_Encouraging Home Industries--Further Extension of the Town--Tobacco
Inspectors--Modes of Punishment--Prosperity--Military Ardor--Under the
United States._
In 1759 an act was passed by the General Assembly to encourage the "Arts
and Manufactures in the Colony," but wine and silk making seemed to have
predominated all others, wine having the decided preference as will
readily be seen. In the act it was set forth that five hundred pounds
should be paid as a premium to the person who should, in any one year,
within eight years from the date of its passage, make the best wine in
quantity not less than ten hogsheads, and one hundred pounds should be
paid to the person making the second best. It was provided that the money
for these premiums should be raised by the annual subscriptions of
public-spirited gentlemen who were willing to encourage the undertaking;
and it was further provided that, if the subscriptions would justify it, a
handsome premium should be given for silk making. It was also stipulated
that if there was an "overplus of money," after the premiums on wine and
silk making were provided for, it was to "be given for the encouragement
of such other articles as should appear to the committee most advantageous
to the colony." Among those who contributed the first year for this
purpose, who were then, or had been, citizens of Fredericksburg, were the
following gentlemen who subscribed two pounds each: Robert Carter,
Pressley Thornton, George Washington, James Mercer, William Bernard, David
Ker, Philip Rootes, Thomas Reade Rootes, Alexander Ross, John Champ.
FURTHER EXTENSION OF THE TOWN.
In 1763 an act was passed by the General Assembly extending the corporate
limits of the town, but to what extent we do not know, as we have been
unable to find the act or any of its provisions.
REGULATING TOBACCO INSPECTORS.
In 1764 the General Assembly passed an act for "Amending the Staple of
Tobacco and for Preventing Frauds in his Majesty's Customs." It was a very
lengthy bill, having seventy-seven sections, ten more than any other act
ever before passed by that body, and severe penalties were prescribed for
its violation. The bill was necessarily long and severe penalties were
prescribed because it had reference to the raising, curing, packing and
sale of tobacco, which was one of the principal products of Virginia, and
the duties and responsibilities of tobacco inspectors and their proper
management of tobacco warehouses. Besides tobacco being one of the
important crops raised in the colony, if not the most important one, large
quantities of it were shipped to the old country and sold for good prices.
In addition to this, tobacco was used in the colony as a substitute for
money, as all debts between private individuals, as well as those due the
colony, were paid in tobacco. The bill provided for public warehouses, for
the proper inspection of tobacco and for public inspectors, appointed by
the Governor and his Council, not less than two at each warehouse, who,
besides taking an oath of office, were placed under heavy bonds with
security, the penalty being five hundred pounds sterling for the faithful
performance of their duties. One of these public warehouses was located in
Fredericksburg, and may have been the old stone house on Water street,
just below the free bridge. The oath required to be taken by these public
inspectors was as follows:
"You shall swear that you will diligently and carefully view and
examine all tobacco brought to any public warehouse or warehouses
where you are appointed to be inspector, and that not separately and
apart from your fellow, but in his presence; and that you will not
receive any tobacco that is not in your judgment sound, well
conditioned, merchantable and clear of trash, nor receive, pass or
stamp any tobacco, hogshead or cask of tobacco, prohibited by one act
of Assembly, entitled an act for amending the sample of tobacco, and
preventing frauds in his Majesty's customs; and that you will not
change, alter or give out any tobacco, other than such hogsheads or
casks for which the receipt to be taken was given; but that you will
in all things well and faithfully discharge your duty in the office of
inspector, according to the best of your skill and judgment and
according to the directions of said act, without fear, favor,
affection, malice or partiality. So help me God."
The receipts given by the inspectors of the public warehouse in
Fredericksburg, according to the provisions of the act, were to pass and
be current in the town and county of Spotsylvania for the payment of all
quit-rents, county and town levies and for officers' fees. As this
provision of law made them current for public dues, the public also
adopted them as currency and they were used for the payment of all
obligations. These receipts were protected by severe penalties against
counterfeiting and forgery, and each one represented so many hundred
pounds of tobacco deposited at the public warehouse.
MILITARY ARDOR OF THE TOWN.
