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44-470: At that time Claverack was the seat of Columbia County . The courthouse was in use for 20 years until nearby Hudson replaced Claverack as the county seat. Martin Van Buren argued cases there, and Alexander Hamilton may have as well. The Harry Croswell libel case , in which a local journalist was criminally charged for his criticism of President Thomas Jefferson , was first tried here. After its days as

88-526: A Superior Court and Sheriff (as an officer of the court ), both located in a designated "shire town". Bennington County, Vermont has two shire towns; the court for "North Shire" is in the shire town Manchester , and the Sheriff for the county and court for "South Shire" are in the shire town Bennington. In 2024, Connecticut , which had not defined their counties for anything but statistical, historical and weather warning purposes since 1960, along with ending

132-495: A county or civil parish . The term is in use in five countries: Canada , China , Hungary , Romania , and the United States . An equivalent term, shire town , is used in the U.S. state of Vermont and in several other English-speaking jurisdictions. In Canada , the provinces of Ontario , Quebec , New Brunswick , Prince Edward Island , and Nova Scotia have counties as an administrative division of government below

176-490: A transom frame the entry, which consists of two Doric posts supporting a lintel with a molded top edge and applied dentils. The four-panel door is framed by flat surrounds and egg-and-dart molding. On the east there are three windows on the first story and two on the second. The clapboard -filled gable field has a large fanlight . The other two elevations are dominated by their respective wings. The narrow center hall has two rooms of equal size on either side. It once ran

220-410: A county seat may be an independent city surrounded by, but not part of, the county of which it is the administrative center; for example, Fairfax City is both the county seat of Fairfax County, Virginia and completely surrounded by Fairfax County, but the city is politically independent of the county. When the county seat is in the independent city, government offices such as the courthouse may be in

264-461: A court is almost always carried out by barristers (or advocates). A person who becomes an advocate or barrister is referred to as being called to the bar . In the UK, there is a distinction between the inner bar (for senior King's counsel ) and the outer bar (for Junior barristers ). The bar commonly refers to the legal profession as a whole. With a modifier, it may refer to a branch or division of

308-606: A courthouse ended, the building remained in use as a meeting room. It has since been converted into apartments. In 1998 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places . The old courthouse is on the north side of Route 23B, at the west corner of Old Lane, across the road from the Stephen Hogeboom House , also on the Register. The neighborhood is residential, with many other 18th and 19th century houses. It sits at

352-552: A given jurisdiction. In the United States, this procedure is administered by the individual U.S. states and their respective bar associations. In general, a candidate must graduate from a qualified law school and pass a written test: the bar examination . Almost all states use the Multistate Bar Examination (MBE), a multiple-choice exam administered on one day of a two- or three-day test. An increasing number use

396-703: A small news sheet called The Wasp . This led to Ambrose Spencer, by then the state's Attorney General , securing an indictment of Croswell from a grand jury on two charges of violating the Sedition Act in 1803. Spencer prosecuted the case personally, and Croswell was convicted. He appealed the verdict to what was then known as the New York Supreme Court, the state's highest. In a six-hour oration in Croswell's defense, Hamilton argued that truthful statements could not be libelous. The judges deadlocked, and Croswell

440-596: Is a metonym for the line (or "bar") that separates the parts of a courtroom reserved for spectators and those reserved for participants in a trial such as lawyers . In the United Kingdom, the term "the bar" refers only to the professional organization for barristers (referred to in Scotland as advocates); the other type of UK lawyer, solicitors , have their own body, the Law Society . Correspondingly, being "called to

484-409: Is known as the seat of its county. Generally, the county legislature, county courthouse, sheriff's department headquarters, hall of records, jail and correctional facility are located in the county seat, though some functions (such as highway maintenance, which usually requires a large garage for vehicles, along with asphalt and salt storage facilities) may also be located or conducted in other parts of

