Edmund Pendleton, 1721–1803: Volume I Edmund Pendleton, 1721–1803: A Biography, Volume I [Reprint 2014 ed.] 9780674337169, 9780674335950

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Edmund Ψendleton i;72i-i8oß

A Biography

VOLUME ONE

EDMUND

PENDLETON

Sdmund Pendleton Ι/2Ι-Ι8Ο^

A Biography by

DAVID JOHN MAYS

VOLUME ONE

H A R V A R D

U N I V E R S I T Y

C A M B R I D G E ,

P R E S S

M A S S A C H U S E T T S 1952

COPYRIGHT, 1 9 5 2 , BY DAVID JOHN M A Y S

Distributed

in Great

Britain

by

GEOFFREY CUMBERLEGE Oxford University Press London

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NUMBER 5 2 - 5 0 3 6 COMPOSED AND PRINTED BY THE WILLIAM BYRD PRESS, INC.

FOR ELEANOR

RICHARDSON AND

REBECCA LOCKE

YOUNG

ψγε/αα

P E N D L E T Ö N was, m the considered opinion of Jefferson, one of the greatest men of his age; and the tribute was deserved, since Pendleton's high character and conspicuous abilities were devoted throughout his long life to the problems of his fellow citizens, and he contributed mightily to the history of Virginia and the Nation. As time went on, however, his name was almost forgotten; his papers were destroyed or widely scattered; and for more than a century after his death almost nothing was written about him. When, in 1924, I undertook this biography, it was at once apparent that a long search would be required in order to gather the necessary materials. One who undertakes a life of Washington, or Jefferson, or Madison, finds large collections of papers ready at hand and volumes of indexed correspondence standing in serried rows; but, in Pendleton's case, the only known collection of any size was made up of transcripts of some of his letters to Madison, and it was only after long search that a considerable number of his letters could be located, copied, and indexed. The time required for the preparation of this work was considerably extended because of my desire to study Pendleton's contemporaries and the conditions under which they lived, for, throughout, every effort has been made to have Pendleton move against a background which, it seemed to me, had not been sufficiently explored. To the reader who is interested only in dramatic incidents, the chapters dealing with such subjects as the county court system, tobacco culture, and the breakdown of the plantation system may seem encumbrances, but they are necessary to any understanding of the lives of the men of that period. The time required for investigation is further explained by the fact that when research was originally undertaken, Swem's admirable Index had

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Preface

not been completed, the files of the old Gazettes had to be read page by page, and the project of photostating county order books and other records was only just beginning. I believe that throughout the text there are developed new historical facts dealing with the late colonial and early commonwealth periods; but from the standpoint of the professional historian, who has long speculated on the subject, the most important single contribution is that deahng with the John Robinson debacle in 1766. Ironically enough, the bulk of the material on that subject was discovered, after nearly twenty years of search, exactly one block from my office. While this material is too bulky to include as a whole in this biography, every effort has been made to draw from it all conclusions that can prudently be reached. There is little doubt that the new Robinson sources, used here for the first time, not only afford an opportunity for, but compel, considerable restatement of the history of the economic and poUtical background of pre-Revolutionary Virginia. Only a brief explanation of editorial procedure is needed in addition to the list of source abbreviations to be found preceding the Notes sections. In my transcriptions of eighteenth-century handwriting, superior letters in the abbreviations of titles and of proper names have been brought down to line level and a period retained or supplied as necessary. Common contractions have been spelled out, using the forms and orthography an eighteenth-century writer would have ordinarily used in such expansions. Since the search for materiak for this biography has extended over many years and in many places, it is impossible to make full acknowledgment to all those whose helpfulness has made it possible. There is no doubt, however, that my greatest debt is to my wife, whose sympathetic understanding gave me the opportunity to work, who typed the many revisions of the manuscript, and whose numerous contributions of ideas and criticisms have added enormously to the value of this biography. The absence of her name on the title page is explained only by her refusal to permit it. The most important single source of materials has been the Virginia State Library, and I am deeply indebted to the members of the staff for their interest and their unfailing cooperation. I wish to acknowledge particularly the helpfulness of the late Dr. H. R.

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Mcllwaine, Librarian, who afforded me unusual oppormnities to use source material; of the late Morgan P. Robinson, whose work in the Archives marked him as one of the authorities on Virginia history; of Mr. WiUiam J. Van Schreeven, now Head Archivist; of Mr. Milton C. Russell, head of the Reference and Circulation Division; and of Miss CoraUe H. Johnston, Miss Stella Bass, and Mrs. Mary H. Pollard, the three last mentioned having aided the work from its beginnmg. My colleagues at the Virginia Historical Society have contributed in numerous ways, especially the Reverend Clayton Torrence, Director, Mr. John MelviUe Jennings, Librarian, and Miss Ellen Wooldridge, Archivist. At the Library of Congress, Dr. St. George L. Sioussat, formerly Chief of the Division of Manuscripts, and Dr. Thomas P. Martin have shown me many courtesies. At William and Mary College Library, I have been greatly aided by Dr. Earl G, Swem, now Librarian Emeritus, his successor, Mr. Robert Hunt Land (now of the Library of Congress), and, until his resignation to become Librarian of the Virginia Historical Society, where he was even more helpful, to Mr. Jennings. At the University of Virginia, Mr. Francis L. Berkeley, Jr., Curator of Manuscripts, has repeatedly shown me courtesies far beyond the line of duty. At Princeton University, Dr. Jùlian P. Boyd, Editor of the Jefferson Papers, and Dr. Lyman H. Butterfield (now Director of the Institute of Early American History and Culture), and Mrs. Mina R. Bryan, Assistant Editors, have interchanged Jefferson and Pendleton material with me eV^er since their project was begun. Dr. James W. Patton, Director, and Dr. J. G. deRoulhac Hamilton, Consultant, of the rapidly growing Southern Historical Collection of the University of North Carolina Library, and their assistants, Mrs. S. P. Watters and Miss Anna Brooke Allan, have made the material of the Library available to me on a number of occasions. The officials of many other institutions have been helpful: Dr. Nannie M. Tilley, when she was Archivist at Duke University; Mr. Clarence S. Brigham, Director of the American Antiquarian Society; Miss Norma Cuthbert, Cataloguer, Department of Manuscripts, The Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery; Mr. Henry M. Brimm, Librarian, Union Theological Seminary, Richmond; Dr. H. J. Eckenrode, formerly Director of the Division of History and Archeology of the Com-

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Preface

mission on Conservation and Development of Virginia, and his assistant, Col. Bryan Conrad; Mrs. Louise F. Catterall, of the Valentine Museum; Dr. Ricardo Magdaleno, Director, Archivo General de Simancas, Simancas, Spain; Dr. Howard Peckham, Curator of Manuscripts, University of Michigan; Dr. C. Bermudez Plata, Director del Archivo, Archivo General de Indias, Seville, Spain; Dr. Jose Antonio Ramos, La Biblioteca Nacional, Havana; Mr. A. S. Salley, State Historian, State Historical Society of South Carolina; Dr. Robert W . Hill, Manuscripts Division, New York Public Library; Mr. J. H. Givens, of the Manuscripts Division of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; Dr. Carl Bridenbaugh, Margaret Byrne Professor of United States History at the University of California in Berkeley, and Dr. Lester J. Cappon, Research Editor, of the Institute of Early American History and Culture; Mr. Stephen T . Riley, Librarian, Massachusetts Historical Society; and Dr. Lawrence P. Riddle, of The Edison Institute Museum. In addition to institutional sources for manuscript material, I am grateful to Mrs. WiUiam B. Ardery, Paris, Ky.; Col. Bernard H. Baylor, Richmond; Mr. Stuart Chevalier, Los Angeles; Mrs. George P. Coleman, Williamsburg; Mr. Frank W . Colona, Hopewell, Va.; the late Mr. Beverley Fleet, Richmond; Mr. Hugh Blair Grigsby Gait, Norfolk; Mr. and Mrs. John H. Guy, Richmond; Mrs. Cornelia Pendleton Jones, Washington; Mr. George H. S. King, Fredericksburg; Dr. Robert D. Meade, Lynchburg; Mr. Dwight Pendleton, Winchester, Ky.; Mr. Nat. W . Pendleton, Wythevüle, Va.; Capt. F. L. Pleadwell, Honolulu; the late Henry Taylor, Richmond; Mrs. Robert Taylor, Winchester, Ky.; Mr. Tazewell Taylor, Norfolk; and Mr. T. Dabney Wellford, Alexandria, Va. Others who have contributed to the work are Dr. Douglass Adair, Williamsburg, the Honorable Leon M. Bazile, Elmont, Va.; Dr. Wyndham B. Blanton, Richmond; the Reverend R. MacLaren Brydon, Richmond; Mr. Glover N. Buck, Richmond; Mrs. Harry Burnett, Staunton; the late Mr. Cassius M. Chichester, Richmond; Mr. Herbert A. Claiborne, Richmond; Mr. Joseph Coffin, New York; the Reverend F. H. Craighill, Williamsburg; the late William E. Dodd; Dr. Bernard Drell, of Washington, D. C., who is now preparing a biography of John Taylor of Caroline, and

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with whom I am collaborating in preparing for publication the Taylor letters; Miss Janet D. É c h , Washington; Mrs. Ann Baylor Fisher, Baltimore; the Honorable E. H. Foley, Jr., Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, Washington; Mr. Allyn K. Ford, Minneapolis; the late Judge Daniel Grinnan; Mrs. Philip Wallace Hiden, Newport News, Va.; Dr. Archibald Henderson, Chapel Hill; the Honorable J. Gilmer Korner, Washington; the Honorable Brockenbrough Lamb, Richmond; Mr. Bernard Mahon, Bowling Green, Va.; Mrs. John M. Maury, Charlottesville; the late General Peyton C. Marsh; Mr. Carroll K. Moran, Richmond; the late J. B. Calvert Nicklin, Chattanooga; Mr. Heath J. Rawley, Richmond; Dr. Garnett Ryland, Richmond; Mr. Alexander H. Sands, Richmond; Mr. Oscar L. Shewmake, Richmond; Dr. Ruppert Taylor, Clemson, S. C.; Mr. John Randolph Tucker, Richmond; the late Ed V. Valentine, Richmond; the late Thomas C. Valentine, Bowling Green, Va.; and Dr. Beverly Randolph Wellford, Richmond. The large volume of correspondence necessary in the preparation of the work was handled chiefly by Mrs. Anna S. Snead, of Richmond. And I am much indebted to Dr. Hedwig Schleiffer, of Cambridge, Mass., for her work in the later stages of investigation at Harvard University, The Massachusetts Historical Society, Princeton University, the Library of Congress, the University of Virginia, and William and Mary College. Finally, I am grateful to the publisher for invaluable suggestions, for which the enthusiasm of an author for his subject affords no adequate substitute. DAVID J . M A Y S

Richmond, Virginia January, i^p

Contents Chapter I Π Ш IV V VI VII VIII IX X XI XII ХШ XIV XV XVI XVH

Page BOYHOOD

3

APPRENTICESHIP

13

D E P U T Y A T T O R N E Y OF O U R LORD T H E K I N G

25

T H E G E N T L E M E N J U S T I C E S OF CAROLINE

41

JUNIOR BURGESS FROM CAROLINE

59

DISASTER ON T H E FRONTIER

78

T H E W E E D CALLED "SWEETSCENTED"

