Court Case: Trent vs Dinwiddie
Here it is June 1759 and Dinwiddie is long gone. Lt Gov Robert Dinwiddie finally left 12 Jan 1758. He was wanting to leave for health reasons ever since March 1757. By November 1757 it looked like he really was going to sail back "home" to England. This is important, because this man owes William Trent money.
William Trent goes to John Mercer. a top lawyer in the colony to retrieve the money owed him in Nov 1757. And the man who owed him was Dinwiddie. Not personally did Dinwiddie owe Trent, but as Lieutent Governor, Dinwiddie was responsible for saying Virginia owed Trent and his men for their services.
So Trent goes to John Mercer, a top lawyer. John Mercer's name adorns the Mercer Library of George Mason University. John Mercer had one of the biggest libraries in the colony next to William Byrd III. John Mercer helped raise George Mason when Mason lost his father in drowning accident. John Mercer was lawyer to Colonel George Washington. And all 3, Trent, Mercer, and Colonel Washington were all members of the Ohio Company, dedicated to the Promise of the rich land out west. John Mercer's son, Captain George Mercer ,who was aide de Camp to Colonel George Washington, was also a member of this Ohio Company and who later might have become Governor of Vandalia, a colony to be carved out of Virginia and Pittsburgh area.
William Trent built the first fort on the Point in 1754, the three Rivers area of today's Pittsburgh, before the French destroyed it and built Fort Duquesne.
But back to William Trent's quest to get paid for that effort.
Read excerpt by Jason Cherry from his book, Pittsburgh's Lost Outpost, Captain Trent's Fort:
" . . . an outstanding bill was owed to the Ohio Company, and according to John Mercer, there was only one individual responsible held responsible for its payment in full. Unfortunately, this individual was none other than the governor of Virginia, Robert Dinwiddie.
Trent was at a crossroads. No man had ever taken legal action against his own province's governor, regardless of the circumstances, let alone been awarded a disclosed amount. The proposed act might even be considered treasonous. Besides, with an already tarnished reputation, if he challenged Dinwiddie and lost, the consequences as a businessman and gentleman would be disastrous.
Time was also a factor.
It was well known that Dinwiddie's term as lieutenant governor was ending, and he would soon be setting sail on the next ship to England if the weather was promising in November 1757, so he had to hurry.
After conferring once again with John Mercer, Trent decided to act on the good grace of His Majesty and take action. As Dinwiddie was in York, Virginia, Trent arranged a warrant to arrest the governor before he sailed out of the colonies.
Thus the trial known as William Trent vs Robert Dinwiddie was born and would drag on for 3 long years. Over the course of the trial, Trent submitted every financial reord in the Ohio Company books so that the court could see what was potentially owed.
There is not known many specific details of the trial since records have been lost or were burned, but one letter does shed some light on the fateful outcome.
On November 8, 1760, George Mercer, a friend of William Trent's, wrote to him:
I am just returned from Williamsburg, where I ha the Pleasure to be present at your Trial with Govr Dinwiddie, where I may assure You that all his malicious Attempts and Aspersions agt. Your Character and Credit were sufficiently cleared up both to the Court and Jury.
Mercer would continue, mentioning the verdict was awarded in Trent's favor for 800 lbs and felt excited for his friend, adding, "I give Joy of this Piece of real Justice."
Against seemingly unfavorable odds, Trent had won --- not only in the name of the Ohio Company but also, and most importantly, for his honor against Dinwiddie and all other propaganda recently slandering him reputation. He also thanked George Mercer and Colonel Washington for their assistance in acquiring witnesses to support his good character.
The repayment of this debt went directly to the Virginia House of Burgesses, and it became a matter of debate as to how much of the 800 pounds should be recovered through a public levy. A public levy was basically an additional tax on all tithable persons so that the General Assembly could pay off its accumulated debts. In this case, the committee involved at the House of Burgesses on April 8, 1761, agreed that the 291 pounds, 5 shillings and 10 pence that covered the pay and provisions for Trent and his should be paid by the "publick." The accrued interest awarded at the trial in Williamsburg, though, was to be excluded since it was determined that the transaction or agreement of interest was between the said Lieutenant-Governor and Council and the said Trent.
