A Guide to the Scott County (Va.) Chancery Causes, 1816-1912
A Collection in
the Library of Virginia
Chancery Records Index: Scott County (Va.) Chancery Causes, 1816-001-1912-064
![[logo]](http://ead.lib.virginia.edu/vivaead/logos/lva.jpg)
Library of Virginia
The Library of Virginia800 East Broad Street
Richmond, Virginia 23219-8000
USA
Phone: (804) 692-3888 (Archives Reference)
Fax: (804) 692-3556 (Archives Reference)
Email: archdesk@lva.virginia.gov(Archives)
URL: http://www.lva.virginia.gov/
© 2009 By The Library of Virginia. All Rights Reserved.
Processed by: Library of Virginia staff
Administrative Information
Access Restrictions
There are no restrictions.
Use Restrictions
Patrons are to use digital images of Scott County Chancery Causes found on the Chancery Records Index available electronically at the website of the Library of Virginia.
Preferred Citation
Scott County (Va.) Chancery Causes, 1816-1912. (Cite style of suit and chancery index no.). Local government records collection, Scott County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.
Acquisition Information
These items came to the Library of Virginia in shipments of court papers from Scott County.
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.
Scott County was formed in 1814 from the counties of Lee, Russell, and Washington.
Scope and Content
Scott County (Va.) Chancery Causes, 1816-1912, 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, slave records, 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 Scott 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."
For digital images of Scott County Chancery Causes, 1816-1912, consult the Chancery Records Index found on the Library of Virginia web site.
Index Terms
- Scott County (Va.) Circuit Court.
- African Americans -- History.
- Business enterprises -- Virginia -- Scott County.
- Debt -- Virginia -- Scott County.
- Divorce suits -- Virginia -- Scott County.
- Equity -- Virginia -- Scott County.
- Estates (Law) -- Virginia -- Scott County.
- Land subdivision -- Virginia -- Scott County.
- Scott County (Va.) -- History.
- Scott County (Va.)--Genealogy.
- Chancery causes -- Virginia -- Scott County.
- Deeds -- Virginia -- Scott County.
- Judicial records -- Virginia -- Scott County.
- Land records -- Virginia -- Scott County.
- Local government records -- Virginia -- Scott County.
- Plats -- Virginia -- Scott County.
- Wills -- Virginia -- Scott County.
Corporate Names:
Subjects:
Geographical Names:
Genre and Form Terms:
Significant Places Associated With the Collection
- Scott County (Va.) -- History.
- Scott County (Va.)--Genealogy.
Selected Suits of Interest
Testimony in this case mentions that four of Joseph Johnson's children were captured and carried off by Native Americans during the early settlement of the county by the English.
A witness mentioned the death of an early stettler's wife and two daughters who were killed during a raid by Native Americans.
All three cases concern one free African American mother's determined but unsuccessful attempts to free her children from slavery.
Witnesses in this suit described a pro-Union judge who surrounded himself with a group of armed men and consistently ruled against individuals with pro-Confederacy sympathies.
In 1863, Carter was serving as the sheriff of Scott County, and among his other duties, he was responsible for tax collection. However, he and his deputies were prevented from collecting taxes in certain parts of the county due to the residents' violent opposition to Confederate authories.
Kane agreed to sell to Nickels a certain tract of land, but later refused to honor the contract. When Nickels sued to force Kane to comply with their agreement, the defense declared that the contract should be voided because Kane was young, inexperienced in business dealings, and most importantly, because Kane had been drinking heavily when he agreed to sell the land.
In 1892, the Gate City authorities passed an ordinance that created a license tax on certain professionals such as physicians, attorneys, and architects among others. Edmonds, a lawyer, successfully challenged the constitutionality of this statute and had it overturned.
Included as an exhibit in this case is a very detailed plat of Gate City dated 1890.
Testimony in this case reveals that in order to frighten and drive her husband away Virginia claimed to have brought a ghost into their house.
After members of the church split into two factions over the doctrine of absolute predestination, each group sought to control the church property.
As an infant, Ella B. Flanary was abandoned in a wooded area by her mother. After being found by a passerby who heard Ella's cries, she was taken in by Perkins. Perkins petitioned the court to legally adopt Ella and to change her last name to his own.
The South and Western Railroad Co.; successor to the Charleston, Cincinnati, and Chicago Railroad Co.; obtained a right-of-way to build it's railroad through the lands of Horn and several members of the Mann family, against these land owners' objections. In order to prevent the construction of the railroad, the land owners put up fences accross the road bed and even drove away the company's workers at gun point.
In his bill for divorce, William stated that the, "marriage was not voluntarily and willingly contracted and entered into by him of his own free well and volition. But upon the contrary he alleges and charges that said marriage was entered into on his part solely through fear, intimidation, duress and threats of death, or serious bodily injury, at the hands of the said Hicks Horn, Orbin Horn and Robert Stallard [Belle's relatives], who threatened and told him, if he refused to go with them to Bristol, Tenn., and marry the said defendant, that they would then and there blow his brains out".