Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

The Virginia gazette. Number 428, Thursday July 21, 1774

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The Virginia gazette. Number 428, Thursday July 21, 1774

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THURSDAY, JULY 21, 1774. THE NUMBER 428.
VIRGINIA GAZETTE.
OPEN TO ALL PARTIES, BUT INFLUENCED BY NONE.
WILLIAMSBURG, PRINTED BY CLEMENTINA RIND.
All Persons may be supplied with this GAZETTE at 12s. 6d. a Year. ADVERTISEMENTS, of a moderate Length, are inserted for 3s. the first Week,
and 2s. each Time after; long ones in Proportion.———PRINTING WORK, of every Kind, executed with Care and Dispatch.

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The BRITISH AMERICAN.
NUMBER VIII.

FRIENDS, FELLOW CITIZENS, and COUNTRYMEN,
YOU are now to consider the second plan proposed: That
you shall immediately stop all exports and imports to and
from Great Britain and the West India islands till the tea
and Boston acts are repealed. This plan is recommended to
you by men who profess themselves resolutely determined to
oppose the arbitrary proceedings of the British parliament,
but at the same time with you to adopt moderate measures; and I am
convinced that they mean well, and are so heartily in earnest in their
professions and their wishes, that if they can be convinced that the plan
they propose will be the least effectual to avoid the jurisdiction claimed
by the British parliament, and the most violent and dangerous measure
which can be adopted, I have no doubt but they will readily give it up.
It will not only be justifiable but highly commendable in you to lessen
your imports from Great Britain, by confining yourselves to such articles
as are absolutely necessary, and which you cannot manufacture yourselves;
because unless you use the utmost frugality, the great balance which you
already owe to the British merchants will be constantly encreasing till
you become bankrupts; but to deny yourselves the common necessaries,
or even the conveniencies, of life, whilst you are able to pay for them,
in order to break off all connections with, and to distress, Great Britain,
is surely no moderate measure. That you have been cruelly treated is
certain; but in resenting that treatment you ought to distinguish between
your friends and your enemies, and not, drawcansir like, destroy all you
meet. The manufacturers of Britain never injured you, and probably
dislike the measurers of administration as much as you do; it will be cruel
in you to endeavour to starve them and their families for an insult to which
they were no way accessary. But it is said that if this plan is adopted,
the want of bread will lay them under a necessity of taking up arms, and
of forcing a repeal of the acts you complain of. Not to mention that a
measure, whose most distant prospect of success arises from forcing these
innocent people into actual rebellion, and introducing all the horrors of
a civil war in Britain, can never be deemed a moderate one, it would be
highly dishonourable in you, instead of drawing your own swords, and
facing your oppressors, like a brave people struggling for liberty, meanly
(to take the advantage of their necessities) to force a number of starving
wretches to expose themselves for your sakes to dangers you are afraid
to encounter yourselves; and your conduct would certainly be very
inconsistent in daring to refuse submission to British nobles, whilst,
conscious of your own degeneracy and cowardice, you meanly trusted
the preservation of your liberty to the bravery of British mechanics,
whose secret wishes to restrain your manufactures, whose honest contempt
of your shameful conduct, and whose pressing necessities for bread, would
more probably induce them to enlist as soldiers to enslave than protect
you. But consider a little further how far this scheme is practicable;
imagine yourselves in the situation you shortly will be after you have
adopted it. The want of salt will be a small inconvenience, but hickory
ashes, though a poor substitute, may supply the place of it as well to you
as it formerly did to the native Indians, and the live stock with which
you will abound, when you no longer export provisions, will in a great
measure render it unnecessary, by enabling you to kill fresh meat every
day. Nails, without slitting mills, will be made with great difficulty;
but logged cabbins may be built without them. Cloathes for yourselves
and negroes are not worth thinking of; because you may confine
yourselves and them to your houses in cold weather, and as you are to
export nothing, the summer season will afford you time amply sufficient to
raise provisions for your own use, and to lay in fuel for the winter. It
is true your stocks may suffer a little in the winter, but this inconvenience
may be remedied, in a great measure by providing such large quantities
of provender for them in the summer as to suffer it to be exposed to them
to go to, whenever they please, in weather too cold for naked men to
distribute it to them. Elegancies and even luxuries, which many of you,
by having been long accustomed to, now consider as the conveniencies,
if not the necessaries of life, may be resigned as baubles, beneath the
consideration of men who either desire or deserve to be free. The ladies,
indeed, will be subjected to many disagreeable hardships, but their
generous souls will submit to every inconvenience rather than see their
posterity enslaved; and the great leisure you will have from contracting
the cultivation of your lands will enable you to extend your manufactures
till you can supply yourselves with every convenience, with every elegance,
that rational men can desire. But till you can greatly improve your present
manufactures, you will allow, my countrymen, that your situations will
be rather uncomfortable. Are you certain that all America will chearfully
submit to this situation? Did those who signed the association in the days of
the stamp act religiously adhere to it? That there are some few refined souls
in every colony, perhaps in every county of each colony, that will sacrifice
their own private interest, subject themselves to every inconvenience, and
deny themselves almost the common necessaries of life, to promote the
public good, and to preserve the liberties of their country, I have no
doubt; because history furnishes instances that such disinterested, such
heroic characters, have existed, and I believe the inhabitants of America
are possessed of as much virtue as those of other nations; but to imagine
that all, or even a majority, of the inhabitants of a country, are possessed
of such exalted ideas of patriotism, is a romantic supposition, which
never has, nor, I fear, never will be warranted by the history of any
nation whatever. Nor can we flatter ourselves that this angelic exertion
of virtue will be general in America when we consider that many of her
present inhabitants are, like birds of passage, settled only for a time, for
the purposes of raising fortunes by trade, whose ultimate view is to
return, with the fortunes they acquire, to the connections they have left
behind them in Britain, and that there are others whose daily bread
depends upon the continuance of the laws we complain of. These two
sets of men, so far from observing such an association, will use every
artifice to evade it themselves, and try every stratagem to tempt the vain
to deceive the unwary, and to prevail upon the lukewarm to desert the
common cause; and a general defection from the plan, when once adopted,
can answer no other end than that of rendering you contemptible.

But even supposing that all America should unite, as one man, in
attempting this measure, the British aristocracy will never suffer you to
carry it into execution; for let it be remembered, that one of the rights
they claim is that of restraining your manufactures; and when you openly
avow a design of purchasing no more of their manufactures they will
immediately enforce that right of restraining you from making any of
your own. But surely, say the proposers of this plan, they cannot force
us to purchase from them whether we will or not. Very true; but if
you refuse to do so they will endeavour to prevent you from purchasing
those articles in any other market, and from making them yourselves.
But, say the proposers of this plan, they have no right to do this. Very
true; nor have they any right to make any kind of laws to govern you.
But they will endeavour to shew you that they have the power of doing
it; and though right and power are two distinct things, you may as well
acknowledge the right as to submit to the power of legislation; and if
you submit to the laws already made, you will soon have others, equally
arbitrary imposed upon you, for restraining your manufactures. For my
own part, I shall not be at all surprised if the very next session should
furnish us with acts of parliament enacting, “that your smiths shops
shall be destroyed as nuisances; tanning your own hides be declared
a misdemeanor; combing your own wool be punished with fine and
imprisonment; spinning your own flax subject you to the pillory; making
your own shoes be made felony without benefit of clergy; fabricating

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your own hats incur a premunire; weaving any kind of cloth be deemed
an overt act of high treason; fashioning a canoe be chastised as an insult
upon the British flag; building a boat be constituted an unpardonable act
of rebellion; launching a ship be considered as an actual declaration of
war; trials by juries be exploded, as dangerous appeals to the people,
who are not to be trusted; new courts of admiralty be erected in their
room, whose judges shall hold their commissions during pleasure, and
be stimulated to enforce those acts, by sharing in the forfeitures and
confiscations occasioned by their own judgments; and to extinguish every
spark of public spirit, and to prevent a possibility of redress, your assem-
blies will be dissolved, and the people no longer permitted to elect repre-
sentatives, to urge their grievances, or to utter their complaints.” Do
not, my countrymen, be so blind to your own welfare, as to imagine I
am jesting upon this serious occasion, or that I am supposing acts of par-
liament which can never exist. Reflect upon the different acts for pre-
venting slitting mills; for erecting courts of admiralty for recovering the
inland forfeitures imposed by the stamp act; for suspending the legislature
of New York; for shutting up the port of Boston; for altering the
charter of New England, which was more solemnly granted by majesty
than their own magna charta; for screening the murtherers of the Ame-
ricans; and the joint address, for both houses of parliament to his
majesty, to transport the Americans themselves, to be imprisoned and
ruined, if not butchered, in England; and you will be convinced that the
cases I have supposed are by no means chimerical, and that there is no
act of intemperance, injustice, or despotism, which the British arisotocra-
cy will not attempt, to refrain America from manufacturing, the mo-
ment you declare your intention of doing so. To enter, therefore, into
associations against importing British manufactures, any farther than a
rational attention to your circumstances, is surely no moderate measure,
but must, at last, end in a humiliating submission, or oblige you to have
recourse to that force which the proposers of this plan would wish to
avoid.

Let us now consider whether an association against exporting your com-
modities would not be attended with still worse consequences: This plan,
if it means any thing, is to distress Great Britain. But surely you can-
not more effectually do this than by lessening your imports, and encreasing
your exports, as much as possible; for by selling your commodities to the
British merchants, and by taking none of theirs in exchange, you will
encrease your own wealth by exhausting that of Britain. but it is
objected, we are at present largely indebted to the British merchants:
The more incumbent it is upon you to export all the commodities you
can, to pay them as soon as possible; for you ought to have more grati-
tude than to attempt to ruin the families of those who have been kind
enough to furnish you not only with the elegancies, but the necessaries
of life. Common honesty requires that you should pay your debts, and
if you should refuse to do so, not only the persons injured, but all man-
kind, will judge unfavourably of you, and declare, that instead of brave-
ly contending for your liberties, you are knavishly endeavouring to cheat
your creditors. Such a national breach of faith will unite all Europe
against you, as a flagitious race of mortals, who do not deserve to be free;
who ought to be considered as the pests of human society, and as such
forced into submission, if not extirpated.

For God’s sake, my countrymen, let your conduct be such that you
shall be thought worthy of that freedom you contend for, and do not
render yourselves the objects of contempt and abhorrence; for if you
should even establish your liberty, in opposition to the united efforts of
all Europe to reduce you, it may never be in your power to manifest
your honest intentions of making retribution. Many of you and your
creditors may be dead before the dispute is decided, and then very with-
holding the sums you owe for a short period, from men in trade, may
irretrievably reduce the survivors and their families to ruin, and Ame-
rican become as proverbially infamous as punic faith.

