Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Rappahannock County (Va.) Chancery Causes, 1833-1940 (bulk 1833-1920). (Cite style of suit and chancery index no.). Local government records collection, Rappahannock 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 Rappahannock County.

Backstage Library Services generated digital images from microfilm reels of the collection funded by the Circuit Court Records Preservation program.

Historical Information

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.

Rappahannock County, the second Virginia county of that name, was named for the Rappahannock River, which in turn received its name from an Indian tribe that lived along its banks. It was formed from Culpeper County in 1833. The county seat is Washington.

Scope and Content

Rappahannock County (Va.) Chancery Causes, 1833-1940 (bulk 1833-1920), are indexed into the the Chancery Records Index . Cases are identified by style of suit consisting of plaintiff and defendant names. Surnames of others involved in a suit, including secondary plaintiffs and defendants, witnesses, deponents and affiants, and family members with surnames different from the plaintiff or defendant are indexed. Chancery causes often involved the following: divisions of estates or land, disputes over wills, divorces, debt, and business disputes. 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.

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.

Arrangement

Organized by case, of which each is assigned a unique index number comprised of the latest year found in case and a sequentially increasing 3-digit number assigned by the processor as cases for that year are found. Arranged chronologically.

Arrangement of documents within each folder are as follows: Bill, Answer, and Final Decree (if found.)

Related Material

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

See the Chancery Records Index to search for chancery suits of additional Virginia localities.

Index Terms

Corporate Names:

• Rappahannock County (Va.) Circuit Court.

Subjects:

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

Geographical Names:

• Rappahannock County (Va.)--Genealogy.
• Rappahannock County (Va.)--History.

Genre and Form Terms:

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

Adjunct Descriptive Data