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528-725: The Uniform Bar Examination , which includes the MBE. In either case, on days during which the MBE is not administered, the bar exam may include questions related to that state's laws. If the candidate reaches the score required by a particular state, the candidate is then admitted to the bar . A lawyer whose license to practice law is revoked is said to be disbarred . State bar associations may set additional requirements to bar admission such as trial and court observations, character and background screenings, or an additional examination on professional ethics. Admission to practice before

572-471: The patent section of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) requires that the individual pass a separate, single-day examination administered by that agency. This test is typically referred to as the "patent bar", although the word "bar" does not appear in the test's official name. Unlike the general bar examination, for which graduation from a recognized law school is a prerequisite,

616-460: The USPTO exam does not require that the candidate have taken any law school courses. Instead, the main prerequisite is a science or engineering background, most often met with a bachelor's degree in a relevant field. Individuals who pass the examination are referred to as "patent attorneys" if they have an active law license from any U.S. jurisdiction, and "patent agents" otherwise. Attorneys and agents have

660-879: The United States, followed by Towson , the county seat of Baltimore County, Maryland . Likewise, some county seats may not be incorporated in their own right, but are located within incorporated municipalities. For example, Cape May Court House, New Jersey , though unincorporated, is a section of Middle Township , an incorporated municipality. In some states, often those that were among the original Thirteen Colonies , county seats include or formerly included "Court House" as part of their name, such as Spotsylvania Courthouse, Virginia . Most counties have only one county seat. However, some counties in Alabama , Arkansas , Georgia , Iowa , Kentucky , Massachusetts , Mississippi , Missouri , New Hampshire , New York , and Vermont have two or more county seats, usually located on opposite sides of

704-410: The bar" refers to admission to the profession of barristers, not solicitors. The origin of the term bar is from the barring furniture dividing a medieval European courtroom. In the U.S., Europe and many other countries referring to the law traditions of Europe, the area in front of the barrage is restricted to participants in the trial: the judge or judges, other court officials, the jury (if any),

748-584: The building, since he was attorney for his in-laws, who had ongoing litigation in the county over their landholdings in what is now Hillsdale . In the early years of the 19th century, a landmark case in American libel law was first heard in Claverack. Harry Croswell, a young journalist based in nearby Hudson who supported the Federalist Party , had been attacking President Thomas Jefferson and his supporters in

792-517: The counties after his unification, there were about 1,000. Under the Eastern Han dynasty , the number of counties increased to above 1,000. About 1400 existed when the Sui dynasty abolished the commandery level (郡 jùn), which was the level just above counties, and demoted some commanderies to counties. In Imperial China, the county was a significant administrative unit because it marked the lowest level of

836-418: The county, especially if it is geographically large. A county seat is usually an incorporated municipality . The exceptions include the county seats of counties that have no incorporated municipalities within their borders, such as Arlington County, Virginia , where the county seat is the entire county. Ellicott City , the county seat of Howard County, Maryland , is the largest unincorporated county seat in

880-414: The county. After World War II , in the late 1940s, a new owner decided to convert the building into a multiple-unit dwelling. This led to extensive changes to the interior floor plan, particularly in the rear wing. The garage was also added at this time. There have been no modifications since then. County seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government , or capital city of

924-420: The county. Examples include Harrison County, Mississippi , which has both Biloxi and Gulfport as county seats, and Hinds County, Mississippi , which has both Raymond and the state capital of Jackson . The practice of multiple county seat towns dates from the days when travel was difficult. There have been few efforts to eliminate the two-seat arrangement, since a county seat is a source of civic pride for

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968-458: The depth of the building but has since been truncated. The brick wing has been extensively remodeled for conversion into an apartment. In its brick wall the space of the old fireplace, now covered over, can still be seen. It has no cellar. The frame addition has also been remodeled. Considerable support has been added to the cellar. A load-bearing wall runs along the east side paralleling the hallway. Two old chamfered posts have been placed under

