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==History== [[File:Notice! Persons desiring to establish Supply Stores in the Counties of Accomac and Northampton, Va. Drummondtown, Virginia, 1864.png|thumb|right|Notice to persons "desiring to establish supply stores" in Accomac and [[Northampton County, Virginia|Northampton]] Counties, Virginia, September 19, 1864]] The county was named for its original residents, the [[Accomac people]], an [[Eastern Algonquian]]-speaking Native American tribe. Members of an English voyage of exploration landed in the area in 1603, four years before the founding of the [[Jamestown, Virginia|Jamestown Colony]]. Captain [[John Smith (explorer)|John Smith]] visited the region in 1608. The Accomac people at the time numbered around 6,000 and was led by [[Debedeavon]], a [[Weroance|paramount chief]], whom the [[British colonization of the Americas|English colonists]] called the "Laughing King." He became a staunch ally of the colonists, granting them several large areas for their own use. [[Accomac Shire]] was established in 1634 as one of the eight original [[shires of Virginia]]. The name comes from the native word Accawmacke, which meant "on the other side".<ref>{{cite book|title=The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|year=1905|pages=[https://archive.org/details/origincertainpl00ganngoog/page/n29 23]|author=Gannett, Henry|url=https://archive.org/details/origincertainpl00ganngoog}}</ref> In 1642 the name was changed to Northampton by the colonists. Northampton was divided into two counties in 1663. The northern adopted the original name, while the south remained Northampton. In 1670, the [[Virginia Colony]]'s [[List of Virginia Governors|Royal Governor]] [[William Berkeley (governor)|William Berkeley]] abolished Accomac County, but the [[Virginia General Assembly]] re-created it in 1671.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.genealogyinc.com/virginia/accomack-county/ |title=Accomack County, Virginia Genealogy, History and Records |access-date=May 31, 2012 |archive-date=June 3, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120603004022/http://www.genealogyinc.com/virginia/accomack-county/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> In 1940, the General Assembly officially added a "k" to the end of the county's name to arrive at its current spelling. The name of "Accomack County" first appeared in the ''[[United States Board on Geographic Names#Publications|Decisions of the United States Board on Geographical Names]]'' in 1943.<ref>Topping, Mary, comp., ''Approved Place Names in Virginia: An Index to Virginia Names Approved by the United States Board on Geographic Names through 1969'' (Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia, 1971), 1.</ref>
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