Five years afterwards, there was certainly a court-house standing in Henrico, for it became necessary to repair it, an indication that it had been in existence for some time. By the terms of the court's agreement with John Fail, a carpenter, new girders were to be put in the building, and also new rafters wherever the old were found decayed; the house was to be reshingled; and two windows were to be cut into the wall at the gable end; the whole floor outside of the bar to be relaid, and within the bar partially reconstructed; whilst new blocks were to replace the old under the house and the ground sills to be repaired and boarded down to the ground. Fail, who was to furnish the plank and nails needed in this work, was to receive seven thousand pounds of tobacco in compensation, and also all the material taken out of the house in altering it.3 This court-house was situated at Varina on James River. In 1690, Capt. William Soane, who kept the tavern at that place, obtained from the court permission to use the loft as a lodging room, provided that, during the sessions of the bench, it remained "clear and undisturbed" for the use of the several juries.4