99

SENIOR BURGESS FROM CAROLINE

118

T H E D E C L I N E OF T H E PLANTATION S Y S T E M

142

T H E STAMP ACT

156

T H E ROBINSON A F F A I R

174

" A L U C K Y OPERATION OF P A P E R M O N E Y "

209

T H E G E N E R A L COURT

224

G R O W I N G R E S I S T A N C E TO P A R L I A M E N T

249

T H R E E H O R S E M E N L E A V E FOR PHILADELPHIA

262

T H E F I R S T CONGRESS

279

T H E ASSOCIATION

297

NOTES

307

APPENDIXES I II

PENDLETON'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY

355

PENDLETON'S F I R S T L I S T OF DEBTORS TO THE ROBINSON E S T A T E ( 1 7 6 6 )

358

HI

L I S T OF DEBTORS TO T H E ROBINSON E S T A T E ( 1 7 9 2 )

3 70

IV

G E N E R A L A C C O U N T OF E X P E N S E S OF THE ROBINSON ESTATE

376

V

G E N E R A L A C C O U N T OF R E C E I P T S OF T H E ROBINSON ESTATE

VI

S A L E S OF THE ROBINSON E S T A T E

380 384

Illustrations E D M U N D PENDLETON

Frontispiece

From a portrait by Thomas Sully, after a miniature by William Mercer; reproduced by permission of the owner, Virginia Historical Society. Page M A P OF CAROLINE C O U N T Y , VIRGINIA VIRGINIA O N E SHILLING AND T H R E E PENCE N O T E

34 I 30

This is one of a series of 55,000 notes of like denomination issued by the Colony of Virginia on June 8, 11 sii in financing the defense of the frontier, and each of them was authenticated by the signature of Edmund Pendleton. The only known note of this issue that survives is in The Edison Institute Museum, Dearborn, Michigan, through whose permission, with the approval of the Treasury Department of the United States, it is reproduced. JOHN ROBINSON

From a portrait by John Wollaston; reproduced by the permission of the owner, Colonial Williamsburg, Incorporated.

178

Sclmund ΨεηάΙεΙοη A Biography

^

1 -ir ^ A 1

boyhood

T T T H E N Edmund Pendleton, at the age of eighty, sat down V Y to prepare his family tree, he told the story of his ancestors in these simple words: I have never had curiosity (or, more properly, pride) enough to search the Herald's Office or otherwise inquire into the antiquity of my family in England, though I have always supposed the two brothers who came here were what they call there of a good family, fallen to decay,— since they were well educated, and came the one as a minister, the other as a schoolmaster: however, I have had pleasure in hearing uniformly that my grandfather and his immediate descendants were very respectable for their piety and moral virtue,—a character preserved in the family to a degree scarcely to be expected in one so numerous. My mother was among the best of women, and her family highly respected.^ Had he searched the Herald's Office, however, he would have found, duly registered, the family coat of arms, bearing the escallop shells won by two ancestors in the Crusades, for the family was an ancient one and well established in the hills of Lancashire in remote times,^ Moreover, if he had returned to the seat of his ancestors, he would have found the family coat of arms still doing service over an inn, and, a little distance off, the old manor-house which some of the Pendletons still occupied, and the old churchyard with the tombs of Pendletons who, centuries before, had walked the earth as members of the gentry of England.® This churchyard was a spot where many of the denizens of the place would not have lingered in olden days because of the ghosts and witches that abounded in that region, for Pendleton township stretched along and across Pendle-hül and included dark Pendle forest. One of the two ancient halls—Hoarestones, or Malkin Tower—^stood on the brow of Pendle-hill and was celebrated as the rendezvous of the witches of Pendle, At the assizes held in Lancashire in the autumn of 1612,

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Edmund Pendleton

at least nineteen persons were tried as witches, most of them crones, unbelievably ignorant, and So wither'd and so wild in their attire, They look'd not like the inhabitants o' the earth* Possibly it was the bleak character of this land (for little grain could be grown in it, and it was given over almost wholly to woods and pasture) that induced one of the Pendletons to move from the western to the easternmost part of England—to the County of Norfolk, which bulges into the North ^ a . At any rate, we find George Pendleton in the records of Lancashire, while George, Jr. (1542-1603), a scrivener, was admitted in 1578 to the freedom of the town of Norwich, the county seat of Norfolk. The following year he married Elizabeth, daughter of John Pettingale, Gentleman, of Norwich, and lived on in the town until they laid him in St. Stephen's churchyard. His son Henry (1575-1635) married Susan Camden, granddaughter of Sir Thomas Pettus, who had served as mayor.® This Henry Pendleton (Edmund's great-great-grandfather) was a man of consequence in the community. He is described as "Henry Pendleton of Norwich, gentleman," in the conveyance of a messuage called Lachelows, with the grounds, lands, etc., in Stoke Holy Cross;® and he was a Royalist at a time when it was hard to be enthusiastic over the first of the Stuarts. When James I dissolved the Parliament that insisted upon constitutional government as the price of grants of money to the Crown and sought other sources for replenishing his empty treasury, Henry Pendleton was one of those who subscribed to a loan to his King.'' His son Henry (1614-1682) seems to have been as loyal to the Crown during the long struggle between Parliament and King as his father had been before him, and subscribed to a loan to his King when nearly three hundred of his fellow-townsmen refused, and were carefully listed by the King's partizans under the heading "The partyes hereonder doe denie . . T h o s e who did deny were to support Parliament in the civil war with Charles, and, by his contribution, Henry Pendleton ranged himself with the Cavaliers of his royal master. There is little doubt that at that time the family was substantial, for among the records of Norfolk are scattered references to the Pendletons—their conveyances, bequests, chari-

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ties, and pedigrees®—and it is probable that their fortunes began to decline with the coming of the Commonwealth, although it was not until after the Restoration that Henry's sons, Nathaniel and Philip, turned their eyes to America. Nathaniel, the older of the two, graduated from Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, in 1672. Having been educated for the ministry, he was ordained Deacon by the Bishop of Norwich the following year.^" But since many of the churches in Norfolk County could not supply a living for their pastors,^^ it is probable that that circumstance induced him to migrate to Virginia, where he had hardly time to preach his first sermon in South Farnham Parish before he sickened and died.^® It was the younger brother, Philip ( 1654-1721), who had been educated to be a schoolmaster, who subsequently founded the Pendleton family in Virginia. He arrived in the Colony along with Nathaniel in 1674,^® having been bound for a term of five years to Edmund Craske, Clerk of Rappahannock County,^^ which lay on both sides of the river of that name. As early as April, 1675, Philip's name appears as a witness to a bül of sale for a heifer, and thereafter it was written frequently in the county records untü December 18, 1679, after which it is missing until December 6, 1681.^® Between those dates, his period of servitude having come to an end, Philip returned to England. There, according to tradition, he married a lady of high social position, and, upon her early death, returned to Virginia, where, in 1682, he married Isabella Hurt.^® They first lived in Essex County, removing to King and Queen about the end of the century. In 1704 his name appears on the Rent Roll of the latter county as the owner of three hundred acres, and it was probably on this tract that he brought up his family of seven children.^'' The oldest of them, Henry, was bom about 1683, and died in May, 1721. He married Mary Taylor, when he was eighteen years of age, and she thirteen. Edmund, the youngest of their children, is the subject of this biography.^® Edmund's maternal grandfather, James Taylor, is said to have been a native of Carlisle, Cumberland County, England, and to have been born about 1616.^® His name appears frequently in the records of old Rappahannock County, and he must have been an ideal colonist, since he sired eleven children, acquired a substantial

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Edmund Pendleton

amount of land, and founded a family which was "highly respected."^" His many descendants have enriched the life of Virginia and the nation, and their individual contributions have been multiplied by their remarkable longevity, a family trait which continues to this day. James Taylor's seventh child, and his fourth by his second wife, Mary Gregory, was the Mary (1688-1770) who married Henry Pendleton in 1701.^^ Henry died while still a young man, in May, 1721, and, when his widow stood beside his newly-made grave, anxiety pressed upon her grief, for she had the responsibility of caring for six children, four sons and two daughters, and felt the burden of the seventh, who would be born four months later, and to whom she was to give the name Edmund.^® The oldest children, James and Philip, were nineteen and seventeen, and old enough for farm work, but Isabella and Mary were only nine and four, and Nathaniel and John, but six and two.^ After two years of widowhood, and when still only thirty-five, Mary Pendlton married Edward Watkins, and by that marriage had two more children, Edward and Elizabeth."^

Edmund Pendleton was born on September 9, 1721,®® in that part of Virginia which is now Caroline County, named in honor of the consort of His Majesty George II, and formed in 1728 from the western portions of three counties—Essex, which ran back southwardly from the Rappahannock, and King and Queen and King William, which stretched for many more mUes along the north and south banks, respectively, of the Mattaponi than they do today. He was to live in Caroline from its formation until his death, in 1803, and, while still in his youth, to become its first citizen. It was then almost frontier, but the streams that ran through its length gave ready access to the other parts of Tidewater Virginia and to markets overseas. One colonist wrote: "This is the best water'd Country, . . . the best and most convenient Navigation . . . of any known Country in the World.'"®® The Rappahannock, navigable always except during an occasional freeze in severe winters, marks its entire northern boundary; on the south is the Pamunkey, navigable for a part of its course; and through the center cuts the

Boyhood

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Mattaponi, through which vessels could pass during those periods when unusual efforts were made to keep it free from fish-hedges and fallen trees. АД of these rivers rise in the foothills, and their waters ultimately mingle in the Chesapeake. All are fed by innumerable little streams of great beauty, for those who would spy them out from the overhanging trees that conceal them and crowd their banks. Except for the beds of streams and an occasional small swamp, such as the Tanyard or the Polecat, most of the land ranges from a hundred and fifty to two hundred and fifty feet above sea level, gradually rising as it approaches the boundary of Spotsylvania on the west. Since there were seven orphaned children, Edmund's mother could have had little time for him beyond supplying his simplest needs, and since, after her remarriage, when he was two, there were other babies to absorb her attention. The boy may have become the special charge of his sister Isabella, who was only nine years his senior, or of a slave woman, if one was available for the purpose. But it would have caused little concern to the serene, observant boy to be left to his own devices for amusement and information; and he must have drunk in the wholesome beauty of the countryside in his earliest years, for throughout his busy life Caroline was always calling him home, and he could never be persuaded to remain away longer than business compelled. Its smells, its sights, and its sounds were a part of his being, and nature was rich and varied. The innumerable birds, the animals, both wild and domestic, the endless work of the plantation, the newly-arriving Negroes on the slavers, and the masts of the English and Scottish merchantmen on the Rappahannock, not far away, offered endless sources of interest. B y day great flocks of blackbirds would settle upon the com, while the black eagle would circle and swoop upon a young lamb or pig, and by night the penetrating cry of the owl would sound from beyond the clearing. But there were other birds to delight the ear and the eye. Wild swans were everywhere on the ponds and in the streams; mockingbirds caught and echoed the notes of every bird that frequented the region; and there were woodpeckers of several kinds, "variegated with yellow and red Heads, others spotted black and white most lovely to behold.'""^ Besides squirrel

