Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Buchanan County (Va.) Justice of the Peace Records, 1877-1927. Local government records collection, Buchanan County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Va. 23219.

Acquisition Information

These items came to the Library of Virginia in a shipment of court papers from Buchanan County.

Historical Information

Buchanan County was named for the United States president James Buchanan and was formed from Tazewell and Russell Counties in 1858.

Justices of the Peace were first known as Commissions of the Peace when they were formed in 1623. The Commissioners of the Peace replaced the Commanders of Plantations who served from 1607 to 1629. The name Justices of the Peace was used from 1662 through 1974, when they were replaced by Magistrates. They traditionally had both civil and criminal jurisdictions. They served other functions, including performing coroners' and lunacy inquisitions, and performing civil marriages. Until 1869 justices served as both judges of the county court and as individual justices; since then they have only served as justices.

Records were destroyed by fire in 1885; records created after that date suffered extreme damage in a flood in 1977.

Scope and Content

Buchanan County (Va.) Justice of the Peace Records, 1877-1927, consists of Record of Judgments; Justices' Civil Judgments, and Executions; Executions Returned by Constables on Judgments of the Justices of the Peace; Justices' Criminal Judgments, an unnumbered volume, Volume 2 and Volume 8; and Criminal Judgments Lien Docket for Justices.

Related Material

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

See the Lost Records Localities Digital Collection available at Virginia Memory.

For more information and a listing of lost records localities see Lost Records research note .

Index Terms

Corporate Names:

• Buchanan County (Va.) Circuit Court

Subjects:

• Public records--Virginia--Buchanan County

Geographical Names:

• Buchanan County (Va.)--History

Genre and Form Terms:

• Local government records--Virginia--Buchanan County

Adjunct Descriptive Data