In contrast to the opinion I expressed in the last note, I give (at the urging of Craig Kilby) some contrary views. The question he asked pertained to the source of the people who served as alternates or substitutes for those who were selected. To give specifics, in twenty-two classes, men were hired as substitutes, and they were not listed elsewhere in the county as members of any class. Where did these men come from?
There are partial answers, but no complete set of answers. Some of these ideas are guesses. Perhaps these men had served already, and were thereby exempted from further service. Maybe they had some excuse which exempted them from the militia, but they were willing to overlook this in return for the money they would earn as substitutes. In one case, the man was a mulatto, who probably would not have been included in the militia, but who was accepted into service in the army.
All of the history that I have read of Colonial Virginia suggests that joining the militia was not a volunteer act, it was compulsory for able-bodied men, who were 16 to 50. Reports to the Crown are based on this assumption. But, if this were the case, where did the substitutes come from? The next county over might account for a few, but most of them seem to have come from Culpeper County itself.
Perhaps there was no list of the men in the militia. It was necessary for the officers in the militia to ride around the countryside and find out who the men were. That the lists were composed in this way is suggested strongly by the fact that the men in any one list are nearly always close neighbors to each other (this is one of the greatest values of the lists). It may be that, when the lists were being made up, a lot of men suddenly became nonexistent or were unknowns. A lot of parents may have said that "John went to North Carolina and no longer lived in the area."
Perhaps there was an optional element in the militia. It might not have been compulsory. Perhaps some men signed up for the militia who figured they could do their military duty while staying home.
Another way of looking at the lists is to take most any family and ask if all of their men are there. The answer has to be "No", but then one has to ask if these missing men were on active duty, or had served already.
There is no question but that men are missing from the Culpeper Classes. There are not as many listed as should be.
Returning to the original question at the start of the previous note, we still have not answered the question of what is the significance of a name in the Culpeper Classes. The names are there in black and white. The original records can still be read.
(20 Feb 01)
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