robably that the business of the court was transacted, as it had been
since early colonial times, at a large table, centered in the main
chamber of the courthouse and spacious enough to seat the justices of
the County Court and the sheriff, if the business of the day concerned
him. One or more separate tables customarily were provided for the
clerk of the court and those of his staff who attended the court
session. It was also customary to separate the portion of the
courtroom occupied by the Court from that occupied by the public, and
this was accomplished by installation of a wooden railing or
partition. Fireplaces heated the courtroom chamber and a second-floor
fireplace heated the jury room above the open arcade. Details of the
plastering and woodwork, the lighting fixtures and other hardware are
not known, yet it seems certain they must have been of good taste and
design, for their selection was in accordance with a plan prepared by
James Wren, the designer of The Falls Church, Christ Church in
Alexandria, and probably Pohick Church.

Although James Wren's name appears frequently in the public records of
Fairfax County during the eighteenth century, his principal legacy was
the architecture he designed and helped to build. In the 1760's
references to him are found throughout the Vestry Books of Truro
Parish and Fairfax Parish.[141] In 1763 he prepared the plans for
construction of The Falls Church, which formed the nucleus of the
village which grew up around it. In 1767 he designed the plans for
Christ Church in Alexandria. Wren and William Weit were each paid
forty shillings in 1769 for plans furnished to the vestry, for Pohick
Church.[142] He had, through design of these and other structures,
earned a reputation as the foremost builder and designer of buildings
in his locality[143]--a reputation attested to by numerous contracts,
recorded in the Fairfax County Court Order Books, under which young
men were apprenticed to him to learn the "trade sciences or occupation
of a Carpenter and Joiner."

According to Melvin Lee Steadman's genealogy of the Wren family,[144]
James Wren was born in King George County about 1728, the son of John
Wren and Ann Turner Wren. He learned his trade of carpentry and
joining there, and about 1755 he moved to Truro Parish, Fairfax
County. The first reference to James Wren in the land records of
Fairfax County is found in a deed dated June 15, 1756 in which one
James Scott conveyed to