Entry from January 27, 2016
Virginia: Beadle (nickname)
Entry in progress—B.P.
Google Books
U. S.
An Index to the United States of America
Compiled by Malcolm Townsend
Boston, MA: D. Lothrop Company
1890
Pg. 81:
NICKNAMES APPLIED TO THE PEOPLE OF THE STATES.
(...)
Virginia…Beadles...Inherited from its Colonial days, through the introduction of the English beadles of he Court Customs.
3 June 1896, The Morning Herald (Lexington, KY), “The Nicknames of Twenty-Eight States of the Union,” pg. 6, col. 3:
Virginians are nicknamed “Beadles,” from a colonial functionary.