At this day’s session Patrick Henry proposed resolutions “that this Colony be immediately put into a posture of Defence.” After much debate, in the course of which Henry gave his “liberty or death” speech, the resolutions passed by a close vote. GW was appointed to a committee to “prepare a Plan for embodying, arming and disciplining” such an armed force, after which the convention adjourned for the day (VAN SCHREEVEN description begins William J. Van Schreeven et al., eds. Revolutionary Virginia: The Road to Independence. A Documentary Record. 7 vols. Charlottesville, Va., 1973–83. description ends , 2:366–69; also see FREEMAN description begins Douglas Southall Freeman. George Washington: A Biography. 7 vols. New York, 1948–57. description ends , 3:403–5; MAYS description begins David John Mays. Edmund Pendleton, 1721–1803: A Biography. 2 vols. Cambridge, Mass., 1952. description ends , 2:4–11; MEADE [1] description begins [William] Meade. Old Churches, Ministers and Families of Virginia. 2 vols. Philadelphia, 1857. description ends , 2:25–40).

At this time Patrick Coutts (d. 1776), a Richmond merchant, was living on Shockoe Hill, later the site of the state Capitol (Va. Gaz., D&H, 4 Nov. 1775; Reps, Tidewater Towns description begins John W. Reps. Tidewater Towns: City Planning in Colonial Virginia and Maryland. Williamsburg, Va., 1972. description ends , 274, 277).