Alexandria (Va.) Judgments,, 1841-1937

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:

Alexandria (Va.) Judgments, 1841-1937 [include volume or series title]. Local government records collection, Alexandria Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Va.

Summary

Extent:
x cubic feet (15 boxes); 1 volume
Creator:
Alexandria (Va.) Circuit Court
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

Alexandria (Va.) Judgments, 1841-1937 [include volume or series title]. Local government records collection, Alexandria Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Va.

Background

Scope and content:

Alexandria (Va.) Judgments, 1841-1937 contain civil cases in which justice was administered on the strictly formulated rules of common law. The majority of these cases in this record series relate to matters of debt.

All records in this record series are unprocessed and remain tri-folded within their original bundles; the bundles also include other court records, such as commonwealth causes, road and bridge records, tax and fiscal records, Overseers of the Poor, etc. Not all record types will be found in every bundle of papers. The contents of the boxes are not arranged in any particular order and dates may overlap between boxes. Some records may be fragile.

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.

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: Alexandria in Fairfax and Arlington Counties, was named for John Alexander, an early owner of the tract in Fairfax County on which the town was located. The act to establish Alexandria was passed in 1749. Its site had previously been known as Hunting Creek Warehouse and as Belhaven. Alexandria was incorporated as a town in 1779 and was ceded to the federal government in 1789 for use as part of the site of the new national capital. It officially became part of the District of Columbia in 1801 and was renamed Alexandria County by Congress. By an act of 9 July 1846, Alexandria County, including the town of Alexandria, was retroceded to Virginia, which took jurisdiction over the area on 20 March 1847. The town was incorporated as a city in 1852.

Acquisition information:
These records came to the Library of Virginia in transfers of court papers from the city of Alexandria under 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.

Encoded by J. Taylor: March 2026.

Arrangement:

This collection is arranged into two series:

  • Series I: Unprocessed Judgments, 1841-1937
  • Series II: Judgment Volumes, 1915

Physical location:
Library of Virginia
Physical description:
.