Virginia’s fifth Revolutionary Convention began on May 6, 1776, the same day that the House of Burgesses gathered as a body for the last time. The forty-five burgesses did not constitute a quorum, and they did not conduct any business or adjourn. As described by Alexander Purdie in the Virginia Gazette, they “unanimously dissolved themselves accordingly.” After doing so, they left the capitol’s chamber where they met, joined the delegates who had been elected to the convention, and returned to the chamber to open Virginia’s final Revolutionary convention.
The first convention had met in August 1774 seeking peaceful means to address Virginia’s differences with Great Britain. But as the Crown and Parliament proved to be inflexible and the royal governor, Lord Dunmore, abandoned Williamsburg in 1775, the delegates at Virginia’s conventions fulfilled legislative and executive functions of government. Delegates at the second convention in March 1775 authorized arming county militias for the colony’s defense. At the third convention in July–August 1775, they ordered the recruitment of regiments and established the Committee of Safety to act as an executive governing body between convention sessions. During the fourth convention in December 1775–January 1776, delegates provided for the creation of a Virginia navy and created a court to enforce the restrictions of the Continental Association forbidding trade with Britain. By the time the fifth convention began meeting, it had been a year since the first shots of the Revolution had been fired at Lexington and Concord. Virginians had defeated Lord Dunmore’s forces at Great Bridge in December and pushed the British out of Norfolk. After a year of war, many Virginians were ready to seek independence.
Edmund Pendleton (1721–1803) was an attorney who held numerous leadership positions in Virginia's colonial and state government and was named the first president of the state's Supreme Court of Appeals in 1779.
State Art Collection, Library of Virginia.
The delegates elected Caroline County planter, attorney, and former burgess Edmund Pendleton as president of the convention. He had served as head of the Committee of Safety and had been a counterbalance to the revolutionary enthusiasm of Patrick Henry, who commanded the Virginia militia until February 1776. Pendleton described the “Critical” nature of the business before the convention, which included addressing the needs of the militia and the Continental Army and the difficulties resulting from the fact that the colony’s courts had been closed since 1774 because Governor Dunmore had dissolved the assembly before it could enact a bill setting fees for court officials. But first the delegates needed to address the question of how to achieve American independence.
Jacob Bruce recorded the vote on Edmund Pendleton's resolution for independence in this journal, which he shared with Virginia's public printer Alexander Purdie, who published the proceedings in February 1776.
Journal of the Convention, May 6-July 5, 1776, Virginia Revolutionary Convention Papers, Accession 22125, 30003, Library of Virginia.
Some delegates had already received instructions from their constituents to seek a resolution of independence. Debate began on May 14 over the best way to secure liberty from Great Britain. Three members introduced resolutions, including Yorktown delegate Thomas Nelson Jr., on behalf of Patrick Henry, advocating independence. Only James City County delegate Robert Carter Nicholas spoke against adopting a such a resolution, primarily out of concern that Americans were not adequately prepared for a contest against Britain. Edmund Pendleton composed a new set of resolutions incorporating language and sentiments from the three that had been introduced. His resolutions were read and debated on May 15 and were “unanimously agreed to” in a voice vote by the 112 members present. Beginning with a list of colonial grievances against “the king and parliament,” who had responded with “oppression and a vigorous attempt to effect our total destruction,” the resolutions declared that “we have no alternative” other than complete subjection or “a total separation” from Great Britain.
Therefore, the resolutions instructed Virginia’s delegates to the Continental Congress “to declare the United Colonies free and independent states.” The convention also resolved to “prepare a Declaration of Rights” and a plan of government for an independent Virginia.
The next day, the convention delegates gathered with members of the Committee of Safety and Williamsburg residents at the militia encampment at Waller’s Grove, east of the capitol building. They held a parade and read the resolutions to the crowd’s cheers. Toasts were raised to independence, Congress, and George Washington, each followed by “a discharge of the artillery and small-arms.” The Continental Union flag was raised over the capitol and “demonstrations of joy” continued into the evening, celebrating the end of British rule.
As the senior member of Virginia’s delegation to the Continental Congress, Westmoreland County planter Richard Henry Lee introduced a resolution to that body on June 7, 1776, stating that the “United Colonies are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.”
Although Richard Henry Lee (1733–1794) had applied to become a stamp distributor under the Stamp Act of 1765, he quickly became one of Virginia's leading revolutionaries and represented Virginia in the First and Second Continental Congresses.
State Art Collection, Library of Virginia.
Congress postponed debate so delegates under instructions not to vote for independence had the opportunity to seek new instructions. Thomas Jefferson composed a declaration explaining the need for independence. Congress adopted Lee’s motion on July 2 and the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.
John Hunter and William Dixon published a brief account of celebrations in Williamsburg following the vote for independence.
Virginia Gazette, May 18, 1776.
The convention’s assistant clerk Jacob Bruce kept the journal recording the actions of Virginia’s final Revolutionary convention of May–July 1776. At the end of the Civil War, the journal was removed from the capitol in Richmond by a U.S. Army soldier. His descendants later sold it to a book dealer, who attempted to sell it to the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation in the 1940s. However, at the urging of the state librarian, Virginia’s attorney general issued a ruling that the journal was state property and thus it was returned to the state library. The dealer was reimbursed his $100 purchase price for his “care and custody” of the journal. It is preserved at the Library of Virginia and is part of the Virginia Revolutionary Conventions, 1774-1776, Digital Collection. The journal and related documents have also been printed in volume 7 of Revolutionary Virginia: The Road to Independence.
To learn more about the Library of Virginia’s participation in this important celebration of our nation’s path to independence, explore our Colonial, Revolutionary War, and Early American resources. Discover a variety of interactive on-site and community events designed to engage Virginians and bring the Revolutionary era to life across the Commonwealth.
