Public  Building.s. — A  jail  was  built
at  Gloucester  in  1689.  (See  history  of  Glou-
cester City).  Courts*  were  held  in  taverns
and  private  houses  until  1696,  when  a
court-house  and  jail  as  one  building  was
erected,  which,  with  additions  and  repairs,
was  used  until  178G,  when  it  was  destroyed
by  fire,  and  a  majority  of  the  Board  of  Free-
holders voted  in  favor  of  erecting  new
structures  instead  of  repairing  the  old  ones,
and  agreed  to  petition  the  General  Assembly
for  an  act  to  erect  new  buildings  at  such  a
place  as  shall  be  designated  by  a  majority  of
the  people  of  the  county  at  an  election  to  be
held  for  that  purpose.
Woodbury  becomes  the  County-Seat.
— Notwithstanding  that  there  is  no  recorded
evidence  of  the  matter,  it  is  a  generally  ac-
cepted belief  that  the  election  was  held,  that
the  people  voted  to  locate  the  new  building  at
Woodbury,  and  that  this  decision  transferred
the  county-seat  from  Gloucester  to  that  town.
34


HISTORY  OP  CAMDEN  COUNTY,  NEW  JERSEY.
