The state dockets of the county and superior courts in North Carolina recorded term-by-term all the principal parties summoned to appear in court for criminal cases. This included all the defendants, witnesses, and informants or complainants (sometimes called prosecutors) as well as the names of individuals holding themselves liable to guarantee the appearances of these individuals or offering to pay costs and fines in order to get a convicted defendant out of jail. In counties like Rockingham, where only eight boxes of loose criminal papers survive for the entire nineteenth century and the earliest part of the twentieth, the state dockets are a godsend. They allow us to associate people who allegedly committed crimes with those they harmed and those with knowledge of the crimes along with other parties who took a risk on the behalf of plaintiff or defendant by guaranteeing their appearance or payment of fines and costs. Many of the people associated in this way were kin to one another, or at least near neighbors, friends or rivals. Because bastardy cases (in which fathers of illegitimate children were identified) are most often classified as criminal matters, these dockets are also a very good source for paternity of illegitimate children. In Rockingham County, no loose bastardy bonds for alleged fathers exist prior to the 1870s, and court minutes rarely offer a complete list of such bonds. The types of cases most often heard in the county courts included assault, retailing liquor without license, affray (a general brawl or melee), profane swearing, riot, nuisance, fornication and adultery, trading with slaves, keeping a disorderly house, unlawful cohabitation, and failing to maintain the public roads (for road overseers). But many other types of charges exist. The poor, landless and free people of color in the community more often appear in these records than anywhere else. This book includes a full explanatory introduction with a handy glossary of multiple terms and abbreviations and a complete index.