Historic Fredericksburg: The Story of an Old Town

by John T. Goolrick

The bell which is now in the tower of the Court House, formerly hung in the second court house, and sounded the call to public meetings, as it does today, and the alarms of fire and war. It was presented to the town by Silas Wood in 1828, and has his name and that date on it, as well as the name of the maker, “Revere, Boston.”

How Debtors Were Treated

From the earliest times, debtors who could not pay their bills were imprisoned in the jail in Court House square or, more properly, slept in the jail and were imprisoned in the square; for they were allowed the freedom of the whole square and the adjacent streets, but were not allowed to enter any store or building on the opposite sides of the streets. Many men of prominence, it is said, spent short periods in this “Debtors’ Prison,” awaiting the time when their release could be secured under the “Poor Debtors’ Law,” which gave them freedom when by a schedule of their property they proved they had no means to meet their obligations. In 1840, the Court extended the bounds of the “Debtors’ Prison” to include four blocks in the center of the city, and the “footways adjoining them”; but to go beyond these bounds was contempt of Court.

No existing records establish what Courts held session in Fredericksburg prior to the Revolution, and it is probable that successors of Mayor Lawrence Smith were empowered as Governors and Judges until 1727, after which time the Trustees of the town may have chosen magistrates, or the colonial Governors may have done this.

History of the Courts

It is established that the first Court in Fredericksburg was created by the General Assembly in 1781, when Fredericksburg was incorporated and given a Common Council and a Hustings Court. The first session of this Hustings Court was held April 15, 1782, with the following Justices present: Charles Mortimer, William McWilliams, James Somerville, Charles Dick, Samuel Ruddy, and John Julien, “the same being Mayor, Recorder and Aldermen of the town.” This continued the only Court until 1788, when nineteen District Courts were established in the State by the General Assembly, and one of them was located at Fredericksburg. These courts were presided over by two of the ten Judges of the General Court at Richmond. Among the many men of prominence who appeared before this District Court were James Monroe, Edmund Randolph, and Francis Brooke. This District Court was abolished in 1809 and a Circuit Court took its place. This new court was now presided over by one of the Judges of the General Court at Richmond. With some changes these courts continue to the present, but are presided over by specially chosen Circuit Judges. But the Circuit Court is not held at Fredericksburg.

The Hustings Court, meanwhile, was the local court for Fredericksburg until 1870, when it became the “Corporation Court” over which, instead of three Justices of the Peace, the Assembly now provided there be a Judge “who shall be learned in law.” Judge John M. Herndon was the first Judge of this Court, in 1870, and was succeeded by Judge John T. Goolrick, 1877, Judge Montgomery Slaughter followed him, Judge A. Wellington Wallace presided for some years, and Judge Embry served until Judge John T. Goolrick was again chosen Judge and has continued on the bench for the last 16 years.

A more remarkable record is that of the men of the Chew family, who for ninety-nine years and eleven days were the Clerks of this Court, succeeding each other by appointment and election in direct lineal line. Henry Armistead, first Clerk of the Court, died August 1, 1787, and on August 6, 1787, John Chew, Jr., was appointed to the vacancy. In 1806 his son, Robert S. Chew, succeeded; In 1826 the latter’s son John J. Chew succeeded; In 1867, the latter’s son, Robert S. Chew succeeded and held office until his death in 1886. Mr. J. Willard Adams is now Clerk of the Corporation Court.

There are many interesting documents in the vaults of the Court House, many of them mere scraps, as that which tells of an inquest in 1813 over the “Body of a sailor from the Frigate ‘Constitution,’” who was drowned here in the river, and which indicates that the famed old boat was once at Fredericksburg Wharf.

Among the oldest and most interesting documents in the archives of the Court House, is a “List of Males Capable of Militia Duty—1785,” and of the two hundred and sixty-five then listed, (which would indicate a population of about 1,300 in the city at that time). There are few names now known in Fredericksburg, nevertheless, there are some, and of these familiar names the following are examples: