On this day 250 years ago in Baltimore, a town meeting was held at the courthouse to discuss the closure of the Port of Boston. The meeting adopted Resolutions that supported an embargo of Great Britain and also the West Indies. They also called for the formation of a Maryland congress and an intercolonial congress.
Source: Norton, Mary Beth, 1774 the Long Year of Revolution at p.98.
Also on this day 250 years ago, in Dumfries, Virginia a committee that included William Grayson, Andrew Leitch, Cuthbert Bullitt, Foushee Tebbs and Richard Graham issued a call to Prince William County’s freeholders to gather at the County courthouse on June 6 to “Deliberate on Measures . . . to be taken to avert the dreadful Calamities which . . . are threatened from the unconstitutional Act of Parliament [that] is fundamentally subversive of our ancient legal and vital Liberties.” Colonel William Grayson and Major Andrew Leitch would go on to serve in the Continental Army, with Leitch killed at the Battle of Harlem Heights. Richard Graham was an officer in the Prince William militia, and Bullitt and Tebbs both served on the Prince William Committee of Safety and held civil offices in the County and Richmond during the War.
Source: Cecere, Michael, In This Time of Extreme Danger: Northern Virginia in the American Revolution at p. 17.
On this day 250 years ago at Peyton Randolph’s home in Williamsburg, 25 ex-Members of the House of Burgesses write and sign a letter to the other Burgesses informing them of “the Receipt of the Letters and Resolves from Boston”, Maryland and Philadelphia and declaring
That it is the Opinion of all the late House of Burgesses who could be convened on the present Occasion, that the Colony of Virginia will concur with the other Colonies in such Measures as shall be judged most effectual for the Preservation of the Common Rights and Liberty of British America that they are of Opinion particularly that an Association against Importation will probably be entered into, as soon as the late Representatives can be collected, and perhaps against Exportations also after a certain Time. But that this must not be considered as an Engagement on the part of this Colony, which it would be presumption in us to enter into, and that we are sending Dispatches to call together the late Representatives to meet at Williamsburg on the first Day of August next to conclude finally on these important Questions.
The signers of this letter included many familiar names and some who you may have not heard about, but all deserve recognition for joining the call for the meeting on August 1, which would then directly lead to the First Continental Congress and ultimately our national Declaration of Independence:
Peyton Randolph, Moderator. Ro. C. Nicholas Edmd Pendleton Will: Harwood Richd. Adams Thom Whiting Henry Lee Lemuel Riddick
Th: Jefferson Mann Page Junr. Charles Carter Senr. Jas. Mercer R Wormeley Carter Go: Washington Francis Lightfoot Lee Thos Nelson jr. R Rutherford
Jno Walker James Wood Wm Langhorne T Blackburn Edmd Berkeley Jno. Donelson P. Carrington Lewis Burwell (Gloster)
You can learn a little about one of these little-known Founding Fathers — William Harwood — who served as a militia colonel, was elected to represent Warwick County (today’s Newport News) in all five Virginia Conventions that governed Virginia during the Revolution, and was also elected the first Virginia House of Delegates by visiting his surviving home Endview Plantation, just outside of Yorktown.
On this day 250 years ago, the Royal Navy positioned nine ships including the 64-gun HMS Captain, Admiral John Montagu’s flagship, in Boston Harbor to prepare for the blockade of the Port of Boston set to begin on June 1.
A blockade is an act of war and I think it is fair to assert that this act effectively was a declaration of war by Great Britain against the City of Boston if not its own colony of Massachusetts.
Also on that day, in Williamsburg, Peyton Randolph, the Chairman of Virginia’s Committee of Correspondence received an express letter from the Annapolis committee of correspondence, forwarding letters from the committees of Philadelphia and Boston. Randolph convenes the 25 ex-Burgesses still remaining in the town after dissolution of the Assembly to meet at his Williamsburg mansion to consider how to respond to the other colonies.
On this day 250 years ago in Williamsburg, the Virginia Committee of Correspondence including Thomas Jefferson, met. The Committee ordered letters to be sent to all the other colonies transmitting the declaration adopted by the “Association of Members of the Late House of Burgesses” at the meeting on the previous day.
Also on this day in Boston, Governor and General Thomas Gage adjourned the Massachusetts legislature and ordered it to reconvene in Salem on June 6, 1774.
