William Wardlaw to Thomas Jefferson, 5 March 1814
From William Wardlaw
Richmond 5 Mar. 1814
Dear Sir
I am very anxious to procure the Session Acts for the year 1748. After the most careful enquery they can not be found in any of the publick offices here. Mr Henning who has been publishing the Statutes at large says he can not procure them. The Object with me is to see the law dividing the Counties of Henrico & Chesterfield to asscertain whether the southern, the Northeren shores or the1 middle of the river is the line. This has become a question of some importance on act of Mill sites on both sides of the river at the fall near this place.
If you have the law will you do me the favour to quote to me that part of it which relates to this subject. If a juditial question should hereafter arise on the subject I might have to ask the favour of the law itself
W Wardlaw
RC (DLC); endorsed by TJ as received 16 Mar. 1814 and so recorded in SJL; with TJ’s notation on verso: “1748. c. 85.”
An 11 May 1749 law dividing Chesterfield from Henrico County put the former on the south side of the James River and the latter on the north without addressing the question of jurisdiction over the river itself (Waverly K. Winfree, The Laws of Virginia, being a Supplement to Hening’s The Statutes at Large, 1700–1750 [1971], 446–7, 463).
1. Manuscript: “or the or the.”
Index Entries
- books; on law search
- Chesterfield County, Va.; created from Henrico Co. search
- Hening, William Waller; The Statutes at Large search
- Henrico County, Va.; Chesterfield Co. created from search
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- The Statutes at Large (W. W. Hening); sources for search
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- Wardlaw, William; and Va. laws search
- Wardlaw, William; letters from search