BUILDINGS — COURTS — CHANGES OP THE
JUDICIARY.
The act incorporating the County in 1785, established the towns
of " Addison and Colchester to be half shires," " for the time being,"
and directed " that the times and places for holding County Courts,
or Courts of Common Pleas annually, be as follows, viz., at Addi-
son aforesaid, the first Tuesday of March, and at Colchester the
second Tuesday of November, and that the Supreme Court be held
on the second Tuesday of August^ alternately at Addison and Col-
chester." The Governor and Council were authorized " to appoint
€ounty Officers and commissionate them for the time being." The
Judges of the County Court, appointed under this provision " for
the time being," were John Strong of Addison, Chief Judge, and
Gamaliel Painter of Middlebury, and Ira Allen of Colchester,
side orAssistant Judges, and Noah Chittenden Sheriff.
The first term of the Court was held at Addison, on the first
Tuesday of March 1786. An act passed in February 1781, had
provided that the freemen should elect four Assistant Judges of the
County Court ; and before the next term of the Court, the freemen
of the County had elected William Brush, Hiland Hall, Sam-
uel Lane and Abel Thompson, Assistant Judges, and the Court
was held by them " at Captain Thomas Butterfield's in Colches-
ter," on the second Tuesday of November 1786. The March term
1787 was held according to the act at Addison ; and the County of
Chittenden, which included Colchester, being established before No-
vember, that term was also held at Addison. The Judges chosen
by the freemen in 1786, held the court in 1787 ;