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diff --git a/29348.txt b/29348.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5fe0a7d --- /dev/null +++ b/29348.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2516 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Virginia Under Charles I And Cromwell, +1625-1660, by Wilcomb E. Washburn + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Virginia Under Charles I And Cromwell, 1625-1660 + +Author: Wilcomb E. Washburn + +Release Date: July 7, 2009 [EBook #29348] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VIRGINIA--1625-1660 *** + + + + +Produced by Mark C. Orton, Meredith Bach, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + [Transcriber's Note: + + Research done for this book indicates that its copyright was not + renewed.] + + + + + VIRGINIA UNDER CHARLES I + AND CROMWELL, 1625-1660 + + By + + Wilcomb E. Washburn + + Research Associate, Institute + of Early American History and Culture + + and + + Instructor in History, + College of William and Mary + + Virginia 350th Anniversary Celebration Corporation + Williamsburg, Virginia + 1957 + + + + + COPYRIGHT(C), 1957 BY + VIRGINIA 350TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION + CORPORATION, WILLIAMSBURG, VIRGINIA + + Jamestown 350th Anniversary + Historical Booklet, Number 7 + + + + +Virginia Under Charles I and Cromwell, 1625-1660 + + +VIRGINIA ON THE EVE OF EXPANSION + +Woodrow Wilson named the first volume of his _History of the United +States_ "The Swarming of the English." We might go further and compare +the colonization and expansion in the New World to a fissioning process +in which individual atoms are torn loose from a former pattern of +coherence and fused into new and strange patterns. The United States, +indeed, is still in the process of fusion following the earlier fission +process. It has not yet reached the stability that comes to some nations +in history, and which is marked by a fixed pattern of population growth, +land use, day-to-day habits, and philosophic beliefs. It is, rather, a +country in which every generation can look back to a strangely different +era that existed before it came of age. + +The period 1625-1660 in Virginia history is an important one for the +study of the fission-fusion process in America. During those years +Virginia's population increased perhaps twenty-five or thirty fold, and +the settlements spread from a thin belt along the James River to the +whole of Tidewater Virginia. Human atoms were propelled outwards in +every direction in an uncontrolled and only feebly directed expansion. + +The years 1607 to 1625 had created a base for this expansion. Those had +been crucial years and difficult ones. Settlements had resembled +military camps and individual colonists had been commanded like +soldiers. Rigorous administration of justice, fear of the Indians, and +the strict economic regulations imposed by the London Company had served +to restrain the potentially expansive nature of the colonists. + +The year 1625 saw Virginia under a new King and under a new form of +government. The charter of the London Company was made void, and the +colony passed from the control of a commercial company to the direct +control of King Charles I. + +The official census of the non-Indian population of Virginia in 1625 +showed 1,232 persons in the colony. Nine hundred and fifty-two were +males, twelve of them Negroes. Two hundred and eighty were females, +eleven of them Negroes. Although the colony had been in existence for +eighteen years the fissioning process had hardly begun. But it was +beginning. Five years later the population had more than doubled to +approximately 3,000. In 1640 the population jumped to 8,000, and by 1670 +to 40,000, of whom 2,000 were Negroes. Every aspect of Virginia +life--political, physical, economic, social, and moral--was to be +affected by this explosive and uncontrolled growth. + +Virginia did not develop any cities or even towns during the period +1625-1660. Indeed, the towns, such as Jamestown and Henrico, that had +earlier been established, declined in population or were totally +abandoned. The immigrants who were funneled into the colony through +Jamestown were soon attracted to the ever widening frontier. During the +first twenty years colonists had lived in organized farming communities, +separated from other such settlements, but strictly supervised by local +"plantation commanders." The separate settlements were variously called +"colonies," "plantations," "hundreds," and "particular plantations," and +sometimes contained hundreds of planters. Frequently the "plantation" +was located within a loop of the James River. The members of the +settlement planted their crops within the loop, and set up palisades and +forts at the open end for their common defense. Sentinels and guards +were provided cooperatively to man the defenses. As the settlers +increased in numbers and the power of their governors and of the Indians +to restrain them decreased, however, they tended to leave the organized +communities and to carve out for themselves individual plantations in +the wilderness. Thus, even while the population of the colony grew by +leaps and bounds, the population of Jamestown and other areas where +population was once concentrated declined. It was a process, one might +call it, of de-urbanization. + +What was it that reversed the process of urbanization that was going on +in the