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Bute County was formed in 1764 from Granville County. Although Bute was abolished in 1779 to form Warren and Franklin counties, it ranks as one of the genealogically most important counties of the Revolutionary period inasmuch as the Trading Road passed through Bute, along which traveled many people who ventured from eastern Virginia and the Valley of Virginia on their journeys to Bute itself or to southern or western North Carolina or South Carolina.

For this volume, Mr. Holcomb has transcribed the minutes of the Bute County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions. From the standpoint of placing an individual in Bute County, these minutes are by far the richest source of information still extant. Allowing for the fact that the oldest Bute County records (the minutes for 1764-1767) have not survived, those that have are full of lists of deeds proved and recorded and lists of wills proved or administrations on intestates taken out, both of which give the names of the principals and pertinent dates. Small court cases (usually over debt), depositions, petitions, jury lists, tax officials' names with their districts, tavern licenses, references to the construction of roads (and road gangs), and the care of the poor are the stuff of the majority of the entries. In all, the Minutes of the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions contains references to over 10,000 individuals who inhabited Bute County during its brief existence, every one of whom is readily found in the complete name index at the back of the book.