Breakfast, 50 cents; dinner, 50; supper, 50; lodging, 25; grain per gallon, 12-1/2; "stablage" and hay per night, 25; Madeira wine, per quart, 1.00; champagne, per quart, 1.50; other wine per quart, 50; French brandy, 12-1/2 per gill; rum, 12-1/2; gin, 12-1/2; whiskey, 12-1/2; corn per gallon, 25. Another order was made by the court on the first day of March, 1784, when it "proceeded to settle the allowances to the officers of the corporation." That order gave to the officers their salaries as follows: Mr. John Minor, Jr., attorney for the Commonwealth, 2000 pounds of tobacco; Henry Armistead, clerk, 1200 pounds; John Legg, sergeant, 1200 pounds; Henry Armistead, for attending all courts of inquiry, 400 pounds; sergeant for same, 570 pounds, and Wm. Jenkins, "gaoler," 364 pounds. For several years the salaries of the corporation officers were paid in the same manner and in the same currency. On the 2nd of August, 1784, it was "ordered that the clerk certify that this court do recommend Robert Brooke[52] as a person of probity, honesty and good demeanor." This recommendation, it is understood, was necessary in order for Mr. Brooke to obtain a license from the General Court to practise law; and on the 7th of February, 1785, Robert Brooke and Bushrod Washington[53] were admitted as practising lawyers before the court. Henry Armistead, the first clerk of the court, died about the first of August, 1787, and on the 6th of August John Chew, Jr., was appointed clerk to fill the vacancy. By that appointment we have this remarkable record, that from the appointment of John Chew, Jr., on the 6th of August, 1787, to the death of Colonel Robert S. Chew, on the 17th of August, 1886, the clerkship of the hustings court was in the Chew family, except the short time it was held by W. C. Strait under military appointment. It went from father to son for the fourth generation, covering a period of ninety-nine years and eleven days. These generations served as follows: John Chew, Jr., from 1787 to 1806; Robert S. Chew, from 1806 to 1826; John James Chew, from 1826 to 1867, and Robert S. Chew, from 1870 to 1886. On the 27th of February, 1789, we are told that "James Mercer, Esq., Chief Justice of the General Court this day in open court took the oath of a Judge to the District Court, pursuant to an act of the General Assembly entitled an act establishing district courts, and for regulating the General Court, which is ordered to be certified accordingly." From this entry we learn that James Mercer,[54] a Fredericksburg lawyer, was not only the chief justice of the General Court, which was held in Richmond, but the judge of the first district court held in Fredericksburg. This district court was the first court held in the town having jurisdiction over higher crimes than misdemeanors. Before the institution of this court all white persons charged with felonies were sent to Richmond for trial by the General Court.