Colonial Courthouse

Colonial Courthouse. Urbanna, Virginia. The courtyard of Middlesex County's colonial courthouse was directly behind the brick courthouse building in view from this panel. In the year 1748, the Town of Urbanna became the county seat of Middlsex County. It remained so for 104 years when in 1852 the courthouse was moved to its present location in Saluda. Middlesex County's colonial courthouse still stands on Virginia Street as the Middlesex County Woman's Club building. The courtyard was located behind the courthouse and extended to Prince George Street. The grounds consisted of the courthouse building, a brick clerk's office building, jail, pillory, whipping post and stocks. National and local issues of the times were heard at the courthouse. In sympathy with the 1773 Boston Tea Party, Middlesex Resolutions were drafted and read to the people at the courthouse on July 15, 1774. The resolutions unequivocally staked out the positions of the people of Middlesex County and Urbanna that they would not tolerate taxation without representation. These resolutions, along with those of others in the colonies eventually led to citizen support of an American Revolution. The resolutions came in the aftermath of the imprisonment, in 1772, of the famous Baptist minister John Waller who was jailed in the "town gail" by an Anglican sheriff for preaching the gospel without an Anglican approved license. Waller sparked the town's "Great Religious Awakening" by preaching each day to town people who congregated outside the jail window. After the American victory at Yorktown, the Baptist faith spread like wildfire in Urbanna and Middlesex County.