No doubt the occasion of this removal was the fact that Culpeper, then embracing Madison and Rappahannock, had been cut off from Orange the year before, leaving the courthouse absurdly near the very edge of the County.

A proclamation under the hand of Hon. Thomas Lee, president of His Majesty's Council and Commander-inChief of the Colony and Dominion of Virginia, dated the 4th inst., adjourning the Court from the courthouse to the house of Timothy Crosthwait was read, and adjournment was immediately had to the said house "till to-morrow morning at 8 o'clock," and on the 24th day of November, 1749, Court began its sessions at our present County seat. And it was ordered, that Thomas Chew, Geo. Taylor, and Joseph Thomas provide deeds for two acres of land from Timothy Crosthwait to build a courthouse on, and that they lay off the "prison bounds."

1751, August. Ordered, that workmen be engaged to build an addition to the courthouse for the justices' room, sixteen feet by twelve. September: Crosthwait agreed to make a deed for the two acres whereon the courthouse and prison are now built, for five shillings.

May 30, 1752. Note that now the year begins on January 1st, and not March 25th as heretofore. Court agreed with Charles Curtis, builder of the courthouse, to receive the same and to allow him £72 as a full reward for the same, he having already received £32, equal in all to about $350. The first term of the court in this building was held July 6th, 1752, and this was the building next preceding the "old courthouse"

standing to-day, and remodeled into the storerooms occupied as drug and hardware stores, facing the railroad.

1754. An addition ordered to the courthouse twenty feet long, same pitch and width as the building, "to have a brick chimney," and be according to dimensions to be indicated by Thos. Chew, Wm. Taliaferro, and James Madison.

1764. Prison repaired; iron grating, and iron spancel and chain ordered.

1768. Pillory and stocks ordered, and extensive repairs to the courthouse.

1787. Court received prison on the undertaker's double ceiling the walls with one and a half inch oak plank inside, to be nailed on with a proportion of 20-penny nails.

1799. Ordered that the sheriff make known by advertisement and proclamation that proposals will be received by the Court for building a new courthouse where the present one stands.

1801. Robt. Taylor, Francis Cowherd, Robt. T. Moore, and John Taylor appointed commissioners to let building of an office 16 wide, 20 long, and 10 pitch, of brick.

1802. The three last named, with Dabney Minor and William Quarles, appointed commissioners to have laid off by Pierce Sandford two acres of ground at this place on which to erect the public buildings, and that Robt. Taylor be appointed to let the building of the office formerly ordered, 24 feet long, 16 wide, and 10 feet pitch. This was probably the old clerk's office in rear of the Bank of Orange.

1802, April. Ordered, that the building of the courthouse and office be let at the same time, and either publicly or privately.

1804, March. Commissioners appointed to view courthouse and office, and receive or condemn same, or make any compromise as to deductions which the undertakers may be willing to agree to. At the April term this item appears in the County levy: "To balance for building new courthouse and office, including additional work and painting, $2,340.47." This is the building now standing and facing the railroad, as above referred to.

July. Commissioners appointed to sell the old courthouse and office and apply proceeds to enclosing the public lot with post and rail fence in a strong and neat manner, and to building pillory, stocks, and whipping post.

1836. Jail ordered built, and probably completed within the year. This jail stood nearly in front of the old courthouse as it now is, and just across the railroad from it.

In 1852 the Legislature authorized the County Court to sell all or a part of the then public lot, and apply the proceeds of sale to the purchase of another lot, on which to erect a new courthouse and any building proper to be attached thereto.

The site on which the present courthouse stands, known as the "Old Tavern lot"was obtained by exchange, and the edifice constructed thereon after the plans of a paid architect, is not a very good one. The clerk's office

remained for many years on the old lot, the Board of Supervisors neglecting all appeals for a fireproof building.

Finally, on the motion of the writer, a rule was issued against them by the Court to shew cause for not complying with the statute requiring a fireproof building for the public records, and they proceeded at once to build the little structure now known as the clerk's office, which if fireproof is also convenience proof, and a reproach to the County. It was completed in 1894. The present jail was built, nearly on the site of the first Baptist church in the town, in 1891.

In January, 1832, a petition numerously signed was presented to the Legislature asking for authority to organize a lottery to raise $5,000, "to pave roads in Courthouse Village. Among the signers were Reynolds Chapman, James B. Moore, Joseph Hiden, Lewis B. Williams, Thos. A. Robinson, Mann A. Page, John Woolfolk, Philip S. Fry, Wm. B. Taylor, Geo. P. Brent, Richard M. Chapman, Peyton Grymes, John H. Lee, and many others. The Act authorizing the lottery was duly passed, and Messrs. Woolfolk, Williams, Richard Chapman, Hiden, and James G. Blakey named therein as commissioners to conduct the same. Nothing appears to have come of it, and the streets were first paved, or macadamized, by the Army of Northern Virginia in the winter of 1863-64, as a military necessity.

The village was first incorporated in 1834, as the Town of Orange, with James Shepherd, Richard Rawlings, Richard M. Chapman, Garland Ballard, Albert Nichols, Samuel Dinkle and Mann A. Page as trustees.