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The House of Burgesses (/ ˈ b ɜːr dʒ ə s ɪ z /) was the lower house of the Virginia General Assembly from 1619 to 1776. It existed during the colonial history of the United States in the Colony of Virginia in what was then British America.
It also socially segregated white colonists from black enslaved persons, making them disparate groups and hindering their ability to unite. Unity of the commoners was a perceived fear of the Virginia aristocracy, who wished to prevent repeated events such as Bacon's Rebellion, occurring 29 years prior. [3]
The Burgesses, convened as the First Convention, met on August 1, 1774, and elected officers, banned commerce and payment of debts with Britain, and pledged supplies. They elected Peyton Randolph, the Speaker of the House of Burgesses, as the President of the convention (a position he held for subsequent conventions until his death in October ...
Burgesses were originally freeman inhabitants of a city in which they owned land and who contributed to the running of the town and its taxation. The title of burgess was later restricted to merchants and craftsmen, so that only burgesses could enjoy the privileges of trading or practising a craft in the city through belonging to a guild (by holding a guild ticket) or were able to own ...
House of Burgesses chamber inside the Capitol building at Colonial Williamsburg. The lower house of a colonial legislature was a representative assembly. These assemblies were called by different names. Virginia had a House of Burgesses, Massachusetts had a House of Deputies, and South Carolina had a Commons House of Assembly.
He reorganized the Assembly into two houses along the lines of the English Parliament. The new lower house, the House of Burgesses, was to provide a counterweight to the Council-led group that had deposed Harvey. However, they maneuvered to elect one of their own, Thomas Stegg, as the first Speaker of the new House when it convened in March ...
David Crawford was born circa 1625, in Scotland, emigrating to the Virginia Colony with his father, John Crawford around 1643. [2] His father was later killed in Bacon's Rebellion of 1676. His daughter Elizabeth (died 1762) married Nicholas Meriwether II of New Kent County, an ancestor of Meriwether Lewis .
He was one of the men representing Charles City County in the House of Burgesses from 1658 until 1675, and in 1658 and during the Colony's "Long Parliament" fellow burgesses selected him as their Speaker 1662–74. [1] This was the second longest tenure of any Speaker. [2] Wynne was born in Canterbury, England, being baptized there on December ...