Staunton (Va.) Commonwealth Causes and Criminal Papers, 1807-1919

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:

For Commonwealth Causes, use microfilm, Staunton (Va.) Reels 16-46.

Preferred citation:

Staunton (Va.) Commonwealth Causes and Criminal Papers, 1807-1919. Local government records collection, Staunton (City) Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia 23219.

Summary

Creator:
Staunton (Va.) Circuit Court.
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

Staunton (Va.) Commonwealth Causes and Criminal Papers, 1807-1919. Local government records collection, Staunton (City) Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia 23219.

Background

Scope and content:

Staunton (Va.) Commonwealth Causes and Criminal Papers, 1807-1919, are criminal court cases and other criminal papers that consist primarily of warrants, summons, subpoenas, indictments, recognizances, and verdicts handed down by grand juries and other legal authorities in order to prosecute individuals who violated the penal code. These offenses ranged in severity from murder, rape, assault and battery, and larceny to tax evasion, slander, liquor law violations, prostitution, and contempt of court. Criminal offenders and victims who appear in cases prior to the abolition of slavery in Virginia in 1865 included both free and enslaved persons.

Warrants were issued by grand juries, judges, and justices of the peace directing law enforcement officials to either arrest and imprison a person suspected of having committed a crime or to cause an individual to appear in court to answer accusations made against them. Peace warrants directing an offender to keep the peace of the Commonwealth or to restrain from any violent acts are commonly found in assault and battery cases.

Summonses were used to call a suspected person to appear in court. A summons could also be issued to direct witnesses or victims to come before the court in order to provide evidence or information deemed pertinent to a case. Subpoenas were also used to order witnesses to court to give evidence.

An indictment is the official, written description of the crime that an accused individual is suspected of committing, which is approved by a grand jury and presented to a court in order to begin legal proceedings. Due to this process, indictments are often referred to as presentments.

Verdicts are the formal pronouncements made by juries on issues submitted to them by a judge or other law enforcement official. In the case of a guilty verdict, a judge will sentence the offender. Sentences may include a fine, corporal punishment, and/or imprisonment.

Recognizances were bonds or obligations made in court by which a person promised to do a certain thing such as keep the peace or to appear when called. They are common in assault and battery cases. Often they functioned as a bail bond that guaranteed an unjailed criminal defendant's return for a court date.

Overseers of the Poor causes consist of prosecutions for bastardy or summons to show cause why a child should not be bound out as an apprentice or why an apprenticeship bond should not be broken.

Certificates of justice were notices sent by the jailer that he had committed a certain person or persons to the jail to await trial or other court action.

slave going at large and hiring himself out

printing a false and scandalous libel

uttering opprobrious words to a justice of the peace

fornication with a female slave

sending a challenge to fight a duel

refuse to help constable take a slave to the whipping post

being at an unlawful meeting with slaves

for not registering as free negroes

habitual intoxication, abuse of his family and obscene language

for not registering as free negroes

public nuisance: slaughterhouse

permit his slaves to trade as free persons

obscene graffiti

use provoking language to a white man

permit unlawful assembly of slaves, trade with slaves, sell liquor to slaves

publicly exposing his private parts

playing at bagatelle

assemble with negroes in the night time

lewd and lascivious cohabitation

received goods stolen from Confederate States government

attempted rape of his daughter

rape of multiple children under 12 years of age

keep house of ill fame

buggery with a mare

sell liquor on an election day

public nuisance: backhouse and privy

seduction under promise of marriage

seduction under promise of marriage

extortion and blackmail

exhibit semi-nude photograph in his window

seduction

abduction with the intent to deitem

permitting the escape of a prisoner from the county jail

house burning

escape from jail

murder

possession of cocaine with the intent to sell; selling cocaine

attempted murder

illegal voting

buggery with a child

bigamy

Biographical / historical:

The city of Staunton is located in Augusta County. Established as a town in 1761, it was incorporated as a town in 1801 and as an city in 1871. It is one of Virginia's independent cities and therefore functions administratively separately from the county in which it is located.

Acquisition information:
These items came to the Library of Virginia in transfers of court papers from Staunton under the accession number 43238. The microfilm was generated by Backstage Library Works through the Library of Virginia's Circuit Court Records Preservation Program.
Arrangement:

Arranged by ended court date then alphabetically by defendant surname.

Physical location:
Library of Virginia
Physical description:
10 cu. ft. (30 boxes)