Legal and Law
Information about legal issues and law in Richmond, VA during the Civil War.

Written Accounts

1895-04-20, Norfolk Virginian; Elizabeth Van Lew takes seven little boys to court for playing ball in the street, storms out of court under cross-examination
1895-09-08, Richmond Dispatch; description of the wartime hanging of Louis Napoleon near the Alms House. Napoleon was convicted of counterfeiting. Also describes the trial of his confederate George Elam
1896-03-21, Richmond Planet; editorial comment on “colored cemeteries” – notes the lack of outrage about the “desecration of the burial ground on Poor-house Hill, North 5th Street”
1897-01-08, Norfolk (Va.) Virginian; text of Elizabeth Van Lew’s annual anti-taxation protest
1900-02-29 (and 1900-06-19; 1900-09-20), Richmond Chancery Court Records, Will Book No. 7, p. 419; the Last Will and Testament of Elizabeth Van Lew, with two codicils
1900-09-29, Richmond Dispatch; The funeral of Elizabeth Van Lew was simple, “in the presence of very many friends” – will read and will be probated
1900-09-30, Richmond Times; Elizabeth Van Lew’s will is probabted just after Dr. McGuire’s. Her estate is estimated at $5,000. Transcript of her will.
1900-10-05, Richmond Times; no one has yet qualified as executor of Elizabeth Van Lew’s estate – Mr. Reynolds of Boston is coming her to do so
1900-10-06, Richmond Dispatch; Mr. John Philip Reynolds, of Boston, is in Richmond, deciding whether or not to qualify as Elizabeth Van Lew’s executor.
1900-10-06, Richmond Times; Mr. John P. Reynolds of Boston is here to qualify as executor of Elizabeth Van Lew’s estate. The house will be sold soon – speculation that the Monte Maria Convent will buy it, or that it may be turned into a hospital

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