But it is said, that by withholding your tobacco you will immediately
make the minister sensible of his folly, in the instant effect it will have
upon the revenue. But when you consider that the tax upon tobacco is
finally paid by the British inhabitants who consume it, and consequently
is actually raised in England, and if the tax ceases upon this luxury, the
same sum may be raised by laying it on some other, and that by doing
so, the subjects of Britain will pay no more than they do at present, or,
in other words, the same sum of money may be still raised, by altering
only the mode of raising it; the inconvenience will not be so great as
is at first sight imagined; and even supposing it otherwise, by giving this
temporary shock to administration, may you not fix a lasting inconve-
nience upon yourselves? Accustomed to the use of that commodity,
when they are no longer supplied by you, may not the inhabitants of
Britain look out for a supply of it from some other quarter? And may
you not lose that valuable branch of trade altogether? If there is no
danger of this, or if the loss of it should be thought not worth regreting,
at least confine your plan of non-importation to tobacco only, or, what
will be still wiser, determine to make no more of it till the points you
contend for are established. But to injure yourselves by devoting your
wheat and corn to be destroyed by the weavils and other vermin in your
own useless barns, will be indiscreet, to starve your fellow subjects and
fellow sufferers of the West Indies will be inhuman, and to encrease
the wealth of Great Britain, by raising to an exorbitant height the price
of her wheat and provisions in those foreign markets, which you at pre-
sent supply, will be downright madness to think of. Upon the whole,
policy, humanity, a just regard for your national character, gratitude,
and common honesty, all forbid you to adopt the second plan proposed,
as it would most certainly end in a scandalous and unpitied submission,
or introduce a civil war, aggravated with all the inconveniencies attending
a good cause turned into a bad one, by rash, indiscreet, and unjustifiable
measures. If we are obliged to struggle for our liberty, with arms in our
hands, let us not unerve the sinews of war. If we are at last forced,
through unwillingly, to draw the sword, let us do it in a just cause; let
us be careful that we are not the aggressors; let us point our resentment
against our oppressors; but let us not wound the bosoms of our friends;
let us conduct ourselves in such a manner as to raise the prayers of the
righteous for our success, and if we do fall, let us fall revered and la-
mented; but not execrated and despised by all mankind. But I am far
from thinking that you are yet in this desperate situation, and am not
without hopes that you may still establish your liberty without having
recourse to the decision of the sword. But to avoid this, it will be ab-
solutely necessary to convince your oppressors that you dare to do it rather
than be enslaved. The measures to be taken, in order to convince them,
naturally lead me to the consideration of the third plan proposed, which,
I confess, appears to me the most constitutional, the most rational, the
most moderate, and the most effectual measure you can pursue; and to
prove that it is so shall be the subject of my next. I shall conclude this
with one remark, which I submit to the serious attention of my coun-
trymen: You may remember that the second plan proposed came first
recommended to you from your friends on the other side the Atlantic.
Now, though many of the inhabitants of Great Britain think that the
British parliament have no right to tax you, and sincerely disapprove the
hostile and violent measures pursued by them against you, yet there is
not one man of them who does not insist that you ought to submit to the
supreme legislation of the British parliament, and therefore would wish
you to avoid every measure of contesting with success, the supremacy
they claim, of restraining your manufactures, and of securing to them-
selves the whole profit of your labours. Hence they will never advise
you to adopt any other than temporizing measures, to avoid the evil of
a present oppression, without considering, that to admit the dependence,
must one time or other necessarily end in despotism to them, and slavery
to you. Again, the British people are of two factions: The first consists

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of a majority of the two houses of parliament, and composes the aristo-
cracy; these are called the ins. The second consists of the minority of
those houses, and are called the outs; most of whom would be willing to
be taken into the aristocracy, and become ins if they could; and when-
ever they are, would be as vioent against you as their brethren. With
this view the outs now pretend to be your friends, and advise you to adopt
measures that would do, what? Settle the dispute at once. By no
means; for that would lessen their own consequence. but such as may
subject the ins to temporary inconveniencies, and oblige them to admit
some of theouts to share with them in the emoluments of administration;
listen therefore to them with a suspicious ear; “hear each man’s cen-
sure, but reserve your judgment,” and constantly revolve in your minds
these truths: That American liberty can only be preserved by Ameri-
can virtue, and that if you determine to dare to be free, you will be so.
I am, my countrymen,
A BRITISH AMERICAN.

Mrs. RIND,
BY giving the enclosed a place in your next paper you will oblige the
public, and a number of your customers, besides
Your very humble servant,
VIRGINIANUS.

ALARMING SOLILOQUYS.

I. What nation was it that twice joined the French in the plan for
abolishing the protestant religion, therefore invited the pretender over to
Britain, and then assisted him with all their might to usurp the govern-
ment of England by force, thereby to subject all true protestants to
popish persecution, or death?———Why it was the rebellious Scotch.

II. Who was it that planned the ruin of American liberty by framing
and instituting the stamp act, together with the rest of those most odious
and oppressive revenue acts for imposing a tax on the Americans, without
their consent?———Why the Scotch.

III. Who was it that so far abused the power and authority entrusted
with them by a deluded K—g, as to perpetrate the enforcing the said
acts, by sending fleets and armies to distress loyal subjects in America?——
Why the Scotch.

IV. Whose influence over a corrupt parliament was it that has shaken
the very constitution of England by disannulling the almost unanimous
election of the freeholders of Middlesex?———Why it was the Scotch.

V. Who are they that are now aiming at arbitrary and tyrannic
power in almost every part of the English dominions?———Why are they
not the Scotch?

VI. Why then every American who joins with the Scotch, in oppo-
sition against his own countrymen, ought to be deemed an enemy to
liberty and his country, and therefore should forever by despised and
discountenanced by every one who values his property or his freedom.

To the author who stiles himself AN ENGLISHMAN.

SIR,
I HAVE perused your performance of June last, in the NORFOLK
INTELLIGENCER: It contains reflections highly injurious
to the honour of our last assembly, and evinces principles of the most
dangerous tendency to the welfare of this country, and though, if left
to itself, its influence would be small or the sensible and discerning, yet
as all mankind are not thus circumstanced, there arises a necessity that
the doctrines it inculcates should be sufficiently exposed. I do not
expect, by this publication, to alter your opinion (that, I fear, will
require a stronger effort than argument) but such only of my country-
men, who from inattention to questions of this nature, may be liable to
imposition. I own, I wish the public had as fair a view of you as of
your production, that they might bestow such indelible marks of their
approbation as the peculiar nature of the service requires. Your position
that a constitution both wise and happy in its original principles is able to give
her laws weight in the remotest corners of the state
proves nothing; it may
be admitted, without the least prejudice to the American cause: For
such a constitution, while she preserved her primitive purity, could never
affect her distant provinces by any measures participating of such prin-
ciples. Its wisdom would be a security against oppression, and its
diffusive happiness a blessing to the whole; for what constitution, that
was wise and happy in its creation, ever had despotism for the object?
But it is known, from unhappy experience, that states, as well as men,
frequently depart from their first principles. This was the case of the
republic of Rome, and I fear, too, is the case with Britain. Rome
had wisdom and virtue, the surest pledge of happiness, for its basis; and
political liberty was the consequence. As long as she adhered to the
design of her constitution she flourished, and became the mistress of the
world; till luxury and venality, more hostile to her quiet than legions
of armies, at first controuled and then destroyed her; and now she is as
The baseless fabric of a vision.

To extend the comparison, is replete with horror; but let all true
Englishmen beware, that by introducing despotism into their provinces,
they open a door into their own vitals. But to pursue the subject of
British supremacy, the controverting of which, has drawn these severe re-
flections on our late assembly; and let me ask, from whence this inward
conviction of their supreme right is derived? It is really the result of sober
reason,
or the frantic ebullition of a disordered mind? Or does it proceed
from some other cause, which prudence thought proper to conceal? If
from the former, who was not the position proved by argument? Why
rashly condemn a respectable body (even of Americans) and turn them
over to such a chastisement as government shall be please to inflict with-
out first demonstrating their guilt? A certainty of the crime should
surely precede the punishment. This is the mode of proceeding in that
country which you glory in as your greatest honour; it was then (prior
to censure) a necessary duty to have satisfied the public the right of tax-
ation was in the British parliament; for if it is not, the opposition was
strictly consistent, and the quartering troops on the town of Boston, to
enforce non-existent laws, is unquestionably hostile invasion. But it is
easy to be discovered why you did not attempt to prove your political
thesis: You well knew the enquiry would have been involved in such a
labyrinth of absurdity, that human invention could not have afforded
assistance; more exalted penmen have beat the tract before you with
equal success. The immortal Locke and Sidney have formed such in-
vincible obstacles that the wiles of sophistry shall never prevail against
them. Those ornaments of the English nation have laid it down as an
undeniable principle that liberty is a blessing to which the whole race of
mankind have an original title, whereof nothing but unlawful force can
divest them.
And let me now enquire why the Americans should be
exempted from the rights of human nature? Were they not born as free
as the people of England? Are not their assemblies as fair a representa-
tive of the people as the parliament of Great Britain? And have not
those assemblies been acknowledged by government? Are they not sub-
jects of the same king? Doth not the same sun shine over them? And
have they not the same God for their protector? Am I a freeman in
England, and do I, by the magical influence of a prime minister, be-
come a slave again in twenty days, by crossing the Atlantic? This indeed
is strange ! is passing strange! and only reconcileable to those determined
on injustice. It is alledged that our delegates were culpable in departing
from the object recommended by the executive power; by this, I pre-
sume, is meant, the not raising supplies, as it seems there was not ne-
cessity for lending their assistance to the expiring fee bill. But here I
cannot but approve of their conduct in refusing to grant to his majesty,
before they knew they had any thing to give; for if the British parlia-
ment have a right to impose taxes, it evidently follows, our own assem-
blies have not, for that would be reducing us to a state of complex

