Collections

Franklin County (Va.) Court Record, 1853. The collection contains accounts and a letter from P. Smith to H. Lane. The document was removed from an unknown series of Franklin County court records.

Franklin County (Va.) Determined Papers, 1789-1937, are judgments or civil suits that were heard in the County Court, District Court, Superior Court of Law, Circuit Superior Court of Law and Chancery, and Circuit Court 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. Documents commonly found in civil suits include declarations or narratios that explain the plaintiff's complaint, executions, affidavits, and depositions. Suits may include exhibits such as wills, plats, deeds, indentures, estate inventories, and business records. The collection includes copies of decisions made by the Supreme Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, in response to suits appealed to it from the various Franklin County courts. Most of the original documents of the Supreme Court of Appeals were destroyed by fire in 1865. Pre-1865 suits involve slaves.

Franklin County (Va.) Land Records, circa 1784-1917, include deeds, plats, articles of agreement, processioners' returns, and miscellaneous land related records. The deeds, plats, and articles of agreement were exhibits in Franklin County court proceedings. They were separated from Franklin County court cases at the courthouse at some point prior to transfer to the Library of Virginia. The court cases they were removed from are found in Franklin County Determined Causes, 1789-1937, stored at the Library of Virginia.

The Franklin County (Va.) Reports of Indigent Soldiers' Families is made up of four folders. One folder contains the county orders of 1864 to levy taxes upon the county to provide for the support of indigent soldiers' families. Three folders contain reports of indigent soldiers' families, including names of the soldiers and family members, number of children per family, the amount of money provided to each family and for what use. The reports record that funds were to be used for provisions, shoes and clothing.