Thomas Jefferson Papers

Recommendation of the Justices of the Peace for Bedford County, May 1781

Recommendation of the Justices of the Peace for Bedford County

Bedford May Court 1781.

Thomas Watts one of the Justices of the Peace for this County having been charged as guilty of High Treason and by this Court Ordered for further Trial—It is the Opinion of this Court, that it be recommended to his Excellency the Governor to Issue a New Commission of the peace for this County and that the said Thomas Watts be left out of the same. A Copy Teste

Ja. Steptoe Cl:

MS (Vi); in hand of Steptoe.

This opinion of the Bedford co. court was probably transmitted to TJ by letter during May, but no such letter has been found. Bedford court met on the fourth Monday of each month (Hening, description begins William W. Hening, The Statutes at Large; Being a Collection of All the Laws of Virginia description ends viii, 519) and presumably, therefore, this opinion was transmitted on or soon after Monday, 28 May 1781.

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