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taxation; an absurdity not to be tolerated by the English constitution.
But every measure tending to controvert the supreme power of Britain is
viewed through the medium of a false perspective, or else the setting
apart a day for humiliation and prayer could never have given offence.
Certainly to return good for evil, to pray for them that despitefully use
you, is in strict conformity to the christian tenets. What sarcasm or
injury could be intended by imploring the Divinity, that the parliament
might receive a greater portion of wisdom; unless, indeed, it is thought they
are at present so overcharged as not to be capable of admitting an addition?
If this is the case, they require not the assistance of prayer; but if the
fact is not so, with respect to that august body, it is surely a friendly
office in those who interpose for an encrease. The imputation of our
being impressed with visionary ideas of democratical happiness is as void
of truth as of probability. No people existing are more loyal, no go-
vernment is so favourable to our religion as that of a limited monarchy;
and the annals of our country evince we were so much attached to it as
even to proclaim a Stewart long before they had got quit of their repub-
lican ideas
in England. But to encounter the heavy charge of dishonesty,
in declining all commercial intercourse (for this is the very bug-bear of
every brooding cynic) the fear of incurring the reputation of national
injustice, is, I own, extremely laudable, and ought to be encouraged in
every well regulated community; but it is still to be remembered that
positive laws ought in some instances to give way to those of necessity.
There is a time when we must have recourse to original principles; when
no longer fettered by human institutions, we obey the unchangeable
laws of nature. The guarding ourselves against an impending danger,
and the using the means of prevention, is not only tolerated by the
mind. The principle of self-preservation runs throughout the whole ani
mal existence. In these cases the action is discovered to be just, or unjust,
by a comparison with the cause which produced it, and wherever the
evil originated, stamps the denomination. If it did not proceed from
us, a necessary act of self-defence, to avert that evil, cannot be attri-
buted as a crime, but a virtue. I do not insist that such an expedient
ought to be adopted. I leave the discussion to men of more enlightened
understandings. But if necessity should evince its utility, that it is not
unjust, especially as it is intended as a temporary suspension, not an ex-
tinction of right, and the injured will always have it in their power, by
removing the cause, to remove the effect also, it may bear hard on some
who have the inclination and not the ability to befriend us; but how
can such be distinguished? We can be viewed only in the light of distinct
societies; the separation is impracticable, and, in a constitutional sense,
all are supposed to have consented to the acts of those who represent
them. I would recommend to such as may be affected a submission,
without murmuring, to whatever may be the general sense of the peo-
ple. I think, in gratitude they ought. They have long enjoyed the
benefits of an exclusive trade. If we believe an authority of the highest
repute, their estates in England have been raised from 15 to 30 years
purchase, and the encreased opulence of the united kingdom is scarcely to
be imagined. I could heartily with justice could be obtained without
having recourse to so critical an experiment. A knowledge of what is
past, however, has demonstrated that our complaints are only regarded
by the consequences produced by our measures. But if we credit the
assertions of theEnglishman, all our friends act from selfish principles.
This I do not believe any more than that the person who asserts the
fact is really what he pretends he is. His principles of passive obedience,
and ignorance of the constitution, convince me he is much better acquaint-
ed with the rescript of the emperor than with any tract of English juris-
prudence. The character of Mr. Pitt I shall not attempt to defend; it
requires no protection from argument; the history of his country is his
best panegyric; the splendour of a title could not have attracted his at-
tention, because no title on earth could ennoble him. Those patriots in
the house of commons, who had the rectitude to withstand the tempta-
tion of plundered provinces, did all that men could do in their situ-
ation. Their not doing more for the public good was not owing
to a want of virtue in themselves, but a want of it in those with whom
they contended. They pointed out to their countrymen, the avenues to
prosperity and happiness. Cicero, Brutus, and Cato, did the same; but
such was the supremacy of all commanding gold,* that the most salutary
admonition, only reflected ignominy and insult on the person who gave
it. The measure of iniquity was full, and they preached to the air.
But let not my countrymen be alarmed with imaginary dangers, from
an opposition of government. There is no law which prevents an in-
jured people from meeting to deliberate on public grievances. If such
assemblies had been unlawful, the meeting at the London Tavern would
not have been permitted. The solid pursuits of government, with respect
to supremacy, can only be obstructed by as solid pursuits in the people.
Our ancestors braved the greatest dangers in defence of their liberties;
witness those glorious atchievements in the days of the haughty Plan-
tagenet, and of the arbitrary Stewart.; Let them not be dishonoured
in the conduct of their descendants; remember the contest is with sub-
jects, and the prize is liberty. I am, with as great loyalty to my king,
and as sincere a regard for the constitution as dwells in the heart of any
Englishman upon earth, your obedient servant,
AMERICANUS.

* Urbem venalem & mature perituram si emptorem in venerit, are the expressions of JUGURTHA.

To Mrs. RIND.

MADAM,
THE generous disposition that I found prevailing in the county of
Westmoreland to relieve their worthy distressed fellow subjects in
BOSTON, by subscribing a supply of grain to be sent for their use
whilst they continue under the cruel oppression of ministerial tyranny,
led me naturally to reflect on the great advantages derived to human
nature from the benevolent passions implanted in the human breast by
the great author of our existence. Both humanity and found policy
appear to recommend this, or similar measures, to all the counties in
this colony, and to all British America. The brave people of Boston
are certainly suffering in the common cause of British liberty; but he
must be senseless as the earth he treads on who sees not that the attack
on Boston is the beginning of a wicked system to enslave all North
America, by compelling submission to arbitrary taxes from one colony at
a time, until all are made to bend beneath the yoke of oppression, and
quietly to yield their property into the hands of lawless violence.
BENEVOLUS.

Mrs. RIND,
By inserting the following CARD you will oblige many.
A VIRGINIAN presents his compliments to the JOCKEY CLUBS
of Fredericksburg and Portsmouth, and begs that they will sup-
press their sporting spirit till the circumstances of America can permit
it with more decency. He also begs leave to recommend it to the most
serious consideration of these clubs, whether their purses, applied to the
relief of the distressed BOSTONIANS, would not afford them more
real pleasure than all that can arise from viewing a painful contest be-
tween two or three animals?

HERE FOLLOW THE RESOLVES ENTERED INTO BY
DIFFERENT COUNTIES IN VIRGINIA.

ON Monday the 18th of July the freeholders and other inhabitants of
York county met, according to public notice, at the courthouse in
York, to consider what was to be done in the present distressed and
alarming situation of affairs throughout the British colonies in America.
THOMAS NELSON, junior, esquire, being unanimously chosen moderator,
opened the business of the meeting with the following ADDRESS,
to the people:

Friends and Countrymen,
WE are met to-day upon one of the most important matters that can
engage the attention of men. You are all well acquainted with the
attacks which have lately been made by the British parliament upon,
what is dearer to Americans than their lives, their liberties. You have
heard of the acts of oppression which have passed against a sister colony,
under which it is now actually groaning, and you must be sensible that
this is only a prelude to the designs of parliament upon every other part
of this wide extended continent. In this light did our late truly patriotic
and honourable house of burgesses regard it, and I am not now to inform
you what has been the consequence. Our assembly has been dissolved,
our country left without laws for its government, and without means of
defending itself against an invading enemy. In this melancholy situation
of things, many of our late worthy representatives convened in Wil-
liamsburg, and there agreed, after they should collect the sentiments of
the people throughout the colony, to meet again on the first day of
August next, and concert such measures as would be most likely to pro-
cure us a speedy redress of our grievances, and security against them for
the time to come. You are now called together to deliberate upon these
matters, to chuse who shall represent you in the approaching important
meeting, and to furnish them with your sentiments upon those things
which are to come before them. I need not observe how much you are
concerned in the event of their proceedings. You all know what it is
to be FREE MEN; you know the blessed privilege of dong what you
will with your own, and you can guess at the misery of those who are

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deprived of this right. Which of these will be your case depends upon
your present conduct. We have found already that petitions and remon-
strances are ineffectual, and it is now time that we try other expedients.
We must make those who are endeavouring to oppress us feel the effects
of their mistaken, of their arbitrary policy; for not till then can we
expect justice from them. From the public papers we learn the senti-
ments of many of the counties of Virginia, and it appears that they
think it necessary for the accomplishing of their purposes to drop, till
they are redressed, alll commercial intercourse with Great Britain.
Whether consistently with justice, as a people in dept, we can stop our
exports, is a point which seems doubtful; but that imports ought to be
prohibited necessity demands, and no virtue forbids. It is not supposed
that we can do this without subjecting ourselves to many inconveniencies;
but inconveniencies, when opposed to a loss of freedom, are surely to be
disregarded. Besides, I am told, by men acquainted with these things,
that the goods already in the country, and those expected in the fall,
will be sufficient to supply the wants of all Virginia for two years. In
the mean time, we must, if our grievances be not redressed, turn our
attention to the breeding of sheep, the raising of flax, hemp, and cotton,
and to manufactures. It is true, we must resign the hope of making
fortunes; but to what end should we make fortunes, when they may be
taken from us at the pleasure of others? I hope you will take these
matters into your most serious consideration. Weigh them with that
attention which matters of such moment merit. Determine with
wisdom and moderation; and, once determined, let no difficulties or
dangers shake your resolutions.

It was then unanimously resolved, that as the constitutional assemblies
of Virginia have been prevented from exercising their right of providing
for the security of the liberties of the people, that right again reverts to
the people, as the fountain from whence all power and legislation flow;
a right coeval with human nature, and which they claim from the eternal
and immutable laws of nature’s God.

Resolved also, that DUDLEY DIGGES, and THOMAS NELSON,
junior, esquires, do attend at the city of Williamsburg, on the first day
of August next, in a general convention from the other counties in
Virginia, there to exert their utmost abilities to put a stop to that grow-
ing system of ministerial despotism which has so long threatened the de-
struction of America.

And that you, our delegates, may be made acquainted with the sentiments
of the people of this county, it is their opinion that you proceed to chuse
proper persons to represent the colony of Virginia in a general congress
of America, to meet at such time and place as may hereafter be agreed
on.

That these representatives be instructed to form a declaration of Ameri-
can rights, setting forth that British America, and all the inhabitants there-
of, shall be and remain in due subjection to the crown of England, and
to the illustrious family of the throne; submitting by their own voluntary
act, and enjoying all the freedoms and privileges of the free people of
England; that it is the first law of legislation, and of the British con-
stitution, that no man shall be taxed but by his own consent, expressed
either by himself or his representative; that the Americans cannot be
represented in the British parliament; and therefore, that every edict of
the British parliament imposing any tax or custom, duty, or imposition
whatsoever, on the people of America, without their consent, is illegal,
and subversive of the first principles of the British constitution, and of
the natural rights of men; that it is the undoubted right and true interest
of the sovereign, as supreme ruler of the whole empire, to provide for
the welfare of his subjects within the realm at the head of the British
parliament, and of those in America at the head of his American assem-
blies, by laws adapted to their local situation, and suited to the exigences
of each; and, by that negative with which he is invested by the consti-
tution, to restrain the different states of his extensive dominion from
enacting laws to destroy the freedom, and prejudice the interests, of one
another; that the king, in his British parliament, shall have a supremacy
for regulating the trade of America, with this reasonable reserve, that
all the British colonies enjoy a free trade with each other; and that no
tax, duty, or imposition whatsoever, be laid by the British parliament,
on any article which the American colonies are obliged to import from
Great Britain only; and that this right of supremacy be deemed or
expressed a resignation by our own voluntary act, flowing from a just
sense of the protection we have hitherto received from Great Britain.

And farther, the people of this county are of opinion that the act of
the British parliament laying a duty on tea, for the purpose of raising a
revenue, to be collected in America without her consent, is an illegal tax.

That the act which blocks up the port of Boston destroys her trade,
and subjects her inhabitants to the worst of inconveniencies and hard-
ships, is oppressive and unconstitutional; that the people of Boston in-
curred the displeasure of parliament by a just defence of their liberties
and properties; and that the cause for which they suffer is the general
cause of every British colony in America.

