The censuses which appear in the early 1780's and the lists of whites and buildings were both done at the request of the Confederation congress as it tried to figure out the nation's population and what the individual states ought to be responsible for in their contributions to the new nation. The VA statutes ordering them can be found in Hening XI pp. 40, 108, 193, for the censuses, and p. 415 for the list of buildings and whites. The latter law only required the list takers to distinguish between dwelling houses and other buildings. However, some list takers noted the roofing, whether frame, brick or log in construction and reported the functions of the outbuildings, as in barns, smokehouses, kitchens etc--others only reported numbers of dwellings and outbuildings with no other information. There are several of these lists at the LVA--Mick Nicholls
Michael L. Nicholls
Professor of History, Emeritus
Dept. of History
Utah State University
Logan, UT 84322-0710

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On Oct 30, 2014, at 7:28 AM, Craig Kilby wrote:

>> Can anyone direct me to the relevant statutes authorizing/requiring the two lists above? The 1783 list includes head of household, number of white inhabitants, and number of black inhabitants. The 1785 list is for whites only, and includes head of household, number of whites, number of dwelling houses, and number of "other houses" (buildings). I have the lists for Lancaster County. The 1785 list is headed with notation "per Act of Assembly." I'm curious as to why these lists were made, and what exactly was considered a dwelling house and "other houses." Some people on the list have no dwelling house, nor any other buildings.
>> 
>> Craig Kilby
> 
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