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Line 43: Religion would play a key part in Henry's life; his father and namesake uncle were both devout and were both major influences in his life. Nevertheless, he was uncomfortable with the role of the Anglican Church as the established religion in Virginia, and fought for religious liberty throughout his career. Henry wrote to a group of Baptists who had sent a letter of congratulations following Henry's 1776 election as governor, "My earnest wish is, that Christian charity, forbearance and love may unite all different persuasions as brethren."<ref name = "henrychrist" /> He criticized his state of Virginia, feeling that slavery and lack of religious toleration had retarded its development. He told the [[Virginia Ratifying Convention]] in 1788, "That religion or the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence, and therefore all men have an equal, natural and unalienable right to the free exercise of religion according to the dictates of conscience, and that no particular religious sect or society ought to be favored or established by law in preference to others."<ref name = "henrychrist">{{cite web|last=Wells|first=James M.|title=The Christian Philosophy of Patrick Henry|url=http://www.christianhistorysociety.com/henrythesis1.html|accessdate=November 16, 2017|publisher=Christian History Society}}</ref> [[File:Shelton House - Shenk.jpg|thumb|right|View of [[Rural Plains]] near Totopotomoy Creek in Virginia. Henry was reportedly married to Sarah Shelton in the parlor.]] Line 52 ⟶ 51: == Revolutionary lawyer and politician (1760–1775) == ===Parson's Cause=== While at Hanover Tavern, Henry found time to study the law. How long he did so is unclear; he later stated that it was as little as a month. On the advice of a local lawyer, Henry in 1760 applied for a lawyer's license, appearing before the examiners—prominent attorneys in the colonial capital of [[Williamsburg, The droughts of the 1750s had led to a rise in the price of tobacco. Hard currency was scarce in Virginia, and salaries in the colony were often expressed in terms of pounds of tobacco. Prior to the drought, the price of tobacco had long been twopence per pound (0.45 kilograms) and in 1755 and 1758, the Virginia [[House of Burgesses]], the elected lower house of the colonial legislature, passed [[Two Penny Act]]s, allowing debts expressed in tobacco to be paid at the rate of twopence per pound for a limited period.{{sfn|Campbell|p=28}} These payees included public officials, including Anglican clergy—Anglicanism was then Virginia's [[established church]], and several ministers petitioned the [[Board of Trade]] in London to overrule the Burgesses, which it did. Five clergymen then brought suit for back pay, cases known as the [[Parson's Cause]]; of them, only the Reverend [[James Maury]] was successful, and a jury was to be empaneled in Hanover County on December 1, 1763 to fix damages. Henry was engaged as counsel by Maury's parish [[vestry]] for this hearing.{{sfn|Kukla|pp=39–41}} Patrick Henry's father, Colonel John Henry, was the presiding judge.{{sfn|McCants|p=40}} | |||