Wythe County (Va.) Chancery Causes, 1797-1865

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

Summary

Extent:
49 cubic feet (108 boxes)
Creator:
Wythe County (Va.) Circuit Court.
Language:
English

Background

Scope and content:

Wythe County (Va.) Chancery Causes,1797-1865, consists of cases concerning issues of equity brought largely by residents of the county and filed in the circuit court. These cases often involve the following actions: divisions of estates or land, disputes over wills, disputes regarding contracts, debt, divorce, and business disputes. Other less prevalent issues include freedom suits, permissions to sell property, and disputes concerning trespass. Predominant documents found in these chancery causes include bills (documents the plaintiff's complaint), answers (defendant's response to the plaintiff's complaint), decrees (court's decision), depositions, affidavits, correspondence, lists of heirs, deeds, plats, wills, records involving enslaved individuals, business records or vital statistics.

For this set of causes, debt and contract suits are the most prevalent, and mostly concern disputes stemming from land transfers. Estate disputes are the next most documented cause of action. There are very few other causes of action represented.

Superior Chancery:

A majority of the 1812-1833 Chancery Causes are Superior Chancery cases. These causes while heard in Wythe County (Va.) additionally document the activities of individuals and businesses from Giles, Grayson, Lee, Montgomery, Russell, Scott, Tazewell, and Washington counties. Apart from Wythe County, Washington County is the locality most documented in these records.

Due to the prevalence of Superior Chancery, there are also variations in the causes themselves that may not fit the normal make-up of a chancery cause as there causes throughout this 1812-1833 span that have matters heard in both Superior Court of Chancery and the Superior Court of Law. General this occurred when an issue in chancery was sent by the judge to law side of the court for verdict before a final decree was entered in Chancery.

General Trends:

There is a substantial amount of information concerning enslaved Black men, women, and children. While there are several suits concerning the freedom of enslaved individuals, these cases largely represent the perspective of white enslavers and their disputes involving the sale, hiring, financial responsibilities, and legality of ownership of Black individuals. Specifically, there are many cases concerning estate disputes which over enslaved individuals.

Due to the geographic area represented in these records, many suits document the land struggles is western Virginia and general western migration after the Revolutionary War. Various cases (especially pre-1833) list the Loyal Company as plaintiff. These causes discuss land surveys (in (Virginia, North Carolina, West Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio) conducted when Virginia was a colony, including conflicts with the Indigenous Americans already living on the land, the effects of the French and Indian War on property rights, conflicts with the Ohio Company, and ownership disputes post-American Revolution. In these cases, there is fairly standardized language to describe the history of the land surveys on the part of the Loyal Company.

Additionally on this theme of western migration, many suits include issues of defendants moving beyond the commonwealth to Tennessee, Kentucky, or Ohio, complicating matters for the plaintiffs. Many suits discuss key issues and historical trends surrounding lead and gypsum mining, including: the working and living conditions experienced by both enslaved workers hired out to the mines and workers directly employed by the mining companies, including workplace dangers and long-term health risks; business inheritance issues facing recent immigrants, especially women; and the environmental effects of lead pollution on air quality, water sources, and plants and animals in surrounding areas.

There are multiple pre-1830 suits concerning Almerine Marshall and his estate after dying in the 1811 Richmond Theater fire. Other individuals and family frequently presented are William and James King, King family, Trigg, family, and Heiskell family.

These records also contain a box of "Orphan Chancery" which is processed but not indexed. These records contain parts, often single items, of chancery causes that could not be further identified as belonging to a certain case.

Biographical / historical:

Context for Record Type: 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; however, the judge is basing the decision on findings compiled and documented by Commissioners. 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. Chancery causes document the lived experiences of free and enslaved individuals; women; children; people living with physical disabilities or mental health struggles; people living in poverty; defunct institutions and corporate entities; or those that may not have otherwise left traditional written histories.

Types of Courts:

Wythe County was the site of a Superior Court of Chancery that held court in Wythe from 1812 to 1832. The Superior Courts of Chancery were created by an act of the General Assembly passed on 23 January 1802. In order to expedite the hearing of chancery suits, the High Court of Chancery was abolished and the state was divided into three chancery districts with a Superior Court of Chancery for each district. For this reason, these courts were sometimes called "District Courts of Chancery." Suits heard in these courts were typically cases appealed from the local courts. A transcript of the suit from the local court was commonly filed with the appeal. Litigants could by-pass the local courts and file their suits in the chancery district court directly.

From 1802 to 1812, Wythe fell into the Staunton district which consisted of localities found in the western half of the Commonwealth. In 1812, the General Assembly created additional Superior Courts of Chancery which included the Superior Court of Chancery in Wythe. The Wythe district include the counties of: Giles, Grayson, Lee, Montgomery, Russell, Scott, Tazewell, Washington, and Wythe.

Locality History: Wythe County was named for George Wythe, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and chancellor of Virginia in 1789 when Wythe County was formed from Montgomery County. Part of Grayson County was added in 1825.

Acquisition information:
These materials came to the Library of Virginia in transfer of court papers from Wythe County in February 2022 under accession number 53538. A small amount of additional material came in August 2022 under accession number 53665
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.

Arrangement of documents within each folder are as follows: Bill, Answer, and Final Decree (if found.)

Physical location:
Library of Virginia
Physical description:
.