From Accawmack to Accomack
The Eastern Shore was one of Virginia’s earliest areas of English settlement. In 1634, the original shire called Accawmack or Accomac covered the whole Virginia Eastern Shore. The name was changed to Northampton in the 1640s. In 1663 the peninsula was divided, and the northern county took back the Accomack name while Northampton remained to the south.
The Library of Virginia lists present-day Accomack’s formation date as 1663 and Northampton as its parent county. The county’s official history notes the same sequence. In 1940, the spelling of the county name was formally standardized as Accomack .
Accomac, the county seat
The court met at Pungoteague and Onancock before settling in the 1690s at the house of John Cole, in the place later known as Accomac. The settlement became known as Accomack Courthouse and, after an 1786 petition, as Drummondtown. The U.S. Post Office changed the town name to Accomac in 1893.
Religion on the Shore
The legacy county narrative highlights two early dissenting ministers: Presbyterian Francis Makemie , who used his Eastern Shore plantation as a base for mercantile and missionary work, and Baptist preacher Elijah Baker , who was imprisoned for unauthorized preaching before the Revolution. Their stories reflect the region’s long history of religious diversity and conflict over established-church authority.
Civil War and the railroad era
During the Civil War, Union forces occupied Virginia’s Eastern Shore. The older Accomack site records that Gen. Henry H. Lockwood established headquarters in the rectory of St. James Episcopal Church and that several churches were used by the army. Later in the nineteenth century, the railroad transformed the county’s economy and helped create new communities such as Parksley. A long debate over moving the county seat culminated in an 1895 referendum; voters kept the courthouse at Accomac.