It may be assumed that the Potomac Creek courthouse, which was built of
brick, resembled the courthouses of Hanover, King William, and Charles
City, and that its architecture, symbolizing the authority of Virginia's
government, reflected the official style expressed in the government
buildings at Williamsburg. All the successive Stafford courthouses from
1722 on probably were built on the old foundations; if so, the Stafford
building was the earliest T-form courthouse yet known in Virginia. Its
similarity to the three structures built in the 1730's shows that an
accepted form had developed, possibly, as Whiffen suggests, deriving
from a prototype in Williamsburg.
The courthouse bears no resemblance, either in its shape or the absence
of a basement, to the Structure B foundation at Marlborough. The site,
reached more easily than Marlborough from any direction, dictated the
removal to it of the courthouse in 1722, thus contributing to the demise
of Marlborough as a town. The last structure, especially, was
historically important because of the meetings of the Ohio Company held
in it. It is of particular interest to the story of Marlborough because
John Mercer was, for most of its existence, the senior justice of the
Stafford court.