Richmond Hill Law School

Richmond Hill Law School in what became Yadkin County was established about 1846 by Judge (later Chief Justice) Richmond M. Pearson, who had conducted an earlier school in nearby Mocksville. Until Pearson's death in 1878, the school was one of the preeminent law schools in the state, its only true rival being Judge William Horn Battle's school in Chapel Hill. Instruction at Richmond Hill was offered both to students studying for their county court licenses and to more advanced students preparing for practice in the superior courts. The mode of instruction was rigorously Socratic, involving intensive discussion of both the law and its underlying principles. Pearson himself claimed to have instructed "more than a thousand law students" at Mocksville and Richmond Hill, many of whom achieved distinction in the legal and political life of North Carolina and the nation.