USA > Maryland > Talbot County > History of Talbot county, Maryland, 1661-1861, Volume II > Part 25
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In the year 1776, the Proprietary government having previously been deposed, a convention framed a constitution for the new born State of Maryland, and in 1777 this constitution became our funda- mental law. By this instrument, so full of sound political wisdom,
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so capable of adaptation to the ever changing phases of society, the judiciary and other civil machinery that had been in operation under provincial régime was changed. Yet it was not so radically changed as one would expect, considering the great political mutation which had just occurred. Under the proprietary government the highest judicial tribunal, that is of original or primary jurisdiction, was the Provincial Court. This, by the constitution, was merged into the General Court, which was required to sit, not as the Provincial Court at the seat of government-first at St. Mary's and then Annapolis-only, but al- ternately upon the Western and the Eastern Shores of the State. The county Courts remained pretty much the same as under the provincial system, but their organization was essentially modified in 1791 and more thoroughly in 1794. Beside the General and the County Courts, the new constitution provided for a Court of Appeals, which was at first required to sit only at Annapolis but subsequently, in 1805, when the General Court was abolished, was made to hold a session on the Eastern Shore, for the transaction of business for this section of the State. The constitution, besides reorganizing the judiciary system, created or continued certain civil offices, some of which were of a dupli- cate character, having places and incumbents on both the shores. At some future time, it is hoped, an opportunity will be offered to give a full and detailed account of the various changes that have been made, from time to time, in our judiciary, but now, there is no such opportunity.
Now these changes of the Courts, and this creation of new offices rendered it necessary that a larger and better appointed building should be erected for their accommodation, at least upon the Eastern Shore; . and accordingly at the very first session of the General Assembly after the adoption of our State constitution, we find that steps were taken towards this end. By an Act of Assembly entitled, "An Act to open Courts of Justice, and for other purposes" (177, chap. XV, sec. 9) among other things, it was provided
That the Judges of the General Court, or any one of them shall hold their first Court for the transacting and determining the business of the Eastern Shore at Talbot Court House, in Talbot county, on the second Tuesday of September next, and on the second Tuesday of April and September, until a town shall be laid out at Dover, and a Court and prison there erected; after which the said Court for the Eastern Shore shall be forever held at Dover on the second Tuesday of April and Sep- tember, *
* and that Justices of the several county Courts, under the present form of government, or any three or more of them, shall hold their respective Courts, on the days hereafter directed by acts of Assembly.
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It will be perceived that the Legislature contemplated not only the erection of a Court House and prison, but the foundation of a new town upon the Shore, which should be as it were a second Capital. This last remark is not merely inferential, but there is good authority for the declaration, as will appear in the sequel. The town of Dover had an existence, however, long anterior to the date of this Act, though it probably had no corporate existence-or was not laid out according to any law. The knowledge that any town of the name was ever within the bounds of the county, will probably be new to most of our citizens; but nothing can be better substantiated in our topographical annals than that upon the banks of the Choptank river, about three miles from Easton, upon the land known as Barker's Landing, now owned by Capt. Hardcastle and not far from what is now Dover bridge, there was in the middle, and even the earlier part of the last century, a town of considerable foreign trade, if not of very large population. At the place designated, there are the excavations of cellars, the débris of walls, and the remains of wharves and piers. Upon the adjoining farm of Mr. Will. T. Elliott, may be found many tombstones, which indicate the place of sepulcher for the village. All these serve to mark the site of this ancient settlement. The name of the bridge now in use, and of the former ferry at the same place, but which was kept at a point lower down the river in the earliest years of its existence, actually at Barker's Landing, is derived from the town which formerly existed near this river crossing, and not from the fact that by the ferry or the bridge the traveler may reach Dover, Delaware. The road called "Dover road" also derives its name from the fact that it led to Dover on the Chop- tank. There is abundant evidence in our county and other authentic records that there was a town at the point indicated, and it was at this town, to be laid out according to law, that the new Court House, for the General Court of the Eastern Shore, and for the accommodation of the State officers, for the same section, was to be erected.
