USA > Maryland > Talbot County > History of Talbot county, Maryland, 1661-1861, Volume II > Part 22
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It is a pretty generally received maxim that the doors of justice should always be open, to the great and humble alike; but it is respectfully suggested that this has been a little too literally obeyed in the case of the doors of our hall of justice. They have been kept open a trifle too constantly, for they have been open night and day, during terms, and during recess, Sunday and Monday, and this not for the humankind only, but for the brute beasts, who neither sue, nor are sued. Now, no one will be apt to accuse Mr. Roberts of any intention toimpede justice, if he shall, while giving due ornament and finish to the portals, pay some attention to their fastenings. He may protect the public property and our precious records, without imperiling any right, or in- flicting any wrong, if he will only so arrange the locks and bolts, that the doors shall not so readily yield to the slight pressure from without, that has been sufficient heretofore to expose the building and all its valued contents to destruction.
The money required for these improvements, that have been and shall be made, will be well invested, and pay us ample interest. We are, as a people, too regardless of appearances. The careless, solvenly, neglected aspect of our chief public building has been too closely copied in our private houses. When the betterments which the Commissioners
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of the county and town are contemplating shall have been completed- when our old, dingy and gloomy Court House shall put on its coat of fresh paint-its broken shutters that have been flapping in the wind for so many years shall be repaired and renovated-when the loosened bricks shall be replaced, and all the dilapidated walls repointed-when the neglected grounds shall be well sodded, planted with young shade trees and surrounded by their handsome iron paling-our people will be prompted and stimulated to improve their own homes, and make them as bright and cheerful without as they doubtless are within, in order that our public and private houses may be in keeping, one with the other. The old Court House may thus become a school house to educate us in refinement and taste. Besides, this changed aspect of our public building, will impress strangers coming among us favorably, and may induce them to make a county their home where the good order, condition and sightliness of its Court House evinces the care, the interest and the wealth of the people; whereas these visitors would be repelled or deterred from settling among us if there should be a most conspicuous and striking evidence of our poverty, thriftlessness and negligence pre- sented by the dilapidation and general dinginess of our principal county building.
Now that we are likely soon to see our Court House in reputable and pleasing order, it may prove interesting to our people to know something of its history, and that of those other houses that preceded it, as places of judicature. It is well known that this is not the first Court House that has existed in this county, nor the first on the same spot. The present edifice may be considered the fourth erected for the accommo- dation of the courts, counting that one which is said to have been built upon Kent Island, before the separate organization of Talbot county. In this article, therefore, it is proposed to give an account of these several court houses, as far as we have any authentic information respecting them.
The first settlement upon the Eastern Shore of the State was made by Claiborne under the Virginia charter, upon Kent Island, and this settle- ment was at one time represented in the House of Burgesses of that State by Nicholas Martin, whose descendants still survive in Talbot. But Claiborne's title was disputed by Lord Baltimore, and he was dis- possessed. It does not appear that he, or the Virginians established any court of justice, his settlement being but a trading post.
There is no doubt, as will subsequently appear, in the very earliest years after the organization of our county, courts were held at private
.
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houses, and, it may be, the very first courts upon the Eastern Shore were held at the houses of the Commander, as that officer was called who was chief in command under the Governor of the province. There can be no question that courts leet and courts baron were held, for the writer has seen some of the records of these feudal tribunals. It is not unlikely therefore that the very first courts ever held on Kent Island, were of this kind, and held at Kent Fort Manor, near Kent Point, so that the first judicature for the Eastern Shore and what was at one time a part of Talbot, was with mediaeval forms, and under Lords of the Manor.
