The Court and Bar of Colonial Virginia. ters as to criminal offences, which were to be tried by " twelve honest and indifferent persons,. to be sworn upon the Evangelists," etc., there are no court records of any jury trial until 1630, and it appears from them the number of jurors was not confined to twelve. On the records of the " Governor and Council, there appears the following: "July the gth, 1630. Dr. John Pott, late Governor arraigned and found guilty of stealing cattle, 13 jurors, 3 whereof councillors. This day spent in pleading; the next in unnecessary disputation : Pott endeavoring to prove Mr. Kingsmeal (one of the witnesses against him) a hypocrite, by a story of ' Gasman of Alfrach the Rogue.'" And on "July 30, 1630, William Matthews, servant to Henry Booth, indicted and found guilty of petit treason, by fourteen jurors. Judgment to be drawn and hanged.1 Prior to the monthly courts, the authority and jurisdiction committed to them had been exercised by what were called " Commanders of Plantations." They were officers in whom were vested both the civil and military com mand of a settlement. Each settlement was separately organized under its own Com mander, whose large discretionary powers insured to the settlers the best internal order, as well as the greatest security against in cursions of the Indians who constantly men aced them. After population had materially increased, these Commanders of Plantations became Commissioners of the Monthly Courts, and later Justices of the Peace, who, when coun ties were laid off and the Monthly Courts were changed to County Courts, constituted the County Court Bench. This latter change occurred in March, 1642, when the County Courts were first instituted, and their sit tings thenceforward were to be once in two months. This ancient court continued for over two centuries, and occupied a place peculiarly its own among the judicial institu tions of Virginia. It was also the police and •Hening's Statute, Vol. i, p. 146.
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fiscal agency of the county; it made the tax lev)' for county and state, appointed road supervisors and overseers of the poor, regu lated tolls on roads, bridges and ferries, etc. Thus the citizen was in constant touch with the County Court, and in time its standing became elevated to a high degree. It was no small honor to sit upon that bench, requir ing, as it did, the best ability and talent of the colony. So it was generally composed of landed gentlemen of liberal education, many of them graduates in law. "So perfect was the organization of the County Courts," says Hening, " so extensive the jurisdiction of the magistrates, both in law and equity, and so important their func tions in police and economy, that at the period of the Revolution our ancestors did not venture to touch the law establishing the County Courts, while the organization of the Superior Courts was materially changed." Such confidence was there in the intelli gence and probity of the justices that it is seldom a jury was ever demanded, so that they sat as judges, both of the law and of the fact, and it is said there were fewer appeals from their judgments than from anyother tribunal of the State. This ancient and honorable court, under the various mutations of times and circum stances, has undergone such radical and organic changes that its name is about all that is now left as a relic of its former dignity and fame. The " Governor and Council," after estab lishing the County Courts, became itself the first Court of Appeals, with however, origi nal jurisdiction in certain matters. It was styled the Quarterly Court. The time and place of its sitting was provided by an act of the House of Burgesses, February, 1613, in the following resolution : It is ordered and appoynted that the fowre quarter courts shall be held in James City yearlie, as followeth vizt. uppon the first day of Sep tember, the first day of December, the first day of March and the first day of June.
