Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Washington County (Va.) Chancery Causes, 1849-1913. (Cite style of suit and chancery index no.). Local Government Records Collection, Washington Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Acquisition Information

These items came to the Library of Virginia in transfer of court papers from Washington County under the accession number 40995.

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.

Washington County was named for George Washington who had been commander in chief of the Continental army for little more than a year when the county was formed from Fincastle County in 1776. The county court first met on 28 January 1777. A part of Montgomery County was added in 1777.

Minute books for the periods 1787-1819 and 1821-1837 and many loose papers were lost in a courthouse fire set by Union soldier James Wyatt on 15 December 1864 during the Civil War. Wyatt, who was raised in Washington County, sought revenge for what he claimed was a wrong done against him by a county court judge before the war.

Scope and Content

Washington County (Va.) Chancery Causes, 1849-1913, 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.

Related Material

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

Washington County is one of Virginia's Lost Records Localities. Additional Washington County Court Records may be found in the Virginia Lost Records Localities Collection at the Library of Virginia. Search the Lost Records Localities Database found at the Library of Virginia web site.

See the Chancery Records Index to find the chancery records of additional Virginia localities.

Index Terms

Corporate Names:

• Washington County (Va.) Circuit Court.

Subjects:

• African Americans--History.
• Business enterprises--Virginia--Washington County.
• Debt--Virginia--Washington County.
• Divorce suits--Virginia--Washington County.
• Equity--Virginia--Washington County.
• Estates (Law)--Virginia--Washington County.
• Land subdivision--Virginia--Washington County.

Geographical Names:

• Washington County (Va.)--Genealogy.
• Washington County (Va.)--History.

Genre and Form Terms:

• Chancery causes--Virginia--Washington County.
• Deeds--Virginia--Washington County.
• Judicial records--Virginia--Washington County.
• Land records--Virginia--Washington County.
• Local government records--Virginia--Washington County.
• Plats--Virginia--Washington County.
• Wills--Virginia--Washington County.

Adjunct Descriptive Data