About the West Feliciana Parish Clerk of Court
Stewart B. Hughes is Clerk of Court for West Feliciana Parish, listed that way by the Louisiana Clerks of Court Association (LCCA), which shows him in office since July 2020; the clerk's own site uses the shorter Stewart Hughes. The clerk is chosen by parish voters for a four-year term. Along with keeping the district court's records, the constitution makes the clerk an ex officio notary public and the parish's recorder of conveyances and mortgages, and the Election Code names the clerk chief election officer. On the West Feliciana site, that last role shows up as information for election commissioners alongside notary requirements and an appearance bond procedure.
St. Francisville is the seat of a parish of about 403.3 square miles of land. Wikipedia places West Feliciana on the Mississippi River about 30 miles north of Baton Rouge, with Pointe Coupee Parish to the west and East Feliciana to the east, and Census adjacency data lists Wilkinson County, Mississippi, among its neighbors. The 2020 Census base counted 15,307 residents, and the July 2024 estimate is 15,155. Wikipedia says the parish was created in 1824 when the original Feliciana Parish was divided into East and West. Both halves kept a name that, per Louisiana's official Local Louisiana profile, was chosen in honor of Felicite, the wife of Spanish governor Bernardo de Galvez.
The parish is also home to the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, which the Department of Corrections describes as a maximum security prison. The department's location page gives its address as 17544 Tunica Trace and describes the route from St. Francisville: about two miles north on Highway 61, then left onto Highway 66, a road of about twenty miles that ends at the front gate.
Beyond court and land records, the clerk's office issues birth and death certificates and lists interpreter and language services on its home page.
Statewide clerk contacts sit in the Louisiana Clerks of Court directory.
Court records in West Feliciana Parish
Cases filed in West Feliciana before the 20th Judicial District Court are kept by this clerk. Its Court page lists civil, family, probate, juvenile, adoption, and criminal filings, as well as process, subpoenas, and the court minutes.
The clerk's single online door is its Public Records Search, which runs on eClerks LA and covers land, civil, criminal, marriage, and probate records, according to the home page. Court cases take one extra step. To find a civil or criminal case, the home page says to pick "VERDICT CIVIL" or "VERDICT CRIMINAL" from the drop-down menu at the upper left of the search page. The clerk's site does not state pricing for West Feliciana records. The eClerks LA portal says its multi-parish index costs nothing with a login, but it sells each parish's images through a separate subscription.
Pleadings in civil and criminal cases are e-filed through CottFile, which the home page links. The clerk's Electronic Filing Procedures, adopted May 12, 2025, say e-filing is available around the clock except during maintenance, that filers must redact personal data identifiers, and that the clerk may reject a filing that does not conform, including for insufficient advance deposit funds.
The penitentiary and the clerk keep different kinds of records. The clerk keeps cases filed in West Feliciana's district court; it does not hold prison records. To locate a person in state custody, the Department of Corrections points families to LA VINE, the free notification and search system, and to its Imprisoned Person Locator at 225-383-4580. The inmate search guide explains both, and the criminal records guide covers court files and expungement. The court records guide describes what a clerk can and cannot release.
Land, mortgage, and property records
According to its Land Records page, the department holds the mortgage records and the indexes of encumbrances (mortgages, UCC financing statements, chattel mortgages, liens, and judgments), and it cancels encumbrances, while conveyances are recorded by the office as parish recorder. Deeds, mortgages, and other documents can be e-recorded through eClerks LA, according to the home page, and land records are searchable through the same Public Records Search. West Feliciana's recording fee table, as it read in October 2026, charges $105 up to five pages and $205 from six through 25 pages; each of those prices covers ten indexed names, a certified copy, and the LCRAA portal fee. The Land Records Department also issues mortgage certificates under official seal, listing the mortgages and privileges recorded against the person and property named.
