Lancaster County (Va.) Circuit Court.

Lancaster County was named probably for the English county. It was formed from Northumberland and York Counties sometime between 26 March and 16 September 1651. The county court first met on 1 January 1652.

Part of the process of settling the estate after an individual's death was to take a probate inventory. The inventory listed the personal property in the possession of the owner at the time of death. The local county court assigned a person or group of people to make the inventory and value the estate. A credit-based economy, where tobacco was used as currency more often than cash was used, made taking inventories a necessary procedure. Before any outstanding debts were settled, the surviving members of the family needed to assess the value of the property. In Virginia, these inventories did not include buildings or land. Slaves included were often listed by name and individual value. Inventories taken after a person's death provide valuable information on everyday life such as social class, wealth, and occupation.

From the guide to the Lancaster County (Va.) Fiduciary Records, 1656-1773, (The Library of Virginia)

Lancaster County was named for the English county. It was formed from Northumberland and York Counties in 1651.

From the guide to the Lancaster County (Va.) Public Buildings and Grounds, 1787-1937, (The Library of Virginia)

Lancaster County formed in 1651 from Northumberland and York Counties.

In seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Virginia, the term "tithable" referred to a person who paid (or for whom someone else paid) one of the taxes imposed by the General Assembly for the support of civil government in the colony. In colonial Virginia, a poll tax or capitation tax was assessed on free white males, African American slaves, and Native American servants (both male and female), all age sixteen or older. Owners and masters paid the taxes levied on their slaves and servants. For a more detailed history of tithables, consult "Colonial tithables" found on the Library of Virginia's web site.

From the guide to the Lancaster County (Va.) Tithables, 1745-1746, 1775-1781, 1795-1799, and undated., (The Library of Virginia)

Lancaster County was formed from Northumberland and York Counties sometime between 26 March and 16 September 1651. The county court first met on 1 January 1652. The county was named probably for the English county.

Born around 1798, Archibald Hinton was a farmer in Lancaster County, Va.

From the guide to the Lancaster County (Va.) Will of Archibald Hinton, 1854, (The Library of Virginia)

Lancaster County was named for the English county. It was formed from Northumberland and York Counties in 1651.

The 1870 Virginia Constitution required that each county in the state be divided into no less than three townships (see Article VII, section 2). Based on the New England administrative organization of a county, each township would elect the administration officials for the offices of supervisor, clerk, assessor, collector, commissioner of the roads, overseer of the poor, justice of the peace, and constable. The supervisors of each township would comprise the board of supervisors for the county, and would be responsible for auditing the county accounts, examining the assessors' books, regulating property valuation, and fixing the county levies. The Acts of Assembly provided that each township be divided into school and electoral districts (see Acts of Assembly 1869-1870, Chapter 39). A constitutional amendment in 1874 changed the townships into magisterial districts and each district elected one supervisor, three justices of the peace, one constable, and one overseer of the poor. The supervisors of the districts made up the county board of supervisors whose duties were identical as those set out in 1870. The published Acts of Assembly appended a list of township names by county following the acts for every year that townships existed in Virginia.

From the guide to the Lancaster County (Va.) Mantua Township Records, 1871-1876, (The Library of Virginia)

Lancaster County was formed from Northumberland and York Counties sometime between 26 March and 16 September 1651. The county was probably named for the English county.

Prior to 1853, when the Commonwealth began recording vital statistics, Virginia marriages were recorded at the county or city level. Beginning in 1661, in order to be married by license, the groom was required to go before the county clerk and give bond with security that there was no lawful reason to prevent the marriage. The license, issued then by the clerk, was given to the minister who performed the service. Written consent from a parent or guardian was needed for individuals younger than twenty-one years.

Until 1780, marriages could be performed only by ministers of the Established Church, who were required by law to record marriages in the parish register. In 1780, dissenting ministers (only four per county from each sect) were first permitted to perform marriage ceremonies. In order to have a record of all marriages, ministers were required to sign a certificate to be filed with the county clerk. Intially, ministers sent marriage certificates to the clerk every three months. Some ministers adopted a custom of making collected returns--a list of marriages performed within a period of time such as a year or several years. Beginning in 1784, marriage certificates were returned annually. The law was rarely enforced, and ministers' returns were sometimes late, incorrect, incomplete, and in many instances, not made at all. County clerks compiled a register of marriages based, in part, on ministers' returns.

The original returns were created by the County Court.

From the guide to the Lancaster County (Va.) Ministers' Returns, 1782-1852, (The Library of Virginia)

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.

Lancaster County was formed in 1651 from Northumberland and York Counties.

From the guide to the Lancaster County (Va.) Chancery Causes, 1722-1936, (The Library of Virginia)

Lancaster was formed in 1651 from Northumberland and York counties.

