While it may seem strange to open a Revolutionary War website with reference to the Civil War, the researcher must realize that the later came perilously close to completely obliterating all traces of the former. And herein lies the tale...

The opening year of the Civil War was not much cause for concern, even though many of the battles were being fought dangerously close to Loudoun's borders. But the growing hostility between North and South began taking a dangerous turn for the worse in early 1862. The court officials, recognizing the danger, gave their final order at the close of business on February 12th, 1862 that the Clerk of Court, George Fox, was to immediately remove all the court books to someplace safe. The next day he packed up all the books and documents, loaded them in a wagon ... and disappeared.

And it wasn't a moment too soon. Loudoun County now found herself in the thick of the War, changing hands six times during the next three years as the Federal and Confederate Armies battled across Virginia, burning all of western Loudoun in the process. For the duration of the War until the close of hostilities in 1865, the court remained out of session and no documents were recorded. The court books continued to remain hidden, their whereabouts unknown.

In 1865 the Confederate States surrendered. With the country once again coming back together, Loudoun County court was recalled on July 11th, 1865. After swearing in the new Justices, and appointing the new Sherrifs, the final task for the day was to the Clerk of Court to return the county's records as soon as possible. George Fox never divulged where the books had been hidden, and for all intents and purposes, had taken the secret with him to the grave. It wasn't until recently that a letter was unearthed written by his daughter that mentioned her father had once remarked that he had taken the court documents and books south to Campbell County*, thinking they would be safe there. Her letter went on to say that he had hidden the books in a cave and had remained to guard them throughout the War (although it was obvious he came back to Loudoun County at least once or twice since there were several children born in the family during that time.)

Thanks to the court's foresight, and George Fox's diligence, the legacy of Loudoun County's Colonial and Revolutionary War records remained intact to be passed down to future generations.

*NOTE: Campbell County was not that fortunate. Their courthouse was burned to the ground.

The story of the Revolution and the causes which led to that great event span decades of points and counter-points that have filled numerous history books from then until now. If, in the words of James W. Head ...

"...it can be shown that Loudoun County was most forward in resisting the arbitrary aggressions of the British government and that the valor and patriotism she evidenced during the Revolution was equal to that of her sister counties, who had suffered with her under the yoke of British oppression, then the primary object of this sketch will be accomplished. Her blood and treasure were freely dedicated to the cause of liberty and, having once entered the Revolution, she determined to persevere in the struggle until every resource was exhausted. Armed with flint-lock muskets of small bore and with long-barreled rifles which they loaded from the muzzle by the use of the ramrod; equipped with powder horn, charges made of cane for loading, bullet molds and wadding, bravely arrayed in homespun of blue, and belted with cutlass and broadsword by the side, cockade on the hat and courage in the heart, her revolutionary soldiers marched to the music of fife and drum into battle for freedom against the power and might of the mother country."

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Soldiers

Loudoun County at the time of the Revolution was one of the most densely populated counties in the State. Although the war never touched Loudoun soil, her volunteer rate, according to the returns of 1780 and 1781, numbered 1,746 - far in excess of those numbers reported by any other Virginia county. The Ketoctin Baptist Church in northern Loudoun County, organized in 1770, became a meeting place for the colonists who were eager to hear the Rev. John Marks, an outspoken opponent of the abuses of the English Parliament on the Americans. His fiery speaches helped send an extraordinary number of patriots into militia and Continental Army service, as well as to Captain Daniel Morgan's celebrated Company of Virginia Riflemen who were described by a line officer of the Continental Army as:

"... remarkably stout and hardy men; many of them exceeding six feet in height. They are dressed in white frocks, or rifle shirts, and round hats. These men are remarkable for the accuracy of their aim; striking a mark with great certainty at two hundred yards distance. At a review, a company of them, while on a quick advance, fired their balls into objects of seven inches diameter at the distance of two hundred and fifty yards. They are now stationed on our lines, and their shot have frequently proved fatal to British officers and soldiers, who expose themselves to view even at more than double the distance of common musket shot."

The German Palatines who had immigrated to Loudoun County had settled a town called Lovettsville at the northern most point of the county near the Potomic River directly across from Brunswick, MD. The memories of their repression in their former homeland caused them to become intensely loyal to the cause of freedom, and it is said that almost every man of military age volunteered unhesitantily. Because a vast number did not speak English, most signed on to serve in Armand's Legion, recruited by authority of Congress during the summer of 1777 when it commissioned the French nobleman, Charles Trefin Armand, Marquis de la Rouaire, as a Colonel in the American Army. Fluent in French, German, and English, he was the ideal canidate to command the German born ranks, and reportedly was highly respected and loved by the men under his command. This legion, with it's ranks of Loudoun County soldiers, saw action in a number of battles, including the Seige at York.

Bounties on land were claimed by a number of patriots in June 1780, and when the war ended on the 25th of November, 1783, the day the British army evacuated New York, most of the Continental troops from Loudoun began returning to their homes, many of them soon to migrate westward with their land bounties in hand. Pensions for some of those soldiers were claimed in the 1830s, giving us a historical record of their service, travel and families.

