A page in the Gentleman's Magazine of September 1776 reports that "a declared rebel," Patrick Henry, had been named governor of Virginia.
  On April 29, 1776, Dixon and Hunter's Virginia Gazette reported that Peyton Randolph "had been declared a rebel and that General Thomas Gage had a 'commission to try and execute' Randolph and other colonial leaders."  The clear implication has always been that some formal action was taken identifying these men as rebels.
  Upon reflection, however, aside from the Virginia Gazette story, I don't recall ever seeing documentation that either man was in some formal way declared to have been a rebel.  I've looked in the Van Schreeven, Scribner, Tarter Revolutionary Virginia volumes without success, though perhaps I've overlooked something.  The quote about Randolph in the previous paragraph is from the sketch in my Speakers and Clerks of the Va House of Burgesses, where the phrase about Gage was quoted from the Virginia Gazette..  The statement reflects received opinion, but is NOT based on official documents such as whatever "commission" General Gage may have had.
  I've also looked closely at the language of Dunmore's 1775 proclamation against Henry and his "deluded Followers" -- which wouldn't have applied to Randolph -- but which we often hear cited as evidence that Henry was "declared a rebel."  Dunmore did not use the term "rebel" or rebellion" (nor "outlaw"*).
  In the British government or military of that day, I'm wondering what official would have had authority or cause to declare someone a rebel in 1776? what procedure may have been necessary? what form such a declaration would have taken? hence what documentation would survive?

Jon Kukla

*While visiting Virginia I think the term 'outlaw' was used when the governor's descendant and then-current Lord Dunmore issued a proclamation rescinding his ancestor's declaration as a public relations gimmick during the bicentennial.

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Jon Kukla ....................... Executive Vice-President and CEO
1250 Red Hill Road ........ Patrick Henry Memorial Foundation
Brookneal, VA 24528 .... www.redhill.org .... 804 376-2044
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