The Loudoun Resolves
Annotated Transcription #1
The Loudoun Resolves
June 14, 1774
At a Meeting of the Freeholders and other inhabitants of the County of Loudoun, in the Colony of Virginia, held at the Court-house in Leesburg, the 14th June, 1774 — F. Peyton, Esq., in the Chair — to consider the most effectual method to preserve the rights and liberties of N. America, and relieve our brethren of Boston, suffering under the most oppressive and tyrannical Act of the British Parliament, made in the 14th year of his present Majesty's reign, whereby their Harber is blocked up, their Commerce totally obstructed, their property rendered useless—
Resolved, That we will always cheerfully submit to such prerogatives as his Majesty has a right, by law, to exercise, as Sovereign of the British Dominions, and to no others.
Resolved, That it is beneath the dignity of freemen to submit to any tax not imposed on them in the usual manner, by representatives of their own choosing.
LORD DUNMORE dissolved the House of Burgesses on May 26, 1774, after it proclaimed a day of prayer and fasting in support of Boston. The Burgesses then met at Williamsburg’s Raleigh Tavern to organize a non-importation Association (boycott), propose a Continental Congress, and call the first Virginia Convention. The Convention was set for August 1 to allow delegates “an Opportunity of collecting the sense of their respective Counties.” Thomas Jefferson recalled, “We returned home, and in our several counties invited the clergy to meet assemblies of the people…, to perform the ceremonies of the day, and to address to them discourses suited to the occasion.” County committees formed to enforce the Association and instruct delegates. At least 45 counties adopted resolutions or “resolves.” Others issued resolves after the Continental Association was adopted in Philadelphia.
Resolved, That the Act of the British Parliament, above mentioned, is utterly repugnant to the fundamental laws of justice, in punishing persons without even the form of a trial; but a despotic exertion of unconstitutional power designedly calculated to enslave a free and loyal people.
Resolved, That the enforcing the execution of the said Act of Parliament by a military power must have a necessary tendency to raise a civil war, and with our lives and fortunes, assist and support our suffering brethren, of Boston, and every part of North America that may fall under the immediate hand of oppression, until a redress of all our grievances shall be procured, and our common liberties established on a permanent foundation.
Resolved, That the East India Company, by exporting their tea from England to America, whilst subject to a tax imposed thereon by the British Parliament, have evidently designed to fix on the Americans those chains forged for them by a venal ministry, and have thereby rendered themselves odious and detestable throughout all America. It is, therefore, the unanimous opinion of this meeting not to purchase any tea—or other East India commodity whatever, imported after the first of this Month.
Resolved, That we will have no commercial intercourse with Great Britain until the above mentioned Act of Parliament shall be totally repealed, and the right of regulating the internal policy of N. America by a British Parliament shall be absolutely and positively given up.
Resolved, That Thompson Mason and Francis Peyton, Esqs., be appointed to represent the County at the general meeting to be held at Williamsburg on the 1st day of August next, to take the sense of this Colony at large on the subject of the preceding resolves, and that they, together with Leven Powell, William Ellzey, John Thornton, George Johnston, and Samuel Levi, or any three of them, be a committee to correspond with the several committees appointed for this purpose.
Signed by,
John Morton
Thomas Ray
Thomas Drake
William Booram
Benj. Isaac Humphrey
Samuel Mills
Joshua Singleton
Jonathan Drake
Matthew Rust
Barney Sims
John Sims
Samuel Butler
Thomas Chinn
Appollos Cooper
Lina Hancock
John McVicker
Simon Triplett
Thomas Awsley
Isaac Sanders
Thos. Williams
John Williams
Henry Awsley
Wm. Finnekin
Richard Hanson
John Dunker
Jasper Grant
Thomas Williams
James Noland
Samuel Peugh
William Nornail
Thomas Luttrell
James Brair
Poins Awsley
John Kendrick
Edward O’Keal
Francis Triplett
Joseph Combs
John Peyton Harrison
Robert Combs
Stephen Combs
Samuel Henderson
Benjamin Overfield
Adam Sangster
Bazzell Roads
John Wildey
James Graydey
Joseph Bayley
John Reardon
Edward Miller
Richard Hirst
James Davis
Sources and Additional Reading:
Bish, James, “The Summer of Discontent: How Lord Dunmore Unified Virginians for War in 1774,” Revolutionary Virginia, August 4, 2025, virginia1776.com/summer-of-discontent.
Evans, James D., ed., “Resolutions of Loudoun County,” William & Mary College Quarterly, series 1, 12:4 (1904), 231-236.
Glanville, Jim, The Fincastle Resolutions, The Smithfield Review 14 (2010).
Powell, Robert C., ed., A Biographical Sketch of Col. Leven C. Powell Including His Correspondence During the Revolutionary War (G.H. Ramey & Son, 1877).
Spannaus, Nancy, “Commemorating the Loudoun Resolves,” LoudounNow, June 13, 2024, https://www.loudounnow.com/news/loudoun/commemorating-the-loudoun-resolves/article_32300be2-2981-11ef-9efd-3fe8e315d7a3.html
