Chancery order books, 1814-1831

Notes

The Superior Court of Chancery for Fredericksburg District was one of the additional superior courts of chancery created in 1814, and it met in the city of Fredericksburg. It covered Caroline, Culpeper, Fauquier, Fairfax, Lancaster, Northumberland, Madison, King George, Orange, Prince William, Richmond, Spotsylvania, Stafford, Essex, and Westmoreland counties, and the city of Fredericksburg. The Superior Court of Chancery was abolished in 1831 and replaced by the Circuit Superior Court of Law and Chancery.

For these cases the court sat in chancery which meant it acted as a court of equity. Equity law is a body of legal and procedural rules and doctrines which supplement or override common and statute law to protect rights and enforce duties defined or fixed by substantive law. The court usually dealt with cases which did not need a jury, such as divorces or foreclosures. Orders are judgments based on those laws.

Most volumes are individually indexed. Chancery order books for 1814-1831 are included in the general index titled: Indexes of court records in the clerk's office, Fredericksburg, Virginia, 1782-1904.

Microfilm of original records at the Fredericksburg City Courthouse in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

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