About Us
The cast
Col. William Roane was born around 1740 in Essex Virginia. He served as a colonel in the Revolutionary War. He was Colonel of the 2nd battalion Minutemen 1776, Colonel of militia, Essex County, 1777. Col William was in the House of Burgesses from 1760-1765. In the House, he was with Thomas Jefferson, John Talbot, George Washington, Francis Lightfoot Lee, Peyton Randolph and Patrick Henry. He married Elisabeth Ball and had four children: Frances, Thomas, William, John, Nancy, Sally. Thomas is my direct ancestor.
Spencer married Anne Henry, the daughter of Patrick Henry. Spencer was attended William and Mary, and was elected to the Virginia Supreme Court. Jefferson wrote a recommendation that Spencer be appointed to the US Supreme Court. However, Spencer and most of the Virginia Roanes were for states rights and were strongly against increasing the power of the federal government. Spencer had many spirited clashes with federalists like John Marshall. In fact, John Adams appointed Marshall to the Supreme Court instead of Spencer because of his anti-federalist stance. You can read about this in Irreconcilable Founders
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What we love
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