John Oriz, Tia Bishop, Liam Egbert, Josh Ellinor, and Andrew Raffety all joined us! After getting our tickets, a head call, and a quick bite to eat, we all walked to the Revolutionary City (I forgot how far it was and that they offered a shuttle). For me, that was a LONG walk!
Our first stop was the Governor's Palace. Impressive wall decorations! Long guns and swords!
Fortunately, the tour guide hurried up his tour so we could see the Fife and Drum Corps come parading down the street!
This drum was almost bigger than the boy playing it!
From there it was on to the auction in front of the weaver's house. It was really strange with all these people walking around with the funny triangle hats!
After we got tired of the auction we went across the street to the Court House just in time to go inside and participate in a trial - MINE! Josh and Andrew were selected as jurors and were seated in the top row on either side of the Magistrate.
This young guy in the funny triangle hat was the country sheriff!
Tia sat in the row in front of the Jurors.
OK, so here I am standing in front of the bar facing my accusers.
The year was 1775 and this was the prosecutor reading the charges against me, and me listening to the charges. Which included vagrancy, preaching the Gospel without the proper Church of England License (I was a Baptist preacher). and 'trespassing' on land that was not licensed for the purpose of conducting religious services, and inciting a slave uprising because there were 50 slaves in attendance at my meeting.
This gentleman was the prosecution's primary witness!
The evidence I presented in my defense was suppressed by the Magistrate as inadmissible, because it was a letter from a prior magistrate that was now dead. Since I had been brought before this court previously for preaching without the required permits, I was found guilty, and bond was set at 100 pounds. Because I could not pay that exorbitant amount I was sentenced to one year in jail, and warned not to "preach through the bars!"
When the Magistrate asked the jurors if they concurred with his ruling there seemed to be some confusion or disagreement. The clerk of the court called for a polling of the jurors. But they all voted to incarcerate me - even Andrew and Josh! There's gratitude for you!
Then it was outside to visit the stocks!
I'm not sure I would want to spend several hours, let alone several days in the stocks! From the stocks it was on to the Virginia Capitol Building.
John wanted to go all the way to the front. The tour guide said it was all right. John thought more people would come with him, but no one else wanted to go past the bar! From there we went to the bakery to get hot drinks, and then we called it a day.
By that time my back was hurting pretty good, and the guys ran to get the shuttle to wait for me. But to no avail! Five minutes later there was another one. All of us were ready to be in our warm cars and head to Andrea's Italian Restaurant for PIZZA!!
Parents are always embarrassing their children, so why shouldn't Yvonne and I be any different?
Oh was the pizza ever GOOOOD!!! We polished off three large ones in short order. The kiss was good too!
What an awesome day we had! Thank you Jesus!
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