To the Honourable Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen, Delegates for the Commonwealth of Virginia. Remonstrance and Petition of the Merchants & Adventurers to Sea, in the town of Alexandria, Humbly Sheweth to your Honours,

The inconveniences and hardships that a great part of the traveling People in Virginia labour under, from the estabishment of the Naval Office at the mouth of the Potomac or near it. For a considerable distance up the River, it is many miles wide. In the Spring, Fall, & Winter the winds hang much from the Northward, are generally so violent, and the Virginia shore so open to them, that no vessell can with safety ride at anchor near it, but in general are obliged to make a harbour on the Maryland side. Besides every day's experience proves to us the extreme danger Vessells that come to anchor near the mouth of the River, either to clear out or to enter, whilst the enemy so commonly watch & take those under sail thereabouts. How much more dangerous must the situation of those be, that are obliged to come to anchorage on the Maryland Side, the Captain, and at least four of his crew, go from the vessell, several miles to enter or clear at the Virginia Office, in which time the Enemy appears, those left on board the vessell too weak to get her under way to make their escapes, and the Master perhaps looking on, unable to return to the assistance and care of his Vessell. This is a matter of Consequence to those to whom the present Office is usefull, we wish it may be kept open and to those whose interest it is to have another established, we pray your attention.

Alexandria, Dumfries & Colchester, own almost all the Vessells on this River, and their is scarcely a foreign Vessell but what comes addressed to some Merchant in one part of these towns. For these reasons, & just ones we think they are, you must permit us to request that you take this our remonstrance and petition under your serious consideration & that you pass an Act for a separate Office to be erected and established in the Town of Alexandria, and the Officer to be appointed, to be obliged to reside in the said Town and the Office not to be executed by a Deputy. In this case, those whom it may suit, can clear out at the present Office, and the Merchants and Trading People at Potomac River and Foreigners bound to the Towns aforesaid, can with safety and convenience enter and clear. We hope your Honours will think our request highly reasonable and grant us relief in the premises.

William McFarland

Richard Arell

Jacob Cox

Washer Blolmt

Benj. Chapin

John Muir

Thos. Fitzpatrick

George Ro.ss

Meyler E. Lungmann ( ?)

John Carlyle

Wm. Ramsay

John Mills

Michael Thorn

James Lannaman

Robert Harper

Wm. Pandy

Wm. Paton

James Stewart

Allison Ramsay

Samuel Arell



Alexander Lory

Edward Owens

Wm. Hunter

Wm. Herbert

R A. Carter

James Adam

Richard Conway

Robert Adam

Joseph Harper

Hooe & Harrison

Josiah Watson

Wm. Hartshorne

Mc.Crea & Mease

Fitzgerald & Peers

John Harper

Dow & McIor

Reverse Alexandria Petition

Oct. 25, 1779

Refd. to propositions Reasonable

The deposition of Capt. John Sandford taken before me, one of the Magistrates for the County aforesaid & in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

The deponent being sworn deposeth and saith that he hath saild from the town of Alexandria to Sea these eight years past, in the course of which time the Vessells to which he belonged & commanded have frequently been detained by calling at the Naval Office so as to loose a fair wind that would have carried them to Sea immediately, & that therefore they have been obliged to wait till a shift of wind which has taken up many days that the case has been the same often times on their return from Sea with a fair wind that would have brought them quite to Alexandria, they have, by being obliged to stop to enter, been detained so as to loose their wind and taken up several days afterwards in getting to the aforesaid Town against head windsÑThat in the Winter, Fall and spring the winds frequently blow so violently upon the Virginia shore as to oblige vessells to anchor on the Maryland Side, that then they have about 12 or l5 Miles to go in their boats to the Virginia Side, & that during the continuance of the winds no rowboat can return or board the vessells on the Maryland Shore. That he on his return from Cape Francois last Decembcr l2 months Came too in the schooner Sidney opposite the Virginia Office to enter, that the wind came on so violently as to part both his cables, that he was obliged, and it was with difficulty he got the vessell under way, that he stood back and forward in the River during a whole night, and next morning run his Vessell ashore in Smith Creek on the Maryland shore and there lay till he could draw anchors Ñthat he had almost his whole cargo to unlode on the beach before he could get his Vessell off again, that one of his anchors he found again aand that the other was totally lost. That the office lies extremely open to the enemy and that he has known them to be as high up the river many times and has frequently heard of their taking vesells thereabouts and further sayeth not.

sworn before Robert Adam [-459]

Fairfax Co. October 19, 1779

The deposition of Capt. L Lawrence Sandford taken before me, one of the magistrates for the county in the Commonwealth of Virginia.-
The deponent being sworn, deposeth and saith that he hath sailed from the town of Alexandria to sea these fifteen years past, in the course of which time the vessells to which he belonged and commanded have frequently been detained many days by calling at the South Potomack Naval Office to clear and enter; particularly in the winter senson, he has been obliged to stop at said Office with a fine Southerly wind, that would have carried him to his destined port of Alexandria, that while he was entering, the wind has chopped about to the Northward, turned intensely cold, blocked the river up with ice, endangered Vessell and Cargo & prevented his getting to Alexandria for many weeks.ÑThat the harbor at said Office lies so exceedingly open to northerly and Easterly winds, which makes the Harbour in the Winter Season very dangerous for vessells to ride in that he has often went ashore in his Boat and before he could get his business done, the wind has sprung up so violently as to render it impossible for him to return to his Vessell for Twenty Four hoursÑthe vessell at the same time being in great danger of being driven ashore.

