12/27/2023 0 Comments Penney class actio![]() But the Privy Council back in England would have allowed the act to continue, had it not been for the persistent objections of the Reverend John Camm of York County. The Anglican clergy generally objected to the act, arguing that they should benefit from the high tobacco prices on account of their agreement to accept whatever their tobacco would sell for when the price was low. It was disallowed by the end of August 1759 by the Board. Lord Halifax recommended that the act be disallowed and demanded that Governor Fauquier "for the future strictly observe and obey" his royal instructions. In May 1759, petitions were presented to the British Board of Trade on behalf of the Virginia Clergy asking for its repeal. Whatever may be the Case now, I am persuaded that if I had refused it, I must have despaired ever gaining any Influence either in the Council or House of Burgesses." And I conceived it would be a very wrong Step for me to take who was an entire Stranger to the Distresses of the Country, to set my Face against the whole colony by refusing the Bill which I had a Precedent for Passing. The country were intent upon it, and both the Council and the House of Burgesses were almost unanimous in their pressing it. "As the Bill," he wrote, "was a temporary Law to ease the people from a Burthen which the Country thought too great for them to bear. He defended his royal malfeasance by arguing that, in reality, he had no choice. In doing so, Fauquier deviated from his royally mandated instructions. The colony's councilors had approved and, with the House of Burgesses, convinced royal governor Francis Fauquier to allow the act to go into effect. Once the loss of value was factored in, a clergyman was receiving about one-third of his normal, stipulated salary. The market rate at the time was set at four to six pence per pound of tobacco. The one-year measure allowed Anglican ministers' salaries to be paid at a fixed rate of two cents per pound of tobacco, as tobacco was often used as currency. The act was issued after three years of drought which produced a low-yielding tobacco crop. From the controversy surrounding it arose the Parson's Cause trial, which is regarded as an important event in the history of American Independence. The Two Penny Act was a law enacted in 1758 by the Virginia Assembly which affected the compensation of Anglican ministers in the Virginia colony. George Cooke's 1834 depiction of Patrick Henry arguing the "Parson's Cause" case at the Hanover County courthouse.
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