8

Edmund Pendleton

and hares, other game was plentiful. The red deer had not disappeared; one could flush covies of partridges of excellent white flesh; and everywhere one found wild turkeys of extreme size, whose long legs carried them with prodigious speed. The streams, too, teemed with fish of many kinds. With the increase in population the wolf packs thinned out, so that mutton became more plentiful, although it did not take the place of pork, which had long been the "general Food" of the Colony, for nearly everyone had large numbers of swine of fine quality, supported chiefly by the marshes and woods.^® Most plantations had only scrub livestock, although it was better than the planters merited, for animals usually received little care. Few had shelter in winter. They were given little corn but were left to forage for themselves, eating whatever came handy, including the bark of trees. A generation before, we are told, many people did not even bother to milk their cattle during the winter months. Some years later, Landon Carter felt himself cheated when he lost a cow that he had fed all winter for her milk.^® Horses often fared little better, as they were seldom stabled and rarely shod, yet rendered hard service, for, said John Clayton of the planters, "they ride pretty sharply, a Planter's Pace is a Proverb, which is a good sharp hand-Gallop."®® By the time young Pendleton grew up, however, a number of planters, especially Col. John Baylor, were busy improving their breeds. Baylor owned "New Market," a plantation adjoining that which Pendleton soon established in southern Caroline.®^ At the time of Caroline's formation, new settlers were moving steadily into the county. Only a short time before, the Tuscaroras had paused there in their long migration northward and had done the hunting for the planters of New Kent.®^ But all traces of those warriors had vanished. The forest was yielding up patches of cleared lands for tobacco and grain and for grazing, and Negroes were being brought in to do the heavy labor of husbandry. During the ten-year period preceding Edmund's sixth birthday, as many as 2,186 Negroes are known to have been landed along the Rappahannock alone. They were chiefly from Guinea, the Gold Coast, Calabar, and other points in West Africa, although among them was a shipload of 466 slaves from Madagascar, one of the largest

Boyhood

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human cargoes to reach Virginia during colonial times.®® These Negroes could not understand the strange language of their new masters, and, coming from different tribes and countries, often could not understand each other. It was with those untutored people, still bewildered at the loss of their native freedom, and resentful of those who held them in bondage, that the planters sought to grow tobacco, the crop that required the most skill of all. The clearing of the forest went on during fall and winter. Then it was that the heartier slaves were set to felling trees, some to be split into eleven-foot rails for the snake-fences that were universally in use, some to be hewn into lumber for domestic consumption or for export. Sometimes the stumps were uprooted; sometimes they were left in the fields to rot away. ТЪе women and children would gather the branches and undergrowth into great piles for burning, and at the close of the day's work the fires would be lighted. After the chopping and splitting and tugging which consumed the daylight hours, firemaking became a sort of festivity as the hot flames relieved the chill, amid the acrid odor of smoke which lazily curled away into bluish layers against the graying sky. Sometimes, because the wood was not wanted, or there was a lack of labor, the trees were merely girdled and left to a slow death, their white limbs extended, standing stark and leprous against the backdrop of winter sky, cracking and swaying stiffly in the wind, an agonizing sight.®^ Edmund must have been pressed into service upon the plantation at an early age, since the sons of small planters worked side by side with the slaves and indentured servants;®® and one early historian tells of him that after ploughing all day he pursued his studies at night.®® This is almost certainly true, since the boy's education until his fourteenth year was confined to two years at an English school,®^ where he could hardly have learned more than to read and write and do simple sums; and he himself wrote that he grew up "without any classical education, without patrimony, without the influence of what is called family connection."®® He must have gone to work early to help with tobacco, which was the money crop, because this plant, that had been used by the Indians "against Crudities of the Stomach," then sold at a high price, since in England and on the Continent it had become "every

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Edmmd Pendleton

where a Fashion, so that Men, for Health or Wantonness, generaly esteem'd it."»» The variety chiefly grown in Caroline was Sweet-scented,*" although a number of planters favored "long Green Tobacco," as its leaf was heavier than Sweet-scented; and, even though it was less fragrant and lost much weight, due to the unusually large veins in its leaves, it was hardier and less subject to fire (a blight which would destroy the leaf) and thus was "much the fashion" in Caroline and commanded a good price.*^ It seems that in spite of the planters' pride in their favorite varieties, their tobacco was not kept as pure as the planters pretended, and that diverging species seemed "to have cohabited sportively."*'' Although tobacco culture was exacting at every stage, the overseers had to watch the slaves as carefully as they watched the crops, for there was always danger of uprisings in a region in which the black population outnumbered the white. The slaves had landed with the longing for freedom burning within them, Rumors had spread that the white King across the sea had decreed that every slave should be freed upon embracing Christianity, and it was whispered among them that their masters were suppressing the news in order to keep them in bondage. They began to gather here and there clandestinely to voice their grievances and plot rebellion. To meet this danger, the militia was called out to patrol the roads, and many Negroes were taken up and whipped "for rambling abroad." This duty was so heavy, and the militiamen were so fatigued from constant patrolling, day and night, that the harvests suffered.*® Vigilance could not be relaxed for a moment, for word came to Caroline that down in Norfolk and Princess Anne Counties the Negroes had assembled and elected leaders, their plot being discovered just in time. Many of the plotters had been severely punished and the four ringleaders executed. This danger was to flare up repeatedly, and Edmund would see the militiamen come fully armed to church on holydays, for then the slaves were free from their labor and trouble was more likely to break out. People went to church, as the law required, and took their arms with them, as the slaves compelled. Plagues and visitations were punishment by the Deity for the sins of mankind. When Edmund was a lad of

Boyhood

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seven the people were ordered to church one Friday, for Governor Gooch had proclaimed that day "as a day of publick fasting and humiliation" for the sins of the people, which had brought on "an unusual Multitude of Catterpillars." For two years past the insects had consumed the fruits of the land.** But most of the Negroes seemed harmless enough in their ignorance and nakedness. William Byrd has left this description of the slaves on some plantations not far to the west of the Pendletons: The poor negroes are a kind of Adamites, very scantily supplied with clothes and other necessaries; nevertheless, (which is a little incomprehensible,) they continue in perfect health, and none of them die, except it be of age. However, they are even with their master, and make him but indiflFerent crops, so that he gets nothing by his injustice, but the scandal of it. And here I must make one remark, which I am a little unwilling to do for fear of encouraging of cruelty, that those negroes which are kept the barest of clothes and bedding are commonly the freest from sickness. And this happens, I suppose, by their being all face, and therefore better proof against the sudden changes of weather, to which this climate is imhappily subject.*® Virginia's economy was simple. Governor Gooch wrote home: Our trade, besides Tobacco & Lumber, Pitch & Tarr, Skinns & Furrs to Great Britain, is, a little Tobacco, Beef, Pork, Wheat, Indian Com Lumber and Candles made of Myrtle-wax, to the british Islands in the West Indies; for which we have in Exchange, Sugar, Rumm and Molasses, and sometimes Money. To the Madeira Island we send wheat and Indian Com with some Candles, and bring back their Wine, but in this Commerce the Ballance, much against us, is paid in Bills of Exchange.*® This was the teeming, raw new world into which Edmund Pendleton was bom. In his fourteenth year he needed all of the optimism of youth to sustain him, for henceforth he would have to make his own way. As one writer put it, "he was not in a legal sense nobody's son, but in the estimation of a haughty gentry he was something worse—he was the son of nobody." But there were things about this boy that immediately caught one's eye: his tall, lithe figure; his handsome face, which would win him the distinction of being "of the first order of manly beauty"; his simple, friendly, serene nature; his manners "so fascinating as to charm all who came in contact with him"; his musical voice; his painstaking.

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Edmund Pendleton

tireless work. All of these qualities arrested the attention of Benjamin Robinson, Clerk of Caroline County, who was glad to take the boy into his own office and household.^^ Edmund was to be more fortunate than those youths who were bound out to cobblers and smiths, and luckier than the lad who was apprenticed to leam the "Art and Mistery of a Tailor," for Edmund's master was to open to him the door to the law. It meant the beginning of a professional and judicial career rarely matched in America. And so it was arranged. When the Gentlemen Justices of Caroline took their seats on March 1734/5,^® they went through the usual procedure of considering the well-being of an orphaned boy, and made the following order: It's Ordered And Considered by the Court that Edmond Pendleton Son of Henry Pendleton, Deced, be bound (and is hereby bound) unto Benja. Robinson, Clerk of this Court, to Serve him the full end and term of Six Years and Six Months as an Apprentice, to be brought up in the said office, which time the said Apprentice his Said Master Faithfully Shall Serve accordin to the usage and Custome of Apprentices. In Consideration Whereof the said Benjamin Robinson doth Agree that he W i l l use the utmost of his Endeavours to instruct his said A p prentice in all things belonging to a Clerks office And that he W i l l pro^^de for him Sufficient Meat drink Appareil &c fitting for an A p prentice during the said time.^®

JJ il ^ ζ

^

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oApprenticeship

D M U N D ' S apprenticeship separated him from his own family.

E

Until he grew to manhood, he would be a part of the household of his master/ whose estate, Moon's Mount, was a few miles upstream from what is now Port Royal. Parts of the road to it can still be seen, worn deep to a clay base and so narrow that the hubs would scrape the banks at its sides. The grade is so gentle that he was probably unaware of the height of his ascent, until suddenly the trees ahead were seen to end, and a few paces more brought him to the brink of a precipice which towered two hundred feet or more above the Rappahannock. For many miles to the eastward there lay before his eyes what seemed an endless forest, then in the tender green of spring, and immediately below him—it seemed an immense distance—stretched the placid river. Across Passatank Creek (or Mount Creek, as it is now known) to the north, was the Catlett plantation, and beyond it, in a great neck of the river, lived the Buckners. Moon's Mount was bounded on the southeast by Moon Swamp, beyond which lay the Stanhope lands. About four miles east of Moon's Mount, as the crow flies, but much longer by road, was John Roy's Warehouse, which handled the tobacco grown in that neighborhood.^ Within a few feet of the edge of the precipice at Moon's Mount, stood the Robinson house, hardly a brick of which remains today; and from it, since the river makes a great bend at this point, one can gaze mile upon mile in both directions. A short distance north of the house the hUl started its descent toward Passatank Creek, and down it a trail cautiously bent its way to the river, where there was boating and swimming and fishing. From time to time Scottish and English merchantmen could be seen far below, moving lazily to sea with the current, or laboriously working upstream to the

