John Furbush Turner's Petition, 1781

Amanuensis: A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another.

Amanuensis Monday, hosted by John Newmark at Transylvanian Dutch.

It was just earlier this year that I discover that John Furbush Turner was my 4th great-grandfather and I really haven't done much research on him. Yesterday at Google Books I found the following.

Journal of the House of Delegates of the Commonwealth of Virginia;
Begun and held in the town of Richmond, In the County of Henrico,
On Monday, the seventh day of May, in the year of our Lord
One Thousand Seven Hundred and Eighty-One

Page 28
A petition of Thomas Rose and John Furbush Turner, was presented to the house, and read; setting forth, that in the month of January, 1777, a small schooner, the property of the petitioners, was impressed for the purpose of transporting part of the ninth Virginia regiment from the county of Accomac to the head of Elk; that on her return, she was captured by the enemy, and the auditors have refused to make them any allowance for the said vessel, alleging that they are not authorized by law to do so; and praying relief.

Page 67
Mr. Richard Lee reported, from the committee of Claims, that the committee had, according to order, had under their consideration several petitions and a resolution to them referred, and had come the following resolutions thereupon, which he read in his place, and afterwards delivered in at the clerk's table, where the same were again read and are as followeth:

Resolved, that it is the opinion of this committee, That the petition of Thomas Rose and John Furbush Turner, praying that a reasonable compensation may be made them by the public, for a small schooner, which was impressed from them in the month of January, 1777, for the purpose of transporting part of the 9th Virginia regiment from the county of Accomac to the Head of Elk, and on her return was captured by the enemy; and also, a further compensation for the time that she was in public service, previous to her capture, for which the auditors have refused to make any allowance, is reasonable; and that the petitioner's said claim ought to be referred to the court of Claims in the said county of Accomac, to be inspected by them, and if allowed, to be transmitted to the auditors of public accounts, for certificates to issue thereupon.

Page 81
Resolved, that it is the opinion of this committee, That the petition of Thomas Rose and John Furbush Turner, praying that a reasonable compensation may be made them by the public for a small schooner, which was impressed from them in the month of January 1777, for the purpose of transporting part of the ninth Virginia regiment, from the county of Accomac to the head of Elk, and on her return was captured by the enemy; and also, a further compensation for the time that she was in public service, previous to her capture; for which the auditors have refused to make any allowance, be rejected; the same being a continental claim.

This was a ver interesting find. Was John Furbush Turner a sailor or did he just own a share in the vessel? It's too bad that the name of the vessel isn't given.

I guess governments have been passing the buck since they were formed. I was unsuccessful in determining the final outcome. I would think that they was have gone on to petition Congress. Something to add to the list of things to track down.


Journal of the House of Delegates of the State of Virginia, Virginia. General Assembly. House of Delegates,Supt. Public Printing., 1828. Original from the University of Michigan. Digitized Feb 10, 2009. Viewed 1 November 2009 at Google Books
http://books.google.com/books?id=QcGTdl0n0YEC&lpg=RA3-PA67&ots=kbIFL_UMtV&dq=%22john%20Furbush%20Turner%22&pg=RA3-PA67#v=onepage&q=%22john%20Furbush%20Turner%22&f=false