Choice Spirits

260 years ago, a merchant on the banks of the Rappahannock River threatened to undermine strategic non-compliance with the Stamp Act. He needed stamped paper to offload a cargo of perishable grain. He intended only to obey the law. Many in the community viewed that law as a violation of their constitutional rights and liberty. The Lee brothers stepped forward to express and enforce the will of the community on this recalcitrant merchant. Organizing a heavily armed private militia, the Lees rode on Hobbs Hole and made a public example of the man. Richard Henry Lee drafted the manifesto of this militia, the Leedstown Resolves, the first organized, armed, and publicly signed association of resistance in the American colonies and a founding document of our enduring American experiment.  

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Transcript

SM 3:6 Choice Spirits

Intro

This month we explore how the Lee brothers mobilized the first organized, armed, and publicly signed association of resistance in the American colonies, marching on an arrogant merchant 260 years ago today.

In March 1766 papers in Virginia and Maryland reported that the Sons of Liberty convened in Leedstown on the Rappahannock “to consider … what Measures it would be necessary to take, against a Man who was … attempting to introduce a Law so destructive to the Community.” Those measures included the formation of a political fraternity willing to go to any extremity to prevent a break in the united front of non-compliance with the 1765 Stamp Act. The focus of this fraternity’s rage was Archibald Ritchie, a Scottish-born merchant living in the busy port town of Hobbs Hole (present-day Tappahannock) on the Rappahannock River.   

As 1765 gave way to 1766, a frigid winter in the Old Dominion was made colder still by an economic freeze meant to pressure Parliament and persuade them to repeal the Stamp Act, which had been in effect since November 1, 1765. The Stamp Distributor for Virginia had effectively resigned his appointment after popular protests from the Westmoreland Courthouse to Williamsburg made him fear for his safety. Thus neither stamps nor stamped paper were available. Courts were closed and ships idled in port without the required stamped paperwork to clear customs. For those whose livelihood relied on continually and routinely moving inventory around the Atlantic world, the situation was growing dire. Archibald Ritchie could ill-afford to play the long game like those whose wealth was held chiefly in land, enslaved labor, and political office. Ritchie’s commercial fleet idled at Hobbs Hole with holds full of perishable grain worth around 2800 pounds Sterling, an astronomical sum worth about three-quarters of a million dollars today. Desperate to offload the grain, Ritchie offered it at cost to local buyers, but with economic uncertainty afoot no one was buying. Desperate to avoid a towering loss, Ritchie decided to break ranks. In late January, on court day in Richmond county, Ritchie claimed he knew where to acquire stamped paper and announced his intention to use it to clear his ships from port. The news spread rapidly across the Northern Neck. Richard Henry Lee would later write: This self-interested man says, it will be hard on him, not to send out his grain; but, will it not be harder on the good people of Virginia, to lose their liberty?    

But the first attempt to leash Ritchie was a local action on February 21st headed by Essex county VIPs William Roane (Ritchie’s brother-in-law) and Francis Waring, who turned up at Ritchie’s riverfront home on Prince Street with an irate crowd of roughly seventy locals hellbent on dissuading Ritchie from compliance with the Stamp Act. Precise details about what happened on February 21st are sketchy, and though it seems Ritchie did enough to pacify the men who had converged on his house, he hadn’t done enough to pacify other more influential men around the Northern Neck. Ritchie’s reputation for arrogance did him no favors. On February 24, Richard Henry Lee wrote to Landon Carter: As I was greatly surprised, and equally disturbed at Mr. Ritchies declaration at Richmond Court, so am I now pleased to hear from you, that he repents of that dangerous step. I make no doubt, but the great resentment of the people will be appeased, when Mr Ritchie shall shew them in public his real sorrow for having offered so great an injury to the community, and convince them of his determination not to make use of that detestable paper, unless authorized by public consent. In short, Richard Henry was happy for Ritchie to get back in line, but suggests to Carter that Ritchie needed to register his change of heart in the public square. Richard Henry was passing on to Carter the course of action his brother Thomas Ludwell Lee had outlined in a prior letter. After conferring with allies from Stafford, Loudoun, and Prince William counties, Tom wrote Richard Henry: We have concluded that the most effectual, and in all respects, the most advisable method will be to pay Mr. R. a visit; and to insist on a declaration from him in writing, expressing the deepest sorrow for having formed so execrable a design, and promising in the most solemn manner, never to use the Stamp Paper unless authorized by the Assembly of Virginia. An object lesson was in the offing, and Tom assured Richard Henry that his allies were assembling what he called a band of choice spirits to carry the lesson home in Hobbs Hole. These choice spirits would be armed with swords, pistols, and firelocks in order to be certain, as Tom wrote, the infant struggles of freedom should not be exposed to the possibility of a defeat.