mother country? The attraction was, of course, the land and its +fruits. England, with her five or six millions, was not overpopulated by +modern standards. Nor was she overpopulated by comparison with the great +nations of the Orient such as China which could even in that period +count its population in the hundreds of millions. But her few millions +seemed at times to oppress the English soil. On the other hand, America +was a relatively new home of the human species. Perhaps less than a +million Indians lived within the present bounds of the United States, +and the Indians with whom the English in Virginia came in contact +numbered less than 10,000. "In the beginning all the world was America," +wrote John Locke, and the English townsmen, villagers, and yeomen who +came to America found it natural to revert back to the time when Adam +went forth from the Garden of Eden to till the ground from whence he was +taken. It would be more truthful to say, however, that the English went +not so much in sorrow as in confidence, as the sons of Abraham to whom +God had promised all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession. + +Tobacco was the richest fruit of the land. Despite the moral opprobrium +in which the "vile, stinking weed" was held by men in England, including +King James himself, the public soon developed an insatiable appetite for +it. Having for the Europeans the attraction of novelty and utility, it +commanded an enormous price in the early years of the settlement. With +Spanish tobacco selling at eighteen shillings a pound in 1619, the +opportunities for gain from tobacco production seemed unlimited. Here +was the "gold" that Virginia had to offer, and soon all hands could +think of nothing else. The earliest settlers, hoping to emulate the +Spaniards in finding great treasures and living off the labor of the +Indians, had suffered bitterly from shortages of food. Later settlers, +though they did not hold to the expectations of the first arrivals, +still sought the avenue of quickest and greatest gain, and tobacco +provided that avenue. Throughout the 1620's many planters neglected to +grow corn or wheat, preferring to obtain their food supply by barter or +seizure from the Indians, or by purchase from planters who were willing +to divert their labor to such crops. Who would bother with grain when +tobacco sold for as much per pound as grain did per bushel? Frenchmen, +brought over to introduce vine-growing in the colony, neglected their +specialty to plant tobacco and had to be restrained by an act of +February 1632. An act of February 1633 similarly required all gunsmiths, +brickmakers, carpenters, joiners, sawyers, and turners to work at their +trades and not to plant tobacco or do other work in the ground. + +Another booklet in this series deals with agriculture in Virginia. It is +enough to say here that as the total production of tobacco increased so +did the price decline. Our present-day farm surplus problem is not new. +Even when the price had plummeted to a penny a pound the planters were +not discouraged from planting. Attempts were made on both sides of the +Atlantic to fix prices and to control the amount of production in order +to restore prosperity to the tobacco farmers. The important questions +were whose interests would be served, and how would they be served best? + +The death of James I and the dissolution of the Virginia Company +occurred almost at the same time. Charles I, his son, assumed the throne +in 1625 and promptly assured the planters that though the form of +Virginia's government had changed, the individual planters could be sure +that their rights and property would be respected. Charles informed the +colonists, however, that he would take over the buying of their tobacco +as a royal monopoly and give them such prices as would satisfy and +encourage them. Agreement with the planters, nevertheless, was difficult +to obtain. The Virginians were solidly united as a special interest in +favoring the highest prices and the greatest production. Their +representatives, both in the House of Burgesses and on the Council, were +their ardent spokesmen, themselves planters, whose interest lay in +fighting the battle of all Virginians. On the other hand the King, and +the English merchants and associates through whom he dealt, desired to +buy Virginia's tobacco at the lowest possible prices and in moderate +quantities. The tug of war between the two sides continued for many +years without any clear-cut resolution. + + +VIRGINIA UNDER WYATT AND YEARDLEY, 1625-1627: TOBACCO AND DEFENSE + +Sir Francis Wyatt, who had been the London Company's Governor in the +period 1621-1624, was appointed Governor by James I the first year the +colony was under royal control. Although the King made no specific +provision for the continuation of a representative Assembly, Wyatt and +the Council called together representatives of the various settlements +to meet in a General Assembly on May 10, 1625, in Jamestown. There they +drew up a petition complaining of the old Company rule and the miserable +state in which it had kept the colony during the previous twelve years, +and pleading with the King not to allow a monopoly of the tobacco trade. +The King's advisers, they feared, were those who had formerly oppressed +them and who would do so again should the King consent to a "pernitious +contract" taking all their tobacco at unfair rates. To present their +case against