By an act of assembly of the province of Maryland of the year 1638 provision was made for the administration of justice in the Isle of Kent. which was recognized not as a distinct county, but as simply an Hundred of St. Mary's. Although considered only an Hundred, a court of record designated as the "Hundred Court of Kent" was erected upon the Island, and the Commander, as the principal officer was called, was made the judge or justice. This court had jurisdiction in certain cases defined by the act, and from it appeal was had to the county court upon the Western Shore. Besides this court, occasionally the supreme or pro- vincial court held sessions upon the Island. For the accommodation of these courts a house is said to have been erected, somewhere upon the eastern side of the Island, but its location is not certainly known, nor is there any information of its size or character. This declaration of the existence of a Court House upon Kent Island is made upon the authority of Mr. George L. L. Davis. In an article published in the Gazette of May 7, 1853, this gentleman says:
The first indication of a Court House upon the Island-the first also upon the Eastern Shore of Maryland,-occurs in the shape of a short memorandum, without date, but appearing with other entires during the year 1659, [in the records now in the Kent county court house.] * * * John McConikin, it is said, hath this day assigned over the patent of the land, and what thereon remaineth belonging thereto, with all privileges, to the inhabitants of Kent where the Court is now kept. * There is recorded evidence that the courts of Kent county were usually held upon the Southern part of the Island from 1647 to 1654, while there is none, at least now extant, that they were held any- where but on the Island, for many years afterwards. * *
Mr. McConikin held several tracts upon the same [eastern] side of the Island, including one on Crab Alley Creek, called "George's Codd,"' sixty acres of which are now [1853] in the possession of Mr. Wm. O. Lowery. Upon that part of the tract, it is highly probable the Court House stood. Nor is there any doubt that a Court House was erected on the Island, at an
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early period: for upon the record about sixteen years after the deed [above mentioned] we find the following order: "Likewise, the Com- missioners of the county have made choice of the old court house upon the Island, to be the county Court House; but do order that the court shall be kept at the house of John Darby, in the Eastern Neck, as it hath been formerly." About 1680 a court house was built upon Gray's Inn Creek, an arm of the Chester, and there a town was founded by one of the early Ringgolds at Kent-a town which bore the name of New Yarmouth, and which, for many years, remained the seat of jus- tice for Kent county.
This account seems to show very clearly that there was a court house upon Kent Island before the time of the organization of Talbot which court house was the first used by the inhabitants of the territory now within our limits, but then belonging to Kent Island Hundred of St. Mary's County, or to the Isle of Kent county.
We have no distinct record of the date when Talbot was laid off from Kent, as a separate jurisdiction. It is first mentioned in the council records in 1660-61. Nor are the original boundaries clearly defined. But it seems that from 1661 to 1695 it embraced all the territory from Kent narrows and south of Kent Island to the Delaware line, and Chop- tank river. In the last named year, 1695, by an act of assembly, Kent Island was attached to Talbot, and Corsica Creek was made apparently the northern limit of the county, having Kent county on the north. In 1707 (act of assembly 1706, chap. III) the County of Queen Anne was laid off from Talbot, and from Kent, and embraced its present territory with a part of Caroline, which was taken in 1773 from Queen Anne and Dorchester counties, with its present limits. For many years after the separate organization of Talbot county its courts were held at private houses, and many of these houses are known to have been situated not far from the centre of the settled territory of the county, namely on the Wye river, and near its head.
The first court of Talbot after its separation from Kent, of which there is any record extant was held at the house of Mr. William Coursey on the 25th of April 1662, at which no business seems to have been transacted. It met, perhaps, merely for organization. Mr. Coursey lived in what is now Queen Anne's. These gentlemen are the first men- tioned Justices or Commissioners of the Peace, the four first named of whom were present at this first meeting of the court:
Mr. Henry Coursey,
Mr. Seth Foster,
Mr. William Coursey,
Mr. Ric'd Woolman,
Mr. James Ringgold, Mr. Thomas South,
Mr. Thomas Hynson.
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There is reason to believe that Mr. John Morgan was the first clerk of the county, who was followed by Thomas Vaughan, and then by William Hemsley, who was commissioned in 1668. The second court of which there is mention, was held at the house of Mr. Richard Woolman, on the 25th June 1662, at which Robt. Knapp took the Oath of Constable. This Mr. Richard Woolman probably lived upon Wye river, upon the tract still known as Woolman's, and was the first Burgess from the county that sat in the Assembly of the Province. This Mr. Robt. Knapp was he who gave name to Knapp's narrows, that water between Tilghman's Island and the main. Some other trifling business was transacted at this second court, such as the adjudging the age of John Jackson, an indentured servant of Mr. Richard Woolman, though the court not being full, the matter was adjourned. The Third Court of which we know anything was held Oct. 25th 1662, at the house of Mr. Will. Coursey. Among other business transacted was the "laying" of the "county and publique leavy" for the year, amounting to 7473 pounds of tobacco. The following curious record was ordered by the court held this day to be made by the clerk. It is one of many of similar character.
