Dorothy Payne, Quakeress Part 3

Thomas Walker Page, "Atlantic Monthly," Dec, 1901.

Slaves were not tried by jury, but before five justices, and cannot be condemned unless all the justices agree.

On examination, instead of an oath being administered, the black is charged in the following words:

"You are brought hither as witnesses, and by the direction of the law I am to tell you, before you give your evidence, that you must tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth; and if it be found hereafter that you tell a lie, and give false testimony in this matter, you must for so doing have both your ears nailed to the pillory and cut off, and receive thirty-nine lashes on your bare back, well laid on at the common whipping-post."

This punishment is administered by nailing one ear to the pillory, where the culprit stands for one hour, when that ear is cut off, and the other nailed, which is in like manner cut off at the expiration of another hour, and after this he receives thirty-nine lashes.--"Historical Register," 1814, page 65.]

[Footnote 4: From John Coles and Mary Winston are descended the Coles family of Philadelphia. His grandson Edward, secretary to President Madison, married Sally Logan Roberts, of Philadelphia, and settled there. Major John Coles was engaged in merchandizing in Richmond; his residence, a frame house recently demolished (1871), was situated on Twenty-second Street, between Broad and Marshall. When torn down, many of the timbers, though more than a century old, were found to be in a perfect state of preservation.

When the floor of old St. John's Church was removed, in 1867, to replace the joists, a metallic plate was found marking the place of burial and bearing the name of Major John Coles, but it was so corroded, it soon fell to pieces.--Vestry Book of Henrico Parish.

John Coles, who lived on Church Hill, owned much land in what is to-day the city of Richmond. He once gave a whole square of the infant city for a fine horse. He also owned large estates in several of the counties.--"Virginia Magazine."]

[Footnote 5: See pedigree on following page.]

[Footnote A: Sally Coles Stevenson's letters from England have been recently published in the "Century Magazine." She was the sister of Edward Coles, Secretary of President Madison and second Governor of Illinois.]

[Footnote 6: "Virginia Magazine," Vol. VIII, p. 299.]

[Footnote 7: Studley, the home of Mrs. Syme, where Patrick Henry was born, is no longer standing. Its site is marked by a hedge of box and an avenue of aged trees. It was three miles from Hanover and sixteen from Richmond. The family removed to "Retreat" (formerly Mt. Briliant), on South Anna River, near Rocky Mills, twenty-two miles from Richmond. Here most of Patrick Henry's childhood was pa.s.sed. His mother, riding in a double gig, took him to church with her, and coming home had him repeat the text and recapitulate the sermon. These early exercises served him well in after life. A few miles from "Studley," are the "Slashes of Hanover," the birthplace of Henry Clay.]

[Footnote 8: Governor Dinwiddie introduced Colonel John Henry to his friend John Syme. He was soon at home in his family, and married his widow.]

[Footnote 9: He was lieutenant in the Mexican War, rode horseback to California with the "forty-niners," and was brigadier-general in the Confederate army. He was serving his second term in the United States Senate, and had been re-elected for another term of six years beginning in 1909. At the time of his last election the Alabama Legislature unanimously repealed a law as old as the State to save him the exposure of a long journey in the dead of winter.]

[Footnote 10: Probably both these signatures were written by Mary Payne.]

[Footnote 11: Robert Pleasants was the son of John Pleasants, of Henrico, the clerk of the Upper Quarterly Meeting, who had died in 1771 and freed all his slaves by will, providing for the maintenance of those over forty-five years of age. The laws of Virginia, however, did not permit his heirs to carry out his wishes, and the slaves remained in their possession until 1798, when they finally succeeded in having the freedom of not only the several hundred originally freed, but of their issue, confirmed by a decree of the High Court of Chancery of Virginia.--From Friends' records, Monument Street, Baltimore.

"Robert Pleasants possessed a vigorous intellect, and was a man of indomitable energy." He was engaged in mercantile pursuits and planting, and was remarkably successful. He owned and resided on Curles Plantation.--From Vestry Book of St. John's Church, Richmond.

His book of correspondence with Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Benezet, Pemberton, Henry and many noted men is preserved in Friends' safe, Monument St., Baltimore.

In 1790 Abolition Society founded in Virginia, Robert Pleasants, President. At death freed eighty slaves, in addition to several hundred belonging to father freed during his life time.]

[Footnote 12: On the James River, near Richmond.]

[Footnote 13: Original at Monument Street, Baltimore.]

[Footnote 14: Hanover Court House, 20 miles from Richmond, 102 miles from Washington, is situated several miles from the river.

It has two very large and commodious jails (!!), one tavern, one store, one boot and shoe shop, one blacksmith-shop. It has a population of about 50. One attorney lives there.--"Martin's Gazetteer", 1835.

It has a population of 58 to-day.

Hanover Court House where Patrick Henry figured in early life. Here many of his speeches were delivered. Here he won his first case, "The Parson's Cause."]

[Footnote 15: The same Benjamin Bates who in 1816 as clerk of the Virginia Yearly Meeting drew up and presented to the Burgesses of Virginia a protest against the existing militia laws of the State and accompanied it by an able letter, of which the editor of "Niles'

Register," November 30th, says that it perhaps "forms a body of the ablest arguments that have ever appeared in defense of certain principles held by this people."--"Friends' Miscellany," Vol. VII, p.

221; "Niles' Register," VII, p. 90, supplement. William Wirt also p.r.o.nounced its arguments "unanswerable."]

