Confederate Cemetery at Fredericksburg. The pyramid of stones marks
the battle-field at Hamilton’s Crossing, between Jackson and Meade.
(See [page 185])
CHAPTER IX
The Courts of Fredericksburg—The Freedman’s Bureau—Court Orders and Incidents—First Night Watch—Ministers Qualify to Perform Marriage Ceremony—First Notary Public—Fixing the Value of Bank Notes—Prison Bounds for Debtors—Public Buildings, &c.
If every one in this Christian land was a Christian, and was governed by the rule laid down and inculcated by the Christ, “whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them,” there would have been but little, if any, use for courts in this country. But all people are not Christians, and all Christians are not governed by that golden rule, therefore courts were necessary to punish crime, settle disputes, protect the weak against the strong, secure the widow and orphan in their rights, enforce provision for the indigent poor, and perform other functions for the benefit of society and the well-being of the country.
What courts Fredericksburg had before the Revolutionary war is unknown, as no record seems to have been left of them. In all probability the successors of Major Lawrence Smith were also authorized to execute martial law and hear and determine all questions, as a county court might do, until the town was chartered in 1727 and placed in the hands of trustees. These trustees had certain powers conferred upon them by act of the House of Burgesses, and they were to keep records of their proceedings, but these records cannot now be found and quite likely have long ago been destroyed.
It may have been possible that the Colonial Governors appointed magistrates to hear and determine causes within certain limits and to punish petty offences, while causes beyond those limits and felonies were heard and determined by the court sitting at Williamsburg. Of this, however, we are left to conjecture, as no records are at our command. But if this had been the manner of dispensing justice prior to 1781, it furnished a pattern for the Virginia Legislature for many years thereafter with respect to the town, as is referred to elsewhere.
The first court established in Fredericksburg, that we now have any records of, was by an act of the General Assembly of Virginia, passed during the session of 1781. At that session Fredericksburg was regularly incorporated and given a Common Council and a hustings court, but the court did not organize until April 15, 1782. At its organization the following justices were present: Charles Mortimer, Wm. McWilliams, James Somerville, Charles Dick, Samuel Roddy and John Julien, “the same being Mayor, Recorder and Aldermen of the town,” elected to their respective offices on the 18th day of March, 1782, in the order above named.