Mathews County (Va.) Criminal Records, 1857-1904, 1948, undated

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:

There are no restrictions.

Terms of access:

There are no restrictions.

Preferred citation:

Mathews County (Va.) Criminal Records, 1857-1904, 1948, undated. Local government records collection, Mathews County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Va. 23219.

Summary

Creator:
Mathews County (Va.) Circuit Court
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

Mathews County (Va.) Criminal Records, 1857-1904, 1948, undated. Local government records collection, Mathews County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Va. 23219.

Background

Scope and content:

Mathews County (Va.) Criminal Records, 1857-1904, 1948, undated, are criminal court cases and consist primarily of Commonwealth causes, presentments, recognizances warrants, summons, and indictments handed down by grand juries and other legal authorities in order to prosecute individuals who violated the penal code. These offenses ranged in severity from assault and battery to homicide.

The 1948 record is a transcript of the criminal case of the Commonwealth of Virginia v. Rainer.

Of note in Series II: Minimally Processed Criminal Records, 1854-1898, are several indictments of "persons unknown," circa 1860-1861, for absconding with enslaved persons by boat.

Biographical / historical:

Context for Records:Commonwealth causes are criminal court cases filed by the state government that consist primarily of warrants, summons, subpoenas, indictments, recognizances, and verdicts handed down by juries and other legal authorities in order to prosecute individuals who violated the penal code.

The commonwealth causes reveal an inconsistency in forms of conviction and punishment for white versus Black and multiracial individuals. Throughout the early nineteenth century, Virginia legislators revised the laws in ways that reduced the legal status of free Black and multiracial people to that of enslaved, thereby creating a legal system based on race. White Virginians and legislators feared insurrection and passed laws restricting the number of Black and multiracial people allowed to gather in groups. Enslavers could be fined for permitting their enslaved people to hire themselves out for work and enslaved people were jailed on these occasions. While public whipping originated as a form of punishment for all those convicted, in Virginia, it was retained for those who were Black, free or enslaved, and officially outlawed as a punishment for white criminals in 1848. Often, Black individuals served much longer penitentiary sentences while the cases of white men, who had committed the same or similar crimes, were dismissed.

The documents that frequently appear in criminal records include warrants that were issued by grand juries, judges, and justices of the peace directing law enforcement officials to either arrest and imprison a person suspected of having committed a crime or to cause an individual to appear in court to answer accusations made against them. Peace warrants directing an offender to "keep the peace of the Commonwealth" or to restrain from any violent acts are commonly found in assault and battery cases. They also contain summonses, used to call a suspected person, witness, or victim(s) to appear in court, and indictments (sometimes called presentments) are the official, written description of the crime that an accused individual is suspected of committing, which is approved by a grand jury and presented to a court in order to begin legal proceedings. Criminal record additionally include verdicts are the formal pronouncements made by juries on issues submitted to them by a judge or other law enforcement official. In the case of a guilty verdict, a judge will sentence the offender.

Locality History: Mathews County was named for Thomas Mathews, of Norfolk, the Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates when it was formed from Gloucester County by a statute passed on 16 December 1790 to take effect on 1 May 1791.

Lost Locality Note:Most Mathews County records were burned in Richmond on 3 April 1865, where they had been moved for safekeeping during the Civil War.

Acquisition information:
These records came to the Library of Virginia in 2024 under accession 54190 and undated shipments of court papers from Mathews County.
Processing information:

Criminal Records, 1857-1898, were transferred in accession 54190 under the title Mathews County Common Law Dead Papers and were processed using minimal processing standards: Locality records were organized by broad record category (election records, fiduciary records, etc.) with minimal other arrangement. These records have not been flattened, foldered, mended, or separated by individual record type (like summons, appraisements, etc.).

Commonwealth Causes, 1866-1948, undated were processed by S. Walters 2012.

Encoded by S. Walters: April 2012; updated by V. Brooks, September 2025

Arrangement:

For descriptive purposes, the collection has been divided into two series:

  • Series I: Processed Criminal Records, 1866-1904, 1948, undated
  • Series II: Unprocessed Criminal Records, 1857-1898

Chronological.

Unarranged.

Physical location:
Library of Virginia; State Records Center- Archives Annex
Physical description:
4 cu. ft. (9 boxes)