Olde Colonial Courthouse

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• This invoice indicates that the County appointed a committee responsible for building a new courthouse as early as 1763. Furthermore, expenditures were made for building the new courthouse and efforts were undertaken to sell the old courthouse at that time. Although it is reasonable to assume that this invoice is part of a larger construction project, no further information has been found to confirm that the Olde Courthouse was, in fact, built in 1763, or immediately thereafter. 

• Secondary historical accounts, e.g., books on the history of Barnstable County, typically date the construction of the Olde Courthouse in 1772 or 1774 without providing references to primary information or other sources. These dates are probably suggested by a well-documented protest that took place at the Barnstable Courthouse on September 27, 1774. On that date, a band of patriots barred the King’s judge from entering the building to protest a decree that required all jurors be appointed by the Crown’s local sheriff. [1] According to an account of this event published in 1837, this was the “first open overt act done in the face of day without disguise (in the controversy with Great Britain), which according to the British jurisprudence would be called treason.” [2]

• The Olde Colonial Courthouse served as the Barnstable County courthouse until the current courthouse was completed in 1834. When its mission as a courthouse ceased, the building was sold to Sidney Ainsworth and subsequently deeded to Samuel Whitman on March 16, 1840. 

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• 1] See Freeman, Frederick, History of Cape Cod: The Annals of Barnstable County, including the District of Mashpee,Vol. 1; Printed for the Author, Geo. C. Rand & Avery, Boston, 1858. Trayser, D.G. (ed.), Barnstable: Three Centuries of a Cape Cod Town, F. B. & F. P. Goss: Hyannis Massachusetts. 1939, p. 71. Crocker, Lizzie S. (Hinckley), “Sketch of the Third Barnstable Baptist Church and Meeting House with Membership Enrollment,” Charles Otis: Yarmouthport, MA. 1927, p. 17. Sabatt, Charles M. Nancy N. Weir, “The History of the Barnstable Superior Court, The Barnstable County Superior Court Sesquicentennial Committee: Barnstable, MA. 2009, p. 3. Inventory Form, Old Kings Highway National Historic District, submitted by the Barnstable Historical Commission, 1980.
• [2] Niles’ Weekly Register, June 3, 1837, p. 222.
• (no reference 3)

• Following the death of Mr. Whitman, the building and the grounds where it stands were sold for $77 to the Baptist Society in the East Parish of Barnstable on October 10, 1842.  The building became the home of the Third Barnstable Baptist Church, organized on October 27, 1842. 

• The Olde Courthouse building was altered between 1842 and 1844 to meet the needs of the church. No formal records have been found that describe the specific alterations made to the building at that time; however, historical accounts and minutes of the Barnstable Baptist Association suggest that the alterations were extensive.  According to numerous accounts the “historic old building . . . was turned on its site so it faced Rendezvous Lane rather than County Road.”[5]  Sprague [1963] notes that Samuel Sturgis Crocker erected the spire on the building in 1842,[6] and the minutes of the Barnstable Baptist Association in 1844[7] indicate that the alterations were costly and more than the fifteen founding members of the congregation could finance. According to these minutes:

• Whereas,   God in his providence, has given an impulse to his cause in North Barnstable,   and enabled a few individuals to complete the erection of a commodious house   of worship, and are unable to pay for it in full; therefore: 
• Resolved,   That we recommend to the several churches composing this Association, that   they appoint a Committee of three in each Church, to solicit subscriptions   within their own bounds, to extinguish the debt. 
• Voted,   That the Clerk be requested to write to several churches comprising this Association, and to state to them the condition of the Church in North Barnstable, and request immediate aid in their behalf.

• In the following year, the minutes of the Association, referring specifically to the Third Baptist Church, state:[8]

• Friends abroad and at   home have greatly aided them in discharging the debt upon their meeting   house, and they are now encouraged to believe that ere long they will be free   from all pecuniary embarrassment. [9]

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• [5] Trayser, D.G. (ed.), op. cit., p. 73. Also see Crane, Mary Hinckley, “Barnstable,” in The Seven Villages of Barnstable. Town of Barnstable: Barnstable, MA. 1976. p. 33 and 35. Alan E. Neal, “From Sound-Side.” A Cape Cod Village: From the Horse & Buggy to the Space Age. Mary A. Sprague (ed.). The Patriot Press: Hyannis, MA, 1963. p. 31. Inventory Form, op. cit.
• [6] Sprague, op. cit., p. 21.
• [7] Minutes of the Barnstable Baptist Association, 1844.
• [8] Ibid, 1845.
• [9] Crocker, op. cit., p. 12. Although this publication documents changes made to the building between 1845 and 1971 in considerable detail, it provides little information on the specific changes made to the building when it became a church.