A review published by the Loudoun County Historic Records and Deed Research Division of the Clerk of the Circuit Court. https://www.loudoun.gov/2165/Historic-Records-Deed-Research

Resolutions Passed by the free-holders of Loudoun County June 14, 1774

Ken Bancroft

Background:

The idea of seeking independence from Great Britain was not immediate and represented several years of frustration with Parliament’s attitude toward the colonies as servants and not as subjects. Colonial resentment aboutbeing taxed without having elected representatives acting on their behalf started with the Stamp Act of 1765. Even though it was repealed the next year, the dispute between Parliament and the colonies over how taxes should be imposed would be debated and became more heated with the Townsend Acts of 1767. By the time the Tea Act of 1773 was passed, opposition to British tax policy for the colonies (and relations in general) had surpassed peaceful petitions and violent demonstrations became commonplace. The Boston Tea Party became the ultimate symbol of colonial discontent so much that King George III proclaimed that “the colonists must either submit or triumph” (Tindal & Shi, 200).

Parliament decided that the whole colony of Massachusetts needed to be punished and passed the Coercive Acts in 1774. Referred to as the Intolerable Acts by the colonists, these new laws: closed the port of Boston until the damaged tea was paid for, dismissed the colonial assembly and replaced by a military governor, and reintroduced the quartering of solders as deemed necessary. The rest of the colonies were shocked. On May 27, 1774, the members ofthe Virginia House of Burgesses met (including Francis Peyton of Loudoun County) to discuss how to support the people of Boston which resulted in a call for a Continental Congress as a unified response to the crisis and a boycott of British goods. Soon thereafter counties across Virginia held similar meetings, including Loudoun, and came to the following conclusion:

1 Tindall, George Brown and Shi, David E., America: A Narrative History, 3rd ed. (W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.: New York, 1992), 200.

Text:

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, heldat 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, wherebytheir Harber is blocked up, their Commerce totally obstructed, their property rendered use-less—

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 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 have anecessary tendency to raise a civil war, and that we will, with our lives and 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 aredress 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 taximposed thereon but 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 the meeting not to purchase any tea or other East India commodity whatever, imported after the first of the 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 regulation the internal 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 generalmeeting 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 Johnson and Samuel Levi, or any three of them, be a committee to correspond with the several committees appointed for the purpose.

Signed by,

John Morton, Thomas Williams, Thomas Ray, James Noland, Thomas Drake, Samuel Peugh, William Borax, WilliamNormal Benj, Isaac Humphrey, Thomas Luttrell, Samuel Mills, James Brair, Joshua Singleton, Poins Awsley, JonathanDrake, John Kendrick, Matthew Rust, Edward O’Neal, Barney Sims, Francis Tripplitt, John Sims, Joseph Combs, SamuelButler, John Peyton Harrison, Thomas Ching, Robert Combs, Appollos Cooper, Stephen Combs, Lina Hanconk, SamuelHenderson, John McVicker, Benjamin Overfield, Simon Triplett, Adam Sangster, Thomas Awsley, Bazzell Roads, IsaacSanders, John Wildey, Thos. Williams, James Graydey, John Williams, Joseph Bayley, Henry Ansley, John Reardon, Wm.Finnekin, Edward Miller, Richard Hanson, Richard Hirst, John Dunker, James Davis, Jasper Grant

References:

Evans, James D., “Resolutions of Loudoun County,” The William and Mary Quarterly, 12 no. 4, 231-236, accessed November 3, 2023 https://www.jstor.org/stable/1915576

Tindall, George Brown and Shi, David E., America: A Narrative History, 3rd ed. (W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.: New York, 1992), 200.