The Creating of Kentucky

The text by James Rood Robertson contains the following in a footnote on p. 82 pertaining to the first action taken by the General Assembly of Virginia toward the formation of Kentucky as a State. [Henings Statues, Vol. 12, 37 ]

"Whereas it is represented to be the desire of the good people inhabiting the district known by the name of the Kentucky District that the same should be separated from this Commonwealth whereof it is a part and be formed into an independent member of the American Confederacy and it is judged by the General Assembly that such a partition of the Commonwealth is rendered expedient by the remoteness of the more fertile which must be the more populous part of the said district and by the interjacent impediment to a convenient and regular communication therewith, Be it enacted, "

"A convention was to be held at Danville on the fourth Monday of September made up of delegates from the seven counties, five from each.  The call was to be posted twenty days and the election was to continue five days to give full opportunity for expression of opinion."

"The boundary was to be unchanged, the new State was to assume its just proportion of the debt, the lands of non-residents were not to be taxed above those of residents, grants of land by the new State were not to interfere with grants made by Virginia, lands set apart for soldiers were subject to grant only by Virginia, up to 1788, the use of the Ohio River to be common, and assent of United States Congress to the separation necessary."

Wow...what a deal...all to happen at a convention to be held at Danville!  Historic Danville...indeed it is.

Act of Separation 1785 (7)

The final part of this letter continues:

"In this Address we have discarded the complimentary stile of adulation & insincerity- it becomes Freemen when speaking to Freemen, to imploy the plain, manly unadorned Language of Independence.....September 23d 1785"

The individuals who signed this document that I have been able to find are: 1) John Coburn, 2) William Kennedy, 3) George Muter, 4) Samuel McDowell, and 5) Levi Todd.

This petition was sent to committee at the General Assembly of Virginia 14th November 1785.

This documentation taken from: Petitions of The Early Inhabitants of Kentucky To The General Assembly of Virginia 1769 to 1792, by James Rood Robertson, John P. Morton & Company, 1914. pp. 79 - 82.