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Edmund Pendleton

head of navigation, where Fredericksburg and Falmouth faced each other across the river. For hours a ship would be in view from the hill. First the spars of the vessel would appear over the treetops at a bend in the river, as it crept so slowly upstream that at a distance its motion was imperceptible. The sails would be furled, since they were useless after reaching the point, a few miles below Roy's Warehouse, where the river narrowed and began to wind. From that time on there was no wind, or only treacherous puffs to be avoided; and the only modes of progress were to float up with the flood tide, and, at slack tide, to tow with the jolly boat, anchoring to hold the precious gains when the ebb tide was strong. In the Rappahannock the channel often runs so close to the bank that those on shipboard can pluck leaves from the trees; and at Moon's Mount it ran at the foot of the cliff so that one could look down the masthead at the sailors sprawled on deck and resting from their labor, while others on board took their tum at the heavy sweeps.® This was the home in which Edmund lived until he grew into manhood. Mrs. Robinson managed the servants, her husband, and the children, while her husband, the Major, took his ease and enjoyed good company. This genial man had been educated in England, and has been described as "a man of polite accomplishments," who "contributed towards awakening in young Edmund his uncultivated genius."* Certainly, the boy admired his learning and loved him for his good nature, and throughout his life referred to him as "my Master."® Pendleton's lifelong intimacy with the Robinsons and his deep affection for them grew out of the pleasant years he lived with them at Moon's Mount. There he had not only the instruction and companionship of his good-natured master and the maternal care of his wife but happy association with their children, for there were Joe, Ben, Jr., Charles, and Tom with whom he could play. There were two girls, also (Mary and Sarah), but they were probably too young to be of any consequence.® From the affection which Pendleton always had for his master, the years spent in the Robinson household must have been happy; and, since his preference was for simple sources of pleasure, he must have enjoyed the wholesome forms of entertaiimient which the countryside afforded. Some of these are described in a contemporary newspaper account of a celebration at Crutchfield's (just over the Pa-

Apprenticeship

15

munkey in Hanover) where "some meriy-dispos'd Gendemen" had invited all to help them with their carnival on St. Andrew's Day. There were many sorts of contests and prizes: A Neat Hunting-Saddle, with a fine Broad-cloth Housing, fring'd and flower'd &c. to be run for (the Quarter), by any Number of Horses and Mares: A fine Cremona Fiddle to be plaid for, by any Number of Country Fiddlers, (Mr. Langford's Scholars excepted:) With divers other considerable Mzes, for Dancing, Singing, Foot-ball-play, Jumping, Wrestling, &c. There was a beauty prize, too, )articularly a fine pair of Silk Stockings to be given to the handsomest llaid upon the Green, to be judg'd of by the Company.·^ But Court Days were the busy and exciting times. Once each month the county magistrates sat for the qualification of fiduciaries, the recordation of deeds, and the trial of cases, both civil and criminal, and for many other kinds of business over which they had jurisdiction. These sessions usually lasted one day, but sometimes two to three, depending upon the volume of business. A Court Day was an event for the whole countryside. Not only did litigants and their witnesses assemble on those occasions, but from miles around people in all walks of life came to collect and pay debts, to make contracts of various kinds, to trade horses, to sell Negroes, and to auction property. Peddlars came selling their wares; wandering bands of entertainers came to get such pickings as they could from these principal meetings of county people; and grinning Negroes, who as body servants and coachmen were enabled to enjoy privileges denied the field hands, came with their masters. At night, between court sessions, the ordinaries were jammed with lawyers and litigants and their witnesses, as well as other persons attracted by the chance to do business. They were packed into the sleeping rooms, or room; and in bad weather the guests crowded the great fire in the main room to the sound of politics and ribaldry, and to the smell of drying clothing and leather and the ever-present odor of horseflesh, tobacco, and grog. As best they could, the lawyers sought out some comer in which to examine witnesses for the cases to be tried on the morrow, or to haggle over settlements. Month after month there would be the same

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Edmund Pendleton

uproar for a night or two, and then silence, while the lawyers moved on for Court Day in an adjoining county.® The Caroline courthouse of those days was not located at Bowling Green, as at present, but a few bends down the twisting road toward Roy's Warehouse. There were accommodations nearby for those who had to remain overnight or who wished entertainment during the day, for both Colonel Armistead and Colonel Beverley had erected ordinaries, as the taverns were called, "well supplied with wine and other polite liquors, for the worshipful bench." All this Col. William Byrd reported, and added: "Besides these, there is a rum ordinary for persons of a more vulgar taste. Such liberal supplies of strong drink often make justice nod, and drop the scales out of her hands."® Prices at the ordinaries were kept down by law, and each spring the justices of the County "rated the liquors." Peach brandy, a favorite Virginia drink, could be had in plenty. Virginia Ale cost only five or six pence per quart, while the more elegant drinkers paid upwards of 2 shillings per quart for Madeira and nearly twice as much for claret. Major Robinson, Pendleton's easygoing Master "was very negligent and inaccurate in his accounts," as Pendleton himself was to testify many years later, in excusing Robinson's failure to look out for personal interests.^® Moreover, at a time when transmitting money was no simple matter, Pendleton looked after his master's bills.^^ The Major's indolence threw upon Pendleton many details of the Clerk's Office and the boy's extreme particularity must have made him immensely valuable. An important accomplishment was his clear, beautiful handwriting, and the entries in the Order Book, beginning when Pendleton was sixteen, and continuing until a short time after he was admitted to the bar, seem to be in his hand, although changes are to be noted in his characters from time to time, as he experimented with his capitals and put in some ornamental curlicues.^^ He was proud of his boyish signature, which his master soon gave him a chance to use in simple offices. There still exists a bond, dated March 6, 1738/9, which he signed as a witness, along with Robinson. Pendleton went about it seriously: with elaborate frills, which he would soon discard, he subscribed his name—"E. Pendleton." Although the youth was denied classical education, few young

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17

men had one more practical. Through his hands passed deeds and wills, inventories and accounts, recognizances and other bonds, marriage licenses, declarations, petitions, and bills in equity, and all of the other multitudinous pleadings with which both commonlaw and chancery suits abounded. In that way he learned all of the legal forms, observed the strategy of the lawyers as successive pleas were filed in a case, and finally saw in the courtroom the presentation of the same case before the justices. That was excellent training for one who hoped to stand where those men stood. As William Byrd had declared, Caroline was a quarrelsome county." Even Major Robinson stirred himself from time to time to sue the sheriffs for fees.^® Litigation was natural enough, however, to a Pendleton whose family had lived for generations in Norfolk County, England, where the number of lawyers was limited by statute, and where, it was said, one farmer would "sue another for trespass if a cow so much as looked over a hedge." The government of the new County of Caroline was hardly in smooth operation when Edmund's apprenticeship began. Except for the vestrymen and churchwardens (since the parishes were already in existence), everything had to be created new. For lack of a gaol, the sheriff could not keep his prisoners, and, even when one was provided, the occupant escaped by the simple expedient of burning down the wooden door.^^ It was years before Caroline had a satisfactory gaol, although it was badly needed, for William Byrd had not exaggerated the quarrelsomeness of the County. Rowdyism was common and was extended into the heated elections, which were conducted at the courthouse over the liquor supplied by the warring factions. There the freeholders would assemble at election time, each man to state publicly his choice, and various and devious were the methods used to gain votes.^®

Less than three years after Edmund began his instruction in the intricacies of legal forms and pleading and the practical working of the county-court system, he began his intimate acquaintance with another great institution of the Colony, the Established

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Edmund Pendleton

Church. Not that it was unknown to him before, since everyone was taxed for its support and fined for failure to attend services. At that time, although there was a large Quaker minority, most people belonged to the Church through choice. The whole Colony was divided into parishes for the government of the Church and for some functions which might properly have been performed by the secular government. The parishes were quite independent of the counties. They sometimes cut across county lines and had been created before the counties themselves were formed. They furnished the training ground for the administration of each county before it came into being." Each parish was governed by a vestry of twelve men who formed practically a self-perpetuating body. In 1737, at the age of sixteen, Edmund was appointed clerk of the vestry of St. Mary's, the parish which extended across the northern part of Caroline.^® A few years before, Owen Jones, Rector of St. Mary's, gave a description of the parish in a report to the Bishop of London. It then comprised one hundred and fifty families, with one hundred communicants. Services were held each Sunday, although the chureh lacked many things, including vessels for the sacrament. There was no parochial library and no public school. And to the question, "Are there any Infidels, bond or free, within your Parish; and what means are used for their conversion?" Jones answered, "Only negroes; particular means discouraged."''^ The vestrymen were chosen from the foremost men in the parish, men who were correct in politics as well as in religion, and who were substantial owners of both lands and slaves. It was their duty to provide a glebe of at least two hundred acres for the minister, to furnish him a convenient mansion, and to pay him an annual salary of "16,000 lb. of Tobacco, and Cask, of the Growth of the Parish." ^^ They examined into the needs of all dependent persons and made provision for them; made presentments to the Grand Jury of offenders against the moral law—those who broke the Sabbath, failed to attend church, or who were guilty of drunkenness, profanity, or adultery; erected and provided for maintenance of churches and chapels of ease; appointed the minister, sextons, and readers for the churches; and provided for the orderly conduct of services.®® They were required, also, to elect

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19

annually two churchwardens, who would look after the personal property of the parish and act as its executive officers; to levy a tax for funds needed by the churchwardens for administrative purposes, and to appoint collectors therefor; and to appoint processioners to check the boundaries of each man's land, for processioning (or perambulation, or "beating the bounds") was deemed of utmost importance in preventing boundary disputes. Every fourth year the county justices were required by law to see that the vestry of each parish divided it into precincts and named "at least two intelligent honest freeholders of each" to see that the ceremonies were properly performed. The cermonies consisted in having people of the immediate neighborhood turn out and foUow the honest freeholders until the boundaries between all adjoining lands were "proscessioned, (or gone round) and the land marks renewed." ^^ These activities were saved for fall and winter, when there was no all-demanding tobacco in the fields, when the natural monuments could be more easily seen, and when there were no snakes to molest the marchers. TTiere is no record that in Caroline the old English custom was followed to the extent of occasionally caning the accompanying vestry boys to make them remember the bounds the better, and young Edmund probably suffered only from scratches, cold, and a little fatigue. As clerk of the vestry, Pendleton had to keep the minutes of their meetings; to preserve their accounts and other records, including the reports of the processioners; to maintain current lists of indigents who looked to the parish for help; and to record vital statistics, for a statute of 12 Anne provided that ministers or clerks were required to keep a register of all births, christenings, and deaths within their respective parishes.^® His salary and fees as clerk of the vestry gave Edmund his first source of steady income, and with the profits of his office he "purchased a few books, and read them diligently."®® Until then, it seems, his education had been confined largely to the three R's and the things he had learned as an apprentice to the clerk of the County Court. The duties of the clerk of the vestry were distinct from those of the clerk of the church, although it is likely that Pendleton was often called upon to perform the duties of the latter. The clerk

