History and Comprehensive Description of Loudoun County, Virginia Part 15

It is to be hoped that the desultory sketch furnished above will not be found uninteresting despite its imperfections. Many details have been omitted or neglected, but enough has been written to ill.u.s.trate in a general way the qualities for which our ancestors were most distinguished, for which their characters have excited most comment and perhaps deserved most praise.

As a whole, they were a generous, large-hearted, liberal-minded people, and their faults were far fewer than their virtues. The yeomanry, in their own rude, rough-and-ready manner, reflected the same sort of personal independence of character and proud sense of individuality as the social aristocracy.

FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR.

Little can be learned of Loudoun's partic.i.p.ation in the last great French and Indian War (1754-1763). It had its beginning three years prior to her admission into the sisterhood of Virginia counties, and the services she must have rendered during that period are, of course, accredited to Fairfax, of which county she was then a part. The few existing or available records of the remaining six years of warfare, as of the entire period, are imperfect and unlocalized and would baffle the most experienced and persevering compiler.

The only deductions that have seemed at all noteworthy are here presented:

The General a.s.sembly of Virginia, on April 14, 1757, pa.s.sed an act providing for the appointment of a committee to direct the pay of the officers and soldiers then in the pay of the Colony, of "the rangers formerly employed, and for the expense of building a fort in the Cherokee country," for the pay of the militia that had "been drawn out into actual service, and also for provisions for the said soldiers, rangers, and militia...."

In the following schedule are given the names of Loudoun payees and the amount received by each:

s. d.

To Captain Nicholas Minor 1 00 00 aeneas Campbell, lieutenant 7 6 Francis Wilks 1 17 James Willock 1 15 John Owsley and William Stephens, 15s. each 1 10 Robert Thomas 10 John Moss, Jr. 4 John Thomas, for provisions 5 John Moss, for provisions 2 8 William Ross, for provisions 2 __ __ __ 7 13 2

By a later act of the same body commissioners were empowered "to examine, state, and settle the accounts of such pay, provisions, arms, etc.," of the six counties from which they were appointed, "and all arrears whatsoever relating to the militia."

The following list of Loudoun beneficiaries, with the amounts opposite, is reproduced in the identical form in which it was then submitted:

s. d.

"1757. To Robert Adams, a.s.signee of Stephen Thatcher, for his pay, 5 12 6 Do. do of Thomas Bond, for do., 4 10 Thomas Gore, for a rifle gun impressed, 4 10 Stephen Emorie, for dressing guns for militia, 13 James Clemons, for a gun impressed, 4 10 1763. Captain Moss, for 60 days' pay at 6s., 18 Lieutenant Gore, for do. at 3s., 6d., 10 10"

REPRESENTATION.

_Colonial a.s.semblies._--General a.s.sembly of 1758-'61, Francis Lightfoot Lee and James Hamilton; General a.s.sembly of 1761-'65, Francis Lightfoot Lee and James Hamilton; General a.s.sembly of October, 1765, Francis Lightfoot Lee and James Hamilton; General a.s.sembly of 1766-'68, Francis Lightfoot Lee and James Hamilton; General a.s.sembly of May, 1769, Francis Peyton and James Hamilton; General a.s.sembly of 1769-'71, Francis Peyton and James Hamilton (the latter vacated his seat during the session of May 21, 1770, to accept the office of coroner. He was succeeded by Josiah Clapham); General a.s.sembly of 1772-'74, Thomas Mason and Francis Peyton; General a.s.sembly of 1775-'76, Josiah Clapham and Francis Peyton.

_State Conventions._

Below will be found a compendium of Virginia conventions, with the names of the delegates returned by Loudoun County. Few, if any, counties of Virginia have had an abler or more influential representation in the various State conventions. From the meeting of the first to the adjournment of the last Loudoun has been represented by fifteen of her wisest and most prominent citizens.

_Convention of 1774._--Met August 1, 1774. Adjourned August 6, 1774.

Loudoun delegates: Francis Peyton and Thomas Mason.

_Convention of March 20, 1775._--Met at Richmond, Monday, March 20, 1775. Adjourned March 27, 1775. Loudoun delegates: Francis Peyton and Josiah Clapham.

_Convention of July 17, 1775._--Met at Richmond, July 17, 1775.

Adjourned August 26, 1775. Loudoun delegates: Francis Peyton and Josiah Clapham.

_Convention of December 1, 1775._--Met at Richmond, December 1, 1775.

