Laguna Beach Local News
I write in response to Armando Baez’s letter regarding Blake’s Behavior I am for civility so I find it odd that a member of Village Laguna should chide Mr. Blake for civility when for years Village Laguna members would protest/yell when the city tried to remove dead and dying trees, even be disruptive at city hall meetings. Or, how about listing homes on the Historical List without letting the homeowner know about that and now we have many legal issues as a result. Also, over the years the issue of view blockage so many people have had to file suits at city hall to rectify this travesty. I have been personally insulted by several Village Laguna members over the years, especially at city council meetings and I have written about that. I am sure there are readers of this column can who can add to this.
SUMMARY
John Baylor III was a wealthy planter and one of the most significant importers and breeders of thoroughbred horses in pre-Revolutionary America. The son of a slave dealer described by Robert “King” Carter as “the greatest merchant in our country,” Baylor was educated in England and, upon his return to Virginia, granted land along the Mattaponi River, where he built his estate, Newmarket. He represented Caroline County in the House of Burgesses (1742–1752; 1756–1765) and on the county court before falling out of political favor in a dispute over how best to oppose the Stamp Act (1765). Baylor’s deepest passion was elite horseflesh and it nearly bankrupted him. By the mid-1750s, he had given up racing and was instead importing, at great expense, a dozen or more of the colony’s best thoroughbreds, which attracted the mares of George Washington, among others, for breeding. In 1764, he purchased the thoroughbred Fearnought for the unprecedented price of a thousan