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boro where they met and proceeded with the business of the court on the same afternoon.10
At the same term of court they provided for the transfer of the records,11 and for selling the
old courthouse.12
Details of the building including the name of the architect are not certainly known to us.
There is a curious reason for our lack of knowledge in this case: at the March 1718 term of
court the justices ordered a special meeting to be held the following April to consider the
removal of the courthouse.13 There is no record of this meeting in the surviving proceedings
and it is permissible to assume, therefore, that a separate book was kept for this special
business. If that was the case, the book has since been lost.
While we are never positively told as much, we have every right to suppose that the
builder was a certain Levin Covington, whose inventory indicates that he was well supplied
with tools and materials for this sort of work.14 In any case, at the June Court of 1719, it
was ordered that "Mr. Levin Covington have the subscription allready subscribed for building
a New Court house and the tobacco of the county according to act of Assembly & towards
erecting of the same." 15
If we do not know exactly what Covington did, we do know what he left undone because
at March Court 1721 his successor, Robert Wheeler, excuses himself for not having completed
the tasks which were assigned to him—the interior of the building was not finished—because
of a severe fall, and he promised to complete his task with all due speed. The full agree-
ment follows:
According to the directions of the Act of Assembly for removing the Old Court
House from Charles Town als Mount Calvert to Marlbrough town, on the Eleventh
day of Febry last at the new Court house in Marlbrough town afd. the Wppful Robert
Tyler Joseph Belt and Ralph Crabb Three of His Losps Justices mett and agreed with
Robert Wheeler to lay the upper floor of the said new Court house Carry up the stairs
to fitt the office above stairs for security of the Records, to make a place of Judicature
and to raile in a place for Clerk and Jury with the old Bannisters, the said Wheeler to
make use of all the Stuff in the old Court house and to compleat and finish the above
work by the fourth Tuesday in March instant in Consid". whereof the said Wheeler was
to have Sundry private subscriptions made for compleating the abovementioned work
by severall persons amounting to Twenty four pounds Six shillings and Six pence
Current and two thousand nine hundred pounds of Tob°.—And now here at this Day to
witt the fourth Tuesday in March afd Comes the Said Robert Wheeler in his proper
person and informs the Court here that by reason of an unhappy fall whereby he
greatly hurt himselfe he has not been able to perfect the abovementioned work
according to the contract as to the time prescribed But says that he is willing on
haveing the Subscriptions ordered him (which unless done now will not be received
by him this year) to give sufficient security for Compleating the above work with all
convenient speed, Whereupon it was ordered by the Court here, that the said Robert
Wheeler receive to his own use the subscriptions of money and Tob°. abovementioned,
In Considn. of his performing the contract above recited as speedily as possible, And
thereupon the Worshipful Joseph Belt in his proper person in Court here undertook
for the Said Robert Wheeler, That the work abovementioned shall be finished perfected
and compleated with all Convenient speed.16
The history of the two acres which the justices were authorized to purchase in Marlboro
upon which to build the courthouse is equally complicated. At March Court 1729/30 Daniel
Carroll appeared as a party in a case having to do with the closing of a road. After the
hearing we find this minute of a most informal proceedings:
... At the same time the said Daniel Carroll being askt by the same Justices whether
he would convey & make over for the County's use the Two acres of Land formerly
promised by Mr. Henry Darnall (now in England) for the building the County Court-
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10 Court Proceedings, Liber K, f. 77, Ms.
11 Ibid., f. 80.
12 Ibid., f. 85.
13 Liber H, f. 802.
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14 Inventories 11, ff. 623-33. Ms.
15 Liber H, f. 861.
16 Court Proceedings, Liber K, ff. 90-91.
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