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Pendleton

of each church was required to keep a record of attendance at church for Every Person of the Age of One and Twenty Years, or more, (not being a Protestant Dissenter,) wilfully absent from Divine Service at his or her Parish Church, or Chapel, the Space of One Month; or who, when there, shall not decently continue 'til Service is ended—forfeits for every Offence Five Shillings, or 50 lb. Tobacco, to the Churchwardens, for the use of the Poor. And if the offender failed to pay the fine, he was to receive "Ten Lashes on his or her bare Back, well laid on."®^ The fines so collected, as well as those from gamesters and other offenders, had to be retained and accounted for, and distributed to the poor.^® Edmund was also required to publish the banns of those who sought to marry, post notices of elections, and, at times designated by law, he, or the minister, or reader, was required to read to the congregation certain statutes which the legislators were solicitous that the good people should know. Thus, An Act for the effectual Suppression of Vice; and Restraint and Punishment of blasphemous, ivicked, and dissolute Persons was to be read on the first and second Sundays in April and September; An Act concerning Servants and Slaves, on the first sermon Sundays in March and September; An Act to prevent the Destroying and Murdering of Bastard Children, in May, etc.^® Commenting upon the clerk of the church, Hugh Jones wrote: The Clerk in Case of the Ministers' Death or Absence has great Business, and is a kind of Curate, performing frequently all the Offices of the Church, except the two Sacraments and Matrimony; but 'tis Pity but his Practices were better regulated, and Sets of Sermons also appointed for his Purpose; for in several Places the Clerks are so ingenious or malicious, that they contrive to be liked as well or better than the Minister, which creates 111-Will and Disturbances, besides other Harm. In some Places they read the Lessons, publish Banns, &c. when the Minister is present, for his Ease; which first may not be improper in very hot Weather, or if the Minister be sick or infirm, if the Clerk can read tolerably well. Likewise might they be allowed to bury when a Minister cannot possibly be had before the Corpse would corrupt in hot Weather; but little more should be granted them, since some places long accustomed to hear only their Clerk read Prayers and Sermons at Church, have no right Notions of the Office, Respect, and Dignity of a Clergyman.^'' it it ir

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In 1740, after being the clerk of the vestry for three years, Pendleton added another office, that of the clerk of the Caroline Court-Martial,®^ a military tribunal composed of the field officers and captains of the county militia, whose function was to audit the officers' accounts and punish militiamen who violated military laws. Many offenses did not reach the military court, since the officers had authority to administer summary punishment in certain cases. For instance, a captain could put a disobedient soldier in the county gaol for three months without bail, unless a superior sooner released him; and even an officer of lower rank could cause a disobedient or refractory soldier "to be tied Neck and Heels Twenty Minutes." The more serious cases came before the court-martial, and from the fines imposed by that body Pendleton received his perquisites of office.'® ТЪе organization of the militia was simple. That of each county was commanded by a colonel, who, with certain exceptions, had power to list all freemen in the county from 21 to 60. Free Negroes, mulattos, and Indians were exempt, but might be listed as drummers or trumpeters, if capable; and in case of invasion or insurrection were required to serve as "Pioneers," that is, to do the dirty work of the army. In each county there was a general muster once a year, and each captain was required to "exercise his Troop or Company" quarterly, or oftener if he thought it necessary. Every trooper was required to "provide himself with a serviceable Horse, Saddle, Curb-Bridle, Breast-Plate, Crouper, Holsters, Pistols, Sword or Cutías, double Cartouch-Box, and Six Charges of Powder, and appear so accoutred at every Muster; he must likewise keep at his Habitation, a Carbine well fix'd with Belt and Swivel, One Pound of Powder, and four Pounds of Shot, to bring into the Field when specialy required." Every foot soldier was required to "provide himself with a Firelock, Musket, or Fuzee, well fix'd and Bayonet fitted. Sword or Cutías, Cartouch-Box and Three Charges of Powder, and appear so arm'd at every Muster," and to "keep at his Abode, One Pound of Powder, and Four Pounds of Ball, to bring into the Field when required." Any trooper or foot soldier failing to appear at muster, or failing to provide arms, was marched to the court-martial and fined 100 lbs. tobacco. If a

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captain failed to appear at muster, or appearing, faUed to exercise his men, he was fined 200 lbs. tobacco. If a soldier failed to appear when summoned upon any alarm of invasion or rebellion, he forfeited £10. If an officer failed to answer such summons, he forfeited £20. Caroline had a respectable force, at least on paper, for there were four troops of horse, of sixty men each, and four companies of foot, each of fifty men.®® The law required these men to be equipped and trained to meet any emergency, but actually they were often very poorly prepared for serious business and totally unfit to meet real soldiers. Moreover, they had no intention of leaving their homes to meet distant emergencies, an attitude fuUy understood and respected by the members of the Assembly who needed their votes. The real function of the militia, as everyone knew, was that of a home guard to keep the slaves in check; and on Christmas, Easter, and Whitsun Holidays parties of militia would patrol the countryside in order to break up unlawful meetings of slaves and deliver the offenders up to the constable for punishment, for there must be no tippling or speechmaking which might incite large groups of black men against their masters. Unsatisfactory as the militia system was, the Colony had no force of its own, even after the experience of the French War, except the officer and one enlisted man who garrisoned Fort George, and four adjutants, each of whom received £80 annually for attending general musters in the counties, instructing the militiamen in discipline and making annual returns of the numbers of men enrolled.®*

As an apprentice in the clerk's office and as clerk of the vestry and of the court-martial, Pendleton, while still a minor, had his hand on the pulse beat of the whole machinery of county government. It was a practical school in which an industrious youth could master the details of administration, and it started Pendleton on the career that was to make him master of the knowledge of the entire governmental machinery of Virginia, a matter of vital importance, since at one time or another he was to be the chief officer of each branch, executive, legislative, and judicial.

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23

His duties as an apprentice brought him in touch with the justices of the county and the lawyers who came each Court Day to talk so loudly and learnedly before the gaping people of the countryside. He had determined early to become a lawyer, too, and sought any books that might help. Nothing was available except the county records and less than a dozen old volumes of reported cases. Into them he plunged, only to find that the musty books abounded in Latin, not a word of which had any meaning for him; however, there was a Latin school in the neighborhood, so he enrolled in it and spent as much of three months there as his duties at the Clerk's Office would permit. During that time, we are told, he acquired a working knowledge of the language, which was greatly widened by further study at home, until, "when he became a practitioner, few were able to translate Latin more correctly."^® His study of Latin was typical of the rest of his education, because in his busy life there was little time for study outside of the law. He read some good English books, and his writings indicate familiarity with the Bible and Shakespeare; otherwise, he studied general subjects only "to the extent of his occasion for them." But, added a contemporary, He soon acquired a profound knowledge of the character of mankind, and of human affairs. And perhaps it was his happiness, throughout his life, to have extracted his opinions from realities, rather than from the speculations of philosophers.®® ir

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On April 23, 1741, the members of the Council assembled at the Capitol in Williamsburg for the routine business of a rainy day. Among them, arriving late that morning, was William Byrd, the first citizen of Virginia, who would tum from his frequent amours to momentary contrition and prayer, and from his books in Greek and Hebrew to the aflFairs of the Council.®'^ Many years before, he had written disparagingly of Benjamin Robinson; now there was laid before him the petition of that man's apprentice, upon consideration of which, this order was entered: Edmund Pendleton's Petition to Practice as an attorney in the County Courts is granted on Condition of his producing a Certificate from the Attorney General of his being Qualified, to whom the Examination is now referred.®®

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So the rustic youth of nineteen, hat in hand, and with all the uncertainty and excitement of such a test, found himself face to face with Edward Barradall, now King's Attorney for the Colony, the man who had contested with Sir John Randolph for primacy at the Virginia bar. N o rustic, he, but a man of the world; no novice in the intricacies of the law, but one who had imbibed its spirit and its genius at the feet of its masters in England.®® However much BarradaU may have been skeptical of the youthful Pendleton's qualifications, his doubts were soon dispelled when the examination began, for two days after the Council had referred the boy to Barradall, the President filled out a certificate which read: By JAMES BLAIR Esqr. president of his Majesties Council & Commander in chief of this Dominion— W H E R E A S Edmund Pendleton Gentleman hath made Application to me & his Majesties Council for a Licence to practice as an Attorney in the County Courts & other Inferior Courts of this Dominion, and upon examination hath been found duly qualified, I do therefore by and with the Advice & Consent of his Majesties said Council Give and grant into the said Pendleton full Power, Licence & Authority to appear and practice as an Attorney in any of the County Courts within this Colony hereby requiring the Justices of the said County Courts to Admit him the said Pendleton to practice accordingly, he taking the oaths Enjoined by Act of Assembly in the Like cases. Given under my hand and the seal of the Colony at Williamsburgh this twenty fifth day of April one thousand seven hundred & forty one, in the fourteenth year of his Majesties Reign. James Blair*®

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4)eputy oAttorney of Our Lord the King

P R I N G T I M E was at full flood in Caroline when its magistrates assembled for the May Court; the room was packed with the usual array of lawyers, litigants, and onlookers; and, no doubt, the Pendletons and Taylors were invited to sit with the magistrates, for it was the custom to ask distinguished guests to sit on the bench. And on that day Edmund Pendleton's near kin were especially distinguished as they arrived to witness the ceremony of his qualification, It is easy to imagine the scene. When the Court called for motions, a member of the bar rose and in the approved flowery manner of the time introduced the boy whom everybody had come to know during his long apprenticeship in the Qerk's Oflice. Pendleton rose, handed up his hard-won certificate, and stood, straight and handsome, as he lifted his right hand, whUe the clerk, his "master," read the simple oath, emphasizing the lawyer's duties as an oflicer of the Court: ^

S

You shall do no falsehood, nor consent to any to be done in the court; and if you know of any to be done, you shall give notice thereof to the justices of the court, that it may be reformed: You shall delay no man for lucre or malice, nor take any unreasonable fees: You shall not wittingly or willingly sue, or procure to be sued, any false suit, nor give aid nor consent to the same, upon pain of being disabled to practice as an attorney for ever. And furthermore, you shall use your self in the office of an attorney within the court, according to your learning and discretion. So help you God.^ During the first month after he was licensed Pendleton probably qualified in each of the courts south of the Rappahannock in the counties that bordered on Caroline. He had attended to that in Spotsylvania three days before his qualification at home® since that was the first of the courts in the neighborhood to meet after his license had been issued. Thereafter he would have to take the

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small cases which came his way until he proved his skill, for then, as now, clients employed lawyers to win, rather than experiment; and the fledgling could expect only two kinds of clients: those who could not pay fees and those who wanted to collect some small, tough accounts which the successful lawyers did not find worth their while. Moreover, in many counties it must have been true then, as now, that one outstanding lawyer got the best of the business, whñe the next in reputation was picked by the other side and the others got the crumbs. Pendleton had to start with the crumbs. At first he would have an occasional chance to present a deed for recordation or perform some other minor office, but he was at the Caroline bar three months before his name appeared in the order book as counsel in a case, and then he could only rise and state that his client had no defense.* His temporary difficulties were due to the able practitioners who frequented Caroline and already had the best of the business. A litigant with an important case would naturally employ an experienced lawyer, and several of them were to be had. One of them, and probably the ablest then appearing in Caroline, was John Mercer, of Stafford, then thirty-seven years old. Bom in Dublin, he had been educated at Trinity College before his migration to Virginia, where his native ability, learning, and driving energy brought him an extensive practice as well as business success. He had the Irish good nature which won many friends and the Irish pugnacity which won courtroom battles—a hotheadedness, in fact, which had caused his disbarment three years before by the Prince William Court, until he would go humbly to the Council in Williamsburg and beg an order for reinstatement. Morever, he possessed the tools of his profession to a degree rarely found at the Virginia bar, his library consisting of fifteen hundred volumes, a third of them law books, at a time when published reports of cases were few in number. And, even with his large practice, he had found time to write, and to publish, only two years before, his Abridgement of the Laws of Virginia. With his experience, fire, and energy, Mercer was always formidable; and on questions of law, bench and bar alike held him in respect— indeed, stood in some awe of the man who wrote the book.®

