When Virginia’s legislature voted to declare a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer to support Boston in 1774, the governor shut it down. This began when unofficial organizations began organizing to enforce boycotts and (later) prepare for war without being outwardly disloyal to the King. With the House of Burgesses dissolved, most members reconvened as (and were reelected to) the “Virginia Convention.” Peter Muhlenberg and Jonathan Clark represented Shenandoah County in the convention. Shenandoah County was then named “Dunmore County,” after John Murray, the Earl of Dunmore (the governor). Muhlenberg, the Pennsylvania- German Anglican priest, and Clark, the deputy county clerk, were elected to the second, third, and fourth Conventions.
At home, a County Committee was formed to enforce the Virginia Association, an agreement to boycott British goods. In addition to being parish rector and a delegate to the Convention, Muhlenberg was chairman of the committee. Other members of the Dunmore Committee included Francis Slaughter, Abraham Bird, Taverner Beale, John Tipton, and Abraham Bowman. Taverner Beale’s farm, “Mount Airy remains intact two miles south of Mount Jackson.
As things became more serious, more than 80 young men from Dunmore County formed The First Inde- pendent Company of Dunmore, a volunteer military organization separate from the county militia (technically still under the governor’s control). Taverner Beale was probably captain of the Dunmore Volunteers, with Jonathan Clark as his lieutenant. Abraham Bowman, Richard Campbell, John Steed, Matthias Hite, Leonard Cooper, Philip Huffman, Jacob Parrot, and Clark’s younger brother John also belonged. These men would later be officers in Colonel Muhlenberg’s 8th Virginia Regiment.
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