acre land grants, with the proviso that the grantee keep "upon the said land one christian man between sixteen and sixty years of age perfect of limb, able and fitt for service." Such men should be "continually provided with a well fixt musquett or fuzee, a good pistoll, sharp simeter, tomahauk and five pounds of good clean pistoll powder and twenty pounds of sizable leaden bulletts or swan or goose shott to be kept within the fort directed by this act besides the powder and shott for his necessary or usefull shooting at game..."Item type:Item, 7 William Waller Hening, Stat. at Large: Being a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia 534, 537 (1823)(1762)Ensured that "every person so exempted shall always keep in his house or place of abode such arms, accoutrements, and ammunition, as are by the [1757] act required to be kept by the militia."Item type:Item, 2 William Waller Hening, Stat. at Large: Being a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia 333 (1823)(1676)"that in goeing to churches and courts in those tymes of danger, all people be enjoyned and required to goe armed for their greate security"Item type:Item, 3 William Waller Hening, The Statutes at Large: Being a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia 335-38 (1823)(1705)The militia included "all male persons whatsoever, from sixteen to sixty years of age . . . to serve in horse or foot." An infantryman needed "a firelock, muskett or fusee well fixed, a good sword," cartridge box, and ammunition. He had to bring six rounds of ammunition to muster. Additionally, he had to "have at his place of abode two pounds of powder and eight pounds of shott, and bring the same into the field with him when thereunto specially required." A horseman needed the usual tack and ammunition accoutrements along with a pair of pistols and a sword. He had to bring eight rounds of ammunition to muster. At his usual place of abode, he also had to keep a well fixed carabine, two pounds of powder and eight pounds of shot. The act made it unlawful for creditors to seize a militiaman's arms as payment for debts. If a creditor nevertheless took someone's militia equipment, the seizure would "be unlawful and void." Any "officer or person that presumes to make or serve the same" (e.g., a sheriff serving a writ of attachment) would "be lyable to the suit of the party grieved, wherein double damages shall be given upon recovery."Item type:Item, 3 William Waller Hening, The Statutes at Large: Being a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia 205-07 (1823)(1701)Provided 500-acre land grants, with the proviso that the grantee keep "upon the said land one christian man between sixteen and sixty years of age perfect of limb, able and fitt for service." Such men should be "continually provided with a well fixt musquett or fuzee, a good pistoll, sharp simeter, tomahauk and five pounds of good clean pistoll powder and twenty pounds of sizable leaden bulletts or swan or goose shott to be kept within the fort directed by this act besides the powder and shott for his necessary or usefull shooting at game..."Item type:Item, 3 William Waller Hening, The Statutes at Large: Being a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia 13 (1823)(1684)"every trooper of the respective colonies of this country, shall furnish and supply himself with a good able horse, saddle, and all arms and furniture, fitt and compleat for a trooper, and that every foot soldier, shall furnish himselfe, with a sword, musquet and other furniture fitt for a soldier, and that each trooper and foot soldier, be provided with two pounds of powder, and eight pounds of shott, and shall continually keep their armes well fixt, cleane, and fitt for the king's service."Item type:Item, 2 William Waller Hening, The Statutes at Large: Being a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia 333 (1823)(1676)"that in goeing to churches and courts in those tymes of danger, all people be enjoyned and required to goe armed for their greate security"Item type:Item, 5 William Waller Hening, Stat. at Large; Being a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia 17 (1819) (enacted 1738)(1738)An act for the better Regulation of the Militia: "That every person, so as aforesaid listed, free mulattos, negros and Indians,) and placed or ranked in horse or foot, shall be armed and accoutred in manner following: that is to say, Every horse-man shall be furnished with a serviceable Isorse, a good saddle, with breast-plate, crupper, curb-bridle, carbine or fuzee, and bucket, holsters, a case of pistols, cutting sword or cutlass, double cartouch-box, and six charges of powder,- and constantly appear with the same, at the time and place appointed for muster and exercise; and shall keep at his place of abode, one pound of powder, and four pounds of ball, and bring the same into the field with him, when thereunto required. And every footman shall be furnished with a firelock, musket, or fuzee, well fixed, a bayonet fitted to the same, or a cutting sword or cutlass, a cartouch-box, and three charges of powder"Item type:Item, 1 William Waller Hening, Stat. at Large; Being a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia 226 (1823) (enacted 1680)(1680)"ALL persons except negroes to be provided with arms and amunition or be fined at pleasure of the Governor and Council."Item type:Item, 1 Acts of Assembly, Passed in the Colony of Virginia, From 1662 to 1715, at 147 (1727)(1684)Required free Virginians to "provide and furnish themselves with a sword, musquet and other furniture fitt for a soldier? two pounds of powder, and eight pounds of shott?.