PUBLIC "-//Library of Virginia//TEXT (US::Vi::vi01575:: Bedford County (Va.) Judgments, 1753-1870)//EN" "vi01575.xml" A Guide to the Bedford County (Va.) Judgments, 1753-1870 Bedford County (Va.) Judgments, 1753-1870 Greg Crawford Library of Virginia © 2006 By the Library of Virginia. All rights reserved.

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Machine-readable finding aid derived from being created directly into EAD, created by Greg Crawford, 06 March 2006 Description is in English 2013-11-21 Converted to schema conforming EAD by dtd2schema.vh.xsl. A Guide to the Bedford County (Va.) Judgments, 1753-1870 A Collection in the Library of Virginia Greg Crawford

Library of Virginia 2006 Library of Virginia Staff Library of Virginia Descriptive Summary The Library of Virginia Bedford County (Va.) Judgments, 1753-1870 Library of Virginia, State Records Center - Archives Annex 96.25 cubic feet (103 boxes); 6 volumes English Bedford County (Va.) Circuit Court Administrative Information Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Bedford County (Va.) Judgments, 1753-1870 [insert series or volume title]. Local government records collection, Bedford County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Va. 23219.

Acquisition Information

These items came to the Library of Virginia in shipments of court papers from Bedford County in an undated accession. Additonal judgments were purchased from L and T Repess Books in 2004 and accessioned under number 41494.

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 G. Crawford: 2006; updated by J. Taylor: June 2026.

Historical Information

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:Bedford County was named probably for John Russell, fourth duke of Bedford, who served as secretary of state for the southern department from 1748 to 1751 and had general supervision of colonial affairs. It was formed from Lunenburg County in 1753, and parts of Albemarle and Lunenburg Counties were added in 1755. The county court first met on 5 May 1754. The county seat is the town of Bedford.

Types of Courts

The County Court was the original colonial court of adjudication and recordation, and it was the principal tribunal for the administration of local justice. The individual justices could act on small claims matters as well as criminal matters where imminent bodily harm was a possibility, there being an appeal to the full County Court, which met monthly. This court ceased to exist in 1904 and the recordation function was transferred to the circuit court.

Scope and Content

Bedford County (Va.) Judgments, 1753-1870, contain civil cases heard in County Court, Superior Court of Law, Circuit Superior Court, 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. The records consist of several volumes and loose records.

Arrangement

This collection is arranged into three series: Series I: Processed Judgments, 1753-1870 Series II: Unprocessed Judgments, 1757-1930 Series III: Judgment Volumes, 1872-1909

Adjunct Descriptive Data Related Material

Additional Bedford County Court Records can be found on microfilm at the Library of Virginia. Consult "A Guide to Virginia County and City Records on Microfilm."

Contents List Processed County Court Judgments, 1753-1870 State Records Center 90.3 cubic feet (91 boxes)

This series has been fully processed and organized chronologically by year.

Judgments 1753-1755 Judgments 1755-1756 Judgments 1756-1757 Judgments 1758 Judgments 1759 Judgments 1760 Judgments 1760 Judgments 1761 Judgments 1761 Judgments 1762 Judgments 1762 Judgments 1762 Judgments 1762 Judgments 1763 Judgments 1763 Judgments 1763 Judgments 1763 Judgments 1764 Judgments 1764 Judgments 1764 Judgments 1764-1765 Judgments 1765-1767 Judgments 1767-1768 Judgments 1769 Judgments 1769 Judgments 1770 Judgments 1770 Judgments 1770 Judgments 1771 Judgments 1772 Judgments 1772 Judgments 1772 Judgments 1772 Judgments 1772 Judgments 1773 Judgments 1773 Judgments 1773 Judgments 1773 Judgments 1773-1774 Judgments 1774 Judgments 1774 Judgments 1778 Judgments 1778-1779 Judgments 1779 Judgments 1783 Judgments 1784 Judgments 1784 Judgments 1784 Judgments 1784 Judgments 1785 Judgments 1785 Judgments 1785 Judgments 1785 Judgments 1786 Judgments 1786 Judgments 1786 Judgments 1786-1787 Judgments 1787 Judgments 1787-1788 Judgments 1788 Judgments 1788 Judgments 1789 Judgments 1789 Judgments 1789 Judgments 1789-1790 Judgments 1790 Judgments 1790-1791 Judgments-Oversized 1791 Judgments 1791 Judgments 1791-1792 Judgments 1792 Judgments 1793 Judgments 1793 Judgments 1793 Judgments 1794 Judgments 1794 Judgments 1794 Judgments 1794-1795 Judgments 1795 Judgments 1795 Judgments 1795-1796 Judgments 1796 Judgments 1796 Judgments 1797 Judgments 1797 Judgments 1798 Judgments 1798-1799 Judgments 1799 Judgments 1799 Judgments 1800-1830 Judgments 1833-1870 Unprocessed Judgments, 1757-1930

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.

 Unprocessed County Court Judgments, 1772-1904 State Records Center 1.45 cubic feet (2 boxes) Judgments; Fiduciary Records; Road and Bridge Records 1772-1800

Contains two judgments purchased from L and T Repess Books: Burton v. Haynes, ca. 1797; and Evans v. Frederick, ca. 1799.

Miscellaneous County Court Papers, 1790-1904 Unprocessed Unidentified Court Judgments, 1757-1930 State Records Center 4.5 cubic feet (10 boxes)

The court in which these records were created has not been identified.

Tax and Fiscal Records; Court Records; Fiduciary Records; Officials' Bonds; Plat; Clerks' Records; Judgments; Lottery ticket 1757-1787 Warrants and Judgments 1851-1926 Judgments, Docketed 1855-1874 Judgments, Docketed [1875-1879], Ab 1861-1886 Warrants and Judgments, Magistrates 1865-1930 Judgments, Docketed 1875-1879 Abstracts of Judgment 1890-1894 Justices' [W. R. Abbott's] Judgment 1895-1896 Abstracts of Judgment 1895-1909 Abstracts of Judgment 1910-1930 Judgment Volumes 1872-1909 State Records Center 6 volumes Justices' Judgment and Execution Book 1872-1888 Justices' Judgment and Execution Book 1892-1903 Justices' Judgment and Execution Book 1893-1894 Justices' Judgment and Execution Book 1895-1899 Justices' Judgment and Execution Book 1897-1902 Justices' Judgment and Execution Book 1909