The history of the Potomac Creek courthouse site has been presented
thoroughly by Happel, but a brief review is in order here. Happel shows
that a courthouse was ordered built in 1665, a year after the
establishment of Stafford as a county. He quotes a court reference in
1667 to the road along the south shore of Potomac Creek, running from
the "said Ferry," near the head of the Creek, "to the Court house to the
horse Bridge," which he identifies as having spanned Passapatanzy Gut.
In his opinion, this courthouse was near the mouth of the Creek, but he
fails to show that it equally well may have been near the site of the
later 18th-century structures.
[Illustration: Figure 58.--DRAWING MADE IN 1743, showing location of
Stafford courthouse south of Potomac Creek (orientation to south).
(Fredericksburg Suit Papers.)]
[Illustration: Figure 59.--ENLARGED DETAIL from lower right portion of
figure 58, showing location of Stafford courthouse south of Potomac
Creek.]
We have seen that in 1690 court was first held in Thomas Elzey's house,
seemingly located near the 18th-century courthouse site, and that orders
were given that it continue to meet there until the new courthouse was
ready. The history of the new courthouse at Marlborough has already been
recounted, its final demise occurring about 1718. The court's official
removal from Marlborough was agreed upon July 20, 1720, and, as already
noted, "the head of Ocqua Creek" was designated for the new site,
although obviously by error, since Potomac Creek plainly was intended.
Happel tells us that the Potomac Creek building burned in 1730 or early
1731 and that the justices were ordered on April 27, 1731, to rebuild at
the same place. It is this next building that was depicted on the 1743
survey plat (see fig. 58). In 1744 a bill was presented in the Assembly
to relieve persons who had suffered or "may suffer" from the loss of
Stafford County records "lately consumed by Fire";[162] apparently the
courthouse had again burned. There seems to have been a delay of about
five years in rebuilding it this time. Pressures to relocate it were
exerted in the meanwhile and hearings were held by the Governor's
Council on a petition to "remove the Court House lower down."[163] The
Council listened, then "Ordered, that the new Court House be built where
the old one stood."[164]
[Illustration: Figure 60.--EXCAVATION PLAN of Stafford courthouse
foundation.]
This settled, Nathaniel Harrison and Hugh Adie contracted in 1749 with
the justices of Stafford court to build a "Brick Courthouse, for the
Consideration of 44500 lb. of Tobacco, to be furnished by the last of
October, 1750."[165] Harrison was a distinguished member of the colony
who, as a widower, had moved to Stafford County the previous year and
had married Lucy, the daughter of Robert ("King") Carter of "Corotoman"
and widow of Henry Fitzhugh of "Eagle's Nest."[166] Harrison, who later
built "Brandon" for himself in King George County, probably provided the
capital and the materials, and perhaps the design, of the courthouse.
Adie, of whom nothing is known, was doubtless the carpenter or
bricklayer who actually did the work.
[Illustration: Figure 61.--HANOVER COURTHOUSE, whose plan dimensions
correspond closely to the Stafford foundation.]
The construction was delayed by "many Disappointments, and the Badness
of the Weather." Finally, in the spring of 1751, it was about to be
brought to completion, "when it was feloniously burnt to the
Ground."[167] In April 1752 a special act was passed in order to permit
a levy to be made which would allow the Stafford court to reimburse
Harrison and Adie for the amount of work which they had accomplished on
the courthouse and the value of the materials they had provided.[168]
No record exists of the contract for the next--and last--courthouse
building on the Potomac Creek site. Quite possibly Harrison and Adie
again did the work. This building was used until removal of the court to
a new building completed between 1780 and 1783 on a site near the
present Stafford courthouse. It remained standing throughout most of the
19th century, according to local memory. In surveys of 1804 and 1805 the
structure was identified as the "old court house."