Town Fields

About two miles west was Town Fields, the first seat of local government on Virginia's Eastern Shore. English tenants settled there in 1620 after the Virginia Company of London set aside 500 acres to be used as a source of income for the Secretary of the Colony. In 1632 a commission was appointed to oversee the colony’s Eastern Shore settlements. The commission began holding court at Town Fields later that year, and its minutes are the genesis of the oldest continuous court records in the United States. Northampton County built its first courthouse at Town Fields in 1664. The county seat moved to present-day Eastville in 1677.