1012-404: The front of a 1.5-acre (6,100 m) lot . There is one other building, a modern garage, and a structure, a gazebo , on the property. Both of them are of modern construction and thus do not contribute to its historic character. The courthouse itself is a two-story, five-by-four- bay brick building on a stone foundation . It is topped by a gabled roof clad in seamed metal. Delineating it at

1056-497: The front portico, which echoes that of the Hogeboom house across the street. Over the rest of the century, a succession of owners, all like Hoffman formerly residents of New York City, moved in. At some point the frame kitchen wing on the rear was added. Some brought other renovations which give the house a mix of urban (the narrow center hall) and rural aspects. It also has the highest levels of ornamentation of any Federal-era house in

1100-424: The imperial bureaucratic structure; in other words, it was the lowest level that the government reached. Government below the county level was often undertaken through informal non-bureaucratic means, varying between dynasties. The head of a county was the magistrate , who oversaw both the day-to-day operations of the county as well as civil and criminal cases. The current number of counties mostly resembled that of

1144-572: The increase of Han Chinese population in Taiwan, the number of counties also grew by time. By the end of Qing era, there were 11 counties in Taiwan. Protestant missionaries in China first romanized the term as hien . When Taiwan became a Japanese colony in 1895, the hierarchy of divisions also incorporated into the Japanese system in the period when Taiwan was under Japanese rule. By September 1945, Taiwan

1188-611: The independent city under an agreement, such as in Albemarle , or may in be enclaves of the county surrounded by the independent city, such as in Fairfax . Others, such as Prince William , have the courthouse in an enclave surrounded by the independent city and have the county government, the Board of Supervisors, in a different part of the county, far from the county seat. The following counties have their county seat in an independent city: Bedford

1232-732: The later years of the Qing dynasty . Changes of location and names of counties in Chinese history have been a major field of research in Chinese historical geography, especially from the 1960s to the 1980s. There are 1,355 counties in Mainland China out of a total of 2,851 county-level divisions. In Taiwan , the first counties were first established in 1661 by the Kingdom of Tungning . The later ruler Qing empire inherited this type of administrative divisions. With

1276-399: The lawyers for each party, the parties to the case, and witnesses giving testimony. The area behind the bar is open to the public. This restriction is enforced in nearly all courts. In most courts, the bar is represented by a physical partition: a railing or barrier that serves as a bar. The bar may also refer to the qualifying procedure by which a lawyer is licensed to practice law in

1320-408: The leading lawyers in the state of New York at the time, such as William Peter Van Ness , Ambrose Spencer , Thomas P. Grosvenor and Peter van Schaack , men who later served as judges and public officials of the new state. Martin Van Buren of nearby Kinderhook began his career arguing cases in the courthouse on his way to becoming president. It is very likely that Alexander Hamilton appeared in

1364-433: The original Albany Post Road . The court had a small jail annex in the rear, and nearby were a pillory for public whippings and a hanging tree for more serious punishments. The pillory is no longer extant; the location of the hanging tree is not known. While construction was underway, the first sessions were held in 1787, with Judge Peter Van Ness presiding. Attorneys sworn into the new county's bar included some of

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1408-436: The profession: as, for instance, the tort bar —lawyers who specialize in filing civil suits for damages. In conjunction with bench , bar may differentiate lawyers who represent clients ( the bar ) from judges or members of a judiciary ( the bench ). In this sense, the bar advocates and the bench adjudicates. Yet, in some countries, judges who previously worked as lawyers representing clients commonly remain members of

1452-752: The provincial level, and thus county seats. In the provinces of Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia the term "shire town" is used in place of county seat. County seats in China are the administrative centers of the counties in the People's Republic of China . Xian have existed since the Warring States period and were set up nationwide by the Qin dynasty . The number of counties in China proper gradually increased from dynasty to dynasty. As Qin Shi Huang reorganized