It is relatively unknown, at least record-wise, if the Ohio Company or William Trent ever received this amount awarded.
page 79-80 of Jason Cherry's book, Pittsburgh's Lost Outpost, Captain Trent's Fort,.published March 2019, published by The History Press, Charleston SC, with foreword by David L Preston
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That's the lead story.
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Compiled by Jim Moyer, 6/20/2023, updated 6/25/2023
Table of Contents
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House of Burgesses on the Trent case
Saturday, the 28th of March, 1 Geo. III. 1761.
(1 Geo. III. 1761 = the first year of the reign of King George III)
...On a Motion made, Ordered, That a Committee be appointed to enquire whether any and what Part of a Judgment obtained in the General Court by William Trent; against Robert Dinwiddie, Esq; late Lieutenant-Governor of this Dominion, ought to be paid by the Publick; and that the said Committee consist of the following Persons, viz. ..
Source:
Thursday, the 9th of April, 1 Geo. III. 1761.
(1 Geo. III. 1761 = the first year of the reign of King George III)
Mr Pendleton reported that the Committee appointed had, according to Order, enquired whether any and what Part of a Judgment recovered in the General Court by William Trent, Gent, against the Hon. Robert Dinwiddie, Esq; late Lieutenant Govenour of this Colony, ought to be paid by the Publick ; and that they had agreed on a Report, and come to a Resolution thereon, which he read in his Place, and then delivered in at the Table, where the same were again read, and are as follow :
It appears to your Committee that Mr Trent's Claim for £401. 2. 9 1/2 Part of his Recovery, was for his Expense and Trouble in carrying out Presents of Goods for the Indians at two several Times by Order of the Govemour and Council ; that his Claim of ; £291 . 5. 10 was for the Pay and Provisions of himself and a Company of Men under his Command, raised by Order of the said Lieutenant-Govemour, before the first Virginia Regiment was established, and who afterwards were enlisted into the said Regiment; and that £107. 11. 4 1/2, the Residue of his Recovery of £800, was allowed by the Jury for Interest on those Sums, of which Interest £45. 2. 2 accrued on the said Sum of £291, 5. 10.
Resolved,
That it is the Opinion of this Committee that the said Sum oi £291. 5. 10 ought to be paid by the Publick, but no Part of the Interest, as Application was never made to this House for Payment of the said Money ; and it was a Transaction entirely between the said Lieutenant-Govemour and Council, and the said Trent. The said Resolution being read a second Time, and the Question put that the House agree thereto.
It passed in the Negative.
On a Motion made,
A Bill For raising a publick Levy was read a second Time, and committed to Mr Randolph and Mr Attorney -General. And then the Houfe adjourned until To-morrow Morning Ten o'Clock.
Source:
Friday, the 10th of April, 1 Geo. III. 1761.
(1 Geo. III. 1761 = the first year of the reign of King George III)
MR. Randolph reported that the Committee to whom the Bill For raising a publick Levy was committed, had made an Amendment thereto, which he read in his Place, and then delivered the Bill with the Amendment in at the Table, where the Amendment was again twice read, and agreed to by the House.
Ordered, That the Bill with the Amendment be engrossed, and read a third Time.
An engrossed Bill, entitled. An Act for raising a public Levy, was read the third Time.
Resolved, That the Bill do pass.
Ordered, That M'' Waller do carry up the said Bill to the Council for their Concur- rence.
M'' Attorney reported that the Committee appointed had, according to Order, prepared an Address to the Govemour, pursuant to the Resolution of the Committee, Yesterday agreed to by the House ; and he read the same in his Place, and then delivered it in at the Table, where it was again twice read, and agreed to by the House.
Source:
William Trent's Assignment
To George Washington from William Trent, 19 February 1754 [letter not found]
Letter not found: from William Trent, Forks of the Ohio, 19 Feb. 1754.