Louisiana records each sale or mortgage in the parish where the land sits, so a tract near a parish line can raise a question for more than one recorder. Land on the Pointe Coupee side of the parish line is recorded by the Pointe Coupee Parish Clerk of Court in New Roads. The East Feliciana Parish Clerk of Court in Clinton keeps the books for its side of the line that has divided the two Felicianas since 1824. Wilkinson County lies in Mississippi, outside the Louisiana parish recording system. The property records guide and the assessors guide explain how recorded titles and tax assessments relate.
Marriage licenses and family records
The West Feliciana clerk issues marriage licenses for $32.50, cash only, according to the clerk's marriage license page (October 2026). Either party may come in. The page asks for valid picture identification, certified birth certificates for both people, a Social Security card or ID showing the number, and proof of how any earlier marriage ended. According to the page, the license must be purchased at least 24 hours in advance of the ceremony, and it lapses 30 days from the date of issue.
For age limits, rely on state law rather than any summary: under R.S. 9:221, no marriage license may be issued to anyone under 16, and none to a 16- or 17-year-old when the age difference between the parties is three years or more. Applicants under 18 should call the clerk's office about the paperwork it requires before coming in.
Under R.S. 9:242, the 24-hour delay can be waived by a judge or justice of the peace for serious and meritorious reasons, and under R.S. 9:253 the officiant must return the completed certificate copies to the issuing clerk within ten days of the ceremony. A Louisiana license cannot be used for a wedding in another state. Certified copies of a West Feliciana marriage come from this clerk, not from state Vital Records, which keeps only Orleans Parish marriages.
Divorces and other family cases filed in West Feliciana sit in the 20th JDC record here. The proper venue for a Louisiana divorce is a parish where either spouse lives as a domiciliary or the parish where the couple last kept their marital home, per article 3941 of the Code of Civil Procedure. See marriage records and divorce records.
Courts that serve West Feliciana Parish
West Feliciana and East Feliciana form the 20th Judicial District Court. Two judgeships serve the district, according to the Supreme Court's 2025 Guide to Louisiana Courts, which also prints two court administrator phones, (225) 635-4363 and (225) 683-4800. No official court website was found. Case files stay with the clerk of the parish where the case was filed, so East Feliciana matters are kept in Clinton, not St. Francisville.
The Supreme Court's 2025 guide lists no city court in West Feliciana Parish. Appeals from the parish go to the Court of Appeal, First Circuit in Baton Rouge, the same appellate court that hears cases from every parish in the 18th, 19th, and 20th districts. Avoyelles and Concordia parishes, which also border West Feliciana, send their appeals to the Third Circuit.
Visiting the West Feliciana Parish courthouse
The clerk's office is at 4785 Prosperity Street in St. Francisville. The Louisiana Sheriffs' Association lists the sheriff at the same street address. The clerk's home page and footer give weekday hours, Monday through Friday, from 8:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m.
The clerk's site publishes no email address even though the LCCA directory lists one; it gives a phone number, a fax number, and the P.O. Box 1843 mailing address. Calling before a trip is a simple way to confirm that the service you need, such as a vital record or a marriage license, is available that day. Marriage license applicants should also remember that the West Feliciana fee is cash only.
West Feliciana Parish Government keeps its offices elsewhere in town, at 5934 Commerce Street, according to the parish president's page.
Other West Feliciana Parish offices
The sheriff is Brian L. Spillman, whose office the Louisiana Sheriffs' Association lists at 225-635-3241. His office is online at wfpso.org. The sheriff runs the parish jail, which is separate from the state penitentiary at Angola, and collects state and parish property taxes. See Louisiana sheriff's offices.
Richard Kendrick, CLA, is the West Feliciana Parish Assessor. The assessor's website offers a parcel search, aerial photography, and digital maps. A homestead the owner lives in may qualify for the constitutional homestead exemption of $7,500 in assessed valuation.
West Feliciana Parish Government is led by Parish President Kenneth "Kenny" Havard and a parish council, at wfparish.org. The parish government guide explains the difference between this form and a police jury such as East Feliciana's.