The will books of Lancaster County in this collection were created by the County Court.

From the guide to the Lancaster County (Va.) Will Books, 1674-1795, (The Library of Virginia)

Lancaster County was named for the English county. It was formed from Northumberland and York Counties in 1651.

Virginia's General Assembly passed Tobacco Acts in 1723 and 1729 that attempted to control the quantity and quality of tobacco grown in the colony. The 1723 act established limits on the number of plants that certain classes of persons could grow with slaveowners being allowed less plants. Each vestry of every parish had to appoint two people every year to count the number of plants being grown and report the numbers to the clerk of court by the month of August. Any number of plants over the allowed number were to be destroyed by the planter or, if the planter would not, by the counters. The act of 1729 provided various adjustments to and elaborations on the 1723 act. For full text of the acts which were not published in Hening's Statues, see The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography (Vol. 20, pp.158-178.)

From the guide to the Lancaster County (Va.) Census of Tobacco Plants, 1727, (The Library of Virginia)

Lancaster County was probably named for the English county. It was formed from Northumberland and York Counties in 1651

The Timothy Division No. 152 of the Sons of Temperance was constituted at Lancaster Court House 1848 July 27. The Sons of Temperance, a total abstinence society, was founded in New York in 1842. The fraternal order provided assistance for its members, both in remaining temperate, and as a mutual aid society. More broadly, they promoted the societal benefit of abstinence and temperance. In contrast to its immediate predecessor, the Washington Movement, the Sons recruited members from among those already well affected to their cause. Though they refrained from taking public stances on religious and political matters, they did advocate ending the temptation by stopping the production and sale of alcohol. As a mutual aid society, the Sons of Temperance doled out sickness and disability benefits and allotted money to assist with the burial of fellow brothers and their wives. The attractiveness of its benefits led the organization to operate as a secret society, with stringent rules and a highly restricted membership. Allegations of intemperance and other transgressions were routinely investigated and often led to expulsion from the organization.

From the guide to the Timothy Division No. 152 Sons of Temperance Minutes, 1848-1852, (The Library of Virginia)

Lancaster County was formed in 1651 from Northumberland and York counties.

From the guide to the Lancaster County (Va.) Free Negro and Slave Records, 1751-1861, (The Library of Virginia)

Lancaster County was named for the English county. It was formed from Northumberland and York Counties in 1651.

Individuals dying with a written will died testate. After the death of an individual, his or her will was brought into court, where two of the subscribing witnesses swore that the document was genuine. After the will was proved, the executor was bonded to carry out his or her duties to settle the estate. The court then ordered the will to be recorded.

From the guide to the Lancaster County (Va.) Wills, 1700-1921, (The Library of Virginia)

Lancaster County was named for the English county. It was formed from Northumberland and York Counties in 1651.

From the guide to the Lancaster County (Va.) Records, 1703-1918, (The Library of Virginia)

Lancaster County was named for the English county. It was formed from Northumberland and York Counties in 1651.

Laws requiring the recording of births and deaths in Virginia were enacted as early as 1632, when a law directed ministers or churchwardens in each parish to present a "register of all burialls, christenings, and marriages" yearly at the June meeting of the court. A similar act passed in 1659 stated that "enquiries are often made for persons imported into the collonie, of whose death no positive certificate can be granted for want of registers." Few records survive from these early decades.

In 1713, the General Assembly noted that earlier acts had "for a long time been disused" and once again directed the recording of births and deaths by the minister or clerk of each parish. A return made the same year noted that the list of births and deaths was not complete since many parishes failed to make returns "for tis a thing so new to the people that neither they care to Register their Births and Burials, nor are the Parish Clerks yet brought into a regular method of transmitting them."

The recording of vital statistics continued to be an ecclesiastical function throughout the colonial period. With the disestablishment of the Anglican church after the American Revolution and the rise of other religious denominations, the record-keeping process for vital statistics fell more and more to the individual family. By the mid-nineteenth century, however, medical science began to recognize the advantages of accurate birth and mortality information in controlling and treating communicable diseases. Pressure from local and national health organizations and medical professionals resulted in the passage of vital statistics registration laws. Virginia was one of the earliest states to pass such a law.

A law requiring the systematic statewide recording of births and deaths was passed by the General Assembly on April 11 1853. Every commissioner of revenue registered births and deaths in his district annually, at the same time personal property subject to taxation was ascertained. The commissioner recorded births and deaths that had occurred prior to 31 December of the preceding year and returned the record to the clerk of court by 1 June. Information was obtained from heads of family, physicians, surgeons, or coroners. The law imposed penalties for failing to furnish or collect the information.

