Final reparation

摘要

In what might be one of the final Civil War reparations, the Jersey City Free Public Library has returned a court record book stolen from Virginia's Stafford County. The book was stolen in 1863 by a Union Army captain and sent to Boston before it landed in the Jersey City library. The 220-year-old book exhibits the beautiful penmanship of one John Fox, who in 1791 was assigned the transcription of court records from 1749-55. It includes the disposition of a variety of cases, including one charge of swearing in church. Stafford County is among the "burned counties," so called for the amount of historical records lost from battles and acts of vandalism during the Civil War. "The return of this volume helps to fill a gap in the history of Stafford County and its inhabitants," said Carl Childs, director of local records services for the Library of Virginia in Richmond. He told the Jersey Journal the book will be copied for the public before being restored. It will be kept in the Library of Virginia.