FOOTNOTES:
[1] Colonel John Payne was member of House of Burgesses for Goochland 1752-58, 1760-6, 65-66, 1768. Josias Payne was Burgess for Goochland 1761 and 1765. Josias Payne, Jr., was Burgess for Goochland 1769. John Payne was member of the House of Delegates for Goochland 1780.
Payne Arms—"Gu on a fesse betw two lions pass. ar."
Crest—"A lion's gamb couped ar., grasping a broken tilting lance, the spear end pendant gu."
Motto—"Malo mori quam foedari."
[2] 1688, average value of horses was £5 sterling.—Clayton.
Ten or twelve pounds was the value of a very good horse in 1782.—De Chastellux.
[3] It is also a matter of tradition that Anne Fleming was the wife of John Payne. Colonel John Payne's first wife died about the time the following trial took place. The punishment inflicted could scarcely be for a less crime than murder.
Bedford Co., Va., May 24th, 1756.—Court assembled "to hear and determine all Treasons, Petit Treasons, Murders, and other Offences, committed or done by Hampton and Sambo belonging to John Payne of Goochland Gent."
"The said Hampton and Sambo were set to the Bar under Custody of Charles Talbot [then sheriff], to whose Custody they were before committed on Suspicion of their being Guilty of the felonious Prepairing and Administering Poysonous Medicines to Ann Payne and being Arraigned of the Premises pleaded Not Guilty and for their Trial put themselves upon the Court. Whereupon divers Witnesses were charged and they heared in their Defence. On Consideration thereof it is the Opinion of the Court that the said Hampton is guilty in the Manner and Form as in the Indictment. Therefore it is considered that the said Hampton be hanged by the neck till he be dead, and that he be afterward cut in Quarters, and his Quarters hung up at the Cross Roads. And it is the Opinion of the Court that the said Sambo is guilty of a Misdemeanor, Therefore it is considered that the said Sambo be burnt in the Hand, and that he also receive thirty-one Lashes on his bare Back at the Whipping-Post.
"Memo: That the said Hampton is adjudged at forty-five Pounds, which is ordered to be Certified to the Assembly [that his owner may be remunerated according to law]."
Thomas Walker Page, "Atlantic Monthly," Dec, 1901.
Slaves were not tried by jury, but before five justices, and cannot be condemned unless all the justices agree.
On examination, instead of an oath being administered, the black is charged in the following words:
"You are brought hither as witnesses, and by the direction of the law I am to tell you, before you give your evidence, that you must tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth; and if it be found hereafter that you tell a lie, and give false testimony in this matter, you must for so doing have both your ears nailed to the pillory and cut off, and receive thirty-nine lashes on your bare back, well laid on at the common whipping-post."
This punishment is administered by nailing one ear to the pillory, where the culprit stands for one hour, when that ear is cut off, and the other nailed, which is in like manner cut off at the expiration of another hour, and after this he receives thirty-nine lashes.—"Historical Register," 1814, page 65.
[4] From John Coles and Mary Winston are descended the Coles family of Philadelphia. His grandson Edward, secretary to President Madison, married Sally Logan Roberts, of Philadelphia, and settled there. Major John Coles was engaged in merchandizing in Richmond; his residence, a frame house recently demolished (1871), was situated on Twenty-second Street, between Broad and Marshall. When torn down, many of the timbers, though more than a century old, were found to be in a perfect state of preservation.
When the floor of old St. John's Church was removed, in 1867, to replace the joists, a metallic plate was found marking the place of burial and bearing the name of Major John Coles, but it was so corroded, it soon fell to pieces.—Vestry Book of Henrico Parish.
John Coles, who lived on Church Hill, owned much land in what is to-day the city of Richmond. He once gave a whole square of the infant city for a fine horse. He also owned large estates in several of the counties.—"Virginia Magazine."
[5] See pedigree on following [page].
