 The Northampton County Courthouse Historical District is part of the Eastville Historical District at the county seat.When English colonists first arrived in the area in the early 1600s, the Virginia Eastern Shore region was governed by Debedeavon (aka "The Laughing King"), paramount chief of the "Accawmacke" clans who numbered around 2000 at the time.The former name of the county was Accomac Shire, one of the original eight shires of Virginia after the founding of the first settlement at Jamestown in 1607.