A Guide to the Russell County (Va.) Chancery Causes, 1840-1933
A Collection in
the Library of Virginia
Chancery Records Index: Russell County (Va.) Chancery Causes, 1840-001-1933-066
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© 2010 By The Library of Virginia. All Rights Reserved.
Processed by: Sherri Bagley
Administrative Information
Access Restrictions
There are no restrictions.
Use Restrictions
Patrons are to use digital images of Russell County (Va.) Chancery Causes found on the Chancery Records Index available electronically at the website of the Library of Virginia.
Preferred Citation
Russell County (Va.) Chancery Causes, 1840-1933. (Cite style of suit and chancery index no.). Local government records collection, Russell County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.
Acquisition Information
Digital images were generated by Backstage Library Works through the Library of Virginia's 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.
Russell County was named for William Russell, a Clinch Valley pioneer and the member of the House of Delegates who introduced the legislation forming the county from Washington County in 1786.
Created in 1786. The first marriage register and most loose papers were lost in a fire in the clerk’s office in 1872. Volumes that record deeds, court orders, and wills (except Will Book 1) exist.
Scope and Content
Russell County (Va.) Chancery Causes, 1840-1933, are indexed into 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.
Related Material
Additional Russell County Court Records can be found on microfilm at The Library of Virginia web site. Consult "A Guide to Virginia County and City Records on Microfilm."
See the Chancery Records Index found on the Library of Virginia web site for the chancery records of other Virginia localities.
Russell County is one of Virginia's Lost Records Localities. Additional Russell Court Records may be found in the Virginia Lost Records Localities Collection at the Library of Virginia. Search the Lost Records Localites Database found on the Library of Virginia's web site.
Index Terms
- Russell County (Va.) Circuit Court.
- African Americans -- History.
- Business enterprises -- Virginia -- Russell County.
- Debt -- Virginia -- Russell County.
- Divorce suits -- Virginia -- Russell County.
- Equity -- Virginia -- Russell County.
- Estates (Law) -- Virginia -- Russell County.
- Land subdivision -- Virginia -- Russell County.
- Russell County (Va.) -- Genealogy.
- Russell County (Va.) -- History.
- Chancery causes -- Virginia -- Russell County.
- Deeds -- Virginia -- Russell County.
- Judicial records -- Virginia -- Russell County.
- Land records -- Virginia -- Russell County.
- Local government records -- Virginia -- Russell County.
- Plats -- Virginia -- Russell County.
- Wills -- Virginia -- Russell County.
Corporate Names:
Subjects:
Geographical Names:
Genre and Form Terms:
Selected Suits of Interest
Suit involves the division of valuable slave property.
During the real estate boom of the late 1880s, Banner sold to Rosser, a real estate developer, 868 acres of land that was supposed to become the city of Minneapolis - located opposite St. Paul on the Clinch river. After the bust in the early 1890s, Rosser's companies went bankrupt and Minneapolis was never built. The suit originated out of this bankruptcy. A plat of St. Paul and Minneapolis was filed as an exhibit.
After 40 years of marriage, Susannah filed for divorce based on abuse and infidelity. Elijah then accused Susannah of abuse and encouraging their daughter to become a prostitute. Based on the testimony of neighbors, friends, and former employees; the judge found for Susannah and ordered a commissioner to record and divide their property.