(VIRGINIA) Fairfax Ferdinando Reward notice concerning unaut

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(VIRGINIA.) Fairfax, Ferdinando. Reward notice concerning unauthorized timber clearing in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Letterpress broadside, 7 3/4 x 6 1/2 inches; folds, minimal wear; completed in manuscript, with contemporary manuscript postscript in lower margin. Winchester, VA: Richard Bowen, 1793

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Ferdinando Fairfax (1766-1820) was heir to extensive land holdings in Virginia; his godfather was George Washington, an old family friend. He is perhaps most remembered for his 1790 proposal to create a colony for freed slaves to Africa, long before Liberia became a reality. He was also known for being "continually engaged in lawsuits with squatters on his estate" (Some Prominent Virginia Families, page II:178). This rather dramatic broadside offers a reward for the apprehension of squatters who were cutting and burning his timber in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Fairfax calls upon his tenants to "assist in detecting those unprincipled men, who, regardless of every moral and sacred obligation, are continually wasting and destroying the timber, either by burning or cutting." His agent Battaile Muse is "directed to make strict enquiry, and to use every means of bringing to justice every offender." Muse adds a signed manuscript note at the bottom of the broadside: "Those indebted to Mr. Fairfax for rent are desired to pay by the 10th of June." The first known broadside issued with a Winchester imprint (Hummel 3051). Bristol B8335.