Justice in Colonial Virginia (Volume 23, Nos. 7-8) (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1905. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER III. The Inferior Courts. The Monthly or County Courts.--The most important inferior court was the one regularly held in each county. It was at first known as the monthly court, but it was afterwards given the English name of county court. The first monthly courts were established as early as 1624. At that time it was provided by an act of assembly that courts should be held every month in the corporations of Charles City and Elizabeth City.1 The creation of these courts was the necessary outcome of the rapid growth of the colony which began in 1619. When the cleared areas began to lengthen along the river and to encroach more and more on the wilderness, it became very inconvenient for those colonists living at a distance from James City to go there for the arbitration of their minor differences. The need of local adjudication in small matters naturally became felt first in the more remote settlements, and, as one would expect, the first two monthly courts were established on the eastern and western frontiers. The jurisdiction of the county courts was limited to petty cases coming up from the precincts immediately adjacent to them, and thus the judicial authority of the governor and council was, for a considerable part of the country, left unimpaired. 1 In an address made before the Virginia Bar Association in 1894, Judge Waller Staples said that monthly courts were first established in 1623. This statement is based on a law passed by the assembly in 1624; the mistake in the date arises, I presume, from an erroneous reading of "1623-4," which is given by Hening as the date of the act. It is not improbable that these two courts were established as early as the year 1619, and that the act of 1624 was only a statutory recognition of what had already been ac...