A Guide to the Richmond County (Va.) Chancery Causes, 1739-1958 (bulk 1739-1925) Richmond County (Va.) Chancery Causes, 1739-1958 (bulk 1739-1925) Richmond County (Va.) Chancery Causes, 1748-001-1958-002

A Guide to the Richmond County (Va.) Chancery Causes, 1739-1958 (bulk 1739-1925)

A Collection in
the Library of Virginia
Collection number: Richmond County (Va.) Chancery Causes, 1748-001-1958-002


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© 2006 By The Library of Virginia. All Rights Reserved.

Processed by: Greg Crawford

Repository
The Library of Virginia
Collection number
Richmond County (Va.) Chancery Causes, 1748-001-1958-002
Title
Richmond County (Va.) Chancery Causes, 1739-1958 (bulk 1739-1925)
Physical Characteristics
Digital images
Collector
Richmond County (Va.) Circuit Court.
Location
Library of Virginia
Language
English

Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Richmond County (Va.) Chancery Causes, 1739-1958 (bulk 1739-1925). (Cite style of suit and chancery index no.).Local government records collection, Richmond County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Acquisition Information

These items came to the Library of Virginia in transfer of court papers from Richmond County. A portion of theses records were transferred under the accession number 42487.

Backstage Library Services generated digital images from microfilm reels of the collection funded by the Circuit Court Records Preservation program.

Historical Information

Chancery Causes are cases of equity. According to Black's Law Dictionary they are "administered according to fairness as contrasted with the strictly formulated rules of common law." A judge, not a jury, determines the outcome of the case.

Richmond County may have been named for Richmond borough in Surrey, England, or for Charles Lennox, first duke of Richmond and a son of King Charles II. It was formed from Old Rappahannock County in 1692. The county seat is Warsaw.

Some volumes were burned and mutilated through unknown causes; in addition, the will books prior to 1699 were missing as early as 1793, and order books for the period 1794-1816 are also missing. Numerous loose records prior to 1781 are missing as well.

Scope and Content

Richmond County (Va.) Chancery Causes, 1739-1958 (bulk 1739-1925), are indexed into the Chancery Records Index . Cases are identified by style of suit consisting of plaintiff and defendant names. Surnames of others involved in a suit, including secondary plaintiffs and defendants, witnesses, deponents and affiants, and family members with surnames different from the plaintiff or defendant are indexed. Chancery causes often involved the following: divisions of estates or land, disputes over wills, divorces, debt, and business disputes. Predominant documents found in chancery causes include bills (plaintiff's complaint), answers (defendant's response), decrees (court's decision), depositions, affidavits, correspondence, lists of heirs, deeds, wills, business records, or vital statistics, among other items. Plats, if present, are noted, as are wills from localities with an incomplete record of wills or localities other than the one being indexed.

Chancery causes are useful when researching local history, genealogical information, and land or estate divisions. They are a valuable source of local, state, social, and legal history and serve as a primary source for understanding a locality's history.

Arrangement

Organized by case, of which each is assigned a unique index number comprised of the latest year found in case and a sequentially increasing 3-digit number assigned by the processor as cases for that year are found. Arranged chronologically.

Arrangement of documents within each folder are as follows: Bill, Answer, and Final Decree (if found.)

Related Material

Additional Richmond County Court Records can be found on microfilm at The Library of Virginia web site. Consult "A Guide to Virginia County and City Records on Microfilm."

See the Chancery Records Index found on the Library of Virginia web site for the chancery records of additional Virginia localities.

Additional Richmond County Court Records can be found on microfilm at The Library of Virginia. Consult "A Guide to Virginia County and City Records on Microfilm."

Richmond County is one of Virginia's Lost Records Localities. Additional Richmond County Records may be found in the Virginia Lost Records Localities Collection at the Library of Virginia. Search the Lost Records Localities Digital Collection available at Virginia Memory.

For more information and a listing of lost records localities see Lost Records research note .