The provision of the act of Assembly already quoted for the erection of a Court House for the Eastern Shore, at Dover, seems to have been entirely disregarded. There is no evidence that any attempt or overtures to an attempt, to carry it into execution were ever made, and the alter- native of holding the Courts at the Talbot Court House, as provided in the bill, was adopted. The county Court House near Pitt's Bridge was therefore used by the general as well as the county Courts for many years. In the year 1788, an act was passed repealing so much of the
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former act as related to the holding of the General Court for the Eastern Shore at Dover, and the second section of the bill (1788, chap. XVI, sec. 2) was in these words:
And be it enacted that the Judges of the General Court, or any one of them, shall hold their Court for transacting and determining the busi- ness of the Eastern Shore at Talbot, in Talbot county, forever hereafter; and that the name of the said town shall hereafter be called Easton.
It will be remembered that up to the year 1786, the village that had grown up around the seat of Justice in this county had no other name than that of the Court House-or Talbot Court House. In that year by act of Assembly (1785, chap. XXXII).
Messieurs Jeremiah Banning,
Hugh Sherwood, of Huntington,
John Stevens,
Greenbury Goldsborough and
Alexander McCullum,
were appointed a board of Commissioners to purchase lands, lay them off into lots, and make other arrangements for the founding and build- ing a town near the Court House, which town should be called Talbot. It was then first that the village was authorized to assume the name mentioned in the supplementary act quoted above. At this village and its Court House the General Court for the Eastern Shore was ever afterwards to be held, and it was to be called, thenceforward, not Talbot, but Easton, after Easton in England near Bristol on the lower Avon.
The insufficiency of the county buildings, however, had already been experienced, and the General Assembly following that which had di- rected the General Court to be held at Talbot, or Easton, namely, that of 1789, passed an Act (1789, chap. XXXVI) entitled "An Act for the building a Court House in Talbot county, for the accommodation of the General Court for the Eastern Shore, and the county of Talbot," of which the following is an abstract or brief:
Sec. 1. Whereas it is represented to this general assem- bly, that the court house belonging to the said is extremely inconvenient and incompetent to accommodate the general court, from whence it appears necessary that a court house should there be erected for the accommodation of the said general court: And whereas it is represented that the inhabitants of Talbot county are willing to defray part of the expense of the building; therefore,
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Sec. 2. Be it enacted, by the General Assembly of Maryland, That Robert Goldsborough William Perry, William Hayward, Howes Goldsborough Esquires James Tilghman, Jr., Pollard Edmondson and David Kerr shall be and are hereby appointed Commissioners for the purpose of carrying this act into execution.
Sec. 3. And be it enacted, That the public ground in the town of Easton, in the said county of Talbot, shall be and the same is hereby appropriated to the uses intended by this act, and shall hereafter be vested in the Justices of Talbot county court, and in the Judges of the said general court, for the mutual accommodation of the general court for the Eastern Shore, and of the county court of Talbot county.
Sec. 4. Provides for the levy of five hundred pounds on the property of the county by the Justices of Talbot county, one-half in the year 1790 and the other half in 1791, and the application of the same to the uses and purposes directed in the act.
Sec. 5. Authorizes the above mentioned Commissioners to draw upon the Treasurer of the Western Shore for the sum of Two Thousand Five Hundred pounds, to be paid out of any money in the Treasury of the State.
Sec. 6. And be it enacted, That the said Commissioners, or the major part of them, shall be and they are hereby authorized and required to contract and agree for the building of the said court house, and to direct the plan of the same; which said court house, when erected and finished, shall be used as, and taken held and deemed to be, the proper court house of the general court of the Eastern Shore of Maryland, and of the county of Talbot.
Sec. 7. Provides for the filling vacancies in the board of Commis- sioners, by appointment of the Governor and Council.
Sec. 8. Provides for the payment to the Commissioners of all their necessary expenses, contracted in the execution of the trust.
