Rockbridge County (Va.). Circuit Court.

Rockbridge County was formed in 1778 from Augusta and Botetourt Counties. An additional part of Botetourt County was added in 1785.

From the guide to the Rockbridge County (Va.) Slave Patrol Appointment, May 7, 1861, (The Library of Virginia)

From the guide to the Rockbridge County (Va.) Deposition of John Davidson, February 1825, (The Library of Virginia)

Rockbridge County was named for Natural Bridge, an exceptional formation located in the county. The county was formed from Augusta and Botetourt Counties in 1778, and another part of Botetourt was added later.

From the guide to the Rockbridge County (Va.) Democratic Executive Committee Records, 1901-1911, (The Library of Virginia)

Rockbridge County was named for Natural Bridge, an exceptional rock formation located in the county. the county was formed from Augusta and Botetourt Counties in 1778, and another part of Botetourt was added later.

From the guide to the Rockbridge County (Va.) Freedman's Contract, 1865 Aug. 2., (The Library of Virginia)

James Dryden was who operated a blacksmith shop in Rockbridge County during the late eighteenth century.

From the guide to the James Dryden Smith Shop Book, 1794, (The Library of Virginia)

Rockbridge County was named for Natural Bridge, an exceptional rock formation located in the county. The county was formed from Augusta and Botetourt counties in 1778, and another part of Botetourt was added later.

From the guide to the Rockbridge County (Va.) Judgments (Condemnations), 1852-1909, (The Library of Virginia)

From the guide to the Rockbridge County (Va.) Judgments, 1778-1934, (The Library of Virginia)

Rockbridge County was named for Natural Bridge, an exceptional rock formation located in the county. The county was formed from Augusta and Botetourt Counties in 1778, and another part of Botetourt was added in 1888. The county seat is the city of Lexington.

From the guide to the Rockbridge County (Va.) Court Records, 1822-1846, (The Library of Virginia)

Rockbridge County was formed from Augusta and Botetourt Counties in 1778, and another part of Botetourt was added in 1888. The county was named for Natural Bridge, an exceptional rock formation located in the 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. Once the marriage service was performed, the minister submitted a return to the county clerk. The county clerk recorded these returns along with other marriage records, such as bonds, certificates and licenses, in a marriage register. Written consent from a parent or guardian was needed for individuals younger than twenty-one years.

"Processioning consisted of a person or persons appointed by the vestries (later the county court) meeting with the land owners and walking their property boundaries with them and remarking their lines and corners. At least one other person, preferably an adjacent land owner, would accompany the owner and the processioner. Perhaps this "processioning" of people walking the boundaries is the basis for the term "processioning." The objective of this practice seems to have been to prevent boundary disputes between adjacent land owners by renewing and maintaining survey marks. However, most of the marks used were temporary items such as trees and bushes. Processioning was not done annually, nor was the entire county done at the same time. Usually processioning was done by militia districts, or some other governmental subdivision of the county."

The original marriage records and land records, from which this volume was compiled, were created by the County Court.

From the guide to the Rockbridge County (Va.) Marriage Register and Processioners' Book, 1779-1830, (The Library of Virginia)

Rockbridge County was named for Natural Bridge, an exceptional rock formation located in the county. The county was formed from Augusta and Botetourt counties in 1778, and another part of Botetourt was added later.

On March 20, 1924, Virginia passed the Racial Integrity Act that recognized only two races, white and colored. The act required that a racial description of every person be recorded at birth, and made marriage between white persons and non-white persons a felony. The law was the most famous ban on miscegenation in the United States, and was overturned by the United States Supreme Court in 1967, in Loving vs. Virginia. The registrar of Virginia's Bureau of Vital of Statistics, Dr. Walter Ashby Plecker, developed the racial criteria behind the act and adhered strictly to the one-drop rule, a historical colloquial term that holds that a person with any trace of African ancestry is considered black. The Racial Integrity Act was subject to the Pocahontas exception. Since many influential families claimed descent from Pocahontas, the legislature declared that a person could be considered white with as much as one-sixteenth Indian ancestry. This law, along with the Sterilization Act also of 1924, imposed the practice of scientific eugenics in the Commonwealth.