[6] "Virginia Magazine," Vol. VIII, p. 299.
[7] Studley, the home of Mrs. Syme, where Patrick Henry was born, is no longer standing. Its site is marked by a hedge of box and an avenue of aged trees. It was three miles from Hanover and sixteen from Richmond. The family removed to "Retreat" (formerly Mt. Briliant), on South Anna River, near Rocky Mills, twenty-two miles from Richmond. Here most of Patrick Henry's childhood was passed. His mother, riding in a double gig, took him to church with her, and coming home had him repeat the text and recapitulate the sermon. These early exercises served him well in after life. A few miles from "Studley," are the "Slashes of Hanover," the birthplace of Henry Clay.
[8] Governor Dinwiddie introduced Colonel John Henry to his friend John Syme. He was soon at home in his family, and married his widow.
[9] He was lieutenant in the Mexican War, rode horseback to California with the "forty-niners," and was brigadier-general in the Confederate army. He was serving his second term in the United States Senate, and had been re-elected for another term of six years beginning in 1909. At the time of his last election the Alabama Legislature unanimously repealed a law as old as the State to save him the exposure of a long journey in the dead of winter.
[10] Probably both these signatures were written by Mary Payne.
[11] Robert Pleasants was the son of John Pleasants, of Henrico, the clerk of the Upper Quarterly Meeting, who had died in 1771 and freed all his slaves by will, providing for the maintenance of those over forty-five years of age. The laws of Virginia, however, did not permit his heirs to carry out his wishes, and the slaves remained in their possession until 1798, when they finally [succeeded] in having the freedom of not only the several hundred originally freed, but of their issue, confirmed by a decree of the High Court of Chancery of Virginia.—From Friends' records, Monument Street, Baltimore.
"Robert Pleasants possessed a vigorous intellect, and was a man of indomitable energy." He was engaged in mercantile pursuits and planting, and was remarkably successful. He owned and resided on Curles Plantation.—From Vestry Book of St. John's Church, Richmond.
His book of correspondence with Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Benezet, Pemberton, Henry and many noted men is preserved in Friends' safe, Monument St., Baltimore.
In 1790 Abolition Society founded in Virginia, Robert Pleasants, President. At death freed eighty slaves, in addition to several hundred belonging to father freed during his life time.
[12] On the James River, near Richmond.
[13] Original at Monument Street, Baltimore.
[14] Hanover Court House, 20 miles from Richmond, 102 miles from Washington, is situated several miles from the river.
It has two very large and commodious jails (!!), one tavern, one store, one boot and shoe shop, one blacksmith-shop. It has a population of about 50. One attorney lives there.—"Martin's Gazetteer", 1835.
It has a population of 58 to-day.
Hanover Court House where Patrick Henry figured in early life. Here many of his speeches were delivered. Here he won his first case, "The Parson's Cause."
[15] The same Benjamin Bates who in 1816 as clerk of the Virginia Yearly Meeting drew up and presented to the Burgesses of Virginia a protest against the existing militia laws of the State and accompanied it by an able letter, of which the editor of "Niles' Register," November 30th, says that it perhaps "forms a body of the ablest arguments that have ever appeared in defense of certain principles held by this people."—"Friends' Miscellany," Vol. VII, p. 221; "Niles' Register," VII, p. 90, supplement. William Wirt also pronounced its arguments "unanswerable."
[16] "(1634)" There are no schools or printing to make poor people "dissatisfied." But later there was one free school endowed by a large-hearted man. Virginia up to this time had few schools. In some neighborhoods the planters clubbed together and log school houses were built, but there were more often none at all, the boys being sent North or abroad for their education, while that of the girls was often entirely lacking. An old gazetteer of 1835 makes report for Henrico County, including Richmond, which had been incorporated as a city in 1782, "few or no schools worthy of notice," "that a few good schools have existed," but not a single academical institution. "That in 1803 a charter had been obtained for one to be built by lottery and private subscription, but only the basement was built and the project abandoned."
