USA > Virginia > The history of the Virginia federal convention of 1788, with some account of eminent Virginians of that era who were members of the body, Vol. II > Part 4
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prohibited from taking more than two female friends to share with her the solitude of Lochleven, one of the most touching of modern fictions represents one of them to have been a Fleming.
His parents were in moderate circumstances, but were able to afford him the means of a liberal education. He attended the school of a Mr. Totten in Dumfries, a good classical teacher ; and, having to make his way in the world by his own exertions, he chose the calling of a surgeon, and prosecuted his studies in the University of Edinburgh. At the close of his terms he entered the British navy as a surgeon's mate ; and while engaged in the service was taken prisoner in his vessel by the Spaniards, who took him to Spain, where he was treated with great cruelty. He was strictly confined to his prison, but when his health began to fail he was allowed to walk in a small garden connected with the jail. So scanty was his fare, and of such indifferent quality, he would have perished with hunger but for the benevolence and sympathy of a Spanish lady, whose residence overlooked the garden, and who supplied him at intervals with nourishing fond. Her name he could never learn, but her kindness he never forgot; and to the last day of his life he would not allow persons in want, apparent or real, to be turned from his door, lest, as he sometimes said with a smile, they might be descended from the good Spanish lady, but, in truth, from the impulses of his own generous heart. Possibly, too, we may see in this incident an explanation of his tender affection for the female sex which was conspicuous in his character, and of that affectionate devotion to his wife which shines so sweetly through all his letters.
When he was relieved from confinement he was resolved to resign his appointment in the navy, which from the first was uncongenial to his taste, and try his fortunes in the Colony of Virginia. Governor Dinwiddie, a Scotchman, had then been promoted from a berth in the customs of Barbadoes to the office of Lieutenant Governor of Virginia; and it is probable that, as an intimacy was soon formed between the Governor and young Fleming, the latter had brought over very flattering letters from Scotland.3% In August, 1755, he landed in Norfolk, and visiting
" A number of clever Scotchmen came to the Colony in Dinwiddie's time with letters from his relatives in Scotland; and when the young Virginians visited England he was ever ready to introduce them
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Williamsburg he determined to embrace the profession of arms. A few days before his arrival, and while he was on his passage to Virginia, the battle of Monongahela had been fought. Brad- dock, Halket, and Shirley had fallen, and the general route of the army had laid the whole West open to the incursions of the French and the Indians. Under such circumstances it was not difficult for an active and intelligent young man of six and twenty to obtain a commission; and on the 25th of August he was appointed ensign in the Virginia regiment commanded by Colonel George Washington. It may seem strange that he did not choose a place in the medical staff; but he cherished a spirit of adventure, and it is probable that he had already shown a taste for war, as he bore on the bridge of his nose the mark of a sabre cut which he may have received in the fight with the Spaniards. His commission as ensign is printed on a folio sheet, the names and dates filled up in a fine hand, and the ink as bright as it was the day it was used; and bears the large, straggling signature of Robert Dinwiddie, which reminds us of the signature of Stephen Hopkins to the Declaration of Inde- pendence.
After serving faithfully in the grades of ensign and lieutenant, he received on the 22d of May, 1762, the commission of captain in the Virginia regiment commanded by Colonel Adam Stephen. This commission, which is also before me, is printed on parch- ment about the size of a half foolscap sheet, and is signed by Governor Francis Fauquier. The term of the military service of Fleming included one of the darkest periods in the annals of the Colony. The letters of Washington faithfully portray the exigencies of that epoch. Even the heart of Washington, familiar as he was with the cruelties of the Indians, grew sick, and he declared that, if by his death he could restore peace and safety to the frontier, he would lay down his life without hesi- tation. At this trying time Fleming performed his duty with unfaltering devotion to his adopted country; and it was not until the general pacification took place the following year that he resigned his commission.
abroad. Samuel Davies, among others, received this courtesy at his hands, and gracefully acknowledges the attentions he received from Dinwiddie's relatives in Scotland.