From the guide to the Rockbridge County (Va.) James Connor and Dorothy Johns vs. A. T. Shields, Clerk of Court, 1924 September, (The Library of Virginia)

Rockbridge County was named for Natural Bridge, an exceptional rock formation located in the county. The county was formed from Augusta and Botetourt counties in 1778, and another part of Botetourt was added later.

Born in Virginia around 1802, Hobson Johns was a farmer in Rockbridge County, Va.

From the guide to the Rockbridge County (Va.) Will of Hobson Johns, 1863, (The Library of Virginia)

Rockbridge County was formed from Augusta and Botetourt Counties in 1778, and another part of Botetourt was added in 1888. The county was named for Natural Bridge, an exceptional rock formation located in the 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. Once the marriage service was performed, the minister submitted a return to the county clerk. The county clerk recorded these returns along with other marriage records, such as bonds, certificates and licenses, in a marriage register. Written consent from a parent or guardian was needed for individuals younger than twenty-one years.

The original marriage and miscellaneous records, from which this volume was compiled, were created by the County Court.

From the guide to the Rockbridge County (Va.) Register of Marriages and Marriage Licenses and Estray Book, 1823-1856, (The Library of Virginia)

Slaves sued for emancipation in freedom suits based on the following: they were descendant(s) of a free female ancestor, typically a Native American (Hening Statutes, volume 2, p.170); failure of slaveowner(s) to abide by the 1778 slave nonimportation act (Henings Statutes, volume 9, pp. 471-472); or claimed to have been freed by slaveowner(s) by deed of emancipation or last will and testament (Henings Statutes volume 11, pp. 39-40)

Rockbridge County was named for Natural Bridge, an exceptional rock formation located in the county. The county was formed from Augusta and Botetourt Counties in 1778, and another part of Botetourt was added in 1888. The county seat is the city of Lexington.

From the guide to the Rockbridge County (Va.) Judgments (Freedom Suits), 1809-1854, (The Library of Virginia)

Rockbridge County was named for Natural Bridge, an exceptional rock formation located in the county. The county was formed from Augusta and Botetourt counties in 1778, and another part of Botetourt was added later.

In 1780 the Virginia General Assembly replaced the Anglican vestries and churchwardens of the colonial period with elected bodies called Overseers of the Poor. The Overseers provided food, clothing, shelter, and medical treatment for the persons who were too poor to support themselves or too ill to provide for their basic needs. The Overseers took over the supervision of the poorhouses and workhouses built by the vestries and built new poorhouses and workhouses where they were needed.

In 1844, the General Assembly enacted laws to create poor farms overseen by boards of directors for the maintenance and education of the poor. The boards bought farms and built buildings, appointed a superintendant for each poor farm, and chose a physician to attend the sick and teachers to educate the children. The adults and older children were required to work if they were able.

From the guide to the Rockbridge County (Va.) Poor House Register, 1887-1927, (The Library of Virginia)

Rockbridge County was named for Natural Bridge, an exceptional rock formation located in the county. The county was formed from Augusta and Botetourt counties in 1778, and another part of Botetourt was added later.

On March 20, 1924, Virginia passed the Racial Integrity Act that recognized only two races, white and colored. The act required that a racial description of every person be recorded at birth, and made marriage between white persons and non-white persons a felony. The law was the most famous ban on miscegenation in the United States, and was overturned by the United States Supreme Court in 1967, in Loving vs. Virginia. The registrar of Virginia's Bureau of Vital of Statistics, Dr. Walter Ashby Plecker, developed the racial criteria behind the act and adhered strictly to the one-drop rule, a historical colloquial term that holds that a person with any trace of African ancestry is considered black. The Racial Integrity Act was subject to the Pocahontas exception. Since many influential families claimed descent from Pocahontas, the legislature declared that a person could be considered white with as much as one-sixteenth Indian ancestry. This law, along with the Sterilization Act also of 1924, imposed the practice of scientific eugenics in the Commonwealth.

