Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Russell County (Va.) Chancery Causes, 1934-1960. (Cite style of suit and chancery index no.). Local Government Records Collection, Russell 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 Russell County under accession number 37641.

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.

Russell County was named for William Russell, a Clinch Valley pioneer and the member of the House of Delegates who introduced the legislation forming the county from Washington County in 1786.

Scope and Content

Russell County (Va.) Chancery Causes, 1934-1960, are indexed in 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 Russell 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."

Digital images of pre-1934 Russell County Chancery Causes are available on the Chancery Records Index found on the Library of Virginia web site.

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

Index Terms

Corporate Names:

• Russell County (Va.) Circuit Court

Subjects:

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

Geographical Names:

• Russell County (Va.) -- Genealogy -- Genealogy
• Russell County (Va.) -- History -- 20th century

Genre and Form Terms:

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

Adjunct Descriptive Data