[4] The present-day Henrico County curves around the City of Richmond, surrounding it to the west, the north, and the east.

[5] Richmond International Airport is located in the eastern portion of Henrico County in Sandston.

Top private employers in the county include Capital One, Bon Secours, and Elevance Health.

In 1611, Thomas Dale founded the Citie of Henricus on a peninsula in the James River that is now called Farrar's Island.

[7] Henricus was named for Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, but it was destroyed during the Indian massacre of 1622, during which local Native American warriors of the Powhatan confederacy attacked the English settlers to drive them from the area.

[4] In 1776, Richard Adams and Nathaniel Wilkenson participated in the Fifth Virginia Convention, which voted to send delegates to the Continental Congress to propose separation from the British.

That proposal led to the Declaration of Independence.During the Revolutionary War, when Benedict Arnold's invading army occupied Richmond in January 1781, the Henrico militia was called to active duty.

Three months later when Arnold's men, now part of British forces led by General William Phillips, approached Richmond for a second time, the British were stopped by the sight of local militiamen and American Continental troops led by a young Frenchman, the Marquis de Lafayette.

Outnumbered, Lafayette abandoned Richmond when General Charles Cornwallis occupied the town in June 1781.

After being surrounded there by General George Washington and his French allies, Cornwallis surrendered, effectively ending the American Revolution.

During the Reconstruction era, Virginia Estelle Randolph was a pioneer educator and humanitarian who lived from 1874 to 1958.

The USS Henrico was a Bayfield-class attack transport involved in World War Two and subsequent conflicts.

Since the city would have had to reimburse Henrico a hefty $55 million, Richmond opted against annexing the 17 square miles.

[2] In 1752, Henrico relocated its seat to a more central location inside the city of Richmond, between Church Hill and what is now Tobacco Row.

[2] During the Civil War, in 1862 Henrico County was the site of numerous battles during the Peninsula Campaign, including: Additional significant battles took place in 1864 during the Overland Campaign prior to and during the Siege of Petersburg, which led to the fall of Richmond.

[27] The largest ancestry groups in Henrico County are: Black or African American (25%), English American (14%), German (11%), Irish (10%) and Italian (4%)[28] In 2000, there were 108,121 households, out of which 31.90% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 48.30% were married couples living together, 13.10% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35.40% were non-families.

In 1938, the board of supervisors put the police under the direct control of the county manager, rather than under the sheriff.

[33] The elected Sheriff's primary duties are managing the jail, court security, and the service of civil process.

In 1980, in the need for a more technological advanced and more spacious area, the Jail West at the Henrico County Government Complex was constructed.

Altria Group (formerly Philip Morris) had its corporate headquarters in an unincorporated area in Henrico County.

[36] This relocation was made with the help of the Henrico County Economic Development Authority and the Greater Richmond Partnership,[37] regional economic development organizations who also helped locate Aditya Birla Minacs, Alfa Laval, Genworth Financial, and Blue Bell Ice Cream to the county.

As of October 1, 2008, the primary mailing address for the majority of the county was officially changed to Henrico.

It was estimated that the county would recover $5 million in misdirected tax dollars due to the address change.

[43] This move has set a precedent causing many other localities in Virginia who are officially recognized by the United States Postal Service as the nearest major city to consider petitioning the United States Postal Service for their own official mailing address bearing the name of the locality to which residents actually pay their taxes.

Henrico County is the location of Richmond Raceway, which is home to NASCAR Cup Series races twice a year.

Partly because of this, Central Virginia has total interoperability of Emergency Communications (Police, Fire, Recreation and Parks, Volunteer Rescue Squads, etc.)