Virtual Tour -
Colonial Courthouse
Colonial Courthouse
The Colonial Courthouse at American Village is a replica of the Courthouse at Williamsburg. It serves as an educational space, with students engaged as delegates to the Fifth Virginia Convention, debating Virginia’s Resolves for Independence. It is also transformed into The Mayflower, complete with a ship’s mast, crates and chests, and a very immersive portrayal of the ocean crossing undertaken to America. At other times students experience spy scenes, as they are interrogated by redcoat soldiers who believe them guilty of passing secret messages to patriots.
Colonial Williamsburg Courthouse
The Colonial Williamsburg Courthouse was constructed from 1770 to 1771 in the Georgian style. It is located facing Market Square with Duke of Gloucester Street running directly behind it. The property was acquired by Colonial Williamsburg in 1928. The courthouse was the site where Benjamin Waller read aloud the Declaration of Independence on July 25, 1776, after it arrived from Philadelphia. Williamsburg’s citizens assembled at their courthouse at 1:00 p.m. Thursday, May 1, 1783, to celebrate at last the end of the war with England.
Here were heard the debtor’s dispute with his creditor, the complaints against the pig stealer, and the apprentice’s pleas for protection from an abusive master. Punishment was quick; the whipping post and the public stocks stood just outside, a few steps from the prisoner’s dock. Serious cases involving free subjects (ones for which the penalty touched life or limb) were the province of the General Court, which met each April and October in the Capitol.
When they weren’t hearing the petty crimes and civil cases, colonial Virginia’s courts acted as community council or board of supervisors. They were the principal agents of local government.
The building was used as a hospital for the Confederate Army after the Battle of Williamsburg in the Civil War.
