Circuit Court in Tennessee is a court of law, as defined in Tennessee Code Annotated:

“The circuit court is a court of general jurisdiction and the judge thereof shall  administer right and justice according to law, in all cases where the jurisdiction is not conferred upon another tribunal. (Section 16-501)

In 1809 the three Superior Courts were abolished, and Circuit Courts were instituted in 1810 to hear matters of both law and equity.  This continued until 1835, when Chancery Courts were established.  At that time, Circuit Courts became courts of law, as described above.

A single Circuit Court originally covered several counties, making up a particular district, or circuit, that was defined by the state legislature.  Circuits have always been based on population density and distance between the county seats.  Judges originally “rode the circuit” among counties to hold Court.

Click here to read an excellent, comprehensive explanation of Tennessee’s early Court systems.

Despite the title of this index as “Circuit” cases, some of the cases date before the 1810 establishment of Circuit Courts in Tennessee.

More than 6,000 original Court case files were processed, beginning in January, 2005, to make them available to the public for research.  Prior to that date, only the minute books and rule dockets had been available, either in original volumes or on microfilm.  The original documents in this collection are also available on microfilm (28 rolls) from the LDS Family History Library.  Click here to view the library catalogue listing.

The documents included in this index were processed by the Friends of Hawkins County Archive Project Volunteers.  These original documents were stored in dusty containers or shelves, mostly disorganized, in dark and musty spaces.  The volunteers who devoted thousands of hours to organize and preserve these documents deserve overwhelming gratitude from historians whose research brings them to Hawkins County.

Search the Database

Please enter at least the surname of the plaintiff or defendant, or both. You may narrow your search by including a case year or a given name. Please note that many records contain only initials, rather than complete given names.  Be creative!

Please note: Regardless of the number of matches (hits) that may result from your search, you will only be able to view the first 100 records returned by the system. The purpose of this limitation is an attempt to prevent unscrupulous individuals from foraging through this data.

Please contact the Archives for a quotation on the cost of photocopying documents and mailing them to you. Click here for contact information.

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