Walter Ashby Plecker, 1861-1947, was a physician and public health advocate who was the first registrar of Virginia's Bureau of Vital Statistics. Plecker graduated from Hoover Military Academy in 1880 and obtained a medical degree from the University of Maryland in 1885. He settled in Hampton, Virginia in 1892, and became its public health officer in 1902. He took an active interest in obstetrics and public health issues, educating midwives, inventing a home incubator, and prescribing home remedies for infants. His efforts are credited with an almost fifty percent decline in birthing deaths for black mothers. From 1912 to 1946, Plecker served as the first registrar of Virginia's newly created Bureau of Vital Statistics. An avowed white supremacist and advocate of eugenics, Plecker believed that the state's Native Americans had been mongrelized with its African American population. A law passed by the state's General Assembly in 1924, The Racial Integrity Act, recognized only two races, white and colored. Plecker believed that colored people were attempting to pass as Indian and obsessively documented each and every birth and marriage registration submitted to his agency. Plecker's policies pressured state agencies to reclassify most citizens claiming Indian identity as colored. This policy has left a modern day legacy where Virginia's Native Americans struggle to achieve federal recognition because they cannot prove their heritage as required by federal laws.

From the guide to the Rockbridge County (Va.) Atha Sorrells by her next friend William Sorrells vs. A. T. Shields, Clerk of Circuit Court, 1925, (The Library of Virginia)

Rockbridge County was named for Natural Bridge, an exceptional rock formation located in the county. The county was formed from Augusta and Botetourt Counties in 1778, and another part was added later.

This record was 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 Rockbridge County (Va.) Court Record, 1838 Dec. 4, (The Library of Virginia)

Rockbridge County was named for Natural Bridge, an exceptional formation located in the county. The county was formed from Augusta and Botetourt Counties in 1778, and another part of Botetourt was added later.

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 Rockbridge County (Va.) Coroners' Inquisitions, 1862-1911, (The Library of Virginia)

Rockbridge County was formed in 1778 from Augusta and Botetourt Counties. An additional part of Botetourt County was added in 1785.

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. The register listed the age, name, color, stature, marks or scars, in what court the person was emancipated or whether the person was born free. Some clerks recorded additional information not required by the law.

An act passed in 1806 required freed slaves to leave the state within a year.

From the guide to the Rockbridge County (Va.) Free Negro and Slave Records, 1836-1864, (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.

Rockbridge County was named for Natural Bridge, an exceptional rock formation located in the county. The county was formed from Augusta and Botetourt Counties in 1778, and another part of Botetourt was added in 1888.

From the guide to the Rockbridge County (Va.) Chancery Causes, 1781-1931 (bulk 1792-1912), (The Library of Virginia)

Rockbridge County was named for Natural Bridge, an exceptional rock formation located in the county. The county was formed from Augusta and Botetourt counties in 1778, and another part of Botetourt was added later.

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 Rockbridge County (Va.) Lists of Tithables, 1778-1781., (The Library of Virginia)

Rockbridge County was named for Natural Bridge, an exceptional rock formation located in the county. The county was formed from Augusta and Botetourt counties in 1778, and another part of Botetourt was added later.

Anti-miscegenation laws banning interracial marriage between whites and non-whites were first enacted in Virginia in 1691. As early as 1792, a person was legally a mulatto if they had one fourth or greater part of negro blood. The 1866 law decreed that every person having one-fourth or more Negro blood shall be deemed a colored person, and every person not a colored person having one-fourth or more Indian blood shall be deemed an Indian. In 1924, the Racial Integrity Law changed this to the so-called one drop rule that held that the term white shall apply only to the person who has no trace whatsoever of any blood other than Caucasian, but persons who have one-sixteenth or less of the blood of the American Indian, and no other non-Caucasic blood shall be deemed white persons. Every other combination was to be negro or colored.

From the guide to the Rockbridge County (Va.) James Clark vs. J. P. Moore, Clerk of Court, 1876 December, (The Library of Virginia)

Rockbridge County was named for Natural Bridge, an exceptional rock formation located in the county. The county was formed from Augusta and Botetourt counties in 1778, and another part of Botetourt was added later.

