118 
‘'FREE BURGHS” IN THE UNITED STATES 
a similar town for commercial purposes, especially for warehous- 
ing and marketing tobacco. Norfolk, chartered as a borough in 
1737, has lost that name, but its relations to the county are to- 
day like those of the original charter, gradually defined, strength- 
ened, and confirmed, in points of dispute, in favor of the munici- 
pality. At first the Norfolk county buildings were in Norfolk, 
and a si)ecial clause in the charter reserved proprietary rights in 
them to the county. Later legislation authorized their sale and 
the erection of county l)uildings outside of Norfolk. The build- 
ings are now in Portsmouth. 
In 1776 many boroughs which had been given separate repre- 
sentation in the assembly were cut off by a law which prescribed 
that no borough with a population less, for seven successive 
jmars, than half that of any county should be separately repre- 
sented. In the same year the delegate for William and Mary 
College, specified in its charter, was cut off. 
In the state law for apportionment of members of Congress, 
1892, the following names of cities are given separate from names 
of counties: First district, Fredericksburg; second, Norfolk, 
Portsmouth, and Williamsburg ; third, Richmond and Man- 
chester; fourtii, Petersburg; filth, Danville and the town of 
North Danville ; sixth, Lynchburg, Radford, and Roanoke ; 
seventh, Charlottesville and Winchester ; eighth, Alexandria ; 
ninth, Bristol ; tenth, Staunton. To these are to be added Buena 
Vista, in the tenth district, chartered on the day of the approval 
of the apportionment bill, and Newport News, for Avhich the bill 
Avas signed January 18, 1896. The conditions for the town of 
North Danville are in transition. It has been a toAvn inde- 
pendent of Pittsylvania county, but judicially dependent on 
Danville. The name has recently been changed to Neapolis, 
and just too late for insertion here it Avill be determined by 
popular vote whether it shall be consolidated with DaiiA'ille.* 
In early days there was a disposition in certain other colonies 
to establish cities independent of counties. In New Jersey and 
in ^Maryland such early independencies as survived came under 
county control. In Pennsylvania the claims of GermantoAvn to 
independence ot the taxation of Philadelphia county Avere over- 
ruled b}'^ the governor. In Virginia, from the incorporation of 
James City (1639), it has been the steady policy to have the 
cities independent of the counties. It confuses some students 
* By popular vote, on February 20, Neapolis is to become a part of Danville on July 
1, 189G. 