Came ye Persons in their proper persons and acknowledge ye couve- nants following in open court, to wit:
Thomas Philips Know all men by to these presents that Nicholas Braway I, Thomas Phillips of Talbot County, in ye province of Maryland, have Bargained and sould unto Nicholas Bradaway of the same county, fower female head of cattle, viz .: one Cow bought of Thomas Snow, one Cow bought of Mr. Rock- well, of Ann Arandall County, deceased. One being marked in the Left Eare, with a Cropp and two slitts, the Right eare with a flower de luce, in the other cow a Cropp and an under keele in the left year, the other two being the Increas (?) of the aforesaid, marked with an hole in the left Eare and a slitt on the upper part of the Right Eare. To have and to hold the said Cattle with all their full Increass to the said Nicho- las Bradaway his heirs and assigns forever. And I, said Thomas Phillips doth warrant the said Cattle to the said Nicholas Bradaway, against all manner of claims whatsoever, as witness my hand this 9th of July 1662.
NICHOLAS BRADAWAY.
The fourth court held, was at Ottwell, the house of Mr. William Taylor, Nov. 25, 1662, when Cuthbard Phelpes took the oath of Consta- ble. It was at this court that the first conveyance of land was recorded, it being from Will. Taylor, executor of Thomas Witherly (?Wetherby) to William Price, for fifty acres of land upon Coxe's Creek, and
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bearing the date of the assembling of the Court. Apparently it was the custom for parties conveying land, or personal property to appear in Court, acknowledge the deed, and sign the record. The fifth court was held at the house of Mr. Seth Foster, Feb. 12, 1663 when the first civil action was determined. The sixth court was held at Mr. Thomas South's house, when Ric'd Tilghman sued Thomas Madbury for fail- ure of contract as overseer, and was now suited. The seventh court was held at the house of Mr. Edward Lloyd on the 3rd (or 30th) June 1663, when Mr. William Hambleton took the oath of High Sheriff of the county and gave his bond. He was probably the first who held that office. his duties having before been discharged by the consta- bles. The eighth court was held at the house of Mr. James Ringold, on the 25th August 1663. The ninth court was held at the house of Mr. Seth Foster, on the 25th Oct. 1663. The tenth court was held at the house of Mr. William Coursey, when Mr. Edward Lloyd first takes his seat as one of the Justices, in virtue of his being one of the Gov- ernor's Council and Judge of the provincial court. At this court we have recorded the return of a Jury of Inquest. The following charge was given to the Jury which was composed of these persons:
Mr. Thomas Hynson, Sen. Foreman
Mr. Thomas Hynson, Jr. Mr. Dan'l Glover
Mr. John Hynson
Mr. Thomas Norris
Mr. James Ringold
Mr. Rich Bradaway
Mr. Anthony Griffin
Mr. John Bowles
Mr. Edward Rogers
Mr. Edward Thomason
Mr. John Madbury
First. You are to make inquisition whether any man has been asses- ory or Principall. You ought to state the case in matter of Law how it lyeth.
2ndly. That Examin whether hee bee not a Felo Dese.
3rdly. Whether hee bee not a Devodane.
4thly. You are to examin the evidence and ground of your judgment upon that you shall sweare to the utmost of your skill to serve and try on the behalf of the Lord Proprietary the true cause how John Shorte here deceased, (before) came to his Death, ontimely death, that justice may be done in the same. Soe help ye God. This charge was given to the Jury of Inquest, whose names are here under written upon the death of John Shorte.
per mee HENRY COURSEY.
