Conservator of the Peace
Encyclopedia
A conservator of the peace is defined as a public official
authorized to conserve and maintain the public peace.
, conservators of the peace included judge
s, police, sheriffs, and constables.
Sheriffs are, ex officio, conservators of the peace within their respective counties, and it is their duty, as well as that of all constables, coroners, marshal
s and other peace officer
s, to prevent every breach of the peace, and to suppress every unlawful assembly, affray or riot which may happen in their presence
for a breach of the peace.
Nor is the idea that the police are also peace officers simply a quaint anachronism. In most American jurisdictions, for example, police officer
s continue to be obligated, by law, to maintain the public peace.
However, this position must be contrasted against far more recent legal opinions, such as Castle Rock v. Gonzalez, in which the US Supreme Court ruled that individual human beings have no right to nor expectation of protection from police, unlike property, which does have such expectation.http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/04-278.ZS.html
, each county
or shire
in England
was divided into an indefinite number of hundreds, each composing ten groups of ten families governed by a constable with his own court. Each member of the group and subgroup was individually responsible for preserving the peace and apprehending criminals. This is shown in laws recorded by Saxon kings, such as:
In 920 AD, King Edward the Elder
set forth that the reeve
or gerefa of the shire, a royal official, should hold court each month to try cases of both civil and criminal matters. The modern term “sheriff” originates from the Saxon "shire
reeve" and the term gerefa. The shire reeve was the earliest public official charged specifically with keeping the King’s peace.
The Norman invasion of England eventually disrupted the Saxon hundreds system. Gradually, disregard for collective responsibility in conserving the peace led to relaxed requirements for the King’s subjects to appear at each session of court. The baronage and clergy were no longer required to appear unless specifically required, and persons having matters before the court could have attorneys
appear on their behalf. In response to the loss of this collective responsibility, Henry III of England
appointed four specific knights in each county deemed responsible for conserving the peace.
The specific term “Conservator of the Peace” came into being upon the codification and expansion of the authority of the office under Henry III’s son, Edward I
. Under Edward I, Conservators of the Peace were not only charged with keeping the peace, but where also given the authority to try certain offenses previously heard by the Reeve’s court. These itinerant judges were the earliest historical predecessors to the Justice of the Peace. Conservators of the Peace appointed under Edward I were considered to be in positions of great public trust and social stature.
Immediately after the death of Edward I and the accession of Edward II of England
in 1307, officers were appointed in every county in England as Conservators of the Peace. Their commissions stated that they shall constantly reside within their respective counties, visit every place therein and the King’s laws shall be strictly observed. If any disturbances occur, the Conservators are to raise the posse comitatus
, arrest the offenders and keep them in custody until the King shall further direct.
Edward III
strengthened the office and authority of the Conservator of the Peace, but not necessarily for any altruistic interest in maintaining the public peace.
The real purpose of this act seems to have been to enable the king, Edward III, to appoint men upon whom he could rely in the different counties, to repress any effort of the people to release his father, Edward II, from prison.
in 1607 they brought not only the common customary law of England, but the law as modified by English statutes of general operation up to that time.
With formation of government within the American colonies, the offices of sheriff, justice and constable were adopted from the English common law and the English ordinances. A warrant issued by a Native American
magistrate directed an early colonial constable to arrest a suspect.
A minister from a Massachusetts Bay colony
described an arrest warrant that was served by early American constables in a private home in 1651.
The Commonwealth of Virginia's adaptation of the ancient common law office of Conservator of the Peace was described by the Virginia Supreme Court
in 1923:
Today many states in the United States have Conservators of the Peace, more specifically Special Conservators of the Peace. For example, the private property of George Washington
's Mount Vernon
Estate which is open to the public employs Special Conservators of the Peace to guard and protect the Estate and have full police powers on the Estate only.
Official
An official is someone who holds an office in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority .A government official or functionary is an official who is involved in public...
authorized to conserve and maintain the public peace.
Examples
Under common lawCommon law
Common law is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals rather than through legislative statutes or executive branch action...
, conservators of the peace included judge
Judge
A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and in an open...
s, police, sheriffs, and constables.
The king is mentioned as the first. Then come the chancellor, the treasurer, the high steward, the master of the rollsMaster of the RollsThe Keeper or Master of the Rolls and Records of the Chancery of England, known as the Master of the Rolls, is the second most senior judge in England and Wales, after the Lord Chief Justice. The Master of the Rolls is the presiding officer of the Civil Division of the Court of Appeal...
