The published sources on Virginia are quite vast. Below are lists of printed primary source collections directly related to Virginia’s history as both colony and state. It is worth noting that neither of these lists are exhaustive. Periodicals such as the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, the William and Mary Quarterly, Tyler’s Quarterly Historical and Genealogical Magazine, and the Virginia Historical Register have published extensive collections of primary sources relating to Virginia, especially in their earlier volumes. A useful reference is the bibliographical essay in Edmund Morgan, American Slavery, American Freedom (New York, 1975). For help locating any of the volumes listed below, consult our Finding Published Sources page.

Colonial

“Aspinwall Papers,” Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 4th ser., IX (1871).

A Voyage to Virginia in 1609, ed. Louis B. Wright (Charlottesville, 1964)

Calendar of State Papers, Colonial, ed. W. Noel Sainsbury (London, 1860)

Calendar of Virginia State Papers and Other Manuscripts…, ed. W. F. Palmer, 11 vols. (Richmond, 1875-1893)

Cavaliers and Pioneers, ed. Nell M. Nugent (Richmond, 1934)

The Complete Works of Captain John Smith (1580-1631), ed. Philip L. Barbour, 3 vols. (Chapel Hill, 1986)

The Correspondence of William Nelson as Acting Governor of Virginia, 1770-1771, ed. John C. Van Horne (Charlottesville, 1974)

County Court Records of Accomack-Northampton, Virginia, 1632-1640, ed. Susie M. Ames (Washington, 1954)

County Court Records of Accomack-Northampton, Virginia, 1640-1645 (Charlottesville, 1973)

Diary of Colonel Landon Carter, ed. Jack P. Greene (Charlottesville, 1965)

Documents Illustrative of the Slave Trade to America, vol. IV: The Border Colonies and the Southern Colonies, ed. Elizabeth Donan (Washington, D.C., 1935)

Executive Journals of the Council of Colonial Virginia, eds. H. R. McIlwaine, et. al., 6 vols. (Richmond, 1925-1966)

For the Colony in Virginea Britannia: Lawes Dvine, Morall and Martiall, ed. David H. Flaherty (Charlottesville, 1969)

The General Assembly of Virginia, July 30, 1619 - January 11, 1978, ed. Cynthia Miller Leonard (Richmond, 1978)

The Genesis of the United States, ed. Alexander Brown (Boston, 1890)

The Hawkins Voyages, ed. Clements R. Markham (London, 1878)

Historical Collections Relating to the American Colonial Church, vol. I: Virginia, ed. William Stevens Perry (Hartford, 1870)

Historie of Travell into Virginia Britania, eds. Louis B. Wright and Virginia Freund (London, 1953)

The Jamestown Voyages under the First Charter, 1606 - 1609, ed. Philip Barbour (Cambridge, 1969)

Journal and Letters of Philip Vickers Fithian, ed. Hunter D. Farish (Williamsburg, 1957)

The Journal of John Harrower, ed. Edward M. Riley (Williamsburg and New York, 1963)

Journal of the House of Burgesses of Virginia, eds. J. P. Kennedy and H. R. McIlwaine, 12 vols. (Richmond, 1905-1912)

The Laws of Virginia: Being a Supplement to Hening’s The Statutes at Large (Richmond, 1971)

Legislative Journals of the Council of Colonial Virginia, ed. H. R. McIlwaine, 3 vols. (Richmond, 1918-1919)

Letters of Robert Carter, 1720-1727, ed. Louis B. Wright (San Marino, 1940)

Minutes of the Council and General Court of Colonial Virginia…, ed. H. R. McIlwaine (Richmond, 1924)

Narratives of Early Virginia, 1606 - 1625, ed. L. G. Tyler (New York, 1907)

Narratives of the Insurrections, ed. C. M. Andrews (New York, 1915)

The Official Letters of Alexander Spotswood, ed. R. A. Brock, 2 vols. (Richmond, 1882-1885)

“The Official Letters of Norborne Berkeley, Baron de Botetourt, Governor of Virginia, 1768-1770,” Dianne McGann, ed. (master’s thesis, College of William and Mary, 1971)

