Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Richmond County (Va.) Wills and Fiduciary Records, 1699-1921. Local Government Records Collection, Richmond County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Acquisition Information

These items came to the Library of Virginia in transfer of court papers from Richmond County. A portion of the items were transferred to the Library of Virginia under the accession numbers 39231 and 39234.

Historical Information

Richmond County may have been named for Richmond borough in Surrey, England, or for Charles Lennox, first duke of Richmond and a son of King Charles II. It was formed from Old Rappahannock County in 1692. The county seat is Warsaw.

Individuals dying with a written will died testate. After the death of an individual, his or her will was brought into court, where two of the subscribing witnesses swore that the document was genuine. After the will was proved, the executor was bonded to carry out his or her duties to settle the estate. The court then ordered the will to be recorded.

Some volumes were burned and mutilated through unknown causes; in addition, the will books prior to 1699 were missing as early as 1793, and order books for the period 1794-1816 are also missing. Numerous loose records prior to 1781 are missing as well.

Sabine Hall is a plantation established in the 1730's in Richmond County, Virginia and owned by the Carter family.

Scope and Content

Richmond County (Va.) Wills and Fiduciary Records, 1699-1921, includes recorded and unrecorded wills, administrators' bonds, dower appraisements, estate accounts, executors' bonds, guardians' bonds, and inventories and appraisements. The wills record the deceased's plan for how his or her estate was to be divided among his or her heirs following his or her death. Information commonly recorded in wills include the name of the deceased, also referred as the testator; names of heirs; a listing of real and personal property (including slaves) and how it was to be divided among the heirs; names of individuals who were to be the will's executors; the date will was written; and the date will was recorded at the court house. The collection also includes wills not recorded in will books.

References to Sabine Hall are found in the records.

Related Material

Richmond County Will Books can be found on microfilm at The Library of Virginia web site. Consult "A Guide to Virginia County and City Records on Microfilm."

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

Richmond County is one of Virginia's Lost Records Localities. Additional Richmond 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:

• Richmond County (Va.). Circuit Court.

Subjects:

• African Americans -- History.
• Dower -- Virginia -- Richmond County.
• Estates (Law) -- Virginia -- Richmond County.
• Executors and administrators -- Virginia -- Richmond County.
• Guardian and ward -- Virginia -- Richmond County.
• Land subdivision -- Virginia -- Richmond County.
• Slaveholders. -- Virginia -- Richmond County.
• Slaves -- Virginia -- Richmond County.

Geographical Names:

• Richmond County -- History.
• Sabine Hall (Richmond County, Va.)

Genre and Form Terms:

• Appraisals -- Virginia -- Richmond County.
• Estate administration records -- Virginia -- Richmond County.
• Estate inventories -- Virginia -- Richmond County.
• Fiduciary records -- Virginia -- Richmond County.
• Local government records -- Virginia -- Richmond County.
• Performance bonds -- Virginia -- Richmond County.
• Wills -- Virginia -- Richmond County.

Adjunct Descriptive Data