A newspaper account of this letter reads: “Letters from Messieurs Trent, and Gist, Footnote 1
to Major Washington, of Virginia, give some Account of their Situation near the Ohio.
The first Letter is dated Feb. 19, at Yaughyaughgany big Bottom.
The 17th Mr. Trent arrived at the Forks of Monongohella Footnote 2
(from the Mouth of Red Stone Creek, where he has built a strong Store House), and met Mr. Gist, and several Others: Footnote 3
In 2 or 3 Days they expected down all the People,
and as soon as they came were to lay the Foundation of the Fort, expecting to make out for that Purpose about 70 or 80 Men.
The Indians were to join them and make them strong.
They requested him (Major Washington) to march out to them with all possible Expedition.
They acquaint him, that Monsieur La Force (ou, La Farce) Footnote 4
had made a Speech to some of our Indians and told them, that neither they nor the English there, would see the Sun above 20 Days longer; 13 of the Days being then Footnote 5
to come:
By what Mr. Croghan Footnote 6
could learn from an Indian in the French Interest, they might expect 400 French down in that Time:
A Messenger sent from the French Fort had Letters for the Commanders of the other Forts to march immediately and join them, in order to cut off our Indians and Whites, and some French Indians were likewise expected to join them:
When La Force had made his speech to the Indians,
they sent a String of Wampum to Mr. Croghan, to desire him to hurry the English to come, for that they expected soon to be attack’d, and pressed hard to come and join them; for they wanted Necessaries and Assistance, and then would strike:
They further write, that 600 French and Indians were gone against the lower Shawneese-Town, Footnote 7
to cut off the Shawneese; 200 Ottaways and Chipawas came to Mushingum Footnote 8
and demanded the White People there,
and shewed them the French Hatchet;
the Wayondotts, tho’ not above 30 Men, refused to let them kill them in their Town;
but they expected every Day to hear they had cut off the Whites and likewise the Wayondotts.
” Maryland Gazette (Annapolis), 14 Mar. 1754.
Trent was engaged in constructing a storehouse for the Ohio Company at the mouth of Redstone Creek when he received his instructions from Dinwiddie to go to the Forks of the Ohio to begin work on the fort at that site. See Robert Dinwiddie to GW, Jan. 1754. Trent then proceeded immediately to the Forks where he was joined by Christopher Gist and other Ohio Company employees and began the process of recruiting men and supplies for the fort.
Footnote 1.
For the newspaper description of Gist’s letter, see Gist to GW, 23 Feb. 1754. By the early 1750s Gist (c.1706–1759), a native of Maryland, had become a leading explorer, surveyor, and Indian trader. He was living in North Carolina when he was employed by the Ohio Company in 1750 to explore as far west as the Scioto River, and between 1751 and 1753 he carried out further explorations for the company on the Great Kanawha and Ohio rivers. Gist had accompanied GW on his journey to the French commandant. See Diaries, 1:130–61. At the outbreak of hostilities in 1754 Gist moved his family from his plantation (Gist’s Settlement) in the Monongahela Valley near Redstone Old Fort back to Opeckon, his place across the Potomac River from the Ohio Company’s trading post at Wills Creek. Gist later served as a guide in Braddock’s expedition and beginning in 1755 acted as a captain of scouts in the Virginia Regiment commanded by GW.
Footnote 2.
The Monongahela and Allegheny rivers meet at the site of present-day Pittsburgh to form the Ohio River. The confluence was generally called the Forks of the Ohio or the Forks.
Footnote 3.
The Ohio Company storehouse on the right bank of Redstone Creek near present Brownsville, Pa., was erected by the company in late 1753 and early 1754 and soon became known as Redstone Old Fort. Ens. Edward Ward described it later as “a strong square Log house with Loop Holes sufficient to have made a good Defence with a few men and very convenient for a Store House, where stores might be lodged in order to be transported by water to the place where Fort Du Quesne now stands” (Darlington, Bouquet, 42).
Footnote 4.
