[Footnote 9:  In Mitchell’s Atlas, 1883, the number of cases is in Va. 38, W. Va. 13, S. C. 16, N. C. 2, Ala. 1, Ky. 1, Ohio, 1.]

[Footnote 10:  A few of the oldest Virginia counties, organized as such in 1634, had arisen from the spreading and thinning of single settlements originally intended to be cities and named accordingly.  Hence the curious names (at first sight unintelligible) of “James City County,” and “Charles City County.”]

[Sidenote:  Powers of the court] The county court in Virginia had jurisdiction in criminal actions not involving peril of life or limb, and in civil suits where the sum at stake exceeded twenty-five shillings.  Smaller suits could be tried by a single justice.  The court also had charge of the probate and administration of wills.  The court appointed its own clerk, who kept the county records.  It superintended the construction and repair of bridges and highways, and for this purpose divided the county into “precincts,” and appointed annually for each precinct a highway surveyor.  The court also seems to have appointed constables, one for each precinct.  The justices could themselves act as coroners, but annually two or more coroners for each parish were appointed by the governor.  As we have seen that the parish taxes—­so much for salaries of minister and clerk, so much for care of church buildings, so much for relief of the poor, etc.—­were computed and assessed by the vestry; so the county taxes, for care of court-house and jail, roads and bridges, coroner’s fees, and allowances to the representatives sent to the colonial legislature, were computed and assessed by the county court.  The general taxes for the colony were estimated by a committee of the legislature, as well as the county’s share of the colony tax.

[Sidenote:  The sheriff.] The taxes for the county, and sometimes the taxes for the parish also, were collected by the sheriff.  They were usually paid, not in money, but in tobacco; and the sheriff was the custodian of this tobacco, responsible for its proper disposal.  The sheriff was thus not only the officer for executing the judgments of the court, but he was also county treasurer and collector, and thus exercised powers almost as great as those of the sheriff in England in the twelfth century.  He also presided over elections for representatives to the legislature.  It is interesting to observe how this very important officer was chosen.  “Each year the court presented the names of three of its members to the governor, who appointed one, generally the senior justice, to be the sheriff of the county for the ensuing year.” [11] Here again we see this close corporation, the county court, keeping the control of things within its own hands.

[Footnote 11:  Edward Channing, op. cit. p. 478.]