the contract they chose Sir George Yeardley, former +Governor, to go to England as their agent. The willingness of Wyatt and +the Council to call such an Assembly and the unanimity of views deriving +from it, show how single in their economic interests all Virginians +were. + +Governor Wyatt attempted to prevent disorderly expansion of settlement +and to build positions of strength in the colony, but he knew that the +"affection" of the planters to "their privat dividents" was too strong a +force to resist. Hence he recommended that a palisade be built from +Martin's Hundred on the James River to Chiskiack on the York River, +with houses spaced along it at convenient intervals. In this way the +Indians might be kept out of the entire lower portion of the peninsula, +the cattle kept in, and the colony provided with a secure base for the +development of its economy. After the economy was flourishing, there +would be a chance for finding the riches in the mountains to the west +and the longed-for passage to the South Sea, so confidently believed to +lie just beyond the Appalachians. All these enterprises presupposed the +"winning of the Forest" between the York and the James, which Wyatt +hoped to accomplish by means of his palisade scheme. + +Wyatt's project was not immediately put into effect. In 1626 he was +replaced by Sir George Yeardley. Yeardley, like Wyatt, devoted much of +his time to devising means to promote the security of the colony against +attack by land or by sea. + +It is hard for us to realize how desperately concerned with their +security were the few thousand Englishmen who inhabited Virginia at this +time. Separated from the mother country by 3,000 miles of ocean, a +dangerous crossing usually taking two months, the settlers had only a +precarious toe hold on a vast continent. From the ocean side the +settlers feared possible attack from other European colonizing powers: +the Spanish, French, or Dutch. The Spanish ambassador in London in the +early period of the Virginia settlement had frequently urged his +government to wipe out the struggling colony. But the indecision of +Spain's monarch had saved the colony. + +The Virginians themselves had engaged in expeditions against the French +settled in Maine, and spoke menacingly of the Dutch who had established +a settlement on the King's domain in Hudson's River in 1613. The claims +of the European monarchs to the American continent conflicted with one +another, and there seemed little chance that a resolution would come by +any other means than war. So it proved to be, later. In the meantime, at +home, Virginia settlers stood on guard. Governor Yeardley appointed +Capt. William Tucker, one of the Virginia Council, to check at Point +Comfort all ships entering the James River. Tucker was provided with a +well-armed shallop and absolute authority to check all ships arriving. +He could not do battle with an enemy warship, of course, but he could +give the alarm in case the enemy appeared. A few years later a fort was +built at Point Comfort to defend the entrance to Virginia's great river. +Although the channel was too wide ever to be adequately commanded by the +cannon of the day, the fort provided some protection to the colony. + +Yeardley made similar efforts to strengthen Virginia's position on land +against the numerically superior Indians. Like Wyatt he urged the +necessity of "planting the forest" rather than jumping beyond it to +areas far from existing settlements. As a means of controlling the +population Yeardley issued a proclamation requiring that anyone who +desired to move his place of residence within the colony must obtain +prior permission from the Governor and Council. Even to be absent for a +short time from his place of residence, a planter was required to get +permission from his "plantation commander." As was pointed out earlier, +"plantations" in this early period were usually not the +individually-owned, individually-operated plantations of later times, +but "private colonies" or "particular plantations," organized on a +joint-stock basis, on which more than a hundred men might live. + +In keeping with his conception of the colony as a military outpost, +Yeardley made plans for an armed settlement on the York at Chiskiack, +and devised a project for a surprise attack on all the surrounding +Indians on the first day of August 1627. Each "particular plantation" +was to march against an Indian town, kill as many Indians as possible, +and seize or cut down what corn it could. The attack was a success, but +because of a scarcity of shot the English failed in their desired goal +of utterly extirpating the red men. + +In November 1627 Yeardley died, and the Council chose one of its +number, Captain Francis West, to assume the role of Governor and Captain +General. + + +VIRGINIA UNDER FRANCIS WEST AND DR. JOHN POTT, 1627-1630 + +Meanwhile the King had grown increasingly disgusted that Virginia's +economy continued to be "built on smoke," and he ordered the Virginians +to concentrate on crops and products other than tobacco. Among the +products urged on the colonists were iron, salt, pitch and tar, potash, +and pipe staves. As his directives went unheeded, the King determined to +force a drastic reduction in the planting of the profitable tobacco +crop. In instructions sent out in 1627 he directed that no master of a +family be allowed to plant above 200 pounds of tobacco and no servant +more than 125 pounds. He