" Here, at the
capitol, met the General Courts in April and October, the Governor and
Council acting as judges. There were also Oyer and Terminer and Admiralty
Courts. There were offices and committee rooms, and on the cupola a great
clock, and near the capitol was "a strong, sweet Prison for Criminals; and
on the other side of an open Court another for Debtors . . . but such
Prisoners are very rare, the Creditors being generally very merciful . . . . At the Capitol, at publick Times,
may be seen a great Number of handsome,
well-dressed, compleat Gentlemen. And at the Governor's House upon
Birth-Nights, and at Balls and Assemblies, I have seen as fine an
Appearance, as good Diversion, and as splendid Entertainments, in Governor
Spotswood's Time, as I have seen anywhere else."
It is a far cry from the Susan Constant, the Goodspeed, and the Discovery,
from those first booths at Jamestown, from the Starving Time, from
Christopher Newport and Edward-Maria Wingfield and Captain John Smith to
these days of Governor Spotswood. And yet, considering the changes still to
come, a century seems but a little time and the far cry not so very far.
Though the Virginians were in the mass country folk, yet villages or
hamlets arose, clusters of houses pressing about the Court House of each
county. There were now in the colony over a score of settled counties. The
westernmost of these, the frontier counties, were so huge that they ran at
least to the mountains, and, for all one knew to the contrary, presumably
beyond.
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