[17] John and Charles Lynch, sons of Charles and Sarah Clark Lynch, were the founders of Lynchburg, Va. The Clark family were Friends, and, after the father's death, the children, with her became members of Cedar Creek Monthly Meeting. Their father left them the owners of large tracts of land. John, the elder brother, kept the home place, where Lynchburg now stands. In 11th January, 1755, Charles Lynch and Anne Terrill are reported "clear" of other engagements by the meeting at Cedar Creek, and the following day are married and start for what was then a far western home—the undeveloped lands in Bedford County, where the buffalo still roamed and Indians were plentiful.
As soon as his new home at Green Level was finished, he helped to build and organize a Quaker meeting. This was the first public place of worship in that part of Virginia; and when the meeting was broken up by the Indians (it was during the French and Indian War), he removed the congregation to his own house, where his armed negroes could ward off their attacks.
It has been said that it is difficult to overestimate the influence of these Quaker pioneers (of whom Charles Lynch was chief) in establishing better relations with the Indians and fostering a spirit of peace and justice amongst the neighbors. Lynch soon became a leading man, and already in 1763 had great wealth in the form of tobacco, cattle and slaves.
He was asked in 1764 to become a member of the Assembly, but refused as inconsistent with his Quaker principles. But in the excitement of Stamp Act days, when it was difficult to get a proper representative from the West, he saw differently, and in 1764, at the age of 35, was elected to the House of Burgesses, and held his seat until the colony became an independent State.
It was then necessary that he take the oath and—
December, 1767, "Charles Lynch is disowned" for taking "Solemn Oaths" from the little meeting he had fostered and cared for and where his words of "admonition" had been heard. In heart he was not greatly changed, and he raised his children Friends.
When the Revolutionary struggle began he helped raise and enlist troops for home protection. His Quaker principles prevented him from going into the army for a time, but finally "the Court of Bedford" in 1778 "doth recommend to his Excellency the Gov., Chas. Lynch, as a suitable person to exercise the office of Col. of Militia," he saw the need and accepted. At this time in his history occurred the event that has made his name famous—a conspiracy in his home neighborhood that he promptly put down with the help of his troops, and caused to be sentenced and imprisoned its leaders, thereby exceeding his legal powers.
In Richmond, Jefferson, then governor, had fled from the capital, where all was in confusion, and there was much excuse for his action.
With "his Rough Riders of the West" and his son, a lad of 16, he marched against Benedict Arnold and then to North Carolina in time to be present at the battle of Guilford Court House, when he won the commendation of that other Quaker General Nathaniel Greene, who kept him with him until after the surrender of Cornwallis. His services are described by Robert E. Lee in his history of his father's regiment.
At the end of the war he again took his seat in the Assembly, before which he brought up the unlawful action he had taken during the war, and—
The following act was passed by the Virginia Legislature after the Revolution:
"Whereas, divers evil-disposed persons in the year 1780 formed a conspiracy and did actually attempt to levy war against the commonwealth, and it is represented to the present General Assembly that Charles Lynch and other faithful citizens, aided by detachments of volunteers from different parts of the State, did in timely and effectual measures suppress such conspiracy, and whereas the measures taken for that purpose may not be strictly warranted by law, although justifiable from the imminence of the danger, Be it therefore enacted that the said Charles Lynch and all other persons whatsoever concerned in suppressing the said conspiracy or in advising, issuing or exacting any orders or measures taken for that purpose, stand indemnified and exonerated of and from all pains, penalties, prosecutions, actions, suits and damages on account thereof.
And that if any indictment, prosecution, action or suit shall be laid or brought against them or any of them for any act or thing done therein, the defendant or defendants may plead in bar and give this act in evidence."—"Atlantic Monthly" (December, 1901), Thomas Walker Page, and "Friends' Records of Cedar Creek Monthly Meeting."