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He was now to change his mode of life and to resume his old profession. In selecting a new home he came to Staunton, in the county of Augusta, where he settled and engaged in the prac- tice of physic. Here he became acquainted with the family of Isaac Christian, one of the early settlers of the town, who was a prosperous merchant, and was rich in Western lands. The name of Christian is honorably known in the records of the West, and his blood flows in the veins of hundreds now living in Kentucky and in other Southern States. It was William, the eldest son of Isaac, whose name is intimately connected with our early Indian history, and whose murder by the savages, per- petrated with all the subtle refinements of Indian cruelty, has nerved the white man in many a bloody contest with his tawny foes, and will draw tears from generations yet unborn. To Anne, the sister of William, who was then living, and one of the most prominent men of the West, Fleming paid his addresses; and on the 9th of April, 1763, she became his wife.33
A few years after his marriage he withdrew from the practice of medicine, and went to reside permanently on the estate in Botetourt (now Roanoke), which he received from his father-in- law, and which, as before stated, he called " Bellmont"; and here he lived, unless when absent in his various public employments, until his death. At that time the Indians made frequent incur- sions into the settlements, and his first office was to build a log house or fort (the feudal castle of the West), and to this fortress the people of the neighborhood flocked on the discovery of Indian signs. On one occasion, when the neighbors had col- lected in the building, one of the sisters of Mrs. Fleming, who was slightly indisposed, had thrown herself on a bed beneath a window; and presently looking up, she beheld the face of an
33 As I write for Virginians and the descendants of Virginians, who are curious in tracing the origin of the settlers of Kentucky and other Southern States, it may be well enough to say that Isaac Christian had one son. William, mentioned in the text, who married a sister of Patrick Henry, and left several daughters, who married in Kentucky : Anne, who married Colonel Fleming ; Rose, who married Judge Caleb · Wallace, of Kentucky; Mary, who married Colonel Stephen Trigg ; Elizabeth, who married Colonel William Bowyer, of Botetourt; and Priscilla, who died early. Fleming, Trigg, and Christian counties in Kentucky were called after the brothers-in-law.
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Indian warrior examining the room. She instantly gave the alarm, and a strict search was made, but without success; and it was generally believed, in spite of the earnest protestations of the lady, that there was some illusion or mistake in the case. Some years later, when a deputation of Indians, on their return from Richmond, called at " Bellmont," one of the chiefs observed that he had been there before, and had looked through the win- dow, but finding the whites ready to repel an attack, had quietly departed.
The first important trust that Fleming filled after his removal to Botetourt was that of colonel of the regiment of militia which marched to the Ohio and which performed so gallant a part in the battle of Point Pleasant. Allusions have been frequently made in this work to that battle, and we subjoin in a note the best sources of information on the subject.34 Suffice it to say, that Colonel Charles Lewis and Colonel Fleming, in the early part of the fight, were ordered by General Lewis to detail a portion of their forces under their oldest captains, and to advance in the direction of the reported enemy. The two colo- nels, hastening on as directed, sent forward scouts, and while yet in sight of the camp guards heard the discharge of mus- ketry and saw the scouts fall; and in a few moments received a heavy fire along their entire line. Both the colonels fell badly wounded, and were in due time borne into the fort. Lewis died before the fate of the day was decided; but Fleming, though believed to be mortally wounded, joined in the shout of victory. He had received three balls-one in his right wrist, which crushed the bones; another in the same arm, higher up; and the third in his breast. Before reaching the fort the extravasated blood had gathered in the cavity of the chest, which seemed to protrude, and he was in such a state of intense suffering as to preclude all hope of relief. In this emergency, while the sur- geons were attending to those who appeared likely to recover, Fleming called to his aid his negro servant, who had frequently assisted him in surgical operations, and instructed him to follow his prescriptions. This ball in the breast was never extracted;
34 Colonel John Stuart's Historical Memoir, Foote's Sketches of Vir- ginia, second series, 159-168, and Charles Campbell's History of Vir- ginia, 179, first edition.
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and from this time to his death in 1795, a period of twenty-one years, he was more or less an invalid. When he exerted his strength-often when he rode on horseback-the ball made itself felt. It would rise up for the distance of two inches, causing at times much suffering, and then fall down again to its old bed. That with such a drawback he persisted in making numerous journeys to Richmond and Williamsburg, and to the extreme West, at a time when the back of a horse was the only means of travel, shows great perseverance and energy.
