Finding aid prepared by Megan Mummey
Kentucky Circuit Court (Hardin County) complaints
1797-1811
University of Kentucky Special Collections
Collection is arranged chronologically.
Housed with multiple collections.
Collection is open to researchers by appointment.
2011MS123: [identification of item], Kentucky Circuit Court (Hardin County) complaints, 1797-1811, University of Kentucky Special Collections.
0.1 Cubic feet
1 box
The 1792 Kentucky Constitution established the state's judicial system, basing it primarily on Virginia's courts. The constitution allowed for the legislature to organize Kentucky's lower court system. The legislature created County Courts and Courts of Quarter-Sessions in 1792 and in 1795 they created District Courts. In 1801, working with the new constitution, the legislature abolished the District Courts and created Circuit Courts, which had jurisdiction over criminal cases and civil cases of over 5 pounds.
William Pope Duval (1784-1854) was a lawyer, congressman, and territorial governor of Florida born near Richmond, Virginia. As a young man he moved to Bardstown, Kentucky, and became a lawyer. He married Nancy Hynes in 1894. From 1813 to 1815 he served as a United States Congressman from Kentucky. James Monroe appointed him Florida's territorial governor in 1822, a position he held until 1834. Afterwards he remained active in Florida politics, participating in Florida's Constitutional Convention and running for Congress in 1848. In 1849 he moved to Texas where he lived until his death in 1854.
Kurt X. Metzmeier. "History of the Courts of Kentucky" United At Last: The Judicial Article and the Struggle to Reform Kentucky's Courts. Ed. Kurt X. Metzmeier. Lexington, Ky.: Kentucky Court of Justice, 2006. Available at: http://works.bepress.com/kurt_metzmeier/5
The Kentucky Circuit Court (Hardin County) complaints consists of three complaints filed in the Hardin Circuit Court. One complaint was filed by William P. Duvall, the legislator and governor of Florida, as the attorney for Thomas Helm who was trying to collect money owed to him. F. Grundy lodged the other two complaints; one concerns an assault and battery and the other an unpaid debt.