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Quaker Non-Participation

From author James W. Head: "During the period preceding the Revolution, important offices had been bestowed on the Friends or Quakers of Loudoun and they exercised a decided influence in the government of the County. They, however, withdrew participation in public affairs on the approach of war; and, to the determination of the American patriots to throw off the yoke of British tyranny, they opposed their principles of non-resistance, not only refusing to perform military duty, but also to pay the taxes levied on them, as on all other citizens, for the prosecution of the War of Independence." While this non-conformity did not appear to have been a trial to the Loudoun County Quakers, many other Quaker communities were denigrated for their pacifiest beliefs. Author James Head quoted on the Quaker sufferings from Kercheval's History of the Shenandoah Valley:

"At the beginning of the war, attempts were made to compel them to bear arms and serve in the militia; but it was soon found unavailing. They would not perform any military duty required of them, not even the scourge would compel them to submit to discipline. The practice of coercion was therefore abandoned, and the legislature enacted a law to levy a tar upon their property, to hire substitutes to perform militia duty in their stead. This, with other taxes, bore peculiarly heavy upon them. Their personal property was sold under the hammer to raise the public demands; and before the war was over, many of them were reduced to great distress in their pecuniary circumstances.

'This selling of Quakers' property afforded great opportunity for designing individuals to make profitable speculations. They continued to refuse to pay taxes for several years after the war, holding it unlawful to contribute their money towards discharging the war debt. This being at length adjusted, no part of our citizens pay their public demands with more punctuality (except their muster fines, which they still refuse to pay).' .."

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Court Orders and Reimbursements

During the course of the war the county clerk was kept endlessly busy recording the continuous flow of resolutions, orders, payments, punishments, commisions, and upkeep for the Militia in Loudoun County. Militia officers were recorded in the court books, as well as persons assigned to assist the needy families of Loudoun soldiers in the Continental Army. "Tithes" were also recorded, with selected gentlemen ordered to take lists of taxable property in the county in order to assess the amount that could be collected for the war effort. A number of prisoners-of-war were sent to Loudoun County as early as February 1777, and it was necessary to appoint someone to "provide rations" for these men. The prisoners were then "hired out" to help pay for their keep. Not surprisingly they often found their new occupation a great deal more to their liking then the hardships encountered in the British Army, resulting in several choosing to remain in Loudoun County at the end of the War.

The original Loudoun County Resolves disappeared sometime in the past 230 years. In 1877, the following article appeared in a Leesburg newspaper under the caption "Loudoun County a Hundred Years Ago":

"Major B. P. Nolan, grandson of Burr Powell, has just put us in possession of a verified copy of the proceedings of a public meeting held at Leesburg, Loudoun County, on the 14th of June, 1774, nearly one hundred and five years ago. It is interesting, not merely for its antiquity but as showing the spirit of independence that animated the breasts of our liberty-loving countrymen two years before the Declaration of American Independence in 1776. The original* document was found among the papers of Col. Leven Powell, at one time member of Congress from this district, who died in 1810. His son, Burr Powell, forwarded a copy to R. H. Lee, Esq., who in 1826 was about to publish a second edition of his 'Memoirs of the Life of R. H. Lee,' of Revolutionary fame." (*Note: All of the Lee papers, with the exception of a few, were destroyed in the great fire at the University of Virginia in 1895 where they had been archived. If the original copy of the Loudoun Resolves was among those papers, it probably perished with them.)

The proceedings of the resolutions are as follows:

"Public Meeting in Loudoun in 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 of June, 1774, F. Peyton, Esq., in the Chair, to consider the most effectual method to preserve the rights and liberties of North 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 Harbor 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.

"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 that we will, 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 North America by a British Parliament shall be absolutely and positively given up.

"Resolved, That Thompson Mason, Esq. and Francis Peyton, Esq., be appointed to represent the County at a 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, of any three of them, be a committee to correspond with the several committees appointed for this purpose.

"Signed by John Morton, James Nolan, Thomas Ray, Samuel Peugh, Thomas Drake, William Nomail, William Booram, Thomas Luttrell, Benj. Isaac Humphrey, James Brair, Samuel Mills, Poins Awsley, Joshua Singleton, John Kendrick, Jonathan Drake, Edward O'Neal, Matthew Rust, Francis Triplett, Barney Sims, Joseph Combs, John Sims, John Peyton Harrison, Samuel Butler, Robert Combs, Thomas Chinn, Stephen Combs, Appollos Cooper, Samuel Henderson, L. Hancock, Benjamin Overfield, John McVicker, Adam Sangater, Simon Triplett, Bazzell Roads, John Wildey, James Graydey, Joseph Bayley Thomas Awsley, Isaac Sanders, John Reardon, Thos. Williams, Henry Awsley, John Williams, Edward Miller, William Finnekin, Richard Hirat, Richard Hanson, James Davis, John Dunker, Jasper Grant, Thomas Williams

The County Committee of Loudoun for 1774 - 1775 was composed of the following members:

Francis Feyton, Leven Powell, Josias Clapham, William Smith, Thomas Lewis, Robert Jamison, Anthony Russell, Hardage Lane, John Thomas, John Lewis, George Johnston, James Lane, Thomas Shore, George Johnston, Jacob Reed (clerk).

