Judicial Records Center

Archives - Research


The Archives at the Judicial Records Center (JRC) contains the pre-1900 court records that were created by the five (5) judicial counties (Newport, Providence, King's/Washington, Bristol, and Kent) of the colony and State of Rhode Island. The following types of records may be found at the archives.

Record Type

Dates

Civil cases

1671 - 1900

Criminal cases

1671 - 1900

Divorces cases

1671 - 1900

Naturalization papers

1671 - 1982


If you need to request any documents from 1671 to 2017, please contact the JRC at (401) 721-2641 for instructions on how to obtain documents.

As there are some time and content gaps in our holdings for particular counties, the JRC recommends that researchers who plan to conduct more systematic research contact the JRC so that we can provide you with more detailed information about the scope of our records.