Pictorial History

of

Bedford County,

Virginia

Page Three

This is the office of James Steptoe when he was Clerk of the Court at New London. This was the first county seat and the principal town of the county for 29 years. It was a well-known trading center for many years for the entire frontier country and a stopping place for travelers moving westward. A stockade was located there for confining Indians who refused to cooperate with the white settlers who were usurping their  valuable  hunting grounds.    For years Court Day on the Fourth Monday was a Bedford County Institution. It was the big day of the month and sometimes lasted two or three days. Justices brought their wives and people came from far and near to join the festivities.   

“Liquors flowed freely at Eckol’s Tavern” opposite the Court  House  and  at Thompson's Ordinary. Some imbibed  too freely and thereafter were in the custody of friends or the jailer. There is mention of one Court session which had to be postponed two hours until an unnamed justice had time to sober up. "At ten o'clock A. M., when court convened, the coach of Jimmy Steptoe, Clerk of the County from 1772 to 1826, would arrive and draw up with a swing at the courthouse steps. When he alighted and the coach had pulled away, he would turn to the front, sweep his hat off with a flourish, and march in. This was a signal for the justices to file in behind him and for the sheriff to take his position near the front, blow a blast upon his trumpet,  and  make  the announcement that Court now convenes.

“This gathering” at New London on Court Day must have been a colorful sight, for the gentlemen justices alone, to say nothing of their ladies, were dressed in colored silk velvet or broadcloth coats, knee  breeches  and  silk stockings, usually white, and plumed  hats  worn  over powdered hair and queues. Mr.  Steptoe wore white broadcloth with blue silk trousers."

Patrick Henry and other Pre-Revolutionary orators were among the great men of the colonies who fired the early inhabitants of Bedford County with  desire  and determination to be free and independent.

More About New London

New London served as the county seat until 1782, when it became advisable to divide Bedford County, because of the influx of so many settlers, and  place  the  seat  of government further west. When the division was made, New London was found to be just across the line in the new County of Campbell.

• Records Destroyed

The true history of the settlement of Bedford County is sketchy at best and to make things more complicated many of the official record’s of the  early  history  were destroyed by fire in the Mayor's Office in December 1926. Very fortunately, in 1949, records of the Town of Liberty were found among the papers of  Colonel  Daniel  P. Aunspaugh, who was clerk of the Board of Trustees of the Town. These papers had been stored for a century in the Old Aunspaugh Residence on East Main Street.