in attesting to this fact and relieving
the captains of any responsibility for non-compliance. With that the
tobacco fleet sailed off to England and Scotland.

The other Virginia institution most effected by the tax was the court
system. The General Court closed. Many county courts did likewise. At
the suggestion of Richard Henry Lee, the Westmoreland County court on
September 24, 1765 stated it would not sit again until the Stamp Act
was repealed. Northampton County court took a radically different
approach proposed by Littleton Eyre and stayed open, declaring the
Stamp Act "did not bind, affect or concern the inhabitants of this
colony, inasmuch as they conceive the same to be unconstitutional." The
neighboring Eastern Shore county of Accomac followed suit. Edmund
Pendleton advised James Madison, Sr., that justices of the peace should
serve on the county courts and the courts should stay open, for the
justices had taken an oath to uphold the law since the Stamp Act was
unconstitutional, they would not be violating their oaths if they held
court without the stamps. It was a strange restructuring of British
constitutional procedure which saw Virginia county courts and
individual justices of the peace declaring the laws of parliament
unconstitutional. Nullification of the law was at hand.

Most county courts stayed closed to pursue Lee's tactics of applying
pressure on British merchants who needed the courts to enforce
contracts and collect debts. By closing the courts and boycotting
British imports, the Virginians put pressure on the merchants who put
pressure on the government. Asserting pressure in a more direct manner,
Lee and his fellow gentry, and any other freeholders who wanted to
attend, gathered at Leedstown, Westmoreland County, on February 27,
1766 and drew up an "association". They restated the Stamp Act Resolves
and asserted that should anyone comply with the Stamp Act the
"associators--will with the utmost Expedition convince all such
Profligates, that immediate danger and disgrace shall attend their
prostitute Purpose." Should any associator suffer as a result of his
action, the others pledged "at the utmost risk of our Lives and
Fortunes to restore such Associate to his Liberty." The next day the
associators crossed over the Rappahannock to Hobb's Hole and
"convinced" Tory merchant Archibald Ritchie to forego his announced
intention to use stamps. A similar association in Norfolk, the Sons of
Liberty,