Excerpt: To the General Assembly of Virginia:
The undersigned petitioner Matthias Harman a citizen of the county of
Tazewell would beg leave to respectfully represent to the Legislature of
Virginia that in August 1829 he intermarried with a certain Nancy Vance
by whom he had three children prior to the marriage, for reasons which is
deemed unimportant here to state he had been restricted from marrying
said Nancy and that as soon as the restrictions alluded to was removed he
done that he had always intended to do. Your petitioner requests that a
law may be passed changing the names of his three children born out of
wedlock from that of Vance to Harman, the eldest Elias V., the second
Daniel H., and the third William Buse, and he also desires that the said
three children may be made by law his legal representatives if deemed
proper and your petitioner as in duty bound will every pray.
Signed: Matthias Harman, November 1832