[Footnote 16: "(1634)" There are no schools or printing to make poor people "dissatisfied." But later there was one free school endowed by a large-hearted man. Virginia up to this time had few schools. In some neighborhoods the planters clubbed together and log school houses were built, but there were more often none at all, the boys being sent North or abroad for their education, while that of the girls was often entirely lacking. An old gazetteer of 1835 makes report for Henrico County, including Richmond, which had been incorporated as a city in 1782, "few or no schools worthy of notice," "that a few good schools have existed," but not a single academical inst.i.tution. "That in 1803 a charter had been obtained for one to be built by lottery and private subscription, but only the bas.e.m.e.nt was built and the project abandoned."]

[Footnote 17: John and Charles Lynch, sons of Charles and Sarah Clark Lynch, were the founders of Lynchburg, Va. The Clark family were Friends, and, after the father's death, the children, with her became members of Cedar Creek Monthly Meeting. Their father left them the owners of large tracts of land. John, the elder brother, kept the home place, where Lynchburg now stands. In 11th January, 1755, Charles Lynch and Anne Terrill are reported "clear" of other engagements by the meeting at Cedar Creek, and the following day are married and start for what was then a far western home--the undeveloped lands in Bedford County, where the buffalo still roamed and Indians were plentiful.

As soon as his new home at Green Level was finished, he helped to build and organize a Quaker meeting. This was the first public place of worship in that part of Virginia; and when the meeting was broken up by the Indians (it was during the French and Indian War), he removed the congregation to his own house, where his armed negroes could ward off their attacks.

It has been said that it is difficult to overestimate the influence of these Quaker pioneers (of whom Charles Lynch was chief) in establishing better relations with the Indians and fostering a spirit of peace and justice amongst the neighbors. Lynch soon became a leading man, and already in 1763 had great wealth in the form of tobacco, cattle and slaves.

He was asked in 1764 to become a member of the a.s.sembly, but refused as inconsistent with his Quaker principles. But in the excitement of Stamp Act days, when it was difficult to get a proper representative from the West, he saw differently, and in 1764, at the age of 35, was elected to the House of Burgesses, and held his seat until the colony became an independent State.

It was then necessary that he take the oath and--

December, 1767, "Charles Lynch is disowned" for taking "Solemn Oaths"

from the little meeting he had fostered and cared for and where his words of "admonition" had been heard. In heart he was not greatly changed, and he raised his children Friends.

When the Revolutionary struggle began he helped raise and enlist troops for home protection. His Quaker principles prevented him from going into the army for a time, but finally "the Court of Bedford" in 1778 "doth recommend to his Excellency the Gov., Chas. Lynch, as a suitable person to exercise the office of Col. of Militia," he saw the need and accepted. At this time in his history occurred the event that has made his name famous--a conspiracy in his home neighborhood that he promptly put down with the help of his troops, and caused to be sentenced and imprisoned its leaders, thereby exceeding his legal powers.

In Richmond, Jefferson, then governor, had fled from the capital, where all was in confusion, and there was much excuse for his action.

With "his Rough Riders of the West" and his son, a lad of 16, he marched against Benedict Arnold and then to North Carolina in time to be present at the battle of Guilford Court House, when he won the commendation of that other Quaker General Nathaniel Greene, who kept him with him until after the surrender of Cornwallis. His services are described by Robert E. Lee in his history of his father's regiment.

At the end of the war he again took his seat in the a.s.sembly, before which he brought up the unlawful action he had taken during the war, and--

The following act was pa.s.sed by the Virginia Legislature after the Revolution:

"Whereas, divers evil-disposed persons in the year 1780 formed a conspiracy and did actually attempt to levy war against the commonwealth, and it is represented to the present General a.s.sembly that Charles Lynch and other faithful citizens, aided by detachments of volunteers from different parts of the State, did in timely and effectual measures suppress such conspiracy, and whereas the measures taken for that purpose may not be strictly warranted by law, although justifiable from the imminence of the danger, Be it therefore enacted that the said Charles Lynch and all other persons whatsoever concerned in suppressing the said conspiracy or in advising, issuing or exacting any orders or measures taken for that purpose, stand indemnified and exonerated of and from all pains, penalties, prosecutions, actions, suits and damages on account thereof.

"And that if any indictment, prosecution, action or suit shall be laid or brought against them or any of them for any act or thing done therein, the defendant or defendants may plead in bar and give this act in evidence."--"Atlantic Monthly" (December, 1901), Thomas Walker Page, and "Friends' Records of Cedar Creek Monthly Meeting."]

[Decoration]

CHAPTER II.

MARRIAGE AND WIDOWHOOD.

Three years after their removal to Philadelphia a certificate is issued transferring the membership of "John Payne and Mary, his wife, and their children, William Temple, Dorothy, Isaac, Lucy, Anne, Mary, John and Philadelphia to Pine Street Monthly Meeting." The Paynes settled in what was then the northern part of Philadelphia, and at first John Payne believed his means ample to live in the same hospitable way that had been his wont on the old Virginia plantation, but he soon found his expenses were increased much beyond his expectations, and decided, with the a.s.sistance of his sons, to start in business in Philadelphia. For this kind of life, however, his early training had not fitted him, and the business venture was a complete failure. It was followed by his disownment from Pine Street meeting "for failure to pay his debts"

(1789), and from this crushing blow the proud spirit of John Payne never recovered, and he died soon after.

It is interesting to know that the store of "John Payne, merchant," was on Fifth Street between Market and Arch, and his residence was 52 Arch Street.