^^^5^j 





Figure 60. — Excavation plan of Staflord counhouse 

 foundation. 



xi^ ^' 



Figure 61. — Hanover courthouse, whose plan 

 dimensions correspond closely to the .Stallord 

 foundation. 



courthouse had again burned. There seems to ha\e 

 been a delay of about five \ears in rebuilding it this 

 time. Pressures to relocate it were exerted in the 

 ineanvvhile and hearings were held by the Governor's 

 Council on a petition to "remove the Court House 

 lower down." '"' The Council listened, then ""Or- 

 dered, that the new Court House be built where the 

 old one stood." "^' 



This settled, Nathaniel Harrison and Hugh Adie 

 contracted in 1749 with the justices of Stafford court 

 to build a "Brick Courthouse, for the Consideration 

 of 44500 lb. of Tobacco, to be furnished by the last of 

 October, 1750."'"^ Harrison was a distinguished 

 member of the colony who, as a widower, had mo\ed 

 to Stafford County the previous year and had married 

 Lucy, the daughter of Robert ("King") Carter of 

 "Corotoman" and widow of Henry Fitzhugh of 

 "Eagle's Xest." '^'' Harrison, who later built "Bran- 

 don" ior himself iia King George Cotmty, probably 

 provided the capital and the materials, and perhaps 

 the design, of the courthouse. Adie, of whom nothing 

 is known, was doubtless the carpenter or bricklayer 

 who actuallv did the work. 



"« Ibid. 



'*• Execulive Journals of the Council of Colonial Virginia [Novem- 

 ber 1, 1739-May 7, 1754], (Richmond, 1945), p. 282. 



'«=J//B, J732-I755; 1756-1758 (Richmond, 1939), p. .55. 



'""Harrison of James River," VHM (Richmond, 1924), 

 vol. 32, p. 200. 



The construction was delayed by "nrany Disap- 

 pointments, and the Badness of the Weather." 

 Finally, in the spring of 1751, it was about to be 

 biought to completion, "when it was feloniously burnt 

 to the Ground.""'" In April 1752 a special act was 

 passed in order to permit a le\y to be made which 

 would allow the .Stafford court to reimburse Harrison 

 and Adie for the amount of work which they had 

 accomplished on the courthouse and the \alue of the 

 materials they had provided.'"* 



i\o record exists of the coiitract for the next — and 

 last — courthouse building on the Potomac Creek 

 site. Quite possibly Harrison and Adie agaht did the 

 work. This building was used tmtil removal of the 

 court to a new building completed between 1 780 and 

 1 783 on a site near the present Stafford courthouse. 

 It remained standing throughout most of the 19th 

 century, according to local memory. In sur\eys of 

 1804 and 1805 the structure was identified as the 

 "old court house." 



DESCRIPTION OF EXCAVATIONS 



Excavations were conducted in the simplest manner 

 possible, in ortk'r to arrive at the objective of deter- 

 mining the dimensions of the courthouse without 

 exceeding availaiile funds. An exploratory trench 

 soon exposed a line of rubble and disturbed soil. This 



"" Sec footnote 1G5. 



"" Hening, op. cit. (footnote 1), vol. 6, pp. 280-281. 



118 



