Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 2
The Committee appointed to consider what alterations can be made to the Court House in this County1 having considered the matter report that the Chamber Floor may be lowered five or Six feet & the lower Tier of Windows taken away & a Porch fixed to the Front of the house and to ascend into the Court Room by Steps in said Porch, & that there be an addition to the back Part of the House of 6 or Seven Feet to enlarge the Width of the house & then that the Room be finished off like the Court House Room at Cambridge.
Taunton had been named the new county seat of Bristol County in 1746 when the town of Bristol was ceded to Rhode Island in settlement of an lengthy boundary dispute. The next year a courthouse was erected, and it continued in use until 1772. On Dec. 17, 1771 a committee comprised of George Leonard, Jr., Benjamin Williams, Daniel Leonard, and RTP, "or either two of them," was appointed to erect a new courthouse (History of Bristol County, Massachusetts [Philadelphia, 1883], 888–889).