Supervisor tom a. Hay. M tom my name is tom hay, i am the site supervisor of the courthouse capital and jail here in colonial williamsburg. We are currently in the courthouse of 1770. This courthouse served as the courthouse for both the city of as well as the James City County court. Each quart midtier once a month for three or four days. Courts were the local government of the 18th century. Not only judicial business, to sue and be sued, that they also came here for tavern licenses, to be appointed to various minor to take care of widows and orphans. Being part of the british empire, they were following the English Common law as adapted by virginia statute law. The virginia General Assembly 1690een meeting since team. So by the time of the revolution, virginia had homegrown law for over 150 years. Appear on the high bench behind me, they were the leaders of local society. So for a county court, they were appointed by the royal governor nominations from the alreadysitting justices. For the citigroup court, they are the mayor and aldermen of the city. That was a selfperpetuating body. They served for life for good behavior. Most so for life but every once in a while 11 act so egregious as to really annoy the governor and be kicked off the bench. It was real, but fairly interesting when it happened. Virginiarue for all of government with the exception of theer met membership in house of burgesses, that is the only film i election. Can you give us an example of a child that money if taken place here . Can you give us an example of a trial that might have taken place here . Tom sure. There were a number. One was a woman who was growing tobacco, a widow by then, and she had hired a man to move her tobacco to market to a hand, little bit sloppy or had an accident on the way over there and her entire year of tobacco production was dumped into the river. So she suited to collect the value of her years worth of work. The court acted pretty reasonably, they sent a jury of tobacco planters to examine it theyamaged tobacco and ended up with a damage estimate that was not everything is she oned for, it was between third and one half of what was asked for, but the jury decided the each lay somewhere in between the two extras. Jury trials happened on an almost monthly basis and juries were usually impaneled for civil since criminal cases for the most were misdemeanors. By virginiast edition you rarely have a criminal jury trial for miss the meiners. Misdemeanors. Usually that was done that the capital. For the most part from misdemeanors, people were find. For minor crimes like failure to attend church, being drunk and public. Or a person in for theft, you might be wept. Whipped. Crimes, you might have your ears nailed or cut out. Males and females can come in here to watch trials. But active perdition, as a majority of the population was only allowed to be in here when the court wanted them here to be a wit and sore a defendant, perhaps. Perhaps. R a defendant, magistrate would be in the chair in the center. You might notice he is directly underneath his majestys coat of arms. In the 18th century, subordinate magistrates are tributaries of the mainstream of his majestys authority, so even though they had Movement Toward appointments, the king has a royal appointment so they meet under the kings authority. The jury sat on the lower bench beneath them and the jury would, just like today, make decisions as to the points of fact. The judges make decisions as to points of law. Jury had to make a decision or verdict, sometimes they would do it without leaving the bench, other times they would be sequestered without benefit of it eat, drink, or fire. The courts sitting here at the table in the center, he was the Legal Authority here. As the judgeinted based entirely on your social level. The position of your family. Clerk, your to be a had to work for the secretary of the colony anywhere from 35 years and he will appoint you as andk of the county court every time the clerk took a paper, he was paid. So judges could refer into d for her his professional knowledge of the law. Where i am right here is where the attorney sat. The use of attorneys is growing in the 18th century so local attorneys with that here. In the general court, there would be attorneys like Patrick Henry or thomas jefferson. Increasingly, we see a growth of attorneys as a Legal Profession at the time. Finally, the enforcement officers who sat in the boxes on either side of the sheriff and deputy share. Warrants,d writs and summons and subpoenas, and should the orders of the court was varied out and order was kept in the court. They are paid by fees for everything they do. The clerks and the sheriff all have the fees set by laws and that is the fee schedule on the wall right there. How much did the function of the chord change from being a colony during the revolution and after . Court function of the change from being a colony during the revolution and after . They stopped saying god save the king ends target saying god save the commonwealth of toginia and they continue use the same paperwork that started out with the phrase by the grace of god and king george the third, king of great britain, france, india ireland ireland, and they were just a line through it because the paper was so expensive to print. The very first day, you would have the clerk of court on one of the front