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

Sub-Series — Box: 03

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

From the Series:

The Santa Barbara County Court records contain over twenty-three hundred (2,300) individual court cases beginning with California statehood through the first decade of the twentieth century. The cases are organized in one large chronological series by date. The variety of court case represented span legal proceedings from debt settlement to probate to murder. The plaintiff and defendant names documented in these cases are a Who's Who of notable Santa Barbara Californios and early American settlers.

Dates

1855-01-05 - 1857-08-31

Language of Materials

From the Series:

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.