<P> In 1774, after Parliament passed the Boston Port Act to close Boston Harbor, the House of Burgesses adopted resolutions in support of the Boston colonists which resulted in Virginia's royal governor, John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, dissolving the assembly . The burgesses then reassembled on their own and issued calls for the first of five Virginia Conventions . These conventions were essentially meetings of the House of Burgesses without the governor and Council, Peyton Randolph the Speaker of the House would serve as the President of the Convention, and they would elect delegates to the Continental Congress . The First Continental Congress passed their Declaration and Resolves, which inter alia claimed that American colonists were equal to all other British citizens, protested against taxation without representation, and stated that Britain could not tax the colonists since they were not represented in Parliament . </P> <P> In 1775 the burgesses, meeting in conventions, listened to Patrick Henry deliver his "give me liberty or give me death" speech and raised regiments . The House of Burgesses was called back by Lord Dunmore one last time in June 1775 to address British Prime Minister Lord North's Conciliatory Resolution . Randolph, who was a delegate to the Continental Congress, returned to Williamsburg to take his place as Speaker . Randolph indicated that the resolution had not been sent to the Congress (it had instead been sent to each colony individually in an attempt to divide them and bypass the Continental Congress). The House of Burgesses rejected the proposal, which was also later rejected by the Continental Congress . The burgesses formed a Committee of Safety to take over governance in the absence of the royal governor, Dunmore, who had organized loyalists forces but after defeats he took refuge on a British warship . </P> <P> In 1776 the House of Burgesses ended . The final entry in the Journals of the House of Burgesses is "6th of May . 16 Geo . III . 1776...FINIS ." Edmund Pendleton, a member of the House of Burgesses (and President of the Committee of Safety) who was present at the final meeting, wrote in a letter to Richard Henry Lee on the following day, "We met in assembly yesterday, and determined not to adjourn, but let that body die ." Later on the same morning, the members of the fifth and final Virginia Revolutionary Convention met in the chamber of the House of Burgesses in Williamsburg and elected Pendleton its president . The convention voted for independence from Britain . The former colony had become the independent Commonwealth of Virginia and the convention created the Constitution of Virginia with a new General Assembly, composed of an elected Senate and an elected House of Delegates . The House of Delegates acceded to the role of the former House of Burgesses . </P> <Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This section needs expansion . You can help by adding to it . Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page . (January 2015) </Td> </Tr> </Table>

Virginia house of burgesses influence on the constitution