Index to Supreme Court Case Files, 1704-1844

This database indexes details of the 54,562 Supreme Court cases files held at the New Jersey State Archives.

Search by any combination of Last Name, First Name, Role in Case, County, Case Type, and/or Year.

Entering the initial letter or string of letters into the Name Fields will return all records beginning with that string. To search on a string within a name, simply type “%” followed by the string.

Generally, African Americans were referred to as “Negro” + additional names. Native American names may be searched using “Indian” + additional names.  Additional cross-references for these types of individuals have been added as necessary.

Result sets are limited to 500 records so multiple searches may be required to return all possible combinations. Records may be sorted by clicking on the title of each column.

All cases are indexed by plaintiff and defendant, with some cases recording additional names of witnesses, officials, jurors, victims and so on. The database currently records over 130,000 name entries, and new entries are continually being added.

Data entry for case types, counties and dates is ongoing. The year is currently recorded for about 97% of cases, while county and case type is recorded in approximately 50%.

New Jersey State Archives Searchable Database