That the bill, commonly called the murdering bill, if passed into an
act, is not only unconstitutional, but shocking to human nature; that
its evident design is to privilege the soldiers to commit with impunity
the most cruel outrages even against the lives of Americans, whist it
cuts off from an accused American every hope of being acquitted.

That the most effectual means of obtaining a speedy redress of Ame-
rican grievances is to put a stop to imports from Great Britain, with as
few exceptions as possible, until the said oppressive acts be repealed, and
American rights established; and that what relates to exports be left
to the determination of the convention in August.

That industry and frugality be adopted, in their largest extent,
throughout this colony; and that horse-racing, and every other species
of expensive amusement, be laid aside, as unsuitable to the situation of
the country, and unbecoming men who feel for its distresses.

That the first day of September next, or the time of the general con-
gress, be set apart as a day of prayer and supplication to the almighty
disposer of human events, to direct the counsels of the Americans, and
so to dispose the heart of our sovereign, that a general harmony may be
restored to the British empire.

That a subscription be immediately opened for the relief of the inha-
bitants of BOSTON, under the direction of the deputies for this coun
ty, who are desired to promote and encourage the same.

That the above resolves and opinions be published in the Virginia
Gazette. WILLIAM RUSSELL, Clerk.

Business being finished, the deputies were invited to a genteel enter-
tainment provided for them by the inhabitants of York county, as a
testimony of their entire approbation of the conduct of these gentlemen.

At a meeting of the freeholders and inhabitants of the county of New Kent,
at the courthouse of the said county, on Tuesday the 12th day of July, 1774,

THOMAS ADAMS, esquire, being first chosen moderator, and WILLIAM
CLAYTON, esquire, clerk, the present state of America being seriously and
duly considered, the following RESOLUTIONS were proposed and agreed to
as an instruction to our deputies hereafter named.

RESOLVED, that our sovereign lord king George the third is lawful and
rightful king of Great Britain, and all his dominions in America, to whose
royal person and government we profess all due subjection, obedience, and fidelity,
and that we will at all times defend and protect the just rights of his majesty
with our lives and fortunes.

Resolved, that the inhabitants of the British colonies in America are entitled
to all the rights, liberties, and privileges, of freeborn English subjects.

Resolved, that the rights to impose taxes, or duties, to be paid by the inha-
bitants of this dominion, for any purpose whatever, is peculiar and essential to
the general assembly, in whom the legislative authority of the colony is placed,
and that taxation and representation are inseparable.

Resolved, that the trial by a jury of the vicinage is the glory of the English
law, and the best security for the life, liberty, and property, of the subject,
and is the undoubted birthright of all his majesty’s freeborn American subjects.

Resolved, that the several acts and resolutions of the parliament of Great
Britain, made during his present majesty’s reign, imposing taxes on the inhabi-
tants of America, for the express purpose of raising a revenue, and for alter-
ing the nature or punishment of offences committee in America, or the method of
trial of such offences, are unconstitutional, arbitrary, and unjust, and destruc-
tive of the rights of America, and that we are not bound to yield obedience to
any such acts.

Resolved, that the late cruel, unjust, and sanguinary, acts of parliament,
to be executed by military force, and ships of war, upon our sister colony of the
Massachusetts Bay, and town of Boston, is a strong evidence of the corrupt
influence obtained by the British ministry in parliament, and a convincing proof
of their fixed intention to deprive the colonies of their constitutional rights and
liberties.

Resolved, that the cause of the town of Boston is the common cause of all the
American colonies.

Resolved, that is it the duty and interest of all the American colonies firmly
to unite in an indissoluble union and association to oppose, by every just and
proper means, the infringements of their rights and liberties.

Resolved,* that we do heartily approve of the resolutions and proceedings of
our several late assemblies for asserting and supporting the just rights and liber-
ties of America, from their patriotic resolves in 1765 to this time.

Resolved, that we will most firmly unite with the other counties in this colony
in such measures as shall be approved of by a majority, as the best and most
proper method of preserving our rights and liberties, and opposing the said
unconstitutional acts of parliament.

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Resolved, that the most effectual method of opposing the said several acts of
parliament will be to break off all commercial intercourse with Great Britain
until the said acts shall be repealed.

Resolved, that the several counties within this colony ought to nominate and
appoint for every county proper deputies, to meet upon the first day of August
next, in the city of Williamsburg, then and there to consult and agree upon
the best and most proper means for carrying into execution these or any other
resolutions which shall be best calculated to answer the purposes aforesaid.

Resolved, that it be earnestly recommended to the deputies at the said general
convention to nominate and appoint fit and proper persons on behalf of this colony,
to meet such deputies as shall be appointed by the other colonies, in general con-
gress, to consult and agree upon a firm and indissoluble union and association for
preserving, by the best and most proper means, their common rights and liber-
ties.

Resolved, that BURWELL BASSETT and BARTHOLOMEW
DANDRIDGE, esquires, our late and present worthy representatives, be
and they are hereby nominated and appointed deputies, on the part and behalf
of the freeholders and inhabitants of this county, to meet such deputies as shall
be appointed by the other counties within this colony, in the city of Williams-
burg, on the first day of August next, or at any other time or place for the
purpose aforesaid.

Resolved, further, that our said deputies agree to join in any proper means
that shall be adopted for the immediate relief of the present necessities of the
inhabitants of the town of Boston.

Resolved, that the clerk transmit the foregoing resolutions and instructions
to the printer, to be published.

WILLIAM CLAYTON, clerk of the meeting.

At a meeting of the freeholders and other inhabitants of Essex county, at
the courthouse thereof, on Saturday the 9th of July, 1774, seriously to con-
sider the present dangers which threaten ruin to American liberty,
Mr. JOHN
UPSHAW being chosen moderator, the following RESOLVES were proposed
and unanimously agreed to.

I. RESOLVED, that we will, at all times, and upon all occasions, bear
true and faithful allegiance to his majesty king George the third, and that, as
freemen, we always have been, and ever shall be, willing constitutionally to
give and grant liberally our property for the support of his crown and dignity,
and the preservation of our parent state; but that we can never consent to
part with it on any other terms.

II. Resolved, that the legislature of this colony, for the purpose of internal
taxation, is distinct from that of Britain, founded upon the principles of the
British constitution, and equal, in all respects, to the purposes of legislation and
taxation within this colony.

III. Resolved, that the people of this colony in particular, and of America
in general, have a clear and absolute right to dispose of their property by their
own consent, expressed by themselves or by their representatives in assembly,
and any attempt to tax, or take their money from them in any other manner,
and all other acts tending to enforce submission to them, is an exertion of power,
contrary to natural justice, subversive of the English constitution, destructive
of our charters, and oppressive.

IV. Resolved, that the town of Boston, in our sister colony of Massachusetts
Bay, is now suffering in the common cause of North America, for their just
opposition to such acts; and it is indispensibly necessary that all the colonies
should firmly unite in defence of our common rights.

V. Resolved, that it is the opinion of this meeting, that an agreement to
stop all exports to, and imports from, Great Britain and the West Indies,
firmly entered into and religiously complied with, will at all times, prove a
safe and infallible means of securing us against the evils of any unconstitutional
and tyrannical acts of parliament, and may be adopted upon the principles of
self preservation, the great law of nature.

VI. Resolved, that the inhabitants of this county will firmly join with the
other counties in this colony, and the other colonies on this continent, or a ma-
jority of them, to stop all exports to, and imports from, Great Britain and
the West Indies, and all other parts of the world, except the colonies of North
America, if such a measure shall be deemed expedient by the deputies at the
general congress, and that whatever agreement the congress shall come to, for
the advantage of the common cause of North America, relating to exports,
imports, or otherwise, ought to be considered as binding as any act of legislature,
and that we will use our utmost endeavours to support and maintain such gene-
ral agreement, at the expence of our lives and fortunes.

VII. Resolved, that it is the opinion of this meeting, that the several courts
in this colony ought not to proceed to the forwarding or trial of civil causes until
our exports are opened.

VIII. Resolved, that is is the opinion of this meeting, that the East India
company, having a design to monopolize a great part of the American trade, to
the injury of the other merchants of Britain trading to America, and knowing
well the fatal consequences that must have resulted from their fixing a pre-
cedent for future taxes, by importing tea into the colonies, became the willing
instruments of the ministry to destroy American liberty, and deserve the loss they
have sustained.

IX. Resolved, that we do most heartily concur with our late worthy repre-
sentatives in their resolve for the disuse of tea, and that we will not hereafter
purchase any East India commodities whatsoever.

X. Resolved, that the spirited conduct of the town of Boston hath been
serviceable to the cause of freedom (all other methods having failed) and that
no reparation ought to be made to the East India company, or others their
assistants, for any injury they have sustained, unless it be the express condition
on which all our grievances shall be removed.

XI. Resolved, that it is the opinion of this meeting, that any general cen-
sure upon the conduct of the town of Boston respecting the tea, without allow-
ing to them the motives of resistance upon the principles of public virtue and
necessity, is inimical to American liberty, and we are persuaded that none but
ministerial hirelings, and professed enemies of American freedom, will adopt a
language so impolitic, which manifestly tends to create a disunion of sentiments,
at this time, fatal to America.

XII. Resolved, that the parliament have no right to pass an act to remove
our persons to Great Britain, or any other place whatsoever, to be tried for
any offence, and that we are determined not to submit thereto.

XIII. Resolved, that it is the opinion of this meeting, that no merchant in
this, or any other colony on this continent, shall advance the goods now on hand
higher than they are at present, or have been for some time, and that the mer-
chants in the several counties sign an agreement to that effect.

XIV. Resolved, that a subscription be set on foot for raising provision for
the poor of Boston, who now suffer by the blocking up their ports, and that
Robert Beverly, John Lee, and Muscoe Garnett, in Saint Anne’s parish,
and Archibald Ritchie, and John Upshaw, in the upper part of Southfarnham
parish, and Meriwether Smith, and James Edmondson, in the lower part
thereof, take in subscriptions for that purpose, who are to consign what may
be raised to some proper person to be distributed, and the before mentioned gen-
tlemen are empowered to charter a vessel to send it to Boston.

XV. Resolved, that this meeting have the deepest sense of the injuries in
which the merchants and manufacturers of Great Britain must necessarily be
involved by a non-importation resolution, they having placed an almost un-
limited confidence in us for a series of years, and by that means have the
greatest part of their fortunes lodged in our hands, and that nothing but the
desire of preserving our rights and liberties could induce us to adopt a measure
big with such melancholy consequences.

XVI. Resolved, that JAMES EDMONDSON, and WILLIAM ROANE,
esquires, the late representatives of this county, be and they are hereby ap-
pointed deputies to represent us at the general meeting of deputies for the several
counties in this colony, on the 1st day of August, in Williamsburg, and we
desire that they will exert their best abilities for the security of our constitutional
rights and liberties, and to appoint deputies to meet, at the general congress,
the deputies of the other colonies on this continent.

