nty and also as a justice of the County
Court.[8] In the War for Independence, he served as a captain and
afterward took an active part in organizing the new government--in
particular, serving on a commission to supervise the Presidential
election of 1788. Under the new State Government, he continued to
serve as the Commissioner of Revenue for the county and a justice of
the County Court. In 1796, in a law suit in Prince William County,
John Moss, then 72, was able to state that he was the oldest justice
of the court in commission at that time.[9]

Service as a justice presumably involved John Moss in a wide range of
decisions affecting the life of the county. The business of the County
Court in this period was both judicial and administrative. Minor
crimes were disposed of monthly, while major crimes and civil cases
were handled in quarterly sessions.[10] At these sessions, the
justices also acted on appointments, licenses for mills and
ordinaries, road construction and repair, and the levying of taxes.
Most of the justices were not trained in the law, and law books were
scarce; therefore, the quality of justice and the transaction of
public business were frequently leavened by reliance on common sense
and experience.[11]

If gentlemen freeholders held the power of government in colonial and
post-Revolutionary Virginia, they also paid much of the cost of
government. In 1786, John Moss and James Wren, Gentlemen, were
appointed Commissioners of the Land Tax, the large counties in
Virginia being allowed to have two such officials.[12] They were
responsible for maintaining the tax book, personally calling on every
person subject to taxation, and making four lists of taxable property
in the county. (One was for the Clerk of the County Court, one for the
sheriff, one for the Solicitor General, and one for the commissioner.)
Annually, they submitted a list of changes in land ownership, by sale
or inheritance.[13]

For his service as a justice and as Commissioner of the Land Tax, John
Moss's compensation came in the form of fees; he received no salary
but under certain circumstances he was reimbursed for out-of-pocket
expenses connected with his duties.[14]

As one of the results of the American Revolution, the Anglican church
was disestablished, and many of the welfare functions formerly
performed by the parish vestry were assumed by the Overseers of the
Poor. John Moss served as an overseer, and the powers and duties he