Virginia Court of Chancery

The Virginia Courts of Chancery existed from 1777 to 1831. The High Court of Chancery (Virginia) was created by an act of the General Assembly passed at the October 1777 session. It eventually took over the chancery suits then pending in the General Court and was given jurisdiction in all chancery or equity cases, (Court of Equity) whether brought before it by original process, by appeal from a lower court, or by any other legal means. Appeals from the High Court of Chancery were made to the Supreme Court of Appeals. The High Court of Chancery met at the state capitol and had jurisdiction over the entire state. The High Court of Chancery was abolished by an act of the General Assembly passed 23 January 1802 and was replaced by the Superior Courts of Chancery.(http://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/guides/burned_juris/Jurisdiction_info.htm )

The Superior Courts of Chancery were created in 1802 to handle chancery matters initially handled by the High Court of Chancery. The state was divided into three chancery districts and cases from the counties composing the district were tried in a fixed location within each district. The records were kept in that location. Five additional districts were created before the court was supplanted by local Circuit Superior Courts of Law and Chancery in 1831. This court was sometimes called District Court of Chancery. (http://ead.lib.virginia.edu/vivaxtf/view?docId=lva/vi01516.xml)

Bibliography

“The Virginia State Court System, 1776-[the present]: A Preliminary Survey of the Superior Courts of the Commonwealth with notes concerning the present location of the Original Court Records and Published Decisions,” by Thomas Jefferson Headlee, Jr. Virginia State Library, 1969.