Here follow the names as given above. The evidence is all written out in the records, from which it appears that John Shorte, was the indentured servant of Mr. Thomas South, one of the Justices of the
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HISTORY OF TALBOT COUNTY
court. That the master had occasion to chastise this servant, when, rather than receive the whipping, John Shorte ran into the creek, and there in a considerable depth of water remained, while his master stood threatening him upon the bank. Then it came to pass that John Shorte was drowned-some said by his own act, rather than be chastised, and others said by the act of his master. The Jury however brought in this verdict:
Wee the Jury before mentioned, by virtue of these depositions have unanimously agreed and doe finde that John Shorte, late servant unto Mr. Thomas South is Fielo Desi: and this is our verdict that he ought not to have Christiall Buriall by Law.
It may be mentioned incidentally that the white servants in the early times of our State, were treated with a cruelty that would be incredible if it were not a matter of public record. The death of John Shorte evinces this-but there are hundreds of cases mentioned of great bar- barity in which the court was called upon to interpose. One cannot but remember that a similar case of alleged drowning to escape a whip- ping occurred upon Wye river nearly two hundred years after the death of John Shorte, which case Frederick Douglas has embalmed in his memoirs.
The eleventh court was held apparently at the house of Mr. Edward Lloyd on Wye River the 3rd Tuesday in January, 1663. At this court Robert Martin commenced suit against Henry Clay. This Henry Clay was a resident of Bayside, and lived near the head of Harris' Creek. He is thought, by Mr. John Bozman Kerr, a gentleman who has paid much attention to the genealogy of Talbot families, to have been the ancestor of Henry Clay, the great statesman of Kentucky. The twelfth court was held at the house of Mr. Richard Woolman on the 15th of March, 1663. At this court was recorded a "power of attorney" from Joseph Weeks to Thomas South. Query, was Mr. South the first attorney-at-law in the county? It was customary in our early courts for parties to suits to appear in proper person, the employment of attorneys was not universally resorted to until some years after. This same Thomas South was sued by Anthony Griffin at this court, for the use of his "cannew" which Mr. South had borrowed for a fortnight "for the Indians to hunt for him." Anthony claimed 10 lbs. tobacco per day. Anthony Purse, Constable of Chester Hundred presented Thomas Hynson, Jr., one of the Justices of the court, and Ann Gaine, for committing fornication, contrary to the Act of Assembly.
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Thomas pleaded guilty, but stated that though guilty, he had made Ann his wife, and therefore prayed indulgence from the court; but the court while it relieved him from the prescribed fine of 600 lbs. of tobacco, or in default of payment,
the corporal punishment by whipping upon his bare body, till the Blood do appear, so many stripes (not exceeding thirty-nine), as the Justices shall adjudge.
for his incontinence, suspended him from his duty as Justice of the Peace for one year and a day. Ann escaped entirely.
These brief abstracts of the records of the very earliest courts held in our county have been given on account of their great antiquity, their curious character, and as illustrative of our early civil history. It will be seen that our courts were not held at one place, nor had they any house devoted expressly to their use. There is little doubt that they continued to be peripatetic until as late as the year 1680, when it is mentioned that a court was held at the house of Philemon Lloyd. There is a record of a court held at Mr. Richard Tilghman's. Now if this Mr. Tilghman resided at the "Hermitage" on Chester river, as is probable, and if Mr. Seth Foster resided on Tilghman's Island, as is certain he did in 1669, the courts were thus held occasionally at the very extremities of the county, as then settled. This was probably for the accommodation of the people in widely separated sections, at a time when travel was difficult, and was conducted chiefly by water. There are many entries in the old levy lists of charges for boats for "carrying down the Grand Jury." About the year 1679, however, the court began to be settled and seems to have had possession of a house, probably under lease, for its purposes; and also it began to consider the matter of erecting a county building. On the 17th of June 1679 we have this record:
The Commissioners [or Justices] have agreed with Elizabeth Winkles to have the Court House which is now used to Keepe Court in, with the roome adjoining, until the latter end of November next in consideration we the Commissioners are to allow her as they think fitt.
The Court hath ordered Major William Coursey to treate with Richard Swetman to come to the aforesaid house to keep ordinary, as also to treate concerning the building of a Court House.
