PUBLIC "-//Library of Virginia//TEXT (US::Vi::vi03903:: Nottoway County (Va.) Judgments, 1814-1937)//EN" "vi03903.xml" A Guide to the Nottoway County (Va.) Judgments, 1814-1937 Nottoway County (Va.) Judgments, 1814-1937 Louise Jones Library of Virginia © 2013 By the Library of Virginia. All rights reserved.

Conditions of Use

Machine-readable finding aid derived from being created directly into EAD, created by Louise Jones, 13 February 2013 Description is in English 2013-11-21 Converted to schema conforming EAD by dtd2schema.vh.xsl. A Guide to the Nottoway County (Va.) Judgments, 1814-1937 A Collection in the Library of Virginia Louise Jones

Library of Virginia 2013 Library of Virginia Staff Library of Virginia Descriptive Summary The Library of Virginia Nottoway County (Va.) Judgments, 1814-1937 State Records Center-Archives Annex, Library of Virginia 27.45 cubic feet (61 boxes) English Nottoway County ( Va.) Circuit Court Administrative Information Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Nottoway County (Va.) Judgments, 1814-1937 [insert series or volume title]. Local government records collection, Nottoway County Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Va. 23219.

Acquisition Information

These items came to the Library of Virginia in shipments of court papers from Nottoway County 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 L. Jones: 2013; updated by J. Taylor: May 2026.

 Historical Information

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: Nottoway County was named for the Nottoway River or for the Nottoway Indian tribe. The county was formed from Amelia County by a statue adopted on 22 December 1788 to take effect 1 May 1789. The county seat is Nottoway.

Lost Locality Notes: Many records were destroyed or heavily mutilated in 1865 by Union troops during the Civil War. A few volumes that record deeds, court orders, and wills exist.

Scope and Content

Nottoway County (Va.) Judgments, 1814-1937, 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. The records consist of processed, loose records.

Arrangement

This collection is arranged into one series: Series I: Judgments, 1814-1937

Adjunct Descriptive Data Related Material

Additional Nottoway County Court Records can be found on microfilm at The Library of Virginia web site. Consult "A Guide to Virginia County and City Records on Microfilm."

Nottoway County is one of Virginia's Lost Records Localities. Additional Nottoway County Records may be found in the Virginia Lost Records Localities Collection at the Library of Virginia. Search the Lost Records Localities Database found at the Library of Virginia web site.

Contents List Judgments, 1814-1937 State Records Center 27.45 cubic feet (61 boxes)

This collection is arranged chronologically by year and then alphabetical by plaintiff's surname.

Judgments 1814-1866 Judgments 1853-1931 Judgments 1867 Judgments 1868 Judgments 1869 Judgments 1870-1871 Judgments 1871-1872 Judgments 1872-1873 Judgments 1874-1875 Judgments 1875-1876 Judgments 1876-1877 Judgments 1878-1879 Judgments 1879-1880 Judgments 1880-1882 Judgments 1883-1884 Judgments 1885-1886 Judgments 1886-1887 Judgments 1887-1889 Judgments 1890-1891 Judgments 1892-1894 Judgments 1894-1895 Judgments 1896-1900 Personal Documentation: Adoptions; Judgments: Fragile documents from judgments (1908-1909) 1899-1923 Judgments 1900-1904 Judgments 1904-1905 Judgments 1905-1906 Judgments 1906-1907 Judgments 1907-1908 Judgments 1908 Judgments 1908 Judgments 1908-1909 Judgments 1909-1910 Judgments 1910-1911 Judgments 1911 Judgments 1911-1912 Judgments 1912 Judgments 1912-1913 Judgments 1913 Judgments 1913 Judgments 1913 Judgments 1913-1914 Judgments 1914 Judgments 1914-1915 Judgments 1915 Judgments 1915-1916 Judgments 1916 Judgments 1916-1917 Judgments 1917-1918 Judgments 1918-1919 Judgments 1919-1920 Judgments 1920-1921 Judgments 1921 Judgments 1921-1922 Judgments 1922 Judgments 1922-1923 Judgments 1923 Judgments 1924 Judgments 1924-1925 Judgments 1925 Judgments 1925 Judgments 1925-1927, 1929, 1937