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'''== Courthouse at John Hammond's'''==
'''== Courthouse at St. Mary's City'''==
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From: ''The County Courthouses and Records of Maryland -- Part 1One: The Courthouses,''Morris L. Radoff. Publication No. 12. Annapolis, MD: The Hall of Records Commission, 1960.
Although Giles Brent appointed justices to hear cases in St. Mary's County August 26, 1644,<ref>Arch, of Md., III, 150-51.</ref> there is no record of a fixed place of county government until ten years later. On October 20, 1654, the General Assembly passed an act establishing a county court<ref>
Ibid., I, 347.</ref> and shortly thereafter, December 5, 1654, John Hammond was authorized to build at his own cost a fitting courthouse and jail. In return for this service he was granted permission to operate a ferry over Newtown River for the convenience of those having business with the court, and he was also allowed to sell wine and hard liquor at retail.<ref>Ibid., X, 410</ref> The best authorities now believe that this courthouse was located on Hammond's property about a mile east of Leonardtown.<ref>Much of the information in this paragraph comes from Edwin W. Beitzell, "Newtown Hundred," Md. Hist. Mag., 51, 125-27. No description of this courthouse seems to have been preserved nor is it certain that it was not replaced before the county seat was transferred to St. Mary's City. The total loss of the county records has caused this gap in our knowledge of the courthouses of St. Mary's County, a gap which is likely never to be filled. It is worth noting that on August 7, 1677, court was held at the house of Stephen Murty at Newtown (Arch, of Md., LXVIII, 91). Was Murty an innkeeper?</ref>
When the General Assembly adjourned, October 18, 1694, it was understood that barring an emergency this session, which began September 21, would be the last ever to be held in St. Mary's City. Among other things left behind when the State government departed was the handsome, if fragile, state house then only twenty years old. A replica of this large cross-style building, one of the most remarkable in the colonies, was built as part of the Maryland Tercentenary Celebration in 1934.<ref>For a thorough study of the original building and the replica see Henry Chandlee Forman, Jamestown and St. Mary's, Buried Cities of Romance, Baltimore, 1938, pp. 282-95.</ref> The specifications of the General Assembly authorizing the structure are unusually full:
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Although this building seems to have been continually in disrepair from the beginning, it was still usable in 1695, and the General Assembly rather than sell or otherwise dispose of it, gave it to the justices of St. Mary's County so "That the place for holding the County Court of St Marys County shall forever hereafter be att the City of S' Marys in the State house ofthe said City there formerly built att the Cost and Charge of this province and in no other place of the said County whatsoever the same State house being hereby Allotted and appointed by this present Generall Assembly to the County of St Marys for holding and keeping theire Courts in and such other decent Services as to the Justices of the same County in full Court shall be Consented and agreed to."<ref>Ch. 13, Bacon's Laws. Text taken from Arch, of Md., XIX, 214.</ref>
But after the lapse of only a very few years the same residents of St. Mary's County and City who had tried to persuade the members of the General Assembly that St. Mary's City—and not Annapolis—was the most convenient place in the Province for the holding of courts and for other governmental business, now argued that St. Mary's City was not even a convenient place for the county seat of St. Mary's County! We know that in 1697/8 the state house was still in use as the county courthouse,<ref>Arch, of Md., XXII, 102.</ref> but sometime between that date and 1708 it ceased to serve that purpose.
== First Courthouse at Shepherd's Old Fields-Seymour Town ==
In an act of the November Session of 1708, the General Assembly notes that "the publick buildings and the Lands thereto belonging in the Town of St Maries in St Mary's County are now diverted from the Use for which they were intended, therefore it is thought fitt the same be Sold and disposed of for the use of the publick."<ref>Ch. 3, Bacon's Laws. Text taken from Arch, of Md., XXVII, 349.</ref>
In the same act, permission was granted for the selection of Shepherd's Old Fields as the new site for the county seat, and commissioners were appointed to lay off a town and to erect the necessary buildings. And until the buildings were ready, the court could meet at the place of Thomas Cooper near the new town site. When the General Assembly convened for the October Session of 1710, this new wooden courthouse was finished and an act was passed authorizing the justices of the county to continue meeting at the new site, which was then already known as Seymour Town<ref>Ch. 6.</ref> and which was later to become Leonardtown.<ref>Ch. 16, Acts of 1728.</ref> The justices were now absolved from the mandate of the Act of 1695 requiring them to meet for-ever afterward in the old state house at St. Mary's City, and they were ordered to remove the records from that place to Seymour Town.
