Lee County (Va.) Judgments, 1860-1960

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:

Lee County (Va.) Judgments, 1860-1960 [insert series or volume title]. Local Government Records Collection, Lee County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Summary

Extent:
12.15 cubic feet (27 boxes); 2 volumes
Creator:
Lee County (Va.) Circuit Court
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

Lee County (Va.) Judgments, 1860-1960 [insert series or volume title]. Local Government Records Collection, Lee County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Background

Scope and content:

Lee County (Va.) Judgments, 1860-1960, contains civil cases in which justice was administered on the strictly formulated rules of common law. The majority of the cases in this record series relate to matters of debt. The records consist of loose, unprocessed 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: Lee County was named Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee, governor of Virginia from 1791 to 1794. It was formed from Russell County in 1792. Part of Scott County was added in 1823. Its area is 438 square miles, and the county seat is Jonesville.

Lost Locality Notes: A significant number of loose records prior to 1860 including chancery and judgments are missing. They were probably destroyed when Union forces burned the courthouse in October 1863 during the Civil War. Most volumes including deed books, will books, and order books exist because a local judge removed them from the courthouse for safekeeping before the fire occurred.

Acquisition information:
These items came to the Library of Virginia in shipments of court papers from Lee County in 2009 under accession number 44298 as well as in an undated accession.
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. B Helms: 2013; updated by J. Taylor: June 2026.

Arrangement:

This collection is arranged into two series:

  • Series I: Unprocessed Judgments, 1860-1960
  • Series II: Judgment Volumes, 1897-1904

Physical location:
Library of Virginia