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Meet the People : Patrick Henry : Patrick Henry (Fact Sheet)
Patrick Henry

(Born 1736, died 1799)

BIRTH DATE: May 29, 1736

BIRTHPLACE: Hanover County, Virginia

DEATH DATE: June 6, 1799

PLACE OF DEATH: Red Hill Plantation, Virginia

PARENTS: John and Sara Winston Henry

EDUCATION: Educated by his father (including reading Latin). Studied law on his own

OCCUPATION: Lawyer. Set up private practice in Hanover Courthouse, Virginia, in 1760

OFFICES HELD: Delegate, Virginia House of Burgesses, 1765-1775; Member, Virginia Committee of Correspondence, 1773; Delegate, Continental Congress, 1774-1775; Delegate, Virginia Convention, 1776; Governor of Virginia, 1776-1779, 1784-1786; Delegate, Virginia Constitution Ratification Convention, 1788

PLACE OF RESIDENCE: Red Hill Plantation

SPOUSE: First wife--Sarah Shelton; second wife--Dorothea Dandridge

MISCELLANEOUS: Patrick Henry was one of the most outspoken opponents of the Stamp Act. On May 29, 1765, he introduced seven radical resolutions in the Virginia House of Burgesses. Five of the seven resolutions were adopted on May 30, though one was reconsidered the next day (after Henry's departure) and removed.

In May 1774, a message from the Massachusetts Committee of Correspondence informed Virginians of the closing of the port of Boston. The Virginia House of Burgesses set aside June 1, 1774, as a day of "Fasting, Humiliation, and Prayer" in support of the citizens of Boston. Governor Dunmore dissolved the assembly, but 89 of the Burgesses gathered at the Raleigh Tavern and, under Henry's leadership, proposed that all the colonies meet in a Continental congress.

In April 1775, shortly after news reached Virginia that American colonists had clashed with British troops in Lexington, Massachusetts, Henry learned that Governor Dunmore had seized gunpowder from the Magazine in Williamsburg. Henry collected the militia of Hanover County and marched toward Williamsburg. He sent a message to the governor demanding that the gunpowder be returned to representatives of the colony. Governor Dunmore paid the Virginians money equal to the value of the powder, then issued a proclamation outlawing "a certain Patrick Henry" for disturbing the peace of the colony.