ceived of John Smith of New York to enable him to collect the sums in which the planters of that county were indebted to his principal.[1] Julian Verplanck of the same town likewise imported, during a long period of years, a large quantity of goods into Lower Norfolk.[2] Jacobis Vis had important transactions in the exchange of merchandise for tobacco in the counties of the Northern Neck.[3]
The debts due in the Colony to these merchants of New York became very often the subject of suit.[4] On the other hand, actions were not infrequently brought against their attorneys in Virginia and valuable property attached. In 1698, a judgment was secured by Major William Wilson of Hampton against Thomas Walton in the sum of fifty-two pounds and ten shillings sterling. In the same year, a vessel from New York ran aground near Hampton, and her cargo was seriously damaged.[5]
- ↑ Records of Lower Norfolk County, original vol. 1675-1686, f. p. 90.
- ↑ Ibid., 1666-1675, p. 62; original vol. 1656-1666, p. 419.
- ↑ Records of Lancaster County, original vol. 1654-1702, p. 332.
- ↑ Records of York County, vol. 1684-1687, p. 4, Va. State Library.
- ↑ Records of Elizabeth City County, vol. 1684-1699, pp. 127, 162. There is an incident connected with the trade between Virginia and New York which shows the determination of the authorities in the former Colony to enforce the Navigation laws. An information was lodged in 1685 by the Attorney-General against the sloop Katharine of New York, on the ground that her master and some of her seamen were not of English nativity. The master appeared in York court and admitted that he was a Frenchman by birth, but insisted that he had received denizen papers from the Governor of New York. The Attorney-General proved that certain commodities of European growth had been imported into Virginia by the sloop, without having been loaded, as the Navigation Act required, in England, Wales, or Scotland. The captain replied by saying that these commodities had been obtained in New York, and he produced in court a certificate from the collector of that port in confirmation of his statement. The case was submitted to the justices, who gave a verdict that the vessel and its contents should be forfeited to the Crown. Records of York County, vol. 1684-1687, p. 148, Va. State Library.
