take the place of private dwellings and ordinaries in 

 the same way as did the statehouse at Jamestown. 

 It was no accident that legislation lor houses ol 

 govern]iient coincided with that for establisliing port 

 towns. Each reflected the need for administering the 

 far-flung reaches of the colony and for maintaining 

 order and respect for the crown in remoic j^iaces. 



THE COURTHOUSE IN THE PORT TOWN 

 FOR STAFFORD COUNTY 



Staffoid Comity, which had Ijeen set off fioni 

 Westmoreland in 1664, was provided with a coiut- 

 hoiise within a year of its estaiilishment. Ralph 

 Happel in Stafford and h'ing George Courthouses and the 

 Fate of Marlborough, Port of Entry, has gi\en us a 

 detailed chronicle of the Stafford courthou.ses, sliow- 

 ing that the first structure was situated south of 

 Potomac Creek until 1690. when it presumalily 

 burned."" The court, in any c\ent, began to meet 

 in a private hou.se on November 12, 1690, while on 

 NoN'ember 14 one Sampson Darrcll was appointed 

 chief imdertaker and Ambrose Bayley builder of a 

 new courthouse. A contract was signed between them 

 and the justices of the court to finish the building by 

 June 10, 1692, at a cost of 40,000 pounds of tobacco 

 and cash, half to be paid in 169! and the remainder 

 upon completion."'' 



With William Fitzhngh the presiding magistrate 

 of the Stafford County court as well as cosponsor of 

 the Act for Ports, it was foreordained that the new- 

 courthouse should be tied in with plans for the port 

 town. The Act for Ports, however, was still in the 

 making, and it was not possible to begin the court- 

 house until after its passage in the spring. On 

 June 10, 1691, it was "Ordered by this Court that 

 Capt. George Mason and Mr. Blande the Surxeyor 

 shall immediately goe and run over the groimd where 

 the Town is to Stand and that they shall then advise 

 and direct W Samson Darrell the Cheife undertaker 

 of the Court house for this County where he shall 

 Erect and build the same."-' 



The court's order was followed by a hectic sequence 

 that reflects, in general, the irresponsibilities, the 

 lack of respect for law and order, and the frontier 



weaknesses which made it necessary to strengthen 

 authority. It begins with Samp.son Darrell himself. 

 whose moi-.il shorlconiings seem to have been legion 

 (hog-stealing, cheating a widow, and refusing to gi\e 

 indentured .servants their freedom after they had 

 earned it, to name a few). Darrell undoubtedly 

 had the fastidious Fitzhugh's confidence, for certainly 

 without that he would not have been appointed 

 utidertaker at all. In his po.sition in the court, 

 Fitzhugh would ha\e been instrumental in selecting 

 both architect and architecture for the courthouse, 

 and Darrell seems to have met his requiremertts. 

 Fitzhugh, in fact, had sufficient confidence in Darrell 

 to entrust him with personal business in London in 

 1688." 



Although several months elapsed before a site was 

 chosen, enough of the new building was erected by 

 October to shelter the court for its monthly assembly. 

 In the course of this session, there occurred a "most 

 mischievous and dangerous Riot,"-" which rather 

 violently inaugurated the new building. During this 

 disturbance, the pastor of Potomac Parish, Parson 

 John Waugh,""^ upbraided the court while it was 

 "seated" and took occasion to call Fitzhugh a Papist. 

 The court, taking cognizance of "disorders, misrules 

 and Riots" and "the Fatal consequences of such 

 unhappy malignant and Tumultuous proceeding," 

 thereupon restricted the sale of liquor on court days 

 (thus revealing what was at least accessory to the 

 disturbance).-* Fitzhugh's letter to the court con- 

 cerning this episode mentions the "Court House" and 

 the "Court house yard," adding to Happel's ample 



" Ralph II.\ppel, "Stafford and King George Courthouses 

 and the Fate of Marlborough, Port of Entry." ]'H\I ( Richmond, 

 l'l")8), vol. 66, pp. 183-194. 



' SiafTord County Order Book, li>8<>-l(,')4. p. 187. 

 ■ Ibid.. I, 122. 



•^ William Filz/mgh and His Chesapeake World (1676-1701), 

 op. cit. (footnote 3), p. 241. 



■-« Stafford County Order Book, 1689-1694. p. 194. 



■-' Ibid., p. 182. 



'-'' In Virginia recurrent English fears of Catholic domination 

 were reflected at this time in hysterical rumors that the Roman 

 Catholics of Maryland were plotting to stir up the Indians 

 against Virginia. In .Stafford County these suspicions were 

 inflamed by the harangues of Parson John Waugh, minister 

 of .Stafford Parish church and Chotank church. Waugh, who 

 seems to have been a rabble rouser, appealed to the same small 

 landholders and malcontents as those who, a generation 

 earlier, had followed Nathaniel Bacon's leadership. So seri- 

 ously did the authorities at Jamestown regard the disturbance 

 at Stafford courthouse that they sent three councillors to 

 investigate. Sec "Notes," William & Mary College Quarterly 

 Historical Magazine (Richmond, 1907), 1st ser.. vol. 15, pp. 

 189-190 (hereinafter designated If.V/Q (l|: and Rirh.irtI 

 Beale Davis' introduction to William Fitzhugh and His Chesa- 

 peake World, op. cit. (footnote 3), pp. 35-39, and p. 251. 



