Court Cases, 1855-01-05 - 1857-08-31

Sub-Series — Box: 03

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

From the Collection:

The Santa Barbara County Court Records contain over 2,300 individual court cases beginning with California statehood through the first decade of the 20th century. The cases are organized in one large chronological series by date. The variety of cases represented span legal proceedings from debt settlement to probate to murder. The plaintiffs and defendants are a Who's Who of local Californios and early American settlers to Santa Barbara.

Dates

1855-01-05 - 1857-08-31

Language of Materials

From the Collection:

Although primarily in English, the earliest court cases are in Spanish owing to Santa Barbara citizens' gradual transition from a Latin culture-based interpersonal style of dispute resolution to a more prescribed form of American litigation.