Northampton County (Va.) Chancery Causes, 1721-1912

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:

Northampton County (Va.) Chancery Causes, 1721-1912, use digital images found on the Chancery Records Index available electronically at the website of the Library of Virginia.

Terms of access:

There are no restrictions.

Preferred citation:

Northampton County (Va.) Chancery Causes, 1721-1912. (Cite style of suit and chancery index no.). Local Government Records Collection, Northampton County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Summary

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

Northampton County (Va.) Chancery Causes, 1721-1912. (Cite style of suit and chancery index no.). Local Government Records Collection, Northampton County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Background

Scope and content:

Northampton County (Va.) Chancery Causes, 1721-1912, consists of cases concerning issues of equity brought largely by residents of the county and filed in the circuit court. These cases often involve the following actions: divisions of estates or land, disputes over wills, disputes regarding contracts, debt, divorce, and business disputes. Other less prevalent issues include freedom suits, permissions to sell property, and disputes concerning trespass. Predominant documents found in these chancery causes include bills (documents the plaintiff's complaint), answers (defendant's response to the plaintiff's complaint), decrees (court's decision), depositions, affidavits, correspondence, lists of heirs, deeds, plats, wills, records involving enslaved individuals, business records or vital statistics.

Due to Northampton County's location on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, a recurrent theme across several chancery causes is naval warfare's impact upon citizens of Northampton. Examples include men impressed into the British Navy during the Revolutionary War and War of 1812, as well as enslaved men fleeing to the British Navy during the Revolutionary War.

These records also contain a fairly substantial amount of information concerning enslaved Black men, women, and children. While there are several suits concerning the freedom of enslaved individuals, these cases largely represent the perspective of white enslavers and their disputes involving the sale, hiring, financial responsibilities, and legality of ownership of Black individuals.

There are several cases 1831-1832, that relate to members of the Gingaskin Indian Tribe [Accomac Indian Tribe] and specifically document attempts to hold on to their land after white officials and inhabitants terminated their reservation and later took Gingaskin land after the Southampton Rebellion [Nat Turner's Rebellion]

Biographical / historical:

Context for Record Type: Chancery Causes are cases of equity. According to Black's Law Dictionary they are "administered according to fairness as contrasted with the strictly formulated rules of common law." A judge, not a jury, determines the outcome of the case; however, the judge is basing the decision on findings compiled and documented by Commissioners. Chancery causes are useful when researching local history, genealogical information, and land or estate divisions. They are a valuable source of local, state, social, and legal history and serve as a primary source for understanding a locality's history. Chancery causes document the lived experiences of free and enslaved individuals; women; children; people living with physical disabilities or mental health struggles; people living in poverty; defunct institutions and corporate entities; or those that may not have otherwise left traditional written histories.

Locality History: Northampton County was named probably for the English county, of which Obedience Robins, a prominent early resident of the Eastern Shore, was a native. The county, which originally included all of the peninsula south of Maryland and which was one of the eight shires, or counties, first enumerated in 1634, was first called Accomack. The General Assembly changed the name to Northampton County in 1643. Accomack County was created from Northampton County about 1663, but in October 1670, the General Assembly temporarily reunited the two counties as Northampton County. In November 1673, Accomack County was again separated from Northampton. The county seat is Eastville.

Acquisition information:
These records came to the Library of Virginia in a transfer of court papers from Northampton County in 1999 under accession number 36506. Additional records were transferred to the Library of Virginia in 2008 under accession number 44020 and in 2009 under the accession number 44548.
Processing information:

Northampton Chancery was processed in two separate batches; first, the pre-1813 records were processed by Library of Virginia staff in 2007 and then Library of Virginia staff completed processing the 1813-1912 records in 2014.

Digital images were generated by Crowley Micrographics in 2008 and Backstage Library Works in 2014 through the Library of Virginia's Circuit Court Records Preservation Program.

Encoded by G. Crawford: 2008; Updated by J. Taylor: October 2023.

Arrangement:

Organized by case, of which each is assigned a unique index number comprised of the latest year found in case and a sequentially increasing 3-digit number assigned by the processor as cases for that year are found. Arranged chronologically.

of documents within each folder are as follows: Bill, Answer, and Final Decree (if found.)

Physical location:
Library of Virginia
Physical description:
Digital images; 50.57 cubic feet (110 boxes)