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Few strangers, passing through New London today, would realize that this was once a flourishing town, or that it was thought by Thomas Jefferson to have a promising future and to be equal in importance to Charlottesville and Richmond.
In it’s prime, New London, first Bedford County Seat, was the foremost trading center in frontier Virginia. It induced some seventy or eighty houses, several stores and mills, a prison, the county court house, and an important United States Arsenal which was later moved to Harper's Ferry.
William Callaway donated land
for the pubic buildings, and offered lots to be sold to private individuals. The proceeds from these sales were placed in the county treasury.
Under the old district system, the Superior Court was held in New London, meeting for the first time in the home of Matthew Talbot on May 22, 1754. Later a Court House was erected on land donated by William Callaway, and it was in this building that Patrick Henry made his famous "Beef Speech." The case involved one John Hook, who was attempting to sue the American government because foraging
parties had killed some of his cattle to feed the troops during the Revolution. Patrick Henry carried the day by ridiculing Hook's position and making him the
laughing stock of the town.
The rock-paved Salem Turnpike was the town's
life line, connecting it with Richmond on the east. and Salem on the west. Wagon and stages coach lines gave regular service, and their
drivers and passengers found hearty meals and comfortable beds awaiting them at Echols Tavern, located where the Eichelbaum home now stands. The tavern was a large frame building with wide porches, and the muster grounds were directly back of it.
After the Revolution, the village suffered a decline, for river transportation was rapidly replacing the stage and wagon runs. The village of Lynches
Ferry (later called Lynchburg) was building up a sizable trade and was beginning to out-distance New London in business and population. Another
serious blow came when many of New London's Scotch merchants refused to take the oath of allegiance to the new American Government, instead
broke up their business and left the country.