This dataset includes 50 TIFF files showing deeds, patents, and wills from Westmoreland County in Virginia. Deeds are documents that transfer land or property from one person to another. Patents identify specific inventions as belonging to an individual and restrict the manufacturing of these inventions to the person they belonged to. Wills were created to settle asset distribution in the event of a person’s death. These documents were collected in association with the Dangerous Harbor Project which used courthouse documents to identify escaped unfree laborers in the 17th century Chesapeake and the punishments associated with their escape.
Naming conventions of files: There are 3 parts to the file naming convention of the court orders.
For example: LancasterOrders_1655-1666_0001
LancasterOrders: Identifies the county the court documents are from and the type of document
1655-1666: Identifies the timeframe in which the court documents were written
0001: Identifies the page’s position within the reel