also ordered that all tobacco was to be +consigned to him or his representatives. + +Charles directed that a general assembly of the planters' +representatives be summoned to deal with his proposals, and Governor +West and the Council ordered an Assembly to meet on March 10, 1628. The +Assembly thanked the King for prohibiting the importation of Spanish +tobacco into the English market, but cried that they would be at the +mercy of covetous individuals in England if a monopoly on Virginia +tobacco was allowed. They proposed, however, that since the King +intended to take all their tobacco, he should agree to take at least +500,000 pounds of tobacco at 3 shillings 6 pence the pound delivered in +Virginia, or 4 shillings delivered in London. If the King was unwilling +to take so much, they desired the right to export again from England to +the Low Countries, Ireland, Turkey, and elsewhere. As to the King's +proposal to limit tobacco cultivation to 200 pounds for the master of a +family and 125 pounds for a servant, "every weake judgment," they +asserted, could see that this would not be sufficient for their +maintenance. As to the King's desire that the colonists should produce +pitch and tar, pipe staves, and iron, they complained that much capital +was needed to put such enterprises in operation. Few planters either +could or would undertake such schemes when tobacco culture required so +little capital and produced such quick and profitable results. + +[Illustration: National Portrait Gallery, London + +KING CHARLES I + +Painting by Daniel Mytens] + +The Assembly commissioned Sir Francis Wyatt, then in England, and two +Virginians to represent them in negotiations with the King. They were to +be allowed to come down six pence on each of the figures insisted upon +by Governor, Council, and Burgesses in their answer to the King's +letter. + +As in 1625, the opportunity to join in Assembly for the purpose of +agreeing on regulations for tobacco production allowed the planters to +deal with other matters. Wesley Frank Craven has written that +"representative government in America owes much in its origins to an +attempt to win men's support of a common economic program by means of +mutual consent." Had the King been less desirous of taking every +planter's tobacco and less concerned with the neglect of staple +commodities, he might well have governed the colony without calling the +planters together in periodic "assemblies." + +Dr. John Pott was elected by the Council on March 5, 1629, to succeed +West as Governor, and he governed in Virginia for one year. Few men +possess a less savory record than this first representative of the +medical profession in America. In 1624 he had been ordered removed from +the Virginia Council, at the insistence of the Earl of Warwick, for his +part in the attempt to poison the colony's Indian foes. He was later +convicted of cattle stealing but spared punishment because he was the +only doctor in the colony and therefore in great demand. + +Both West and Pott were foes of the Indians, and in numerous orders and +proclamations denounced former treaties of peace with them, and directed +that perpetual enmity and wars be maintained against them. A pretended +peace was, however, authorized to be extended to the Indians in August +1628 until certain captive Englishmen were redeemed; then it was to be +broken. + +The colonists, too, suffered during the administrations of West and +Pott. One man expressed the hope for "an Easterly wind to blow to send +in Noble Capt. Harvey, And then I shall have wright for all my wrong." +Capt. John Harvey was known in the colony for the investigation he had +conducted in Virginia in 1624-1625, and the King had appointed him +Governor on March 26, 1628. Harvey did not actually take up his +government in Virginia until two years later. In the meantime West and +Pott administered the colony. + + +VIRGINIA UNDER JOHN HARVEY, 1630-1632: EXPANSION AND DEVELOPMENT + +When Harvey arrived in 1630 he found that inadequate restrictions placed +on tobacco production in the previous years had created an enormous +surplus which had forced the price down to a penny a pound. Harvey found +also that because of their "greedie desires to make store of Tobackoe," +the settlers had neglected to plant sufficient corn, let alone to +develop different commodities as instructed by the King. Calling an +Assembly, he convinced the representatives to agree to reduce the amount +of tobacco planted, and to increase the amount of corn. He also sent +ships into the Chesapeake and southward to Cape Fear to trade for corn +with the Indians to make up the deficit left by the negligent planters. +But most important of all, Harvey put into effect the long-dreamed-of +plan to secure the entire area between the James and the York by +building a palisade between Archer's Hope Creek (now College Creek), +emptying into the James River, and Queen's Creek, emptying into the York +River. Harvey's plan called also for a settlement on the south side of +the York. This outpost would serve as an advance base and point of +defense for operations against Opechancanough, King of the Pamunkeys, +and his many warriors. Six hundred acres apiece were granted there in +1630 to Capt. John West, brother of Lord Delaware, and to Capt. John +Utie, who were made commanders of the settlement. Fifty acres were +offered to any person who would settle there during the first year of +its existence