A Quaint town: Eastville, Va., Contains Many Historical Buildings

There is a certain quiet charm and tinge of beautiful romance about the old scenes and old things in Eastville, Va., one of the oldest settled portions of the original colonies. The earliest settlement on the Eastern Shore of Virginia was made by Capt. Thomas Ancient Savage, at the foot of Savage's Neck, near this place, on a grant from the Indian king of the Accomacks, called the "laughing king." This grant included the present site of Eastville.

In the old clerk's office, erected in 1719, there are records going back to 1632, and unbroken to the present day, forming the oldest continuous records in this country.

From these one finds that the first courthouse was erected by Col. William Waters, in 1634, at a cost of 7,000 pounds of tobacco. The next one was erected in 1688 by Joseph Godwin, and in 1731 it was rebuilt in brick by Capt. John Marshall, at a cost of 50,000 pounds of tobacco. The old building has therefore a long and interesting history.

The other building, however, has been allowed to stand, and is now a venerable object of antiquity in the midst of change and decay. In this quaint and unpretentious structure were heard some of the most noted cases of Colonial times. It was 2 by 3 feet, one story high, with a loft for the jury.

Godwin's tavern existed for many years, but in 1750 the Taylor House was built to supersede the other, and it still is doing service as the town hotel. Another quaint old structure is the old Masonic Hall, built just after the Revolution, and used by that order for about a hundred years. In 1861 a body of Northern troops entered it and were charged with having taken away the silver-mounted regalia and other costly furnishings, and they have never been recovered.

The old clerk's office was erected in 1719, and the debtors' prison some years later. It is situated back from the street and contains many interesting articles, the old clerk's desk, the attorney's table and other furniture of the old courthouse and the case filled with old court papers, going back to the year 1700 and earlier. These furnishings are of solid walnut and did service for some 200 years. The building is of brick, of a quaint design, but well built and well preserved. At the door is the measuring post at which negro slaves were stood and measured before being auctioned. The debtors' prison adjoins the criminal jail and also is quiet looking. In it those who were unable to pay their debts were confined until they could make good with their creditors. They were limited to certain bounds, which were declared by the justices.

Christ Church also has a long and interesting history. In 1827 the present structure was erected to take the place of the old lower church of Northampton, which had then gone to decay. It contains the beautiful silver service, the gift of Gov. Francis Nicholson and Col. John Custis, and has a handsome memorial window, the gift of Lady Lennox, of Scotland. The church of which this is the successor, was standing in 1657, but it is not known when it was built. The foundations still are to be seen and there is a very large graveyard around it that still is used to some extent.

Among the interesting old homes is that of the late Dr. William Gilmer Smith, grandson of Francis Hopkinson, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. It is a structure of the old style, and contains some beautiful examples of the old pictured wall papering. It now is owned by Mr. K. A. Jarvis.