Election to Virginia House of Delegates Voided, 27 May 1778

Election to Virginia House of Delegates Voided

Printed text ( description begins Journal of the House of Delegates of the Commonwealth of Virginia; Begun and Held At the Capitol, in the City of Williamsburg. Beginning in 1780, the portion after the semicolon reads, Begun and Held in the Town of Richmond. In the County of Henrico. The Journal for each session has its own title page and is individually paginated. The edition used, unless otherwise noted, is the one in which the journals for 1777–1781 are brought together in one volume, with each journal published in Richmond in 1827 or 1828, and often called the “Thomas W. White reprint.” description ends , May 1778, p. 20).

Wednesday, May 27, 1778.

Resolved, That James Madison, jun. Esq. who at the last election1 for the county of Orange, was elected and returned one of the delegates to serve in General Assembly, being at the time of election a member of the Council of State, was incapable of being elected a member of this House;2

Ordered, That the Speaker be desired to issue a writ for the election of a delegate for the county of Orange, in the room of the said James Madison, jun. Esq.3

1. Among the Election Returns, House of Delegates, 1776–1782, MSS in the Virginia State Library, is the following certificate:

Orange &ct.

This is to certify that, on thursday the 23rd. of this Month (April, being Court day[)] Wm. Moore & James Madison Junior Esqrs. were duly elected Delegates for the said County to serve in General Assembly for one year next following

given under my hand & seal this

23rd. day of April 1778

Francis Moore, S.O.C.

[Sheriff, Orange County]

2. This was in accordance with Article XI of the Form of Government of Virginia (Hening, Statutes description begins William Waller Hening, ed., The Statutes at Large; being a Collection of all the Laws of Virginia, from the First Session of the Legislature, in the Year 1619 (13 vols.; Richmond and Philadelphia, 1819–23). description ends , IX, 116).

3. No one was able to serve in JM’s stead at that session, since it adjourned on 1 June 1778. On 18 June 1778, however, Francis Moore certified to the election that day of Charles Porter “in the room of James Madison the Younger” (Election Returns, House of Delegates, 1776–1782, MSS in the Virginia State Library).

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Source Project: Madison Papers
Title: Election to Virginia House of Delegates Voided, 27 May 1778
Author: Moore, Francis
Date: 27 May 1778

Reference

Cite as: “Election to Virginia House of Delegates Voided, 27 May 1778,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/01-01-02-0078. [Original source: The Papers of James Madison, vol. 1, 16 March 1751 – 16 December 1779, ed. William T. Hutchinson and William M. E. Rachal. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1962, pp. 242–243.]