Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Stafford County (Va.) Chancery Causes, 1914-1940. Local Government Records Collection, Stafford County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Acquisition Information

These items came to the Library of Virginia under accession number 44155.

Historical Information

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.

Scope and Content

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.

Related Material

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 .

Index Terms

Corporate Names:

• Stafford County (Va.) Circuit Court.

Subjects:

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

Geographical Names:

• Stafford County (Va.)--History--20th century.

Genre and Form Terms:

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

Adjunct Descriptive Data