Page 13 - Swann Galleries - Printed & Manuscript African Americana- Sale 2308 - March 21, 2013

FUTURE SIGNER OF THE DECLARATION ORDERS
THE CAPTURE OF FIVE RUNAWAYS
3 ● (SLAVERY AND ABOLITION—COLONIAL VIRGINIA.) LEE, RICHARD
HENRY. Autograph Document Signed, a search warrant for five runaways. Single
4to leaf, written on one side; some cracks where folded; paper unevenly toned. Signed by
Lee with his seal as Justice of the Peace for Westmoreland County Virginia.
26 April 1769 [2,500/3,500]
Richard Henry Lee (1732-1794), delegate to the first Continental Congress, sixth President
of the U. S. Congress, and signer of the Declaration of Independence, was appointed Justice of
the Peace in 1757, and elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1761.
Apparently five slaves, four women and one man, had run away following their purchase, or
“deed.” The administrator for Daniel Lamkin owner of the “deed” for the slaves asks that the
court find them. In this document, Lee commands his constables “to search diligently for the
said Negroes Alice, Judy, Sue, Alice and Will, and to make Hue and Cry after them, from
Town to Town, and from County to County, as well by Horsemen as Footmen, and when you
have apprehended them that you then carry them to the said Matthew Partridge, Administrator
for the said Daniel Lamkin’s deed.
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