Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Orange County (Va.) Petitions to Remain in the Commonwealth, 1826-1843 are digitized and available through Virginia Untold: The African American Narrative Digital Collection on the Library of Virginia website. Please use digital images.

Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Orange County (Va.) Petitions to Remain in the Commonwealth, 1826-1843. Local government records collection, Orange Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Va. 23219.

Acquisition Information

These records came to the Library of Virginia in a transfer of court records from Orange County in an undated accession.

Processing Information

The Petitions to Remain in the Commonwealth, were originally described as part of the Orange County (Va.) Free and Enslaved Records, but was removed to the present Orange County (Va.) Petitions to Remain in the Commonwealth, in 2024

These records have been scanned and indexed by LVA staff for the purposes of digitizing them for the digital project Virginia Untold: The African American Narrative.

It is believed the Peitions to Remain currently in this collection were removed from the Orange County (Va.) Judgments and processed by Jim Watkins around 2009.

Encoded by M. Mason, April 2024

Historical Information

Context for Record Type: Sometimes referred to as "Applications to Remain," these records are applications that formerly enslaved individuals submitted to state and local courts for permission to remain in Virginia with their free status. The Virginia General Assembly passed a law stating that all formerly enslaved people freed after 1 May 1806 who remained in Virginia more than twelve months could be put on trial by the state. Individuals who wished to remain in the commonwealth were to petition the state legislature. In 1816, a new Act of Assembly gave the local courts power to grant permission to remain. The documents in these cases will include: the name(s) of the petitioner(s), the circumstances of free status, and a request to remain in the county. Individuals needed to prove that they had in fact been emancipated. Therefore, application packets might also include supporting documents such as the formerly enslaved person's register, a copy of a will or deed of emancipation, or witness statements known as affidavits.

Locality History Note: Orange County, according to most accounts, was named for William of Orange, the Dutch prince who became King William III of England in 1688. It is more probable, however, that it was named for William IV, prince of Orange-Nassau, who married Anne, eldest daughter of King George II, in 1734-the year that Orange County was formed from Spotsylvania County.

Scope and Content

Orange County (Va.) Petitions to Remain in the Commonwealth, 1826-1843, consist of two records. These petitions are applications that formerly enslaved individuals submitted to state and local courts for permission to remain in Virginia with their free status. The petitions often include the formerly enslaved individual's name, their method of emancipation, name of their former enslaver, and whether the application/ petition was successful or not. Petitions may also include affidavits signed mainly by white residents or witness statements again provided by white residents. Additional names of enslaved or free Black and multiracial individuals can be found in these records.

Consists of an affidavit, 1826, written by Hay Taliaferro in favor of Sally Tulip remain in the Commonwealth; and an order of the court, 1843, for Henderson, a free "boy of color," to be allowed to remain in the commonwealth.

Arrangement

This collection is arranged

Related Material

See also: Orange County (Va.) Free and Enslaved Records, 1738-1865

Records related to free and enslaved people of Orange County (Va.) and other localities are available through the Virginia Untold: The African American Narrative Digital Collection on the Library of Virginia website.

Additional Orange County (Va.) 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