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A remarkably thorough county history and a valuable repository of genealogical data, this work is numbered among the finest books on Virginia counties. It is an ably documented source-book relating to the settlement, growth, and development of an important region--the Southern Piedmont. The historical narrative is not restricted to Pittsylvania alone, which wasn't created until 1767, but embraces the parent counties of Lunenberg and Halifax and the contiguous counties of Henry, Patrick, Franklin, Bedford, and Campbell.

The book rings with the names of early inhabitants and prominent citizens (5,000 of whom are identified with page references in the index) and gives a scholarly account of colonial Pittsylvania and of Pittsylvania in the Revolution and the Civil War and accounts of churches, courts, and various county institutions.

For the genealogist there is the important and wholly fortuitous list of tithables of Pittsylvania County for the year 1767, which enumerates the names of nearly 1,000 landowners and property holders, amounting in sum to a rough census of the county in its infancy. Additional lists include the names, some with inclusive dates of service, of sheriffs, justices of the peace, members of the House of Delegates, 1776-1928, members of the Senate of Virginia, 1776-1928, clerks of the court, and judges.