A history of Caroline county, Virginia :: :: University of Virginia Library

On May 24, 1774, the Virginia House of Burgesses adopted
resolutions deploring the action of Great Britain relative to the
Boston Port Bill and set apart June 1st "as a day of prayer,
fasting and humiliation, for Divine interposition in averting the
calamity which threatens destruction to our civil rights and the
evils of civil war."

On being informed of this resolution Governor Dunmore
commanded the House of Burgesses to attend him in the Council
Chamber and when the House had assembled, on May 26, 1774,
in obedience to the summons, his Excellency addressed them in
the following words:

"Mr. Speaker, and Gentlemen of the House of Burgesses:
I have in my hand a paper, published by order of your House,
conceived in such terms as reflect highly upon His Majesty and
the Parliament of Great Britain, which makes it necessary for
me to dissolve you; and you are dissolved accordingly."

On the day following the dissolution of the House of Burgesses
eighty-nine men who had been members of the disbanded House
met and formed an "Association for promoting the principles
of representative government, and for securing their dearest
rights and liberty from destruction by the heavy hand of power
* * * lifted against North America."

Shortly after the formation of this Association the news came
that the colonists of Philadelphia and New York purposed to
hold a Continental Congress, whereupon the ex-burgesses, who
still remained in the vicinity, issued a call to "the late representatives
of Virginia to meet in Williamsburg on the 1st day of
August next, to conclude finally on these important questions."
The assembly thus called was duly held and is known to history
as the Virginia Convention of August, 1774.

On September 5, 1774, delegates from the twelve colonies
met in Philadelphia in the first Continental Congress. Edmund
Pendleton, of Caroline, was a delegate from Virginia to this first
Congress and during the following year, 1775, John Penn, also a
son of Caroline county, was elected a delegate to the Continental
Congress by the Provincial Congress of North Carolina, to
which State he had removed from Caroline in 1774.

The first Continental Congress formed another "Association,"
the constitution of which contained the following articles of
agreement: (1) Not to import into the colony any British merchandise.
(2) Not to engage further in the slave trade. (3)
Not to purchase tea on account of the East India Company. (4)
Not to export any goods to Great Britain. (5) To direct that all
merchants of the colony inform their British mercantile houses
not to ship goods to them under any pretence. (6) To instruct all
ship owners to give orders to captains and masters of vessels
not to receive on board any British goods. (7) To increase the
number and improve the breed of sheep and cattle. (8) To
discourage extravagance, dissipation, gaming and so-called
"gentlemanly sports" and to promote industry, agriculture, art
and manufacturing. (9) To instruct merchants not to take advantage
of the scarcity of goods to charge exorbitant prices.
(10) To have all British goods received between December 1,
1774 and February 1, 1775, returned to shipper or delivered to
the County Committee of Safety, hereinafter mentioned, which
Committee would store until cessation of non-importation agreement,
or else sell and reimburse the owner the first cost and
charges; turning all possible profits to "relieving and employing
such poor inhabitants of the town of Boston as are immediate
sufferers by the Boston Port Bill." (11) That a Committee be
chosen in every county, city, and town, by those who are qualified
to vote for Representatives in the Legislature whose business it

shall be attentively to observe the conduct of all persons touching
this Association; and when it shall be made to appear, to the
satisfaction of a majority of any such Committee, that any
person within the limits of their appointment has violated this
Association, that such majority do forthwith cause the truth of
the case to be published in the Gazette, to the end that all such
foes to the rights of British America may be publicly known, and
universally contemned as the enemies of American liberty; and
thenceforth we, respectively, will break off all dealings with him
or her. (12) To have the Committee of Correspondence in the
various colonies inspect entries of custom houses and report to
each other all findings of interest to the Association. (13) To
have all manufactures of this county sold at reasonable prices
regardless of the scarcity of the article. (14) To have no dealings
with any colony not acceding to, or hereafter violating, this
agreement. (15) To continue the Association until the repeal
of all acts of Parliament inimical to the rights and liberties of
North America.

Under the Eleventh Article of the Agreement the voters of
each county elected the Committee of Safety for their county.
Caroline's Committee, as elected on November 10, 1774, consisted
of twenty of her leading citizens, whose names are as
follows:

Edmund Pendleton, Chairman.
James Upshaw
William Woodford
Richard Johnston
Thomas Lowry
Benjamin Hubbard (or Hubard)
Thomas Lomax
John Minor
John Armistead
Edmund Pendleton, Jr.
Sam'l Hawes, Jr., Clerk
Wm. Nelson
George Baylor
George Taylor
John Jones
Anthony Thornton
John Tennant
George Guy
Samuel Hawes
Walker Taliaferro.

Col. Edmund Pendleton, on being appointed Chairman of the
Committee of Safety for the entire colony, resigned the chairmanship
of the County Committee, and was succeeded by Col. James
Taylor. The Committee also appointed Col. Anthony Thornton
to be the presiding officer in Col. Taylor's absence.

Col. James Taylor was one of Caroline's most distinguished

sons. He was elected County Lieutenant of Caroline in 1775,
was a member of the Conventions of 1775 and 1776, with
Pendleton and Woodford as associates, member of the Ratification
Convention of 1788, and also a member of the State Senate from
Caroline, both before and after 1788.