, the chief justice ant the justices of the King’s-bench, all the judges in their several courts, sheriffSheriffA sheriff is in principle a legal official with responsibility for a county. In practice, the specific combination of legal, political, and ceremonial duties of a sheriff varies greatly from country to country....
s, coronerCoronerA coroner is a government official who* Investigates human deaths* Determines cause of death* Issues death certificates* Maintains death records* Responds to deaths in mass disasters* Identifies unknown dead* Other functions depending on local laws...
s, constableConstableA constable is a person holding a particular office, most commonly in law enforcement. The office of constable can vary significantly in different jurisdictions.-Etymology:...
s; and some are said to be conservators by tenure, some by prescription, and others by commission.
Sheriffs are, ex officio, conservators of the peace within their respective counties, and it is their duty, as well as that of all constables, coroners, marshal
Marshal
Marshal , is a word used in several official titles of various branches of society. The word is an ancient loan word from Old French, cf...
s and other peace officer
Peace officer
A law enforcement officer , in North America, is any public-sector employee or agent whose duties involve the enforcement of laws. The phrase can include police officers, prison officers, customs officers, immigration officers, bailiffs, probation officers, parole officers, auxiliary officers, and...
s, to prevent every breach of the peace, and to suppress every unlawful assembly, affray or riot which may happen in their presence
Police
As Conservators of the Peace, police have long had the authority to order groups of persons threatening the public peace to disperse, or to arrest without a warrantWarrant (law)
Most often, the term warrant refers to a specific type of authorization; a writ issued by a competent officer, usually a judge or magistrate, which permits an otherwise illegal act that would violate individual rights and affords the person executing the writ protection from damages if the act is...
for a breach of the peace.
It is hereby made the duty of the Police Force at all times of day and night, and the members of such Force are hereby thereunto empowered, to especially preserve the public peace, prevent crime, detect and arrest offenders, suppress riots, mobs and insurrections, disperse unlawful or dangerous assemblages, and assemblages which obstruct the free passage of public streets, sidewalks, parks and places.
Nor is the idea that the police are also peace officers simply a quaint anachronism. In most American jurisdictions, for example, police officer
Police officer
A police officer is a warranted employee of a police force...
s continue to be obligated, by law, to maintain the public peace.
Police officers are not, and have never been, simply enforcers of the criminal lawCriminal lawCriminal law, is the body of law that relates to crime. It might be defined as the body of rules that defines conduct that is not allowed because it is held to threaten, harm or endanger the safety and welfare of people, and that sets out the punishment to be imposed on people who do not obey...
. They wear other hats — importantly, they have long been vested with the responsibility for preserving the public peace. See, e.g., O. Allen, DUTIES AND LIABILITIES OF SHERIFFS 59 (1845) (“As the principal conservator of the peace in his county, and as the calm but irresistible minister of the law, the duty of the Sheriff is no less important than his authority is great”); E. Freund, POLICE POWER § 86, p. 87 (1904) (“The criminal law deals with offenses after they have been committed, the police power aims to prevent them. The activity of the police for the prevention of crime is partly such as needs no special legal authority”).
However, this position must be contrasted against far more recent legal opinions, such as Castle Rock v. Gonzalez, in which the US Supreme Court ruled that individual human beings have no right to nor expectation of protection from police, unlike property, which does have such expectation.http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/04-278.ZS.html
Historical origins
Under early Saxon lawAnglo-Saxon law
Anglo-Saxon law is a body of written rules and customs that were in place during the Anglo-Saxon period in England, before the Norman conquest. This body of law, along with early Scandinavian law and continental Germanic law, descended from a family of ancient Germanic custom and legal thought...
, each county
County
A county is a jurisdiction of local government in certain modern nations. Historically in mainland Europe, the original French term, comté, and its equivalents in other languages denoted a jurisdiction under the sovereignty of a count A county is a jurisdiction of local government in certain...
or shire
Shire
A shire is a traditional term for a division of land, found in the United Kingdom and in Australia. In parts of Australia, a shire is an administrative unit, but it is not synonymous with "county" there, which is a land registration unit. Individually, or as a suffix in Scotland and in the far...
in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
was divided into an indefinite number of hundreds, each composing ten groups of ten families governed by a constable with his own court. Each member of the group and subgroup was individually responsible for preserving the peace and apprehending criminals. This is shown in laws recorded by Saxon kings, such as:
Let him who takes a thief, or to whom one taken is given, and he then lets conceals the theft, pay for the thief according to his wer. If he be an ealdorman, let him forfeit his shire, unless the king is willing to be merciful to him.
