The first court session at Westport Courthouse was held in 1828. Along with indicting criminals and appointing justices of the peace, the court handled sales, auctions, and escapes of enslaved people and settled disputes over slave hire-outs. Records related to enslavement were common there. Justice of the Peace William Gatewood was charged with the illegal hire-out of Mahala, the mother of Henry Bibb's wife Malinda. Bibb, who later became a famous abolitionist, escaped Gatewood's enslavement and created a colony in Canada for fugitive slaves. The court moved to nearby LaGrange in 1838.