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Virginia Law Reports And Records, 1776-1800, William Hamilton Bryson

Law Faculty Publications

In 1607 Virginia was settled by a London-based corporation, and the English settlers brought with them the municipal law and legal institutions of England. It was specifically required by the instructions to the Virginia Company that litigation was to be settled "as near to the common laws of England and the equity thereof as may be". In 1632 when commissioners were appointed to hold the monthly courts (later renamed the county courts), their commissions required them to execute the office of justice of the peace and to act "as near as may be after the laws of the realm of …