Shires of Virginia

These shires were based on a form of local government used in England at the time, and were redesignated as counties a few years later.

[1] As of 2007, five of the eight original shires were considered still extant in the Commonwealth of Virginia in essentially their same political form, although some boundaries and several names have changed in the almost 400 years since their creation.

In 1634, a new system of local government was created in the Virginia Colony by order of King Charles I of England.

The term shire in this system was officially changed to county only a few years later.

Between 1637 and 1642, their names formalized from "Shire" to "County", and the results apparently caused confusion two centuries later.