What is a chancery cause?Justice is administered according to fairness as contrasted with the strictly formulated rules of common law.

No jury. One judge usually determined the outcome of the case.

Typically addresses business dissolutions, contract disputes, debt, divorce/separate maintenance, estate disputes, freedom suits or injunctions.

What documents are found in a chancery cause? Bill(s), answers, final decree(s), subpoenas,

depositions, affidavits, commissioners’ reports, docket(s), plats/maps, land surveys, other decrees (including appeals), wills, deeds, bills of sale, notices, receipts, exhibits, estate inventories and appraisements, broadsides, contracts, articles of agreement, leases, mortgages, letters, drawings, free negro certificates, free negro registers, land patents/grants, marriage contracts, marriage licenses, newspapers and photographs.

Maps of Chancery Causes Found at the Library of Virginia Original Records—14 counties and City of Lynchburg

Microfilm—12 counties

Digital—All or Partially Scanned—64 counties and cities

Chancery Records Index Almost 90 localities available

64 counties and cities whose chancery causes have been digitally reformatted (pre-1913) with a total of 233,000 cases indexed in the database.

Posted nearly 8 million digital chancery images. Most recently added are Madison, Stafford and Elizabeth City counties.

Stafford County The index covers 1866-1912.

The collection was processed by Callie Lou Freed.

Processing the collection involved 13.95 cubic feet (31 Hollinger boxes) and 558 causes.

In addition, each processor is required to compile a list of “suits of interest” for each locality. The Stafford County list includes nearly 90 causes—providing a, as yet undiscovered, history of the county.

Stafford County The index covers 1866-1912.

The collection was processed by Callie Lou Freed.

Processing the collection involved 13.95 cubic feet (31 Hollinger boxes) and 558 causes.

In addition, each processor is required to compile a list of “suits of interest” for each locality. The Stafford County list includes nearly 90 causes—providing a, as yet undiscovered, history of the county.

Stafford County Suit of Interest

1869-008 Reuben S. Denny v. Lydia Brown Denny

Plaintiff is seeking a divorce from defendant. Plaintiff maintains that defendant became a “decided, earnest and fanatical enthusiast.” The plaintiff provides the names of prominent abolitionists, such as Wendell Philips and Parker Pillsbury, whom his wife invited to their home. Defendant came to neglect her household duties and her obligations as a wife—finally ending in a violent and avowed aversion toward him. Plaintiff had defendant placed in an insane asylum for observation. The couple were married in Connecticut and initially lived in Massachusetts. Defendant filed for divorce in Massachusetts—citing adultery and cruelty. She then moved to New York where her mother resided. Eventually, plaintiff left Massachusetts for Virginia—where he worked in a gold mine.

Besides domestic issues (oftentimes including abuse), the suits of interest capture the unvarnished history of a county devastated by the Civil War—touching on topics such as the Homestead Act passed by the General Assembly in March 1877, injunctions against selling land and personal property, dissolution of businesses, carrying away and destruction of valuable papers, insights into the war itself, collecting damages from the government related to the destruction of wood by federal troops and claims by Confederate Veterans.

Additional themes include mining and mineral rights (gold and copper), mental illness, transportation (such as the Southern Telegraph Company, the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad Company and a steamer on Aquia Creek called the “Fortuna.”), boundary disputes and trespassing upon land, insurance information related to property, right of way issues, information on organizations (churches and fraternal societies) and immigration.

Last but not least, there are a few causes referring to African Americans and slavery.

1909-018 Charles Strother, etc. v. Admr of John Baalam, etc.

John Baalam died without heirs leaving over 200 acres of land. The plaintiffs are former slaves claiming to be related to Balaam and seeking a portion of his property. Numerous former slaves and descendants of former slaves are deponents in the suit. These individuals offer testimony providing the names of slave ancestors and former slave owners.

Spotsylvania County Index covers 1812-1913.

Unlike Stafford County, Spotsylvania is currently closed while scanning of the collection is in progress.

The project was processed by Joanne Porter and our colleague, Chad Underwood. The CCRP program is now engaged in group processing projects.

Processing the collection involved 20.7 cubic feet (46 Hollinger boxes) and 1,115 causes.