XVII. Resolved, that the clerk transmit the foregoing proceedings to the
printers, to be published, in their gazettes.

WILLIAM YOUNG, Clerk of the meeting.

At a general meeting of the inhabitants of the county of Dinwiddie,
at the courthouse, on Friday the 15th of July, in consequence of pre-
vious notice from their late representatives, and an intimation of their
desire to be advised and instructed, relative to the differences now un-
happily subsisting between Great Britain and her colonies, after mature
deliberation on this most interesting subject, they unanimously came to
the following declaration of their sentiments, which are intended to ma-
nifest to the world the principles by which they are actuated in a dispute
so important, as that they conceive, on its decision, depends the political
existence of all America.

WE, the inhabitants of the county of Dinwiddie, do entertain the
most cordial and unfeigned affection and loyalty for his majesty’s person
and government, which, together with his right to the crown of Great
Britain, and its dependencies, we will at all times defend and support,
at the risk of our lives and fortunes, and under so true a conviction of
the firmest allegiance, we think ourselves entitled, as a constitutional
right, to protection from that sovereign to whom we have been ever
attached by the strongest ties of duty and inclination. But however
happy we may consider ourselves under the auspices of thei supreme ma-
gistrate, we cannot help being apprehensive of the ill effects which may
flow from some recent and dangerous innovations, imagined and con-
trived in the house of commons, against those rights to which the Ame-
ricans have a just and a constitutional claim in common with his majesty’s
subjects of Great Britain. Amongst these instances of oppression we
cannot omit the parliament’s retention of a duty on tea, accompanied
by an act declaratory of their right in the fullest manner to tax America,

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thereby asserting in other terms their claim to whatever property the
Americans may by their labour acquire, which submitted to, would re-
duce us to a degree of servility unexampled but in a state of despotism;
and yet inconsistent as this plan of substituting power for right may ap-
pear with the noble and liberal spirit of the British government, it has
been adopted for some time by administration, and pursued with a per-
severance that becomes truly alarming. A late and striking proof of
which we have to lament in the unprecedented acts of parliament for
cutting off the people of Boston from every privilege valued by free men,
and subjecting them to hardships unknown but in arbitrary governments.
In pursuance of which acts their town and harbour are blocked up, all
commerce interdicted, and articles merely essential to life only imported,
and as a matter of favour, and an inducement to submission. A part of
their property may be held at the King’s pleasure, on the humiliating
condition of their living in obedience to such laws. To aggravate these
evils, should the most atrocious murder be committed in enforcing the
execution of any of these acts, the civil power is forbid to punish, but
the criminal is to be sent for trial to Great Britain, or to any colony, at
the will of the governor; if to the former the distance will operate to
his acquittal for want of testimony; if the latter method is adopted it is
equally a subversion of the legal form of trial. This proves in what esti-
mation our lives are with a British Parliament, as the first law shews in
what light they consider our property.

Upon these distressful circumstances we sincerely sympathize with our
fellow subjects of Boston, and will concur with them and the rest of the
colonies in any measures that may be conductive to a repeal of laws so de-
structive to our common rights and liberty.

And though we do not pretend to justify the outrage committed by
the people of Boston in destroying the private property of the East India
company, to which they might have been impelled by an apparent inten-
tion in the parliament of fixing on them a precedent of arbitrary taxa-
tion, yet we cannot see the good policy or right reason that could dictate
the depriving a whole people of their rights for a trespass committed by
a few, when the civil laws of the community were amply provident of
redress for the injury.

The result of our opinion upon these violent measures is, that we do
protest against every law or act of the British legislature that shall autho-
rise the imposition of taxes on the Americans without their consent,
which cannot be had in parliament, as they have no representation, nor
ought not to have in that body from local circumstances and other consi-
derations, and because it is the proper, exclusive, and indefeasible right, of
every free state, especially under the British form of government, to be
taxed only by themselves or their representatives.

We further declare, that upon all occasions when requisitions shall be
made to us by the crown for aids in support of his majesty’s just rights,
or those of government, we will most chearfully comply with them to
the utmost of our ability; but we cannot think a British parliament fit
judges of the mode by which, or the degree in which, we ought to be
taxed.

And whereas a convention of the late representatives of this colony
was judged expedient, and was appointed after their dissolution to be held
the first day of August next, at Williamsburg, then to consult upon the
most plausible means of avoiding the dangerous precedents of acts of
power now intended to be established against us, to promote on our part
this laudable design, we do appoint our late representatives, ROBERT
BOLLING, and JOHN BANISTER, esquires, deputies, to act for us
on this important occasion, recommending it to them to concert with
the deputies from the other counties a firm and prudent plan of opposition
to every invasion of our rights, and particularly to those acts of parlia-
ment we have pointed out. Confiding in their vigilance and attention,
we wish them in their endeavours the success that so good a cause merits.

At a meeting of a respectable body of the freeholders and other inha-
bitants of the county of Surry, on due notice, at the courthouse of the
said county, the 16th of July, 1774, ALLEN COCKE, esquire, mo-
derator, the proceedings and resolutions of the late members of the
house of burgesses since their dissolution, respecting the alarming situation
of North America, were seriously deliberated upon, and the following
RESOLVES unanimously agreed to.

I. RESOLVED, that we acknowledge all due obedience to his pre-
sent majesty, and will defend him with our lives and fortunes.

II. Resolved, that as British subjects, who know the invaluable
blessings of their birthright, we will not submit to the imposition of
any taxes or duties, to be paid by the inhabitants within this dominion,
by any other power than the general assembly, duly elected, and that in
them, and them only, is the constitutional right of taxation vested.

III. Resolved, that we will chearfully join with our suffering brethren
of America, in the firmest bonds of union, against exporting or im-
porting any commodities to or from Great Britain, till our just and
legal rights are restored.

IV. Resolved, that the cause of the town of Boston is the common
cause of all British America.

V. Resolved, that as the population of this colony with freemen and
useful manufacturers is greatly obstructed by the importation of slaves
and convict servants, we will not purchase any such slaves or servants
hereafter to be imported.

VI. Resolved, that subscriptions be opened in this county for the relief
of our suffering brethren in the town of Boston.

VII. Resolved, that ALLEN COCKE, and NICHOLAS FAULCON,
junior, esquires, our late representatives, be and they are hereby nomi-
nated and appointed to attend the general meeting of deputies of the
other counties and corporations within this colony, in the city of Willi-
amsburg, on the first day of August next, there to concert such mea-
sures as may be found most expedient for the general good of the colonies.

VIII. Resolved, that the clerk of this meeting do transmit the pro-
ceedings of this day to the printers of both gazettes, and request them
to publish the same without delay.

JAMES KEE, Clerk of this meeting.

At a meeting of the freeholders and others, inhabitants of the county
of Chesterfield, at the courthouse of the said county, on Thursday the
14th of July, 1774, to take into consideration the present very alarming
situation of this colony, the reverend ARCHIBALD M’ROBERT being
unanimously chosen moderator,

Resolved, nemine contradicente, that we are ready and willing at the ex-
pence of our lives and fortunes to defend and maintain his majesty’s right
and title to the crown of Great Britain and his American dominions
against all his enemies, and we do profess all just obedience and fidelity
to his sacred person and government.

Resolved, that the sole right of making laws for the government of this
his majesty’s ancient colony and dominion of Virginia, and for raising and
levying taxes on the inhabitants thereof, ought to be, and is vested in the
general assembly of the said colony, and cannot be executed by any other
power without danger to our liberties; subject, nevertheless, as of cus-
tom has been, to his sacred majesty’s approbation.

Resolved, that every other of his majesty’s dominions in America
ought to be, and of right is entitled to, the same privileges as this
colony.

Resolved, that the present demand of money as a duty upon tea im-
ported into this or any other colony in America, under the authority of
the British parliament, ”for the sole purpose of raising a revenue in Ame-
rica,”
without the consent of our representatives, is arbitrary and unjust,
a subversion of the ancient and constitutional mode of levying money
upon British subjects, and evidently calculated to fix a precedent for fu-
ture demands of the same nature, and by that means to reduce the colo
nies to a state of slavery, and that all persons aiding in the execution of
such laws be considered as enemies to the freedom of British subjects.

Resolved, that the act of the British parliament for depriving the in-
habitants of the town of Boston, in our sister colony of the Massachu-
setts Bay, of their lawful trade, as also the bills brought into the house
of commons of Great Britain, one of which bills is entitled, “a bill
for the impartial administration of justice in the cases of persons question-
ed for any act done by them in the execution of the law, or for the sup-
pression of riots or tumults in the province of Massachusetts Bay, in
New England,” are unjust, arbitrary, and unconstitutional; and al-
though levelled particularly against one of our sister colonies, yet ought
to be resented with the same indignation by this and every colony as if
all of them were included in the said act and bills.

Resolved, that an extensive association ought to be entered into, and
that no goods or commodities of any kind whatsoever ought to be im-
ported from Great Britain into this colony after the first day of August
next, except medicines, paper, books, needles, cotton, wool and
clothiers cards, steel, gunpowder, German oznabrigs, hempen rolls,
negro cotton and plains, Dutch blankets, salt petre, and implements
necessary for the manufacturing of woolens and linen. And that all
and every person who has sent orders to Great Britain for any articles
except such as are already excepted ought to embrace the first opportunity
to countermand such orders.

Resolved, that any inhabitant of this colony who shall import any
article not allowed by this association, or purchase from any other per-
son who shall import such article except already ordered, shall be deemed
a betrayer of the liberties of his country, and that we will not hold
friendship or have any connection with such offending person.

Resolved, that every kind of luxury, extravagance, and dissipation,

Column 2

should now and at all times be carefully discouraged, and that an exten-
sive plan of establishing manufactures amongst the inhabitants of this
and the other colonies in North America should immediately be adopted
as the only possible means of avoiding that dependent commercial con-
nection which hath hitherto subsisted between the colonies and Great
Britain, which hath induced an arbitrary and designing administration to
attempt the total destruction of our rights and liberties, and that to carry
the same more effectually into execution, subscriptions be opened for that
purpose under proper regulations.

Resolved, that to dissolve the general assembly of the colony, sitting
for the dispatch of public business, “because they enter into a consideration
of the grievances under which they labour, and nobly assert their right
to freedom,” is arbitrary and oppressive, a manifest proof of a fixed inten-
tion to destroy the ancient constitutional legislative authority in the colo-
ny, and directly contradictory to the spirit of the acknowledgments made
in favour of the rights of a British people.

Resolved, that this colony ought not to hold any commercial inter-
course with any of the colonies in North America that shall refuse to
adopt proper measures for procuring redress of our grievances.

Resolved, that the town of Boston is now suffering in the cause of
American liberty, that her safety and protection is and ought to be the
common cause of the other colonies, and that her relief ought to be
attempted by all proper and constitutional ways and means in our power.

