Westmoreland County (Va.) Judgments, 1739-1934

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:

There are no restrictions.

Terms of access:

There are no restrictions.

Preferred citation:

Westmoreland County (Va.) Judgments, 1739-1934 [insert series or volume title]. Local government records collection, Westmoreland County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Va.

Summary

Extent:
91.3 cubic feet. (200 boxes); 12 volumes
Creator:
Westmoreland County (Va.) Circuit Court.
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

Westmoreland County (Va.) Judgments, 1739-1934 [insert series or volume title]. Local government records collection, Westmoreland County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Va.

Background

Scope and content:

Westmoreland County (Va.) Judgments, 1739-1934, contain 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 consists of processed, 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: Westmoreland County was named for the English county. It was formed from Northumberland County in 1653. The county seat is Montross.

Lost Locality Notes: Many loose papers were burned during both the Revolutionary War and the Civil War. Volumes that record deeds, court orders (except for an order book for the period 1764–1776), and wills exist.

Types of Courts

The Superior Court of Law was created in 1808. It met twice a year in each county, presided over by a circuit-riding General Court judge. Records were filed with the County Court. It had civil and criminal jurisdiction. The court ceased to exist in 1831.

The Circuit Superior Court of Law and Chancery, established in 1831, were the upper courts on the local level. Sessions were held twice a year in each county, presided over by a General Court judge. The counties were grouped into districts for the convenience of the judge. The court ceased to exist in 1851.

Additional Judgment Types

Office Judgments ruled on outside of a traditional court hearing by a court clerk, rather than a judge and usually occurs when a defendant failed to file a timely response.

Executions are court orders directing a sheriff or other officer to enforce a judgment, usually by seizing and selling the judgment debtor's property. An Execution Books lists executions sued out or pending in the sheriff's office. It shows notices of process, names of all parties, amount of judgment, date of execution, return date and sheriff's return.

Acquisition information:
The majority of these records came to the Library of Virginia in shipments of court papers from Westmoreland County (Va.) in an undated accession. Additional records came to the Library of Virginia from Westmoreland County in 2013 under accession number 50772 as well as in 2014 under accession number 51235.
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.

An additional judgment was previously described in a separate finding aid. This judgment is now included in this record, but is described separately still in the Library catalog.

Individually described judgments include:

  • Westmoreland County (Va.) Judgment John Norwood versus Administrator of Elizabeth Brinnon, 1808 Oct

Encoded by S. Nerney: 2007; updated by J. Taylor: July 2026.

Arrangement:

This collection is arranged into two series:

  • Series I: Judgments, 1739-1914
  • Series II: Judgment Volumes: 1780-1934

Physical location:
State Records Center-Archives Annex, Library of Virginia