From Historical Rutland: an illustrated history of Rutland, Vermont, from the granting of the charter in 1761 to 1911 by Rev. F. E. Davison, Rutland, Vt.: P.H. Brehmer, 1911, page 13:
From 1781 to 1784 county court was held at Tinmouth after which it was removed to Rutland. The court house for eight years was the old gambrel roofed house, still standing and occupied as a dwelling on West Street. Externally it was then substantially as it appears now. It had only two rooms, only one of which had a wooden floor. The west one was the court room, having a floor and seats on the north side, a little elevated for the judges, and benches for the jurors, witnesses and spectators. The east room had no floor, and answered all the other purposes of a court house, grand and petit jury room. Here the first U. S. District Court ever held in Vermont had its session, the first Monday in May, 1791, with Nathaniel Chipman as Judge and Frederick Hill as clerk.
Here too the state legislature met in October, 1784 and 1786. The jail was built of logs and stood a few yards northwest of the court house.
In the year 1792, a more commodious court house was built on Main Street, just north of the old Franklin House. It faced the west and was built of wood, framed and clapboarded, the funds for its erection [14] being raised by voluntary contributions. The Legislature of 1792 convened there in and on October 25th of that year there was passed "an act for the purpose of raising by lottery the sum of £ 160 lawful money, or the purpose of defraying the expenses of building the new court house in Rutland." In 1828 Geo. W. Daniels, a contractor, bricked up the outside of the building eight inches thick, the expense being borne by the citizens. An extension of 20 feet was added in 1844, and for over 75 years justice was dispensed in this building, until it was destroyed by fire, April 3, 1868. The new court house was commenced in 1869 and occupied for the first time in March, 1871. It is a pressed brick structure costing originally $72,000, and is situated on the corner of Court and Center Streets.
The whipping post was an important adjunct of the early courts for the suppression of crime, and one was established, in connection with the pillory, near the present site of the fountain, corner of Main and West Streets. Prisoners convicted of certain crimes were punished in the regulation manner, stripped to the waist, tied up to the ring in the post and lashed with the cat-o'-nine tails, the number of lashes being judged in the sentences. The last record of such punishment in Rutland is as late as 1808. Counterfeiting was one of the offenses in the early years of the existence of the community, and the records give an account of the severe punishment inflicted upon one Canfil Wood and a man named Carpenter in 1785. The sentence of the former was that he "receive fifteen stripes on the Naked Body, on the 15th day of instant (January) in Rutland." Carpenter was sentenced to receive thirty-nine stripes. These sentences were executed, and the feelings of the community towards that class of criminals is indicated by the sheriff's return, on which was endorsed the fact of the execution, followed by the expressive words. "Well laid on!"
In 1808, the principal criminal of those arrested for passing counterfeit money was found guilty and sentenced to stand one hour in the pillory, be whipped thirty-nine lashes at the public whipping post with cat-o'nine-tails, pay a fine of $500 and costs of prosecution ($67.20), and be confined to hard labor in the state prison for seven years arid stand committed until said sentence be complied with. The others received sentences more or less similar. The expedition and certainty of execution observable in those days is seen in the fact that the trial, sentence and execution of the same up to the time of transportation to prison, all took place in one day. Although the day was bitter cold and the snow deep, nearly one hundred sleighs were drawn up around the park, the inhabitants having turned out in large numbers to witness the whipping, which was lustily accomplished, at the close of which the sheriff washed the naked backs of the culprits with rum, which he poured from a large pitcher.
Imprisonment for debt was not abolished in this state until the year 1839, previous to which the courts were burdened with that sort of legal business.
On Woodstock Avenue is a marble post engraved "Jail Limit". beyond which prisoners could not go when out on probation.
On interesting old volume entitled "Travels Through the Northern Parts of the United States in the Years 1807 and 1808," published by Edward Augustus Kendall, describes a court scene in Rutland in the early days. The writer says:
"Rutland is the county town of the most populous county in Vermont; and adjacent to the inn at which I put up is the court house. On my arrival. which was after sunset, I found the public curiosity [15] engaged by a sitting in the court house, on some persons apprehended on the charge of counterfeiting bank-bills. As this was an offense of which I had heard much in all parts of Vermont, I had my curiosity, too, and I repaired immediately to the tribunal.
"At my entrance, I saw, through the dusk, about one hundred persons, shabbily dressed, standing, sitting and reclining on the benches and tables, and from this apparent disorder, I came to the instant conclusion that the court had adjourned, but after a few seconds * * * * I satisfied myself of my error. In short, I descried, upon the bench four or five men, dressed like the rest, but differing in this that they were bareheaded, while all the others wore hats.
"Having now made myself acquainted with the court, I looked next for the jury and the prisoners; but jury there was none; and as for the single prisoner that was present, he sat, undistinguished, among the lookers-on. By degrees, I discovered, that though there were a whole bench of judges, and six or eight lawyers at the bar, this honorable court was engaged merely in an affair of police, the court consisting only in the person of one of the magistrates, his bareheaded companions being but assistants in courtesy.
"The attorney general for the county of Rutland, aided by a second lawyer, appeared for the prosecution, and there were also two lawyers who defended the prisoner. These gentlemen, with many others, were seated at a table covered with a green cloth; and upon that table. sat two or three of the sovereign people, with their backs towards the honorable court. In front of the bench. and without the bar, upon a raised platform. was an iron stove. and upon the platform stood half a dozen of the same people. The stove, though both the court and the bar frequently spoke of their sufferings from the cold. and occasionally discussed the propriety of adjourning, to warm themselves in the adjoining public houses, contained neither fire nor fuel.
The presiding judge on this occasion was Theophilus Harrington (or Herrington), the eccentric magistrate of that period of whom many characteristic incidents are related. He was born in Rhode Island in 1762, and emigrated to Clarendon in 1786. It is related of him that on his return to Vermont after a business trip to Rhode Island, he saw a young woman named Betsy Buck in a house which he was passing. It was a case of love at first sight. and so strong was the impression made upon him that he stopped, made suit to her and took her with him as his wife when he left the house shortly. They settled in Clarendon and had a family of twelve children. Harrington represented the town seven vears, was Speaker of the House one year; was chief judge of Rutland County Court three years, and a Judge of the Supreme Court ten years. He died November 17, 1813, and was buried at Clarendon with Masonic honors. Perhaps the thing which will never die concerning this remarkable man is his ruling in reference to the return of a fugitive slave. Judge Harrington was applied to in those troublous days for a warrant for the extradition of a negro, who was
claimed as a slave. The claimant made out what he regarded as a prima facie case, and then "rested", but the judge intimated that the title to the slave was not satisfactorily established. Additional evidence was put in, but the judge was still not satisfied. A third attempt was made and proof was furnished that the negro and his ancestors before him had "time out of mind of man" been slaves of the claimant and his ancestors. Still the judge declared that there seemed to be a defect in the title. "Will Your Honor, then," returned the astonished claimant, "be good enough to suggest what is lacking to make a perfect title?" "A bilI of sale, sir, from God Almighty," was the reply. This decision, made as it was at a time when slaves were held even in the North, gave Judge Harrington a national reputation and made him immortal.