Shenandoah County (Va.) Circuit Court

Shenandoah County was named for the Shenandoah River, which passed through the county. Shenandoah is an Indian word meaning beautiful daughter of the stars. The county was named Dunmore when it was formed from Frederick County in 1772. The present name was adopted in 1778. Its area is 507 square miles, and the county seat is Woodstock.

From the guide to the Shenandoah County (Va.) Marriage Records, 1772-1912, (The Library of Virginia)

Shenandoah County was named for the Shenandoah River, which passed through the county. Shenandoah is an Indian word meaning beautiful daughter of the stars. The county was named Dunmore when it was formed from Frederick County in 1772. The present name was adopted in 1778. Its area is 507 square miles, and the county seat is Woodstock.

From the guide to the Shenandoah County (Va.) List of Confederate Pensioners, undated, (The Library of Virginia)

Shenandoah County was named for the Shenandoah River, which passes through the county. Shenandoah is an Indian word meaning beautiful daughter of the stars. The county was named Dunmore when it was formed from Frederick County in 1772. The present name was adopted in 1778.

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 county clerk. Certificates and registrations of free negroes usually include the name of the free person, sometimes their age and a brief physical description, and a statement based either on another person's knowledge or on other official documentary evidence seen by the certifier that this person was either born free or was emancipated. If born free, reference is sometimes made to parents. If emancipated, emancipating owner, place and date of emancipation, and prior registration as a free negro are usually mentioned. Occasionally the register number is given; this number corresponds to the entry number in the register of free negroes kept by the clerk of court at the courthouse.

From the guide to the Shenandoah County (Va.) Free Negro Registration of Henry Roy, 1833 Nov. 11., (The Library of Virginia)

Shenandoah County was formed from Frederick County in 1772.

From the guide to the Shenandoah County (Va.) District Clerk's Field Returns of School Census in Lee County School District, 1895, (The Library of Virginia)

Shenandoah County was named for the Shenandoah River, which passed through the county. Shenandoah is an Indian word meaning beautiful daughter of the stars. The county was named Dunmore when it was formed from Frederick County in 1772. The present name was adopted in 1778. Its area is 507 square miles, and the county seat is Woodstock.

The 1902 voter registration books were created following the passage of the 1902 Virginia state constitution. The purpose of the 1902 state constitution was to maintain white suffrage while eliminating African-American voters by means of literacy tests as well as property and poll tax requirements.

From the guide to the Shenandoah County (Va.) General Registration, 1902-1903, (The Library of Virginia)

Shenandoah County was named for the Shenandoah River, which passed through the county. Shenandoah is an Indian word meaning beautiful daughter of the stars. The county was named Dunmore when it was formed from Frederick County in 1772. The present name was adopted in 1778. Its area is 507 square miles, and the county seat is Woodstock.

From the guide to the Shenandoah County (Va.) Fiduciary Records, 1851-1957, (The Library of Virginia)

Shenandoah County was named for the Shenandoah River, which passed through the county. Shenandoah is an Indian word meaning beautiful daughter of the stars. The county was named Dunmore when it was formed from Frederick County in 1772 and named for John Murray, fourth earl of Dunmore and governor of Virginia from 1771 to 1775. Lord Dunmore's actions at the outbreak of the American Revolution made him so unpopular with Virginians that the General Assembly changed the county's name to Shanando (now Shenandoah) in 1778.