Deputy Attorney of Our Lord the King

27

Then there was Zachary Lewis, of Spotsylvania, who had qualified to practice in Caroline seven years ahead of Pendleton, and who had been appointed King's Attorney for Orange in 1737 and for Caroline in 1739.® The post of prosecuting attorney must have brought Lewis more than the usual share of civil practice, since it has usually worked that way, and does to this day in the Virginia counties. Lewis could be expected to work closely with another young lawyer, William Waller, six years senior to Pendleton, since Waller was the son of the clerk of Spotsylvania, one of whose daughters Lewis marriedJ These men by no means exhausted the list of lawyers who appeared in Caroline, but they give ample reason for any young lawyer's difficulty; and into whatever county Pendleton went he was faced with the same situation. Shortly before Pendleton came to the bar, there had been competition from another source. Governor Gooch wrote: Attomies at Law for some years past have been under no Regulation but every one practiced. This was attended with ill Consequences Suits and Contentions being stirred up by Persons, who called themselves Attomies, of litigious or avaritious Tempers in the inferior Courts; and often good Causes lost through their unskillfulness in pleading or Ignorance in the Law.® In recognition of this criticism the Assembly had enacted a statute in 1732 to end "neglect and mismanagement of their clients causes, and other foul practices," by preventing from practicing all except those who could pass examinations before a "person or persons, learned in the law," and obtain a license from Governor and Council. T h e statute did not set well with the many gentlemen who practiced by ear, and, in the year following Pendleton's admission, they succeeded in repealing the statute of 1732 on the ground that it had "not been found to answer the good design and intention thereof";® and for a time it was open season again, while the county courts were plagued with a variety of exhorters, some of whom could do little better than make their marks in lieu of signatures. A good lawyer is always glad to know that he has a good and trustworthy lawyer for his opponent and that the game will be played according to the rules; and it must have been a nightmare for a young man of Pendleton's precise mind to be

28

Edmund Pendleton

pitted against men who did not know what the rules were. This time, however, the free-for-all did not last long; after little more than two years the Assembly again restricted practice to those licensed after proof of qualification.^® But Pendleton faced another difficulty. Even for the lawyer with a large practice, the remuneration was small, since the amount of fees was limited by law, irrespective of the importance of the business in hand. In most common-law suits only 15Í could be charged; in "all Chancery suits, or real, mixt, or personal actions, where the title or bounds of land" came in question, ^^ i: 10:0; on a petition for a small debt, js 6d·, for advice where no suit brought, ιοί; and for every day attending a survey, 20Í 6d. There were probably some infractions, but they were attended with danger, the penalty for violation being £ ¡ o , one-half to the King and one-half to the informer. Caroline and the counties which bordered it (except King George, which was across the Rappahannock) fell into a natural circuit, and their Court Days were arranged by statute in a definite pattern, so that persons having business in neighboring courts would not run into conflicts. The same system was in effect throughout the Colony. Spotsylvania Court was held on the first Tuesday of each month; Hanover, on the first Thursday; King and Queen, on the second Tuesday; Caroline, on the second Thursday; E^ex, on the third Tuesday; and King William, on the third Thursday.^^ Courts would last one or two, and, in rare instances, three days, depending upon the volume of business. These six counties did not constitute a judicial circuit, for the magistrates did not leave their own counties, but they formed a natural circuit in so far as the lawyers were concerned. A lawyer in full practice had little more than week-ends at home, and not even that when attending the General Court. In 1741, the year in which Pendleton came to the bar, John Mercer spent only 134 days at home and estimated that in that year he traveled 3,009 miles. The following year he was at home only 128 days and traveled 3,129 mUes. Most of this mileage was in journeys to the General Court at Williamsburg and to the counties bordering Stafford, Mercer's home county.^^ While Pendleton appeared occasionally in other counties, his work was at first largely confined to Caroline and five counties

Deputy Attorney of Our Lord the King

29

that bordered it. The Court Day of King George, across the river, conflicted with that of Hanover, so Pendleton did not qualify m King George until eight years later.Within his own natural circuit he must have made rapid progress, because Mercer's diary shows that the older lawyer gave up his regular trips to Caroline only six months after Pendleton began his practice there. The colonial period is usually considered an age of leisure, but there is never leisure for an ambitious man faced with established competitors and compelled to create a place for himself with his own hand and brain. T o make matters more comphcated, Pendleton fell in love, the object of his affection being Elizabeth Roy,— or "Betty," as everyone called her,—a great beauty of the neighborhood.^* Their love-making was pure romance, since both were without fortune. But they must have made a magnificent couple, this handsome young woman and the man whom Grigsby later described as being of the "first order of manly beauty."^® The winding road from Caroline Courthouse drew him inevitably toward the Roy plantation, which gladdened his eye as he topped the last rise that looked down across a mile or more of gently sloping land to the broad Rappahannock. On January 21, 1741/2,^® they were married, although, wrote Pendleton, it was "against my friends' consent, as also my master's who, nevertheless, still continued his affection to m e . " " Their objections were probably due to his lack of money to support a wife, for Pendleton had been at the bar only nine months and was still only twenty years of age. Betty's father, John Roy, who had died seven years before, had owned and operated a plantation on the south bank of the Rappahannock near the present village of Port Royal; had served as inspector at Roy's, Conway's, and Gibson's tobacco warehouses; and had been a magistrate of the County.^® His widow Dorothy had been left with three sons, at least one of whom was of age, and two daughters; and, at the time of Pendleton's attentions to Betty, was still living on the plantation and trying to keep it going, an attempt which she finally abandoned in favor of operating a ferry and an ordinary. During the next few months Pendleton continued his struggle at the bar. On November 12, 1742, he appeared before the justices

30

Edmund Pendleton

of Caroline, along with Zachary Lewis and William Waller, to take the new oath required· of lawyers by "the act of Assembly Entituled 'An Act for preventing Lawyers exacting or taking Exorbitant fees.' T o a youth with a beginner's practice this might have been cause for jesting, but Pendleton was hardly in a mood for jests. His responsibilities were increasing, for Betty was about to become a mother. Five anxious days went by whUe he awaited the birth of the child. On November 17th, a day he was never to forget, and less than ten months after their marriage, Pendleton's beautiful young wife was dead.^^ She "was delivered of a dead child," he wrote in his Bible, "& died in childbed." It was a cruel experience for the youth to find that his first fiduciary undertaking was to act as administrator for his young wife's modest estate. On January 14, 1742/3, he appeared before the Caroline justices to qualify, and Zachary Lewis, one of his young competitors at the bar, came forward to be his surety.''® At twenty-one Pendleton was a widower and had lost his only child; and, as it subsequently turned out, there would be no other. The young widower did the best thing that he could have done under the circumstances: he lost himself in his work, plugging away on small cases, usually for the collection of debts. He made the rounds of the courts neighboring Caroline, although we cannot trace his progress in King and Queen, King William, and Hanover, due to the loss of the county records. Certainly, he was active enough in Caroline and E^sex. By the winter of 1742/3 he had an increasing volume of business in both of those counties. He appeared regularly at Hobb's Hole (which came to be called, more politely, Tappahannock), county seat of E^sex, where Scottish and British merchantmen carried on a brisk trade and where there was substantial work for lawyers. The outlook there was good since he had been employed to handle collection cases for Humphrey Bell, a London merchant, and for John Corrie.^ Soon he had other clients among the merchants and his practice grew considerably in the next few months. But the claims were small, and, while the judgments usually were readily obtained, satisfying them was another matter. He recovered a judgment for Archibald Ritchie for ;C2:17:5, then instituted an attachment to reach assets of the

Deputy Attorney of Our Lord the King

31

debtor in the hands of Thomas Waring. The latter answered that he had nothing belonging to the defendant except "one Earthera Pott which he upon his Oath declared was all the Effects he had in his hands Belonging to the said John [the debtor]." However, when Pendleton proved that Waring owed John "7s. lid. 3 farthings current money," the court ordered Waring to pay over that sum, together with the value of the pot, to be applied on the judgment."^ Like most young lawyers, he had to cut his teeth on the collection business, and the going was hard. But there was the usual run of other common-law litigation in addition to actions of debt. Pendleton was beginning to get his fair share of actions in trespass, case, covenant, replevin, and detinue; and, while he wrote opinions for clients, drafted their wills and deeds, and followed the time-hallowed common-law pleadings, his equity practice was growing. The subtle world of equity called for greater skill and afforded opportunities for greater reward. It must have given him a glow of satisfaction to sit down to the composition of his first bill in equity, beginning with the quaint and musical salutation then in vogue: " T o the Honourable Justices of the County of Caroline in Chancery Sitting."

Soon Court Days could not come quickly enough in King and Queen, and Pendleton's horse, when given the rein, would swing from habit into the drive leading to the home of Joseph Pollard, for the young man had the resüience of youth and was in love once more. Mr. Pollard had married a Caroline girl, Priscilla Hoomes, of "Old Mansion," something more than twenty years before, and their home was bursting with the activities of eight hearty children, two boys and six girls.^® The guest had many youngsters to play with and appease before he could find time for the real purpose of his visit. But he lost no time, for in June, 1743, only seven months after Betty's death, he married Sarah, the oldest of the girls, then eighteen.^® They were to live together for more than sixty years. It was in eastern Caroline that he built their home, on a wide expanse of high ground, bounded on the east by the Maracossic, an unnavigable little stream that was hardly more than a trickle in

32

Edmund Pendleton

drought time, yet with as many varieties of spelling as any geographical name in Virginia. When the house was built is not certainly known and, from the manner in which it was laid out, it is likely that it was not completed at one time. It was reached by the old post-road from which a straight drive led a quarter of a mile to the house. At the time of the Civil War the drive was lined with old apple and cherry trees, from which there stretched away great "lawns," probably of sheep-cropped grass. The house itself, facing due north at the end of the drive, was of two stories, built of wood, with dormer windows both front and rear and with a width of about eighty feet. Unlike most of the larger establishments, it had no main entrance or hallway; instead, two, and possibly three, front doors opened upon the porch that extended across the whole front of the building. The door to the east opened into Pendleton's library, behind which was his sitting room, whence a stairway led to the two bedrooms immediately above. The next entrance opened upon a parlor, with another parlor, or sitting room, in its rear, and from them a separate stairway led to the other bedrooms. These eight rooms were heated by corner fireplaces, served by one huge chimney that was fifteen feet square at its base. At the west end of the building was a sort of parlor, or ballroom, about twenty-four feet square, with a chimney built on the outside of the house to serve it and the rooms above it. To the rear was a dining room about the same size as the ballroom, with an ample kitchen beyond. The dining room communicated by a covered walk, or a breezeway, with a storeroom that was built on to the corner of the house next to Pendleton's sitting room, and that added nothing to the symmetry of the place. Except for the walls of the basement, which extended under the main portion of the house, and the chimneys, all of the material used was timber and plank, partly hewn and partly sawed. Everything was heavy, sturdy, and solid, and both the beauty and utility of the rooms were heightened by built-in corner cupboards of wood and glass. In the rear were the meat house, dairy house, chicken house, stables, and other outbuildings, and a house garden of about an acre and a half. This establishment became well known to the leading men in eastern Virginia, and was not too far off the road for those who