Sec. 9. Provides for the rendering a full and fair account to the Governor and Council, by the Commissioners, of all their receipts and expenditures.
In accordance with one of the provisions of this act the Justices of the county, did in the years 1790 and 1791 assess upon the property the amount of five hundred pounds, two hundred and fifty pounds in each year; but it does not appear that the erection of the building com-
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menced before the year 1792, for in Dec. 1791 another act, supplementary in fact, but not so called, to the former, was passed (1791, chap. IV) entitled "An Act to authorize the Commissioners for building a Court House at Easton, Talbot county, to sell and dispose of the old court house, and for other purposes therein mentioned." The preamble to this act is in these words:
Whereas it is represented to this general assembly that the Commis- sioners for building a court house at Easton, in Talbot county, are of opinion that the spot on which the old court house now stands in the most proper site for the new building: And whereas the records, books and some other things belonging to the public are deposited in the said old court house; therefore be it enacted, &c.
This bill provided (1) for the sale of the old Court House by the Commissioners; (2) for the renting or leasing by the clerk of the county Court and the register of wills of proper repositories for the books and other public property of their respective offices; (3) for the removal of the same books, papers and public property to the new Court House, within ten days after the date, when the several officers shall have re- ceived notice from the Commissioners that proper rooms had been provided in the new building for their reception; (4) and for the payment of all necessary expenses for such removal from the old, and re-removal to the new Court House, and for the rent of the rooms used while the new house was in progress of building.
A supplement to the above act was passed at the same session (1791, chap. XXVIII) authorizing the Justices of Talbot county Court
to contract and agree for a convenient house in the town of Easton, to hold Courts and elections for the aforesaid county, and from and after the first day of January, in the year seventeen hundred and ninety-two.
and commanding that such house should be considered the Court House to all intents and purposes whatsoever, until the completion of the new Court House. It also provides for the expense attending the renting of such "convenient house."
These laws passed by the General Assembly serve to give us many interesting items of information respecting the new Court House. It appears from them that the State defrayed much the larger part of the expenses incurred in the erection of the building. The whole cost of the building it was intended should not exceed three thousand pounds of current money. Of this the county assumed to pay five hundred only and the State twenty-five hundred pounds. This house was
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probably the largest building within the State, at the date of its erection, with the exception of the State House in Annapolis. There is very good ground for stating that this very liberal appropriation from the general treasury, and the extensive scale upon which it was determined to build the Court House, had not their origin solely in a desire to give accommo- dation to the various State and county courts, and the civil officers, but in an expectation that at some future time, and that not remote, the legislature would sit alternately at Annapolis and Easton, just as the legislature of Connecticut sits every other year at Hartford or New Haven. In truth the province, and then the State had long pos- sessed a kind of duplicate government, for while the governor was necessarily one, there were other officers for each of the two shores. It has been only within the recollection of persons now living that the custom of having a court of appeals, a land court with its judge and court officers, a treasurer, for each of the shores was abolished, and to the present there is not complete homogeny, for the United States Senators must be selected, one from the eastern and the other from the western section, while the Governor by a kind of conventional arrange- ment was until a very recent period chosen alternately from the two shores-Easton as being the seat of justice for the State courts of this shore and as being the place where the various State offices were located was for a long time called the "Little Capital," and doubtless its in- habitants indulged the fancy that a legislative assembly would some time or other hold its sessions in its Court House which was, in its day, quite an imposing structure.
