Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Mathews County Chancery Causes 1842-1904 are indexed but not scanned. Contact Archives Research Services for availability.

Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Mathews County (Va.) Chancery Causes, 1842-1904. (Cite style of suit and chancery index no.). Local Government Records Collection, Mathews County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Acquisition Information

These items are believed to have come to the Library of Virginia in transfer of court papers from Mathews County under an undated accession although they may have also been found with records from adjacent counties.

Processing Information

Chancery Causes were found amongst other record types, removed and formed into a separate and discrete chancery collection. The records were processed and indexed by Library of Virginia staff in 2011.

Encoded by G. Crawford: 2021; Updated by J. Taylor: November 2023.

Historical Information

Context for Record Type: 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; however, the judge is basing the decision on findings compiled and documented by Commissioners. 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. Chancery causes document the lived experiences of free and enslaved individuals; women; children; people living with physical disabilities or mental health struggles; people living in poverty; defunct institutions and corporate entities; or those that may not have otherwise left traditional written histories.

Locality History: Mathews County was named for Thomas Mathews, of Norfolk, the Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates when it was formed from Gloucester County by a statute passed on 16 December 1790 to take effect on 1 May 1791. The county seat is Mathews.

Scope and Content

Mathews County (Va.) Chancery Causes, 1842-1904 consists of cases concerning issues of equity brought largely by residents of the county and filed in the circuit court. These cases often involve the following actions: divisions of estates or land, disputes over wills, disputes regarding contracts, debt, divorce, and business disputes. Other less prevalent issues include freedom suits, permissions to sell property, and disputes concerning trespass. Predominant documents found in these chancery causes include bills (documents the plaintiff's complaint), answers (defendant's response to the plaintiff's complaint), decrees (court's decision), depositions, affidavits, correspondence, lists of heirs, deeds, plats, wills, records involving enslaved individuals, business records or vital statistics.

Arrangement

Organized by case file number assigned by the circuit court.

Related Material

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

This is not a complete run of Mathews Count Chancery Causes (only 71 cases indexed). The vast majority of the records remain in the Mathews Co. Circuit Court Clerk's Office.

Adjunct Descriptive Data