<P> Counties have significant governmental functions in all states except Rhode Island and Connecticut, where county governments have been abolished but the entities remain for administrative or statistical purposes . The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has removed most government functions from eight of its 14 counties . </P> <P> The county with the largest population, Los Angeles County (10,170,292), and the county with the largest land area (San Bernardino County) border each other in Southern California (however four boroughs in Alaska are larger in area than San Bernardino). </P> <P> Counties were among the earliest units of local government established in the Thirteen Colonies that would become the United States . Virginia created the first counties in order to ease the administrative workload in Jamestown . The House of Burgesses divided the colony first into four "incorporations" in 1617 and finally into eight shires (or counties) in 1634: James City, Henrico, Charles City, Charles River, Warrosquyoake, Accomac, Elizabeth City, and Warwick River . America's oldest intact county court records can be found at Eastville, Virginia, in Northampton (originally Accomac) County, dating to 1632 . Maryland established its first county, St. Mary's, in 1637, and Massachusetts followed in 1643 . Pennsylvania and New York delegated significant power and responsibility from state government to county governments and thereby established a pattern for most of the United States, although counties remained relatively weak in New England . </P> <P> When independence came, "the framers of the Constitution did not provide for local governments . Rather, they left the matter to the states . Subsequently, early state constitutions generally conceptualized county government as an arm of the state ." In the twentieth century, the role of local governments strengthened and counties began providing more services, acquiring home rule and county commissions to pass local ordinances pertaining to their unincorporated areas . </P>

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