Finis: The End of the House of Burgesses

One of the great treasures found at the Library of Virginia is the final journal of the House of Burgesses that covers its concluding years: 1773-1776. The journal records the clashes between the royal governor, Lord Dunmore, and the House of Burgesses (Virginia’s colonial-era legislative body), which ended with Virginia choosing to pursue independence from Great Britain.

Lord Dunmore called the House of Burgesses into session on March 4, 1773, to address the discovery of a counterfeiting scheme that threatened the colony’s economy. The new session gave members the opportunity to address the growing tensions with Great Britain, recently exasperated when the British Parliament had enacted legislation requiring Americans arrested for certain crimes to be tried in Great Britain, not in the colonies. The law inflamed the anger many members of the House of Burgesses already had towards Great Britain over laws that threatened their liberties.

Dunmore knew this. In his proclamation announcing the opening of the session, he encouraged members to “proceed immediately with the Coolness and Candour, that is becoming a respectable body.” He reminded the House of the colony’s close connection to Great Britain, “our Mother Country, whose interest I hope we shall ever think inseparable.”

But when Lord Dunmore informed the House that the counterfeiters had been arrested and would stand trial in Williamsburg, not in the colonies, House members perceived Dunmore as emulating Parliament’s effort to deny American colonists their fundamental right to a trial by a jury of their peers. The House passed a resolution thanking Dunmore for the arrest but expressing concern about the trials not being held in the “County where the Fact was committed or the Arrest made.” 

At this time, some members of the House held secret meetings at Raleigh Tavern to discuss how to address British infringement of the colonies’ rights. Out of their discussions came the formation of the Committee of Correspondence. The House appointed Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, and nine others to this committee whose purpose was to communicate with the other colonies concerning Great Britain’s actions “to deprive them of their ancient, legal, and constitutional rights.”

With the counterfeiting matter itself concluded — and perhaps concerned that the House was losing its “Coolness and Candour” — Dunmore adjourned the House of Burgesses on March 15, 1773. The Committee of Correspondence, being a standing committee, continued to meet after the adjournment at Raleigh Tavern. It wrote and received letters to and from similar committees in the other colonies. These committees of correspondence enabled Virginia and the other colonies to become more united in their struggle against Great Britain.

Lord Dunmore called the House of Burgesses back into session in May 1774. He did so after the heavy-handed response of the British to the recent Boston Tea Party. 

Members of the House were infuriated when they learned that Great Britain had imposed military rule on Boston. They passed a resolution on May 24 in support of the citizens of Boston, calling for a day of prayer and fasting in hopes that divine intervention might avert “the heavy Calamity which threatens destruction to our Civil Rights, and the Evils of civil War.” Two days later, Dunmore dissolved the House in a one-sentence proclamation claiming the House resolution disparaged the King and Parliament.

The adjournment did not silence the growing number of radical House members. Beginning in August 1774, those members held meetings in Richmond known as the Virginia Conventions.

Patrick Henry called on the members to pursue independence with his fiery “Give Me Liberty” speech. The convention proceeded in that direction in early 1775 by electing delegates to the first Continental Congress.

Lord Dunmore called the House of Burgesses back into session in June 1775 to approve the conciliatory resolution passed by the British Parliament earlier in the year, an attempt to reach a peaceful compromise with the colonies. In a lengthy proclamation, Dunmore implored the House to approve the resolution: “[Y]ou have it in your Power, to restore the Harmony and mutual confidence” which will convert the current dire circumstances “into Prospects of Peace, Happiness, and lasting Security.”

The House asserted its independence by ignoring Dunmore’s proclamation. They began the session by having all members read and approve the proceedings of the Virginia Convention and the Continental Congress. The House vehemently — and in great detail — rejected the conciliatory resolution and opened an investigation into Dunmore’s role in the removal of gunpowder from the magazine in Williamsburg. Fearing for his safety, Dunmore fled Williamsburg aboard a British warship anchored in the York River where he proclaimed Virginia to be in open rebellion. 

On June 24, the House of Burgesses informed Lord Dunmore that they’d completed the business he had called them into session to address. Dunmore refused, so the House adjourned itself on October 12, 1775.

The House met a few times in the following months, but there were never enough members for a quorum. The entry for May 6 reads as follows: “Several Members met, but did neither proceed to business, nor adjourn, as a House of Burgesses.” The few members who met refused to bring an end to the House of Burgesses.

The clerk of the House of Burgesses came to a different conclusion: the era of the House of Burgesses that had begun in 1619 was no more. In large letters and with a flourish of lines below it, he wrote the word “Finis,” Latin for “End.” Whether the clerk intended it or not, “Finis” marked the end of colonial Virginia and the beginning of a new era: the fight for independence.