That a thief shall be pursued.... If there be present need, let it be made known to the hundredman, and let him make it known to the tithingmen; and let all go forth to where God may direct them to go. Let them do justice on the thief, as it was formerly the enactment of Edmund I.
And the man who neglects this, and denies the doom of the hundred, and the same be afterwards proved against him, let him pay to the hundred xxx. pence; and for the second time lx. pence, half to the hundred, half to the lord. If he do so a third time, let him pay half a pound; for the fourth time, let him forfeit all that he owns, and be an outlaw, unless the king allow Him to remain in the country.
In 920 AD, King Edward the Elder
Edward the Elder
Edward the Elder was an English king. He became king in 899 upon the death of his father, Alfred the Great. His court was at Winchester, previously the capital of Wessex...
set forth that the reeve
Reeve (England)
Originally in Anglo-Saxon England the reeve was a senior official with local responsibilities under the Crown e.g. as the chief magistrate of a town or district...
or gerefa of the shire, a royal official, should hold court each month to try cases of both civil and criminal matters. The modern term “sheriff” originates from the Saxon "shire
Shire
A shire is a traditional term for a division of land, found in the United Kingdom and in Australia. In parts of Australia, a shire is an administrative unit, but it is not synonymous with "county" there, which is a land registration unit. Individually, or as a suffix in Scotland and in the far...
reeve" and the term gerefa. The shire reeve was the earliest public official charged specifically with keeping the King’s peace.
I will that each reeve have a gemot always once in four weeks, and so do that every man be worthy of folk-right; and that every suit have an end, and a term when it shall be brought forward. If that any one disregard, let him make bot as we before ordained.
The Norman invasion of England eventually disrupted the Saxon hundreds system. Gradually, disregard for collective responsibility in conserving the peace led to relaxed requirements for the King’s subjects to appear at each session of court. The baronage and clergy were no longer required to appear unless specifically required, and persons having matters before the court could have attorneys
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
appear on their behalf. In response to the loss of this collective responsibility, Henry III of England
Henry III of England
Henry III was the son and successor of John as King of England, reigning for 56 years from 1216 until his death. His contemporaries knew him as Henry of Winchester. He was the first child king in England since the reign of Æthelred the Unready...
appointed four specific knights in each county deemed responsible for conserving the peace.
The King to Alured de Lincoln, Ivo de Rocheford, John de Strods, and William de Kaymens, of the county of DorsetDorsetDorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...
, greeting: Whereas, in our Parliament lately holden at OxfordOxfordThe city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
, it was ordained, that all excesses, transgressions, and injuries, done in our realm, should be inquired into by four knights of each county, that (the truth thereof being known) those offences might be more easily corrected; which same knights should take their corporal oaths, in the full county court, or (if such county court be not speedily held) before the sheriffs and coroners; as we have enjoined all our sheriffs faithfully to take such inquisition as aforesaid, we command you, by the fealty you owe us, that, having yourselves, first taken the oath beforementioned, by the oaths of good and lawful men of the county aforesaid, by whomsoever and upon whomsoever lately perpetrated; and this as well concerning justices and sheriffs as our bailiffs and other persons whatsoever. And such inquisition, under your own seals, as well as those of the jurors, you shall bring to WestminsterWestminsterWestminster is an area of central London, within the City of Westminster, England. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, southwest of the City of London and southwest of Charing Cross...
, in the octaveOctaveIn music, an octave is the interval between one musical pitch and another with half or double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been referred to as the "basic miracle of music", the use of which is "common in most musical systems"...
s of St. Michael, to be delivered by our own hands to our council there. Moreover, we have commanded our sheriff of the aforesaid county, that, having taken your oaths in form aforesaid, he cause good and lawful men, by whom the said inquisition may be best made, to come before you, at such days and places as you may appoint.
The specific term “Conservator of the Peace” came into being upon the codification and expansion of the authority of the office under Henry III’s son, Edward I
Edward I of England
Edward I , also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England from 1272 to 1307. The first son of Henry III, Edward was involved early in the political intrigues of his father's reign, which included an outright rebellion by the English barons...