Michel Pépin, called La Force, was French commissary of stores on the upper Ohio. Because of his skill as an interpreter and diplomat he was sent down the Ohio in the winter of 1753–54 to prepare the Indians for the French occupation. In the spring of 1754 he was captured by the British forces near Fort Necessity, and a number of British observers noted how serious the loss of his services was to the French. See GW to Dinwiddie, 29 May 1754. GW had encountered La Force in Dec. 1753 while he was carrying Dinwiddie’s letter to the French commandant (Diaries, 1:146–47). For a report of this speech, see Pa. Arch. Col. Rec., 6:21–22.
More on LaForce:
La Force captured at Jumonville, now in NYC
French Prisoner "La Force" aka Michel Pépin
Footnote 5.
In MS this word reads “them.”
Footnote 6.
Before 1754 George Croghan (d. 1782) was one of Pennsylvania’s leading Indian traders, land speculators, and Indian agents. His trade was virtually destroyed during the French and Indian War, but he continued to serve Pennsylvania during the war as commander of scouts and in supplying provisions to British forces. Trent and Croghan had been business partners since around 1745. By 1754 Croghan had moved his operations to a 4,000–acre tract on the banks of Aughwick Creek and to his plantation on Pine Creek 4 miles above the Forks of the Ohio. At the time this letter was written Croghan was at the Forks acting as an interpreter for Trent, who spoke no Indian languages.
Footnote 7.
Lower Shawnee Town lay on both sides of the Ohio at its confluence with the Scioto River. Although a major Shawnee town, it was inhabited by Indians of other tribes as well.
Footnote 8.
Muskingum, on Tuscarawas River, was about 5 miles east of present-day Coshocton, Ohio.
Source:
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Dinwiddie's Long Goodbye
Land for John Mercer and others of the Ohio Company
...Novemr 6th Andrew Montour, Christopher Gist, Michel Cressap, and Thomas Cressap junr for Eighty Thousand Acres on the Ohio River and the Waters thereof, not to interfere with the Grants already made to the Ohio Company. Do William Trent;, and nine others for Two Hundred Thousand Acres on the Ohio River and the Waters thereof not to interfere with the Grants already made to the Ohio Company, and beginning at the said lands. ...
Papers relating to the Ohio company. (from the archives of the board of trade and plantations in London) printed in Berthold Fernow, The Ohio valley in ...
Vandalia: The First West Virginia? WV Culturehttps://archive.wvculture.org › journal_wvh › wvh40-4 July 14, 1773, Franklin Papers,. XX, 310; Lois Mulkearn, ed., George Mercer Papers Relating to the Ohio Company of Virginia (Pittsburgh: University of ...
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John Mercer's Library
The Cultural History of Marlborough, Virginia An Archeological and Historical Investigation of the Port Town for Stafford County and the Plantation of John Mercer, Including Data Supplied by Frank M. Setzler and Oscar H. Darter, C.MALOLM WATKINS – AUTHOR, Curator of Cultural History Museum of History and Technology SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION PRESS, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION · WASHINGTON, D.C. · 1968
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Pick method of reading, like HTML, then go to page 20:
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Page 20 quote below:
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Mercer’s diversions were few enough, nevertheless, and it is apparent that he devoted more time to reading than to gaming. In 1726 he borrowed from John Graham (or Graeme) a library of 56 volumes belonging to the “Honble Colo Spotswood”[59] (Appendix E). Ranging from the Greek classics to English history, and including Milton, Congreve, Dryden, Cole’s Dictionary, “Williams’ Mathematical Works,” and “Present State of Russia,” they were the basis for a solid education. That they included no lawbooks at a time when Mercer was preparing for the law is an indication of his broad taste for literature and learning.
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Marlborough, we can see, was occupied by a young man of talent, energy, and creativity. He alone, of the many men who had envisioned a center of enterprise on Potomac Neck, was possessed of the drive and the simple directness to make it succeed. For George Mason and the Waughs, Mercer was the ideal solution for their Marlborough difficulties.
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John Mercer’s Library List of books:
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Pick method of reading, like HTML, then go to page 198:
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How Large was John Mercer’s Library?
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This library was so large and re-known that there is a Mercer Library at George Mason University dedicated to the library that helped educate George Mason.
