Loose Papers and Sundry Court Cases for Northampton County, Virginia,

compiled and abstracted by Jean M. Mihalyka
257 pages
This volume holds the abstracts from Packet 18 (April 1732-March 1732/3 thru Packet 30 (April 1744-1744/5) Since the original papers are kept locked in the Clerk’s Office in metal cabinets because of their fragility, it is helpful that such obscure records are now coming to light. The abstracts concern all manner of petitions and cases brought to the Court. Those filing suits were the ordinary citizen both white, free black, Indians, merchants, professional people, mariners, farmers, joyners, indentured servants, orphans, and many others.
The information which can be gleaned includes one or more useful facts not always given in the better known references. Such may be a first name for a wife unnamed in a Will, names of children designated as “all of my children” or even the name of “the child my wife now goes with” as written in the husband’s Will. Petitions for new roads when signed by those inhabitants, for and against, afford a splendid mini-census of those folks living in a particular area.
Perhaps, the documents giving the most genealogical details are those asking for the division of estates, especially those involving the slaves. Named are children, the wife who more often than not has remarried, family members who have died and when, and the names and values of the slaves. Other suits hold a myriad of details concerning the construction of houses, barns, and tobacco warehouses. Tavern accounts throw light on social customs and drinking habits. Physician’s bills show diseases suffered and the medical remedies used.