St. Mary's County Equity Papers
by Ben Primer
From the Archivists’ Bulldog, (Vol. 1, No. 2)
This week we look at the equity papers for St. Mary's County Court (1815-1851), C1592. One should remember that this description of equity papers in this county would be in most ways similar to descriptions of these papers in the other counties for which we have this record series.
They consist of case files of equity proceedings. Types of cases include settlement of a decedent's estate, mortgage foreclosure, injunction against an action such as sale of land to satisfy a judgment rendered in a civil case, sale or partition of property in which minors or nonresidents have an interest, dispute over title to land, dissolution of a partnership, execution of a trust estate, and divorce. Documents include bills of complaint , petitions, answers, exhibits, testimony, court orders, reports of sales, and decrees. The files are arranged by the year in which the cases were instituted. For docket entries see (Docket) and (Equity Docket). In the series unit description for this series is found an inventory of each case file which contains, if known, the case number(s), names of petitioners or plaintiffs and defendants, and subject matter of the proceeding. The names of the litigants and tracts of land are found in the index for this series.
Many case files have more than one number because of record keeping practices. Prior to 1862 the court had created three equity dockets, each of which contained a new numbering system beginning with No. 1. When a new docket was started, pending cases were transcribed into the new record and given a new number. In addition, if the docket space allocated for a case was filled before proceedings were completed, the entries were continued on a different page and the case was given an additional number. In the series unit description, the first number(s) listed pertains to the latest docket reference(s) and number(s) in parentheses to the previous docket reference(s).
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