Josiah Sasser Early Courts

In 1779, during the middle of the Revolutionary War, the General Assembly of North Carolina divided Dobbs County, forming three new counties: Greene, Lenoir & Wayne. The last was named for the swashbuckling Whig general, Anthony Wayne, whose personal courage was daring enough to earn him the name “Mad Anthony.” The new county of Wayne was barely a year in existence when the British army, under Charles Earl Cornwallis, marched through on its way into Virginia to join General Phillips. This rendezvous with Phillips never took place & at Yorktown, Cornwallis was forced to surrender, thus ending the Revolution.

The first court held in the new county sat on the second Monday in January, 1780, at the plantation of Josiah Sasser on Little River. The following gentleman justices were present: Robert Simms, Etheldred Ruffin, Jesse Jernigan, John Handley, Thomas Williams, Stephen Cobb, Joseph Sanderson & John Sheppard.

In January, 1781, Robert Simms was elected first sheriff by the court & Thomas Gray, Stephen Cobb, Joseph Sanderson & Needham Whitfield were appointed inspectors of paper money. During the same court, Thomas Gray, Stephen Cobb & John Handley were appointed commissioners of confiscated property & they were bonded at 200,000 pounds each.

This committee was charged with the protection & distribution of the property confiscated from the loyal subjects of the King. These loyalists, called Tories, were forced off their land & in turn the land was sold by the state, the revenues going into the state treasury. This was one of the meaner aspects of the war, for many patriots made their fortunes on the misery of men of good conscience, whose loyalty to their king caused them to lose their possessions.

The commissioners appointed by the county were charged with handling the property for the state. Needless to say there was little heart in this for an upright man & very little property was confiscated in Wayne County, though there were Tories in the county.

It is unfortunate that many of the records of the Dobbs & Wayne county courts have not survived, for they would give us a much better picture of those early days. Jesse Cobb, clerk of the early court of Wayne, tried to save the court records when the army of Lord Cornwallis entered the county in April, 1781. He was overtaken & the papers were destroyed. Wayne was referred to by the British as an illegal county, being created as it was by the revolutionary government of North Carolina, therefore the papers of the county were not legal in the eyes of the King’s government. Most of the records of Dobbs, which escaped the Revolution & Civil War, were lost when the courthouse at Kinston burned in the 1880s.

In January, 1782, the court was still meeting at the Sasser plantation. This plantation was located on Little River in west-central Wayne County. The house built by Josiah Sasser’s son stands on that site today & is believed to date from about 1800. It is a stately house with dignified preportions, handsome moldings & delicate trim in the Federal-style. This style of architecture once flourished in Wayne County though little of it remains today.

On the second Monday of April, 1782, the court convened at the house of John Herring on Little River. This was not far from the Sasser plantation. No doubt Sasser’s illness & death prevented the court from meeting in its usual location. During the April, 1782 session, the will of Josiah Sasser was exhibited to the court & proved, with Elizabeth Bryan Sasser, the widow, as executrix. Sasser’s estate inventory shows him to have been a prosperous planter.

On the second Monday in July, 1782, the court sat again at John Herring’s plantation. Among other business, William McKinne, Sr. was appointed commissioner to collect the Specific Provision Tax as provided by an act of the General Assembly. McKinne was a wealthy planter, member of the vestry of Christ Church Parish in Craven County, delegate to the Provicial Congresses of 1775 & 1776, member of the colonial Assembly, militia colonel during the Revolution, close friend & political supporter of Gov. Richard Caswell & one of the committee appointed by the Assembly to lay off the new county of Wayne in 1779. He was married to a daughter of John Grimes of Dobbs County & had extensive plantations in what became Wayne county. His prestige was no doubt needed to collect the special tax from citizens already overtaxed & fighting against such measures.

The October court returned to the Sasser plantation. Elizabeth Sasser, who would soon marry William Blackman of Johnston County, was hostess to the court. The most interesting incident of this session is best recited in the words of the clerk: “John Rowell, whose wife & daughter, complaining that he had abused & threatened them prayed the peace of the State against him, he appeared & cross examined his daughter, Sabra & not liking some answer, assaulted & beat her in the presence of the court. He was adjudged in contempt & sentenced to three months in jail & to give a bond for $1.000 in specie for his good behavior.”

