Living History:
The Leedstown Resolutions and Tappahannock Demonstration
Feb. 27, 2010, 1-4 P.M. Free Refreshments!
Essex County Museum, Tappahannock VA
History will come to life along the streets of Tappahannock on Saturday Feb. 27, as the Northern Neck of Virginia Historical Society and the Essex County Museum and Historical Society combine to present dramatic reenactments of the famous 1766 Tappahannock Demonstrations to enforce the Leedstown Resolutions, against the wealthy and insolent Archibald Ritchie and the Scotsman Stamp Collector, Archibald McCall, who was tarred and feathered for his refusal to comply.
Relying upon historic documents and correspondence, docents and living history interpreters will provide visitors with reenactments of the dramatic events leading up to America's Revolution, ten years before the Declaration of Independence. Tours will take about 40 minutes and will commence at 1:15, 2:15 and 3:15. Light refreshments will be served at the Museum. Admission is free.
Richard Henry Lee, Chief Architect and Provocateur
of the Leedstown and Tappahannock Events,
as portrayed by Ted Borek, NNVHS member
(photo by Ronald Hilton, 2007)
Background: Students of Virginia and Northern Neck history are familiar with the story of Richard Henry Lee, Francis Lightfoot Lee and George Washington's three brothers who signed the Leedstown Resolutions on February 27, 1766 in defiance of the detested British Stamp Act. In 1765, the Westmoreland Civil Court and other courts in Virginia refused to used stamped paper. Business ground to a halt in Virginia and the British found themselves impeded in their attempts to enforce collection of debts against planters. By 1766, several of the colonies were passing such resolutions in defiance of the Stamp Act. The Westmoreland resolutions of Leedstown, authored by Richard Henry Lee, were precursors to the Declaration of Independence a decade later - and students of history will recall that Richard Henry Lee himself, as a member of the First Continental Congress, on June 7, 1776, proposed the motion that the colonies declare Independence from Great Britain. (R.H. Lee and Francis Lightfoot Lee were indeed the only two brothers to sign the Declaration of Independence.)
What makes the 1766 Leedstown Resolutions different from other resolutions in Wilmington, North Carolina, Massachusetts and elsewhere is that the signers were prepared to resort to violence to enforce compliance--truly treasonous behavior. And that took place along the banks of the Rappahannock River in historic Tappahannock.
This reenactment is a historic first, appropriately led by two dynamic historical societies.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND ON LEEDSTOWN RESOLUTIONS: The Northern Neck of Virginia Historical Society has republished their classic 1966 bicentennial Magazine article about the 1766 events in Leedstown and Tappahannock,
now available on the Internet for downloading (pdf).