The
members of the court present on this occasion were William Gooch,
Governor; John Robinson, John Grymes, John Custis, Philip Lightfoot,
Thomas Lee, Lewis Burwell, William Fairfax, John Blair, William Nelson,
Esqs.; William Dawson, Clerk. This was only two days after Whitefield
had preached in Williamsburg, and he and Davies were probably there at
the same time. Davies, proceeding at once to Hanover, was received with
joy, since, on the preceding Sunday, a proclamation had been attached to
the door of Morris's Reading-house, requiring magistrates to suppress
itinerant preachers, and warning the people against gathering to hear
them. After a brief sojourn, returning home, he languished under ill
health, aggravated by the sudden death of his wife, and threatening to
cut him off prematurely. He, however, recovered sufficient strength to
return to Hanover in May, 1748, and settled at a place about twelve
miles from the falls of the James River. In this second visit he was
accompanied by the Rev. John Rodgers, who, finding it impossible to
obtain permission to settle in Virginia, returned to the North. Governor
Gooch favored the application, but a majority of the council stood out
against it, saying: "We have Mr. Rodgers out, and we are determined to
keep him out." Some of the clergy of the established church were
vehement in their opposition to Davies and Rodgers. A majority of the
council lent their countenance to this opposition, but Gooch took
occasion to rebuke it in severe terms. John Blair, nephew of the
commissary, Commissary Dawson, and another member of the council, whose
name is forgotten, united with the governor on this occasion in treating
the strangers kindly, and endeavored to procure a reconsideration of the
case, but in vain. According to Burk,[447:A] most of the intelligent men
of that day, including Edmund Pendleton, appear in the character of
persecutors. It must be remembered, however, that the council and its
friends had no right to proclaim religious freedom, and that the
controversy depended on the true interpretation of the act of parliament
and the Virginia statutes. These made the law, and the council was but
the executive of the law, without authority to repeal or amend it.

Davies was now left to labor alone in Virginia. In April the court
decided the long-pending suits against Isaac Winston, Sr., and Samuel
Morris, by fining them each twenty shillings and the costs of
prosecution. Severe laws