Fifth Judicial Circuit (Illinois)

State: Illinois

The Illinois General Assembly created the Fifth Judicial Circuit in December 1824. Upon its inception, it included White, Edwards, Lawrence, Crawford, Clark, and Edgar counties. Over the next decade, the General Assembly added and removed several counties from the Fifth Circuit. In 1829, the Fifth Judicial Circuit included Adams, Fulton, Jo Daviess, Peoria, and Schuyler counties. When Abraham Lincoln entered the General Assembly in December 1834, the Fifth Judicial Circuit consisted of Adams, Cook, Fulton, Hancock, Henry, Jo Daviess, Knox, La Salle, McDonough, Mercer, Peoria, Putnam, Rock Island, Schuyler, and Warren counties. This circuit comprised all of the counties north of the Illinois River.

In 1835, when the General Assembly realigned the state's judicial circuits and added a sixth, the Fifth Judicial Circuit geographically shrunk to include only Adams, Fulton, Hancock, Knox, McDonough, Pike, Schuyler, and Warren counties. In 1839, the General Assembly realigned it to include Adams, Brown, Fulton, Hancock, Knox, McDonough, Mercer, Schuyler, and Warren counties. In 1841, the General Assembly realigned it yet again by adding Henderson County, and removing Mercer County. By this time, the Fifth Judicial Circuit occupied the western-most section of Illinois.

The General Assembly further adjusted the composition of the Fifth Judicial Circuit in the 1840s and 1850s. In 1849, it included Adams, Brown, Hancock, Henderson, McDonough, Pike, and Schuyler counties. In 1859, it consisted of Brown, Fulton, McDonough, Pike, and Schuyler counties.

"An Act Constituting and Regulating the Supreme and Circuit Courts of this State," 29 December 1824, Laws of Illinois (1825), 42; "An Act Supplement to the Act, Entitled 'An Act Regulating the Supreme and Circuit Courts,' Approved January 19, 1829," 23 January 1829, Revised Statutes of Illinois (1829), 48; "An Act Supplemental to the Several Acts Regulating the Supreme and Circuit Courts of This State,” 16 February 1831, Laws of Illinois (1831), 45; An Act Dividing the State into Judicial Circuits; An Act Dividing the State into Judicial Circuits; An Act to Establish Circuit Courts; "An Act Supplemental to An Act Entitled 'An Act to Establish the Tenth Judicial Circuit, and to Fix the Times of Holding Courts in the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Ninth, and Eleventh Judicial Circuits, and for Other Purposes,'" 6 November 1849, Laws of Illinois (1849), 16; "An Act to Change the Time of Holding Courts in the Fifth Judicial Circuit," 8 February 1859, Laws of Illinois (1859), 53.