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The "Parson's Cause" was a legal and political dispute in the British
colony of Virginia The Colony of Virginia was a British Empire, British colonial settlement in North America from 1606 to 1776. The first effort to create an English settlement in the area was chartered in 1584 and established in 1585; the resulting Roanoke Colo ...
often viewed as an important event leading up to the
American Revolution The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...
. Colonel John Henry, father of
Patrick Henry Patrick Henry (May 29, 1736 ld Style and New Style dates, O.S. May 18, 1736une 6, 1799) was an American politician, planter and orator who declared to the Virginia Conventions, Second Virginia Convention (1775): "Give me liberty or give m ...
, was the judge who presided over the court case and jury that decided the issue. The relatively unknown Patrick Henry advocated in favor of colonial rights in the case. In 1758, the
House of Burgesses The House of Burgesses () was the lower house of the Virginia General Assembly from 1619 to 1776. It existed during the colonial history of the United States in the Colony of Virginia in what was then British America. From 1642 to 1776, the Hou ...
passed the Two Penny Act. According to legislation passed in 1748, Virginia's
Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...
clergy were to be paid 16,000 pounds of
tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...
per year, the colony's primary
cash crop A cash crop, also called profit crop, is an Agriculture, agricultural crop which is grown to sell for profit. It is typically purchased by parties separate from a farm. The term is used to differentiate a marketed crop from a staple crop ("subsi ...
. Following a poor harvest in 1758, the price of tobacco rose from two to six pennies per pound, effectively inflating clerical salaries. The House of Burgesses responded by passing legislation allowing debts in tobacco to be paid in currency at a rate of two pennies per pound. King
George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland, Ireland from 25 October 1760 until his death in 1820. The Acts of Union 1800 unified Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and ...
vetoed the law on the
Board of Trade The Board of Trade is a British government body concerned with commerce and industry, currently within the Department for Business and Trade. Its full title is The Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council appointed for the consideration of ...
's recommendation, causing an uproar in the colony. Several Virginian politicians saw the king's veto as a breach of their legislative authority. Anglican minister James Maury had sued in Hanover County Court on April 1, 1762 for back wages on behalf of all the ministers involved, and he effectively became a representative of
the Crown The Crown is a political concept used in Commonwealth realms. Depending on the context used, it generally refers to the entirety of the State (polity), state (or in federal realms, the relevant level of government in that state), the executive ...
's cause. The court ruled on November 5, 1763 that Maury's claim was valid, but that the amount of damages had to be determined by a jury, which was called for in December 1763. Patrick Henry, then relatively unknown, rose to prominence by defending Hanover County against Maury's claims. Henry argued in favor of the Two Penny Act. As Maury wrote on December 12, 1763 in a letter to fellow Anglican minister John Camm shortly after the trial, Henry argued "that a King, by disallowing Acts of this salutary nature, from being the father of his people, degenerated into a Tyrant and forfeits all right to his subjects' obedience."Ann Maury, ''Memoirs of a Huguenot Family,'' G.P. Putnam & Sons, 1872, letter at pages 418-424, quote at page 421 The jury awarded Maury one penny in damages. The award essentially nullified the king's veto, and no other clergy sued. The Hanover County Courthouse is still operating; historic U.S. Route 301 passes by it. The courthouse is adjacent to the Hanover Tavern, where Patrick Henry lodged while arguing the Parson's Cause, and is the third oldest courthouse still in use in the United States. The state historic office dates the building's construction between 1737 and 1742.


See also

*
History of Virginia The written history of Virginia begins with documentation by the first Spaniards, Spanish explorers to reach the area in the 16th century, when it was occupied chiefly by Powhatan, Algonquian, Virginia Iroquoian, Iroquoian, and Virginia Siouan, ...


References

* Scott, Arthur P. "The Constitutional Aspects of the 'Parson's Cause, ''Political Science Quarterly'', 31:4 (Dec. 1916): 558–577. . .
"Episode 017: Parsons Cause, Bishops, and Trade"
American Revolution Podcast, November 5, 2017


External links

* {{Authority control Colony of Virginia 1763 in the Thirteen Colonies History of tobacco Patrick Henry 1763 in the Colony of Virginia