Parson Jones with his shrewd eyes was observing society
in the Old Dominion, Williamsburg was still a small village, even though
it was the capital. Towns indeed, in any true sense, were nowhere to be
found in Virginia. Yet Williamsburg had a certain distinction. Within
it there arose, beneath and between old forest trees, the college, an
admirable church--Bruton Church--the capitol, the Governor's house or
"palace," and many very tolerable dwelling-houses of frame and brick.
There were also taverns, a marketplace, a bowling-green, an arsenal, and
presently a playhouse. The capitol at Williamsburg was a commodious
one, able to house most of the machinery of state. Here were the Council
Chamber, "where the Governor and Council sit in very great state, in
imitation of the King and Council, or the Lord Chancellor and House of
Lords," and the great room of the House of Burgesses, "not unlike the
House of Commons." Here, at the capitol, met the General Courts in April
and October, the Governor and Council acting as judges. There were also
Oyer and Terminer and Admiralty Courts. There were offices and committee
rooms, and on the cupola a great clock, and near the capitol was "a
strong, sweet Prison for Criminals; and on the other side of an open
Court another for Debtors... but such Prisoners are very rare, the
Creditors being generally very merciful.... At the Capitol, at publick
Times, may be seen a great Number of handsome, well-dressed, compleat
Gentlemen. And at the Governor's House upon Birth-Nights, and at Balls
and Assemblies, I have seen as fine an Appearance, as good Diversion,
and as splendid Entertainments, in Governor Spotswood's Time, as I have
seen anywhere else."

It is a far cry from the Susan Constant, the Goodspeed, and the
Discovery, from those first booths at Jamestown, from the Starving Time,
from Christopher Newport and Edward-Maria Wingfield and Captain John
Smith to these days of Governor Spotswood. And yet, considering the
changes still to come, a century seems but a little time and the far cry
not so very far.

Though the Virginians were in the mass country folk, yet villages or
hamlets arose, clusters of houses pressing about the Court House of each
county. There were now in the colony over a score of settled counties.
The westernmost of these, the frontier counties, were so huge that they
ran at least to the mountains, and, for all one knew to the contrary,
presumably beyond. But "beyond" was