Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Majority of records are unprocessed. Post -1900 material needs review prior to use by researchers. Contact Archives Reference Staff for access.

Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Richmond (Va.) Ended Causes, 1782-1951 (bulk 1900-1951). Local government records collection, Richmond (City) Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Va. 23219.

Acquisition Information

These records came to the Library of Virginia in 1968 a transfer of court papers from the city of Richmond under accession number 26922 and in undated accessions.

Processing Information

Local Records Staff have only processed a small amount of Richmond (Va.) Ended Causes. The majority of the records remains in their original bundles. There are not current plans to undertake processing of the remainder of the Ended Causes.

Commonwealth Causes involving free and enslaved Black individuals have been removed and catalog separately in Richmond Criminal Records, 1782-1963 (1945-1963).

Original Ended Causes record encoded by G. Crawford, 2013; undated by M. Mason, 2023

Historical Information

Types of Courts: Richmond (Va.) Hustings court created by the General Assembly in 1782 at the time Richmond was granted it's charter. The court was created to handle all criminal cases, civil law cases, probate of wills, fiduciary accounts, deed recordings, all licenses (business, marriage, etc.), citizenship applications, etc.. Also included the Mayor Court.

Richmond (Va.) Hustings Court Part I was approved April 5, 1910 under agreement of consolidation between the City of Richmond and the City of Manchester and their corporation/ Hustings Court.

Richmond (Va.) Law and Equity Court II was created by appointment of a second judge by the Governor to handle additional law and equity cases due to increase in volume of Law and Equity Court.

Locality History Note: The City of Richmond was named by William Byrd (1674-1744), who envisioned the development of a city at the falls of the James River and with the help of William Mayo laid out the town in 1737. The name probably came from the English borough of Richmond upon Thames, which Byrd visited on several occasions. Richmond was established in 1742 and in 1779 was designated the capital of Virginia effective 30 April 1780. It was incorporated as a town, although "stiled the city of Richmond," in 1782 and was incorporated as a city in 1842. It served as the capital of the Confederacy from mid-1861 to April 1865. Richmond was enlarged by the annexation of Manchester (or South Richmond) in 1910, and by the addition of Barton Heights, Fairmount, and Highland Park in 1914. Further annexations from Chesterfield County occurred in 1942 and 1970.

Lost Locality Note: During the burning of Richmond on April 3, 1865, during the Civil War, Richmond circuit court judge John A. Meredith led efforts to save the circuit court records found at the State Court House. Rescuers successfully removed all the papers that were necessary to pending suits and many of the order books, but all of the wills and deed books were lost. Records of the superior court and circuit superior court of law and chancery were also destroyed. Most of the pre-Civil War Hustings Court records exist.

Scope and Content

Richmond (Va.) Ended Causes, 1782-1951, consists of records generated from the activities of the Richmond Husting Court, Richmond Husting Court I, and Richmond Law and Equity II. Ended Causes are loose court papers used by clerk of the court to describe legal records generated by the locality during a specific court session (month/year). Typically, these records are tri-folded and wrapped in bundles with no attempt made by the clerk to differentiate among the various record types within a bundle. These records remain largely unprocessed so it is difficult to definitively describe the record types included.

A bundle of Ended Causes could include civil suits, chancery causes, criminal papers, records involving free and enslaved individuals, road petitions, land processioner's reports, coroner's inquests, grand jury lists, officials' bonds, tax records, and administrators' bonds. The bundled records are largely filed chronologically by the month and year that the legal records were recorded in an order book.

Arrangement

Unprocessed

Related Material

See Richmond Criminal Records (Va.), 1782-1963 (bulk 1945-1963) for commonwealth causes and other criminal records removed from the Ended Cases and described separately.

Additional Richmond (Va.) court records can be found on microfilm at the Library of Virginia.Consult "A Guide to Virginia County and City Records on Microfilm."

Richmond City is one of Virginia's Lost Records Localities. Additional Richmond City Court Records may be found in the Lost Records Localities Digital Collection on the Library of Virginia website.

Adjunct Descriptive Data