Return to Hanover Co VA

Hanover County Virginia White's / Henrico County Virginia Court Case James White Chancery Case & Will - 1812 Crenshaw vs James White (deceased) Provided by: Elizabeth Edmonds
*A brief Explanation of this case by: Don White* _{"Although terminology has changed over the years, the gist of what I read is that apparently someone "Crenshaw" brought an action in Court, I think Crenshaw wanted the Court to divide the lands amongst the rightful owners so that they did not continue to own UNDIVIDED interests in the lands. Then later on, Crenshaw told the court that the interests of the two orphans were less than $100 in value each and the Court ordered three Commissioners to determine the value of the interests of the Orphans. The Commissioners determined the value was $72 dollars each. I assume that the laws at that time must have been that if the value was less than $100 that the Court could NOT physically divide the lands, but instead had to sell the interests for cash because the next thing the Judge does is order the orphans' interests sold.} _{Crenshaw would have preferred this route because I would imagine he wanted to buy those interests to clear up title to the lands he was holding.} _{I could be wrong on some of this because it was very difficult reading, but I think Overall I am right."}
*A brief Explanation of this courts processes, in the documents below by: Elizabeth Edmonds* Here's the way the court process works: A person seeks redress from the Court against another person. So, as they called it then, there is a Bill, and an Answer. In this instance, the Court apparently considered the matter and wrote his comment on the document. Then, a formal Order was filed by the Clerk of the Court. I'm suspecting that the Court/the Clerk wrote everything down (maybe at the end of a hearing) and then the Clerk prepared a separate Court Order. These days that would be 4 separate documents, i.e. a Bill prepared by the plaintiff, a Reply prepared by the defendant, the Court notes prepared by the Clerk, and the Court Order (now prepared by the prevailing party). So, in this case, Crenshaw says to the Court, James White has died and his wife has remarried. Under the Will the kids get the interest in the land if she has remarried, and Robert White bought the interest of 3 of the children who are of age and sold it to Crenshaw, but 2 of the boys are not yet of age, and their guardian has been unhelpful in efforts to purchase their interests. Apparently the guardian/minors say, I don't know what I'm doing, you decide, Judge. And, the Judges writes a note, appointing 3 people to look at the property, and requesting 2 of the 3 people to send him a report. Then the Clerk writes down an Order in accordance with the Judge's direction. As I mentioned before, all of these pages were loose, except some pieces of pages were written on the front and back and they were folded. But those are the incidents that relate to the June 1st documents. Then the Report about the property is presented to the Court on the bottom of a cleaned up copy of the Clerk's Order. The Plat appears to be the Report required by the Court, because it is dated Nov 19, 1812, in the bottom section. There are several times when I hadn't figured out the exact words, but I think I've provided the gist of what's going on with the Court, so hopefully, you can understand what these Court documents are about. Since I was not a real estate nor a probate attorney, and I certainly didn't live during that time period, I may not have set up the right order. But, this order and my summary of the process makes sense to me... To me, the most important information pertains to the relationship of James White and the names of his children, his daughter's spouse, his wife and her 2nd husband, and his brother.

Court Case	Plats	Will of James White	Map Hanover Crenshaw Land
1
TOP In Henrico County Court - June 1st, 1812 - Cover Page John Crenshaw against John White and James White (decd) - In Chancery
2

3

4

5

6
Chancery Case Cover Page Crenshaw vs White - County decree July 6th, 1812
7
Crenshaw Bill - Report to Court - July 06, 1812 - John White
8
Crenshaw Bill - Report to Court - August 8, 1812 - John White
9

10

11

12
Crenshaw Bill - Report to Court - August 8, 1812 - John White
13

14
TOP James White Land Plats - Henrico Co VA (Henrico Co is border with and south of Hanover Co VA) Plat of Land belonging to the Legatees of James White (Decd) Cover Page
15
Plat of Land belonging to the Legatees of James White (Decd)
16
A North "N" View of the Plat below in #17 Land Plat - James White
17
Land Plat - James White
18
TOP Will of James White - 1796 (cover) (Notes: This Will was proved Dec 5, 1796, James died before this date. The 'Will' was an exhibit to the court proceedings, which occurred in the Summer of 1812. The start and end dates for these court proceedings were, approximately, between June 1st & Aug 8th, 1812)
19
Will of James White - 1796 (1)
20
Will of James White - 1796 (2)
21
Will of James White - 1796 (3)
22
TOP Map Below shows some Crenshaw Property in Hanover Co VA (lower left shaded portion)