[422] Wirt, 312. [423] Wirt, 320-321; 368-369. [424] McRee, _Life of Iredell_, ii. 394. [425] Memorandum of J. W. Bouldin, in _Hist. Mag._ for 1873, 274-275. [426] Howe, _Hist. Coll. Va._ 222. [427] Judge Spencer Roane, MS. [428] McRee, _Life of Iredell_, ii. 395. [429] Wirt, 75-76. [430] J. W. Alexander, _Life of A. Alexander_, 191-192. [431] J. W. Alexander, _Life of Archibald Alexander_, 183-187. [432] MS. [433] Howe. _Hist. Coll. Va._ 222-223. CHAPTER XXI IN RETIREMENT In the year 1794, being then fifty-eight years old, and possessed at last of a competent fortune, Patrick Henry withdrew from his profession, and resolved to spend in retirement the years that should remain to him on earth. Removing from Prince Edward County, he lived for a short time at Long Island, in Campbell County; but in 1795 he finally established himself in the county of Charlotte, on an estate called Red Hill,--an estate which continued to be his home during the rest of his life, which gave to him his burial place, and which still remains in the possession of his descendants. The rapidity with which he had thus risen out of pecuniary embarrassments was not due alone to the earnings of his profession during those few years; for while his eminence as an advocate commanded the highest fees, probably, that were then paid in Virginia, it is apparent from his account-books that those fees were not at all exorbitant, and for a lawyer of his standing would not now be regarded as even considerable. The truth is that, subsequently to his youthful and futile attempts at business, he had so profited by the experiences of his life as to have become a sagacious and an expert man of business. "He could buy or sell a horse, or a negro, as well as anybody, and was peculiarly a judge of the value and quality of lands."[434] It seems to have been chiefly from his investments in lands, made by him with foresight and judgment, and from which, for a long time, he had reaped only burdens and anxieties, that he derived the wealth that secured for him the repose of his last years. The charge long afterward made by Jefferson, that Patrick Henry's fortune came either from a mean use of his right to pay his land debts in a depreciated currency "not worth oak-leaves," or from any connection on his part with the profligate and infamous Yazoo speculation, has been shown, by ample evidence, to be untrue.[435]