FOOTNOTES:
[622:A] Williamsburg invited the assistance of an additional volunteer force to guard the town.
CHAPTER LXXXIV.
1775.
Dunmore at Portsmouth—Convention—Committee of Safety—Carrington, Read, Cabell—Henry, Colonel and Commander-in-chief—George Mason—Miscellaneous Affairs—Death of Peyton Randolph—The Randolphs of Virginia.
Dunmore's domestics now abandoned the palace and removed to Porto Bello, his country-seat, about six miles below Williamsburg. The fugitive governor took up his station at Portsmouth.
On Monday, July the 17th, 1775, the convention met at Richmond. Measures were taken for raising two regiments of regular troops for one year, and two companies for the protection of the western frontier, and to divide the colony into sixteen districts, and to exercise the militia as minute-men, so as to be ready for service at a moment's warning. At the instance of Richard Bland an inquiry was made into certain charges reflecting on his patriotism; and his innocence was triumphantly vindicated. Although he had resisted extreme measures, yet when the crisis came, and the rupture took place, he was behind none in patriotic ardor and devotion to the common cause. A minister was implicated in propagating the charges against him.
A committee of safety was organized to take charge of the executive duties of the colony; it consisted of eleven gentlemen: Edmund Pendleton, George Mason, John Page, Richard Bland, Thomas Ludwell Lee, Paul Carrington, Dudley Digges, William Cabell, Carter Braxton, James Mercer, and John Tabb.