With great caution, united to medical skill, he was enabled to render material service to his country. Soon after the organi- zation of the State government he became a Senator from the district composed of the counties of Montgomery, Botetourt, and Kentucky, and a member of the Executive Council; and when we reflect that then the Indians were almost as formidable as the British, and were, in fact, subsidized by them, his know- ledge of the Indian character, and his military talents which had been trained in many a contest with that wary foe, were emi-
nently useful. His letters and papers show the active part which he took, especially in Western affairs. From some of those letters, written on coarse paper and somewhat mutilated, an interesting picture of the cares and wants, the hopes and fears of that day may be drawn. In a letter to his wife from Williamsburg, dated October the 30th, 1778, and written before the currency had greatly depreciated, he says: "I have sent you half a pound of Hyson tea at forty shillings, half a pound of green tea at twenty shillings, and half a pound of Bohea at ten shillings. I have sent you a pound of pins at three pounds. No coffee to be got. We have nothing new here, except the high price of grain-corn five pounds a barrel, wheat four dol- lars. I hope this will find you and all the little ones in health. I trust God will preserve them and all the rest of the family. I have much to say, but no time, as Colonel Christian is waiting. God bless and protect you."
Writing to his wife from Williamsburg, May 20, 1779, he describes the taking of Portsmouth, and narrates some instances of British cruelty not to be found elsewhere: "Four ships of force and others (in all seventeen) came to anchor near Ports- mouth the 9th instant, and next day landed and took possession of the town; Major Mathews, who commanded a part of the artillery battalion, retiring after spiking the cannon. A large
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quantity of tobacco, provisions, and some military stores fell into their hands. A party of the enemy marched to Suffolk, and burned the town. On hearing that General Scott was marching against them, they hastily retreated, doing all the damage they could. Many of my old friends and acquaintances have suffered greatly by having their houses burned, and their negroes and stock taken, and the women made captives of and exposed to the greatest insults they can be subjected to. Another party of the British, meeting with some trading French- men, butchered five of them in cold blood, and strangled three. The captain of a French vessel informed me that they had taken two vessels near Gwinn's Island, one of them his own; that a snow fought them bravely. The other did not fire; and the British murdered their crews with shocking barbarity, one man having his eyes cut out, and his body mangled with worse than Russian barbarity. They threaten to visit Hampton and York. Thank God, we are prepared for them; every day men pouring in, and a thousand came in to-day. By the next opportunity I hope to send you a favorable account of the issue of this affair. The strength of the enemy is known by deserters to be two thousand five hundred. Old Guthridge,35 James Parker,86 and
$5 A corruption of the name-John Goodrich, ship-owner and mer- chant ; at first enjoyed the confidence of the Whigs, and was employed to import gunpowder to the amount of 55,000, with which sum he was entrusted in advance. Under this engagement he incurred the dis- pleasure of Lord Dunmore, who caused him to be seized and confined. In January, 1776, he petitioned the Virginia Convention for an adjust- ment of his accounts, which caused much debate in that body, and led to the development of fraud by himself and sons. In March, 1776, the father and his sons-John, William, Bartlett, Bridger, and another (five)-had abandoned their houses, plantations, negroes, and stock. and were serving the Crown under Lord Dunmore, who had five of their vessels in his fleet, under orders to constantly run up the rivers of Virginia and seize, burn, or destroy everything that was water- borne. John Goodrich was captured by the authorities of Virginia, and was for a time in prison and in chains. Finally, released, he went to England, but returned and engaged in fitting out privateers. His daughter, Agatha Wells, married Robert Shedden, a loyalist, whose descendants in England are persons of consideration. (Sabine's Loyal- ists of the American Revolution, page 4So.) There are many descend- ants of Goodrich in Virginia .- EDITOR.
36 Of Norfolk, Va., merchant ; appointed Captain. (Sabine.)-EDITOR.
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Parson Agnew 31 are said to be active with them." After recount- ing these outrages of the British, which were in the same vicinity in 1812, with equal if not greater brutality, his thoughts recur homeward: " I am anxious to hear from you and to know how my dear children are. Is there danger from the small-pox or from the enemy? If from either, let me know. There is such a bustle about me I cannot say anything more. I must suppress the emotions I feel rising, and only say what I have constantly told you, and what I know you believe, that I am ever yours."