side brooms and it would be his duty to put the docket together. So, people who are anxious to sue or perhaps notsoanxious to be sued, or people here to be really important as tobacco inspector or tavern keeper, they would see the clerk and find out where in that three or four day docket they could reasonably expect their case to come up. That would be the first a. It takes about a day to get the docket together. Then the first day of the Court Session itself, nothing happens until you get a minimum of forum of magistrates up there and that deep kids upon one is going to happen. Three perhaps for a sanity hearing, ive for a felony of an enslaved some. You have to wait until you have the proper number of justices. The clerk would sit here at the table and he is critically important. Partow from the northern of the virginia, there was one time when the clerk, unfortunately, was ill and they had to cancel court. That is how important the clerk is. Court would begin to beat about midday, if there were any criminal procedures, they always handled those first. Otherwise, you very quickly get into people suing one another. Are notts for debts very exciting. Almost all of fact, business transactions from the colony of virginia occurred by credit and it was credit kept on a persons books. That is called book debt. If you want to sue someone and be insured youre going to collect that, you can sue based on book debt but you can also debt,e court to bond the which makes it a debt of higher dignity. If a person dies coming the executor of the estate must be off all bond debts before book debts. Not very exciting, but it occurred here. There might the a 20year after the grand jury meets the senate for failure to attend church, for road inspectors not keeping up their section of the road, for people not reporting their children the basic catechism of , a number things like that. So there were a few morals charges. Women brought up before the bearing of pastored children as well. D children as well. Knew what the laws were by virtue of growing up in the society. I mean, the loyal was only the law was only the written law. There was also the unwritten law of tradition. In the finest of southern or new england terms, it is, we do it this way because we have always done it this way or this is the way granddad did it. So you grow up with these certainties. Say, verities of life that you know, things people are taught as young children. If it is not yours, do not take it. Be brought in here for things like that. There were very few surprises in court. New when they had done wrong. When you are arrested, you are informed as to why you are arrested in a criminal case. If you are served with a summons to come to court for a civil case, usually if we are a debt we know we are in debt at the time so you know who is bringing it to court. What is interesting is unlike today, there is one alternative in a debt to suit that, well, has not been around since the 1870s. That is, if you are find that you do own a dead, a judgment debt against you, that means that you could end up serving 20 days in the local debtor process prison. This court has the authority to send you there. You are released on the 21st still allowing every the of the dead pig you have gone to the humiliation of having to serve time in debtor process is in. That, you have to turn over to record a schedule of all your worldly possessions that debt. Sold to satisfy the so, that is a change in between virginia and eagle islam. In england, you stay in debtors prison until the debt is paid. Problem withee a that, so in virginia they limited to 20 days. A number of men who set up on the original bench in this building attended the college of william and mary. On the other hand, there was the first law professor of this country who was a sitting justice and onetime mayor of the city. Atwas taught and entirely home. As a matter fact, we are told that his mother taught him greek and latin and he was so wellfirst in languages that later in life he taught himself hebrew so he could read the Old Testament in the original. A fascinating man. The most act of magistrate is the chief magistrate, the most experience. The one who knows the local population the best. The other sit to either side of him and every decision is a decision. So, a single magistrate cannot make a single decision in a court all by himself, but i am sure there was a great degree of justices,amongst the since they all come from the highest level of local society. Im sure they all shared the same worldview. Sure, still allowing for plenty of personality between them, but i am sure they all saw the world the same way. Wouldve lived in williamsburg or James City County. So if we were outside this courthouse, we could see the home of a member of the city also george whitsitt, a member of the city court. And robertph nicholas, also a member of the city court. Judge ofw the average James City County owned, on average, about 800 acres but there were a number of them that owned 2000 or 3000 acres, said they were extremely welltotwo welltodo gentlemen. They served for the honor of the position, not dave. The better off you arent society, the more free time you have in that society. Shows what your Public Service of the society should be. It hadalitarians a large it to it. About the lawyers, did them to a state test . Tom yes. Either by