Charlottesville (Va.) Judgments, 1888-1986

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:

Charlottesville (Va.) Judgments, 1888-1986. [insert series or volume title]. Local government records collection, Charlottesville Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Summary

Extent:
1.35 cubic feet (3 boxes); 14 volumes
Creator:
Charlottesville (Va.) Circuit Court
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

Charlottesville (Va.) Judgments, 1888-1986. [insert series or volume title]. Local government records collection, Charlottesville Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Background

Scope and content:

Charlottesville (Va.) Judgments, 1888-1986 contains 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. These records consist of unprocessed, loose records and several volumes.

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: Charlottesville, in Albemarle County, was named for Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the wife of King George III, and was established in 1762. The county seat of Albemarle County, Charlottesville was incorporated as a town in 1801 and as a city in 1888.

Acquisition information:
These records came to the Library of Virginia in a transfer of court papers from Charlottesville in 2008 under accession number 43884, in 2024 under accession number 54328, 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.

Encoded by J. Taylor: August 2026.

Arrangement:

This collection is arranged into two series:

  • Series I: Unprocessed Judgments, 1888-1925
  • Series II: Judgment Volumes, 1888-1986

Physical location:
Library of Virginia