Turkey Point, 1802-1812.
The Courts at Turkey Point were first held in the public house of Job Loder. In 1803 the contract for a court house was awarded. It was to be a frame building forty feet in length by twenty-six feet in width, to be two stories high, the first or lower story to be ten feet between floor and ceiling, and the second or upper story to be eight feet high. The original specifications were as follows: "The building to be erected on a foundation of white oak timber squared, the same to be sound and of sufficient thickness, the building to be shingled and to have two sufficient floors, an entry eight feet wide to be made from the front door across one end of the lower story, from which winding stairs are to be erected to ascend to the second story; two rooms are to be partitioned off in the second or upper story for juries. Nine windows are to be made in front and ten in rear, of twenty-four lights each, seven by three. The front door to be made of inch and a half plank, six panel, and to have a good sufficient lock and key. Two windows are to be finished in the first story opposite each other, so as to afford sufficient light to the bar, besides two windows of fifteen lights each behind the Judge or Chairman's seat. The rest of the windows are to be cased and nailed up for the present. The Bar, table, Justices' seat, benches for the bar and a table for each jury room, and benches for the same are to be finished; the three inside doors to be temporary; a seat and writing table for Clerk, to be made between the bench and the bar. Note—The house to be raised, shingled, weather-boarded and floored, and the bench for the Judge and Justices, Judge or Chairman's writing desk, Clerk's seat and table, the bar and table and benches therefor, the four windows below and two above to be finished, the rest of the windows cased and nailed up. The front door to be finished, and the other three temporary doors to be made and hung. Comprehends the present contract proposed by the court to be performed by the next assizes for this district."
Courts were held in this building commencing in the year 1804 until it was appropriated for the use of prisoners during the war of 1812.
The Vittoria Court House, 1815-1826.
In 1815 an act was passed which provided that the courts of general quarter sessions for the district of London should be held at Charlotteville. The Magistrates were ordered to make a choice of the most convenient place, and a meeting was accordingly held at the house of Thomas Finch on the 13th June, 1815. John Backhouse, Thomas Talbot and Robert Finch were appointed Commissioners to superintend the building, and a brick court house and gaol was erected at Vittoria at an expense of £9,000. During the erection of the building, courts were held in the houses of Thomas Finch, Francis Beaupre and Mathias Steel. The first meeting of the sessions was held in the new court house on 8th April, 1817, and it was used until 1826, when it was partially destroyed by fire.
The London Court Houses, 1826-1853.
An Act was then passed to establish a District town in a more central place, and courts were ordered to be held in some part of the reservation made for the site of a town near the forks of the River Thames. This was at London where four acres were set apart for the purposes of the jail and court house. The commissioners appointed for the purpose of erecting the building, Thomas Talbot, Mahlon Burwell, James Hamilton, Charles Ingersoll and John Matthews, held their first meeting in St. Thomas. During the erection of the court house at London, courts were held in a private house at Vittoria, and afterwards at St. Thomas. Dr. C. Hodgins, in his History of Education of Upper Canada, states that on one occasion the Court of King's Bench, with Judge Sherwood presiding and the late Sir John Beverley Robinson in attendance as King's Attorney, was held in an upper room of a building used by Mr. Stephen Randal as a grammar school. This building was afterwards removed to the school lot near the present residence of Judge Ermatinger, and was known as the "Talbot Seminary."
