Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Augusta County (Va.) Court Records, 1769-1837. Local government records collection, Augusta County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia 23219.

Acquisition Information

Gift of Duke University, 22 June 1951 under the accession number 23707.

Historical Information

Augusta County was named in honor of Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, wife of Frederick Louis, Prince of Wales, and mother of George III. It was formed from Orange County in 1738, but county government was not established there until 1745.

The City of Staunton, in Augusta County, was named, according to tradition, for Rebecca Staunton, wife of Sir William Gooch, lieutenant governor of Virginia from 1727 to 1749. Staunton was laid out in 1748 at the site of the Augusta County courthouse and was established as a town in 1761. It was incorporated as a town in 1801 and as a city in 1871.

In 1780, the Virginia General Assembly replaced the Anglican vestries and churchwardens of the colonial period with elected bodies called Overseers of the Poor. The overseers provided food, clothing, shelter, and medical treatment for the persons who were too poor to support themselves or too ill to provide for their basic needs. The overseers took over the supervision of the poorhouses and workhouses built by the vestries and built new poorhouses and workhouses where they were needed. In 1844, the General Assembly enacted laws to create poor farms overseen by boards of directors for the maintenance and education of the poor. The boards bought farms and built buildings, appointed a superintendant for each poor farm, and chose a physician to attend the sick and teachers to educate the children. The adults and older children were required to work if they were able.

Scope and Content

Augusta County (Va.) Court Records, 1769-1837, consist of records organized into the local records series of Overseer of the Poor Records, Bonds/Commissions/Oaths, Miscellaneous Records, Tax and Fiscal Records, and Wills.

Overseer of the Poor Records, 1769-1837, comprise the majority of this accession. These are loose papers documenting the work of the overseer of the poor in caring for the impoverished of the county. Records for the corporation of Staunton are intermingled with the county papers and cannot be separated in a sensible fashion. Information likely to be found in the papers includes payments made to individuals for feeding, clothing, providing medicine and doctor care, and burial services for poor residents; oaths about the paternity of a bastard child in order to ensure that the child did not become chargeable to the county for its support; and other financial matters concerning taxes and fees directed to the overseer to support its function. Occasionally other papers concerning financial matters unrelated to the Overseer of the Poor are found in these papers.

Bonds/Commissions/Oaths is one bond of Isaac Samuels as deputy sheriff of Shenandoah County dated 1803 July 11.

Miscellaneous Records consist of one personal letter from Peter Elliott of Winchester, VA, to Vincent Tapp of Staunton, VA dated 1803 October 4.

Tax and Fiscal Records consist of delinquent and insolvent tax lists dated 1771-1833. The lists often contain information about where a person has moved if they have left the county and other information related to their finances and current location.

Wills is a single will from Peggy Laywell of Staunton dated 1799 September 5.

Arrangement

Organized into the following series: Overseer of the Poor Records, Bonds/Commissions/Oaths, Miscellaneous Records, Tax and Fiscal Records, Wills.

Index Terms

Corporate Names:

• Augusta County (Va.). Circuit Court.
• Staunton (Va.). Circuit Court.

Subjects:

• Illegitimacy -- Virginia -- Augusta County.
• Illegitimacy -- Virginia -- Staunton.
• Poor -- Virginia -- Augusta County.
• Poor -- Virginia -- Staunton.
• Public welfare -- Virginia -- Augusta County.
• Public welfare -- Virginia -- Staunton.

Geographical Names:

• Augusta County (Va.) -- History.
• Staunton (Va.) -- History.

Genre and Form Terms:

• Bonds (legal records) -- Virginia -- Augusta County.
• Letters (correspondence) -- Virginia -- Augusta County.
• Local government records -- Virginia -- Augusta County.
• Local government records -- Virginia -- Staunton.
• Tax and fiscal records -- Virginia -- Augusta County.
• Tax records -- Virginia -- Augusta County.