the sheriff to summon a guard, and "to provide shackles, bolts, handcuffs, etc." A committee was also appointed to "build a prison and erect stocks." Great importance was evidently attached in those days to "stocks." It was thought quite impossible for a well-ordered community to get along without them.
After a short session on the 10th, the court adjourned till the next court in turn. In pursuance of the Act of 1738, the court then met on the second Monday in each month.
The business of the county court, as indicated by the order books, was heavy and diversified. The first session of court was held, as stated, in December, 1745, and by the February term following there was a large docket of causes for trial. Single justices had jurisdiction of causes involving less than twenty-five shillings. In all other causes at law and in equity, civil and criminal, (not involving loss of life or member), the court had jurisdiction, there being, however, a right of appeal to the general court, which was then composed of the Governor and his council. Attendance at the county court every month became burdensome to the people, and in October, 1748, an act of assembly was passed, establishing quarterly courts for the trial of causes. Four or more justices were required to constitute a court.
We may mention that the first clerk of the county court, John Madison, was the father of the Rev. Dr. James Madison, for some time bishop of the Episcopal church in Virginia. John Madison, the clerk, Gabriel Jones, the lawyer, and Thomas Lewis, the surveyor, whose wives were sisters (Misses Strother, from Stafford county), lived in the same neighborhood, near Port Republic.
Among the first justices of the peace we find John and Andrew Pickens. One of these was the father of the distinguished General Andrew Pickens, of South Carolina. General Henry Lee states in his "Memoirs of the War" (page 594), that General Pickens was born in Paxton township, Pennsylvania, September 19, 1739. His parents were from Ireland. When he was a child his father removed to Augusta county, Virginia, and in 1752 to the Waxhaw settlement, in South Carolina. He was actively engaged in the Indian wars and the Revolution. He was conspicuous for his valor at the Cowpens, Haw River, Augusta (Georgia) and Eutaw; and Lee declares
