Justice in Colonial Virginia

ough the commander of the hundred also sometimes executed the orders of the governor.2 As late as 1633, we find the provost marshal making arrests, warning the court, imprisoning offenders, and inflicting on them such punishments as ducking, tying them by the heels, and setting them in the stocks. The fee which he received for the performance of each of these duties was set by the assembly. He was also entrusted with the care of prisoners, and had to provide them with " diet and lodging." For this he received a compensation which was paid by the prisoners themselves, and the amount of which was determined by agreement with them.2 It seems that the monthly courts at first elected sheriffs,1 but soon it became the custom for the governor and council to appoint them on the recommendation of the county commissioners. Vacancies were temporarily filled by the commissioners.8 According to a later practice, the office devolved on the justices in rotation. The oldest justice in the commission first served a term of one year, and then allthe others followed in succession.0 However, the old method of selecting sheriffs was afterwards revived, and from the end of the seventeenth century to the Revolution, sheriffs were appointed by the governor.7 During the greater part of the eighteenth century, it was the custom for the court of each county every year to recommend three of its justices as suitable persons for the sheriffalty, one of whom the governor would appoint sheriff ...