Resolved, that we do most heartily concur with the late representatives
of this colony in their sentiments delivered at the meeting held in Wil-
liamsburg after the dissolution of the last assembly. We return them our
warmest thanks for their spirited conduct on that and every other occasion,
and entreat their steady and determined attention to the same principles
at the meeting to be held on the first day of August next, in the city of
Williamsburg.

Resolved, that ARCHIBALD CARY and BENJAMIN WATKINS,
our late worthy representatives, together with the representatives to be
chosen for this county in the next assembly, be and they are hereby ap-
pointed deputies on the part of the freeholders and inhabitants of this
county, to meet such deputies as shall be appointed by the other counties
and corporations in this colony, in the city of Williamsburg, on the first
day of August next, to take under their consideration the several
grievances, under which this and the other American colonies are at
present labouring, to concert and deliberate upon proper ways and means
to procure redress of those grievances, and that they, together with such
deputies as shall be then and there assembled, do nominate proper persons
on the part of this colony, to meet such deputies as shall be appointed
upon the part of the other continental colonies in a general congress, to
consult and agree upon a firm and indissoluble union and association for
preserving by the best and most proper means their common rights and
liberties.

Resolved, that the clerk of this meeting transmit to the printers of
both gazettes copies of these resolutions, with the earnest request of this
county that the other counties and corporations within the colony will
appoint deputies to meet at the time and place and for the purposes
aforesaid. JERMAN BAKER, Clerk to the meeting.

WILLIAMSBURG, JULY 21.

WE are informed that the city of Philadelphia have already gene-
rously contributed 1500 barrels of flour for the relief of the
patriotic Bostonians.

Colonel Bolling, our late worthy representative for the county of
Dinwiddie, has, we hear, offered two of his mills gratis (deemed the
best in this colony) to grind such commodities as may be sent to them
for the use of the people of Boston.

A gentleman at Cabin Point, who has manufactured cloths there
for some years, has, it seems engaged a number of hands, whom he
daily expects, and proposes to work as reasonably as possible, not only
to assist us at this alarming crisis, but to encourage the manufacturing
branch, in every respect, throughout Virginia.

Since our last we have received the following account of elections:
For the college, Colonel John Randolph; for Isle of Wight, John S.
Wells and John Day, esquires; for Surry, Allen Cocke, junior, and
Nicholas Foulcan, esquires; for Nansemond, Lemuel Riddick and Wil-
lis Riddick, esquires; for Gloucester, Thomas Whiting and Lewis
Burwell, esquires; for Middlesex, Edmund Berkeley and James Mon-
tague, esquires; for Essex, James Edmondson and Meriwether Smith,
esquires; for Accomack, Southy Simpson and Isaac Smith, esquires;
for Norfolk county, Thomas Newton, junior, and James Holt, esquires;
for Norfolk borough, Joseph Hutchings, esquire; for Henrico, Richard
Adams and Samuel Duval, esquires; for Dinwiddie, John Banister and
Robert Bolling, esquires.

FRIDAY, JULY 22.

It is a happy reflection, that, notwithstanding every ministerial artifice
to subvert the independent spirit of the AMERICANS, we can assure
the people of this colony, that our brethren throughout the different
departments to the northward continue still as animated as at first in
their suffering, though generous cause, and seem determined never to
co-operate with undue influence, or to bend beneath the yoke of that
oppression which at this juncture so conspicuously threatens us. His
excellency governor Gage has issued a proclamation, bearing date the
29th ult. ordering that no meetings for the future shall be held within
his government, which, for the greater satisfaction of our readers, we
shall here insert.

A PROCLAMATION for discouraging certain illegal combinations.
WHEREAS certain persons, calling themselves a committee of cor-
respondence for the town of Boston, have lately presumed to make, or
cause to be made, a certain unlawful instrument, purporting to be a
solemn league and covenant,
intended to be signed by the inhabitants of
this province, whereby they are most solemnly to covenant and engage to
suspend all commercial intercourse with the island of Great Britain until
certain acts of the British parliament shall be repealed; and whereas
printed copies of the said unlawful instrument have been transmitted by
the aforesaid committee of correspondence, so called, to the several
towns in this province, accompanied with a scandalous, traitorous, and
seditious letter, calculated to inflame the minds of the people, to disturb
them with ill grounded fears and jealousies, and to excite them to enter
into an unwarrantable, hostile, and traiterous combination, to distress
the British nation, by interrupting, obstructing, and destroying her trade
with the colonies, contrary to their allegiance due to the king, and to
the form and effect of divers statutes made for securing, encouraging,
and regulating the said trade, and destructive of the lawful authority of
the British parliament, and of the peace, good order, and safety, of the
community; and whereas the inhabitants of this province, not duly
considering the high criminality and dangerous consequences to them-
selves, of such alarming and unprecedented combinations, may incauti-
ously be tempted to join in the aforesaid unlawful league and covenant,
and thereby expose themselves to the fatal consequences of being con-
sidered as the declared and open enemies of the king, parliament, and
kingdom of Great Britain; in observance therefore of my duty to the
king, in tenderness to the inhabitants of this province, and to the end
that none who may hereafter engage in such dangerous combinations,
may plead, in excuse of their conduct, that they were ignorant of the
crime in which they were involving themselves, I have thought it fit to
issue this proclamation, hereby earnestly cautioning all persons whatso-
ever within this province against signing the aforesaid, or a similar cove-
nant, or in any manner entering into or being concerned in such unlaw-
ful, hostile, and traiterous combinations, as they would avoid the pains
and penalties due to such aggravated and dangerous offences. And I do
hereby strictly enjoin and command all magistrates, and other officers,
within the several counties in this province, that they take effectual
care to apprehend and secure for trial all and every person who may
hereafter presume to publish, or offer to others to be signed, or shall
themselves sign the aforesaid, or a similar covenant, or be in any wise
aiding, abetting, advising, or assisting therein; and the respective sheriffs
of the several counties within this province are hereby required to cause
this proclamation forthwith to be posted up, in some public place, in
each town, within their respective districts.

*** Query, Whether this proclamation will meet with more respect
than that of his majesty did lately in London, offering a reward for ap-
prehending a man who had made himself obnoxious to administration? On
this proclamation, the man was taken up and carried before a magistrate,
who released him; the proclamation being in itself illegal, and the per-
son who acted upon it was prosecuted.

Extract of a letter from Philadelphia, dated July 6.
”I confess that no man wishes more for the establishment of a con-
stitutional
postoffice in America than myself; yet, as I anticipated in a
former letter, Mr. G———d’s scheme seems to bear but an indifferent
prospect of success. He returned here a few weeks ago. At Boston,
and other parts of New England, he told them the Philadelphians had
unanimously resolved to establish a constitutional post; and, for a con-
firmation of his assertion, a merchant at Boston wrote to a gentlemen in
this city. I am not acquainted with the contents of the answer, though
I have great reason to conclude them unfavourable to Mr. G———d. He
attended a meeting of mechanics here one night, pretending to have let-
ters of consequence from Boston, New York, &c. two or three of which
were read, and gave some satisfaction; but the others mentioning the
regulation of the postoffice, they refused to read them through, ob-
serving America had business enough upon her hands without meddling

Column 3

with the affairs of a postoffice. Mr. G———d was much chagrined and
vexed, and shortly after left the city.”

In the last Philadelphia papers there are several accounts relative to the
Indians: Some say the back inhabitants of Pennsylvania and Virginia
are blamed much, and that captain Conolly has acted with great barbari-
ty, having endeavoured frequently to murder two or three Indians, who
escorted the traders with the utmost faithfulness to Fort Pitt, and shew-
ed great humanity towards them; but the accounts are so various and
complicated, that it is not easy to draw a conclusion; besides, we would
not wish to do the least injustice to captain Conolly, more especially as
there have been frequent instances of late of the barbarity of that savage
people.

Several letters from principal gentlemen in England to their correspond-
ents in New York and Philadelphia, are just received: They wish us to
continue firm in our opposition, as the only means of obtaining redress.

Mr. Bradford’s paper informs us that the list of prizes in the Delaware
lottery was just come to hand; but for want of room and time, they
were obliged to postpone its insertion till the succeeding week.

ADVERTISEMENTS, several PIECES, and the RESOLVES of many
counties, shall be attended to in our next.

By his EXCELLENCY the right honourable JOHN earl of DUNMORE, his
majesty’s lieutenant and governor general of the colony and dominion of

VIRGINIA, and vice admiral of the same:
A PROCLAMATION.VIRGINIA, to wit.
WHEREAS the GENERAL ASSEMBLY is summoned to meet
on Thursday the 11th of next month, but I find no urgent oc-
casion for their meeting at that time, I have therefore thought fit, by
this proclamation, in his majesty’s name, farther to prorogue the said
assembly to the first Tuesday in November next.
GIVEN under my hand, and the seal of the colony, at Williamsburg,
this 8th day of July, in the 14th year of his majesty’s reign.
DUNMORE
GOD SAVE THE KING.

TO BE RENTED,
From year to year, or for a term of years, and entered upon the first day of
September next
A CONVENIENT TENEMENT in the town of Petersburg,
at present in the possession of Mr. Andrew Johnston, whereon is a
commodious storehouse, with a large counting room, and lodging rooms
under the same roof, lumber houses of different sizes and for different
purposes, stables, chairhouse, and a garden well paled in. Any useful
repairs may be made by the tenant, and the expence deducted out of the
rent. The terms, which are extremely low, may be known by applying
to 3 BOLLING STARK.

KING WILLIAM, July 10, 1774.
THE SALE of the deceased colonel James Quarles’s NEGROES
that were advertised to be at Aylett’s warehouse on the 13th instant,
is, by consent of parties, deferred until the 10th of August next, at
which time they will most certainly be sold agreeable to the former ad-
vertisement. 3 GOODRICH CRUMP.

JAMES CRAIG,
AT THE GOLDEN BALL,
WILLIAMSBURG,
BEGS leave to inform the public that he has just got an eminent
hand in the WATCH AND CLOCK MAKING BUSINESS,
who served a regular apprenticeship to the same in Great Britain, and
will be obliged to those who favour him with their commands. He
makes and repairs REPEATING, HORIZONTAL, and STOP
WATCHES, in the neatest and best manner. JEWELLERY,
GOLD and SILVER WORK, as usual, made at the above
shop, for READY MONEY only.

To be SOLD, at Hanover courthouse, on Thursday the 4th of August
next, being court day,
FIFTEEN likely Virginia born SLAVES, belonging to the estate
of doctor John Walker, deceased. Credit will be given till the 25th
of December next, the purchasers giving bond, with approved security, to
THOMAS SIMPSON, Administrator.
*** Those concerned are desired to take notice that I have fully em-
powered Mr. George Lumsden to transact the business of the above estate.
The distressed situation of the estate puts it out of my power to grant
any indulgence to its debtors; and as I intend to close my administration
as soon as possible, I therefore request the favour of those who have any
claims against the said estate to bring them in, either to Mr. Lumsden or
myself, properly attested, at farthest, by the 1st of October next.
3 T. S.

