Cause deals with debt related to medicine books and apothecary wares.

Plaintiff in cause cannot work and support herself. Needs annuity from vestry for help with "indigent state." Topics in suit deal with church and health.

Cause involves contract dispute regarding property and enslavement. Thomas Brown shipped Tony (or Toney, and enslaved person, to Martinico [French islands] in 1768. Tony was born a free person.

Defendant in cause was a French merchant residing in the town of Cape Francois in the French colony of Sainte-Domingue.

Cause is a freedom suit. Noah Maund's will of 1830 emancipated several enslaved individuals. These individuals were to be given to "the agent of the New Colonization Society of Africa," where the free African Americans of the United States would be colonized on the coast of Africa. Specific ships and destinations are included in Shields' deposition.

Mary Hibbert ran extensive dry goods business. Her store in Portsmouth was purchased in her own name and on her own credit.

Plaintiff alleges a dispute between his land and land purchased by U.S Government for a Naval Hopspital. Suit mentions erection of Fort Nelson. Plaintiff, by seeking an injunction, wants U.S. naval officers in charge of land to stop burying dead bodies from the hospital on his property and erecting an enclosure around these lands. Injuctions typically deal with debt, but in this cause and various others beginning in 1754, a dispute arises from wanting to stop or halt a particular action.

Suit references the appointment of complainant to recover the bounty land and half pay of William Hoffler, a major in the Revolutionary War.

Plaintiff is seeking injuction to injoin and restrain defendants from carrying enslaved people beyond the limits of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Defendant travelled from Virginia to North Carolina. The enslaved people were sent from North Carolina to Virginia to be sold in New Orleans.

Various charitable organizations, both inside and outside Virginia, and various enslaved people, emancipated by Richard Carney in his wil, are suing Carney's executor claiming that he needs to render a proper account and adjust his transactions related to Carney's estate-essentially for the executor to honor what Carney intended in this will.

Cause involves debt. Defendant proposes to complainant to form a "slave trade" co-partnership with him for the purchase of enslaved people to be sent to Louisiana. Two enslaved men with surnames, White and Shepherd, were bound for Mobile, Alabama aboard the schooner, Pelican. Cause also includes transcripts from St. Martin's Parish, Louisiana as exhibits filed by defendant.

Petition made to remove enslaved individuals of his ward, Mary E. Woodhouse, from Virginia to Currituck County in North Carolina. Court grants his petition.

Marriage and divorce involving free Black individuals.

Cause involves allowing by power of attorney a moiety on a Land Bounty warrant or claim by the state of Virginia for the Revolutionary services of their ancestor Simon Harris, surgeon in the Virginia State Navy during the Revolutionary War. Bagby files injunction against one of the defendants in second suit, Wilson, from issuing or delivering land warrants to other defendants in suit.

Cause mentions Dr. Blood's original invention and patent for an obstetric chair.

Cause involves estate dispute. It mentions epidemic of yellow fever in town of Portsmouth in August 1855. Court was not held in county from August-November 1855 due to this epidemic.

Both plaintiff and defendant emigrated from Germany and were married in Baltimore, Maryland in 1855 and came to Virginia in 1858.

Plaintiff wants Thomas Tartt's will to be declared null and void so enslaved persons may not be granted their freedom.

Estate Suit: This cause brought by Mary Ann Cuffee, “a free woman of color,” largely concerns the validity of her husband, James Cuffee's, probated will. Mary Ann believes that William Hodges, “a free man of color,” presented a false will to the Norfolk County court, noting that in 1829 the Norfolk Superior Court found Hodges guilty of forgery and he soon after escaped from jail. Mary Ann argues that Hodges came back to the county during the Civil War and then started to pretend to practice law in the military court of the Freedmen's Bureau. The judge rules in Mary Ann’s favor, declaring the will presented by William Hodges to be "null and void."

Plaintiff was forced to flee state of North Carolina. He claims defendant bought a bottle of poison home and threatened to take his life. She proceeded to mix the poison in whiskey and employed a man to give it to the plaintiff. Defendant was known to commit adultery and abandon her children.

Cause involves divorce. Plaintiff and defendant, both free Black individuals, were married in Goochland County in 1857. During the Civil War, defendant first deserted plaintiff but came back after the War. One daughter was born. In 1867, defendant left Virginia and moved to New York City. Plaintiff was abandoned again in 1868 and returned to Virginia. Plaintiff requests injunction against defendant and asks for custody of their child.

Trustees of the Divine Baptist Church at Deep Creek became possessed of a certain lot of land in the County of Norfolk. The congregation of the church wants to sell a portion of the land attached to the church to the Trustees of the Public Schools for the County to be used as a school house for the colored children of that section of the County of Norfolk.

Suit involves contract. Plaintiff alleges that he was forced to marry defendant. Plaintiff contends that defendant was not of chaste character. It was her desire, in his prosecution, to prevent his marriage with the person to whom he was engaged. Marriage was eventually declared null and void.

Suit involves debt, property and enslavement. Samuel Fisk was the son-in-law of Mitchell Phillips, an eslaver. John Duncan, a neighbor to both Fisk and Phillips, describes in detail in his deposition how Fisk attempted to save his father-in-law's property, inclduing enslaved persons, from Union forces and in turn, how Fisk maneuvered to keep his own property.

