Dispatch from 1775: Exiled to a British ship in the James River, royal governor says ‘every part’ of Virginia is ‘resisting’ him

The year 2026 marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Cardinal News has embarked on a three-year project to tell the little-known stories of Virginia’s role in the march to independence. As part of this, I’m writing monthly columns about the politics of the era, written the same way I’d write them today. The events described here took place in late June and July 1775. You can sign up for our monthly newsletter here:

A curious advertisement appeared in the July 1 edition of the Virginia Gazette, our Colony’s newspaper printed in Williamsburg. It advised that the printers of said newspaper were taking orders for an upcoming press run of “The Manual Exercise,” the official British military guide to warfare.

The Gazette did not get a new printing contract from His Majesty’s government in London. Instead, this appears to be an unauthorized reprinting. The operators of the Gazette are shrewd businessmen who no doubt read their own publication and have noticed a decided uptick in advertisements from those buying and selling military manuals.

For those who wonder whether Virginia is at peace or at war, the marketplace provides us with a possible answer: While there is at present no fighting in Virginia, Virginians seem to be preparing for that eventuality — both officially and unofficially.

Officially, the Third Virginia Convention — essentially our House of Burgesses in a different form — has now moved to put Virginia on a war footing. Unofficially, we see Virginians snapping up military manuals as summer reading. One Virginian already is at war; the Continental Congress has put George Washington of Fairfax County in charge of the makeshift army now in the field outside Boston. Almost every day brings some shocking report about unprecedented events convulsing the Colonies. Let’s review.

Our royal governor has fled

In early June, Lord Dunmore and his family snuck out of Williamsburg for the safety of a British naval vessel in the James River. We can now confirm that Dunmore’s family is en route to Britain. Rumors that the governor himself had fled to Boston have proved untrue, alas, based on the most recent sightings. He is, instead, aboard H.M.S. Fowey and was most recently sighted on the James near Yorktown, lurking about, as it were. 

Virginians seem eager to make Dunmore’s exile to the water a permanent one. In late June, a group of Williamsburg Patriots took it upon themselves to break into the Governor’s Palace, where they liberated 300 swords and 200 muskets, which they donated to the local militia. We understand that these Patriots included quite a few young scholars from the College at William & Mary, among them a strapping young lad named James Monroe, who stands six feet in height and perhaps taller in the estimation of his elders. 

In subsequent days, others broke into the palace again, this time to loot Dunmore’s personal goods, some of which were sold at public auction. It is said that many a man in Williamsburg can now brag that he is wearing one of the governor’s shirts. Indeed, a recent notice in the Gazette advised readers to be on the lookout for two young deserters from the military regiment in Amherst County that had been camped in the capital. Of those, 23-year-old James Vaughan was described as being attired in “a green broadcloth coat trimmed with silver lace, which he purchased at Dunmore’s sale.” Vaughan and his fellow deserter, Josiah Cheathum, are said likely to be headed home to Amherst. Captain Samuel Cabell has posted a reward for their return. The two should be easy to spot along the road; Vaughan because of his gaudy new coat, Cheathum because he is said to stand six feet six inches, taller even than the young scholar Monroe. 

Let us put this plainly: Perhaps the grandest building in the Colonies has now been ransacked; its most recent occupant left to fume in letters to London about the “depredation.”

Dunmore tells London that ‘every part’ of Virginia is ‘resisting’ the royal government 

Is Governor Dunmore still governor? He is in name, but not in fact. Dunmore has informed London that he has been in intermittent contact with the House of Burgesses, which continues to meet in Williamsburg. However, each now lives in fear of the other. The speaker of the House has posted guards to warn him if any British soldiers approach; a town meeting in Williamsburg resulted in the town inviting militiamen from neighboring counties to help guard the capital city. Dunmore, for his part, says he dares not go ashore. That means none of the House’s bills can be signed into law (or whatever passes for law in these rebellious times). There was a suggestion that some of the Burgesses meet the governor aboard his ship; they declined, for fear they might be spirited off to Britain. The House proposed a meeting in Yorktown; Dunmore declined for fear that he might be arrested.

Practically speaking, Virginia may have no government at this point. Dunmore has told London: “The Country in every part of it manifest no other disposition than for resisting the Authority of Government. Bodies of men are every where. Set on foot, arming and [drilling] with great diligence, and appearing in uniforms.”

Dunmore has warned London that it must act to set up sea-based communications between the royal governors, “as the Post by Land will become most probably very precarious.” His latest letter to the British government seems almost plaintive. He has told London that he has no ability to quell “the insurrections” taking place inland in Virginia. At most, he says, he can sail up and down Virginia’s principal rivers “to keep the Country in some Awe of Government.”

Virginia sets up its own government and prepares for war

There does remain some “awe” of Dunmore aboard a naval vessel. While the House of Burgesses continues to meet in routine session in Williamsburg, the real political action — some might say resistance — has shifted upriver, beyond the fall line, to Richmond. The functioning of government now seems to reside in the Virginia Convention, a special body set up by the Burgesses that is now in its third iteration. While Dunmore felt Williamsburg was too far inland to be safe for him, the legislators in the Virginia Convention think it too close to the water to be safe for them. They have chosen to assemble once more at St. John’s Church in Richmond, the same place where earlier this year Patrick Henry of Hanover County delivered his now-famous “give me liberty or give me death” speech to an earlier iteration of the convention.

The most recent version, the Third Virginia Convention, has appointed an 11-member Committee of Safety to govern the Colony in lieu of Dunmore. It also has divided Virginia into 16 military districts, each one charged with raising regiments — hence Dunmore’s astonishment that there were men in arms marching about that weren’t in the service of the king.

Washington takes command near Boston

One Virginian is very much at war. That noted Virginian, George Washington, has now arrived outside Boston, commissioned by the Continental Congress as a general and directed to take charge of those who recently fought the British in Massachusetts at a place called Bunker Hill. 

While Colonists were cheered by the ability of local militia to hold their own against British regulars, Washington is said to be much less impressed by what he found when he arrived. He wrote to his brother that the troops displayed “very little command, discipline or order.” He also found his new soldiers “an exceeding dirty & nasty people” with officers who “are the most indifferent kind of people I ever saw.”

Let us hope that General Washington can correct that situation soon. The Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, has lately sent to London two resolutions — one is a declaration outlining why Colonists have taken up arms, the other a so-called “olive branch petition” that proposes a peaceful settlement with London. If that is rejected, the former will surely bring war to all the Colonies. 

Sources consulted: Colonial Williamsburg, Mount Vernon, Naval Documents of the American Revolution, the National Archives, All Things Liberty and “Virginia: The New Dominion” by Virginius Dabney