GREEN SPRING, July 13, 1774.
I HEREBY forewarn all persons not to purchase FRUIT or VEGE-
TABLES, or any thing else, from any of the negroes belonging to
the estate of Mr. William Lee, without a note from me, or any of the
overseers who act for the said estate. GRIFFIN FAUNTLEROY.

IF one SARAH FARGUSON, who came indented from England about
six years ago, and served her time with Mr. Charles Lewis, deceased,
on Rappahannock, will apply to the printer of this paper, she will hear
of something much to her advantage.

RAN from the plantation of the subscriber, near the Great Falls of
Potowmack, on the Maryland side, in Frederick county, about the
27th of June, a very likely mulatto slave named ELIAS, near 5 feet
10 inches high, and about 20 years old; had on, when he went away,
a brown broadcloth coat, a light coloured broadcloth jacket, oznabrig
shirt, short breeches of the same, a new felt hat, and shoes and stockings.
His head, from the crown to the forehead, is remarkably long, and
is much scarred about the mould, proceeding from his having had a scald
head when he was a boy. He has also a scratch on his upper lip, which
may be perceived by taking a near view of it. Whoever delivers him to
me shall receive a reward of THIRTY SHILLINGS, if taken 20 miles
from home, and in proportion to that distance.
3 THOMAS OFFUTT.

TAKEN up, in Charlotte, a well made black horse, about 4 feet 6
inches high, about 16 or 17 years old, branded on the near buttock
W, and has on a bell of 3s. value. Posted, and appraised to 3£. 10s.
PETER RAWLINS.

TAKEN up, in Culpeper, a middle sized mare, shot before, her
hind feet white, and branded on the near buttock I. E. Posted, and
appraised to 3£. 10s. * JOHN GRIGSBY.

To be SOLD, at public sale, at STAUNTON, on Tuesday the 16th of
August next, being AUGUSTA court day.
TWO tracts of LAND, belonging to captain Matthew Harrison,
and lying in Hampshire, vix. One tract of 317 acres, on the drains
of Lost River, joining James Bryan, and one tract of 100 acres, on the
drains of said river, joining John Price and Jacob Crisman. Plots of said
land may be seen on the day of sale, in the hands of Gabriel Jones,
esquire. Credit will be given for one half the purchase money till April
next, and for the other half till the 16th of August, 1775, giving bond,
with approved security, to (3) GEORGE MITCHELL.

To be LET, to the LOWEST BIDDER, on Thursday the 28th instant
(July) at the town of Manchester, in Chesterfield county,
THE clearing of the FALLS of JAMES RIVER from Westham to
the mouth of Reedy Creek; it will be let in several divisions. Bond
and security will be required for the performance in time, and agreeable
to the directions then given. A considerable sum is subscribed towards
carrying the work into execution. Half the money is to be paid the
undertakers in October next, and the other half the October following.
They will not have the trouble of collecting the money from the sub-
scribers, as they will oblige themselves to pay the sums agreed upon at
the times stipulated. THE TRUSTEES.

STRAYED, or stolen, from the subscriber in Dumfries, on the night
of the 18th of April last, two WAGGON HORSES, the one a
black, 14 hands high, 7 or 8 years old, has lost one eye, with a hanging
mane and switch tail; his brand, if any, is not remembered. The other
is a bay, about the same size of the black, 5 years old, branded on the
shoulder D. F. and on the buttock R. G. very plain. Whoever secures
said horses, so that I get them again, shall have THREE POUNDS reward;
and if delivered here, TRAVELLING EXPENCES paid.
3 REGINALD GRAHAM.

PORTSMOUTH, July 5, 1774.
A PURSE of 100 guineas to be run for by any horse, mare, or
gelding, over the two mile course at this place, the best two heats
in three, on Tuesday the 20th of September, carrying weight for age,
agreeable to the articles of the said purse, which are to be seen in the
hands of Mr. Richard Nestor, merchant there, with whom all horses
starting for the said purse are to be entered, the day before the race at
farthest. The money to be paid to the winner immediately after the
race. It is also proposed to have two more races, one on the Wednesday
following, for &50pound;. the other on Thursday. for 30£. which will be adver-
tised particularly, as soon as the subscriptions are full.

Page 4
Column 1

To be SOLD at the late dwellinghouse of Mr. Hugh Houston, deceased,
in
Fredericksburg, on Thursday the 18th of August next,
ALL the PERSONAL ESTATE of the said Houston, consisting of
HOUSHOLD and KITCHEN FURNITURE, an assortment of
SADDLERY, and sundry other articles in the harness way. Six
months crdit will be allowed, on bond, and approved security. At the
same time and place will be rented, till the 25th of December, the LOTS
and HOUSES of William Houston, deceased, and the TANYARD; all of
which are in good repair. Also the slaves hire till the same time; among
whom are several good BLACKSMITHS, SHOE and HARNESS-
MAKERS, and a very good TANNER. Bond and security will be
required; and if not punctually paid, to carry interest from the date.
Those who have demands against either or both of the said William and
Hugh Houston, are desired to bring in such claims, properly attested, in
order that they may receive payment according to dignity; and those
who are indebted are desired to give bond and make payment to Mr. Ben-
jamin Johnston,
who is impowered to act by FANNY HOUSTON, ad-
ministratrix of Hugh, and acting in lawful right to William Houston,
deceased. 3*

FOR SALE,
TWO thousand six hundred and seventy five ACRES of LAND
in Gloucester county lying in Petsworth parish, upon which there
is a very good mill on an excellent stream of water. It will be laid off
in lots for the convenience of purchasers; and as it is entailed land, ap-
plication will be made to the next general assembly for an act to dock the
entail. Mr. Lewis Booker will shew the land, and make known the
terms. WILSON M. CARY.

TO BE SOLD,
THE noted and well accustomed TAVERN, at present occupied by
the subscriber, lying in James City county, about 15 miles from
Williamsburg, on the main road leading to New Kent, courthouse and
Ruffin’s ferry, with 500 acres of LAND in good order for cropping, and
6 fields under good fence. The terms of payment will be made easy by
the subscriber. THOMAS DONCASTLE.

TAKEN up, in Culpeper, a sorrel mare, about 4 feet 5 inches high,
branded on the off buttock I. C. and is about 3 years old. Posted,
and appraised to 7£. REUBIN SLAUGHTER.

TAKEN up, in Brunswick, a dark bay horse, about 14 hands high,
branded on the near buttock U, paces and gallops well. Posted, and
appraised to 13£. WILLIAM CLACK.

RUN away on the 16th instant (June) from the subscriber in Au-
gusta,
a negro man named BACCHUS, a thick, strong, well
made fellow, about 5 feet 6 or 7 inches high, 30 years of age; took
with him two white russia drill coats, one turned up with blue, the
other is quite new, plain made, with white figured metal buttons; also
a pair of blue plush breeches, a fine cloth pompadour waistcoat, two or
three thin or summer jackets, sundry pair of white thread stockings, 5
or 6 white shirts, two of them pretty fine, neat shoes, silver buckles,
a fine hat, cut and cocked in the macaroni figure, a double milled drab
great coat and sundry other wearing apparel. He formerly belonged to
Doctor George Pitt, in Williamsburg, and I imagine is gone there, under
pretence of my sending him upon business, as I have frequently heretofore
done. He is cunning, artful, and sensible, and very capable of forging
a tale to impose on the unwary, is well acquainted with the lower parts of
the country, having constantly rode with me for some years past, and has
been used to waiting from his infancy. He was seen a few days before
he went off with a purse of dollars, and had just changed a 5£. bill; most
or all of which, I suppose, he must have robbed me of, which he might
easily have done, as I trusted him much, and placed too great a confi-
dence in his fidelity. It is probable he may endeavour to pass as a free
man, by the name of John Christian, and endeavour to get on board
some vessel bound for Great Britain, from a knowledge he has of the late
determination of Somerset’s cafe. Whoever takes up the said slave, and
delivers him to me, shall receive FIVE POUNDS.
‘4’ GABRIEL JONES.

RUN away, from Neabsco furnace, the 16th of
March, a light coloured mulatto man named
BILLY, or WILL, the property of the honourable
John Tayloe, esquire. When I tell the public that he
is the same boy who for many years used to wait on me,
in my travels through this and the neighbouring pro-
vince, and by his pertness, or rather impudence, was
well known to all my acquaintances, there is the less
occasion for a particular description of him. However,
as he is now grown to the size of a man, and has not at
tended me for some time past, I think it not amiss to say
that he is a very likely young fellow, about 20 years
old, 5 feet 9 inches high, stout and strong made, has a
remarkable swing in his walk, but is much more so by a
surprising knack he has of gaining the good graces of
almost every body who will listen to his bewitching and
deceitful tongue, which seldom or ever speaks the truth.
He has a small scar on the right side of his forehead, and
the little finger of his right hand is quite straight by a
hurt he got when a child. Had on, when he went away,
a blue fearnought jacket, and an under one of green
baize, cotton breeches, oznabrig shirt, mixed blue sale
stockings, country made shoes, and yellow buckles.
From his ingenuity, he is capable of doing almost any
sort of business, and for some years past, has been chiefly
employed as a founder, a stone mason, and a miller, as
occasion required; one of which trades, I imagine, he
will, in the character of a free man, profess. I have
some reason to suspect his travelling toward James river,
under the pretence of being sent by me on business.
Whoever apprehends the said fellow, and brings him to
me, or to his master, the honourable John Tayloe, at
Mountairy, or secure him so as to be had again, shall
have treble what the law allows, and all reasonable
charges paid. tf
THOMAS LAWSON.

FOR SALE,
ABOUT twelve thousand acres of exceeding rich
TOBACCO LAND, in Amherst county, whereon
are several plantations and improvements sufficient to
work forty or fifty hands. There is on this land for sale
a very valuable GRIST MILL, lately bult, with a
stone dam and a pair of good COLOGNE MILL-
STONES, which mill has for two years past got up-
wards of 100 barrels of toll corn, and is situated on a
never failing stream. The land will be shewn by William
Womack, who lives at one of the plantations, and the
prices of the land made known by him. One or two
years credit will be allowed, interest being paid for the
second year, and also for the first, if the money is not
paid agreeable to contract. The land is to be laid off
and surveyed by Colonel William Cabell, at the expence
of the purchaser, Deeds will be made, upon bond and
approved security being given, either to Call, William
Cabell, or the subscriber. Six per cent. discount will be
allowed for ready money, or good merchants notes. If
any person would chuse to exchange lands in the lower
part of the country, on or near some navigable river,
that are good, it is more than probable we should agree.
CARTER BRAXTON.

KING HEROD
STANDS at Rosegill, and will cover mares at FOUR
POUNDS the season. Those who send mares must
send the money, otherwise they shall not be left. The
valuable qualities, and the pedigree, of this horse, are
sufficiently notorious.
RALPH WORMELEY, junior.

