foot high from outside to outside of the frame and four and a halfe foot wide four
windows more below Staires of the Said Dementions to be placed at the discretion of
the builder Assending above by a p^r Staires with railes and Bannisters a Grand Jury
room above thirteen and a halfe foot long with a passage from the Staires to the
Room four foot wide another petition from the Grand Jury room to be Twelve foot
which will make the Grand Jury room be thirteen and halfe foot long and Twenty foot
wide and the petty Jury room Twelve foot long and Sixteen foot wide the Clerks
Office Eight foot wide and Sixteen foot long with a window at Each End of the house
four Dormant windows Two on Each Side five foot high and four foot wide the End
windows of the Same bigness to be placed at the discretion of the builder all the
petitions abovestaires to be with Inch pine plank plained on both sides and aged with a
Large p^r of folding doors to come into the Courthouse belowstaires with all other
Necessarys as doors Locks Keys Hinges Glass—windows with shetters window high
with a Table in Every room with benches all round the barrs and a Table in the
Eight foot barr: to be lathed plastered and w^h washed below Staires with Summer
and Small Gice the rafters to be four and Six inches all abovestaires to be Seald with
Inch pine plank the Gable Ends to be carryed up with brick the wall to be Eighteen
Inches thick the foundation laid with Stone Two foot thick to the Water Table and
then Eighteen Inches thick all the way up the Gable End above girt to be fourteen
Inches thick to be plastered and whitewasht to be Shingled with poplar or Cypress
the back of the Justices Seat: to be wainscoated four foot high above the Seat with a
chaire for the Judge Two Chairs for the Cryer The Gallerys to be lathed plastered and
wtwasht underneath with Folding Casements for the Two End windows below and one
Casement in Each window below with Cornish and moulding all round the Eves with
forms to Every Table abovestaires all the abovesaid building &c to be performed in
good Sufficient manner and time —^:32

But Colonel Maxwell had not yet won. The battle shifted back to Annapolis where a new
tactic was tried. It was decided in the Lower House on October 30, 1710, that a bill should be
passed to settle the question of move or stay by a vote of the freeholders of the county, but
since nothing is heard of this bill in the Upper House it must have failed somewhere before
it reached that exclusive body.³³ Now the Grand Jury took up the fight in the local area. At
November Court 1710 it presented this protest to Her Majesty's Justices:

We of the Grand Jury being unfeignedly sensible of the Conveniencies of the
Court house as it is now appointed by Act of Assembly & by the Majority of the Court
& dreading the Effects of its Removal Some preliminaries being made towards its
Removal the Consequence of w^ch will reduce us to the Lowest Ebb of Poverty & being
desirous it may Stand & be where it is do humbly & heartily crave of this Court what
lies in their power to prevent it as being a palpable Notorious Greevance to this
County & that a Record of this our most humble Remonstrance may be made thereof.³⁴

The justices replied by ordering that 45,000 pounds of tobacco be levied immediately
"towards the building of the New Court house as also the sum of Six hundred pounds of
Tobacco for the Lot of Ground whereon it is to be built......." ³⁵ But the justices were still
divided as witness the clerk's further note: "all which Richard Colegate & William Talbot
Gentlemen Justices disassented to."

A year later, on October 29, 1711, Colegate attempted a new diversion by proposing to
the Lower House that Richardson's Forest at the head of Middle River be chosen as the new
county seat, and the House countered that the matter be referred to the people. But this second
attempt at a referendum also failed.³⁶ Meanwhile, at November Court 1711, the justices
ordered that two roads be built to Joppa and also that a conveyance be taken for the lot on
which the courthouse then stood.³⁷ The Grand Jury, however, was not to be denied another
protest, a final one as it turned out, at March Court 1711/12:

The Grand Jury returned again & exhibited to the Court the following present-
ment viz—

We of the Jury & Grand Inquest For the Body of this County as well as for her

32 Liber I. S. No. B. Part I. ff. 96-97. 33 Arch, of Md.. XXVII. 531. 34 Liber I. S. No. B, Part I, f. 182.

35 Ibid.. f. 185. 36 Arch, of Md., XXIX, 51. 37 Liber 1. S. No. B., Part II, f. 269. 22