Ordered, That the said Petition, together with the several papers relating thereto, be referred to the Committee on the state of the Colony.

Ordered, That Mr. George Mason be added to the Committee of Privileges and Elections, and to the Committee of Propositions and Grievances, and to the Committee appointed to prepare a Declaration of Rights, and such a form of Government as will be most likely to maintain peace and order in this Colony, and secure substantial and equal liberty to the people.

A Petition of Robert Adam was presented to the Convention, and read; setting forth that, notwithstanding the soil and climate of this country are peculiarly adapted to producing flax and hemp, there is a great scarcity of linen of all kinds, to the great distress of the people, which will be increased by the great demand and consumption of coarse linens and sail-cloth in the American armies and fleets, hitherto supplied in a precarious manner, and at an exorbitant price; that these evils are like to continue during our present contest and stagnation of trade, unless removed by the encouragement and patronage of the publick; that there are many families who, though capable of raising flax and hemp, are unacquainted with the different branches of dressing, spinning, and weaving, but would be induced to go largely into it, if, by the establishment of linen manufactories, they were certain of a market for their commodities, in their different states of perfection; that if the Church-Wardens were empowered to bind poor orphan children apprentices to such manufactories, it would not only be a means of spreading the knowledge of so useful a business, but employ numbers of poor people who now are, or may soon become, a charge to their respective Parishes; that he has formerly been accustomed to the linen manufactory, and is acquainted with the method of carrying it on in some parts of Great Britain, and will undertake to set up and carry on a linen manufactory with twenty looms, and a sufficient number of spinning-wheels, and other necessary implements and hands, to keep the said looms constantly at work, upon the country’s advancing him, on sufficient security for six years, without interest, a capital sum sufficient to carry on the said manufactory for one year, the money to be repaid in six equal annual payments, in coarse linen or sail-cloth by him manufactured, at such reasonable rates or prices as shall be stated by the Convention, or Commissioners appointed for that purpose, unless the said manufactory should happen to be destroyed by the enemy, in which case he should expect to be indemnified his actual loss; that he conceives the sum necessary to carry on the said manufactory for one year would amount to about £1,700, as may appear from the estimate thereof, to which he refers.

Ordered, That the said Petition be referred to the Committee appointed to prepare and bring in an Ordinance to encourage Woollen, Linen, and other Manufactories.

Ordered, That Mr. George Mason be added to the said Committee, and to the Committee appointed to prepare and bring in an Ordinance to encourage the making of Salt, Saltpetre, and Gunpowder.

Adjourned till Monday, ten o’clock.

Monday, May 20, 1776.

A Petition of William Finnie was presented to the Convention, and read; setting forth, that some time in June last he was appointed Keeper of the Magazine by the General Assembly of this Colony, in which office he acted until the 28th day of October, when the Committee of Safety were pleased to appoint him Deputy Quartermaster; that during his continuance in office he diligently attended at the Magazine, and delivered out several hundred muskets and other arms to the different Counties; that he was shortly after deputed by the Committee of Safety to collect all the publick arms throughout the Colony, and that in consequence thereof, and through his diligence, he collected upwards of three hundred complete stand belonging to the country, exclusive of those he delivered out; and that the sum of £25 was allowed by the Committee of Safety in part for his services in collecting the arms, but they referred him, for a further allowance for his trouble, both in the collection of the arms and as Keeepr of the Magazine, to this Convention, and praying such additional allowance as may be judged reasonable.

Ordered, That the said Petition be referred to the Committee of Publick Claims; that they inquire into the truth thereof, and report the same, together with their opinion thereupon, to the Convention.

The President laid before the Convention a Letter from Dr. Skinner to Brigadier-General Lewis, recommending a further provision to be made for the Surgeons and Surgeons’ Mates.

Ordered, That the said Letter be referred to the Committee on the state of the Colony.

Ordered, That John Goodrich, Jun., be discharged from custody, on entering into bond, with security, in the penalty of £1,000, to the Committee of Safety, immediately to repair to the Plantation of William Harwood, Gentleman, in the County of Warwick, and confine himself within three miles thereof until the 3d day of June next, and then appear before the Committee of Safety, in the City of Williamsburgh, in order to be examined touching his conduct, and abide by such determination as shall be made thereon by the Convention.

An Advertisement, signed by a certain George Morgan, for setting up a Land Office, to issue Warrants for Surveying

deed made by the Six Nations, with Sir William Johnson and the Commissioners from this Colony, at Fort Stanwix, in the year 1768, that the said lands were included in the cession or grant of all that tract which lies on the south side of the River Ohio, beginning at the mouth of Cherokee or Hogohege River, and extending up the said River to Kittaning. And as in the preamble of the said deed the said confederate Indians declare the Cherokee River to be their true boundary with the southward Indians, your Petitioners may, with great reason, doubt the validity of the purchase that those Proprietors have made of the Cherokees,—the only title they set up to the lands for which they demand such extravagant sums from your Petitioners, without any other assurance for holding them than their own deed and warranty—a poor security, as your Petitioners humbly apprehend, for the money that, among other new and unreasonable regulations, these Proprietors insist should be paid down on the delivery of the deed. And as we have the greatest reason to presume that his Majesty, to whom the lands were deeded by the Six Nations, for a valuable consideration, will vindicate his title, and think himself at liberty to grant them to such persons and on such terms as he pleases, your Petitioners would in consequence thereof be turned out of possession, or obliged to purchase their lands and improvements on such terms as the new grantee or proprietor might think fit to impose, so that we cannot help regarding the demand of Mr. Henderson and his Company as highly unjust and impolitick, in the infant state of the settlement, as well as greatly injurious to your Petitioners, who would cheerfully have paid the consideration at first stipulated by the Company, whenever their grant had been confirmed by the Crown, or otherwise authenticated by the Supreme Legislature.

And as we are anxious to concur in every respect with our brethren of the United Colonies for our just rights and privileges, as far as our infant settlement and remote situation will admit of, we humbly expect and implore to be taken under the protection of the honourable Convention of the Colony of Virginia, of which we cannot help thinking ourselves still a part, and request your kind interposition in our behalf, that we may not suffer under the rigorous demands and impositions of the gentlemen styling themselves Proprietors, who, the better to effect their oppressive designs, have given them the colour of a law, enacted by a score of men, artfully picked from the few adventurers who went to see the country last summer, overawed by the presence of Mr. Henderson. And that you would take such measures as your Honours in your wisdom shall judge most expedient for restoring peace and harmony to our divided settlement; or, if your Honours apprehend that our case comes more properly before the honourable the General Congress, that you would in your goodness recommend the same to your worthy Delegates to espouse it as the cause of the Colony. And your Petitioners, &c.