1777

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Events

• June 28 – The Virginia General Assembly passed “An Act to oblige the free male inhabitants of this state above a certain age to give assurance of allegiance to the same and for other purposes,” The Act provided that all free-born male inhabitants above the age of sixteen, except imported servants, were to subscribe to the oath on or before 10 October 1777 before the justices of the peace in their counties, boroughs, or cities and that the justices of the peace were to keep fair registers of the names of such persons; and before the first of January in every year following, to submit to the clerk of the court for the county a list of the persons who had signed.
• October 17 – Lt. Gen. John Burgoyne of the British army, surrendered to the American army at Saratoga, New York. First marched to Cambridge, Massachusetts and lodged in barracks.  The British component was relocated to Rutland, Massachusetts in 1778, while the German component remained in Cambridge.  For several reasons, including concern that a British raid would liberate these prisoners, the Continental Congress decided in the fall of 1778 to move the Convention Army (as it was called after its mode of surrender) to a location farther from the coast and selected Charlottesville, Virginia.

Deaths

• Sarah Claiborne (wife of Joseph Thompson)