The appended findings of this as well as a later committee exemplify the work of these Revolutionary bodies.

"At a meeting of the Committee of Loudoun County, held at Leesburg on Friday, May 26, 1775. --

"The Committee, taking into consideration the conduct of the Governour relative to the powder which was, by his express orders, taken secretly out of the publick Magazine belonging to this Colony, in the night of the twentieth ult., and carried on board the Magdaline schooner.

"Resolved, nemine contra dicente, That his Lordship, by this and other parts of his conduct which have lately transpired, has not only forfeit the confidence of the good people of this Colony, but that he may be justly esteemed an enemy to America; and that as well his excuse published in his Proclamation of the fourth instant, as his verbal answer to the address presented him on that occasion by the city of Williamsburgh, are unsatisfactory and evasive, and reflect, in our opinion, great dishonour on the General Assembly and inhabitants of this Colony, as from the latter a suspicion may be easily deduced, that the Representatives of the people are not competent judges of the place wherein arms and ammunition, intended for the defense of the Colony, may be safely lodged, and that the inhabitants (unlike other subjects) can not, in prudence, be trusted with the means necessary for their protection from insurrection, or even evasion; so in the former a very heavy charge exhibited against the best men among us, of seducing their fellow-subjects from their duty and allegiance; a charge, we are confident, not founded in reality, and which, we believe, is construed out of the discharge of that duty which every good man is under, to point out to his weaker countrymen, in the day of publick trial, the part they should act, and explain, on constitutional principles, the nature of their allegiance the ground of which we fervently pray may never be removed, whose force we desire may never with reason be relaxed, but yet maybe subservient to considerations of superior regard.

"The Committee being informed by some of the officers who commanded the Troops of this County that marched on the above occasion, that the reason of their matching no farther than Fredericksburgh was, their having received repeated requests from the Honourable Peyton Randolph, Esq., to return home, assuring them that the peaceable citizens of Williamsburgh were under no apprehensions of danger, either in their persons or properties; that the publick treasury and records were perfectly safe, and that there was no necessity for their proceeding any further; three of the other Delegates appointed to the Continental Congress, the only civil power we know of in this great struggle for liberty, being of the same opinion.

"Resolved, nemine contra dicente. That under such circumstances we approve the conduct of the said Officers and Troops.

"Resolved, nemine contra dicente, That we cordially approve the conduct of our countrymen, Captain Patrick Henry, and the other volunteers of Hanover County, who marched under him, in making reprisals on the King's property for the trespass committed as aforesaid, and that we are determined to hazard all the blessings of this life rather than suffer the smallest injury offered to their persons or estates, on this account, to pass unrewarded with its equal punishment.

"Resolved, nemine contra diante, That it be recommended to the Representatives of this County, as the opinion of this Committee, that they by no means agree to the reprisals, taken as aforesaid, being returned.

"Ordered, That the clerk transmit immediately a copy of the preceding resolves to the Printers of the Virginia and Pennsylvania gazettes, to be published.

"By order of the Committee.
"GEORGE JOHNSTON, Clerk."

Not a few citizens dissented, however; and on the session held 14 May 1776 the court recorded:

"Richard Morlan being summoned to appear before this Committee, for speaking words inimical to the liberties of America, and tending to discourage a Minute-man from returning to his duty; and also publickly declaring he would not muster, and if fined would oppose the collection of the fine with his gun: The charge being proved against him, and he heard in his defense, the Committee think proper to hold the said Morlan up to the publick as an enemy to their rights and liberties; and have ordered that this resolution be published in the Virginia Gazette.

"CHRISTOPHER GREENUP, Clerk."

However, the county was turned toward the course of Independence, as evidenced by the proceedings of the court when it convened again at the next quarter:

Aug. 12th. 1776 -- IN PRIMO ANNO AMERICA LIBERATE

At a meeting of the Justices of Loudoun County at the Courthouse on Monday the 12th day of August 1776.

Present: Josias Clapham, George West, Francis Peyton, Thomas Lewis and Samuel Love, Gent.

The Path agreed upon by the Hon. Convention was presented and read. Whereupon George West and Francis Peyton administered the Oath to Josias Clapham Gt. and he administered the said Oath to the said George West, Francis Peyton, George Lewis and Samuel Love, Gent.

The Declaration of Independence by the Hon. Congress was read at the Court-house door, by the sheriff pursuant to the order of the Governor and Council of Virginia.

Charles Binns was sworn Clerk of this Court, pursuant to an ordinance of Convention. Philip Noland Esq. was sworn Sheriff of this County pursuant to an an Ordinance of Convention, and on his motion Ralph Murray and Christopher Parfect were sworn his Deputies.

After transacting the ordinary business before the Court, the Court adjourned till Court In course.

(Signed) Josias Clapham, Clerk