Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Judgments, 1798-1866, relating to free and enslaved Black and multiracial individuals 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

Richmond (Va.) Judgements, 1788-1950 (bulk 1890-1950). Local government records collection, Greensville County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia, 23219.

Acquisition Information

Portions of these records came to the Library of Virginia in a transfer of court papers from Richmond City in 1968 under accession 26922 and in 2019 under accession 52743.

Remainder of records came to the Library of Virginia in a transfer of court papers from Richmond City in an undated accession.

Processing Information

Judgments, 1798-1866, pertaining to enslaved and free Black individuals were removed from the Richmond (Va.) Ended Causes and then processed and indexed as a distinct unit by Lydia Neuroth for the purposes of digitizing them for the digital project Virginia Untold: The African American Narrative. Other Judgments, pertaining to white and non-Black individuals as well as all post-1866 judgments are still unprocessed and filed with the Richmond (Va.) Ended Causes.

Encoded by M. Mason: July 2024.

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.

Types of Courts: Richmond (Va.) Hustings court created by the General Assembly in 1782 at the time Richmond was granted it's charter. The court was created to handle all criminal cases, civil law cases, probate of wills, fiduciary accounts, deed recordings, all licenses (business, marriage, etc.), citizenship applications, etc. It also included the Mayor's Court.

Richmond (Va.) Circuit Court created in 1852 as a successor to the Circuit Court of Chancery for the County of Henrico in order to handle all civil and criminal matters, same as other circuit courts for counties, cities, or towns. In July 1954, the Clerk of Law and Equity Court was named clerk of the Circuit Court. At the same time, it's jurisdiction was limited to criminal proceedings against convicts in the penitentiary, proceeding to enforce payment of money to commonwealth and suits against public officers representing the commonwealth.

Locality History Note: The city of Richmond, located between Henrico and Chesterfield Counties, was named by William Byrd (1674-1744), who envisioned the development of a city at the falls of the James River and with the help of William Mayo laid out the town in 1737. The name probably came from the English borough of Richmond upon Thames, which Byrd visited on several occasions. Richmond was established in 1742 and in 1779 was designated the capital of Virginia effective 30 April 1780. It was incorporated as a town, although "stiled the city of Richmond," in 1782 and was incorporated as a city in 1842. It served as the capital of the Confederacy from mid-1861 to April 1865. Richmond was enlarged by the annexation of Manchester (or South Richmond) in 1910, and by the addition of Barton Heights, Fairmount, and Highland Park in 1914. Further annexations from Chesterfield County occurred in 1942 and 1970.

Lost Locality Note: During the burning of Richmond on April 3, 1865, during the Civil War, Richmond circuit court judge John A. Meredith led efforts to save the circuit court records found at the State Court House. Rescuers successfully removed all the papers that were necessary to pending suits and many of the order books, but all of the wills and deed books were lost. Records of the superior court and circuit superior court of law and chancery were also destroyed. Most of the pre-Civil War Hustings Court records exist.

Scope and Content

Richmond (Va.) Judgments, 1788-1950, consist of civil cases in which justice was administered on the strictly formulated rules of common law. The majority of the cases in this record group relate to matters of debt. There are additional judgments located in the unprocessed Richmond (Va.) Ended Causes. Identified judgement records include: Judgments, 1798-1866, relating to free and enslaved Black and multiracial individuals; Judgments, 1788-1949; Office Judgments, 1806-1905; and Judgment Dockets and Indexes, 1833-1950 .

Judgments, 1798-1866, relating to free and enslaved Black and multiracial individuals consists of one box of judgements. Many of these suits pertain to debts and disputes regarding the sale and hire of enslaved Black individuals by white residents. Other disputes include issues with apprenticeships, self-emancipating Black and multiracial person, and conflicts in proving legal status.

Judgments, 1788-1949, consists of unprocessed law cases.

Office Judgments, 1806-1905, consists of unprocessed law cases ruled on by a judge outside of a traditional hearing.

Judgment Dockets and Indexes, 1833-1950, are volumes that help provide identifying information for law cases. These may contain the date, names of the plaintiff, and names of the defendants.

Arrangement

This collection is arranged

Related Material

See also: Richmond (Va.) Ended Causes, 1782-1951 (bulk 1900-1951) for additional judgments unprocessed

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

Additional Richmond (Va.) court records can be found on microfilm at the Library of Virginia.Consult "A Guide to Virginia County and City Records on Microfilm."

Richmond City is one of Virginia's Lost Records Localities. Additional Richmond City Court Records may be found in the Lost Records Localities Digital Collection on the Library of Virginia website.

Adjunct Descriptive Data