Tough Times for the Treasury Department

From 1691 to 1776, the Virginia Department of the Treasury was a powerful, independent agency. Following the adoption of the state constitution in May 1776, the treasurer has served as a fiscal agent subsidiary to the auditor of public accounts, then to both the auditor of public accounts and the second auditor, and finally, since March 1928, to the comptroller.

The Library of Virginia houses several collections from the Treasurer’s Office including the General Operational Records of the Virginia Treasurer’s Office, 1766-1920. This collection contains an assortment of records from the Treasury Department: a cargo manifest for the ship “Matty” in 1766 carrying  beeswax, hemp, and tobacco at the Port of Rappahannock; receipts and vouchers from the Illinois Regiment, 1779-1781; certificates of state debt redeemed, 1779-1834; stock certificates, 1833-1840; a resolution of the General Assembly regarding the Cincinnati Fund, 1839; and correspondence of S. Bassett French concerning a portrait of Pocahontas, 1875, among many other items.

As I was going through the collection, I found a few folders of documents relating to Jerman Baker, Virginia state treasurer from 1820 to 1828. At first, I couldn’t understand what the papers were related to, so I decided to search the Library’s catalog and came across a petition from the Administrator & Securities of Jerman Baker: Petition.  Since he was the state treasurer, I also checked out the Dictionary of Virginia Biography and found his biography entry:

Jerman Baker [1776-1828] was born in Chesterfield County, Virginia, to Jerman Baker and Martha Ward Murray Baker. He served as a representative from Cumberland County, Virginia [1803-1807, 1808-1809, and 1813-1817] and in 1818 was elected by the General Assembly to the Council of State. In 1820 he became state treasurer after the misuse of funds by the office’s pervious occupant, John Preston.¹

Throughout his life Jerman Baker was involved with buying and selling land in Virginia (Amelia, Chesterfield and Cumberland Counties, and Richmond). At some point to keep up his mortgage payments, he embezzled nearly $25,000 from the state treasury. An auditing committee of the Council of State became aware of some irregularities during its quarterly review of the treasurer’s accounts. On March 28, 1828, when the committee members planned to meet Baker and seek an explanation, Baker committed suicide and died at his home in Richmond.

From the introduction to the Treasurer’s Office Inventory, it seems that mismanagement of the Treasurer’s Office was an ongoing problem. “Inadequate bookkeeping methods and a lack of communication…facilitated the series of embezzlements which occurred between 1874 and 1900.”² During Governor Harry F. Byrd’s tenure the Reorganization Act of 1927 created the Department of Finance, which included the Division of the Treasury. The treasurer’s basic duties remained unchanged, but the position now answered to the comptroller. A significant change required the comptroller to audit each claim to determine its validity before authorizing the treasurer to make payment.

The Jerman Baker records, 1822-1848, include accounts, bonds, correspondence, judgments, promissory notes, and receipts detailing the settlement of his accounts. As the records show, his heirs eventually repaid most of the money that he had stolen. Lawson Burfoot (1782-1842) became the new state treasurer in April 1828 and served until  February 1842.³ Additional records relating to the settlement by Baker’s heirs can be found in the Receipt ledger on Special funds as maintained by the Virginia Treasurer’s Office, 1823-1844 and Governor William B. Giles Executive Papers, 1827-1830.

The General Operational Records of the Virginia Treasurer’s Office, 1766-1920 is processed and a finding aid is available.