The Official Papers of Francis Fauquier, Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, 1758-1768, ed. George Henkle Reese (Charlottesville, 1980-1983)

The Official Records of Robert Dinwiddie, ed. R. A. Brock, 2 vols. (Richmond, 1883-1884)

The Original Writings and Correspondence of the Two Richard Hakluyts, ed. E. G. R. Taylor (London, 1935)

The Papers of George Mason, 1725 - 1792, ed. Robert A. Rutland (Chapel Hill, 1970)

The Papers of George Washington, 1744 - 1799, eds. Dorothy Twohig, et. al., 33 vols. (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1983 - 1998)

The Papers of James Madison, eds. William T. Hutchinson, et. al., 10 vols. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962 - 1977); 32 vols. (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1977 - )

The Papers of Martha Washington, eds. Washington Papers Editors (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2022)

The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, eds. Julian Boyd, et. al., 45 vols. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1959 - )

The Records of the Virginia Company of London, ed. Susan Myra Kingsbury (Washington, D.C., 1906 - 1935)

Revolutionary Virginia: The Road to Independence, eds. William J. Van Schreeven, Robert L. Scribner, and Brent Tarter, 7 vols. (Charlottesville, 1973-1983)

The Roanoke Voyages, 1584 - 1590, ed. David B. Quinn (London, 1955)

The Secret Diary of William Byrd of Westover, 1709-1712, eds. Marion Tinling and L. B. Wright (Richmond, 1941)

The Statutes at Large: Being a Collection of All the Laws of Virginia…, ed. William Waller Hening, 13 vols. (Richmond, 1809-1823)

The Three Voyages of Martin Frobisher, ed. R. Collinson (London, 1867)

Tracts and Other Papers Relating Principally to the Origin, Settlement, and Progress of the Colonies in North America…, ed. Peter Force, 4 vols. (Washington, D.C., 1836-1846)

Travels and Works of Captain John Smith, eds. Edward Arber and A. G. Bradley (Edinburgh, 1910)

Virginia Carolorum, ed. Edward Neill (Albany, NY, 1886)

Voyages and Colonizing Enterprises of Sir Humphrey Gilbert, ed. David B. Quinn (London, 1940)

William Fitzhugh and his Chesapeake World, ed. Richard B. Davis (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1863)

Early National

Calendar of Virginia State Papers and Other Manuscripts, eds. William P. Palmer, et. al., 11 vols. (Richmond, 1875-1893)

My Dearest Polly: Letters of Chief Justice John Marshall to His Wife, ed. Frances Norton Mason (Richmond, 1961)

The Letters and Papers of Edmund Pendleton, ed. David John Mays, 2 vols. (Charlottesville, 1967)

The Letters of Elijah Fletcher, ed. Martha von Briesen (Charlottesville, 1965)

Memoirs of the Life of William Wirt, Attorney-General of the United States, ed. john Pendleton Kennedy, 2 vols., rev. ed. (Philadelphia, 1860)

The Papers of George Mason, 1725 - 1792, ed. Robert A. Rutland (Chapel Hill, 1970)

The Papers of George Washington, 1744 - 1799, eds. Dorothy Twohig, et. al., 33 vols. (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1983 - 1998)

The Papers of James Madison, eds. William T. Hutchinson, et. al., 10 vols. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962 - 1977); 32 vols. (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1977 - )

The Papers of James Monroe, ed. Daniel Preston, 7 vols. (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2006 - )

The Papers of Martha Washington, eds. Washington Papers Editors (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2022)

The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, eds. Julian Boyd, et. al., 45 vols. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1959 - )

The Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series, eds. J. Jefferson Looney, et. al., 17 vols. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998 - )

The Statutes at Large: Being a Collection of All the Laws of Virginia…, ed. William W. Hening, 13 vols. (Richmond and Philadelphia, 1819-1823)

Reference Works

Virginia Historical Index, Earl G. Swem (Roanoke, VA, 1934-1936)