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It seems likely that Joseph Hanks had forestalled his initial departure from Richmond County during the spring of 1782 longer than he had wished, in hopes of collecting his mother's legacy and the relatively large debt of 29 pounds of Virginia money owed him by two neighboring gentlemen-planters named Fauntleroy and Beale. While it is not certain, it appears this delay in the first departure for Hampshire County nearly got Hanks into trouble with the authorities.
Late in 1781 the commonwealth of Virginia, newly independant from Great Britain, had passed legislation establishing a new statewide personal property tax. During the month of April (after April 10), household heads in each county were to assemble at prescribed locations (taverns, courthouses, etc.) and report to the tax commisioners how many white males over 21, slaves, horses, cattle, and carriages (actually, number of carriage wheels) were in their household or possession. Any persons not reporting for tax assessment were to be presented the following June before the county court.
Richmond County court records for session held June 4, 1782, suggest, but do not prove, that Joseph Hanks was presented (indicted) by the grand jury on that date for failing to report his taxable holdings. The record is ambiguous, for only the last name of the individual presented is given. The specific charge made against him is not idicated. The only thing record is that "The Presentment of the Grandjury against _____Hanks is Dismissed". Since there were several Hanks household heads in Richmond County that year, it cannot be proven that the person cited was Joseph Hanks, and it certainly cannot be assumed that the charge was failure to report for tax assessment.
However, the previous line in the record offers a clue. In parallel form, it is noted that "The Presentment of the Grandjury against _____Lee is Dismissed." The two identical presentments stand apart in character from the charges and suits appearing before and after them. Moreover, when Joseph Hanks was recorded in the personal property tax list and census of Hampshire County a little later that year, a certain William Lee appears as a neighbor of similiar property status and household size. In the census, he is listed immediately before Joseph Hanks. It is known from additional research that this William Lee migrated to Mercer County, Kentucky in 1787, where Lucey Hanks was of record in 1789. The writer speculates that perhaps this William Lee was the brother of Joseph Hanks' wife Ann who is reported in Richmond County during the 1760's. Perhaps he left for Richmond County and the Patterson Creek Valley at the same time that Joseph Hanks did. Perhaps their twin court cases were dismissed because they left the county within a few days of the June 4 court session. Perhaps they assured the justices that their departure was imminent, and that it would be unfair to levy a state tax against them in Richmond, when they were certain to be required to pay the same tax again in Hampshire.
It is unfortunate that the record of the grand jury dismissal is so uninformative, since the location of Joseph's daughter Lucey during May of 1782 is critical to whether she could have become pregnant by a Richmond County planter at that time, and have given birht to the child on or about February 5, 1782. Perhaps it is enough to conclude that Lucey Hanks could easily have been in the Rappahannock-bordering in May of 1782, as she most probably had been in May of 1781. Her presence in Richmond County in May of 1782 is less certain, although possible, as will become evident. Thus, in all three of the months of May that, following the writer's earlier analysis, would have been the most likely times for Lucey's pregnancy to begin, she could have been residing in her native Richmond County.
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