. Under Edward I, Conservators of the Peace were not only charged with keeping the peace, but where also given the authority to try certain offenses previously heard by the Reeve’s court. These itinerant judges were the earliest historical predecessors to the Justice of the Peace. Conservators of the Peace appointed under Edward I were considered to be in positions of great public trust and social stature.
Edward, Earl of CornwallEarl of CornwallThe title of Earl of Cornwall was created several times in the Peerage of England before 1337, when it was superseded by the title Duke of Cornwall, which became attached to heirs-apparent to the throne.-Earl of Cornwall:...
, was appointed conservator of the King’s peace for the counties of MiddlesexMiddlesexMiddlesex is one of the historic counties of England and the second smallest by area. The low-lying county contained the wealthy and politically independent City of London on its southern boundary and was dominated by it from a very early time...
, EssexEssexEssex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
, HertfordHertfordHertford is the county town of Hertfordshire, England, and is also a civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district of the county. Forming a civil parish, the 2001 census put the population of Hertford at about 24,180. Recent estimates are that it is now around 28,000...
, CambridgeCambridgeThe city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
, HuntingdonHuntingdonHuntingdon is a market town in Cambridgeshire, England. The town was chartered by King John in 1205. It is the traditional county town of Huntingdonshire, and is currently the seat of the Huntingdonshire district council. It is known as the birthplace in 1599 of Oliver Cromwell.-History:Huntingdon...
, NorfolkNorfolkNorfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
, SuffolkSuffolkSuffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
, KentKentKent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
, SurreySurreySurrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
, OxfordOxfordThe city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
, BedfordBedfordBedford is the county town of Bedfordshire, in the East of England. It is a large town and the administrative centre for the wider Borough of Bedford. According to the former Bedfordshire County Council's estimates, the town had a population of 79,190 in mid 2005, with 19,720 in the adjacent town...
, BucksBuckinghamshireBuckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....
, BerksBerkshireBerkshire is a historic county in the South of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1957, and...
, Northhampton, Lincoln, and RutlandRutlandRutland is a landlocked county in central England, bounded on the west and north by Leicestershire, northeast by Lincolnshire and southeast by Peterborough and Northamptonshire....
; and the various sheriffs, nobles, knights, and other persons in those counties, are commanded to assist the Earl, and those whom he shall depute under him to keep the peace. Rot. Walliæ 10 EDW. I. m. 9.
Richard de Amundeville was in the same year appointed conservator of the peace, together with the sheriff, in the county of WarwickWarwickshireWarwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare...
; but the sheriff was to take counsel and direction from Richard de Amundeville as to what he did for the better preservation of the peace. Rot. Pat. 10 EDW. I. m. 8.
Besides the above exalted personages, others were commissioned in the same year to go into counties, for the purpose of making inquiries concerning those who were indicted for infractions of the peace, and other offences, and of apprehending all those found guilty, and delivering them to the sheriff, to be kept in ward until the King should further direct. Rot. Pat. 10 EDW. I. m. 8.
Immediately after the death of Edward I and the accession of Edward II of England
Edward II of England
Edward II , called Edward of Caernarfon, was King of England from 1307 until he was deposed by his wife Isabella in January 1327. He was the sixth Plantagenet king, in a line that began with the reign of Henry II...
in 1307, officers were appointed in every county in England as Conservators of the Peace. Their commissions stated that they shall constantly reside within their respective counties, visit every place therein and the King’s laws shall be strictly observed. If any disturbances occur, the Conservators are to raise the posse comitatus
Posse comitatus (common law)
Posse comitatus or sheriff's posse is the common-law or statute law authority of a county sheriff or other law officer to conscript any able-bodied males to assist him in keeping the peace or to pursue and arrest a felon, similar to the concept of the "hue and cry"...
, arrest the offenders and keep them in custody until the King shall further direct.
Edward III
Edward III of England
Edward III was King of England from 1327 until his death and is noted for his military success. Restoring royal authority after the disastrous reign of his father, Edward II, Edward III went on to transform the Kingdom of England into one of the most formidable military powers in Europe...
strengthened the office and authority of the Conservator of the Peace, but not necessarily for any altruistic interest in maintaining the public peace.
In the reign of Edward III, an act of parliament ordained “that in every shire of the realm good men and lawful which were no maintainers of evil nor barrators in the county, should be assigned to keep the peace, …to repress all intention of uproar and force even in the first seed thereof and before that it should grow up to any offer of danger.” Lambard, book 1, ch. 4; 2 Hale, P. C., ch. 7, note 1.
