rossroads at Price's
Ordinary, and to negotiate for purchase of a two-acre parcel.[23] The
commissioners' report was not favorable to the site, however, and
negotiations for other land continued until, in May 1798, a group of
commissioners was appointed to inspect a site at Earp's Corner
(between a road which later became the Little River Turnpike and the
Ox Road), owned by Richard Ratcliffe.[24] The commissioners reported
favorably, and Ratcliffe was persuaded to sell four acres to the
County for one dollar. A sale was made, and the deed recorded on June
27, 1799.[25]

Work had begun on the new courthouse some six months earlier, as
indicated by the following notice appearing in the _Columbia Mirror
and Alexandria Advertiser_:

The Fairfax Court House Commissioners have fixed on Thursday the
28th instant for letting out the erection of the necessary Public
Buildings to the lowest bidder. As they have adopted the plan of
Mr. Wren, those workmen who mean to attend may have sight of the
plan.

Charles Little
David Stuart
William Payne
James Wren
Charles Minor[26]

The successful bidders at this event were John Bogue, a carpenter and
builder newly arrived in the United States, and his partner, Mungo
Dykes. They completed the construction of the courthouse late in 1799,
and on January 27, 1800, the Commissioners reported to the County
Court that they had received the "necessary buildings for the holding
of the Court", and found them "executed agreeably to the
contract".[27]

Within the four-acre courthouse tract, a half-acre was laid off to
provide space to build an office for the Clerk of the Court.[28] This
original tract did not provide enough ground for the jail yard and
other grounds comprising the courthouse compound.[29] Accordingly, in
March 1800 the Court ordered William Payne to prepare a new survey of
the compound, enlarged to accommodate all of the facilities required
by the law. The area of this new survey was ten acres, capable of
accommodating courthouse, jail, clerk's office, gallows and pillory, a
stable, a storehouse and possibly an ordinary.[30]

The equipping of the courthouse and transfer of the court's records
wer