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. |
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
J. C. Horton vs Mial Horton, et al, 1862
Willie Jones vs Drury Jones Heirs, 1807
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
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