In the summer of 2019 I had the pleasure of attending, and being allowed to document, a live presentation of “The Parson’s Cause” at the historic Hanover Courthouse. The courthouse is the third oldest courthouse in the United States that is still in use. The construction of the courthouse was begun in 1737 and completed in 1742. It is adjacent to the Hanover Tavern, where one of the lawyers involved in the case - Patrick Henry - lodged while the case went before a jury.

The reenactment of this famous case starts with the audience being seated and then having members come “on stage” where they sit as the jurors for the trial. The trial was held in December of 1763 and it’s outcome was a blow to what many colonists considered the encroachment of the King, and of British authority in areas where it was neither needed nor welcomed, as well as a growing disgruntlement with the Church of England.

The "Parson's Cause" was a legal and political dispute in the Colony of Virginia, often viewed as an important event leading up to the American Revolution. The conflict rooted in the volatility of the tobacco-based economy and the state-sponsored Church of England. The Anglican Church in Virginia was funded through public revenues, and like other public officials, clergymen were paid their annual salaries in tobacco. When severe droughts and poor crop returns caused significant shortages, the value of tobacco fluctuated drastically, rising from the decades long price of two cents per pound to as much as six cents. But the parsons were still getting paid with 2¢ a pound tobacco, not the 6¢ price of inflation. In response, the legislature passed the Two-Penny Act in 1758, which set the value of contracts payable in tobacco at the normal market price rather than the recently inflated price. The clergy were to be paid at a rate of two pennies per pound.

The clergy, whose salaries were reduced, appealed to authorities in England, who overturned the law and encouraged ministers to sue for back pay. Colonel John Henry, father of Patrick Henry, was the judge who presided over the court case held at the Hanover County Courthouse in December 1763, and jury that decided the issue. The relatively unknown Patrick Henry advocated in favor of colonial rights in the case.

After both lawyers have presented their arguments, the audience - some who are seated as jurors, and some as minor court officials - gets to vote on who has won the case. It seems they always vote for the lawyer, who at that time was a relatively unknown advocate, and who suggested, “that a King, by disallowing Acts of this salutary nature, from being the father of his people, degenerated into a Tyrant and forfeits all right to his subjects' obedience.”

It has been often viewed as an important event leading up to the American Revolution. Below is a gallery of photographs taken during the trial. See if you can figure out which reenactor is portraying Patrick Henry.