In September 1649, King Charles II of England granted to seven Englishmen all land in the Northern Neck of Virginia, or that lying between the Rappahannock and Potomac Rivers, as a proprietary, or land over which private owners exercised all ownership, control and use. By 1681, Lord Culpeper owned 5/6 of the proprietary. In 1688, just before King James II was expelled and replaced in the Glorious Revolution by William and Mary, Culpeper got the last Stuart king to renew his grant. When Lord Culpeper died in 1689, his only legitimate child, daughter Catherine (or Katherine) Culpeper, inherited his 5/6th of the "proprietorship." She married Thomas, Fifth Lord Fairfax, whose mother controlled the other 1/6th. During the colonial era, the Virginia government based in Jamestown (until 1699) and Williamsburg (after 1699) objected to the claims of the Culpepers and Fairfaxes. Under terms of the grant, the colonial governor and General Assembly retained political and legal authority over the Northern Neck, but colonial officials did not want to lose the authority to grant land in that area and to collect fees from processing such grants. Thomas, Fifth Lord Fairfax, refused to sell the family's proprietary claim to the colony. After the English monarchs changed in the Glorious Revolution of 1688, he successfully blocked efforts of colonial officials to get the grant cancelled, and succeeded in having William and Mary reaffirm his rights again in 1693. Starting in 1690, two years after James II had reaffirmed the grant, all patents between the Rappahannock-Potomac rivers were recorded in special Northern Neck grant books, separate from other Land Office grant books used for the rest of the colony of Virginia. The Fairfaxes used Virginia-based agents to manage the proprietary and collect fees and quit rents. Thomas, Sixth Lord Fairfax (grandson of Lord Culpeper) inherited 100 percent of the claim after his father (Thomas, Fifth Lord Fairfax) and grandmother (Margaret Lady Culpeper, wife of Thomas, Second Lord Culpeper) died in 1710. Continued legislative threats to his legal rights triggered Fairfax to ask the Privy Council in London to reaffirm his claim and order a final survey of the boundaries of his ownership. After constant disagreements between Fairfax and the colonial government over the boundaries, in 1733 the Privy Council in London ordered that surveyors mark the Fairfax Grant boundaries. In 1745, the Privy Council in London decided finally in favor of Lord Fairfax and allowed him to establish control over 5.2 million acres between the Rappahannock and Potomac rivers, until he died at the end of the American Revolution. The new Commonwealth of Virginia acquired title to the Fairfax lands that had not already been sold, while those who had purchased lands directly from Fairfax or his heirs got clear title to their lands.

From the guide to the Dunmore County (Va.) Rent Rolls, 1774-1776, (The Library of Virginia)

Shenandoah County was named for the Shenandoah River, which passed through the county. Shenandoah is an Indian word meaning beautiful daughter of the stars. The county was named Dunmore when it was formed from Frederick County in 1772. The present name was adopted in 1778. Its area is 507 square miles, and the county seat is Woodstock.

From the guide to the Shenandoah County (Va.) Tax and Fiscal Records, 1884-1907, (The Library of Virginia)

Shenandoah County was named for the Shenandoah River, which passed through the county. Shenandoah is an Indian word meaning beautiful daughter of the stars. The county was named Dunmore when it was formed from Frederick County in 1772. The present name was adopted in 1778. Its area is 507 square miles, and the county seat is Woodstock.

From the guide to the Shenandoah County (Va.) Circuit Court Records, 1851-1917, (The Library of Virginia)

Shenandoah County was named for the Shenandoah River, which passed through the county. Shenandoah is an Indian word meaning beautiful daughter of the stars. The county was named Dunmore when it was formed from Frederick County in 1772. The present name was adopted in 1778. Its area is 507 square miles, and the county seat is Woodstock.

From the guide to the Shenandoah County (Va.) Election Records, 1902-1934, (The Library of Virginia)

Shenandoah County was named for the Shenandoah River, which passed through the county. Shenandoah is an Indian word meaning beautiful daughter of the stars. The county was named Dunmore when it was formed from Frederick County in 1772. The present name was adopted in 1778. Its area is 507 square miles, and the county seat is Woodstock.

From the guide to the Shenandoah County (Va.) County Court Records, 1806-1924, (The Library of Virginia)

Shenandoah County was named for the Shenandoah River, which passed through the county. Shenandoah is an Indian word meaning beautiful daughter of the stars. The county was named Dunmore when it was formed from Frederick County in 1772. The present name was adopted in 1778. Its area is 507 square miles, and the county seat is Woodstock.

The records in this collection were created by the County Court, Circuit Superior Court of Law and Chancery, and Circuit Court.

From the guide to the Shenandoah County (Va.) Court Records, 1827-1919, (The Library of Virginia)

Shenandoah County was named for the Shenandoah River, which passed through the county. Shenandoah is an Indian word meaning beautiful daughter of the stars. The county was named Dunmore when it was formed from Frederick County in 1772. The present name was adopted in 1778. Its area is 507 square miles, and the county seat is Woodstock.

From the guide to the Shenandoah County (Va.) Health and Medical Records, 1886-1919, (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.

Shenandoah County was named for the Shenandoah River, which passed through the county. Shenandoah is an Indian word meaning beautiful daughter of the stars. The county was named Dunmore when it was formed from Frederick County in 1772. The present name was adopted in 1778.

From the guide to the Shenandoah County (Va.) Chancery Causes, 1772-1927, (The Library of Virginia)

Shenandoah County was formed from Frederick County in 1772.