On March 20, 1924, Virginia passed the Racial Integrity Act that recognized only two races, white and colored. The act required that a racial description of every person be recorded at birth, and made marriage between white persons and non-white persons a felony. The law was the most famous ban on miscegenation in the United States, and was overturned by the United States Supreme Court in 1967, in Loving vs. Virginia. The registrar of Virginia's Bureau of Vital of Statistics, Dr. Walter Ashby Plecker, developed the racial criteria behind the act and adhered strictly to the one-drop rule, a historical colloquial term that holds that a person with any trace of African ancestry is considered black. The Racial Integrity Act was subject to the Pocahontas exception. Since many influential families claimed descent from Pocahontas, the legislature declared that a person could be considered white with as much as one-sixteenth Indian ancestry. This law, along with the Sterilization Act also of 1924, imposed the practice of scientific eugenics in the Commonwealth.

Walter Ashby Plecker, 1861-1947, was a physician and public health advocate who was the first registrar of Virginia's Bureau of Vital Statistics. Plecker graduated from Hoover Military Academy in 1880 and obtained a medical degree from the University of Maryland in 1885. He settled in Hampton, Virginia in 1892, and became its public health officer in 1902. He took an active interest in obstetrics and public health issues, educating midwives, inventing a home incubator, and prescribing home remedies for infants. His efforts are credited with an almost fifty percent decline in birthing deaths for black mothers. From 1912 to 1946, Plecker served as the first registrar of Virginia's newly created Bureau of Vital Statistics. An avowed white supremacist and advocate of eugenics, Plecker believed that the state's Native Americans had been mongrelized with its African American population. A law passed by the state's General Assembly in 1924, The Racial Integrity Act, recognized only two races, white and colored. Plecker believed that colored people were attempting to pass as Indian and obsessively documented each and every birth and marriage registration submitted to his agency. Plecker's policies pressured state agencies to reclassify most citizens claiming Indian identity as colored. This policy has left a modern day legacy where Virginia's Native Americans struggle to achieve federal recognition because they cannot prove their heritage as required by federal laws.

From the guide to the Rockbridge County (Va.) Clerk's Correspondence (Walter A. Plecker to A. T. Shields), 1912-1943, (The Library of Virginia)

Rockbridge County was named for Natural Bridge, an exceptional rock formation located in the county. The county was formed from Augusta and Botetourt counties in 1778, and another part of Botetourt was added later.

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 Rockbridge County (Va.) Wills, 1813-1913, (The Library of Virginia)

Rockbridge County was named for Natural Bridge, an exceptional rock formation located in the county. The county was formed from Augusta and Botetourt counties in 1778, and another part of Botetourt was added later. The area is 604 square miles, and the county seat is Lexington.

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 Rockbridge County (Va.) Record of Voters, 1902-1903, (The Library of Virginia)

Rockbridge County was named for Natural Bridge, an exceptional rock formation located in the county. The county was formed from Augusta and Botetourt counties in 1778, and another part of Botetourt was added later.

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.

From the guide to the Rockbridge County (Va.) Executor of Hugh Adams vs. Legatees of Hugh Adams, 1860, (The Library of Virginia)

Rockbridge County was formed from Augusta and Botetourt Counties in 1778, and another part of Botetourt was added in 1888. The county was named for Natural Bridge, an exceptional rock formation located in 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 and/or Minute 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/mintute books--including individuals convicted of felonies.

This original register was created by the County and Circuit Courts.

From the guide to the Rockbridge County (Va.) Register of Convicts, 1871-1916, (The Library of Virginia)

Rockbridge County was named for Natural Bridge, an exceptional rock formation located in the county. The county was formed from Augusta and Botetourt counties in 1778, and another part of Botetourt was added later.

In 1780 the Virginia General Assembly replaced the Anglican vestries and churchwardens of the colonial period with elected bodies called Overseers of the Poor. The Overseers provided food, clothing, shelter, and medical treatment for the persons who were too poor to support themselves or too ill to provide for their basic needs. The Overseers took over the supervision of the poorhouses and workhouses built by the vestries and built new poorhouses and workhouses where they were needed.

In 1844, the General Assembly enacted laws to create poor farms overseen by boards of directors for the maintenance and education of the poor. The boards bought farms and built buildings, appointed a superintendant for each poor farm, and chose a physician to attend the sick and teachers to educate the children. The adults and older children were required to work if they were able.

From the guide to the Rockbridge County (Va.) Superintendent of the Poor Ledger, 1875-1888, (The Library of Virginia)