The session of Jan. 13, 1783 was held at Samuel Blythe’s, the November, 1783 session was held at Stephen Cobb’s house & the next recorded session was held at John Fleetwood’s plantation on Little River on July 12, 1784. It was during this session that Joseph Pipkin, Needham Whitfield & Stephen Cobb reported that they had let out the building of the courthouse, prison & stocks to Co. William McKinne for 335 pounds, his being the lowest bid.

On January 2, 1784, the county met at West Point, which was located on the Neuse River where Thoroughfare Swamp enters the river. A ferry operated by Dr. Andrew Bass had been authorized there at the April, 1782 court & since 178_ there had been an inspection station for tobacco located at West Point. Bass had also been allowed by the court to keep a public house for entertainment on his land on the north side of the river.

The commissioners named in the 1779 act of the General Assembly to select a site for the courthouse, goal & stocks recommended & got approval at a little attended court session. The plan best suited them personally. At the next court, with a larger attendance of citizens, the action was annulled & in 1782 the General Assembly passed an act reciting the failure of the commissioners it had named in 1779 & then appointed Needham Whitfield, Stephen Cobb & Joseph Pipkin to contract for three acres near the center of the county, for a courthouse, goal & stocks & to contract to have these erected.

As a result the commissioners purchased from Dr. Andrew Bass, on February 14, 1782, three acres on the north side of the Neuse River, about a mile from the present county seat. The dimensions of the courthouse, built by Colonel McKinne, were 24 X 16 feet & it was a simple structure, like most of the earliest courthouses in North Carolina. It was raised above the ground on brick pillars & weatherboarded.

The complex of courthouse, goal & stocks was called, simply, The Court House. In January, 1787, the town of Waynesborough was incorporated by an act of the General Assembly. The town was built around the Court House, which was surrounded by the lands of Doctor Bass, who was most probably aware of the development possibilities & quick to cash in on the financial opportunities.

Doctor Bass was one of the most interesting men in early Wayne. He came of a family of independent thinkers. His relatives, who lived in the eastern part of Dobbs (present day Lenoir) County, were against the Revolution & were labeled Tories. They were most probably opposed to any political doctrine. At one time an armed posse’ was sent to apprehend them & bring them before the court of Lenoir County.

Andrew Bass was a Whig, soldier in the Revolution, a physician (thought to have been self-taught), a delegate to the provincial congress at New Bern in August, 1775 & November, 1776, a member of the state Senate in 1782, a tavern keeper & delegate to the Hillsborough convention of 1788 which would not ratify the U. S. Constitution. He was an extensive land owner in Wayne & Johnston counties & was obviously quick in a business deal.

The courthouse at Waynesborough was used officially four times a year, winter, spring, summer & fall. These were the times the court met. It was also most probably used for other civic purposes.

On April 8, 1793, the court let out terms for the “repairing the Court house” in which the following repairs were to be made: “window shuts to Each window with Iron hooks without & within one pair of stairs to be run up in one corner of the house with a platform. The Stairs to be cased & a door with a shutter at the foot & Good lock & they to the said door. Also a Good Lock to the shutter of the door that passes into the said Court house. The said court house to be weather boarded in all places where the plank is off, or where it is split or splintered. The window sills to be well secured-the Barr to be replaced & the clerks Table.”

The lowest bidder was to have the job & work was to be completed by the October court, 1794. If the work was not completed in the specified time the bidder was to forfeit 25 pounds & in any case the bidder was to give security bond for the “faithful performance of the contract.” The bid was let to Sterling Powell for 19 pounds, 9 shillings.

This simple building stood until 1813. On March 31, 1812, the commissioners appointed by the justices of the county court, Nicholas Washington, one Woods, A. Carter & Samson Lane, let out a bid for the building of a new courthouse in Waynesborough. The old courthouse was referred to in their report as “inconvenient…(and a) disagreeable situation…”

Joseph Everett received the bid for $2,000, the work to be completed in eighteen months (August, 1813). The county was growing & a new county administrative building was badly needed.