From the guide to the Shenandoah County (Va.) Teacher's Registers and Public School Registers, 1886-1906, (The Library of Virginia)

Shenandoah County was named Dunmore when it was formed from Frederick County in May 1772. A statute changed the name of the county effective 1 February 1778. The county was named for the Shenandoah River, which passes through the county.

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.

Order books record all matters brought before the court when it was in session and may contain important information not found anywhere else. A wide variety of information is found in order books--including individuals convicted of felonies.

This original register was created by the County Court until 1904. After this time, the names of the convicted were recorded by the Circuit Court in Common Law Order Books.

From the guide to the Shenandoah County (Va.) Register of Convicts, 1872-1927, (The Library of Virginia)

Shenandoah County was named for the Shenandoah River, which passes through the county. The county was named Dunmore when it was formed from Frederick County in May 1772. A statute changed the name of the county effective 1 February 1778. The county seat is Woodstock.

From the guide to the Shenandoah County (Va.) Unidentified Fraternal Society Ledger, 1890-1899, (The Library of Virginia)

Shenandoah County was named for the Shenandoah River, which passed through the county. Shenandoah is an Indian word meaning beautiful daughter of the stars. The county was named Dunmore when it was formed from Frederick County in 1772. The present name was adopted in 1778. Its area is 507 square miles, and the county seat is Woodstock.

First known as commissions, the Justice of the Peace office originated with the county quarterly court in 1623. Commanders of Plantations (1607-1629) were predecessors of the commissioners, who since 1662 have been called justices of the peace. They have traditionally had both civil and criminal jurisdiction, and have served other functions, including performing coroners' and lunacy inquisitions. Until 1869 justices served both as judges of the county court and as individual justices; since then they have had only the latter function.

From the guide to the Shenandoah County (Va.) Justice of the Peace Records, 1845-1920, (The Library of Virginia)

Shenandoah County was named for the Shenandoah River, which passed through the county. Shenandoah is an Indian word meaning beautiful daughter of the stars. The county was named Dunmore when it was formed from Frederick County in 1772 and named for John Murray, fourth earl of Dunmore and governor of Virginia from 1771 to 1775. Lord Dunmore's actions at the outbreak of the American Revolution made him so unpopular with Virginians that the General Assembly changed the county's name to Shanando (now Shenandoah) in 1778.

From the guide to the Dunmore County (Va.) Levy Book, 1775-1779, (The Library of Virginia)

Shenandoah County was named for the Shenandoah River, which passed through the county. Shenandoah is an Indian word meaning beautiful daughter of the stars. The county was named Dunmore when it was formed from Frederick County in 1772. The present name was adopted in 1778. Its area is 507 square miles, and the county seat is Woodstock.

From the guide to the Shenandoah County (Va.) County Administrative Records, 1881-1896, (The Library of Virginia)

Shenandoah County was named for the Shenandoah River, which passed through the county. Shenandoah is an Indian word meaning beautiful daughter of the stars. The county was named Dunmore when it was formed from Frederick County in 1772. The present name was adopted in 1778. Its area is 507 square miles, and the county seat is Woodstock.

From the guide to the Shenandoah County (Va.) Bonds/Commissions/Oaths, 1809-1950, (The Library of Virginia)

Shenandoah County was formed in 1772 from Frederick County. It was called Dunmore County from 1772 to 1778.

From the guide to the Shenandoah County (Va.) Teacher's Register - Daily Record of Pupils' Attendance at Public School No. 20, 1905-1907, (The Library of Virginia)

Shenandoah County was named for the Shenandoah River, which passed through the county. Shenandoah is an Indian word meaning beautiful daughter of the stars. The county was named Dunmore when it was formed from Frederick County in 1772. The present name was adopted in 1778. Its area is 507 square miles, and the county seat is Woodstock.

From the guide to the Shenandoah County (Va.) Miscellaneous Records, 1865-1922, (The Library of Virginia)

Shenandoah County was named for the Shenandoah River, which passed through the county. Shenandoah is an Indian word meaning beautiful daughter of the stars. The county was named Dunmore when it was formed from Frederick County in 1772 and named for John Murray, fourth earl of Dunmore and governor of Virginia from 1771 to 1775. Lord Dunmore's actions at the outbreak of the American Revolution made him so unpopular with Virginians that the General Assembly changed the county's name to Shanando (now Shenandoah) in 1778.

From the guide to the Dunmore County (Va.) Order Book, 1772-1774, (The Library of Virginia)