Deputy Attorney of Our Lord the King

33

so frequently were "going up" or "coming down" on their journeys of politics or business to the "metropolis" of Williamsburg. T o this comfortable house and the fields and woodlands that surrounded it, Pendleton gave the name "Edmundsbury."^^ There he was to Hve the rest of his life and there he would hasten to return whenever his professional and public duties allowed. He often called this place his "forest," and the name was apt since he kept adding to his holdings until they comprised more than six square mUes, most of it in woodlands, in accordance with accepted plantation practice. This land had once belonged to James Taylor, his maternal grandfather, but after the latter's death had been parceled out among his children, and some of it had passed out of the family altogether. The young lawyer began to buy the property back, piece by piece, and must have had great satisfaction in doing it. He acquired the first parcel as early as February, 1742/3, from his brother John, the order book reciting, Jn[o] Pendleton and Phebe his Wife^® she being privitly examined acknowledged their Deed of Lease & release & receipt indented to Edmond Pendleton which on his motion is admitted to record.^ This 637 acre tract was bounded on the west by North Bottle Creek and extended eastward to a 1,000 acre tract on Maracossic which Pendleton later acquired. Just below the latter and abutting the Maracossic were the 700 acres which his mother had once owned and conveyed to Benjamin Hubbard. Pendleton made a deal with Hubbard and got it back, probably in ΐ753.®*Ίη this way he got title to one parcel after another. The destruction of the Caroline County deed books leaves the picture incomplete, but a fair idea can be had from a crude map made by Pendleton himself.®^ He probably settled on his new lands shortly after he began acquiring them, for they were located in Drysdale Parish, and he had left St. Mary's and moved to Drysdale well before December, 1745, for by then he was a churchwarden of Drysdale,®^ and he could not have qualified for the place as an "Inhabitant" of the parish until he had lived there for a year.®® From his early years Pendleton took an intimate part in the life of his community. He was, and always remained, devoted to the Established Church, which he served as vestryman and church-

34

Edmund Pendleton

warden.®* From time to time the justices of Caroline appointed him to transact the County's business. Although they were not large undertakings, they were important to his fellow-citizens, who could be sure of Pendleton's best efforts. Indeed, his whole life is the story of day-by-day attention to business, much of it public business, no detail of which was too trifling to receive his serious consideration. One order ran: On the petition of Thomas Johnson Gent John Taylor James Taylor John Baylor and Edmond Pendleton gen. or any two of them are appointed to vew a Road from below the Goose pond Swamp on a direct Course to this Court house and return their proceedings to Next Court.»» And at the next court: Lunsford Lomax Thomas Wild Edmond Pendleton and Thomas Johnson or any two of them are appointed to wait on Hanover Court to know whether they will prosecute Harris's Bond or agree to build a new bridge over Pamunkey River at Littlepages and report the same to next Court.®® At that time adjoining counties having a stream for their common boundary had the duty of acting jointly for the construction and maintenance of bridges, and diplomatic representatives had to be sent to work out such problems. Pendleton's law practice had grown appreciably by the summer of 1745. He was already a success in the county courts and that success prompted him to match his skill against the first lawyers of the Colony. There was only one place for a young man with his ambition, and in October, 1745, he headed southward to qualify in the highest tribunal of the Colony, the General Court, which sat only in WiUiamsburg.®^ He planned to extend his practice to that Court at the April Term in 1746, and shortly before it began this notice appeared in the Gazette: The Subscriber purposing to give his Attendance, as a Practitioner of the Law, at the next General Court, in April, gives this Notice thereof; and that all Persons who have Occasion, may apply to him at his Lodgings at Mrs. Tacke's next Door to the Printing-Office, in Williamsburg, during the Time of the Court, and a few days before and after. Edmond Pendleton®®

MAP

OF

CAROLINE

COUNTY,

VIRGINIA

35

Deputy Attorney of Our Lord the King

His reputation was largely local to Caroline and the adjoining counties, however, and for the next two years he continued his general practice there.

•it

it

it

While attending to his growing private practice, he was appointed "Deputy Attorney of Our Lord the King," as the prosecuting attorney was called, and assigned to prosecutions in E^sex. In November, 1744, the annual county budget carried this item: To Edmond Pendleton Gent Deputy Attorney of our Lord the King

13 50,

the number of pounds of tobacco he would receive for his services for one year.®® The criminal law of the time imposed severe penalties for some offenses with which the courts deal gently today, and Pendleton could have had no illusions about his job after seeing first-hand how offenders were dealt with. Margaret R came into Court and Confessed Judgment to John Taliaferro & John Taliaferro the younger Gent Churchwardens of St. Mary's Parish in debt for five hundred Pounds of tobacco . . . or fifty shillings Current money and Costs, for her having a Bastard Child which she is Ordered to pay or to receive on her Bare back twenty five lashes well laid on at the Public whiping Post.^® A Negro slave was convicted of arson and it was the Court's sentence that the said Phill be Conveyed to the Gaol of this County and that the sherif Cause the said Phill to be hanged by the Neck untili he be dead and that his head be Cut of [í/í;] and put up in some publick place.^^ For the compensation of Phill's master by the public, the wretched slave was valued at ¿^o. Such compensation was paid "as an incouragement to the people to Discover the vülanies of their Slaves."*'' A Negro charged with murder by poisoning was acquitted, but the justices believed he had given "powders" to other Negroes, so, on suspicion alone, ordered the acquitted man transported out of the Colony, which probably meant one of the worst fates that could come to a slave, the sugar fields of the Barbados. Thus it was with the slaves who were tried by the justices of

36

Edmund Pendleton

the County. The white malefactors, on the other hand, were sent on to Williamsburg for trial. During Pendleton's apprenticeship Constantine Matthews robbed the store of his master, William Woodford, one of the justices, who lived only a few miles from Moon's Mount. Off he went to the General Court, and then, along with six other unfortunates, was led to the gallows just beyond the town at "the usual Place of Execution."^® While Pendleton was prosecuting attorney, however, Essex seems to have been remarkably free from serious crimes. T w o years before he came to the bar there had been a scandal in the County, when Charles Quin, an overseer, and an accessory, David White, whipped one of Colonel Braxton's Negroes to death in such a "cruel and barbarous Manner" that both were taken to Williamsburg, condemned by the General Court, and led to the gibbet with the same lot of prisoners that included the luckless fellow caught stealing from Woodford's store.^^ Since then Essex had been quiet, and a f e w instances wül indicate the minor nature of most of the offenses prosecuted during Pendleton's term of office. The Grand Jury brought in a true bill against Алп Dungan, wife of Henry Dungan, "for a Certain abuse and Contempt to Simon Miller Gent a Justice of the Peace for this County in the Execution of his said Office." On the same day there were presentments brought against certain persons for not keeping up signs at road crossings.^® The churchwardens were the busiest in bringing prosecutions. Wee of the Grand Jury being Sworn for the Body of this County do make the Following presentments (Viz) John Powell of Southfamham Parish for Swaring two Oaths the first day Instant. Samuel Piles of Southfamham parish for not frequenting his Parish Church once in one Month within two months Last past. Anne Smith of Southfamham Parish for Retailing of Liquors Contrary to Law the 31st day of July Prosecutions for failure to attend church far exceeded all others in number, and each time it meant j i , or 50 lbs. tobacco, for distribution to the poor. The drive against gaming continued for the next few months, numerous persons being convicted for the offense, and fined ¿ ζ for the use of the роог.·*·*^ The gamblers did far more per man for the poor than did the absentees from church, who contributed

Deputy Attorney of Our Lord the King

37

only 5J. But the stigma of gaming did not apply to every little game of chance,*® Sometimes the young prosecutor found his office an embarrassment in his civil practice. There was the case of Mary О , widow. One day she called on the handsome young lawyer to tell him indignantly about the tales that were being circulated about her by another widow, Sarah Brooke, and by one Joseph George. They had Imked her name with that of George G in a manner that no decent lady would stand for, and Mary would have them pay for the defamation. Pendleton had encountered Mary before in trying to collect a debt due Andrew Anderson, Merchant, and, failing by gentler means, had taken judgment against her for 12:10.*® However, a poor widow's inability to pay a debt was no mark against her chastity and the young lawyer quite properly accepted her story and brought actions against both defamers, Pendleton prepared his cases for trial and appeared at the bar to vindicate his client's honor; the defendants appeared to contest the actions; the justices took their places; and the jurymen were looking forward to the titillating details of the most interesting case then before the Court. Everybody was ready; that is, everybody but Mary. As the clock ticked off the minutes and she did not appear, the disappointed justices non-suited her in both actions and gave judgments against her for costs.®" The reason for Mary's failure to appear was not long a mystery. T w o months after Pendleton's disappointment and embarrassment at the bar, the Grand Jury for the County made several presentments against local malefactors, among them being one against George G for not Entering himself a titheable according to Law, as also for absenting himself from his Parish Church one month within two months Last past, also with living in Adultery with Mary О and Likewise for taking up Stray Horses & Remarking one mare and Selling Swaping and using them Contrary to Law.®^ Failure to pay taxes and staying away from church were not so bad, but laying hands on another man's only means of transportation was very serious indeed, and aroused the ire of the community, so that vigorous prosecution was called for. But what stuck in King's Attorney Pendleton's mind was that "living in Adultery with Mary О ." That was a bit embarrassing, for he would

38

Edmund Pendleton

have to establish beyond a reasonable doubt in the criminal trial the very facts he had prepared to disprove in the civil actions he had brought against Mary's accusers. Doubtless he was considerably relieved when George G made the prosecution impossible by placing himself beyond the reach of the constables.

Meanwhile his civil practice continued to grow. Although it was varied in character, the bulk of his business, like that of most other lawyers, continued to be the collection of accounts for the mercantile houses. In one day alone his name appeared on the docket of Essex Court in more than fifty cases.®^ It was volume that mattered, for the accounts continued to be small and there was the usual difficulty about satisfying judgments. He obtained one on behalf of Francis Gouldman for ¿^-.ιι-.ζ, attached the defendant's goods in the hands of one Mary Beasley, and found that "she had in her hands one Small box three hoes and two Locks and nine Patterns for Shoes one bunch of Brissells and two quart Bottles of the Estate of the said William," which she was ordered to deliver.®® Pendleton fought his little claims hard, which pleased the merchants, and his diligence against a debtor would attract the debtor as a client. We have already seen this in the case of Mary О , who, it is true, brought him a pretty bad case. The same happened in the case of Thomas Ley, for after Pendleton had proved effective against him. Ley employed the victor as his own attorney.®* His fellow-lawyers, too, turned to him in trouble. One of them, Francis Gouldman, was brought before the Court on Patrick Donohoe's "Petition to Silence him from acting as an Attorney." And now at this day Came the said Pit. by John Lewis his Attorney as the [said] Francis by Edmond Pendleton his Attorney and the court on hearing his allegations and Evidence on both sides are of opinion that the said Patrick had no reason to Exhibit such a Scanalous and False Petition against the said Francis but that it was a Frivolous Groundless and Malicious assertion of the said Patrick without any Real Occasion for the same .. Moreover, Patrick had to pay costs. But things evened up, for when three months later Gouldman sued Patrick, the defendant prevailed

