Part #2 The First Courthouse for Orange County, NC At the beginning of the formation of Orange County, the courthouse was not located in Hillsborough, as it is today, there was no Hillsborough in 1752. The first courthouse was located in the present day Alamance County town of Haw River, NC. ************************************************************************* As was the practice, KIMBROUGH provided two sureties that he would build the courthouse, stocks, and jail at his own expense. He would not be paid until after completion of the work, but he stood to benefit from the tavern and lodging trade that court sessions would bring. KIMBROUGH had operated an ordinary in Edgecombe County, and there had been a petition there to move the county court to be near his establishment. The justices specified that the courthouse would be 32 by 22 feet with a pitch of 11 feet, framed, and weather boarded with feather edge plank and shingled roof. The prison was to be 20 by 12 feet with a central partition. They specified further that it was to be made of hewed logs eight inches thick, weather boarded with feathered edged plank, with shingled roof, and floored above and below of hewed logs. The contract stipulated that "the work is to be finished in a workmanlike manner within two years from the date hereof" In the meantime however, the courthouse was to be "fit for the reception of his Majesties Justices at their next sitting". The minutes of this first session of the Orange County court ended as follows: "Court adjoined till Court in Course to be held at the place where the Courthouse is to be Built". The law had set the next session for December 1752. The minutes for that session, which opened 10 December 1752, indicate "that the court met at Mr KIMBROUGH". Orange County Court met there for four sessions, and also the March 1754 session. The December 1753 granted KIMBROUGH a license to keep an ordinary "at his home", and also granted a license permitting Brasel BRASHER to keep a second " Ordinary at the Court House". To be continued.... Sources: State Records of North Carolina 23: pages 390, 399, 25: pages 271 and 272 N.C. Archives: Minutes of Orange County of Pleas and Quarters 1752-1755 Collet Map 1770 Mouzon Map 1775 Price-Strother Map 1808 North Carolina Archives: "Journal of a Journey to Pee Dee" by John Saunders