Colonial Williamsburg Digital Library

Site of the First Colonial Court House

The sketch of this building in the guidebook section of Williamsburg in Virginia seems to be correct, although it might be safer to say that the courthouse was built about rather than in 1715. Documentary evidence concerning the actual construction of the courthouse is lacking, but the following data provide an adequate basis for the assumption concerning the date of its erection. Some of the inhabitants of James City County in 1715, upon the "late removal of the Court" from Jamestown to Williamsburg, petitioned the House of Burgesses to hold the court at a more convenient place than Williamsburg, offering to erect the courthouse at their on cost if this petition was complied with. (Journals of the House of Burgesses, 1712-1726, p. 151-2.) Governor Spotswood, however, was determined that the court should be held at Williamsburg, and said, with reference to the petition:

I know by what Malignant person that Grievance was drawn up and in what unlawful manner it was got Signed and after five years Residence upon the borders of James City County, I think it hard that I may not be allowed to be as good a Judge as Mr Narable's Rable of a proper Place for the Courthouse.

To remove a County Court upon the Application of its Justices (as I have done) is expressly according to the Law of this Colony, and I am not inclinable to do extraordinary Acts meerly to gratify the humour of Some persons who make it their greatest Meritt with the people to oppose whatever may be for the interest and Dignity of this his Majestys Government.

(Ibid, p. 152.)

Hugh Jones, in his account of Virginia, published in 1724, mentioned this building in connection with the Powder Magazine which, he said, stood "far from any House except James Town Courthouse; for the Town is half in James Town County, and half in York County." (Hugh Jones, Present State of Virginia, p. 312.)

In 1770, the following notice appeared in the Virginia Gazette:

At a Court held for JAMES CITE county, July 9, 1770.
ORDERED,
THAT the sheriff give notice twice in the Virginia Gazette that the courthouse of this county, and the lot whereon it stands, will be sold, pursuant to law, at publick auction, to the highest bidder, at the next court, upon such terms as shall then be directed by the court. (Purdie & Dixon, Virginia Gazette, July 19, 1770.)

The property came into the possession of Robert Carter Nicholas (Unknown Draughtsman's Map; Purdie, Virginia Gazette, October 17, 1777). who sold it to James Carter, for Carter advertised for sale in 1783:

THAT well known tenement which was formerly occupied by Robert Carter Nicholas, Esq: A house two story high, with four rooms on a floor, and nine closet, some of them will hold a bed, table and two chairs, and two houses in front, with six rooms, pleasantly situated on the market square, with every necessary outhouse for a large family, a large garden and yard paled in, stable that will hold fifteen horses, a coach and chair house, and corn house, with nine lots of land, and ground sufficient for a pasture. … (Nicholson and Prentis, Virginia Gazette and Weekly Advertiser, March 29, 1783).

Buildings on the courthouse land, shown on the Frenchman's Map fit this description.

On the Unknown Draughtsman's Map, Colonial Lot #204 was shown as "James City Court House - Sold to R. C. Nicholas." It appeared likewise on the Bucktrout Map, except that "Nicholson" instead of "Nicholas" was inscribed on the lot. That the wrong surname was erroneously inserted on the Bucktrout Map is obvious from the foregoing as well as the following evidence. On both maps, the rest of the surrounding square, lot numbers 192, 193, 194, 195, 196, 200, 201, 202, and 203, bounded by England, Ireland, King and Francis Streets, were shown as "Cary's 9 Lots." The Land Tax Records show John Carter, merchant, possessing nine lots in Williamsburg from 1782 to 1794, in which year they were entered as passing from his estate to Wilson Miles Cary. They were listed in Wilson Miles Cary's ownership in 1795, and for approximately two decades afterwards the following data appear in the Tax Records:

