to the residence of his father, in Rockbridge County, with a view to confer with his friends as to his future settlement in life. Some of them thought it would be advisable for him to become a candidate for a seat in the House of Delegates at the election which was then near at hand. The elections were then, and continued for a half century later, to be held on the first day of the county courts of April in the respective counties. The April term of the County Court of Rockbridge was then, and I believe still continues to be held on the Monday before the first Tuesday in April, and all the votes were cast at the courthouse. In compliance with the wishes of his friends he became a candidate, but was defeated by a majority of thirteen votes.

"On the day after the election he was requested by his father to go to Botetourt County to close matters of unsettled business with Colonel George Skillern, who resided about two miles from Pattonsburg. Accordingly, on Wednesday he went to the residence of Colonel Skillern, and on the following day closed up the business which was the object of his visit, so as to enable him to return to his father's on Friday, according to his original plan.

"In the meantime an invitation had been sent to him as the guest of Colonel Skillern to attend a barbecue to be held on Friday at Pattonsburg. At the urgent solicitation of Colonel Skillern he consented to remain and attend the festival, at which it was expected most of the leading gentlemen of the county would be present.

"During the progress of the entertainment a toast was offered in honor of the soldiers of the Revolutionary War, and Archibald Stuart was called on to respond to it. This he did at some length, and apparently to the satisfaction of his audience, to whom he was a stranger. Many inquiries were made about him, and it having been made known that he was the son of Major Alexander Stuart, who had commanded the Valley Regiment at Guilford, and that he had left William and Mary College some weeks in advance of the battle to join the army, and had himself actively participated in the fight, the favorable impression made by his

speech was strengthened; and some one having referred to the fact that he had been defeated as a candidate for the Legislature in Rockbridge on the preceding Monday, it was suggested that the people of Botetourt should elect him as one of their delegates at the election to be held on the following Monday. The suggestion was promptly adopted, and a committee appointed to wait upon Mr. Stuart and communicate to him their wishes and invite him to be their candidate. This action was wholly unexpected by him, and after thanking them for their kind wishes he was obliged to decline their offer, on the ground that he was ineligible for Botetourt, not being a freeholder in the county. Colonel Skillern, who was a man of wealth, promptly replied that he was prepared to remove that objection by conveying to Mr. Stuart a small house and lot which he owned in Fincastle. The proposition was finally accepted, and all the arrangements perfected, and at the close of the barbecue the gentlemen who had been present returned to their homes. prepared to announce to their neighbors that Mr. Stuart would be a candidate for a seat in the House of Delegates from Botetourt at the election to be held on the following Monday.

"He remained as the guest of Colonel Skillern, who was an old friend of his father, but on Monday morning he appeared at Fincastle, and the deed from Colonel Skillern to him having been deposited in the Clerk's Office, which made him eligible, he was regularly announced as a candidate for the House of Delegates from Botetourt County, and proceeded to address the large crowd, which, attracted by the novelty of the circumstances, had assembled at the courthouse, on the political topics of the day, and at the close of the polls he was announced as one of those duly elected.

"Thus it happened that the young man who had left his father's house a week before a defeated candidate for the House of Delegates for Rockbridge County returned a 'delegate-elect' for Botetourt."

1Virginia Historical Collections, Vol X, p. 387.

During that year—1783-Archibald Stuart removed to Staunton, where he soon acquired a large practice, and he was also a regular attendant on the District Courts held at New London, Abingdon, the Sweet Springs and Rockingham.

He represented Botetourt in the sessions of the General Assembly for 1783-84, 1784-85, and 1785-86. In 1786 he was elected a delegate from Augusta County, and was reelected in 1787. In 1788 he was elected a member of the Virginia Convention which ratified the Constitution of the United States. There he was brought in association with Edmund Pendleton, Patrick Henry, George Mason, James Madison, Edmund Randolph, John Marshall, James Monroe, George Nicholas, and other distinguished men of the State.2

On May 4, 1791, Archibald Stuart married Eleanor Briscoe, second daughter of Colonel Gerard Briscoe, of Frederick County, Virginia. Colonel Briscoe was a native of Maryland, and had served in the Revolutionary War. For many years he had lived in Montgomery County, Maryland, near Rockville; but, having married Margaret Baker of Virginia, he subsequently removed to an estate he owned near Winchester, Virginia.

In 1797 Archibald Stuart took his seat as a member of the Senate of Virginia. While a member of that body he was elected judge of the General Court, and on January 1, 1800, entered upon the duties of his office, which he continued to discharge until 1831, when, having attained the age of seventy-three, he declined re-election. He was a Washington elector in 1793; a Jefferson elector in 1800 and 1804; a Madison elector in 1808 and 1812; a Monroe elector in 1816 and 1820; a Crawford elector in 1824; and an Adams elector in 1828.

Archibald Stuart furnished William Wirt some interesting sketches for his Life of Patrick Henry, and it was owing

1For interesting letters of John Marshall to Archibald Stuart, see Beveridge's "The Life of John Marshall," Vol. II, pp. 103, 111, 118. 2Virginia Historical Collections, Vol. X, pp. 387-9.

to his knowledge of mathematical science that the General Assembly appointed him a commissioner, with General Martin and Chancellor Taylor, to run the dividing line between Virginia and Kentucky, and that in early life he was offered the chair of mathematics in the College of William and Mary.

The plan of Judge Stuart's house, in Staunton, was drawn by his friend, Jefferson, who was a frequent visitor there, and one chamber has always been known as Mr. Jefferson's room. Judge Stuart occupied this house as his residence for nearly fifty years, until his death on July 11th, 1832. He is buried in Trinity Churchyard in Staunton, and by his side rests the body of his wife, and that of his halfbrother, Alexander Stuart, grandfather of General J. E. B. Stuart.