On this day 250 years ago at the Raleigh Tavern in Williamsburg, 89 members of the dissolved Virginia House of Burgesses met to adopt an “Association” in response to the Boston Port Act and other restrictions on American Liberty coming from London. Among other things, the Association, without coordinating with the other colonies, joined Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, and New York in calling for a Continental Congress to convene. Here is the full text of the Association’s declaration:
We his Majesty’s most dutiful and loyal subjects, the late representatives of the good people of this country, having been deprived by the sudden interposition of the executive part of this government from giving our countrymen the advice we wished to convey to them in a legislative capacity, find ourselves under the hard necessity of adopting this, the only method we have left, of pointing out to our countrymen such measures as in our opinion are best fitted to secure our dearest rights and liberty from destruction, by the heavy hand of power now lifted against North America: With much grief we find that our dutiful applications to Great Britain for security of our just, antient, and constitutional rights, have been not only disregarded, but that a determined system is formed and pressed for reducing the inhabitants of British America to slavery, by subjecting them to the payment of taxes, imposed without the consent of the people or their representatives; and that in pursuit of this system, we find an act of the British parliament, lately passed, for stopping the harbour and commerce of the town of Boston, in our sister colony of Massachusetts Bay, until the people there submit to the payment of such unconstitutional taxes, and which act most violently and arbitrarily deprives them of their property, in wharfs erected by private persons, at their own great and proper expence, which act is, in our opinion, a most dangerous attempt to destroy the constitutional liberty and rights of all North America. It is further our opinion, that as TEA, on its importation into America, is charged with a duty, imposed by parliament for the purpose of raising a revenue, without the consent of the people, it ought not to be used by any person who wishes well to the constitutional rights and liberty of British America. And whereas the India company have ungenerously attempted the ruin of America, by sending many ships loaded with tea into the colonies, thereby intending to fix a precedent in favour of arbitrary taxation, we deem it highly proper and do accordingly recommend it strongly to our countrymen, not to purchase or use any kind of East India commodity whatsoever, except saltpetre and spices, until the grievances of America are redressed. We are further clearly of opinion, that an attack, made on one of our sister colonies, to compel submission to arbitrary taxes, is an attack made on all British America, and threatens ruin to the rights of all, unless the united wisdom of the whole be applied. And for this purpose it is recommended to the committee of correspondence, that they communicate, with their several corresponding committees, on the expediency of appointing deputies from the several colonies of British America, to meet in general congress, at such place annually as shall be thought most convenient; there to deliberate on those general measures which the united interests of America may from time to time require.
In addition to the 89 Burgesses, 21 “clergymen and other inhabitants” of Virginia signed the Association. The Burgesses who signed included two familiar to all Americans today — George Washington and Thomas Jefferson — plus other Founding Fathers who are well remembered by those who have studied the Revolution and the early Republic — such as Patrick Henry, Peyton Randolph, Richard Henry Lee, Francis Lightfoot Lee, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Benjamin Harrison, Robert Carter Nicholas, Richard Bland, Edmund Pendleton, Archibald Cary.
