Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Judgments, 1790-1900 that were transferred in accession 53810 under the title “Greensville County Dead Papers” and in adjacent boxes have undergone minimal processing. The remaining Judgments from this locality are still unprocessed and need review prior to use by researchers. All records remain tri-folded or in original bundles and may be fragile. Contact Archives Research services for availability.

Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Greensville County (Va.) Judgments, 1782-1910. Local government records collection, Greensville County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia, 23219.

Acquisition Information

These records came to the Library of Virginia in a 2009 transfer of court papers from Greensville County under accession number 44478 and in a 2023 transfer of court papers from Greensville County under accession number 53810.

Processing Information

Encoded by M. Long: July 2023.

Judgments, 1790-1900 that were transferred in accession 53810 under the title “Greensville County Dead Papers” and in adjacent boxes were processed using minimal processing standards: Locality records were organized by broad record category (election records, fiduciary records, etc.) with minimal other arrangement. These records have not been flattened, foldered, mended, or separated by individual record type (like summons, appraisements, etc.).

The remaining judgments accessioned under the number 53810 and all judgments accessioned under the number 44478 are still unprocessed.

Historical Information

Context for Record Type: Judgments are identified as civil suits, often involving debt, heard by a jury on the "law" side of the court as opposed to the "chancery" (or equity) side. Should the defendant not have funds to repay the debt, the court ordered their property (including enslaved people) to be seized and sold to repay the debt owed to the plaintiff. Judgments also contain suits brought by enslaved people seeking to gain their freedom.

In Judgments, an assumpsit or declaration (sometimes referred to as a narratio) lays out the plaintiff's grievance as a petition acted as a formal application to the court requesting judicial action. Judgment suits also generally included record types like subpoenas, summons, and exhibit. Judgments may also include additional documentations such as executions, bonds, and various kinds of writs.

Judgment suits make up a large quantity of a locality's records; consequently, they provide a great deal of information concerning the activities and interests of the people who lived in the locality. Since the vast majority of judgment suits relate to financial matters, they are a valuable resource in studying the economic and social history of Virginia localities and are the impotence for many chancery suits.

Locality History: Greensville County was named either for Revolutionary War general Nathanael Greene, commanding general of the Continental army in the South during part of the Revolutionary War, or for Sir Richard Grenville, leader of the Roanoke Island settlement of 1585. The county was formed from Brunswick County on 28 November 1780.

Scope and Content

Greensville County (Va.) Judgments, 1782-1910, consist of civil cases in which justice was administered on the strictly formulated rules of common law. The majority of cases in this record group relate to matters of debt. A portion of the judgments, 1790-1900, have undergone minimal processing. This has allowed for the documentation of specific record types and various trends found in this set of records. The remaining judgments are completely unprocessed.

Judgments, 1790-1900 that have undergone minimal processing consist of the following:

Significant materials include several cases that discuss the sale of enslaved people as well as an 1829 case pertaining to a schoolteacher who was accused of abusing his students.

Arrangement

This collection is arranged into the following series:

Series I: Minimally Processed Judgments, 1790-1900, are loosely arranged chronologically. Series II: Unprocessed Judgments, 1782-1910, are housed in boxes with other unprocessed court records for Greensville County.

Related Material

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

Adjunct Descriptive Data