Fredericksburg continued to grow in population and material prosperity,
and also improve in the intelligence and public spirit of its inhabitants,
until the year 1775, when the affairs between Great Britain and the
American Colonies were verging to a crisis. Her leading citizens were
among the very first in Virginia to adopt the principle that the American
Colonies ought not only to be exempt from taxation by the Mother Country,
but should be free and independent States. The battle of Lexington was
fought on the 19th day of April, 1775, and on the 20th, the following day,
Lord Dunmore secretly removed twenty barrels of gunpowder from the public
magazine in Williamsburg to the Magdalen Man-of-war, which anchored off
Yorktown. When the news of the battle of Lexington, and of the removal of
the powder, reached Fredericksburg, great excitement prevailed. Over six
hundred men armed themselves, from the town and surrounding country,
assembled at the Courthouse in town and offered their services to George
Washington, who was then in Williamsburg, to defend that city from Lord
Dunmore's threatened attack, and the country from his tyranny.
After assembling they dispatched delegates to Richmond and Williamsburg
to ascertain the condition of affairs and to what point they should report
for duty. In the meantime, those ardent patriots, George Washington,
Peyton Randolph and Edmund Pendleton, transmitted their advice to the
people of Fredericksburg, and especially those who had formed the military
organization, to abstain for the present from hostilities until a
congress, then called or soon to be called, should decide upon a general
plan of resistance.
On the receipt of this advice, these patriots held a council, consisting
of more than one hundred men, representing fourteen companies, who, by a
majority of one vote, decided to disperse for the present. They were
burning with indignation at the murderous attack made upon their brethren
of Lexington, Mass., by the armed soldiers of Great Britain, and the
unlawful arrests, and retention as prisoners, of some of the leading
citizens of Massachusetts by British military officers. And this feeling
of indignation was intensified when they saw that this outrage was
followed the next day by another perpetrated in their own colony and by
their own Governor; and when he threatened to return from Yorktown,
whither he had fled for safety, and attack Williamsburg with a man-of-war
they were convinced that the enemies of the Patriots, the British and
Tories, understood each other and were acting in concert. Yet, upon the
advice of those whose lead they were willing to follow, and whose commands
they were ready to obey, they agreed to disband for the present. Before
dispersing, however, they drafted an address, which was tantamount to a
declaration of independence, in which they firmly resolved to resist all
attempts against their rights and privileges, from whatever quarter they
might be assailed.
They went further than to just pass resolutions; they pledged themselves,
solemnly and firmly one to the other, to be in readiness, at a moment's
warning, to reassemble, and, by force of arms, to defend the laws,
liberties and the rights of this or any sister colony, from unjust and
wicked invasions. They then sent dispatches to patriots assembled in
Caroline, Berkeley, Frederick and Dunmore counties, thanking them for
their offer of service and acquainting them with the condition of public
affairs and their determination to be ready at a moment's notice to
respond to any call that might be made by the patriotic leaders, who were
then holding a council in Williamsburg. The resolutions and pledges were
read at the head of each company of patriots encamped at Fredericksburg,
and unanimously approved and adopted. The address concluded with the
impressive words, "God, save the liberties of America," which were a
substitute for the off-repeated words, "God, save the King."
These resolutions were passed twenty-one days before the celebrated
Mecklenburg resolutions in North Carolina were, and more than a year
before the Declaration of Independence by the American Congress, which
showed the intense patriotic fervor of the people of Fredericksburg at
that early period, many of whom bore a heroic part in the subsequent
struggle of the Seven Years' war that followed. Among the number assembled
with these lovers of liberty, and most prominent, were Gen. Geo. Weedon,
who served on Gen. Washington's staff, commanded with distinction a
division at the surrender of Yorktown, and afterwards for several terms
served as mayor of the town; Gen. Hugh Mercer, who rose to the rank of
Major-General and was killed at Princeton, New Jersey, on January 3, 1777,
and Gen. Gustavus B. Wallace, who served gallantly through the war,
attaining to the rank of Brigadier-General.
FREDERICKSBURG UNDER THE UNITED STATES.
The long tobacco act of the House of Burgesses was the last act passed by
that body that affected the commercial interest of the town or the
agricultural interest of the surrounding country that we have any
knowledge of. The Revolutionary war soon followed and our independence and
new government was the result. It is not considered necessary in this work
to attempt to give the part Fredericksburg bore in that struggle--the
generals she furnished to command the armies and navy of the country, the
line officers and soldiers she sent forth to meet and repel the invader,
the statesmen she gave to provide for the armies or to form the new
government and to guide it to a successful, permanent and solid
establishment. All of these things are told by the records and histories
of the State and country more accurately and in a more pleasing style than
we can narrate them. We therefore pass to the new order of things.
FREDERICKSBURG IN THE REPUBLIC.