But almost all of the signers of the Association were committed Patriots who served Virginia and America in the Revolution. James Scott, for example, was a little known Burgess from Fauquier County who formed a company from Fauquier at the beginning of the War, marched north to join Washington’s army, fought at Brandywine and other engagements, but died during the war from an illness he contracted while serving. David Griffith from Loudoun County was one of the clergymen who added their names to the Burgesses on the Association. Griffith would become the surgeon and chaplain of 3d Virginia, serving at Long Island, Brandywine, Valley Forge and Monmouth before returning to Virginia to become minister of Fairfax Parish (incidentally, his home as minister incidentally was less than a mile from where I live now). All of the signers of the Association should be remembered. Here is the list:
Peyton Randolph, Ro. C. Nicholas, Richard Bland, Edmund Pendleton, Richard Henry Lee, Archibald Cary, Benjamin Harrison, George Washington, William Harwood, Robert Wormeley Carter, Robert Munford, Thomas Jefferson, John West, Mann Page, junior, John Syme, Peter Le Grand, Joseph Hutchings, Francis Peyton, Richard Adams, B. Dandridge, Henry Pendleton, Patrick Henry, junior, Richard Mitchell, James Holt, Charles Carter, James Scott, Burwell Bassett, Henry Lee, John Burton, Thomas Whiting, Peter Poythress, John Winn, James Wood, William Cabell, David Mason, Joseph Cabell, John Bowyer, Charles Linch, William Aylett, Isaac Zane, Francis Slaughter, William Langhorne, Henry Taylor, James Montague, William Fleming, Rodham Kenner, William Acril, Charles Carter, of Stafford, John Woodson, Nathaniel Terry, Richard Lee, Henry Field, Matthew Marable, Thomas Pettus, Robert Rutherford, Samuel M’Dowell, John Bowdoin, James Edmondson, Southy Simpson, John Walker, Hugh Innes, Henry Bell, Nicholas Faulcon, junior, James Taylor, junior, Lewis Burwell, of Gloucester, W. Roane, Joseph Nevil, Richard Hardy, Edwin Gray, H. King, Samuel Du Val, John Hite, junior, John Banister, Worlich Westwood, John Donelson, Thomas Newton, junior, P. Carrington, James Speed, James Henry, Champion Travis, Isaac Coles, Edmund Berkeley, Charles May, Thomas Johnson, Benjamin Watkins, Francis Lightfoot Lee, John Talbot, Thomas Nelson, junior, Lewis Burwell.
We the subscribers, clergymen and other inhabitants of the colony and dominion of Virginia, having maturely considered the contents of the above association, do most cordially approve and accede thereto.
William Harrison, William Hubard, Benjamin Blagrove, William Bland, H. J. Burges, Samuel Smith M’Croskey, Joseph Davenport, Thomas Price, David Griffith, William Leigh, Robert Andrews, Samuel Klug, Ichabod Camp, William Clayton, Richard Cary, Thomas Adams, Hinde Russell, William Holt, Arthur Dickenson, Thomas Stuart, James Innes.
On this day 250 years ago, Royal Governor Dunmore of Virginia summoned the Burgesses, numbering nearly one hundred, to the Council chamber in the Capitol in Williamsburg. Dunmore informed the Burgesses:
I have in my hand a Paper published by Order of your House, conceived in such Terms as reflect highly upon his Majesty and the Parliament of Great Britain; which makes it necessary for me to dissolve you; and you are dissolved accordingly.
The document in Dunmore’s hand was the broadside of the House’s Order for a Day of Fasting and Prayer. The phrase “reflect highly upon” in Dunsmore’s statement sounds to modern Americans like praise, but in the 18th Century it meant “reproach”. The response of the members of the House of Burgesses to Dunmore’s dissolution of the House would be another dramatic step towards Independence.
On this day 250 years ago in Williamsburg, Virginia, Clementina Rind printed a broadside of The Call to Fasting and Prayer in Williamsburg at the request of the House of Burgesses. The date and the printer of the broadside are somewhat uncertain. Either Clementina Rind or her competitors Purdie & Dixon could have printed it, and the printing could have occurred on the evening of May 24 or morning of May 26. Because Clementina Rind was the preferred printer and newspaper publisher for the Patriots of Virginia, most reports indicate that she was the printer. The broadsides were posted at multiple locations in Williamsburg by the next day, so May 25 was the most probable date of the printing. And the broadsides would soon be republished in newspapers in all the Colonies.
Although the Order to the members of the House was literally to attend church for prayer, the Order’s language asking to pray for “averting the heavy Calamity, which threatens Destruction to our civil Rights, and the Evils of civil War; to give us one Heart and one Mind firmly to oppose, by all just and proper Means, every Injury to American Rights” would put Virginia with Massachusetts in the lead on the path to Revolution and Independence for all the American colonies.
On this day 250 years ago in Williamsburg, Robert Carter Nicholas, Member of the House of Burgesses and Treasurer of Virginia introduces an Order for a Day of Fasting and Prayer to Virginia House of Burgesses. The Order passes unanimously but would soon receive a furious response for its revolutionary language:
This House being deeply impressed with Apprehension of the great Dangers to be derived to British America, from the hostile Invasion of the City of Boston, in our Sister Colony of Massachusetts Bay, whose Commerce and Harbour are on the 1st Day of June next to be stopped by an armed Force, deem it highly necessary that the said first Day of June be set apart by the Members of this House as a Day of Fasting, Humiliation, and Prayer, devoutly to implore the divine Interposition for averting the heavy Calamity, which threatens Destruction to our civil Rights, and the Evils of civil War; to give us one Heart and one Mind firmly to oppose, by all just and proper Means, every Injury to American Rights, and that the Minds of his Majesty and his Parliament may be inspired from above with Wisdom, Moderation, and Justice, to remove from the loyal People of America all Cause of Danger from a continued Pursuit of Measures pregnant with their Ruin.
