Peyton Randolph was a planter and public official from the Colony of Virginia. He served as Speaker of the Virginia House of Burgesses, president of Virginia Conventions, and the first President of the Continental Congress.
John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, known as Lord Dunmore, was a Scottish peer and colonial governor in the American colonies and The Bahamas. He was the last colonial governor of Virginia.
Andrew Lewis was an Irish-born American pioneer, surveyor, and soldier of Colonial Virginia. A colonel of militia during the French and Indian War, and brigadier general in the American Revolutionary War, Lewis is most famous for his 1774 victory in the Battle of Point Pleasant in Dunmore's War. He also helped found Liberty Hall, when it was made into a college in 1776.
Stephen Trigg was an American pioneer and soldier from Virginia. He was killed ten months after the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown in one of the last battles of the American Revolution while leading the Lincoln County militia at the Battle of Blue Licks, Kentucky.
The Gunpowder Incident was a conflict early in the American Revolutionary War between Lord Dunmore, the Royal Governor of the Colony of Virginia, and militia led by Patrick Henry. On April 20, 1775, one day after the Battles of Lexington and Concord, Lord Dunmore ordered the removal of the gunpowder from the magazine in Williamsburg, Virginia to a Royal Navy ship.
The Virginia Conventions have been the assemblies of delegates elected for the purpose of establishing constitutions of fundamental law for the Commonwealth of Virginia superior to General Assembly legislation. Their constitutions and subsequent amendments span four centuries across the territory of modern-day Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky.
The Second Virginia Convention was a meeting of the Patriot legislature of Virginia which opened at St. John's Episcopal Church in Richmond on March 20, 1775. Many famous people included in the writing of the Declaration of Independence were there. It was the setting for Patrick Henry's famous speech, Give me liberty, or give me death! Patrick Henry's speech persuaded many to declare war on Great Britain. In his speech, he declared that he either get freedom or die obtaining it.
The Third Virginia Convention was a meeting of the Patriot legislature of Virginia held in Richmond from July 17 to August 26, 1775.
William Christian was a Continental soldier, militiaman and politician from the Colony of Virginia who served in the era of the American Revolution. The Town of Christiansburg, Virginia, is named in his honor. He was a signatory to the Fincastle Resolutions and founder of Fort William. Christian helped to negotiate the Treaty of Long Island—making peace between the Overmountain Men and the majority of the Cherokee tribes in 1777.
The Fairfax Resolves were a set of resolutions adopted by a committee in Fairfax County in the colony of Virginia on July 18, 1774, in the early stages of the American Revolution. Written primarily by George Mason, the resolutions rejected the British Parliament's claim of supreme authority over the American colonies. More than thirty counties in Virginia passed similar resolutions in 1774, "but the Fairfax Resolves were the most detailed, the most influential, and the most radical."
The Fincastle Resolutions was a statement reportedly adopted on January 20, 1775, by fifteen elected representatives of Fincastle County, Virginia. Part of the political movement that became the American Revolution, the resolutions were addressed to Virginia's delegation at the First Continental Congress, and expressed support for Congress' resistance to the Intolerable Acts, issued in 1774 by the British Parliament.
The Massachusetts Provincial Congress (1774–1780) was a provisional government created in the Province of Massachusetts Bay early in the American Revolution. Based on the terms of the colonial charter, it exercised de facto control over the rebellious portions of the province, and after the British withdrawal from Boston in March 1776, the entire province. When Massachusetts Bay declared its independence in 1776, the Congress continued to govern under this arrangement for several years. Increasing calls for constitutional change led to a failed proposal for a constitution produced by the Congress in 1778, and then a successful constitutional convention that produced a constitution for the state in 1780. The Provincial Congress came to an end with elections in October 1780.
Israel Christian (c.1720—1784) was an 18th-century American pioneer, militia officer, politician and businessman. One of the earliest landowners in Kentucky, he founded the town of Fincastle, Virginia. He was also a representative of Augusta County in the House of Burgesses from 1759 to 1761.
Samuel McDowell was a soldier and early political leader in Kentucky. He was the father of Dr. Ephraim McDowell.
The history of Virginia in the American Revolution begins with the role the Colony of Virginia played in early dissent against the British government and culminates with the defeat of General Cornwallis by the allied forces at the Siege of Yorktown in 1781, an event signaled the effective military end to the conflict. Numerous Virginians played key roles in the Revolution, including George Washington, Patrick Henry, and Thomas Jefferson.
Colonel William Preston played a crucial role in surveying and developing the western colonies, exerted great influence in the colonial affairs of his time, enslaved many people on his plantation, and founded a dynasty whose progeny would supply leaders of the South for nearly a century. He served in the Virginia House of Burgesses and was a colonel in the militia during the American Revolutionary War. He was one of the fifteen signatories of the Fincastle Resolutions.
Sampson Mathews was an American merchant, soldier, and legislator in the colony of Virginia.
The Mathews family was an American political family descended from John Mathews and Ann Archer, originating in colonial Virginia and active in Virginia and the American South in the 18th–20th centuries.
The Augusta County Committee of Safety was the shadow government of patriots from Augusta County, Virginia prior to and throughout the American Revolution. One of many such revolutionary committees of safety, the Augusta County committee is notable for writing the first known policy proposal to create a permanent independent state government and federal union of American colonies. The paper was presented by Thomas Lewis at the Fifth Virginia Convention on May 10, 1776, preceding the United States Declaration of Independence by more than 50 days.
The Augusta Declaration, or the Memorial of Augusta County Committee, May 10, 1776, was a statement presented to the Fifth Virginia Convention in Williamsburg, Virginia on May, 10 1776. The Declaration announced the necessity of the Thirteen Colonies to form a permanent and independent union of states and national government separate from Great Britain, with whom the Colonies were at war.
