In 1636 the county of New Norfolk was created by the Grand Assembly of Virginia for the purpose of bringing limited local government to the people on the south side of Hampton Roads. This area had first been settled around 1620 and had grown in population sufficiently to justify its own court. Following the dictates of the Act of Assembly, the first court of New Norfolk County met in its first recorded session on May 15, 1637. At that time there were approximately five hundred people living in the new county and its area included all that is now modern day Norfolk, Portsmouth, Virginia Beach, Suffolk and Chesapeake.
One year later New Norfolk county was divided into two counties: 1. Upper Norfolk County, later to be called Nansemond which, in time, became the City of Suffolk: and 2. Lower Norfolk County encompassing all the area from Nansemond County to the Atlantic Ocean.
In 1961 Lower Norfolk County was again divided. One portion named Princess Anne County, later to become the City of Virginia Beach. The other portion was called Norfolk County and would retain that name until it became a part of the City of Chesapeake.
Part of Norfolk County became: The Borough of Norfolk, originally chartered in 1763, known by us in its greatly enlarged form as the City of Norfolk, and the Town of Portsmouth, chartered in 1752, which also grew into a city.
In 1919 another portion of Norfolk County became the Town of south Norfolk. Within three years this town became a city of the second class. A city of the second class is one of under 10,000 population and, like a town, has its own administration but is judicially under the jurisdiction of the County Court -- in this case, the circuit Court of Norfolk County. Following the annexation in 1951 of a portion of Norfolk County, South Norfolk acquired sufficient population to become a city of the first class and, as such, gained its own Corporation Court and complete independence of the County.
In the period following world War II all of these cities and counties experienced an unparalleled time of growth . Much of this growth took place in Norfolk County in the fringe areas around the various cities. According to the 1950 census, Norfolk County had a population of 99,000 which by 1960 had fallen to 51,000 through annexation suits prosecuted by its neighboring cities. In these suits the county lost 33 square miles of territory, 110,488 people, $1,881,218 in annual revenue. In one of Norfolk's suits the land sought to be annexed would have allowed South Norfolk to become completely surrounded by the City of Norfolk. Under these conditions, it was becoming increasingly difficult to plan for the future in both Norfolk County and South Norfolk.
On Tuesday, February 13, 1962 the citizens turned out in near record numbers to vote on the question:
Shall the City of South Norfolk and Norfolk County consolidate?
In both communities the vote was approved by the General Assembly within the next month and in June a referendum on the choice of a name was held. And the name shall be Chesapeake!