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“In Ledger G, Mercer listed all the books of his library before 1746.
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He then listed additions as they [Pg 43] occurred through 1750 (Appendix K).
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This astonishing catalog, disclosing one of the largest libraries in Virginia at that time, reveals the catholicity of Mercer’s tastes and the inquiring mind that lay behind them.
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Included in the catalog are the titles of perhaps the most important law library in the colony.”
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How Many Books?
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Estimate is somewhere between 1000 to 2000 books.
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I copied the lines of Appendix K, put it into Microsoft Word. It did a word count of 3994 words. So some of the word count included what the costs of the books were.
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Byrd II Westover Library
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Compare John Mercer’s library to William Byrd II library of over 4000 books in Westover:
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John Mercer’s Connection to George Mason
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George Mason who?
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He’s one of the 3 at the constitutional convention who wouldn’t sign, because not enough about any bill of rights was in this document. He is the name sake of George Mason University and the library at that school was named Mercer Library for John Mercer. Ironically and severely so, he is the grandfather of James Murray Mason author of the fugitive slave act living at Selma across from the Rite Aid on Amherst St Winchester VA.
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So this George Mason had the help of being raised by John Mercer whose son, the main subject of this page, George Mercer was 7 years younger than George Mason. Both had access to one of the largest libraries in Virginia at the time, John Mercer’s library.
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Beginnings
George Mason was born in 1725 on a plantation on the Potomac in Fairfax County, Virginia. He was the fourth in a line of George Masons who had established considerable landholdings in the Virginia colony. When George was 10, his father drowned in a Potomac sailing accident, and his barrister uncle, John Mercer, took over as Mason’s tutor. Mercer had one of the most extensive libraries in the Colonies, and Mason immersed himself in its collected wisdom. He had virtually no formal schooling and essentially educated himself from his uncle’s library.
Upon attaining his majority, Mason took over the administration of his self-sufficient plantation. He actively supervised every detail, as well as the design of Gunston Hall, the home he built. Mason even spelled out how the mortar was to be mixed to best keep out “those pernicious little vermin, the cockroaches.”
Mason married Ann Eilbeck in 1750, and their union produced nine children. The squire of Gunston Hall took his place in plantation society and was well liked by all, despite a tendency toward hypochondria and a sometimes irascible personality.
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FROM WIKIPEDIA ON GEORGE MASON (IV):
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On March 5, 1735, George Mason III died when his boat capsized while crossing the Potomac. His widow Ann would raise their son George (then 9) [which is George Mason (distinguished as the IV for disambiguation purposes]… [while our George – George Mercer, the main subject of this whole page, was only 2 years old at the time] and two younger siblings as co-guardian with lawyer John Mercer [who had married Catherine Mason, daughter of George Mason II and his 2nd wife… George Mason III was the son of George Mason II and his first wife. Thus Catherine Mason was a half sister to George Mason III] . She selected property at Chopawamsic Creek (today in Prince William County, Virginia) as her dower house and there lived with her children and administered the lands that her elder son would control upon reaching his 21st birthday.[12]
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In 1736, George began his education with a Mr. Williams, hired to teach him for the price of 1,000 pounds (450 kg) of tobacco per annum. George’s studies began at his mother’s house, but the following year, he was boarded out to a Mrs. Simpson in Maryland, with Williams continuing as teacher through 1739. By 1740, George Mason was again at Chopawamsic, under the tutelage of a Dr. Bridges. Mason’s biographers have speculated that this was Charles Bridges, who helped develop the schools run in Britain by the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge, and who came to America in 1731. In addition, Mason and his brother Thomson doubtlessly had the run of Mercer’s library, one of the largest in Virginia, and the conversations of Mercer and the book-lovers who gathered around him were likely an education in themselves.[12]
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Mercer was a brilliant man of strong opinions, who expressed his views in ways that sometimes gave offense; Mason proved similar in brilliance of mind and ability to anger.[10] George Mason attained his majority in 1746, and continued to reside at Chopawamsic with his siblings and mother.[13]
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