Sunday's Obituary: Judge W. E. Lipscomb

Free Lance (Fredericksburg, Va)
28 March 1911

JUDGE W. E. LIPSCOMB DEAD

Judge W. E. Lipscomb, aged 78 years, died at his home at Manassas Sunday, after an illness of two weeks.

Judge Lipscomb is survived by his wife and three sons, W. N. Lipscomb and Philip Lipscomb, of Manassas, and Charles E. Lipscomb, of Plainfield, N.J., and two daughter, Mrs. Ella Weedon and Mrs. F. E. Garrison.

Judge Lipscomb was born in Brentsville, Va. At the age of 14 he entered the clerk's office of Prince William county, as an assistant. In 1861 he was elected clerk. Under the advice of Col. Eppa Hunton, he resigned his commission of lieutenant in the Confederate army to take chare of the office, in which he remained until shortly before he was elected judge of the county court in 1882. He remained upon the bench until the judgeship was abolished in 1904.

In 1904 he again entered the clerk's office as deputy clerk and later became clerk.

In 1859 he married Miss Henrietta Holland.

(Judge William Edward Lipscomb is buried in Manassas Cemetery beside his wife.)

Sunday's Obituary: Leamon Ledman

Evening Star (DC)
10 August 1943

Leamon Ledman, 72, Dies; Prince William Court Clerk

MANASSAS, Va., Aug. 10 -- Leamon Ledman, 72, for the past five years clerk of the Prince William County Circuit Court, died at his home  here yesterday. Death was attributed to a heart attack.

A native of Occoquan, Va., Mr. Ledman had been connected with the clerk's office here for the last 27 years. He served as deputy until five years ago when he was elected clerk on the death of George Tyler.

He was a member of the Manassas Kiwanis Club and had been superintendent of the Baptist Sunday school for a number of years.

Surviving are his widow, Mrs. Ellen Selecman Ledman, and three children, Mrs. Richard Haydon, Manassas; Hornbaker Ledman, Richmond, and Mrs. Wiley Narron, Washington.

Sunday's Obituary: Richard A. Sinclair

Evening Star (Washington, DC)
22 February 1904

AFFAIRS IN ALEXANDRIA

Death of Richard A. Sinclair

Alexandria, VA.  February 22, 1904

Mr. Richard Alexander Sinclair died Sunday morning after a lingering illness at the Alexandria Hospital.  He was a native of Brentsville, Prince William county, but removed to this city in 1853 and was appointed deputy clerk of the courts by the late Benjamin B. Berry, who was then clerk. At the lose of the civil war Mr. Sinclair was elected clerk of the county court, holding this position several years.  Mr. Sinclair studied law and was admitted to the bar, but for some years past he had not engaged in active practice.  Hew was unmarried and was about seventy-five years old. The body was forwarded this morning to his old home in Prince William county for interment.

Clerk of the Court - Celebrating Women's History Month

In honor of Women's History Month, the Prince William Clerk of the Court will be posting historical documents on their Facebook page throughout the month.  What a great way to celebrate the women of PWCo.

Their first post in the series is dated circa 1900 and can be found HERE.

PW County Historic Records Released to the Public!

Several years ago, the Prince William County County Clerk's Office began the daunting task of digitizing historic papers in the courthouse archives, including (but not limited to) Deed Books, Will Books, and loose documents.   As part of the project, volunteers have been working diligently to index every single document scanned.

In October 2015, the County released the first set of Prince William County Clerk's Loose Papers via an online portal.  This first release of digitized copies of original documents has over 100,000 images covering a wide range of subjects, including slavery, criminal and civil cases, letters, notes, attachments, and prisoner lists.

In January 2016, PWCo Deeds prior to 1918 were added to the database.

I am very excited to announce that the website is now live and presently free to the public at the following URL:

https://www3.pwcgov.org/pahax/

NOTE:  For best results, the website should be accessed using Internet Explorer with the Silverlight add-on.

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The launch of this online archive is exciting news for historians and genealogist alike!

Literally within five minutes of searching the index of Loose Papers, I had the answer to one of my personal brick wall questions -- when did my great-grandmother Martha Lynn pass away?  All I knew was that it was somewhere between the birth of her son in 1891 and the death of her mother in 1900.  And suddenly, there was the answer among the online Loose Papers in a suit against the physician who attended her!

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I would like to thank the Prince William County Clerk's Office for launching this project and making these priceless resources available to the pubic.

But I am especially grateful to Ron Turner and all of the other volunteers who have been working (and continue to work!) so hard to create the master index!  (You folks totally rock!)