3. Dined at Mrs. Campbells and went to the Play—then to Mrs. Campbells again.
On this day GW was appointed to two committees, one to write a Potomac navigation bill and one to amend the colony’s flour inspection regulations. Some previous thought must have been given to the second matter; a short time later today the flour inspection committee presented a bill to amend the current inspection act (, 1770–72, 292–93). Designed “to prevent frauds, which may be committed by millers, bakers, and others, employed” in Virginia’s growing flour export trade, this bill, as passed a week later, placed several new restrictions on mill owners. All flour for export must be “genuine and unmixed with any other grain, and . . . all of the same fineness, and faithfully packed in good casks, made of seasoned timber, and, when delivered, well and securely nailed.” The casks were to be branded with the first letter of the mill owner’s Christian name and his full surname or with the name of his mill and conveyed with an invoice “to the place of exportation” in a vehicle or vessel “sufficiently covered and secured from the weather.” There the contents of each cask were to be examined by an official inspector, and if they were “found to be good and merchantable,” he was to “stamp or brand” the cask’s head with a “V” for Virginia, the first letter of county’s name, his own name, and the quantity and grade of the flour (, 8:143–44, 511–14).
Other business before the burgesses today included a favorable report on the deer-hunting amendment by the committee to which it had been referred and passage of the bill allowing GW and others to erect gates on public roads leading to ferries. The gate bill, however, was not approved by the council and it did not become law (, 1770–72, 293–94, 298).