In November, 1780, when the currency had become depre- ciated, he writes to his wife from Richmond: "Robert Preston took up the box, in which you will receive thirty-three pounds of sugar, a pair of shoes, a pair of breeches and waistcoat; like- wise two papers of pins, which cost one hundred and thirty dol- lars (if you think proper you may spare one of the papers, as I shall get some pound pins), half a pound of allspice at thirty dollars, and eight pounds of coffee at thirty dollars a pound, &c." These items explain the scarcity of those days as well as the currency. He adds : "Colonel Campbell has the thanks of the House for his behavior at King's Mountain, and a present of a fine horse equipped, and a sword." As he is about to close his letter, recollections of his distant home burst upon him. "O, my little ones ! let me hear how they are, and believe me ever yours." In this letter he announces the appointment of General Greene as the successor of General Gates in command of the Southern army-an appointment of precious memory to this hour from the Potomac to St. Mary's.
He had received the commission of County Lieutenant of Botetourt as early as the Ist of April, 1776. This office had been established anew by the July Convention of 1775, and its duties were prescribed by the ordinance. During the interval of 1775 and the establishment of the Constitution in July, 1776, the commission was signed by the Committee of Safety. As the ordinance contained no form of a commission, as it was careful to prescribe in the case of the colonel commanding in chief the
37 Rev. John Agnew, rector of Suffolk parish ; became Chaplain of the Queen's Rangers ; died near Fredericton, New Brunswick, in 1812, aged eighty-five years. (Sabine.)-EDITOR.
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forces of the Colony, and as it is probable that no copy of a commission of County Lieutenant issued by the Committee of Safety is in existence, with the exception of Colonel Fleming's, now before me, I will recite its words: "The Committee of Safety of the Colony of Virginia to William Fleming, Esq : By virtue of the power and authority invested in us by the delegates and representatives of the several counties and corporations, in General Convention assembled, we, reposing especial trust and confidence in your patriotism, fidelity, courage, and good conduct, do by these presents constitute and appoint you .to be Lieu- tenant and Commander-in-Chief of the militia of the county of Botetourt; and you are, therefore, carefully and diligently to discharge the trust reposed in you by disciplining all officers and soldiers under your command. And we do hereby require them to obey you as their County Lieutenant; and you are to observe and follow all such orders and directions as you shall from time to time receive from the Convention, the Committee of Safety for the time being, or any superior officers, according to the rules and regulations established by the Convention. Given under our hands, at Williamsburg, this 4th day of April, 1776." It is signed by Dudley Digges, Paul Carrington, James Mercer, Thomas Ludwell Lee, William Cabell, and Thomas Walker. An endorsement on the commission is in the following words: "May, Botetourt County Committee, 1776 .- I do hereby certify that the within-named William Fleming, Esq., took the oath required by the Convention. Teste: David May, Clerk." The commission is printed lengthwise on a half foolscap sheet. The signatures of the Committee of Safety are all distinct, legible at a glance, and like ordinary writing, except Mercer's, which has an elaborate flourish, strongly reminding us of the times when the old feudal barons found it easier to deal in hiero- glyphics than to write simple words, though those words made up their own names.
In June, 1779, he was placed at the head of a commission consisting of James Steptoe, Edward Lyne, and James Barbour, for carrying into execution an act of Assembly entitled an act for adjusting and settling the title of claimers to unpatented lands under the present and former governments previous to the establishment of the Commonwealth Land Office in Kentucky. This office, which required a minute knowledge of the land
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laws, and stern personal courage to resist the passions peculiar to squatters, he performed with great credit to himself and to the entire satisfaction of the Executive and the General Assem- bly. At that time, and long subsequently, the traveller to Ken- tucky incurred no little personal risk; and on one occasion his party was attacked by the Indians, who were fortunately repulsed.