Sworn before Robert Adam

EndorsementÑ
Capt. L Sandford's Deposition 9A-459)
Fairfax County, Oct. 19, l779

The deposition of Capt. Robt. Conway taken before me, one of the Magistrates of the County in the Commonwealth of VirginiaÑ

The deponent being sworn, deposeth and saith that he has saild from the Town of Alexandria for several years past, in the course of which time he has been detained at the South Potomack Naval OfficeÑthat in his opinion the Harbour at said office is extremely dangerous, at many times for Vessells to lye at, it being so much expossed and open to Northerly and Easterly winds as often to endanger Vessells driving ashoreÑin short the inconvenience & danger are so obvious that thev are not worth enumerating but upon the whole he thinks it is a very improper place for Vessells to call at either Inward or Outward bound.

Sworn to before Robt. Adam

Captain Robt. Connay's Dep.

[17 November 1779]

It appears to your committee, that on the seventh or eighth day of October last, Henry Peyton, high sheriff of the county of Prince William, advanced and lent a large sum of money, which had been collected for public taxes, to Cuthbert Bullitt, attorney for the commonwealth, and one of the commissioners of the tax for the said county of Prince William, to send by Col. Burr Harrison to the treasury, to purchase unappropriated lands from the public, which was accordingly applied in payment for a land office treasury warrant issued to the said Cuthbert Bullitt on the 15th day of the same month.

That the said sheriff, the day before he advanced the money to Mr. Bullitt, was very active in the town of Dumfries in collecting the taxes; that among others, he applied to Mr. Thomas Chapman for the payment of about seven hundred pounds, due for the taxes of the sequestered estate of Robert Bristow, esq; a British subject, and upon Mr. Chapman's informing him that the said taxes could not then be paid, without selling the said estate's tabacco immediately, which might be a loss to the public, as the proceeds thereof were to go into the Treasury, as well as the taxes, the sheriff declared he must have his taxes immediately, for he wanted to send as large a sum of money as he could by Col. Burr Harrison to the treasury, in part payment of the taxes, to prevent any imputation on his own conduct, of negligence, or want of punctuality; and upon Mr. Chapman's addressing himself to the commissioners of the tax for their advice, Mr. Bullitt, and another of the said commissioners, replied, by all means the tobacco must be sold, and the sheriff paid.

That Alexander Keith, an under sheriff in the said county, intended to send down a sum of money, which he had collected, by Mr. Hugh Brent, to be paid into the treasury for uxes; but instead of doing so, he paid it to the high sheriff; and that no money hath yet been paid into the treasury for the present year's taxes of the said county of Prince William; the whole of the money sent down to Col. Burr Harrison having been invested in a land office warrant for Mr. Bullitt, except four hundred pounds, which was invested in a land office warrant for the said high sheriff. It farther appears to your committee, that the said Cuthbert Bullitt also applied to John Barker, an under sheriff in the county of Fauquier, to borrow of him a considerable sum of money collected for taxes, but the said John Barker, judging he had no right to make any such application of the public money in his hands, refused to lend it, and hath since paid into the treasury the sum of 58,461.8s in part of the taxes for the said county of Fauquier.

Resolved therefore, as the opinion of the committee, that the application of public money to private purposes is a high breach of trust in a sheriff or another public officer, and ought to be effectually restrained.

Resolved, that the public auditors ought to be empowered to move for, and obtain judgements against public defaulters, on some certain day, as well in december as in March session of the General Court.

Resolved, that all sheriffs and other public officers, guilty of misapplying public money to private purposes, or other peculation, should be subjected to inditement for a misdemeanor in the general of any county court, and punishable, upon conviction, by fine or imprisonment, at the discretion of a jury.

1779 Printed from JHD, 1827 ed., 17 Nov. 1779 entry.

On 19 Oct. the House of Delegates heard that there was "cause to believe that the sheriffs of some of the counties of this Commonwealth," had committed a "great breach of trust, in misapplying the money received for taxes of their county, by lending or advancing it to private individuals to lay out in the land office, thereby enabling them to purchase lands from the public with its own money, defeating the purposes of taxation, and endangering the public credit." A committce of seven, chaired by GM, was appointed to investigate the charges. He brought in the report and resolutions "which he read in his place," and the House then ordered GM and thc committee to follow through with appropriate Iegislation. Accordingly, GM presented a bill "to prevent the misapplication of taxes" on 27 Nov., and the measure soon became law

(Hening, X, 199-201).