The Order was signed by George Wythe as Clerk of the House of Burgesses. During the Revolution Nicholas would go on to serve in all five Virginia Conventions that replaced the House of Burgesses. Wythe, along with the Burgesses who drafted the Order for a Day of Fasting, Humiliation, and Prayer, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, and Francis Lightfoot Lee, would all go on to serve in Continental Congresses and other illustrious service during the Revolution.
On this day 250 years ago in Williamsburg, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, Francis Lightfoot Lee and other members of the Virginia House of Burgesses met in the evening to discuss how the Virginia House should respond to the news of the Boston Port Act that had just been received in Virginia. They decided to prepare a resolution for the House to observe a Day of Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer on June 1, when the Boston Port Act would close the Port of Boston. They also asked the very religious and moderate Treasurer of Virginia, Robert Carter Nicholas, to introduce the resolution in the House the next day, in order to disguise the radical nature of the proclamation.
On this day 250 years ago in New York, a specially formed Committee of Fifty-One dispatched their response to Boston declining to join a non-importation pact but instead proposing
that a congress of deputies from the colonies in general is of the utmost moment; that it ought to be assembled without delay, and some unanimous resolution formed in this fatal emergency, not only respecting your deplorable circumstances, but for the security of our common rights.
And also on this day 250 years ago in Chestertown, Maryland, the Chestertown Tea Party supposedly happened. Some scholars question whether the event actually occurred. Based on my research, I think something did happen, but it was probably the dumping of only a small quantity of tea with the consent and participation of the owner of the ship’s cargo that included the tea, James Nicholson, rather than a riot as portrayed in commemoration since the 1960s. Nicholson was a firm Patriot, and was said to have signed the Chestertown Resolves which are an undisputed historical fact, but he may have learned of the calls to block tea imports only after he had already distributed the bulk of the tea to merchants in the area. In signing the Chestertown Resolves and agreeing not to import further tea it would make sense that he would arrange for a public dumping of the tea that remained in his possession.
At any event, the annual commemoration of the Chestertown Tea Party looks like a fun event, and we are going to attend it this weekend.
On this day 250 years ago, the Boston Committee of Correspondence under the pen of Sam Adams wrote to the Marblehead Committee of Correspondence that
We have receivd a Letter from New York dated the Day before the Post came out from that City, advising us that there was to be a meeting of the merchants there on the Tuesday following (last Tuesday)–that by a Vessel which had arrivd there from London the Citizens had receivd the barbarous Act with Indignation–that no Language could express their Abhorrence of this additional Act of Tyranny to all America–that they were fully perswaded that America was attackd & intended to be enslavd by their distressing & subduing Boston–that a Compliance with the provision of the Act will only be a temporary Reliefe from a particular Evil, which must end in a general Calamity–that many timid People in that City who have interrested themselves but very little in the Controversy with Great Britain express the greatest resentment at the Conduct of the Ministry to this Town and consider the Treatment as if done to them–and that this is the general Sense of the Inhabitants– that it was the general Talk that at the Meeting of the Merchants it would be agreed to suspend commercial Connection with Great Britain– . . . and we are to be advisd of the Result of the meeting, which we expect very soon. The Express which we sent to New York had not arrivd when this left the City.
When the letter from the New York Committee of Correspondence was subsequently delivered in Boston by the Express rider (Paul Revere), Adams would learn that the “Letter from New York dated the Day before the Post” was too optimistic in predicting that New York would join Boston in boycotting British goods. Adams did note that towns in other New England colonies were supporting Massachusetts’ call for non-importation:
We have receivd Letters by the post from Portsmt in New Hampshire, from Hartford Newport Providence Westerly &c. all expressing the same Indignation and a Determination to joyn in like measures–restrictions on their Trade.
On This Day In The Revolution 