y or formality with each other. Except in unusual circumstances
all were likely to be laymen, for in colonial Virginia there was
little formal education in the professions and, at most, one might
have attended lectures at the College of William & Mary or a school in
England. If the gentlemen justices were widely read in history,
philosophy, government and literature--as well they might be--these
advantages of their means and leisure did not destroy their
appreciation for the issues they were asked to decide. For in their
own right they were planters who had to face and deal with these
issues in their own lives. Accordingly, their decisions, as reflected
in the minutes of their sessions, were based on this realism which
comes from personal experience.

Yet it remained true that the gentlemen justices of the county court
were, for most practical purposes, beyond any control of the community
they governed. Any complaint about the manner in which the justices
conducted their business could only be directed to the governor.[64]
Should the court cease to function for long periods of time because of
quarreling among the justices, or should the occurrence of an
emergency require replacement of justices, the freeholders of the
county had no method of dealing with their problem except through the
pressure of public opinion.[65]

Even with the best of good will among the members of the court, they
could not escape the usual difficulties of handling legal matters
before a bench of lay judges, who not only lacked professional
training, but were handicapped by the scarcity and cost of law
books.[66] Decisions which seemed wrong could, from earliest colonial
times, be appealed to the governor and General Court. Later the
establishment of District Courts, and their successors the Circuit
Courts, provided an intermediate tribunal for determining matters
which turned on points of law. But the business of the gentlemen
justices on court days was a mix of legal and administrative matters,
and in the latter area of activity there was no appeal.

_Election Days_

Among the non-judicial activities carried on at the courthouse, none
was as colorful and few were more important than elections of members
of the House of Burgesses. Elections were ordered by writs issued by
the governor, and in each county they were conducted by the sheriff.
Unless reasons of the greatest gravity prevented it, the polling place
was the county courthouse.[67]