Excerpt from Justice in Colonial Virginia Inimical relations continued to exist between the council lors, and dissentions never ceased to rise until another form of government had been adopted by the colony. Several other members were added to the council, but, by the spring of 1609, the number had been so reduced by deaths and removals that Smith was left sole councillor. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1905 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER III. The Inferior Courts. The Monthly or County Courts.--The most important inferior court was the one regularly held in each county. It was at first known as the monthly court, but it was afterwards given the English name of county court. The first monthly courts were established as early as 1624. At that time it was provided by an act of assembly that courts should be held every month in the corporations of Charles City and Elizabeth City.1 The creation of these courts was the necessary outcome of the rapid growth of the colony which began in 1619. When the cleared areas began to lengthen along the river and to encroach more and more on the wilderness, it became very inconvenient for those colonists living at a distance from James City to go there for the arbitration of their minor differences. The need of local adjudication in small matters naturally became felt first in the more remote settlements, and, as one would expect, the first two monthly courts were established on the eastern and western frontiers. The jurisdiction of the county courts was limited to petty cases coming up from the precincts immediately adjacent to them, and thus the judicial authority of the governor and council was, for a considerable part of the country, left unimpaired. 1 In an address made before the Virginia Bar Association in 1894, Judge Waller Staples said that monthly courts were first established in 1623. This statement is based on a law passed by the assembly in 1624; the mistake in the date arises, I presume, from an erroneous reading of "1623-4," which is given by Hening as the date of the act. It is not improbable that these two courts were established as early as the year 1619, and that the act of 1624 was only a statutory recognition of...