The clerk of court in each locality entered the information supplied by the commissioner into registers and prepared an accompanying alphabetical index. A copy of each register was forwarded to the Auditor of Public Accounts. The law went into effect on 1 July 1853, and continued until 1896, when an economy-conscious legislature repealed the recording provisions.

There was no statewide recording of births and deaths between 1896 and 1912. Several metropolitan areas continued to keep records of births and deaths for all or part of the period between 1896 and 1912. Systematic statewide registration began again in June 1912.

From the guide to the Lancaster County (Va.) Birth and Death Records, 1913-1918, (The Library of Virginia)

Lancaster County was named for the English county. It was formed from Northumberland and York Counties in 1651.

The separate office of coroner appeared in Virginia about 1660. The judicial duty of the office is to hold inquisitions in cases when persons meet sudden, violent, unnatural or suspicious death, or death without medical attendance. The coroner would summon a jury to assist him in determining cause of death. Prior to November 1877, the jurors numbered twelve. Between November 1877 and March 1926, the jurors numbered six. The jury viewed the body of the deceased and heard the testimony of witnesses. The coroner was required to write down witness testimony. After seeing and hearing the evidence, the jury delivered in writing to the coroner their conclusion concerning cause of death referred to as the inquisition. After March 1926, only the coroner determined cause of death. He could require physicians to assist him with determing cause of death. If a criminal act was determined to be the cause of death, the coroner was to deliver the guilty person to the sheriff and the coroners' inquests would be used as evidence in the criminal trial.

From the guide to the Lancaster County (Va.) Coroners' Inquisitions, 1792-1926, (The Library of Virginia)

Lancaster County was named for the English county. It was formed from Northumberland and York Counties in 1651.

Throughout the Civil War, the principal responsibility for Virginia's indigent soldiers' families lay with the locality. The Virginia State Convention in 1861 gave the responsibility entirely to counties and incorporated towns and authorized whatever actions had already been taken. Acts of Assembly in 1862 and 1863 expanded the localities' powers to provide for their needy, and in 1863 some minimal state assistance was added in. At first relief was provided as money, but as the monetary system collapsed, relief was distributed in kind. Agents of the court maintained lists of eligible families, gathered goods for distribution and paid for them, and impressed supplies if necessary. Virginia was unique amongst the southern states in that it assigned the provisioning of needy families almost solely to the locality.

From the guide to the Lancaster County (Va.) Reports of Indigent Soldiers' Families, 1861-1865, (The Library of Virginia)

Lancaster County was named for the English county. It was formed from Northumberland and York Counties in 1651.

From the guide to the Lancaster County (Va.) Criminal Court Records, circa 1787-1931, (The Library of Virginia)

Lancaster County was named probably for the English county. It was formed from Northumberland and York Counties sometime between 26 March and 16 September 1651. The county court first met on 1 January 1652. The county seat is Lancaster.

From the guide to the Lancaster County (Va.) Minute Book, 1712-1716, (The Library of Virginia)

Lancaster County was named for the English county. It was formed from Northumberland and York Counties in 1651.

From the guide to the Lancaster County (Va.) Records, 1867-1908, (The Library of Virginia)

Lancaster County was named for the English county. It was formed from Northumberland and York Counties in 1651.

From the guide to the Lancaster County (Va.) Deeds, 1656-1914 (bulk 1833-1898), (The Library of Virginia)

Lancaster County was named for the English county. It was formed from Northumberland and York Counties in 1651.

In seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Virginia, the term "tithable" referred to a person who paid (or for whom someone else paid) one of the taxes imposed by the General Assembly for the support of civil government in the colony. In colonial Virginia, a poll tax or capitation tax was assessed on free white males, African American slaves, and Native American servants (both male and female), all age sixteen or older. Owners and masters paid the taxes levied on their slaves and servants. For a more detailed history of tithables, consult the Library of Virginia's website for Colonial Tithables

From the guide to the Lancaster County (Va.) List of Tithables, 1734, 1745-1746, 1775-1777, 1779, 1781., (The Library of Virginia)

Lancaster County was formed from Northumberland and York Counties sometime between 26 March and 16 September 1651. The county court first met on 1 January 1652. The county was named probably for the English county.

A deed was signed by the grantor, and possibly his wife or anyone else having a claim to the property, and by at least two witnesses. On presentation to the court, deeds were proved and recorded. If the deed was not witnessed, the grantor acknowledged the deed in open court. Individuals dying with a written will died testate. After the death of an individual, his or her will was brought into court, where two of the subscribing witnesses swore tha the document was genuine. After the will was proved, the executor or executrix was bonded to carry out his or her duties to settle the estate. The court then ordered the will to be recorded.

The original deeds and wills, from which this volume was created and compiled, were created by the County Court.

From the guide to the Lancaster County (Va.) Deeds and Wills, 1661-1800, (The Library of Virginia)