Spotsylvania County Suits of Interest Much like Stafford County, there are examples of mining

references, instances of domestic abuse and references to slavery.

One item of note is an invitation found in the following divorce suit

1902-001 John I Jones vs. Rosa C. JonesThe invitation refers to an address on Abraham Lincoln by William McKinley, Governor of Ohio, before the Marquette Club of Chicago on February 12, 1896—just prior to be elected President of the United States. The invitation was used as a scrap of paper in making notes about the case.

1913-006 Mary Ella Gray vs. James Oliver B. Gray

Appears to be a fairly routine divorce case but is anything but. Includes an oversized, illustrative and colorful marriage certificate. The certificate acknowledges the Holy Matrimony of Mary Ella Harris and James Oliver Gray. The document cites a biblical reference to the Old Testament Book of Ruth, Chapter 4 Verse 13, describing the marriage of Ruth to Boaz. The certificate was published by Jennings and Dye of Cincinnati, Ohio and printed in Germany.

As the story goes, Mary Ella Gray was divorcing her husband for abandonment and desertion. She moved to her parents home in Fredericksburg after confessing in a deposition that James “continuously abused me and was very profane to me and often told me that he bore for me no affection whatever, and I could pull up and leave whenever I was ready.” Prior to the couple reaching the dissolution of their marriage, happier times were evident when the couple chose this certificate and were wed in the District of Columbia on November 1, 1902.

What is a Lost Records Locality? A county/city with missing early records due to intense

military activity (predominantly during the Civil War), courthouse fires, and/or natural disasters.

The localities are divided into two categories: Catastrophic Loss and Considerable Loss A Catastrophic Loss locality experienced a massive loss

of its loose records and volumes. The list includes Stafford County.

A Considerable Loss locality experienced a substantial loss of its loose records but the majority of volumes continue to exist. The list includes Spotsylvania County.

Lost Localities Database found on Virginia Memory Comprised of individual documents discovered while

processing other localities or found in other institutional collections.

Additional Available ResourcesThe Library of Virginia (www.lva.virginia.gov) offers the following online resources:

Chancery Records Index: http://www.virginiamemory.com/collections/chancery/

Virginia Heritage Project – Finding Aids: http://vaheritage.org/ Out of the Box Blog (archives blog):

http://www.virginiamemory.com/blogs/out_of_the_box/ Legislative Petitions Images:

http://www.virginiamemory.com/collections/petitions Virginia Memory (online digital collections): http://www.virginiamemory.com Virginia Chronicle (online newspaper collection):

http://virginiachronicle.com/ Lost Records Localities Digital Collection:

http://www.virginiamemory.com/collections/lost Making History Transcription site:

http://www.virginiamemory.com/transcribe/

Additional Available Local Resources Due to the difficult nature of researching Lost Record

Localities, there are some excellent local sources to take into account.

Keep in mind that the District Court, Superior Court and Circuit Court records of Spotsylvania County from 1813-1889 are found in the Fredericksburg Courthouse.

Numerous documents from Stafford and Spotsylvania counties are found in the Central Rappahannock Heritage Center (www.crhcarchives.org)

Pay a visit to the Central Rappahannock Regional Library’s Virginiana Room--there are a lot of good local history resources found there.

Historic Fredericksburg Newspaper Indexes (Fredericksburg Research Resources)a compiled newspaper database has been created to allow for simultaneously searching all the newspapers published in Fredericksburg between 1787 and 1928. This index was created by the University of Mary Washington from the original indexes compiled by local Fredericksburg historian and Germanna Community College professor, Robert Hodge. These indexes are part of the historic research databases available online in the Library of Virginia’s main reading room.

The Library’s large collection of Local Records microfilm would not exist without the efforts of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Mormons were the first to microfilm primarily bound volumes found in the court houses across Virginia beginning in the period after World War II. Members of the church continued to film at the Library until the late 1990s. We are greatly indebted to you for recognizing the importance of “local history.”

Any Further Questions? Please contact the Library of Virginia’s Archives

Reference Services at (804) 692-3556.

Stay Tuned for Next YearPlease join Joanne and I as we present an exciting panel discussion on the role of the public (reference) archivist at the Library of Virginia as well as a peek “behind the scenes” at the work that we do as processing archivists.