From the laws, we learn also, that the new Court House was erected upon the same spot of ground that the house of 1712 stood, and that the old building was torn down to give place to the new. It is not unlikely that a portion of the old materials were incorporated into the new edifice. While the new building was in progress therefore, it became necessary to rent rooms for the courts and the officers of the county, within the village. The levy lists for the year 1793 and 1794 give us some slight information of the houses used for court purposes. We find that Jesse Richardson, Treasurer of Lodge No. 6 of the order of Masons, was allowed in 1793 four pounds ten shillings "for the Orphans' Court setting in the Lodge Room nine days," and fourteen pounds ten shillings "for the county court setting in the Lodge Room twenty nine days." In 1794 there is more than one allowance in the levy to Solomon Corner for the "sitting of the Court in his house." Ap- parently the Clerk's and Register's offices were in a house belonging to
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David Kerr, Esq., he having been allowed six pounds for the use of these offices. At one time, and most probably at this date, 1793-94, the Masonic Lodge Room was over the old market house upon Harrison street, between Dover and Goldsborough street-the building now used as a stable by Mr. John Mason. In these humble quarters, now de- voted "to such base uses," were our courts held. Mr. Solomon Corner of whose house also the court at this time made use, kept a tavern in this town. This was not the first time the court had sat in a house of public entertainment, as we have previously seen. Mr. David Kerr was a highly respectable merchant of Scotch descent, who for several years represented the county in the General Assembly, who at this date was Judge of the Orphans' Court, and who filled other offices with great usefulness and acceptance. No minute of the place of holding the General Court for the Eastern Shore has been discovered, as the records of that court were removed to Annapolis, with those of the Court of Appeals, into which it merged in 1805, when that court ceased to meet in Easton under the provisions of the constitution of 1851. It is probable, however, the General Court met in the same rooms, that were used by the County Court.
Another point is settled by the Acts of Assembly that have been quoted, namely, that the commissioners were authorized to contract for the building of the Court House, upon a plan and according to speci- fications that should be determined upon by them. A pretty thorough search through the Clerk's office has failed to discover a draft of this contract and this plan. It may yet be discovered at the seat of govern- ment of the State. There is a tradition which has not been certainly verified, that the architect of the State house at Annapolis was also the architect of our Court House. The similarity of the two structures may have been the origin of the current belief, but the long interval of time between the erection of the State House (1760, chap. XIV), and that of the Court House (1789, chap. XXXVI) renders the tradition improb- able. A Mr. Will Anderson was the architect of the State House, and may have been of our Court House. But it is very certain, from numerous records, that whoever was the designer of the building, Cornelius West was the contractor and builder. As there is no evidence that during the time of the erection of the Court House, he received or expected to receive anything more than the five hundred dollars appropriated by the county and the twenty-five hundred pounds appropriated by the legislature, it is presumable the contract was made for building the house, as we now see it, for this sum of 3000 pounds, currency. This converted
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into Federal money, at the rato established by the Act of 1781, namely, two dollars sixty-six and a two-thirds cents per pound, Maryland cur- rency, or seven and six pence to the dollar, made the cost of the Court House eight thousand dollars. As the value of money has very largely decreased since that time, by the increase of the production of gold and silver and the employment, more generally than before, of paper cur- rency, we may safely say the building cost a sum that would be equiva- lent to at least $20,000 of the money of the present.
But it would seem that Cornelius West either gave more and better work and materials than he should have had done, or he made a false estimate of the probable cost, for in the Maryland Herald & Eastern Shore General Advertiser-the first paper ever published upon this Shore- contains in its issue of Sept. 20, 1794, the following advertisement:
The subscriber gives public notice that he means to petition the next General Assembly of the State praying that compensation may be made him for what he actually lost in building a Court House of the county of Talbot, in the State of Maryland, by the unexpected and rapid rise for everything requisite for carrying on the said building, besides journey- men's wages, provisions, &c., which by a statement of the expenditures accompanied by the original estimate presented last session, is made to appear to be at least four hundred pounds.
CORNELIUS WEST.
Mr. West's petition was laid before the legislature, and received from that body favorable consideration, and as it seemed to be a fair and equitable claim, an Act was passed (1794, chap. LXIII) for his relief entitled "An Act for the relief of Cornelius West of Talbot County" of which this is a copy:
Whereas it appears by the petition of Cornelius West that he contract- ed with the commissioners for building a new Court House in Easton, in Talbot county, for the accommodation of the General Court for the Eastern Shore, and the County of Talbot; and whereas it appears that after making the said contract the prices of materials, provisions and labor took a sudden rise, by which the money contracted for did not pay more than the materials and workmen, leaving nothing for his own labour and expenses for near three years; and whereas it is just and reasonable that the said Cornelius West should have a compensation for his labour and expenses.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Maryland that the justices of Talbot County be authorized and empowered to levy on the assessable property of the said County, a sum not exceeding one hundred and fifty pounds, current money, to be paid to the said Cornelius West, or his order.
