Source: Sherwin McRae, ed., Calendar of Virginia State Papers and Other Manuscripts, From August 11, 1792, to December 31, 1793, Preserved in the Capitol, at Richmond (Richmond: A. R. Micou, Superintendent of Public Printing, 1886), pp. 60-61.
At a Court held for Culpeper county, the 17th day of September 1792:
Present—
James Barbour, James Slaughter, French Strother, Burke H. Davenport, Robert Slaughter, Henry Hill, John S. Slaughter, William Chapman, James Scott, David Jameson, John Thompson, Mordecai Barbour, William Gray, Henry Ward, and Robert Cowne.
Ordered, that it be certified to his Excellency, the Governor, that John Slaughter, Elijah Kirtley, Joseph Roberts, John Wharton, Walter Compton, and William Madison, Gentlemen, who are named in the commission of the Peace for this County, after being called upon, refused to qualify; that James Pendleton and Samuel Clayton resign their commissions; that Cadwallader Slaughter has removed to Kentucky, & that John Johnston has departed this life.
And it is further ordered, that it be certified that there are only Twenty-seven acting Justices of the peace in this County, to-wit: James Barbour, James Slaughter, John Green, French Strother, Edward Stevens, William Walker, John Waugh, Burke Davenport, Robert Slaughter, Robert Alcock, William McManahan, John Wigginton, Harvey Hill, James Hord, John S. Slaughter, William Chapman, James Lett, John Strode, Benjamin Gaines, David Jameson, John Thompson, Philip Slaughter, Robert Cowne, Mordecai Barbour, William Gray, Henry Ward, and William Stanton, Gent., and that there are some parts of the County where the Justices are from ten to seventeen miles asunder, which is complained of by the people and the Justices residing near those places as a great inconvenience. It is therefore ordered that John Thornton, Reuben Fay, William Brooke, John Pendleton, Merry Walker, & Thomas Broadus, Gentlemen, be recommended to this Excellency, the Governor, as fit and proper persons to act as Justices of the Peace for this County; and if not inconsistent, the Court request that a new commission be now issued directed as well to those acting Justices in the commission as to those now recommended.
A copy—Test:
JOHN JAMESON, C. C.