Lincoln County, North Carolina Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions, 1806-1821

By: Dr. Albert Bruce Pruitt, Pub. 2019, reprinted 2026, 360 pages, Index, soft cover, ISBN #978-1-63914-762-5. Lincoln County was created in 1779 from Tryon and Burke Counties. The court was held 4 times a year and heard such cases of assault, batteries, trespass, all breaches of the peace. They held authority of administration in intestate estates and orphans, granted license to build water grist mills, to taverns and ordinaries, and to build and maintain public ferries. The court also appointed Constables and Overseers of Roads, and named the men who lived within the bounds to keep them in repair, as well as recommending three persons to the Governor, of whom one was made Sheriff, as well as imposing taxes for roads, courthouses and goals, appointed all county officers, civil and military, all lists of Jurors and probates of Wills. These records are extremely valuable for the researcher, especially if an ancestor died intestate (without a will), and in some instances a person may be listed in these court records and nowhere else in the county records