a member of the judiciary. He attended the first session of the court, and in 1772 Jacob Bayley of Newbury was sub stituted in his place. In 1774 John Peters of Bradford was appointed one of the judges. Assistant judges and justices of the peace were appointed. Kingsland, where the town of Washington is now located, was selected as the county-seat; it was an unset tled mountainous town, without an inhabi tant and eight miles from any settlement. A town plot was laid out into village lots, and in the centre of the plot a log jail was erected which gave the name " Jail Branch" to a tributary of both Winooski and Wait's rivers. The court met for the first time on the 29th day of May, 1770, the three judges being present, and " opened as is usual in other courts." The court docket states: "N. B. These courts were the courts of Quarter Sessions and the Court of Common Pleas for said county." Justices of the quorum were present. John Taplin, Jr., was high sheriff, and John Peters clerk. The court adjourned, without transacting busi ness, until the last Tuesday in August, 1770, when constables were appointed for some of the towns, and an order made " that the plaintiff filing declaration in the clerk's office eight days before the Court should be a Barr to the Defds. Pleading an Imparlance." At the following term, in November, 1770, eight cases appear upon the docket, and notwithstanding the supposed pacific disposition of the Quaker, Judge Sleeper, he appears as plaintiff in one and defendant in another. He was not present either as judge or party; and one of his cases was entered "action called Put over" and the other " Nither appearing Nothing done." The other causes were " put over," or adjourned to next term. Court adjourned to the last Tuesday in February, 1771; and the record of the term following is in these words, namely; — "Feb'v 25* 1771 Sett out from mooretown for Kings Land travieled until Knight there Being No
Road and the Snow very Deep we travieled on Snow Shoes or Racats. on the 26'1' we travieled some ways and Held a council where it was Con cluded it was Best to open the Court as we Saw No Line it was not whether in Kingsland or Not But we concluded we were farr in the woods We Did not expect to see any House unless we marched three miles within Kingsland and No one Lived there when the court was ordered to be opened on the Spot Present JOHN TAPUN Judge JOHN PETERS of the Quor"' JOHN TAPUN Jur Sheriff all Causes Continued or adjourned over to Next tirm the Court if one adjourned over untill the Last tuesday in may Next"
In May the court succeeded in reaching the court-house, and the session was opened "att Kingsland " by Proclamation. A re cognizance, " Dated some time agoe," in a bastardy case from Newbury was adjudged to be forfeited, two judgments rendered and two causes continued, when the court ad journed until the August term. There is no record of any subsequent term, until that of May, 1772, when, no business being trans acted, court adjourned until the last Tuesday in August, to the town of Newbury. At this time the settlements on the west side of the Connecticut extended far north towards the Canadian line; many families residing in Maidstone. The people required courts more easily reached than those held in Kingsland; and on the cth of April, 1772, the provincial government passed an ordi nance directing the court to hold a session in Newbury on the last Tuesdays in February and August, " during the space of seven years." After this date terms were regularly held at Kingsland in May and Novem ber, and at Newbury in February and August, until February, 1774. The court docket until and including this term is in the Orange county-clerk's office, and is the only known record of the court. John Peters was clerk until June, 1774, when John