The first act of the Legislature of Virginia in reference to
Fredericksburg, after the establishment of the young republic, was to
grant it a charter, which bill was passed in 1781. It provided for the
town a Mayor, Recorder, Board of Aldermen and a Common Council, and
required that all of them should be freeholders. They were made a body
politic by the name and designation of Mayor and Commonalty of the town of
Fredericksburg, and by that title were to have perpetual succession. The
Mayor, Recorder and the four Aldermen were _ex-officio_ Justices of the
Peace, and had power to hold a court of hustings once a month, and to
"hold pleas in all cases whatsoever originating within the limits" of the
town and to "low water mark on the northwest side of the Rappahannock
river and half a mile without and around the other limits of the said
town." They were given the sole authority and power of "licensing tavern
keepers and settling their rates," to appoint a sergeant with the powers
of sheriffs, a "constable and other necessary officers of court and
surveyors of the streets and highways." A surveyor of the streets was
appointed at the first hustings court held by the Mayor and his fellow
magistrates, but he was known as the "Geographer" of the town for more
than half a century, and was often so entered upon the court records.
In civil cases the hustings court was not to have jurisdiction where the
amount in controversy exceeded one thousand pounds of leaf tobacco, or its
value in money, unless both parties to the suit were citizens of the town
when the suit was instituted.
The corporate authorities were authorized to assess the inhabitants and
all property within the actual bounds of the town for all the charges of
repairing the streets, and other matters of municipal expense. They were
empowered to erect workhouses, houses of correction, prisons and other
public buildings, and to pass all necessary ordinances for the good
government of the town. They were to have two market days in each week,
and appoint a clerk of the market, "who shall have assize of bread, wine,
wood and other things," and perform all the duties of Clerk of the Market.
The market days were fixed by law on Wednesdays and Saturdays. It was
also provided in the charter that if any person elected to an office
failed or refused to serve, he was to be fined. The fines were regulated
as follows: "For a Mayor-elect, fifty pounds; for the Recorder, forty
pounds; for any Alderman, thirty pounds; for any Common Councilman,
twenty-five pounds; for the City Sergeant, one hundred pounds; for the
Constable, fifty pounds; for the Clerk of the Hustings Court and the Clerk
of the Market, each fifty pounds; the Surveyor of Streets or Roads, each
thirty pounds." These several fines were to be imposed by the hustings
court, and "to be levied by execution against the goods and chattles of
the offender."
The charter also provided that in case of "misconduct in the office of
Mayor, Recorder, Aldermen or Common Councilmen, or either of them, the
others, being seven at least, shall have power to remove the offenders,"
and in case the other officers were guilty of misconduct, the power
appointing them was clothed with the authority of revoking the
appointment. It was provided that if the office of Mayor should become
vacant, the Recorder was to succeed to the office, the oldest Alderman was
to become Recorder, and "so on according to priority."
It was further provided "that all the property, real and personal, now
held and possessed by the trustees of the said town of Fredericksburg, in
law or equity, or in trust, for the use and benefit of the inhabitants
thereof, and particularly the charity donation of Archibald McPherson,
deceased, now vested in the trustees of said town in trust, for the
education of poor children, shall be and the same are hereby transferred
and vested in the Mayor and Commonalty of said town, to and for the same
uses, intents and purposes as the trustees of the town now hold the same."
At the session of the Legislature in 1782 the charter of the town was
amended and the jurisdiction of the hustings court was extended one mile
without and around the former limits of the town on the south side of the
Rappahannock river, and made a court of record and as such was authorized
to receive probate of wills and deeds and grant administrations in as full
and ample manner as the county courts could or might do. But no will was
to be admitted to proof and no administration was to be granted unless
the parties were citizens and residents of the town at the time of their
death, and no deeds for conveyance of land were to be admitted to record
unless the lands conveyed lay within the limits of the corporation. The
court was empowered and authorized to appoint a person skilled in the law
to prosecute for the Commonwealth and pay him a reasonable salary for his
services, and when the Attorney for the Commonwealth was appointed for the
town, it was to be exempt from paying any part of the salary of the
Attorney for the Commonwealth of Spotsylvania county.
[Illustration: "Rising Sun Tavern," kept by Gen. Geo. Weedon prior to
1775; now the property of the A. P. of V. A. (See page 148)]
[Illustration: Mary Washington Monument, erected by the Women of America;
Wm. J. Crawford, architect. (See page 157)]
RAPID GROWTH OF THE TOWN.
