Richmond County Courthouse - District#20

Present-day Richmond County was first settled by Native Americans living along the Pee Dee River. Richmond was part of Anson County, which was formed in 1750 from Bladen County. The General Assembly formed Richmond County from Anson in October 1779. The citizens cited the hardship in crossing the Pee Dee River to go to the courthouse in Anson County, as their reason for wanting a separate county with the dividing line of the Pee Dee River.

Richmond County was named for Charles Lennox, the third Duke of Richmond, who criticized the policy of the British toward the American colonies. The county seat was known as Richmond Courthouse. Scotland County was formed from Richmond in 1899.

The first court in the new county was held in December 1779 at the old Presbyterian Meeting House in the Zion Community. About 1783, after raising money from taxes to pay for buying land and laying out a town, a new courthouse was built in what is today downtown Rockingham. In 1784 the name of the town was changed to Rockingham in honor of Charles Watson-Wentworth, second Marquis of Rockingham, and supporter of American independence.