Franklin County Court Records

A Brief History of Franklin County Courts

Franklin County was formed in 1779 and, in the same year, the town of Louisburg was surveyed by William Christmas on land which had been purchased from Patewells & Jacobina Milner for that purpose. That deed from the Milners survives today in the first volume of county deeds. The county's first commissioners were William Brickell, William Green, William Hill, John Hunt, and Osborn Jeffreys and these men were charged with many tasks, the earliest of which were to build a courthouse and a jail. The first meeting of the men was the Franklin Court of Pleas and Quarter-Sessions of 1779 and it was held at the home of Benjamin Seawell. It is unfortunate that none of the records from those earliest days of Franklin county survive.

The first county courthouse was a log building erected circa 1781 either on or very near the current county courthouse location on Main Street between Court and Nash Streets. The log courthouse was replaced with a structure of brick and stone in 1849. The 1849 courthouse was completely remodeled in 1936 and again in 1968 when it was also enlarged.

The first jail was built close to the original courthouse and during the same timeframe, but it was destroyed by fire in 1872. It was replaced with a stone building which still stands, though now abandoned, on the south side of Nash Street about one-and-a-half blocks east of Main Street. The new Franklin County Jail & Sheriff's Department Complex was built in 1994 and is located west of downtown Louisburg on T. Kemp Road.

COURT RECORDS Submitter
Holland Murphey Petition, 1822 Mark Murphy murphy@tiaer.tarleton.edu
Extract of Minutes, 1786-1787 Mark Murphy murphy@tiaer.tarleton.edu
Extract of Minutes, 1788-1790 Mark Murphy murphy@tiaer.tarleton.edu
Extract of Minutes, 1791-1800 Mark Murphy murphy@tiaer.tarleton.edu
Extract of Minutes, 1801-1805 Mark Murphy murphy@tiaer.tarleton.edu
Extract of Minutes, 1806-1807 Mark Murphy murphy@tiaer.tarleton.edu
Extract of Minutes, 1808-1810 Mark Murphy murphy@tiaer.tarleton.edu
Extract of Minutes, 1811-1813 Mark Murphy murphy@tiaer.tarleton.edu
Extract of Minutes, 1814-1815 Mark Murphy murphy@tiaer.tarleton.edu
Extract of Minutes, 1816-1817 Mark Murphy murphy@tiaer.tarleton.edu
Extract of Minutes, 1818-1820 Mark Murphy murphy@tiaer.tarleton.edu
Extract of Minutes, 1821 Mark Murphy murphy@tiaer.tarleton.edu
Extract of Minutes, 1822 Mark Murphy murphy@tiaer.tarleton.edu
Extract of Minutes, 1823 Mark Murphy murphy@tiaer.tarleton.edu
Extract of Minutes, 1824 & 1828 Mark Murphy murphy@tiaer.tarleton.edu
Extract of Minutes, 1829 Mark Murphy murphy@tiaer.tarleton.edu
Extract of Minutes, 1831-1833 Mark Murphy murphy@tiaer.tarleton.edu
Extract of Minutes, 1834-1837 Mark Murphy murphy@tiaer.tarleton.edu
Extract of Minutes, 1838-1839 Mark Murphy murphy@tiaer.tarleton.edu
Extract of Minutes, 1840 Mark Murphy murphy@tiaer.tarleton.edu
NC Reports: Cases Argued in the NC Supreme Court Deloris Williams
North Carolina Court Officials Deloris Williams
Orphans & Guardians Abstracts Deloris Williams
Franklin County Apprenticeships Deloris Williams
Dean v Gupton-1904}Supreme Court Case (pdf) Kay Bradley

 

Links to Court Records in the USGenWeb Archives:

North Carolina 1825 Court Cases

Alford vs William Upchurch, et al, 1897

William & Barbara Bowers-Separation, 1805

Shemuel Cooke vs William Bowers, et all, 1807

Robert High, deceased 1813

J. C. Horton vs Mial Horton, et al, 1862

John Hunt, deceased, 1807

Willie Jones vs Drury Jones Heirs, 1807

Shemuel Kerne, deceased 1808

Frederick Leonard, deceased 1859

William Moses vs Mary Moses, et al, 1809

James Reed vs Thomas Perry, 1863

John Richards Estate Petition, 1786

Zachariah Sadler, et al vs. John Terry, et al, 1807

Davis Sills vs William Kerby Heirs, 1807

Scarborough Spivey vs W. H. Joyner, 1860

James Stallings, deceased 1880

John Sutherland, deceased 1815

Tax Lists 1785-1810, Murphy & related families

Tax List 1820, Murphy & related families

Ambrose Upchurch, deceased 1894

David Vincent, deceased 1810

Benjamin Williams, deceased 1805

Simon Williams vs James Upchurch, 1896

William Williams, Land Sold 1811

Major James H. Yarbrough, Estate Sale, 1860

Act to Appoint Commissioners, 1809

Porthress & Bonner to Ransom & Hunt, 1787

George Washington Boon, et al- Legitimate 1811

Spring Grove Academy-Act to Establish, 1826

Edward Jones, vs Martha Hill, 1812

Pugh vs Maer, Murfree & Burgess, 1826

State vs James Nicholson, 1812

James & Attilia Whitted vs Samuel Williams, 1819

 

 

County Coordinator: Deloris Williams

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