On the petition of sixty-four of the leading citizens of the town,
property owners and tax payers, complaining that certain provisions and
requirements of the original charter of the town, granted in 1727, had not
been enforced by the Council and complied with by lot owners, the Common
Council, in 1782, passed an order which resulted in great benefit to the
town in the way of improving vacant lots, erecting buildings and
furnishing permanent homes for artisans, mechanics and laboring men. In
the memorial submitted to the Council, these property owners complained of
"being frequently subjected to the payment of many heavy Taxes and charges
for the general benefit and improvement of the said Town of which many
proprietors of unimproved Lotts pay no part, although their property is
thereby daily rendered more valuable; That the proprietors of said Lotts,
although wealthy, will neither build on them, nor sell to those who would,
unless for exorbitant prices, by means whereof Rents are high and many
useful tradesmen are prevented from residing in the said Town, to remedy
which your petitioners pray that you, as Guardians of the said
Corporation, will take into your consideration an Act of Assembly, passed
in the year of our Lord One thousand, seven hundred and twenty seven,
entitled an Act for erecting a Town in each of the counties of
Spotsylvania and King George[23] or so much of the said Act as may relate
to the said Town of Fredericksburg. A due execution of said Law, your
petitioners Conceive, will be productive of many real and very essential
advantages to the said corporation; by encouraging the peopling of it and
increasing its Trade and Navigation. Your petitioners do not wish that any
immediate advantage may be taken of failures or defaults already
heretofore suffered, by noncompliance with the above mentioned Act, but
that Public notice may be given to the proprietors of such unimproved
Lotts that a strict execution of the above mentioned Act of Assembly will
be observed with all such as shall, in future, fail to perform, fulfil and
comply with the rules and directions therein set forth."
In consideration of the complaints of these citizens and the wise
suggestions made in their communication, as well as the requirements of
the act referred to, the Council ordered "that notice be given to the
Proprietors of unimproved Lotts within this corporation, by advertisement
in the Public News Papers, that they immediately pay up the Taxes due on
said Lotts within this Town and that they be informed that they must build
on their unimproved Lotts, agreeable to the Act of Assembly, passed in One
thousand seven hundred and Twenty-seven, for establishing a Town in the
County of Spotsylvania, otherwise the Lotts will be sold agreeable to the
said Act."
In consequence of the enforcement of this order of the Common Council,
both the taxable values, and the inhabitants of the town, increased
rapidly. Instead of an empty treasury, as the town then had, and the
necessity it found itself under of appealing to the public for
subscriptions for money with which to repair and enlarge the church, to
repair the market house, the courthouse and jail, so they could be used,
the town soon had money for ordinary purposes, and also for repairing the
public buildings, many of which had been used during the war by the
soldiers of General Washington's army, leaving a good balance in the
treasury, after the work was done. Nor was that all; in 1791, under the
"Domestic Loan Act" of Congress, the town loaned to the general government
$3,500. This loan was evidenced by four certificates, issued by the "Loan
office" of the Government in Washington and are duly recorded in the
record book of the Common Council.
METHODS OF PUNISHMENT.
It may be interesting to note that in the olden times there were other
methods resorted to for punishing criminals besides fines, jails and
penitentiaries, which are not used in this day and time. The Common
Council, in 1785, passed a resolution ordering Sergeant John Richards to
"erect immediately a whipping post, stocks and ducking stool." The
whipping post was used mainly for the slaves who were guilty of small
infractions of the law, but for aggravated offences, the penalty was
"thirty-nine lashes on his bare back, well laid on," to which was added
"burning in the left hand, in the presence of the court." The whipping
post is said to have been used for habitual persistent absence from
church, but it was very seldom used for that purpose, and never in
Fredericksburg so far as we have discovered from the records.
The stocks were used to punish white persons for petty offences, such as
vagrancy, trespassing and similar infractions of the law. The stocks
consisted of a frame of timber, with holes in which the ankles and wrists
of the offenders were confined. The stocks were erected in the public
square and it is said the passers-by, and those who had gathered around
them, through curiosity, would taunt and jeer at the criminals thus
confined for punishment.
The ducking stool was used for punishing common scolds, refractory women
and dishonest tradesmen, especially brewers and bakers. The ducking stool
for Fredericksburg was erected on the bank of the Rappahannock river, at
the foot of Wolfe street, near where the old Stafford bridge spanned the
river. There are several of our old citizens now living who remember when
it was in use, and when it was dispensed with, nearly seventy years ago. A
"ducking" always brought together a large crowd, most of whom were rude
and disorderly, and jeers at and ridicule of the party "ducked" would rend
the air, while the sentence of the court was being carried out. It is said
that some of the "scolding women," as they would emerge from the water
would send forth volumes of abuse at the disorderly crowd, while the
officer waited for the next bath, and this was kept up until the order of
the court was fully executed. It seemed to be the wish of the authorities
that the whole population would turn out and witness these different modes
of punishment, with the hope that it would deter others from committing
similar offences.