Two hundred and sixty-seven Halifax County residents, including the overseers of the poor, seek to dispossess Alexander Hay, the present incumbent of glebe lands and other personal property that had formerly belonged to the protestant Episcopal Church and been sold as public property per an act of the legislature authorizing such sale. The petitioners contend that, for many years, Hay, "in violation of right and that justice which is due to your petitioners, and the good people of the county at large," has constantly refused them the "smallest return of service for the benefits derived" from his possession of the property. He has abandoned the churches and denied them the smallest act in his official character as a preacher of the gospel; he has treated them with 'unchristian arrogance, contempt, and disrespect." He has acted independent of all control. The lands leased to tenants have gone to waste and he has actually removed himself from the land and carried the slaves with him. The residents ask that Hay be dispossessed of the property and that "the overseers of the poor of the said county may be authorized to make sale thereof and apply the money arising from such sales to the support of the poor of the county."
Result: Rejected.
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Repository: Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia
