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Territory of Orleans. County Court (Orleans). Civil Suit Records, 1804-1807 Date range: 1804-1807 Size of collection: 4 boxes Terms of Access: Digital images are available online as part of the Louisiana Purchase Bicentennial Collection at the LOUISiana Digital Library. The original documents are closed to researchers.
At its first session in 1804, the Legislative Council
of the Territory of Orleans divided the Territory into twelve counties,
with New Orleans within the County of Orleans. The same act also
established a County Court in each of the twelve counties and authorized
Governor William C.C. Claiborne to appoint judges to the County Court
benches for terms of four years.
On May 1, 1805 Claiborne selected James Workman to serve as judge in
the County of Orleans. The statute also provided for a sheriff, a coroner,
a clerk, and a treasurer to complete the staff of each County Court.
During its first session, the Territorial Legislature authorized the
appointment of attorneys to act on behalf of the Territory, relieving the
court clerks of this duty.
The County Courts were given jurisdiction in civil matters involving
debts of more than fifty dollars or injuries to persons or property of
less than one hundred dollars. The Legislative Council also assigned the
County Courts jurisdiction in all non-capital criminal matters; that is,
those which could not be punished with death or which were not exclusively
within the jurisdiction of a superior court.
In 1806, the Territorial Legislature expanded the jurisdiction of the
County Courts, authorizing them to hear all criminal cases brought against
slaves, even capital ones. Criminal cases involving slaves were not tried
by a jury, but rather by a tribunal consisting of a judge or two justices
of the peace and three to five white landowners. In non-capital cases, a
single justice of the peace and one or two landowners would suffice.
Additionally, territorial law allowed a slaveowner whose slave was
executed or incarcerated to seek compensation from the government for the
loss of his property.
In 1807, the Territorial Legislature established the City Court to
replace the County Court in Orleans Parish. In all other parishes the new
courts were called Parish Courts.
The Index to County Court Civil Suit Records is arranged alphabetically by the name of the plaintiff and divided into sections, as follows:
The records are civil suits filed in County Court, for the most part involving disputes over money--i.e., overdue promissory notes, unpaid bills, etc. Many are very brief, containing only the petition of the plaintiff and the court's judgement. Others include supporting documentation such as a copy of the promisory note under dispute, inventories of assets, and answers to the plaintiff's petition. The civil suits are not available on microfilm and must be viewed in the original. In some cases, the records are very fragile, and the archvists reserve the right to limit use and photocopying. Occasionally, pages in the records are fragmented and are noted as "part missing" or "fragment only" in the inventory. In other cases, the suit contains only a summons. Because of the difficulty of deciphering 19th-century handwriting, the spelling of names in the index to the suit records is sometimes a "best guess;" in some instances, the name of plaintiff or defendant or the docket number of the case could not be deciphered. Researchers should check variant spellings before assuming that a name is not included in the index. The criminal suit records of the County Court (and its successor City Court) are arranged separately. Back to Civil & Criminal Courts Updated 8/25/2007
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