Campbell County (Va.) Judgments, 1783-1935

Access and use

Location of collection:
Library of Virginia
The Library of Virginia
800 East Broad Street
Richmond, VA 23219
Contact for questions and access:
POC: Archives Reference Services
Phone: (804) 692-3888
Restrictions:

Collection is open to research.

Terms of access:

There are no restrictions.

Preferred citation:

Campbell County (Va.) Judgments, 1783-1935 [insert series or volume title]. Local government records collection, Campbell County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Va. 23219.

Summary

Extent:
24.9 cubic feet (30 boxes) 8 volumes
Creator:
Campbell County (Va.) Circuit Court.
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

Campbell County (Va.) Judgments, 1783-1935 [insert series or volume title]. Local government records collection, Campbell County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Va. 23219.

Background

Scope and content:

Campbell County (Va.) Judgments, 1783-1935, contain civil cases in which justice was administered on the strictly formulated rules of common law. The majority of cases in this record series relate to matters of debt. The records consist of processed, loose records and several volumes.

These records either belong to a court which has not been identified or the records belong to multiple courts which were combined at some point in time.

These records are processed and arranged chronologically by year then month.

Biographical / historical:

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: Campbell County was named for William Campbell, a general in the militia during the Revolutionary War and one of the heroes of the Battle of Kings Mountain in 1780. The county was formed from Bedford County by an act passed on 15 December 1781. The county court first met on 7 February 1782. The county seat is Rustburg.

Types of Courts

The Circuit Court was authorized by the Constitution of 1851 and established by an act of the General Assembly passed in May 1852. Courts were held twice yearly in each county, presided over by 21 judges who rode circuits in the area of their jurisdiction. The records were filed with County Court records. These courts were granted original jurisdiction concurrent with that of the County Courts, as well as appellate jurisdiction in all civil cases of more than fifty dollars and criminal cases not "expressly cognizable in some other court," including those involving loss of life.

Acquisition information:
These items came to the Library of Virginia in shipments of court papers from Campbell County in 2004 under accesssion numbers 41133 and 41339, in 2005 under accession number 41665 as well as in an undated accession.
Processing information:

Prior to 2026, the judgement descriptive records were not standardized in their inclusion of contextual information or content lists. Local Records staff reviewed this record and have updated to current standards as of 2026.

A judgment was previosuly described separately in an individual finding aid. This judgment is included in this record, but is still described separately in the Library catalog.

  • Campbell County (Va.) Judgment Suit, Mickle v. Hodges, 1798

Encoded by C. OBrion: 2006; updated by J. Taylor: May 2026.

Arrangement:

This collection is arranged into two series:

  • Series I: Judgments, 1783-1935
  • Series II: Judgment Volumes, 1845-1926

Physical location:
State Records Center