		No. of lots	Yearly rent	Amt. of tax
1796	Will Cary	9	£ 30	£1:10:0
1797	William Cary	9	30	£1:10:0
1798	William Cary	9	$100	$1.25
1799	William Cary	9	100	1.25
1800	Wilson M. Cary [Wm. erased]	9	100	1.56
1801	Wilson M. Cary	9	100	1.56
1802	Carey, Miles Wilson	9	100.	1.56
	Carey, M. Wilson	¾	10	63
	Carey, M. Wilson	1	20	.32
1803	Carey, Miles Wilson	10 ¾	160	2.51
1804	Carey, Miles Wilson	10 ¾	160	2.51
1806	Cary, M. Wilson	9	100	1.56
1807	Cary, M. Wilson	9	100	1.56
	Cary, Jefferson Wilson	1	40	.63
1809	Cary, M. Wilson	9	100	1.56
	Cary, M. Wilson via Tates	1 ¾	80	1.25
	Cary, J. Wilson	1	40	.63
1810	[same as 1809]
1811	Cary, M. Wilson	9	100	1.56
	Cary, J. Wilson	1	40	.63
1812	[same as 1811]
1813	Cary, M. Wilson	9	100	2.80
	Cary, J. Wilson	1	40	.83
1814	[same names & lots - values different]
1815	[same as 1814.]
1816	Cary, M. Wilson	9	120	$3.60
	Cary, J. Wilson	1	40	1.20
1817	[same as 1816.]

In 1818, the following notation appeared in the Tax Records:

	Owners of Lots	No. of Lots	Annual Value	Total Amt. of tax
1818 -	Hankins, William	9	160	$4.80
	8 Via Wilson M. Cary, that square of lots numbered in the plan of the said city by the figures, 192, 193, 194, 195, 196, 200, 201, 202, 203, and 204, and is the same on which he formerly resided - Also 1 via Wilson J. Cary, the house and lot called and known by the name of the old Court house.

(Williamsburg Land Tax Records, p. 39)

The discrepancy in the number of lots indicated both within the Tax Records themselves and on the Bucktrout and Unknown Draughtsman's Maps, which show the square composed of 10 lots, in addition to the apparent repetition in referring to the Courthouse Lot and lot #204 as separate ones, is open to interpretation.

In 1819 appeared the following:

Owners of lots	No. of lots	Annual Value	Total Amount
White, William M. Via William Hankins	9	$160	$4.80
- all those houses and lots conveyed by Wilson M. Cary, and Wilson J. Cary to William Hankins in the year 1817.

(Williamsburg Land Tax Records, p. 45.)

This lot was in the possession of Roscow Cole in 1820. (Ibid, p. 47.) John Tyler obtained the Courthouse Lot with the dwelling house on it as a residence for himself and his family shortly after 1837. He purchased the property from Judge Nathaniel Beverly Tucker. (Letter from John Tyler to Nathaniel Beverley Tucker, October 29, 1837, in Tucker-Coleman Collection of Papers Deposited in Department of Research and Record.) Tyler succeeded to the presidency of the United States upon the death of William Henry Harrison in 1841. (Dictionary of American Biography, Vol. III, p. 90.) In the same year he apparently sold the Courthouse property, for he was taxed for only one lot in Williamsburg, and in 1843 the following entry was made in the Tax Records:

Name of Owner Residence	Number of each lot in the Town	Value of buildings
Jones, Scervant York County Via John Tylor in 1841, Fee Simple now in Jesse Cole, but the deed not recorded in due time	1	$2000

(Williamsburg Land Tax Records, p. 112.)

Jones, a Baptist minister, conveyed the property to Jesse Cole (Ibid) and it passed through his widow to Samuel F. Bright, whom she later married. (Ibid, p. 116.) The house which had been erected on the Courthouse Lot burned in the latter part of the nineteenth century. (J. S. Charles, Recollections of Williamsburg, p. 57.) In Lyon G. Tyler's Williamsburg, the Old Colonial Capital, p. 223, there is a picture of this house, which an aged resident of Williamsburg described as follows:

On the plot of ground east of the Hospital premises and bounded on three sides by Francis, England, and Ireland Streets, and known as the "Bright Lot", there was near its N. E. corner up to 1870, a large frame two story building of colonial style of architecture, with porch, having round wooden columns opening out on a spacious grass lawn.

At the north east corner of this lawn, which was not enclosed, there was a story and a half frame house with stone steps at the western end, and one similar in size and construction at the north west corner with door opening on the yard, with side to Francis Street. A fence extended from each of these houses to the main dwelling, with gates to the yard, and to the garden and barn, in the rear. The windows of the two outhouses had "shutters" made with panels in them, and each had the customary dormer windows. The dwelling was destroyed by fire about 1870, the western outbuilding was burned not many years ago; the other was pulled down a few years later.

(Charles, Recollections, pp. 56-57.)

H.D.F.
26.

^{Summer, 1940 ([illegible] Nelson)}