THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 26, 1996 TAG: 9605240219
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Olde Towne Journal
SOURCE: Alan Flanders
LENGTH: 103 lines
`O Yes, O Yes, O Yes . . . Silence is commanded in the Court for the County of Lower Norfolk while his Majesties Justices of the Peace are sitting, upon paine of punishment.''
Announced by the ``cryer'' in his best King's English, the first Court in Lower Norfolk County was convened on the 15th day of May 1637. Mandated to act as commissioners to hear cases for both sides of the Elizabeth River were Capt. Adam Thorogood, Francis Mason, Capt. John Sibsey, Edward Windham, William Julian and Robert Camm. Other officials of the court appear in records as early as 1642 and 1647 when Robert Tyas became first Clerk, and Richard Conquest became High Sheriff, respectively.
In 1623, the General Assembly of the colony of Virginia ordered the courts to meet monthly for the ``decyding of suits and controversies, not exceeding the value of one hundred pounds of tobacco, and for the publishing of petty affairs.'' This charter was amended in 1642 when the General Assembly directed the courts to meet six times yearly and bear the name ``County Courts.''
Thus was born a judicial system that dispensed justice from several sites in what is today Norfolk and Portsmouth from the Colonial era until their abolishment in favor of circuit courts in 1904. But in their day, the county courts were the very bedrock of law and order and even social and religious behavior.
The county courts were empowered to determine the debts and differences between parties under the sum of 1,600 pounds of tobacco. According to Barton's ``Virginia Colonial Decisions,'' the county courts were limited to cases not involving life or limb, with those sent to the General Court at Jamestown and later at Williamsburg.
However the County Court of Lower Norfolk County could render a wide variety of punishments to the guilty. A partial list of penalties includes fines, stripes from a whip, the stocks, the pillory and ducking, especially for persons accused of practicing witchcraft. A favorite penalty for the adulterer was lying neck and heels together at the church door. And confession while standing on stools in the church, covered with white sheets, was a favored humiliation for men ``living in sin with another woman.''
Just as today, it appears from county court records that everybody was suing someone else, and often for the most trivial and sometimes comical reasons.
One of the first cases to appear before the court commissioners was caused by a complaint from Richard Foster about John Gookin's hogs. Apparently the hungry critters saw no boundary between the property of the plaintiff and their owner, the defendant, and proceeded to help themselves to Foster's corn.
The record doesn't say how Foster caught the hogs in the act or proved they belonged to Gookin. However, he sued for damages in the County Court of Lower Norfolk County in 1637. No doubt the commissioners listened carefully and passed on instructions to the jury to come up with a fair decision. The verdict probably surprised everyone, especially Foster.
``We, therefore, the jury, having fully examined the evidence given on both sides find no cause whereof any damages should be allowed for the plaintiff's corn which was destroyed, the defendant having sufficiently proved that he hath kept a sufficient hog-keeper, and sufficient hog-pen according to the Act in that case made and provided, and that the plaintiff had not fenced his plantation according to the Act in that case made and provided, and wherefore we give our verdict that the plaintiff shall pay all charges of the Lower Court and so the suit be fully determined.''
As political and economic forces of war and revolution swept over Hampton Roads, the location and political boundaries of Lower Norfolk County and the site of the court changed.
The first probable meeting place was at the home of Adam Thorogood in 1637. It was then moved to the dwellings of several other Colonial leaders including Capt. John Sibsey, William Julian, Henry Seawell, Thomas Willoughby, Francis Mason, John Sidney and Saville Gaskins. William Shipp's tavern, on the original location of what is today Norfolk, was also a frequent venue in 1638.
Finally in 1660, a site on Thomas Harding's Broad Creek plantation was chosen for a wooden court building with brick chimneys and foundations.
In 1691, Capt. William Crawford built a new courthouse on what is today Market and Main streets just up from Waterside. This was later razed for a newer structure begun there in 1726.
After Royal Governor Dunmore burned Norfolk in 1776, the court fled from one location to another before settling in a new structure in 1787. At the same time a political division split the commission over locating the court in Norfolk, forcing the justices to adjourn to the home of Mrs. Shafer at Powder Point in St. Bride's Parish.
The town of Washington, now Berkley, was the next site of the court from 1792 until 1803.
Portsmouth citizens, willing to pay the bill, successfully petitioned the state government in 1800 to relocate the court to their town which was done three years later. A troublesome brick structure became the new home at the northeast corner of High and Court streets until it was replaced by the final home of the Norfolk County Court, finished on July 20, 1846, and still standing on the northwest corner.
An architectural jewel, the structure was designed by Portsmouth architect William B. Singleton and built by William G. Butler. Serving as a museum and art gallery, the building, a copy of the Greek temple of Jupiter Stator, has been returned to its original splendor. With its classic portico, four Doric columns and cupola, it appears waiting for the Norfolk County Court to reconvene any day as the court ``cryer'' sings out:
``All manner of persons that have any thing to doe at this court draw neer and give your attendance and if any one have any plaint to enter or suite to prosecute lett them come forth and they shall be heard.'' ILLUSTRATION: The ruins of the 1792 Courthouse are at lower left.
Sketch by Charles B. Cross Jr.
The final home of the Norfolk County Court, finished on July 20,
1846. by CNB