Deputy Attorney of Our Lord the King

39

and was awarded costs, Gouldman being permitted "to take nothing by his bill but for his false Clamour be in mercy and that the said Patrick go thereof without day."®® Pendleton did not lose his cases often and was quick to appeal to the General Court when he did.®^ His success was hardly the result of favoritism, for one of the adverse verdicts was brought in by a jury on which Nathaniel Pendleton was serving.®® The lawyers with whom Pendleton usually matched wits in the county courts were soon left behind in the merciless sifting to which lawyers are always subjected. But at the February Court (1746/7) for Caroline, Pendleton was in the courtroom looking after the recordation of a deed, having the age of a slave adjudged, and binding out an apprentice (all in the day's work), when a young lawyer from Williamsburg stood at the bar, presented his certificate, and took the prescribed oaths. Doubtless the newcomer meant little to Pendleton. It is possible that he had never seen him before. But he would see much of him in the years to come in a mighty rivalry before the bar of the General Court. "George W y t h Gent" was duly qualified to practice in Caroline.®® When they first faced each other in litigation, Pendleton himself was plaintiff, and W y t h e rose and confessed judgment on behalf of his client for 2,000 lbs. tobacco."* It would not always be so easy. During these early years at the bar Pendleton frequently became surety for others. Sometimes the relationship between the principal and himself was so intimate that he probably felt impelled to act solely for accommodation, and in many cases the surety was a silent partner in his principal's enterprises. It may be, however, that before the days of corporate sureties lawyers were in the surety business for compensation as a side line. A t any rate Pendleton went on a number of bonds and for various purposes.®^ In 1748 Pendleton had to choose definitely whether he would confine his practice to the several county courts or to the General Court at Williamsburg, for in that year an act was passed forbidding attorneys before the General Court to practice in any inferior court. The purpose of the Assembly was "to prevent frivolous suits . . . and trifling and vexatious appeals from the . . . inferior courts," upon penalty of £20 for each offense, one half of which would go to the informer.®^ Pendleton chose the General Court,

40

Edmund Pendleton

but, as the Act did not apply to pending litigation, he continued his activity for more than a year in the inferior courts. His last jury case in Essex was tried in the summer of 1750. Thereafter he appeared only to take judgments on his own claims, and by March 1750/1 he had passed some of this work on to Obadiah Marriot.®® He was called upon, however, to perform one parting service for the justices of Essex, who were in trouble with the colonial officials at Williamsburg. Ordered that Edmund Pendleton Gent, appear as an attorney to defend the Suit of the Honourable the General Court brought against the Justices of this Court Concerning the Dragon Bridge and the Road to the sd. bridge and that he bring in his Account for the same at the laying of the next County Levy in order for an allowance.®^ Meantime the justices of Caroline continued to use him as a diplomatic agent. At the county levy of 1749 provision was made for the payment to him of 400 lbs. tobacco as an attorney fee.®® Hanover was still doing nothing about joining with Caroline "in building a bridge Over Pamunky river at Littlepages," and Pendleton was one of those sent to Hanover Court to get action.®® The county levy for 1751 again provided 400 lbs. tobacco for his compensation for services.®'^ In May, 1751, the justices of Caroline recommended him to the Council for appointment as a justice of that County.®® Although duly appointed, he did not immediately qualify, because of incompleted matters he had before the Court as counsel,®® but on December i2th^® he appeared, "Subscribed the Test," and took the oath to do equal Right to the Poor and to the Rich, after your Cunning, Wit and Power, . . . do equal Right to all Manner of People, Great and Small, High and Low, Rich and Poor, according to Equity, and good Conscience, and the Laws and Usages of this Colony and Dominion of Virginia, without Favour, Affection, or Partiality.''^ This began a judicial career which would continue for more than half a century, interrupted though it was by varied calls to other public service. Although he would close his career by serving for a quarter of a century as presiding judge of the Supreme Court of Virginia,

Deputy Attorney of Our Lord the King

41

refusing President Washington's offer of high place in the newfederal judiciary, he always deemed of great importance his services as a justice of his own county, for those services were intimately related to the lives of the people whom he loved.

« J

oAppendix IV

o\

GENERAL ACCOUNT OF EXPENSES OF THE ROBINSON ESTATE* T H E E S T A T E OF J O H N ROBINSON ESQUIRE DR. "

"

"

"

«

1766

1767

1768

1769

1770

GENERAL ACCOUNT OF ADMINISTRATION.

To paid Expences of Admon Paid the Public Treasury paid other debts To paid expenses of admon . . . . " Public Treasury .... " Other debts To paid expences of admon .... " Public Treasury . . . . " Other debts To paid expences of administration .... " Public Treasury . . . . « Other debts T o paid expences of admon

7S 97 104

349 553 1537

76

117

97

4196

105

1883

77 97 106

3 3 5

4 4 3

6 19 15

6

7 7

411

I

2

3402

8

6

889

2

10

0

78

576

10

98

15218

106

3

465

18

3

80

366

10

8

2439.11.

6198.

8

I. 8

4702.12.

5

16260.11.

4

I I·

I

•From papers in Lidderdale v. Robinson's Admr. This tabuladon, in Pendleton's handwriting, has minor errors in addition, although the errors amomt to less than a shilling.

Public Тгеавшу Other debts

98 107

6140 458

ι 6

8 0

6964.18. 4

paid expences of Admon " Public Treasury .... " Other debts

81 99 107

205 28067 38

I 12 19

б 2 3

28311.12.II

paid expences of admon " Public Treasury

8z 100

ISO 12884

IO 4

7 4У2

I3034.I4.IIV2

paid expences of Admon " Public Treasury

83 100

130 6152

2 12

0У2 8

paid expences of admon " Public Treasury

83 lOI

56 2911

8 15

5'/2 II

paid expences of Admon .... " Public Treasury

84 IDI

IO 1387

13 3

I 7

1397.16. 8

paid expences of Admon .... " Public Treasury

84 ΙΟΙ

14 210

4 4

IO 0

224. 8.10

84

2 1642 5102

8 7 2

9 0

.... .... " I77I

To

" 177»

To

" 1773

To

" 1774

To

" »775

To

" 1776

To

" 1777

To

" "

paid expences of Admon .... " Public Treasury .... " Loan office placed there

121

5 6282.14. 8'/2

2968. 4. 4'/2

6746.17. 9

Sα >3 о

& I

VA)

" 1778

" 1779

To

To

paid expences of admon paid debts Loan office placed there

84 107 121

5 2013 5997

8 8 8

2 3 6

8oi6. 4.11

paid expences of Admon Loan office placed there

85 121

126 6260

3 II

4 0

6386.14. 4

41,889.14.10

αο

" 1780

To

Paid expences of admon Public Treasury

85 102

4 41,88s

8 6

0 10

" 1781

To

paid expences of Admon Paper money accounted for Public Treasury

III

475 6647 41065

12 4

0 0

48187

16

0

16

I .

4.16. I

5

26.14. 5

III

102

—

Й· »«I

« 1782

To

paid Expences of admon

85

4

« 1783

To

paid expences of admon

85

26

14

" 1784

To

paid expences of admon debts

85 107

95 351

Ч 16

7У2 II

« 1785

To

paid expences of admon

86

37

19

1У2

" 1786

To

paid expences of admon debts

86 107

74 501

12

9

I

I

447.11. 6Vl 37.19. 1V2

575.13.10

" 1787

То paid expences of admon debts

86 107

113 5"

16 12

5У2 2V2

" 1788

То paid expences of admon debts

87 107

50 62

3 2

3 II

" 1789

То paid expences of admon debts

87 107

63 147

6 9

7 3

" 1790

То paid expences of admon debts

88 108

54 994

7 19

" Ι79Ι

То paid expences of admon debts

88 108

232 550

8 9

10

8

782.18. 6

" 1792

То paid expences of admon debts

88 108

1671

8 4

9 5

1671.I3. 2

2У2 8V4

626. 8. 8 H2. 6.

2

2IO.I5.IO 1049.

I

6.11 V4

θα

/157,371·

I

о

VM

oAppendix V

00 о

GENERAL ACCOUNT OF RECEIPTS OF THE ROBINSON ESTATE* T H E ESTATE OF JOHN ROBINSON ESQUIRE GENERAL A c œ u N T OF ADMINISTRATION.

1766

By Received for debts for sales of estate

2 24

2008 69

9 12

4 10

2078. 2. 2

1767

By Received for debts 3.113.114.115.116.117 for sales

H

5926 3"

12 9

5 2

6248. I. 7

4661. 481

19 16

II

3 >4

1768

By Received for debts 5.113.114.115.116.117.118. for sales

1769

By Received for debts & 113.114.115.116.117. for sales

»7

11517 4840

1770

By Received for debts 10.113.114.115.116.117 for sales

28

7095 2235

15 10

I77I

By Received for debts 12.113.115.116.117.118 for sales

36

9117 15676

8 3

•From papers in Lidderdaie v. Robinsoris Adntr. This Ь entirely in the handwriting of Pendleton.

8 6

IO

8 I

7У2

8

5143.16. 7 16357.18. 4 9331. 5. 9 24793.12. ^Уг

s·

By Received for debts 14. 116.117.118.120 for sales

38

10747 2881

14 8

I 7

13629. 2. 8

1773

By Received for debts 15. 113.116.118.120 for sales

40

5318 1441

6 I

7 II

6759. 8. 6

1774

By Received for debts 16. 118.120 for sales

1393 1534

'7 9

3 10

2928. 7. I

1775

By Received for debts for sales

16.118 41

1293 22

18 10

9 3

1316. 9. 0

1776

By Received for debts for sales

17.118 41

189 84

I 16

6 3

273.17. 9

4«

6965 175

12 17

5 10

7141.10. 3

42

7441 151

16 18

3 II

7593.15. 2

42

5221 402

4 2

2 6

5623. 6. 8

16912 19379 1916

9 9 9

3 6 10

38208. 8. 7

1772

>777 1778

'779 1780

By Reed, for debts for sales

17. 117.118.120

By Received for debts 18. 118 for sales By Received for debts 19. 116.117.118 for sales By Received for debts Loan office received from thence for sales

19. " 9 121 4»

If д

sα

I 00

1781

By Received paper B. H. Sales

74

Specie for paper sold 1782

By Received for debts

1783

By Reed, for debts

1784

By Reed, for debts for sales

1785

1786

1787

1788

1789

48187

19 20.

38

118

157·

20.113.117

814.

41

20

43

4· 15·

By Reed, for debts for sales

20.117.118

43

By Reed, for debts for sales

21.113.117

By Reed, for debts for sales By Reed, for debts for sales

VAI 00

0

23

43

By Reed, for debts for sales

16

··

• ·

-

1 5 7 . 0. 0

13·

II 855.13.11

8.

4 9

433·

I.

0

376.

13·

I

547

13

9

61

I

8

21.117.120

160.

18

ID

43

34

4

0

21.113.117.120

боб

8

4

43

I

18

0

43

38.-

9·

19.18. I

809.14. I

608.15. 5

195.

2.10

-

608. 6. 4

й-

1790

By Reed, for debts

22.113.114.117

1983

14

5

1983.14. 5

I79I

By Reed, for debts

22.113.114.117.118

1428

6

9

1428. 6. 9

1792

By Reed, for debts

22.117.118

806

9

10

806. 9.10

Balance

;£ι54947· С33.134· · б'/»

I © I

δ'

00