Surry County (Va.) Circuit Court.

Surry County was formed from James City County about 1652. Surry County was named for the county of Surrey in England.

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.

From the guide to the Surry County (Va.) Marriage Register and Index, 1768-1853, (The Library of Virginia)

Surry was formed in 1652 from James City County.

The deed and will books of Surry County in this collection were created by the County Court.

From the guide to the Surry County (Va.) Deed and Will Books, 1715-1770, (The Library of Virginia)

Surry County was formed in 1652 from James City County.

The Virginia legislature passed an act on 27 February 1866 to legalize the marriages of former slaves who had been cohabiting as of that date and provide for the legitimization of their children. See Virginia Acts of Assembly, 1866-1867, Chapter 18, An act to amend and re-enact the 14th section of chapter 108 of the Code of Virginia for 1860, in regard to registers of marriage; and to legalize the marriages of colored persons now cohabiting as husband and wife.

The federal Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands directed the Assistant Superintendents of the states to order the county clerks to make a registry of such cohabiting couples and their children. See Circular No. 11, dated 19 March 1866, in Orders, Circulars, Circular Letters, and Letters of Instruction, vol. 2 (1866). Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, Records of the Assistant Commissioner for the State of Virginia, 1865-1869. Miscellaneous reel 3880, Library of Virginia. National Archives microfilm M1048 (reel 41), Record Group 105.

From the guide to the Surry County (Va.) Record of Marriages Made In Obedience to Circular No. 11, 1866, (The Library of Virginia)

Surry County was formed in 1652 from James City County.

The deed books of Surry County in this collection were created by the County Court.

From the guide to the Surry County (Va.) Deed Books, 1746-1787, (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.

Surry County was named for the county of Surrey in England, and was formed from James City County in 1652. The county seat is Surry.

From the guide to the Surry County (Va.) Chancery Causes, 1785-1922 (bulk 1806-1912), (The Library of Virginia)

Surry County was named for the county of Surrey in England, and was formed for James City County about 1652.

Surry was created in 1652. Deed Book 10 (1835-1838) is missing and order books for 1718-1741 and various other early volumes are fragmentary. Most loose records prior to 1806 are missing. Courthouse fires in 1906 and 1922, however, did not result in loss of records, which were then housed in a separate clerk’s office.

From the guide to the Surry County (Va.) Wills, 1760-1913, (The Library of Virginia)

Surry County was formed in 1652 from James City County.

The deed and will books of Surry County in this collection were created by the County Court.

From the guide to the Surry County (Va.) Deed and Will Books, 1671-1684, 1694-1709 and 1730-1738, (The Library of Virginia)

Surry County was formed in 1652 from James City County.

The deed, will and order books of Surry County in this collection were created by the County Court.

From the guide to the Surry County (Va.) Deed, Order and Will Books, 1645-1686, (The Library of Virginia)

Surry County was named for the county of Surrey in England, and was formed for James City County about 1652.

From the guide to the Surry County (Va.) Tax Ledger, 1868-1870 circa, (The Library of Virginia)

Surry County formed from James City County about 1652.

An act passed by the Virginia legislature in 1803 required every free negro or mulatto to be registered and numbered in a book to be kept by the city clerk.

From the guide to the Surry County (Va.) Free Negro and Slave Records, 1742-1862, (The Library of Virginia)

Surry County was formed from James City Couty about 1652. Surry County was named fro the county of Surrey in England.

During the 1869-1870 session, the General Assembly passed an "Act to Secure Identification of Persons Convicted of Criminal Offences." On 2 November 1870, the act was approved. The act specified that "every clerk of the court of each county and corporation shall keep a register of full and accurate descriptive lists of every person convicted in his own or any other court of record of his county or corporation, of felony or other infamous offence, and a duly certified and attested copy of any such descriptive list may be used as prima facie evidence of the facts therein stated in any question of identity. Such registers shall be kept written up, well indexed, and shall be open to public inspection at reasonable hours. The register shall follow a set form and each descriptive list shall be attested by said clerk."

In addition, "the clerk of every court of record of each county or corporation, other than the county or corporation court, shall within ten days from the date of conviction of any person in his court of any offence mentioned in the first section of this act, deliver to the clerk of the county or corporation court, for record in said register, an attested descriptive list of the person so convicted, in the form hereinbefore prescribed." The judges of the respective courts are responsible for seeing that the provisions of the act are "punctually and properly carried out" by their respective clerks. The act was amended on 18 January 1871 and outlined the following: "For the services mentioned in this or the first section of this act, the clerk shall be entitled to a fee of fifty cents, to be paid out of the state treasury." By and large, the county and circuit court clerks went about compiling these registers throughout the counties of Virginia as late as the 1960s.

Instead of entries in order or minute books, lists of convicts appear in Justices of the Peace dockets for the county--as noted in Volume 2.

The original registers were created by the County and Circuit Courts.

From the guide to the Surry County (Va.) Registers of Convicts, Vols. 1 and 2, 1872-1929, (The Library of Virginia)

Surry County was named for the county of Surrey in England, and was formed from James City County about 1652.

These records were replevined by the Library of Virginia following the trial entitled Commonwealth of Virginia vs. Larry I. Vass heard in Henrico County Circuit Court in November 1972.

From the guide to the Surry County (Va.) Court Records, 1835-1847, (The Library of Virginia)