Fredericksburg, Virginia 1608-1908. Author:Sylvanius Jackson Quinn
which bill was passed in 1781. It provided for the town a Mayor, Recorder, Board of Aldermen and a Common Council, and required that all of them should be freeholders. They were made a body politic by the name and designation of Mayor and Commonalty of the town of Fredericksburg, and by that title were to have perpetual succession. The Mayor, Recorder and the four Aldermen were ex-officio Justices of the Peace, and had power to hold a court of hustings once a month, and to "hold pleas in all cases whatsoever originating within the limits" of the town and to "low water mark on the northwest side of the Rappahannock river and half a mile without and around the other limits of the said town." They were given the sole authority and power of "licensing tavern keepers and settling their rates," to appoint a sergeant with the powers of sheriffs, a "constable and other necessary officers of court and surveyors of the streets and highways." A surveyor of the streets was appointed at the first hustings court held by the Mayor and his fellow magistrates, but he was known as the "Geographer" of the town for more than half a century, and was often so entered upon the court records.
In civil cases the hustings court was not to have jurisdiction where the amount in controversy exceeded one thousand pounds of leaf tobacco, or its value in money, unless both parties to the suit were citizens of the town when the suit was instituted.
The corporate authorities were authorized to assess the inhabitants and all property within the actual bounds of the town for all the charges of repairing the streets, and other matters of municipal expense. They were empowered to erect workhouses, houses of correction, prisons and other public buildings, and to pass all necessary ordinances for the good government of the town. They were to have two market days in each week, and appoint a clerk of the market, "who shall have assize of bread, wine, wood and other things," and perform all the duties of Clerk of the Market. The market days were fixed by law on Wednesdays and Saturdays. It was also provided in the charter that if any person elected to an office failed or refused to serve, he was to be fined. The fines were regulated as follows: "For a Mayor-elect, fifty pounds; for the Recorder, forty pounds; for any Alderman, thirty pounds; for any Common Councilman, twenty-five pounds; for the City Sergeant, one hundred pounds; for the Constable, fifty pounds; for the Clerk of the Hustings Court and the Clerk of the Market, each fifty pounds; the Surveyor of Streets or Roads, each thirty pounds." These several fines were to be imposed by the hustings court, and "to be levied by execution against the goods and chatties of the offender." The charter also provided that in case of "misconduct in the office of Mayor, Recorder, Aldermen or Common Councilmen, or either of them, the others, being seven at least, shall have power to remove the offenders," and in case the other officers were guilty of misconduct, the power appointing them was clothed with the authority of revoking the appointment. It was provided that if the office of Mayor should become vacant, the Recorder was to succeed to the office, the oldest Alderman was to become Recorder, and "so on according to priority."
It was further provided "that all the property, real and personal, now held and possessed by the trustees of the said town of Fredericksburg, in law or equity, or in trust, for the use and benefit of the inhabitants thereof, and particularly the charity donation of Archibald McPherson, deceased, now vested in the trustees of said town in trust, for the education of poor children, shall be and the same are hereby transferred and vested in the Mayor and Commonalty of said town, to and for the same uses, intents and purposes as the trustees of the town now hold the same."
At the session of the Legislature in 1782 the charter of the town was amended and the jurisdiction of the hustings court was extended one mile without and around the former limits of the town on the south side of the Rappahannock river, and made a court of record and as such was authorized to receive probate of wills and deeds and grant administrations in as full and ample manner as the county courts could or might do. But no will was to be admitted to proof and no administration was to be granted unless the parties were citizens and residents of the town at the time of their death, and no deeds for conveyance of land were to be admitted to record unless the lands conveyed lay within the limits of the corporation. The court was empowered and authorized to appoint a person skilled in the law to prosecute for the Commonwealth and pay him a reasonable salary for his services, and when the Attorney for the Commonwealth was appointed for the town, it was to be exempt from paying any part of the salary of the Attorney for the Commonwealth of Spotsylvania county.
RAPID GROWTH OF THE TOWN.
On the petition of sixty-four of the leading citizens of the town, property owners and tax payers, complaining that certain provisions and requirements of the original charter of the town, granted in 1727, had not been enforced by the Council and complied with by lot owners, the Common Council, in 1782, passed an order which resulted in great benefit to the town in the way of improving vacant lots, erecting buildings and furnishing permanent homes for artisans, mechanics and laboring men. In the memorial submitted to the Council, these property owners complained of "being frequently subjected to the payment of many heavy Taxes and charges for the general benefit and improvement of the said Town of which many proprietors of unimproved Lotts pay no part, although their property is thereby daily rendered more valuable; That the proprietors of said Lotts, although wealthy, will neither build on them, nor sell to those who would, unless for exorbitant prices, by means whereof Rents are high and many useful tradesmen are prevented from residing in the said Town, to remedy which your petitioners pray that you, as Guardians of the said Corporation, will take into your consideration an Act of Assembly, passed in the year of our Lord One thousand, seven hundred and twenty seven, entitled an Act for erecting a Town in each of the counties of Spotsylvania and King George or so much of the said Act as may relate to the said Town of Fredericksburg. A due execution of said Law, your petitioners Conceive, will be productive of many real and very essential advantages to the said corporation; by encouraging the peopling of it and increasing its Trade and Navigation. Your petitioners do not wish that any immediate advantage may be taken of failures or defaults already heretofore suffered, by noncompliance with the above mentioned Act, but that Public notice may be given to the proprietors of such unimproved Lotts that a strict execution of the above mentioned Act of Assembly will be observed with all such as shall, in future, fail to perform, fulfil and comply with the rules and directions therein set forth." In consideration of the complaints of these citizens and the wise suggestions made in their communication, as well as the requirements of the act referred to, the Council ordered "that notice be given to the Proprietors of unimproved Lotts within this corporation, by advertisement in the Public News Papers, that they immediately pay up the Taxes due on said Lotts within this Town and that they be informed that they must build on their unimproved Lotts, agreeable to the Act of Assembly, passed in One thousand seven hundred and Twenty-seven, for establishing a Town in the County of Spotsylvania, otherwise the Lotts will be sold agreeble to the said Act."
In consequence of the enforcement of this order of the Common Council, both the taxable values, and the inhabitants of the town, increased rapidly. Instead of an empty treasury, as the town then had, and the necessity it found itself under of appealing to the public for subscriptions for money with which to repair and enlarge the church, to repair the market house, the courthouse and jail, so they could be used, the town soon had money for ordinary purposes, and also for repairing the public buildings, many of which had been used during the war by the soldiers of General Washington's army, leaving a good balance in the treasury, after the work was done. Nor was that all; in 1791, under the "Domestic Loan Act" of Congress, the town loaned to the general government $3,500. This loan was evidenced by four certificates, issued by the "Loan office" of the Government in Washington and are duly recorded in the record book of the Common Council.
METHODS OF PUNISHMENT.
It may be interesting to note that in the olden times there were other methods resorted to for punishing criminals besides fines,
jails and penitentiaries, which are not used in this day and time.
The Common Council, in 1785, passed a resolution ordering Sergeant John Richards to "erect immediately a whipping post, stocks and ducking stool." The whipping post was used mainly for the slaves who were guilty of small infractions of the law, but for aggravated offences, the penalty was "thirty-nine lashes on his bare back, well laid on," to which was added "burning in the left hand, in the presence of the court." The whipping post is said to have been used for habitual persistent absence from church, but it was very seldom used for that purpose,