Volume 18 , Issue 30

1775, Williamsburg, January 7

Looking back through the newspaper archives, we found this interesting tidbit concerning the "Williamsburg, January 7," in The Virginia Gazette, Williamsburg, Virginia, dated 7 January 1775, Saturday, page 2, To the Right honorable John Earl of Dunmore, his majesty's Lieutenant and Governor General of the Colony and Dominion of Virginia, and Vice Admiral of the same:

Found on Newspapers.com

My Lord,
We his majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Mayor, recorder, Aldermen and Common Council, of the Borough of Norfolk, in Common Hall assembled, impressed with a deep and grateful sense of the important services rendered to this Colony by your Excellency's seasonable and vigorous Exertion in the late Expedition against a deceitful and treacherous Enemy, conducted under your Auspices to so fortunate an issue, beg Leave, by this testimony of our general Respect, to congratulate your excellency on the happy event, and on your fate arrival at the capital.

While we applaud your Lordship's Moderation, in giving Peace to a merciless Foe, we cannot but exult in the Happiness of our Fellow Subjects on the Frontiers, who, by your unremitted Zeal and spirited Conduct, have acquired the blessings of Ease, Security, and domestic Enjoyment.

As we sincerely participate in every Circumstance of your public glory, neither can we be insensible to your private Happiness in the birth of a daughter, and the recovery of Lady Dunmore; on which joyful occasion we beg leave also to add our most cordial congratulations; and we devoutly wish, hat, to the pleasing remembrance of having faithfully discharged you important trust of government, you may have superadded the approbation of your royal master, the grateful returns of an happy people, and the honor of these distinctions reflected on a numerous and flourishing family.

His Excellency's Answer
The address of the Mayor, Recorder, Aldermen and Common Council, of the Borough of Norfolk, expressive of their Duty and Loyalty to the King, cannot but be extremely acceptable to me.

His Majesty, in his tender Solicitude for the Safety of his subjects so lately exposed to the Calamities of an Indian War, having signified his full approbation of the Measures which I at first adopted for their relief; and as the issue of that event, the only circumstance of it of which he could not yet be informed, will entirely remove the paternal anxiety which he suffered on the occasion, I already enjoy, and have good reason to expect, the continuance of one part of that high recompense which the gentlemen of the borough of Norfolk have so kindly wished me; and the applause which they are pleased to bestow upon me greatly contributes towards another part, which it is my ardent ambition to merit.

The notice which they take of my private concerns is obliging as their approbation of my public conduct is honorable to me, and both demand y most cordial thanks.
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