05/12/2026
On this day, May 12, 1776, Virginia instructed its delegates to the Continental Congress to propose independence from Great Britain, becoming the first colony to officially do so. That decision helped set the stage for the Declaration of Independence just weeks later and placed Virginians at the center of the movement that would shape a new nation.
Here in Westmoreland County, those ideas of liberty, resistance, and self government were already deeply rooted. The county was home to influential Revolutionary figures including Richard Henry Lee and Francis Lightfoot Lee, both signers of the Declaration of Independence, as well as the birthplace of George Washington and James Monroe.
Long before independence was formally declared, voices from Westmoreland and the Northern Neck were already helping define what resistance and representation would mean in America. From the Leedstown Resolution of 1766 to the debates unfolding in Virginia’s leadership circles, this region played a direct role in the road toward revolution.
Today, we remember the people, places, and decisions that shaped the nation’s earliest chapters and the role Westmoreland County held within them.
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