that appear to have a majority of votes, who are hereby declared, in such case, to be duly elected a Committee to serve as aforesaid.

12. And whereas the Inhabitants of the County of Fincastle, and the District of West-Augusta, although long possessed of their lands under surveys, entries, or orders of Council, have few of them obtained patents for the same, which have been obstructed without any default in them, who, having performed what is required on their part, have an equitable interest in their lands, and ought to share in the representation, in Conventions and Committees, with other Landholders in this Colony: Be it therefore declared and ordained, That every free white man who, at the time of elections for Delegates or Committee-Men in the said County or District, respectively, shall have been for one year preceding in possession of twenty-five acres of land, with a house and plantation thereon, or one hundred acres of land without a house or plantation, in such County or District, claiming an estate for life at least in the said land, in his own right or in right of his wife, shall have a vote, or be capable of being chosen at such elections, respectively, although no legal title in the land shall have been conveyed to such possessor. And to the end that no persons shall vote at such elections who are not qualified to do so, the Committee of the County or Corporation shall previously appoint three fit persons to superintend the election, who, being first sworn, shall determine all disputes about the right of a person to vote who shall offer any list; and if he shall be adjuged not to have such right, his list shall not be received.

13. And it is hereby declared and ordained, That a Committee elected as aforesaid, or a majority of them, shall have full power to elect one of their body as Chairman, to preside at all their meetings, and may appoint any person, willing to undertake the same, to officiate as Clerk to them, who shall have such annual allowance as the Committee shall think reasonable, to be levied by the Court of the County or Corporation, and may, at any time or times during their appointment, convene themselves, and hear, consider, and determine, on all such matters as may fall properly under their cognizance, according to the nature and intention of their institution; and shall keep a true and faithful journal of their proceedings, which shall be read by the Clerk, and signed by the Chairman, at every meeting of such Committee. And, moreover, in case of the death or resignation of the Chairman, or Clerk appointed as aforesaid, the said Committee, or a majority of them, shall have full authority to fill up any vacancy occasioned thereby, by election or appointment, in manner as aforesaid. Provided, nevertheless, That the Committees elected as aforesaid shall, in all their inquiries and decisions, confine themselves within the line of duty prescribed by the Continental Congress and the General Convention, and shall not assume to themselves any other power or authority whatever.

14. And for preventing the interruption to business that may frequently happen through the necessary or unavoidable absence of the Chairman or Clerk of the Committee, It is hereby declared and ordained, That when any meeting of a Committee shall be regularly appointed, and it may so happen, through sickness or other causes, that the Chairman or Clerk shall fail to attend such meeting, the Committee shall have the liberty and full power to choose or appoint, in manner as aforesaid, some other Chairman or Clerk to act pro tempore.

15. And to the end this Ordinance may be duly carried into execution, and the duties required of certain persons therein named faithfully discharged, It is hereby further declared and ordained, That if any Sheriff, Mayor, Chairman, or Clerk of a Committee, or any other person named herein, who is required to do any particular act, or perform any certain duty, shall perversely, obstinately, or wilfully refuse or neglect to comply with the directions of this Ordinance, such person so offending, and being adjudged guilty thereof by the Committee of the County or Corporation where such delinquency may happen, shall be deemed an enemy to American liberty and the welfare of this Country, and be subject to the censures of the Continental Association, in such cases provided.

16. And it is hereby further declared and ordained, That all and every other case or cases, matters or things, within the purview of this Ordinance, and not hereby particularly provided for, shall be ordered, governed, judged, and decided, according to the law for regulating the elections of Burgesses, and not otherwise.

V. An Ordinance for appointing Commissioners to settle the Accounts of the Militia lately drawn out into actual service, and for making provision to pay the same, as well as the expense of raising and providing for the Forces and Minute-Men directed to be embodied for the defence of this Colony.

Whereas his Excellency the Governour, at the opening of the late General Assembly, did, amongst other things, recommend that provision should be made for defraying the expenses of the late expedition against the Indians, and paying the Militia drawn out into actual service; and in pursuance of that recommendation, His Majesty’s Council, and the House of Burgesses, did pass a Bill, as well for making such provision, as for discharging many other publick claims in the best and only method the circumstances of the Country would admit of; but the Governour thought fit to refuse his assent to the said Bill, whereby many of the inhabitants, particularly in the frontiers of this Colony, are left in the greatest distress, from which there is no prospect of their being relieved but by the interposition of this Convention:

And whereas the House of Burgesses afterwards judged it necessary to appoint certain Commissioners for settling the Accounts of the said Militia, and did approve and confirm a report from their Committee of Publick Claims, by which the demands of many other publick creditors were liquidated and ascertained, but, by reason of the low state of the Publick Treasury, cannot be paid in any reasonable time without some further provision:

Be it ordained by the Delegates and Representatives of the several Counties and Corporations within the Colony and Dominion of Virginia, now met in General Convention, and it is hereby ordained by the authority of the same, That Archibald Cary, William Cabell, William Fleming, John Winn, and John Nicholas, Gentlemen, be, and they are hereby appointed Commissioners for the Counties of Fincastle, Botetourt, Culpepper, Pittsylvania, Halifax, and Bedford, and that part of Augusta which lies to the eastward of the Alleghany Mountains; and Richard Lee, Francis Peyton, Josias Clapham, Henry Lee, and Thomas Blackburn, Gentlemen, for the other Counties, and for that part of the County of Augusta which lies to the westward of the Alleghany Mountains, and for the Provinces of Maryland and Pennsylvania, to examine, state, and settle the accounts of such Pay, Provisions, Arms, and Ammunition, and other necessaries furnished the Militia of the Counties for which they are appointed Commissioners, and all demands against this Colony on account thereof; who shall be allowed for their trouble therein twenty-five Shillings per day each. And the said Commissioners, or any three or more of them, shall, and they are hereby empowered and required, to meet for the purposes aforesaid, at such times and places as they shall respectively think fit and convenient, of which publick notice shall be advertised at the Court-House of each respective County, at least one month before such meeting, and to adjourn from time to time until they shall have settled all accounts relating to the said Militia; and shall have power to call all persons concerned in settling the said accounts before them, and examine them upon oath, or solemn affirmation, as the case may require, which oath or affirmation the said Commissioners, or any one of them, are hereby required to administer, for their better information respecting any such accounts or demands. And that the said Commissioners, or any three or more of them, shall certify all accounts so by them examined, stated, and settled, to the Committee of Safety, appointed by this Convention; and the said Committee of Safety, or any six or more of them, are hereby desired to issue their warrants to the Treasurer for that purpose, appointed by or pursuant to an Ordinance of this Convention; and the said Treasurer shall on or before the first day of January next, pay the several accounts so certified, and also such publick money claims, and such other sums as were approved of and allowed by the resolutions of the House of Burgesses, at their last meeting, so far as the balance due on account of the Publick Treasury, in the hands of the Treasurer, appointed by or pursuant