Resolutions of Loundoun County: Loudoun County a Hundred Years Ago; Wm. & Mary Qrtly, 1904 Transcribed by Kathy Merrill for the USGenWeb Archives Special Collections Project ************************************************************************ USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgwarchives.net *********************************************************************** Resolutions of Loundoun County: Loudoun County a Hundred Years Ago. William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine, Vol. 12, No. 4 (Apr., 1904), pp. 231-236. RESOLUTIONS OF LOUDOUN COUNTY. "LOUDOUN COUNTY A HUNDRED YEARS AGO." In 1877-'78 the follwing article appeared in a Leesburg (Va.) newspaper. - JAMES D. EVANS. "Major B. P. Nolan, grandson of Burr Powell, has just put us in possession of a verfied copy of the proceedigns of a public meeting held at Leesbug, Loudoun county, on the 14th of June, 1774 - nearly one hundred and five years ago. It is interesting, Page 232. not merely for its antiquity, but as showing the spirit of independence that animated the breasts of our liberty-loving countrymen two years before the Declaration of American In- dependance in 1776. The original document was found among the papers of Col. Leven Powell, at one time member of Congress fromt his district, who died in 1810. His son, Burr Powell, forwarded a copy to R. H. Lee, Esq., who in 1826 was about to publish a second edition of his Memoirs of the Life of R. H. Lee, of Revolutionary fame. The second edition of htat work, however, never appeared, and the proceedings of the Loudoun Meeting are now, for the first time, given to the public in printed form. "PUBLIC MEETING IN LOUDOUN IN 1774. "At a Meeting of the Freeholders and other inhabitants of the County of Loudoun, in the colony of Virginia, held at the Court-house in Leesburg, the 14th June, 1774 - F. Peyton, Esq., in the Chair - to consider the most effectual method to preserve the rights and liberties of N. America, and relieve our brethren of Boston, suffering under the most oppressive and tyrannical Act of the British Parliament, made in the 14th year of his present Majesty's reign, whereby their Harber is blocked up, their Commerce totally obstructed, their property rendered useless - "Resolved, That we will alsways cheerfully submit to such prerogatives as his Majesty has a right, by law, to exercise, as Sovereign of the British Dominions, and to no others. "Resolved, That it is beneath the dignity of freemen to submit to any tax not imposed on them in the usual manner, by representatives of their own choosing. "Resolved, That the Act of the British Parliament, above mentioned, is utterly repugnant to the fundamental laws of justice, in punishing persons without even the form of a trial; but a despotic exertion of unconstitutional power designedly calculated to enslave a free and loyal people. "Resolved, That the enforcing the execution of the said Act of Parliament by a military power, must hav a necessary tendency to raise a civil war, and that we will, withour lives and Page 233. fortunes, assist and support our suffering brethren(*), of Boston, and every part of North America that may fall under the immediate hand of oppression, until a redress of all our grievances shall be procured, and our common liberties established on a permanent foundation. "Resolved, That the East India Company, by exporting their tea from England to America, whilst subject to a tax imposed thereon by the British Parliament, have evidently designed to fix on the Americans those chains forged for them by a venal ministry, and have thereby rendered themselves odious and detestable throughout all America. It is, therefore, the unanimous opinion of this meeting not to purchase any tea or other East India commodity whatever, imported after the first of this Month. "Resolved, That we will have no commercial intercourse with Great Britain until the above mentioned Act of Parliament shall be totally repealed, and the right of regulating the in- ternal policy of N. America by a British Parliament shall be absolutely and positively given up. "Resolved, That Thompson Mason and Francis Peyton, Esqs., be appointed to represent the County at a general meeting to be held at Williamsburg on the 1st day of August next, to take the sense of this Colony at large on the subject of the preceding resolves, and that they, together with Leven Powell, William Ellzey, John Thornton, George Johnston and Samuel Levi, or any three of them, be a committee to correspond with the several commttees appointed for this purpose. "Signed by, "John Morton, "Thomas Williams, "Thomas Ray, "James Noland, "Thomas Drake, "Samuel Peugh, "William Booram, "William Nornail, "Benj. Isaac Humphrey, "Thomas Luttrell, "Samuel Mills, "James Brair, "Joshua Singleton, "Poins Awsley, "Jonathan Drake, "John Kendrick, "Matthew Rust, "Edward O'Neal, ____________________________________________________________________ *This far is written in the handwriting of George Johnston, I think; the balance is certainly written in the handwriting of the late Leven Powell. - B.P. Page 234. "Barney Sims, "Francis Triplitt, "John Sims, "Joseph Combs, "Samuel Butler, "John Peyton Harrison, "Thomas