Among the Court’s first acts after establishment, the Hustings Court, on May 20, 1782, thus fixed the prices of certain commodities in the “Taverns”: “Good West India Rum, one pound per gallon; bread, ten shillings; whiskey, six; strong beer, four; good West India rum toddy, ten shillings; brandy toddy, seven shillings six pence; rum punch, fifteen shillings; brandy punch, twelve; rum grog, six; brandy grog, five. Diet: one meal, one shilling six pence; lodging, one shilling and three pence; ‘stablidge’ and hay, two shillings; oats and corn, nine pence per gallon.”
The prices of intoxicants is hard to explain. Rum is at the rate of $5.00 per gallon, but apparently whiskey is only $1.25. A later ordinance of prices, made May 10, makes various changes.
“Breakfast, fifty cents; dinner, fifty; supper, fifty; lodging, twenty-five; grain, per gallon, twelve and one-half; stablidge and hay per night, twenty-five; Madera Wine, per quart, one dollar; Champagne, per quart, one dollar and fifty cents; other wine, per quart, fifty cents; French brandy, twelve and one-half cents per gill; Rum, twelve and one-half cents per gill; Gin, twelve and one-half cents per gill.”
Some of the Judges
A pure judiciary is one of the best assurances of good government, and Virginia is proud of her Judges, who on the average, have been and are men of learning, and acknowledged ability.
In this book, we can only chronicle briefly the names of some who have presided in the Circuit Courts of this circuit.
First is the name of John Tayloe Lomax, who had occupied a chair in the law school at the University of Virginia, and who had written several books treating on law, before he came to preside as judge here.
Richard Coleman, of the distinguished family of that name from Caroline County;
Eustace Conway, one of the very youngest men elected by the people, and who died in a few months after he had assumed the duties;
John Critcher, who soon resigned the judicial office to become an officer in the Confederate Army;