Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Middlesex County (Va.) Deeds of Emancipation, 1799, 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

Middlesex County (Va.) Deeds of Emancipation, 1799. Local Government Records Collection, city of Middlesex County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Acquisition Information

This record came to the Library of Virginia in a transfer of court papers from Middlesex County in an undated accession.

Processing Information

Deeds of Emancipation, 1799, were removed from the larger Middlesex County (Va.) Free and Enslaved records and moved to this Middlesex County (Va.) Deeds of Emancipation, 1799, in April 2024

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

Encoded by M. Mason, April 2024

Historical Information

Context of Record Type: Deeds of emancipation and manumission record an enslavers' intent to emancipate enslaved people from bondage. Some of the earliest legal manumissions in Virginia occurred in the early 1770s. However, there was a sharp rise following the 1782 manumission act that allowed enslavers to privately emancipate enslaved people "by last will and testament or other instrument in writing sealed." They were no longer required to seek a special act from the General Assembly. These documents sometimes include an enslavers' intent for emancipation ranging from religious and moral motivations to binding legal agreements.

Deeds of emancipation and manumission essentially provide the same information and there is little difference between the two. Both include the name of the enslaver, the name of the enslaved person to be freed, the date of anticipated freedom, the date the manumission was proved or certified, and as mentioned, sometimes a reason why the enslaver decided to emancipate the enslaved person. In a deed of manumission, an enslaver directly freed an enslaved person by manumission. In a deed of emancipation, an enslaved person could be freed after the enslaver's death by those executing a last will and testament. This collection also includes court orders that record the date or age when enslaved individuals were to be emancipated by deed as stipulated in an enslaver's will.

Locality History Note:Middlesex County was named probably for the English county. It was formed from Lancaster County by 30 October 1669.

Lost Locality Note: Created in 1669. Numerous loose records from the nineteenth century are missing, including chancery, judgments, and commonwealth causes. Most volumes (including deed books, will books, and order books) exist because court clerk Philemon T. Woodward removed them from the courthouse for safekeeping during the Civil War.

Scope and Content

Middlesex County (Va.) Deeds of Emancipation, 1799, consists of one deed, 1799, of James H. T. Lorimer, Hannah H. Lorimer, Thor. Fauntleroy, Isabella Fauntleroy, concerning the emancipation of Sam.

Arrangement

This collection is arranged

Related Material

See also: Middlesex County (Va.) Free and Enslaved Records, 1764-1800

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

Additional Middlesex 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."

Middlesex County (Va.)is one of Virginia's Lost Records Localities. Additional Middlesex County Court Records may be found in the Lost Records Localities Digital Collection on the Library of Virginia website.

Adjunct Descriptive Data