Library of Virginia
The Library of Virginia© 2013 By The Library of Virginia. All Rights Reserved.
Processed by: Callie Lou Freed
There are no restrictions.
There are no restrictions.
Stafford County (Va.) Chancery Causes, 1914-1940. Local Government Records Collection, Stafford County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.
These items came to the Library of Virginia under accession number 44155.
Stafford County was named for the English county. It was formed from Westmoreland County in 1664. Part of King George County was added in 1777. The county seat is Stafford.
Many pre-Civil War court records were lost to vandalism by Union troops during the Civil War. A few volumes that record deeds, court orders, and wills exist.
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.
Stafford County (Va.) Chancery Causes, 1913-1940 involve the following: divisions of estates or land, disputes over wills, divorces, and settlements of dissolved business partnerships. 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. Broken series indicates a wide date range with multiple gaps in years. These records are currently unprocessed.
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.
See the Chancery Records Index found on the Library of Virginia's web site for the chancery records of other Virginia localities.
Additional Stafford County Court Records can be found on microfilm at the Library of Virginia. Consult "A Guide to Virginia County and City Records on Microfilm."
Stafford County is one of Virginia's Lost Records Localities. Additional Stafford County Records may be found in the Virginia Lost Records Localities Collection at the Library of Virginia. Search 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 .