The real purpose of this act seems to have been to enable the king, Edward III, to appoint men upon whom he could rely in the different counties, to repress any effort of the people to release his father, Edward II, from prison.
American colonial usage
When the English colonists settled at JamestownJamestown, Virginia
Jamestown was a settlement in the Colony of Virginia. Established by the Virginia Company of London as "James Fort" on May 14, 1607 , it was the first permanent English settlement in what is now the United States, following several earlier failed attempts, including the Lost Colony of Roanoke...
in 1607 they brought not only the common customary law of England, but the law as modified by English statutes of general operation up to that time.
We see here, at the beginning of permanent civilized life on this continent, not only the contemplation of and provision for civil offices among the colonists, but also the practical application of the principle of local self-government, a principle of Anglo-Saxon derivation which, surviving the Norman Conquest, has always obtained, to a great and increasing extent, in England, and has ever been one of the fundamental principles of civil liberty in the rise, growth and progress of governments and governmental institutions in America.
With formation of government within the American colonies, the offices of sheriff, justice and constable were adopted from the English common law and the English ordinances. A warrant issued by a Native American
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
magistrate directed an early colonial constable to arrest a suspect.
1. I, Hidondi. 2. You, Peter Waterman. 3. Jeremy Wicket. 4. Quick you take him. 5. Fast you hold him. 6. Straight you bring him. 7. Before me, Hidondi.
A minister from a Massachusetts Bay colony
Massachusetts Bay Colony
The Massachusetts Bay Colony was an English settlement on the east coast of North America in the 17th century, in New England, situated around the present-day cities of Salem and Boston. The territory administered by the colony included much of present-day central New England, including portions...
described an arrest warrant that was served by early American constables in a private home in 1651.
On Sunday after their arrival, ‘not having freedom in our spirits,’ says Clark, ‘for want of a clear call from God to go unto the public assemblie to declare there what was the mind, and counsel of God concerning them,’ he ‘judged it a thing suitable’ to hold divine service in the house and with the family of Witter, and four or five others who came in to join their worship. While thus engaged, there came in two constables with a warrant for their arrest. A request to finish the services was denied, and ‘the erroneous persons being strangers,’ whom the writ of Justice Bridges commanded should be brought before him in the morning, were marched off as prisoners — bail being refused — to the inn for safe keeping.
The Commonwealth of Virginia's adaptation of the ancient common law office of Conservator of the Peace was described by the Virginia Supreme Court
Supreme Court of Virginia
The Supreme Court of Virginia is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It primarily hears appeals from the trial-level city and county Circuit Courts, as well as the criminal law, family law and administrative law cases that go through the Court of Appeals of Virginia. It is one of...
in 1923:
The office of conservators of the peace is a very ancient one, and their common law authority to make police inspection, without a search warrantSearch warrantA search warrant is a court order issued by a Magistrate, judge or Supreme Court Official that authorizes law enforcement officers to conduct a search of a person or location for evidence of a crime and to confiscate evidence if it is found....
, extends throughout the territory for which they are elected or appointed, as the case may be, in private as well as in public places, and upon private as well as public property, unless inhibited from entry for such purpose without a search warrant by some rule of the common law, or by the Constitution, or by statute. It was provided in EDW. III, ch. 15, that “in every shire of the realm good men and lawful, which are no maintainers of evil nor barretors in the county, shall be assigned to keep the peace;” of which it was said that this “was as much as to say that in every shire the King himself should place special eyes and watches over the people, that should be both willing and wise to foresee, and should be also enabled with meet authority to repress all intention of uproar and force even in the first seed thereof and before that it should grow up to any offer of danger.” This was but declaratory of the common law authority of conservators of the peace. That authority could not have been at all efficiently exercised if a search warrant had had to be first obtained before any entry could have been lawfully made upon any land in private tenure.
And while the duties and powers of police officers are, in modern times, largely defined and regulated by statute, it is elementary that the common law may be relied on to supply many incidents (of their powers), “and others are based on what may be necessarily implied from the powers expressly conferred.”
Today many states in the United States have Conservators of the Peace, more specifically Special Conservators of the Peace. For example, the private property of George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
's Mount Vernon
Mount Vernon
The name Mount Vernon is a dedication to the English Vice-Admiral Edward Vernon. It was first applied to Mount Vernon, the Virginia estate of George Washington, the first President of the United States...
Estate which is open to the public employs Special Conservators of the Peace to guard and protect the Estate and have full police powers on the Estate only.