and twenty-five during the next year. Exactly when the +first settlers moved to the York is uncertain, but it was probably in +1631. West and Utie settled on either side of a bay formed by the +joining of King's Creek and Felgate's Creek about four miles above +modern Yorktown. The tourist who speeds along the Colonial Parkway from +Jamestown to Yorktown crosses the bay within sight of the tracts granted +West and Utie. Today he may drive from Jamestown to the York with +comfort and safety in a few minutes. It took the early settlers +twenty-four years to cover the same distance. + +[Illustration: Map 1] + +About the same time, probably in 1630, another distant settlement was +established. William Claiborne, Secretary of the Council of State of +Virginia, with one hundred men, settled Kent Island 150 miles up +Chesapeake Bay. In the Assembly of February 1632 both "Kiskyacke and the +Isle of Kent" were represented by Capt. Nicholas Martiau, ancestor of +George Washington. + +The great expansion had now begun. Settlers crossed from the James to +the York, and provision was made by an act of the Assembly of February +1633 for building houses at Middle Plantation, situated strategically +between College Creek and Queen's Creek, and for "securing" the tract of +land lying between the two creeks. + +Besides being concerned with questions of defense, Harvey pursued a +policy of encouraging trade with other colonies in the New World. +Numerous commissions were issued by the Governor in March and April of +1632 authorizing individuals to trade with New England, Nova Scotia, and +the Dutch plantation in Hudson's River, as well as with the West Indies. +Harvey even gave instructions to Nathaniel Basse, one of the traders and +a member of the Council, to encourage people from the other colonies to +come to Virginia. "If those of Newe England shall dislike the coldnes of +there clymate or the barrenness of the soyle," wrote Harvey, "you may +propose unto them the plantinge of Delaware bay, where they shall have +what furtherance wee cann afford them, and noe impediment objected +against theire owne orders and lawes." + +But all was not well in the government of the colony. Harvey found the +Council members constantly opposing him, disputing his authority, +resisting his attempts to administer equal justice to all men. The royal +Governor was not supreme as we now sometimes mistakenly assume. He was +first among equals only. Decisions at this time were made by majority +vote, and the Governor was frequently outvoted. Moreover the Councilors, +who could devote more of their time to their private affairs, tended to +be better off financially than the Governor himself, who found it next +to impossible to get his salary from the King, and who was forced to +entertain at his own expense all who came to James City. Harvey +complained that he should be called the "host" rather than the +"Governor" of Virginia. In contrast, Samuel Mathews, one of Harvey's +enemies on the Council, owned the finest estate in Virginia. William +Claiborne, another of Harvey's enemies on the Council, besides a large +estate, had a royal commission and English backers for his powerful +trading company. + +Harvey made every effort to reconcile the differences which arose +between him and the Council members, and on December 20, 1631, all +signed an agreement promising to work in harmony and to mend their +discontent. + +Fortified by this agreement, Harvey went forward with his efforts to put +Virginia's agricultural economy on a sound basis. The principal problem +was to force the planters to diversify. Many tears are shed for the +poverty of the planters of Virginia, and their customary indebtedness to +English creditors is usually cited as proof of their poverty. But this +"poverty" was not based on the inability of the planter to raise enough +food to support himself and his family, but on the fluctuations of the +market price of the crop--tobacco--to which he had devoted most of his +energies as a speculative venture. Strange as it may seem, the planter +had to be forced to raise enough food for his own support, so avid was +his desire for quick tobacco profits. + +Governor Harvey's Assembly of February 1632 directed that every man +working in the ground should plant and tend at least two acres of corn +per head, on penalty of forfeiture of his entire crop of tobacco. Harvey +hoped to make Virginia "the granarie to his Majesty's Empire," as Sicily +had been to Rome. Another act allowed corn to be sold for as high a +price as could be obtained, contrary to the usual European and colonial +habit of fixing prices on basic commodities used by the people. The +reason given for this freedom from price fixing was that the precedents +of other countries did not apply to America, "for none are so poore +heere, as that they may not have as much corne, as they will plant, +havinge land enough." + +The Assembly of 1632 did, however, fix a price on tobacco, requiring +that it not be sold at less than six pence per pound, a law they went to +great pains to justify to the King. Tobacco was Virginia's primary +economic interest, and the Virginians were willing to go to any lengths +to advance that interest. They urged the King not to place any +impediment to their "free trade," or right to sell their tobacco +wherever they could, and mentioned that they had already constructed +several barques and had begun trading with the Dutch plantation on +Hudson's River. Governor Harvey asked why the English merchants could +not afford to allow them a penny a pound for their tobacco when the +Dutch paid eighteen pence per pound. + +The English merchants who traded with Virginia formed a tight little +group which used its favored position to charge excessive prices for +English-made goods, and to give abnormally low prices for Virginia +tobacco. Such a policy was not entirely owing to covetousness. The +English economy was shackled by a conception of economic life which +believed in the necessity of monopolies and restrictive devices of all +sorts. The Dutch nation, on the other hand, had thrown off many of the +traditional mercantilist restraints on trade. Holland soon enjoyed a +level of prosperity that made her the envy of the rest of Europe. Her +rivals attributed Dutch success to the energy of her people. "Go to beat +the Dutch" became a byword which has persisted to this day. Not until a +century later did the English realize that Dutch prosperity was caused +not so much by hard work as by the policy of freeing trade from +unnecessary restraints. As Dutch prosperity increased, Dutch ships +appeared in every sea, underselling all rivals and paying better prices +for local products. The complaint that the London merchants allowed only +one penny a pound for the Virginians' tobacco while the Dutch gave +eighteen strikingly illustrates the measure of Dutch commercial +superiority. No wonder that the London merchants should demand that the +Dutch be excluded from the Virginia market! For the same reason +Virginians, whether Governors, Councilors, Burgesses, or planters, were, +throughout the seventeenth century, almost unanimously opposed to the +English government's policy of restricting trade with Virginia to +English ships and confining that trade to English ports. + +Although Governor Harvey supported the Burgesses and Council in their +strong defense of tobacco production, he privately wrote that he had not +only endeavored to have reduced the amount of tobacco planted "but if it +might have been, to have utterly rooted out this stinking commodity." He +reported that only the powerful hand of the King and his Council could, +however, effect such an end, so "indeared" were the planters to the +traffic. Moreover, Harvey admitted that until some more staple commodity +could be developed, tobacco could not be prohibited without the utter +ruin of the colony. Virginia was rooted to tobacco--seemingly for ever. + +The Virginia planters' proposals, of course, met the opposition of the +London merchants, who complained to their powerful friends and +associates in the government and urged the King and his Council to +nullify the restrictions which the Virginians tried to place on the sale +of their tobacco. The merchants were particularly opposed to the desire +of the Virginians to by-pass them and trade with foreign nations +directly. + +It is hard for us to realize today the immense importance of merchants +and traders in influencing the colonial policies of the English +government. Virginia was founded by a commercial company. All the early +attempts at settlement were made by private persons who were willing to +"adventure" their capital or their skill. Behind the great explorers +stood private individuals who risked their money on the success of the +voyage or settlement. The "government"--perhaps it would be truer to say +the Kings and their advisers--did not have the funds or the foresight to +support these ventures. They were perfectly willing to sign papers +granting lands they did not own to those who were willing to attempt the +settlement, but they were reluctant to put up their own money except on +a sure thing. + +Once the settlements were functioning, once revenues were patently +obvious, the monarchs showed more concern with their government. +Merchants still, however, continued to provide the link between the King +and colony to a great extent. In an age of state regulation and +monopolies, in an age which did not provide fixed salaries for men in +high position, there was a close relationship between the Exchange and +the Court. A merchant dealing with overseas trade could not be +successful unless he had influence at Court. Even after the King took +away the charter of the Virginia Company, merchants continued to apply +pressure to the committees and commissions set up to advise the King on +colonial policy. Although the colonists feared that Charles I might +reinstitute a company over them, and the former representatives of the +Virginia Company pressed for such a move, the merchants were not able to +re-establish direct control over the colony. + + +VIRGINIA UNDER HARVEY, 1632-1634: PROSPERITY AND DECENTRALIZATION + +In September 1632, under Governor Harvey's direction, the first revisal +of Virginia's laws was made. Twenty-five years of experience under +varying forms of government lay behind the revisal. All previous laws +were examined and brought into conformity with existing conditions. Most +of the legislation concerned the Church, tobacco, and the Indians, good +indications of what most concerned the early settlers. Highways were +also authorized to be laid out in convenient places, the first sign that +settlement was spreading from the rivers--the traditional highways of +Virginia--into the interior. Virginia was becoming more than a military +outpost. It was becoming a "home." + +The success of Harvey's attempt to