1496-428: The roofline is a broad frieze with modillions and a molded cornice with partial returns. On the north side is a two-story wing that itself has a two-story frame wing, offset to the west. A one-story, one-room flat-roofed addition is on the west side. The south (front) facade is dominated by its main entrance. It has a portico with a flat roof and deep cornice supported by two fluted columns. Sidelights and

1540-441: The same license to represent clients before the patent section of the USPTO, and both may issue patentability opinions. However, any other patent-related practice (such as licensing or infringement litigation) can only be performed by licensed attorneys—who do not necessarily have to be USPTO-licensed. In the United Kingdom, the practice of law is divided between barristers ( advocates in Scotland ) and solicitors ; advocacy before

1584-443: The southwest room to shore it up. The building was used as a courthouse for the first twenty years of its existence. During that time, it saw many notable lawyers of the day and the beginning of one landmark case. Afterwards, it was used as a meeting house and house, with one owner making significant renovations to it. A century after that, more renovations were made, particularly inside, to convert it into apartments. Columbia County

1628-764: The state's area, has no borough government or borough seat. One borough, the Lake and Peninsula Borough , has its borough seat located in another borough, namely King Salmon in Bristol Bay Borough . In Louisiana , which is divided into parishes rather than counties, county seats are referred to as "parish seats". In New England , counties have served mainly as dividing lines for the states' judicial systems. Rhode Island has no county level of government and thus no county seats, and Massachusetts has dissolved many but not all of its county governments. In Vermont , Massachusetts , and Maine county government consists only of

1672-416: The towns involved, along with providing employment opportunities. There are 33 counties with multiple county seats in 11 states: Alaska is divided into boroughs rather than counties; the county seat in these case is referred to as the "borough seat"; this includes six consolidated city-borough governments (one of which is styled as a "municipality"). The Unorganized Borough, Alaska , which covers 49% of

1716-607: The use of county seats in particular, will fully transition with the permission of the United States Census Bureau to a system of councils of government for the purposes of boundary definition and as county equivalents. Two counties in South Dakota , Oglala Lakota and Todd , have their county seat and government services centered in a neighboring county. Their county-level services are provided by Fall River County and Tripp County , respectively. In Virginia ,

1760-470: Was a short distance to Hudson and travel between the two communities did not take long. The courthouse continued to occupy a place of respect within the community after the courts left. Its high ceilings made it ideal for public meetings, and it was also used for education and dances. In 1843 the county sold it. The new owner, Peter Hoffman, a Brooklyn merchant who had retired upstate, introduced some Greek Revival elements in his renovations, most noticeably

1804-413: Was an independent city from 1968 to 2013, while also being the county seat of Bedford County . Bedford reverted to an incorporated town, and remains the county seat, though is now part of the county. The state with the most counties is Texas, with 254, and the state with the fewest counties is Delaware, with 3. Bar (law) In law , the bar is the legal profession as an institution . The term

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1848-568: Was divided into 8 prefectures ( 州 and 廳 ), which remained after the Republic of China took over. There are 13 county seats in Taiwan, which function as county-administered cities , urban townships , or rural townships . In most of the United States , a county is an administrative or political subdivision of a state that consists of a geographic area with specific boundaries and usually some level of governmental authority. The city, town, or populated place that houses county government

1892-509: Was formed in 1786, with Claverack as its seat. That same year a resident, Gabriel Esselstyne, deeded the land to the county for £ 20. Local mason William Ludlow began construction in July. According to some accounts it took two years to complete, at a cost of £3,600. The courthouse was located at the junction of two major routes, the old Indian road across the county that later became the toll Columbia Turnpike (today followed by routes 23 and 23B) and

1936-405: Was never sentenced or retried. The following year, 1805, the state legislature wrote Hamilton's argument into state law. That same year, the county seat was moved to Hudson, growing rapidly due to its importance as a whaling center. Cases continued to be heard in Claverack for another year while the new courthouse was built there. Many lawyers and judges continued to reside in Claverack since it

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