Adjourned January 20, 1776. Loudoun delegates: Francis Peyton and Josiah Clapham.

_Convention of 1776._--This convention met in the city of Williamsburg, on Monday, May 6, 1776, and "framed the first written const.i.tution of a free State in the annals of the world." Adjourned July 5, 1776. Loudoun delegates: Francis Peyton and Josiah Clapham.

Previous conventions did not frame const.i.tutions, but they directed the affairs of the colony, and, in a measure, controlled the destinies of her people. Like the convention of 1776, they were instead revolutionary bodies.

_Convention of 1788._--This convention met in the State House in the city of Richmond, June 2, 1788, to ratify or reject the Const.i.tution which had been recommended to the States by the Federal Convention on the 17th of September, 1787, at Philadelphia. Adjourned _sine die_ June 27, 1788. Loudoun delegates: Stephen T. Mason and Levin Powell.

_Convention of 1829-'30._--a.s.sembled in Richmond on the 5th day of October, 1829. Tenth District (Loudoun and Fairfax) delegates: James Monroe, Charles Fenton Mercer, William H. Fitzhugh, and Richard H.

Henderson.

_Convention of 1850-51._--Met at the Capitol in the city of Richmond, on Monday, October 14, 1850. Adjourned _sine die_, August 1, 1851.

District of Loudoun delegates: John Janney, John A. Carter, and Robert J.T. White.

_Convention of 1861._--Met February 13, 1861. Adjourned _sine die_, December 6, 1861. Loudoun delegates: John Janney and John A. Carter.

The former was elected President of the Convention. Both voted against the ordinance of secession, April 17, 1861. Mr. Janney's resignation as President of the Convention was tendered on November 14, 1861.

_Convention of 1864._--(Restored Government of Virginia.) Met February 13, 1864. Adjourned _sine die_, April 11, 1864. Loudoun delegates: John J. Henshaw, James M. Downey, and E.R. Gover.

_Convention of 1867-'68._--Met at Richmond, Tuesday, December 3, 1867.

Adjourned April 17, 1868. Loudoun delegates: Norborne Berkeley and George E. Plaster.

_Convention of 1901-'02._--Met June 12, 1901. Adjourned _sine die_, June 26, 1902. Loudoun and Fauquier district delegates: Henry Fairfax and Albert Fletcher.

THE REVOLUTION.

_Loudoun's Loyalty._

The story of the Revolution and the causes which led to that great event are properly treated in a more general history than this purports to be. If, in the few succeeding pages, it can be shown that Loudoun County was most forward in resisting the arbitrary aggressions of the British government and that the valor and patriotism she evinced during the Revolution was equal to that of her sister counties, who had suffered with her under the yoke of British oppression, then the primary object of this sketch will be accomplished. Her blood and treasure were freely dedicated to the cause of liberty, and, having once entered the Revolution, she determined to persevere in the struggle until every resource was exhausted.

Armed with flint-lock muskets of small bore and with long-barreled rifles which they loaded from the muzzle by the use of the ramrod; equipped with powder horn, charges made of cane for loading, bullet molds and wadding, but bravely arrayed in home-spun of blue, and belted with cutla.s.s and broadsword by the side, c.o.c.kade on the hat and courage in the heart, her revolutionary soldiers marched to the music of fife and drum into battle for freedom against the power and might of the mother country.

_Resolutions of Loudoun County._

In 1877, the following article appeared in a Leesburg newspaper under the caption "Loudoun County a Hundred Years Ago:"

"Major B. P. Nolan, grandson of Burr Powell, has just put us in possession of a verified copy of the proceedings of a public meeting held at Leesburg, Loudoun County, on the 14th of June, 1774, nearly one hundred and five years ago.

It is interesting, not merely for its antiquity, but as showing the spirit of independence that animated the b.r.e.a.s.t.s of our liberty-loving countrymen two years before the Declaration of American Independence in 1776. The original doc.u.ment was found among the papers of Col. Leven Powell, at one time member of Congress from this 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 proceedings or resolutions follow:

"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 of June, 1774, F.

Peyton, Esq., in the Chair, to consider the most effectual method to preserve the rights and liberties of North 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 Harbor is blocked up, their commerce totally obstructed, their property rendered useless--

"_Resolved_, That we will always 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 punis.h.i.+ng persons without even the form of a trial; but a despotic exertion of unconst.i.tutional power designedly calculated to enslave a free and loyal people.