Tom detected a political opportunity in Ritchie’s error and arrogance. He wrote, R’s profligacy is rather to be esteemed fortunate. The genius of liberty requires to be awakened; and this wretched Scotchman has afforded the sons of freedom a just occasion to rouse that generous fire, which is thought to be extinguished among us. Tom wasn’t the only Virginian ready to visit indignation on Ritchie’s head. On February 22, Samuel Washington (George’s younger brother) wrote emphatically to Richard Henry: the North side of the Rappahannock will not be passive, assuring him that, many are ready at a moments Warning to assist in anY thing Destructive to him or his Intentions … Please to inform me of the time & place When we may assemble & Affectually Prevent such Destructive Precedents. Ritchie’s decision to comply with the law of the land rather than the will of the community had stirred up a hornet’s nest. Tom recognized that the moment was ripe for something grander than a single action venting community anger and he closed his letter to Richard Henry with a fateful request: This will be a fine opportunity to effect the scheme of an association, and I should be glad [if] you would think of a plan.

Let’s pause to appreciate the stakes here. These men weren’t proposing sternly worded petitions and impolite language. They were assembling a private militia to enforce non-compliance with the Stamp Act against the authority of the Crown. In so doing they made themselves candidates for the noose on charges of treason.

 
In his letter to Rchard Henry, Tom suggested: We propose to be in Leedstown in the afternoon of the 27th inst., where we expect to meet those who will come from your way, and asked his brother to conceive a plan of association. Richard Henry Lee did exactly that. On the evening of February 27, 1766, in Leedstown on the Rappahannock River, Richard Henry presented his plan of association to a steering committee drawn from the larger body of men ready to ride on Ritchie at Hobbs Hole. The plan was a formal pact of non-compliance with the Stamp Act, of enforcement of non-compliance, and mutual defense. Today the plan is known as the Leedstown Resolves, which was signed openly not anonymously by 115 men from 12 counties, including 6 members of the Lee family, 4 Washingtons, 2 Monroes, and one Mason. The signers open by acknowledging their duty of obedience as far as is consistent with the preservation of our constitutional rights and liberty, but where those rights are violated (and they hold them to have been violated by the Stamp Act), we will go to any extremity; not only to prevent the success of such attempts, but to stigmatize and punish the offenders.

With their constitutional and moral framework established, the association moved on Archibald Ritchie. On February 28, around 400 armed men crossed the river, rode into Hobbs Hole, and formed military lines outside Ritchie's home. Faced with a private militia and the imminent threat of the pillory, Ritchie grudgingly capitulated, and read a public statement (no doubt dictated to him by the Lees), which was later reported in the papers: Sensible now of the high Insult I offered this Country, by declaring at Richmond Court lately, my Determination to make use of Stamp’d Papers, for clearing out my Vessels; and being convinced, such Proceeding would establish a Precedent, by which the hateful Stamp-Act might be introduced into this Colony to the utter Destruction of public Liberty; I do most submissively, in Presence of the Public, sign this Paper, meaning to shew my deep Remorse for having formed so [illegible] a Design; and I do hereby solemnly promise, and swear on the Holy Evangelists, that no Vessel of mine shall sail, cleared on Stamp’d Paper, and that I never will, on my Pretence, make use of, or cause to be made use of, Stamp’d Paper unless the Use of such Paper shall be authorized by the General Assembly of this Colony. Archibald Ritchie.

Landon Carter’s eldest son Robert was there that day and made this note in his daybook: Just returned from Hobbs Hole [Tappahannock] where I met a large Company of Gentlemen who assembled to compell Mr Archd Ritchie to sign a Paper wherein he confessed his remorse at his declaration of his Intention to clear out on Stampd Paper; & solemnly swore never in any manner whatever to use Stamped Paper; this he did in the most impudent way I ever saw anything done; altho’ surrounded by about 300 men who were justly incensed at his Behavior & who were all, most all, well armed. The Lees had successfully orchestrated the first organized, armed, and publicly signed association of resistance in the American colonies. As for Ritchie, February 28th didn’t break him, it flipped him. Ritchie retained his wealth, restored trust with his local community by becoming an ardent supporter of the Patriot cause. He was elected to the Essex County Committee of Safety in 1776 and used his merchant networks to advance the war effort in Virginia. As the Lee brothers and others gathered at Leedstown on the night of February 27, 1766 to sign Richard Henry’s resolves, they did not know that a bill to repeal the Stamp Act had been introduced in the House of Commons 6 days earlier. The bill passed both houses of Parliament in early March and the repeal was made law by George III on March 18. But, Parliament didn't repeal the tax without a massive caveat. On the very day George signed the repeal, Parliament also passed the Declaratory Act, a measure asserting Parliament’s right to make laws and levy taxes on the American colonies "in all cases whatsoever." This led Richard Henry to remark that, the nature of men in authority is inclined rather to commit two errors than to retract one. Indeed, jubilation over repeal was incredibly short-lived, but that is the story for another day … 

Outro

Sound effects courtesy of Pixabay
Music is William Ross Chernoff's "In Shadows"
AI voices courtesy of easy-peasy.ai (except Dr. Steffey)
© Dr. Gordon Blaine Steffey, 2026