== Second Courthouse at Seymour Town-Leonardtown ==
In 1736, the General Assembly empowered the justices of St. Mary's County to replace the wooden courthouse which had fallen into disrepair, and to build a new courthouse and repository for the records; and the act further specified that the new building or buildings should be of brick.<ref>Ch. 14, April Session ; Arch, of Md., XXXIX, 483.</ref>
It seems that this courthouse of 1736 was extraordinarily sturdy for we hear of no com-plaint for almost a hundred years. It must have been large too for the times in order to meet the expanding needs of the court, but since there is no description, we cannot be sure. In any case, it survived until March 8, 1831, when it caught fire and was almost totally destroyed.
== Third Courthouse at Leonardtown ==
In the ceremonies accompanying the cornerstone laying of the new building, it was said that "the Seat of Justice of St. Mary's County accidentally took fire and notwithstanding the presence of a large concourse of Citizens the flames had progressed too far to be arrested, and the building with many of its land and other records was entirely consumed." The Levy Court appointed commissioners to build a new courthouse immediately. These gentlemen borrowed $8,510 for the purpose from Robert Gilmor of Baltimore. The architect was William F. Small of that city and the builder, Ignatius Mudd of Washington, D. C. On August 6, 1831, the cornerstone was laid by Captain George Dent, a veteran of the Revolution, and the oration was delivered by Henry G. S. Key. Among the items deposited in the cornerstone was the motto "May the arrow of death quiver in the hearts of those who attempt to stifle the pure ermine of Justice within these walls."<ref>This information is from Chronicles of St. Mary's, I, No, 1. Leonardtown, St. Mary's County Historical Society, June 1953.</ref>
Such was the impressive beginning of the handsome Italian Renaissance structure created by William Small.<ref>For other examples of his work see Richard H. Howland and Eleanor P. Spencer, The Architecture of Baltimore, Baltimore, 1953, pp. 59-60.</ref> Legislative authorization for the project was forthcoming at the next session of the General Assembly<ref>Ch. 51, Acts of 1881.</ref> and the county seems to have taken possession shortly thereafter.
== Additions to the Courthouse at Leonardtown ==
This building continued in use until 1899 when it was razed to make room for the Victorian courthouse, which was completed by 1901 at a cost of about $22,000.<ref>The bond issue to pay for the building was authorized by Chapter 4, Acts of 1902.</ref> This building was not so imposing as its predecessor, but it provided adequate space for fifty years. It was designed and built by the B. I. Smith Company, Contractors. The chronology of the building is quite full because the minutes of the building committee on which his grand-father, Enoch Booth Abell, served have been preserved by Thomas E. Stokel of Leonardtown. We know from this source that the removal of the old building was completed on May 4, 1901, and the foundation of the new begun May 6. We are also told that Joseph H. Key was selected as orator at the cornerstone ceremonies and that George B. Dent was chosen to lay the stone. It has undergone extensive remodeling in recent years, and in 1957 it was entirely rebuilt according to the plans of Frederick Tilp, Architect of Washington, D. C. The contractor was Mervell M. Dean, Hollywood, St. Mary's County. The approximate cost of the work was $450,000, part of which was derived from a bond issue authorized by Chapter 108 of the Acts of 1955.<ref>This information was courteously furnished by Mrs. Sara M, King;, Clerk to the County Commissioners, and the Honorable C. Benedict Greenwell, Clerk of the Circuit Court, for St. Mary's County.</ref>
== References ==