stabilize and diversify agricultural +production is confirmed in the account of Captain Thomas Young of his +voyage to Virginia and Delaware Bay in 1634. Sailing up the James River +he noticed that "the cuntry aboundeth with very great plentie of milk, +cheese, butter and corne, which latter almost every planter in the +country hath." The grim threat of starvation that had in former times +hung over the colony had been dispelled. Although there had been a rapid +increase in population, the food supply more than kept up with the +increase, and thousands of bushels of corn were even transported and +sold to the New England colonists. + +The year 1634 also marked the establishment of the county form of local +government in Virginia. The scattered plantations and settlements, +rapidly expanding and hence more difficult to govern from James City, +were now organized into eight counties. For each a monthly court was +established by commission from the Governor and Council. Provision for +separate courts in outlying areas had been made as early as 1618. Now +the shift to decentralized government was formalized. + +[Illustration: Map 2] + + +THE "THRUSTING OUT" OF GOVERNOR HARVEY AND ITS AFTERMATH, 1635-1641 + +In 1635, in one of the most famous incidents in Virginia's early +history, Governor Harvey was deposed by his Council. Many historians +have assumed that Harvey was deposed by a spontaneous uprising of the +people no longer able to bear his oppressive government. There is, +however, little justification for this view. Many more accusations have +been hurled at Harvey by later historians than by his contemporaries, +and it is undoubtedly Harvey's position as a royal Governor and his +quick temper that have caused historians to take such a hostile view of +him. Ever since the successful American Revolution of 1776, American +historians, in interpreting the events of the colonial period, have +jumped at any evidence of discontent as an anticipation of, and +justification for, the War for Independence. They have not stopped to +determine whether the charges hurled at the royal Governors were true or +not. It is enough that someone accused them of oppression. + +The causes of the revolt against Harvey were various. Of first +importance was the continual opposition that existed between the +Governor and his Council. The revolt was not primarily a revolt of the +people but a revolt by certain members of the Council who attempted to +give their particular insubordination the appearance of a general +rebellion. + +Harvey's commission was such that he could do nothing except by majority +vote of himself and the Council sitting as a single body. The Council +frequently outvoted him, effectively blocking his proposals. Harvey +bitterly disputed the Council's power to thwart his will. He pointed out +that the King had sent him to Virginia not only as the new Governor but +with the specific duty of correcting the abuses that were reported to +have existed under previous Governors, especially those abuses for which +members of the Council were responsible. Previous to his arrival the +government had been in the hands of Francis West and Dr. John Pott, +elected to office by the other members of the Council. Pott, whose +reputation has been mentioned earlier, was not pleased to be brought to +justice for his dishonest actions. Nor was Samuel Mathews, an important +member of the Council, pleased to be brought to justice for withholding +the cattle and property of other men. (Mathews, the richest man in the +colony, successfully resisted all legal attempts to divest him of this +property.) Nor were the Council members pleased when, in accordance with +His Majesty's commands, Harvey attempted to punish those responsible for +the ill treatment of William Capps, sent earlier by the King to start +production of tar, potash, salt, pipe staves and other commodities. The +Council had discouraged him from his mission, except in so far as it +concerned the production of salt, and Pott had issued an order +preventing him from leaving the colony to report to the King. + +Another cause for grievance against Harvey was the peace he made with +the local Indians. The colonists distrusted the Indians more than they +distrusted other Europeans. The great massacre of 1622, when the Indians +made a desperate attempt to destroy the English settlement, had placed +Indian-white relations on a basis of perpetual enmity. Legally, the +Indians had never been considered to have the same rights as the +English. English law throughout the seventeenth century maintained the +doctrine that between Christians and infidels there could exist nothing +but perpetual enmity, a view which was a hangover from the period of the +Crusades, wars against the Turks, and expansion by militant Christian +nations into heathen lands during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. +It is true that practical co-operation and on-the-spot recognition of +Indian rights had developed in Virginia in the early years. The massacre +of 1622, however, gave Virginians an excuse for abandoning all forms of +co-operation with, and respect for, the Indians. Deceit and breach of +faith were elevated into acknowledged instruments of policy. The right +of the Indians even to occupy the land of their forefathers was denied. +They were admitted to exist and to hold land _in fact_, but the English +refused to recognize _in law_ either their existence or their