Suit deals with divorce and separate maintenance. The defendant deserted plaintiff and moved to Norfolk County. Plaintiff married defendant in Oct. 1864 but had cohabitated with plaintiff beginning in 1855, when both were enslaved. A child was born in 1866. Cohabitation becomes a legal argument in the cause.

Divorce: William C. Sawyer is seeking a divorce from Serena Sawyer on the grounds of her mental illness. William claims he did not know that prior to their marriage in 1867, Serena was a patient at a psychiatric hospital as "a person of insane mind." Later in 1874, Serena was forcibly committed to the "Eastern Lunatic Asylum" [Eastern State Hospital] in the City of Williamsburg and remained there as a patient at the time of the divorce proceedings. William fears that the mental health of Serena’s father, R. B. Riell, a veteran of the United States Navy, indicates that Serena’s mental health condition is hereditary. The language throughout the case shows the historic stigmas and misconceptions surrounding mental health, and the treatment of individuals requiring care. The judge grants the divorce.

Land mentioned in bill and deed is found in the village of Berkley. A small portion of this land, to be served and excepted, is set aside as a burial ground "for persons of the Jewish religion."

Plaintiff wanted a divorce because his wife was unable to have children. He informed the court that "the object of marriage was the procreation of children. And that by the impotency of the said Evaline Fulton, the said object of said marriage cannot be accomplished."

Includes a letter in which the writer provides negative commentary concerning the controversial 1876 Presidential election.

Divorce suit. Plaintiff and defendant were married at an Evangelical Lutheran church in New York City called St. Lucas. Suit includes marriage license written in German.

Depositions describe burial rituals for persons who died a natural death versus those who committed suicide or were murdered. Deponents were questioned on whether a member of the association, Abraham Liebman, murdered his wife or she committed suicide by poisoning [See also chancery cause 1893-012].

Plaintiffs and defendants were descendants or related to John Haley, a former enslaved person. Deponents answered questions concerning family relationships of enslaved people prior to the Civil War and their migration after the war.

Defendant was circuit court clerk for Norfolk County. Plaintiff accused Martin of denying him access to deeds. Martin's response was that Waring was a nuisance in the office. He was making it difficult for the clerk's staff to do their job. Suit provides insight into the inner workings of a clerk's office.

Friendly suit concerning the removal of deceased family members from a burial ground located at Keeling farm to a cemetery in Portsmouth or Norfolk. Contains substantial genealogical information.

Divorce suit. Plaintiff accused defendant of visiting a house of "ill fame" and committing adultery on Christmas Day.

Genealogical chart used as exhibit.

Divorce suit. Two photographs of defendant used as exhibit.

Divorce suit. Plaintiff was African American and defendant was white. They were natives of Virginia. They went to Boston, Massachusetts, to marry because the laws of Virginia forbade interracial marriage. The plaintiff said they did so "with the express intention of evading the laws of Virginia and with the intention of returning to Virginia and residing therein." They married in November 1878. The plaintiff stated that his wife abandoned him and their two daughters in July 1885 and moved to Maine. Suit includes attorney opinions regarding legality of the marriage.

Defendants are current and former members of the Board of Supervisors for Norfolk County. Plaintiffs accused defendants of fraudulent use of public funds. Exhibits include correspondence from other circuit courts concerning salaries of board of supervisors in other localities.

Divorce suit. Plaintiff and defendant are Russian immigrants. Plaintiff convicted of bigamy in Baltimore, MD.

The plaintiff operated music and dancing pavilions, merry-go-rounds, shooting galleries, ball and baby galleries, scenic railways, and other amusements in Pine Beach. The defendants wanted to operate a hotel and/or bar at a skating rink on the resort that would sell intoxicating liquors. Plaintiff wanted an injunction to prevent the defendants from doing so. Suit includes correspondence with Columbia Amusement Company letterhead.

Plaintiff was a corporation chartered in Missouri engaged in reproducing, as public theatrical performances, certain fights and battles of the Boer War between England and the Boers which was waged in the Transvaal on the continent of Africa, including a panorama of certain scenes of the country in which said war was fought.

Includes will of John C. P. Edwards. Includes humorous requests.

Litigants are descendants of George Mackey, a free man, before the Civil War. He was born in 1780. Suit includes depositions, genealogical chart and genealogical notes identifying descendants of George Mackey.

Plaintiff states that he is the "chief of all the Gypsy trips in the United States" and his wife was the queen. They were working as fortune tellers at the Jamestown Exposition.

Divorce suit. "Flirtatious" postcards sent to the plaintiff by someone other than her husband used as exhibits.

Menu included as exhibit.

Daniel Cary Barraud Wilson dropped "Wilson" from his name at the request of his grandfather who raised him from infancy.

Plaintiff Mary Crump was an enslaved person prior to the Civil War. In a deposition, she testifies to events she recalled while enslaved, including the deaths of her children. She also gives the names of her parents and their enslavers. Mary Crump gives a brief account of her travels during and after the Civil War and discovering family relations. Additional deponents are formerly enslaved persons who knew the plaintiff. In their testimony, they share events that they recall before and during the Civil War such as being sold or the death of a husband during the 1855 Yellow Fever epidemic as well as family relationships.