Column 2

FOR SALE,
NINE hundred and forty acres of valuable land, lying
on both sides of Contrary River, in Louisa, with
three plantations thereon, two of which has sufficient
houses for overseers and negroes; the other is improved
with all necessary buildings, and orchards of all kinds,
fit for the reception of a gentleman, the house being
finished in the best manner. This tract is well timbered
and watered, lies within 32 miles of Fredericksburg, and
43 of Page’s warehouse; there are at least 400 acres of
low grounds, of the best soil, 300 of which are now to
cut. The three plantations are under good fences, and
in good order to work 12 or 15 hands. Robert Flem-
ing, John Massey, and John Lain, are now in possession
of the plantations, who will shew the land to any person
inclinable to purchase, and Major Thomas Johnson will
ed the most valuable in Louisa for growing corn, wheat,
or tobacco, and situated in the best range for stock of any
below the great mountains. ( tf I* )

N
LANDED from Liverpool, four BALES, marked C I.
The owner may have them on paying the charges
to ISAAC YOUNGHUSBAND, who has for sale a parcel of
low priced Irish LINENS.

To be SOLD, at public auction, at Westmoreland court-
house, on Tuesday the 27th day of September, being
Westmoreland court day,
TWENTY very likely VIRGINIA born SLAVES.
Credit will be allowed until the 10th of November
following, on giving bond and good security. The
bonds to bear interest from the date, if not punctually
discharged. tdf RICHARD PARKER.

NORFOLK, June 13, 1774.
THE subscribers have for SALE MADEIRA WINE,
BARBADOS RUM, CANE, SPIRIT, and
MUSCOVADO SUGAR.
PHRIPP and BOWDOIN.

YORK town, June 9, 1773.
THE subscribers being very solicitous to comply with
the will of their testator, the late Honourable
William Nelson, desire that all persons who were indebted
to him will endeavour to make as speedy payments as
possible. Those who have accounts open on his books,
and who cannot immediately discharge the balances,
are desired to give their bonds. This request is the
more necessary, as most of the legacies bequeathed by
the testator are to be paid in sterling money, and he has
directed that his younger sons fortunes shall be placed
out at interest upon undoubted securities, so soon as it
can be done. Those who have any demands are desired
to make them immediately known.
THOMAS NELSON, | HUGH NELSON,
THOMAS NELSON, jun. | RO. C. NICHOLAS.

WANTED for the lighthouse directors eight second-
hand ANCHORS, nearly a thousand weight
each. Any person having such for sale are desired to
make their terms known to the subscriber in Norfolk.
t.f. BASSETT MOSELEY.

TO BE SOLD,
A TRACT of LAND in Berkley and Frederick
counties, containing 12,076 acres; it lies 7 miles
on each side of Shenando river, the quantity on the east
side, being only a slip of low ground, is inconsiderable;
the quality of the land is remarkably good, and the con-
veniencies attending it great. There are two plentiful
streams of water running through marshes three miles in
length, some of which are already reclaimed meadows,
and the rest, at a very small expence, might soon be re-
duced to the like state. On each side of the streams mills
might be erected and furnaces, the land affording stone,
lime, iron, and lead ore. On one of the streams I have
already erected a complete merchant mill, with a pair of
the best French burrs for grinding of wheat, and a pair
of common stones for grinding of Indian corn; besides
this, there is near the dwelling house a tub mill, and on
the other stream there is a valuable saw mill. There
are five settled and improved plantations; on one of
them is a good stone house, 2 stories high, with 2 rooms
on a floor, a kitchen, dairy, and all other convenient out-
houses; on another plantation, where Michael Pike lived,
there is a good stone house; and at the other plantations
there are overseers houses, negro quarters, barns, stables,
tobacco houses, &c. The above tract shall be either par-
titioned off in lots of 1000 or 500 acres, or sold bodily to
one purchaser. Belonging to this estate there are 112
negroes to be disposed of, togother with all the stocks of
cattle, equal to any in the colony, horses, mares, colts,
hogs, &c. likewise all the necessary implements for the
planter or farmer. Any person or persons inclinable to
purchase are desired to make their proposals to me at
Rosegill, on Rappahannock river, or to leave them with
the overseer, who lives at the house plantation, and will
shew the land. In November I shall be on the premises,
and may then be personally treated with. Part of this
land, and some of the negroes, belong to my eldest son,
who leaves to me the disposition thereof, and will confirm
any engagement I enter into on his part.
6 RALPH WORMELEY.

TO BE RENTED,
FROM YEAR TO YEAR, OR FOR A TERM OF YEARS,
BELVOIR,
THE beautiful seat of the honourable George William
Fairfax, esquire, lying upon Potowmack river, in
Fairfax county, about 14 miles below Alexandria. The
mansion house is of brick, two story high, with four con-
venient rooms and a large passage upon the lower floor,
five rooms and a passage on the second, and a servants
hall and cellars below; convenient offices, stables, and
coach house, adjoining, as also a large and well furnish-
ed garden, stored with great variety of valuable fruits, in
good order. Appertaining to the tract on which these
improvements are, and which contains near 2000 acres
(surrounded, in a manner, by navigable water) are se-
veral valuable fisheries, and a good deal of cleared land
in different parts, which may be let altogether, or sepa-
rately, as shall be found most convenient. The terms
may be known of Colonel Washington, who lives near
the premises, or of me, in Berkeley county,
tf FRANCIS WILLIS, junior.

Column 3

To be SOLD, pursuant to an act of assembly, on Mon-
day the 1st of August next, being Prince William
court day.
The glebe lands of Dettingen parish, in the said
county, adjoining the lands of the present incum-
bent the reverend James Scott, situate on Quantico Run,
about 9 miles from Dumfries, and containing about 400
acres. The soil is good for wheat or tobacco, and there
may be got a considerable quantity on the same.
3 Henry Lee,}
Lewis Reno.} churchwardens.

FOR SALE,
FIVE hundred acres of land, lying on Deep Creek in
Louisa, about 45 miles of Richmond town, and is
exceeding good land, well watered by Deep Creek, and
a large branch thereof, which runs through the middle
of the land, and affords a large quantity of rich meadow
ground. Any person inclinable to purchase may see the
land, and know the terms, by applying to the subscriber,
living near it. tf I* GEORGE MERIWETHER.

NORFOLK, April 21, 1774.
NOTICE is hereby given, that a number of vessels
will be wanted this summer to bring about 6000
tons of stone from Mr. Brooke’s quarry, on Rappahan-
nock, and land the same on Cape Henry, for the light-
house. Any person inclinable to engage in such work
are desired to treat with Matthew Phripp, Paul Loyall,
and Thomas Newton, junior, esquires. The directors
of the lighthouse will also be glad to purchase one or
two flat bottomed vessels from 80 to 120 tons burthen.
tf BASSETT MOSELEY.

For SALE
A TRACT of land, on Charles river, York county,
containing about 600 acres, part of which is marsh,
that may be drained with very little expence. The situ-
ation of this place is very convenient for a family, at it
lies upon a river that abounds with oysters and fine fish,
particularly sheepsheads; it is within 200 yards of a mill,
and 2 miles of the church. My reason for selling it is,
my having bought a tract of land more convenient to me.
Whoever inclines to purchase may know the terms by
applying to the subscriber, in York town.
THOMAS NELSON, junior.

FOR SALE,
And to be ENTERED upon at CHRISTMAS next,
A VERY valuable tract of LAND in King William
county, on Pamunkey river adjoining the land of
the late Mr. John Smith, of Hanover county, deceased,
containing 800 acres, more or less, the soil is very rich,
and exceedingly well adapted for wheat, corn, or tobacco,
particularly the first and second, being low grounds;
and there is a considerable quantity of high grounds.
It has plenty of good pine and oak timber upon it, con-
venient houses, and is in good order for cropping, is
about two miles from Hanover town, and very convenient
to church and two mills. Any person inclinable to pur-
chase may be shewn the land by applying to Mr. Christo-
pher Taliaferro, or Mr. William Jones, who resides near
the same, and the terms may be also known by applying
to these gentlemen, or to the subscriber.
tf THOMAS JONES.

To be SOLD, together or in parcels,
THAT fertile and well timbered tract of LAND,
lying in Princess Anne county, known by the name
of Gibbs’s Woods, whereon are several settlements,
and whereof Jeremiah Tinker, esquire, grandson of the
late governor Gibbs now stands seized, under the deed
of gift of his mother, the daughter and heiress of the
said governor Gibbs. Persons inclining to purchase may
be informed of the terms by applying to Mr. James
Parker, merchant in Norfolk, or to Edward Foy, in
Williamsburg, who will give an undoubted title. tf

To be SOLD, and entered upon immediately,
A TRACT of LAND containing 1300 acres, more
or less, on Pianketank river, in Gloucester county.
It is needless to be particular about it as it is the same I
advertised last year and then gave a full account of it,
since then I sold it to John Attway Clarke, of Maryland,
but as he refuses to take it, necessity obliges me once more
to offer it to the public. Any person inclinable to pur-
chase may know the terms by applying to me in Mid-
dlesex, I want part of the money at the meeting of the
merchants, and for the remainder I will give reasonable
credit. tf AUGUSTINE SMITH.

FOR SALE, AND VERY CHEAP,
A PLANTATION in good order for cropping, none
of the land having been cleared above six years,
with all necessary houses, quite new, together with 1500
acres of exceeding rich land, the soil of which is so good
that it will bring large tobacco for five or six years with-
out dung. I have made on this plantation above three
thousand pounds of tobacco per share. The place is very
healthy, and has a fine range for stock. This land lies
in the lower end of Buckingham county, near to Appo-
mattox river, on each side of Great Ducker’s and Mayo
creeks. Tobacco has been carried above this land near
to Petersburg by water, and last month, in the dry wea-
ther, two canoe loads of wheat were carried near to
Petersburg, and the canoes brought back; they were
loaded but a little below this land. I make no doubt
but Appomattox river will be soon cleared, and then the
expence of sending wheat, tobacco, &c. will be trifling.
Any person inclinable to purchase will see, by the produce
of the land, that it is exceeding rich. I really do not
know any better high land in the colony. This tract of
land is well timbered, and has excellent water on it. I
do not know a better place for a merchant mill than is on
Ducker’s creek. People are going much on raising wheat
in these parts, and a good mill would be very advantage-
ous to the owner. Also another tract of land of 826
acres, in Albemarle county, I believe about ten miles
from the courthouse, joining Mr. James Harris and the
quarters of Mr. John Winston. On this land is a small
plantation, a good apple orchard, &c. The land is
good, and my price so low, that I am convinced any
person who viewed either of the above tracts of land
would not hesitate to give the price I shall ask. Neither
of these tracts are under any incumbrance whatsoever.
A reasonable time of payment will be allowed.
tf ANTHONY WINSTON.

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Citation

Rind, Clementina, -1774, printer, “The Virginia gazette. Number 428, Thursday July 21, 1774,” Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, accessed March 29, 2024, https://cwfjdrlsc.omeka.net/items/show/216.
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