From this it appears that the house used as a hall of Justice, was also used as a house of entertainment or accommodation, and was occupied by someone who should take care of it for the use of the court. Sub-
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sequently, when a Court House was built, it will hereafter be seen that it was rented out, and the county derived a revenue from its occupancy. Apparently Elizabeth Winkles kept the house as a kind of ordinary or tavern, as probably there was no accommodation for the judges and those attendant upon the court, at the place of its settings. It is alto- gether probable that the house that was used by the Justices, and which was placed under the care of Eliz. Winkles was near the place where the Court House was subsequently built. Indeed, there is an order of the court on record to the effect that no liquor should be sold upon the plantation of Elizabeth Winkles while the Court House was in process of building.
In another article an account will be given of the erection of the first Court House in what is now Talbot County.
Those who took the pains to read the previous article respecting the Court Houses that have been used by the people of Talbot county as their places of judicature will have learned that the first courts in which our people were interested were the Hundred Courts of Kent Island, dis- regarding those minor manorial courts, which may have had an existance co-incident in time with these higher tribunals: that these Hundred Courts, first held by the Commander as Justice in his own house at Kent Fort, upon the southern part of the island, merged into the Kent county courts, when that county was established, and had a house specially appropriated to them in the Eastern part of the island, at least, as early as 1659, which continued to be used long after Talbot had been set off from Kent; that in 1660-61, our county having had her territorial limits defined, which embraced a large part of Queen Anne's up as far as Corsica creek, and perhaps beyond, but excluded the Island of Kent, which was subsequently annexed, (1695), the courts of our county were organized, (say in 1662), and for many years usually met at the private residences of the Justices, but occasionally in other citi- zens' houses; that, though sometimes for the convenience of the sparse population settled along the Chester and Wye rivers, the Eastern and Chesapeake bays, they met at remote situations, they commonly assembled at the plantations near the centre of settled portions of the county-about what is now Wye Landing; that gradually this locality became the place for holding the courts, near which a house was rented, was occupied as a Court House, and was so designated; that in June 1679 the court was in the possession of a house which seems to have been an inn or tavern kept by and perhaps belonging to one Elizabeth Winkles, who furnished the rooms for the court and also entertained the
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Justices: and finally that about this time the Commissioners determined to erect a building for their own proper use, and they set about it im- mediately, as will now appear.
But before proceeding to give an account of the building of this Court House it will be necessary to retrace our steps. Several years before this date the same subject had been under consideration with the Justices, for in a very old book of Judgments, quite imperfect, now in the Clerk's office, we find this record:
Att a Court held at Jonathan Hopkinson's in Wye River, the 27th August 1674, present
The Worshippfull
Mr. Richard Woolman Capt. Philemon Lloyd Capt. Jonathan Sybry (Sibery) Mr. Philip Stevenson Mr. Edward Roe Mr. Richard Gorsuch
Commissioners.
Then came Jonathan Hopkinson, and did sell unto the Commission- ers for ye use of ye County ten acres of Land, being for ye building of a Court House and a Prison. Ye said land to begin at a Pine tree marked, at ye water side, and Running east and by south up his plantation untill it comprehend the quantity of Ten Acres of ground between that and ye branch that lyes south from s'd plantation: it being sould for one Thousand pounds of Tobacco and Casque to be leaved (levied) out of the county, and the said Jonathan hath hereby engaged to give full assurance for ye said land unto ye Commissioners on the behalf of the county when he shall there unto (be) required.
The Court hath ordered yt the Prison be built upon the said land according to the dimensions following: That is a house of twenty foot in length and fifteen foot wide, and to be underpind two foot under ground, and a foot above ground with stone, and the said underpinning to be two foot thick, the side and the gabell ends up to the plate to be built with squared pieces of timber one foot square, and to be lofted with joyse of seaven inches square at the least and to be fower inches distant one from ye other, and the loft to be layed with two inch oake planke, and a partition in the said house with a convenient windore in each roome, and firm substantiall Iron Bars to each windore, and a proposionable roofe with a foot jet att the sides; and gabell ends of ye said roofe to have a duble covering, and the uppermost covering to be good white oake boards without any sap, with duble dore of two inch oake planke to be two futt and a half wide the said dore to be nailed w'th substantiall broad heded nailes, three inches asunder with soficient strong lock, iron bars and boults.
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