themselves, as Patrick Henry did. Thomas jefferson, who read under another. When you think you have sufficient knowledge of the law, you would go into being interviewed by two or three attorneys of the high court. Interestingly, most of those who did the interviews were right here in town. Look at lawyer licenses from the 18th century, names of those who lived he in the city and they would sign the licenses of the next generation of lawyers. So yes, you had to prove a basic knowledge of the law. That we know of one Richmond County justice, carter, who was the type of personality who complained about most things in life. He said, you could make a perfectly good living as an attorney by the knowledge of writs. So he did not think much of them at all. Of course, he lost arguments all the time. At least for the free part of the population, this was a system that most people supported. To give you an idea of what i mean, the city was about in the 16 30s, when the first corti county courthouses work stepless. They made no significant change in the system until the 1820s. So, the system will or this institution stayed relatively untouched by the chains of centuries or the change of government starring revolution. So obviously, it enjoyed a great deal of support from the local population. People thought it was fair and of course that it was the free part of the population. I suspect the enslaved part of the population may have had a different viewpoint. Represents the last quarter of the 18th century. So, it starts off with the last few years of virginia a part of the british empire. Beginning of the the new republican form of government of both the republic , as many people thought of it, and shortly thereafter, the new United States oamerica. There were two courts that met here. Clerksrt has its own office for storage of records. Having those records kept in good form and searchable was very important. As a court of records, they had to have this cap. And then, one room is the magistrates room. Not too surprising, that is the fanciest. Play room,y room, a that is where the jury would be sequestered with nothing to eat, drink, no late, no heat, until they rendered their verdict. Met here thert first monday of the month for three or four days. The williamsburg custody scored. The Municipal Court. Of the capitalt city. You could sue anyone in this court who lived in virginia and rit of this corinne of the entire length and breadth of virginia. A very convenient word for british predators whether lawyers to, and sue people who own them money. The second week of the month, the james county court was in session here and they are an extremely Typical Court of the time. 59 or 60what the other county courts of virginia did, which is actually a major advantage for us in our study of the institution because records of both the city and county court or, at the beginning of the american civil war, sent to richmond and they were still in richmond at the end of the civil war would want her to of richmond was burnt to the ground. When one third of richmond was burnt to the ground. So we have lost those records in our knowledge of this institution is based almost entirely on studying other county courts or the one other. Ity or Municipal Court this is a typical three or four used at thethat was time. Immediately outside. We do have the whipping post next to the stock and noise. A person could be whipped by the court but no more than 39 times. Lets say a whip is one of the few crossovers between british common law and english. If a person got taken outside, they would be chained or manacled to the wooden post and the Deputy Sheriff or constable or 29with them 10, 20, times upon order of the court. They did get a fee for that and the fee is listed there on the fee schedule. I did mention people could be brought here and tried for felonies. The basic felony punishment was death by hanging. However, for certain felonies you could receive the benefit of clergy, which is a holdover from prereformation england. People time, the only that could receive the benefit of clergy would be members of clergy. Eventually, with the reformation it expanded beyond that. At the time this building was built, what it meant was if you are found guilty of a felony magistratethe chief would tell you that you had been found guilty and ask you if you had anything to say. At that point, the defendant would say, i plead the benefit of clergy or i demand my clergy. What that means is that she he or she would hold out their left hand and a branding iron would be run out, glowing a nice cherryred, and it would the applied to the broad of the lefthand like this. The person was expected by tradition to yell out, god save the king and they carried the brand for the rest of their life that shows 18 forth the. The other brand was am for manslaughter. This was done to people at the high court to free people. Americanue jurisprudence in most of the colonies until the beginning of the 19th century, then it gradually faded out. Say, the ultimate lesson we would like people to take away from this building is that human nature has not changed. Perhaps a means of expressing it has, but the people of the 18th human, were as fully real, and argumentative as we are today. Announcer you can watch this and other american artifacts programs by visiting our website at cspan. Org history. Takes on ro