The Andrew County Republican. [volume] (Savannah, Mo.) 1871-1876, 1872-05-10
Selected Miscellany.
Old Virginia Lawyers.

For a long period in h early history
of the colony of Virginia, no lawyer could
lawfully take a fee for pleading the cause
of a client i'm court, nor give counsel in
n cause or controversy, for any kind OF
compensation, under a penalty OF five
thousand pounds of tobacco for every Of
fence; but in 1850, after a quarrel which
had lasted thirty-eight years, the House
ofBurgesses again admitted them to the
practice of their profession, and fixed their
COMPENSATION at rates which were meant
to be liberal. For conducting a cause in the
chief court of the colony an attorney was
allowed to charge five hundred pounds of
tobacco, and in 1.-THE county courts IN hun
dred and fifty pOunds-splendid compen-
sation if tobacco could only have been
kept to a shilling a pound. When John
Role, not vet husband of Pocahontls,
planted the first tobacco seed in James
town in 1872, good tobacco sold in Lon
don docks at five shillings a pound, or
two hundred and fifty pounds sterling for
a hopshead of a thousand pounds weight.
Fatal facility of money making. 1t was
this that diverted all labor, capital, and
enterprise into one channel, and caused
that first ship load ofnegrOes in the James
River to be Sc welcome. The planter
could have had but n Object-to get
more slaves i'm order to raise more tobacco.
Hence the price was ever Oh the decline,
dropping first from shilling to pence, and
then going down the scale of pence, until
it remained for two years at an average OF
about two pence a pound in Virginia.
and three pence in London. In Virginia,
it often fell below two pence; rs during
brief periods of scarcity, it WOULD rise to
sixpence and seyenpence. A fee of five
hundred pounds of tobacco. from 1850 to
1850 might average about three guineas
and a fee of one hundred and fifty pounds
of tobacco, something less thar one
guinea. These sums, small as they seem
to us, sufficed to create the profession OF
the law in Virginia, and to draw into it a
few of the younger o n of great plan
tiers, and the eldest Ons of Western yeo-
men.
But these fees were the highest that
could be charged. 1t is evident from JEFF
ferson's own books, that his usual com
pensatiOn was somewhat less; for, he.
records, that during his first year at the
bar, I7G7. he wa employed in siXty-eight
cases before the General Court-business
that must have brought with it many
cases in county courts; but his entire
emolument for the year was a little more
than two hundred pounds sterling; or, in
the currency of Virginia, as set down by
himself, with J~effersOnian eXactneSS, two
hundred and ninety-threc pounds four
shillings ~five-pcnce and three farthings.
From the accounts of later years, should
conclude that his cases. one with another,
yielded him about one pound sterling
profit; for the number of his cases and
the number of pounds of his law income
are never far from equal. i'm the buster
years of his practice. Translating the
pounds of that period into the dollars of
this, it was as though n lawyer of the
present day should receive fifty dollars
for arguing a cause before the Supreme
Court of the United States, ten. dollars
for a cause before a local court. two dol
lars for 4 verbal opinion. and five for a
written one. As late as 1892, when law
yers' fees were again fixed by law i'm Vir-
ginia. the most eminent lawyer in the
State could not legally charge. for the most
elaborate written opiuiOn on the most alb
struse question relating to real estate.
more than sixteen dollars and siXty-SiX
cents; and when lawyers attended at a
distance from their homes. they could
charge for their time not more than three
dollars and fifty-eight cents per day.
Well might Mr.. Webster say, that i'm that
age lawyers, worked hard. lived well,
and died pOOr."