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The amount stated in the bill, not nearly so much as was asked, was accordingly levied, as appears by the records of the Levy court, and doubtless paid to the contractor. This did not save him from bank- ruptcy, for he is said to have been pecuniarily ruined by the faithful job performed by him for our county. Some of the sub-contractors are said to have suffered also.
The building appears to have been completed early in 1794, for among the minutes of the county court held the second Monday in June, of the same year, appears this record of its formal acceptance by the Justices :
Whereas by an Act of Assembly passed at a session of the General Assembly of Maryland begun and held in the city of Annapolis on Mon- day the seventh day of November, and ended the thirtieth day of December in the year 1791, it was enacted that the Justices of Talbot County Court be authorized and requested to contract and agree for a convenient house in the town of Easton to hold the Courts for the county aforesaid, and from and after the first day of January in the year 1792 the several courts and elections for the county aforesaid shall be held at such house as aforesaid provided by the Justices aforesaid, and that the said house shall be considered as the Court house of the said county to all intents and purposes whatever, until the New Court House shall be finished for that purpose, and that the several courts and elections, as soon as conveniently may be shall be held in the new Court House, and not elsewhere; and whereas the Commissioners for building the said new Court House have signified to the court, that the said new Court House is finished and has been delivered to the builder thereof, for the pur- poses for which it was erected, it is therefore ordered by the Court that the said new building is received and shall be considered henceforth as the Court House of Talbot County to all intents and purposes whatso- ever.
Ordered that public notice be given of the above at the Court House door.
It is probable this court, held in accordance with the law of 1790 on the second Monday in June, was the first ever held within the new building, but the various officers had taken possession of the rooms assigned to them a little before this time, say in April, as appears by several advertisements inserted in the Herald.
It would seem that at this date the hours of business commenced with sunrise, and closed with sunset. It is likely that from the first, the Clerk and Register occupied the rooms now used by them, in the N. E. and S. E. corners of the building. The Register of the land office at first had a desk in the office of the Register of Wills. Subsequently the
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room in the rear of the Clerk's office-that is in the N. W. corner- was used by him. The Sheriff has the room now occupied by the Board of School Commissioners, and here was also the clerk of the Court of Appeals, in the last years of the sittings of that court upon the Eastern Shore, though the original office of this Clerk was in the N. E. corner room, on the second floor. There were two grand halls of justice occupy- ing the center of the building above and below. Upon the first floor, sat the county court, but subsequently it sat above stairs during the Fall term. There was then no partition across the lower hall, and the whole space was open. In the large hall above sat the Court of Appeals, the room having a partition across it, so as to diminish its size, and enable it to be warmed. Here also sat the county court in autumn, as stated above. The judges occupied, what was termed the "seat of justice"- the recess in the western end of these halls-not as now, the eastern end. The General Court made use of one of these halls; which, is not known, as that court has been so long abolished no one now living can remember when it held a term in Easton. Probably, however, it sat in the same room that was subsequently used by the Court of Appeals. Besides these courts, it is certain that occasionally the United States Circuit Court held its sessions in the new Court House. In the Her- ald of Nov. 18, 1794, there is printed a most remarkable charge of Mr. Justice Blair to the Grand Jury, at a term of this court. The striking feature of the charge was its political character. The Judge being an ardent Federalist, he took occasion to belabor severely and without stint not only those who were engaged in the Whisky Rebellion, but their apologists, the Republicans of the day; nor did he spare those who were then in sympathy with the French, a nation that was then carrying things with a high hand, at home and abroad.
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