Fauquier County (Va.) Judgments, 1829-1916(bulk 1833-1873)

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:

Fauquier County (Va.) Judgments, 1829-1916(bulk 1833-1873). [insert series or volume title]. Local government records collection, Fauquier County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Va.

Summary

Extent:
158.175 cubic feet (352 boxes); 9 volumes
Creator:
Fauquier County (Va.) Circuit Court.
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

Fauquier County (Va.) Judgments, 1829-1916(bulk 1833-1873). [insert series or volume title]. Local government records collection, Fauquier County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Va.

Background

Scope and content:

Fauquier County (Va.) Judgments, 1829-1904 (bulk 1833-1904), 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 consist 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: Fauquier County was named for Francis Fauquier, lieutenant governor of Virginia from 1758 to 1768. It was formed in 1759 from Prince William County. The county seat is Warrenton.

Additional Judgment Types

Office judgments are 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.

Acquisition information:
These items came to the Library of Virginia in a transfer of court papers from Fauquier County in 2000 under accession numbers 37409 and 37410, in 2003 under accession number 40529, in 2011 under accession number 22743, 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 C. Freed: 2013; updated by J. Taylor: August 2026.

Arrangement:

This collection is arranged into two series:

  • Series I: Judgments, 1829-1904
  • Series II: Judgment Volumes, 1804-1916

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