It was the custom of the patriots who controlled the public councils during the Revolution, when any important duty was to be performed, to select the best man for the purpose, and to throw the responsibility of a refusal upon him. Thus it was that, notwithstanding the inconvenience arising from his wounds, which rendered him susceptible of what he called rheumatic attacks, Fleming was constantly called upon in Western affairs; and his energy and patriotism always impelled him to respond to the call of his country. Accordingly, on the 29th of January, 1782, he was placed at the head of a commission issued by Governor Harrison, composed of Thomas Marshall, the father of the Chief Justice, Samuel McDowell, the ancestor of the late Governor McDowell, and Caleb Wallace, afterwards a judge of the State of Kentucky, "to call to account all officers, agents, commissaries, quartermasters, and contractors, who have been or are in service in the Western country (then extending to the Mississippi), belonging to this State, for all their proceedings, and to liquidate the accounts of all such persons, as well as those who may still have any claim or claims against the Common- wealth, and make a special report thereof to the Executive." The commission was invested with the power of choosing its secretary, of calling and summoning before it all public officers in the Western country, and of doing all things necessary to accomplish its object; and in April of the following year he was appointed by Governor Harrison commissary to the troops that then were in Kentucky, and to the militia that may be sent there, for the purpose of building and garrisoning a fort at the mouth of Kentucky river.
As a member of the Senate from the district made up of Botetourt, Washington, and Kentucky counties he was punctual in his attendance upon its sessions, and gave efficient support in conducting the war and in furthering those domestic reforms which then engaged the attention of the Assembly. It was by 4
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the aid of such men as William Fleming that the relics of feudal policy, which disfigured the Colonial regime, were extirpated from our new system.
Having thus during the third of a century passed through all the grades of military service, from an ensign to a colonel, and filled the most responsible trusts which his connection with the Senate and the Council entailed upon him, and having seen the humble Colony which he had entered thirty-three years before assume her station as a sovereign member of a great Confedera- tion, he fondly hoped that his public career was ended, and that he would be called abroad no more. But a great question, which shook the State to its centre, rose suddenly before him, and he was called to the metropolis once more as a mem- ber of the Convention called to consider a new Federal Con- stitution.
. His views of a Federal Union were those of a statesman; and he correctly estimated its value in respect of the country at large, but more especially of the distant and thinly-settled West. He knew, as well as any man living, that so long as Spain held Louisiana, and Great Britain held the Canadas, Indian troubles would be frequent, and that all the resources of all the States would be required to repress the hostilities of the Indian tribes in the pay of those foreign powers. But he also knew the innate dread of the tax gatherer by a people who had no outlet for the products of their farms, and, of course, no money, and he shrunk from a system of direct taxation by Federal authority. Hence he would have preferred a strictly Federal Union, which would bear upon the States rather than upon the people; and it is probable that, but for the visit of the eloquent and enthusiastic Stuart to the Botetourt election heretofore alluded to, which resulted in instructions to the members of the Convention, he would have sided with the opponents of the Federal Constitu- tion. But, yielding to those instructions which the Rockbridge delegates did not hesitate to disobey, he voted in favor of ratifi- cation; but at the last call of the ayes and noes in Convention, as has been already stated, he parted from his colleague and sustained the schedule of amendments which were proposed by the select committee, and which were adopted by a majority of twenty.
He saw the intimate relation of knowledge and freedom, and
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ديات إذن
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WILLIAM FLEMING.
became an active promoter of education in the Commonwealth. Had it depended upon him, all Mr. Jefferson's schemes of schools would have been in full operation before the close of the war. He aided in providing funds for the benefit of Hampden- Sidney; 33 and he was one of the first Board of Trustees of Washington College. But he knew that academies were quite as useful as colleges; and at a time when elementary education was little thought of in the West or in the East, he used his influence with the General Assembly in the establishment of a literary fund for the great western counties.39 He cultivated a taste for letters throughout his varied and various career, and he was one of the few residents of the West that had a good collection of books. Beside the leading medical authors which he read pro- fesssionally, he possessed some of the best English classics, especially the historians and the theologians. His Tillotson, bearing the signs of thorough reading and annotated by his hand, is. I believe, still in existence. And it deserves to be remarked that, of all his letters to his family, though written hastily, as most of them were-sometimes in the bustle of a tavern, at others in camp or in the wilderness-few there are that do not contain some allusion to a Superintending Power, and a commitment of his family to His care.
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