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This work contains a collection of legislative petitions presented to the General Assembly of Virginia by residents of Kentucky County when it was a part of the Commonwealth of Virginia. The topics that make up the subject matter of the petitions may be summed as follows: The system of landholding, the establishment of courts, the organization of a militia, the organization of the community into counties and towns, the perfecting of a medium of exchange, the inspection of tobacco, the foundation of an educational system, the status of slavery in the western country, and the movement toward separation from Virginia.

The list of names attached to the petitions--here printed separately and in alphabetical order--is of a paramount interest to the genealogist as it embodies the names of approximately 5,000 of Kentucky's earliest settlers. Many of these are names that will be met with in no other source, since they occur, for the most part, prior to the keeping of public records. Altogether, the names on the petitions appear to be representative of the ethnic composition of the pioneer population of Kentucky.