Chinn, "Robert Combs, "Appollos Cooper, "Stephen Combs, "Lina Hanconk, "Samuel Henderson, "John McVicker, "Benjamin Overfield, "Simon Triplett, "Adam Sangster, "Thomas Awsley, "Bazzell Roads, "Isaac Sanders, "John Wildey, "Thos. Williams, "James Graydey, "John Williams, "Joseph Bayley, "Henry Awsley, "John Reardon, "Wm. Finnekin, "Edward Miller, "Richard Hanson, "Richard Hirst, "John Dunker, "James Davis." "Jasper Grant, (A Copy.) "MIDDLEBURG, 11th January, 1826. "DEAR SIR: I find in your memoir of the life of R. H. Lee, at page 97, a letter from Mr. Lee to Samuel Adams, dated 23rd June, 1774, in which is this passage: 'In the meantime, the sense of some Counties is taking, and two have already declared their desire to stop all commercial intercourse between Great Britain and the West Indies and this Colony.' Here would be a suitable place to introduce into your 2d edition the Loudoun Meeting and resolutions, which I furnished you with. It is more than probable, from a comparison of dates that Loudoun was one of the two Counties that had expressed an opinion, referred to in that letter. I want much to secure to my County the honor it is certainly entitled to for the course it then pursued. I want, too, to secure, in some degree to my father's character, what it deserves for the part he acted then. It will be easy to show that of the fifty odd signers to the original paper put into your possession, a large portion of them were his neighbors and personal friends. It is certain he was present in the meeting because a part of the proceedings was written in his handwriting. I shall be glad to hear from you whether there is a probability of a second edition of your work shortly coming out. "With Respect, etc., etc., BURR POWELL." Page 235. "To R. H. Lee, Esq. (Sent to R. H. Lee, Oct., 1827). (The following memo. in Burr Powell's handwriting.) "The original paper, of which a true copy follows, was put into the hands of R. H. Lee, Esq., when about to publish the life of R. H. Lee, and by him deposited in the Archives of the American Philosophical Society, of Philadelphia.* "In looking into the papers of my deceased father, Leven Powell, who died in the year 1810, I met with it and laid it by. . . . It is written partly by George Johnston, his intimate friend, who was Aid to General Washington, and died in his family in the year 1877. The signers were, most of them, residents of the neighborhood in which Col. Powell lived, and many of them were personally known to me in my youth and early manhood. I am acquainted with the handwriting of several of them, and two of the number, viz.: Robert Combs and Joshua Singleton, are now living, the first named about four miles from me. I found with the original paper the proceedings of the convention held at Williamsburg on the first of August, 1774, and among ___________________________________________________________________________ *This is a mistake. Major Burr Powell was probably under the impression that the original resolutions placed by him in Mr. Lee's hands were among the papers presented by Mr. Lee to the Philosophical Society of Philadelphia; but after a careful search. Dr. Hayes, the present proctor of the Society, found that the Loudoun Resolutions were not among the papers in their archives, the only ones in their possession being those from which the first edition of Mr. Lee's book was written. At his suggestion, I wrote to Mr. William C. Lane, Librarian of Harvard University, who, after an examination of a part of the Richard Henry Lee papers, which were donated to that institution, wrote me that no trace of the Loudoun Resolutions could be found among them. I then wrote to Mr. F. W. Page, Librarian of the University of Virginia, to which institution most of the Richard Henry Lee papers were donated after the death of his biographer, Richard Henry Lee, since 1827. Mr. Page replied that all of the Lee papers, with the exception of a few, were destroyed in the great fire at the University in 1895. It thus seems that farther search for the original Loudoun document would be futile; but its authenticity cannot be doubted from the many marks of antiquity surrounding the copies and correspondence here given. The original copy, found by Major B. P. Nolan, is still in the possession of the Nolan family. J. D. E. Page 236. the members there attending was Francis Peyton, one of the members chosen by the meeting that passed resolutions of the 14th of June, 1774, contained in said paper. I know it from the circumstances to be genuine. George Johnston's handwriting is known to me from letters now in my possession. "He was in regular correspondence with my father from the time he first entered on military service in the Fall of the year 1775 (he was in the battle of the Great Bridge in Virginia, fought on the 9th of December, of that year, and described on the same day in one of his letters), till his death. "NOTE. - The meeting at Williamsburg on the 1st of August, 1774 (of which I have a printed statement), was attended by 108 of the most respectable and influential men of Virginia, in the order in which they are enrolled the name of George ashington stands fifth from the top; Peyton Randolph, Robert C. Nicholas. BURR POWELL."