Virginia Conventions and Declaration of Independence
The Berkeley County representative to the Virginia House of Burgesses was Robert Rutherford, known to his friends as “Robin”. He was the leader of “Robins Rangers” of French and Indian War fame and was serving as an elected representative to the Virginia House of Burgesses when the royal Governor Lord Dunmore dissolved the House of Burgesses in 1774. Following dissolution of the Burgesses, the Virginia colonists held a series of five Virginia Conventions that served as a provisional government until the establishment of the Commonwealth of Virginia in 1776. Robert Rutherford and Richard Henry Lee were among the elected delegates to the Virginia Conventions. The fifth convention begun May 6, 1776 met in Williamsburg. On May 15 the convention declared independence from Britain and instructed their delegate to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia to declare the colonies independent from Britain. On June 7, Richard Henry Lee, a Virginia delegate to the Continental Congress, made the motion that colonial independence be declared in the language the Virginia Convention had passed: "Resolved: That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved." The motion was seconded by John Adams.
On July 2, 1776, the Second Continental Congress voted to approve Virginia delegate Richard Henry Lee's motion for independence. Lee's motion had been put forward after months of debate and over a year of armed conflict with the England. Thanks to some aggressive negotiations and politicking, John Adams and his supporters were able to get twelve of the thirteen colonies to vote in favor of Richard Henry Lee's motion. New York abstained.
Facsimile of the original Virginia Convention resolution for the independence of the colonies placed in motion by Richard Henry Lee to the Continental Congress June 7, 1776. The Declaration of Independence was written by Thomas Jefferson, debated and revised by the Congress, and ratified on July 4, 1776.