Hillsborough was the first county seat of Baldwin County in 1806 and later of Putnam County after Putnam was created from Baldwin in December 1807, although no known record shows official county functions were conducted there until 1808. After the Baldwin seat moved to Milledgeville, George Hill's log cabin home served as the courthouse, where elections and court sessions were held. The community included four log cabins, a jailhouse, a blacksmith shop, a store, and a saloon. Judge Peter Early, who later became a Georgia state senator, U.S. congressman, and governor of Georgia, conducted the first session of the Superior Court in July 1806. During that first session, two soldiers were convicted of stealing fish from a trap, hanged for the crime, and buried in Hillsborough, and one woman was punished for being a scold and shrew by being dunked in the river three times.