Fincastle Resolutions

The Fincastle Resolutions was a statement adopted on January 20, 1775 by thirteen elected representatives of Fincastle County, Colony of Virginia. Part of the political movement that became the American Revolution, the resolutions were addressed to Virginia's delegation at the First Continental Congress, and expressed support for Congress' resistance to the Intolerable Acts, issued in 1774 by the British Parliament. Other counties in Virginia had passed similar resolutions in 1774, such as the Fairfax Resolves, but the Fincastle Resolutions were the first adopted statement by the colonists which promised resistance to the death to the British crown to preserve political liberties. The Fincastle men had fought in Dunmore's War against the Shawnee to the west and were not able to formally express their sentiments about the constitutional dispute until this time. The Fincastle representatives adopted the resolutions at Lead Mines,currently Austinville, Virginia located in Wythe County, Virginia which was then the location of the county seat. The Lead Mines county seat of Government would shortly thereafter move to Christiansburg, Virginia as Fincastle was divided into Montgomery, Washington and Kentucky counties of Virginia.