The Parsons' Cause was a Virginia legal and political dispute involving the pay of Church of England ministers. Its significance lay in eroding the religious establishment's stature in Virginia and in propelling a previously unknown young lawyer, Patrick Henry, to political prominence. In colonial Virginia's tobacco monoculture, the vagaries of the world tobacco market affected …
The Parsons' Cause Trial: 1763. Plaintiff: Reverend James Maury. Defendants: The collectors of the tax for Louisa County, Colony of Virginia. Plaintiff Claim: 300 Pounds in back pay. Chief Defense Lawyer: Patrick Henry, taking over from John Lewis. Chief Lawyer for Plaintiff: Peter Lyons. Judge: John Henry.
Chief Defense Lawyer: Patrick Henry, taking over from John Lewis. Chief Lawyer for Plaintiff: Peter Lyons. Judge: John Henry. Place: Hanover County, Colony of Virginia. Date of Hearing: December 1, 1763. Verdict: Damages awarded, one penny.
The "Parson's Cause" was a legal and political dispute in the Colony of Virginia often viewed as an important event leading up to the American Revolution. Colonel John Henry, father of Patrick Henry, was the judge who presided over the court case and jury that decided the issue. The relatively unknown Patrick Henry advocated in favor of colonial rights in the case.
Maury filed suit, in neighboring Hanover County to avoid the politically hostile climate in his home county. In November of 1763, the presiding judge, Colonel John Henry, ruled that the Two Penny Act had been rendered null from its beginning, contrary to the rulings in the earlier cases.
Beeman, Richard R. Patrick Henry, A Biography. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1974.
Following a poor harvest in 1758, the price of tobacco rose from two to six pennies per pound, effectively inflating clerical salaries. The House of Burgesses responded by passing legislation allowing debts in tobacco to be paid in currency at a rate of two pennies per pound.
According to legislation passed in 1748, Virginia 's Anglican clergy were to be paid 16,000 pounds of tobacco per year , one of the colony's major commodity crops.
The "Parson's Cause" was a legal and political dispute in the Colony of Virginia often viewed as an important event leading up to the American Revolution.
The Hanover County Courthouse is still operating; historic U.S. Route 301 passes by it. The courthouse is adjacent to the Hanover Tavern, where Patrick Henry lodged while arguing the Parson's Cause, and is the third oldest courthouse still in use in the United States.
5, 1763) that Maury's claim was valid, but that the amount of damages had to be determined by a jury, which was called for in December 1763. Patrick Henry, then relatively unknown, rose to prominence by defending Hanover County against Maury's claims. Henry argued in favor of the Two Penny Act.
Colonel John Henry, father of Patrick Henry, was the judge who presided over the court case and jury that decided the issue. The relatively unknown Patrick Henry advocated in favor of colonial rights in the case. In 1758, the Virginia colonial legislature passed the Two Penny Act.
King George III of Great Britain vetoed the law on the British Board of Trade 's recommendation, causing an uproar in the colony. Many Virginia legislators saw the king's veto as a breach of their legislative authority.
Like numerous Biblical figures, Kumalo is redeemed by suffering and receives a new and greater vision from it. Chapter Fourteen: When they return from Ezenzeleni, Kumalo finds that Mrs. Lithebe had found buyers for Gertrude's tables and chairs, and Gertrude would use the money to buy shoes and a coat.
Chapter Thirteen: Kumalo and Msimangu make the silent journey to Ezenzeleni, and on the journey Msimangu tells him that he understands his silence. Kumalo realizes that Msimangu was right: there is no need to fear the one thing in a great city where there were thousands upon thousands of people.
The parallels between the young girl and Absalom Kumalo thus shift the question of redemption to some degree away from the imprisoned son to his pregnant wife. The redemption of the girl through marriage and life in rural Ndotsheni will serve to some extent as a proxy for the redemption of Absalom.
Paton suggests the eventual conflict between the brothers through the difference between their visits with their respective sons; while Stephen Kumalo uses his visit to Absalom to seek truth and repentance, John uses his visit to establish a legal strategy and look for a way to shift the blame away from his son.
Msimangu gives a sermon to the blind there in which he quotes from the Bible: "I the Lord have called thee in righteousness . . . To open the blind eyes to bring out the prisoners from the prison / And them that sit in darkness of the prison house.". Kumalo knows that Msimangu is speaking to him at this moment.
He says that Absalom must have a lawyer, because he does not trust John: his plan to deny that his son and the third man were there, while a lawyer can make the contention that Absalom had no intention of actually killing the white man.
Certainly there are elements of both, but through the metaphor of blindness that pervades this chapter, Paton suggests that Kumalo's new attitude is not a sign of failure but a sign of maturity. During the visit to Ezenzeleni, Paton compares the state of Stephen Kumalo through the chapter to the blind at Ezenzeleni.