Secretaries of the Commonwealth of Virginia

1607-1609 Gabriel Archer, Recorder
1610-1611 William Strachey
1611-1614 Ralph Hamor, Jr
1614-1619 John Rolfe
1619-1621 John Pory
1621-1623 Christopher Davison
1625-1635 William Claiborne
1635-1649 Richard Kemp
1649-1652 Richard Lee
1652-1660 William Claiborne
1661-1678 Thomas Ludwell
1678 Philip Ludwell
1678-1679 Daniel Parke
1679-1689 Nicholas Spencer
1689-1692 William Cole
1692-1693 Christopher Robinson
1693-1701 Ralph Wormeley
1702-1712 Edmund Jennings
1712-1720 William Cocke
1720-1722 Edmund Jennings
1712-1743 John Carter
1743-1788 Thomas Nelson
1788-1800 John Harvie
1801-1811 Daniel L. Hylton
1811-1820 William Robertson
1820-1821 John Burfoot
1821-1852 William H. Richardson
1853-1865 George W. Munford
1865-1867 Charles H. Lewis
1867-1869 John M. Herndon
1869-1870 Brevet Col. Garrick Mallery
(appointed under Special Orders No. 68, Hdqrts., First Military District)
1870-1879 James McDonald
1880-1881 Thomas T. Flournoy*
1882-1883 William C. Elam
1884-1893 Henry W. Flournoy
1894-1900 Joseph T. Lawless
1901-1910 David Q. Eggleston
1910-1926 B. O. Jones
1927-1929 Martin A. Hutchinson
1930-1937 Peter H. Saunders
1938-1941 Raymond L. Jackson
1942-1944 Ralph E. Wilkins
1945-1946 Thelma Y. Gordon, acting
1946-1948 Jesse W. Dillon
1948 M. W. Armistead
1948-1952 Thelma Y. Gordon
1952-1970 Martha Bell Conway
1970-1974 Cynthia Newman
1974-1978 Patricia Perkinson
1978 Stanford E. Parris
1978-1981 Frederick T. Gray, Jr.
1981-1982 Marilyn Lussen, acting
1982-1985 Laurie Naismith
1985-1986 H. Benson Dendy, III
1986-1990 Sandra D. Bowen
1990-1993 Pamela M. Womack
1993 Scott Bates
1993-1994 Penelope Anderson, acting
1994-1998 Betsy Davis Beamer
1998-2002 Anne P. Petera
2002-2006 Anita A. Rimler
2006 Daniel G. LeBlanc
2006-2010 Katherine K. Hanley
2010-2014 Janet V. Kelly
2014-2016 Levar M. Stoney
2016-2022 Kelly T. Thomasson
2022-2023 Kay Coles James
2023-Present Kelly Gee

*From 1801-1830 this official was designated only as “Clerk of the Council of State” or “Clerk of the Privy Council”; later the phrase “Keeper of the Public Seal” was added.

Information accurate as of December 2023