The third recourse for justice was to the monthly court, developed according to Stith, from the inferior court established in 1621. The Governor named the first justices of a new county, renamed justices in the old counties and filled every vacancy as it occurred. By Act of Assembly in 1628/29, the number of justices was to be eight, but later it was increased to ten. Four constituted a quorum. Three other members of the bench associated with one member of the quorum, who had a different status from the other justices, formed a sufficient number to make a valid court. The person whose name appeared at the head of the list of those constituting the quorum probably served as presiding justice; in his absence, the one named second and so on down the list. No pay was provided for the justices. In 1642, the Assembly ordered that at least six monthly courts be held every year and the justices were empowered to determine when extra sessions were necessary. At the same time, another Act of Assembly provided that Henrico should hold court on the first day of every month; Charles City on the third; James City on the sixth; Isle of Wight on the ninth; Upper Norfolk (later Nansemond) on the twelfth; Elizabeth City on the eighteenth; Warwick on the twenty-first; York on the twenty-fourth; and Northampton, (formerly Accomack) on the twenty-eighth. The careful spacing between these courts enabled attorneys to appear in cases in different counties with no conflict of dates. The range of cases that could come before a monthly court was naturally wider than could come before a magistrate. As much as ten pounds sterling could be involved in a suit and there was no appeal from the decision; when larger amounts were involved, the defeated litigant could appeal to the General Court. All questions where injury to life or limb was at stake went before the General Court. The monthly county courts had, in a general way, a jurisdiction resembling the combined jurisdiction of the English Chancery Court, King's Bench, Common Pleas, Court Exchequer, Admiralty and Ecclesiastical. The justices of the monthly courts looked after the poor and afflicted, held special orphan courts at least once a year, granted probates of wills, passed on appraisements of estates as presented to them for inspection, on inventories and estate accounts which also were presented for their scrutiny, and recorded conveyances of land.