Virginia. Loan Office

An act of the Virginia General Assembly established the Virginia Loan Office in 1777. The Virginia Loan Office was one of the 13 state loan offices in the Thirteen Original States authorized by the Continental Congress. These loan offices were set up to receive subscriptions to the domestic loans for financing the Revolution.

The Virginia General Assembly appointed George Webb, treasurer of the Commonwealth of Virginia, to be Commissioner of the Loan Office in Williamsburg. Webb was directed by the General Assembly to accept loans for specie, continental paper dollars or bills of credit from lenders and to give certificates to lenders as receipts for their money. Webb was also directed to keep a book containing records of certificates. In 1780, the General Assembly directed the Loan Office to move to Richmond.

After the Federal government was established in 1789, the first Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, continued the loan office system in conjunction with his plan for funding the Revolutionary debt. In 1817 the duties and records of the State Commissioners of Loans were transferred to the Second Bank of the United States, which had been chartered in 1816, and the loan offices ceased to exist.

From the description of Agency history record. (National Archives Library). WorldCat record id: 145406786