title to +land. Total extirpation was resolved against those Indian nations which +had taken part in the massacre. "Marches" were periodically ordered +against the various tribes with the purpose of destroying or seizing +their corn, burning their shelters, and killing as many members of the +tribe as possible. + +Governor Harvey reversed this policy and made peace with the Indians +against the advice of Dr. Pott and other Councilors. He also attempted +to see that some measure of equity was extended to Indian-white +relations. As a result, the more aggressive planters accused him of +promoting a second massacre. + +What really set off the revolt against Harvey, however, was the +injection of the hottest issue of the day into the controversy: whether +Harvey was "soft" on Catholicism. This issue was brought to a head +because of the grant of a portion of Virginia's original territory to +George Calvert, first Lord Baltimore. Harvey had extended a helping hand +to Baltimore's colonists. Although his actions in this regard were +specifically required of him by the King, and although he received +especially warm commendation from the English government for doing so, +the Virginia colonists objected. The King's grant, for one thing, had +been carved out of the Virginia Company's old bounds which had been left +undisturbed when the Company lost its right to govern the area. Already +Virginians were beginning to eye the benefits of settlement in the +northern reaches of Chesapeake Bay. One, Colonel William Claiborne, +Secretary of the colony, had obtained a royal commission to trade in the +area and had established a settlement on Kent Island, opposite the +present Annapolis, far up Chesapeake Bay. By acting on the King's +instructions and supporting Baltimore's authority in the area against +Claiborne's claims, Harvey turned the second most important man in the +colony against him. + +Harvey at first backed the Virginia Council's assertion that Kent +Island was a part of Virginia, and not part of the supposedly +uncultivated wilderness granted to Baltimore by the King. But in the +face of Charles's obvious desire to take the area away from Virginia, +and because Claiborne's patent authorized trade rather than settlement, +Harvey soon accepted Lord Baltimore's position that Claiborne's trading +post lay within the limits of Baltimore's jurisdiction. Irritation +between the two men increased when Harvey attempted jointly with the +Maryland authorities to conduct an examination of charges that Claiborne +was stirring up Maryland's Indians against the new settlers. Claiborne +was accused of telling the local Indians that the new settlers were not +Englishmen but Spaniards. The investigation which ensued was hampered at +every turn by Claiborne and his friends on the Virginia Council. + +The Virginians were most concerned not by the apparent violation of +Virginia's territorial integrity, but by the fact that the new +settlement was being established and settled by Roman Catholics. The +Virginians were less tolerant than the King in wishing success to Lord +Baltimore, a Catholic, and his fellow religionists, in establishing a +colony on their northern border. The Virginia Council wrote Charles in +1629 thanking him for "the freedome of our Religion which wee have +enjoyed," and asserting proudly that "noe papists have beene suffered to +settle amongst us." They insisted upon tendering the oaths of supremacy +and allegiance to Lord Baltimore when he arrived in Virginia in October +1629 to consider a possible settlement, and reported to the King that he +had refused to take those oaths. Charles I had married a Catholic, +Henrietta Maria of France, and, like his father, James I, was not +disposed to allow too rigorous penalties against those who professed +religious allegiance to Rome. But the Parliament, and the people in +general, feared and hated Catholics, believing their religious beliefs +to be incompatible with loyalty to a Protestant state. + +By means of the oaths of allegiance and supremacy Catholics were +required to recognize the English sovereign as their rightful ruler in +matters spiritual and ecclesiastical as well as temporal, to repudiate +the papal claim to depose heretical princes, to promise to fight for the +King in case of rebellion caused by a papal sentence of deposition, and +to denounce the doctrine that princes, being excommunicated, could be +deposed or murdered, or that subjects could be absolved from their oath +of allegiance. The oaths were based on a real fear which identified +Roman Catholicism with treason. Protestants felt that Catholics owed +their highest allegiance to a foreign power, and hence were not good +Englishmen. The problem was a complicated one, and much debated at the +time and since. Now it is generally accepted that one can owe spiritual +allegiance to Rome while remaining a faithful subject of a non-Catholic +state. In England in the seventeenth century, however, the Church of +Rome was too closely identified with England's mortal enemies to allow +her freely to tolerate Catholics in her midst. For a long period England +had feared Spain as the greatest threat to her existence. Even after the +defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 this fear persisted and to a +certain extent was transferred to France, another Catholic power. The +measures taken against the Catholics in England were similar to those +taken against Communists in this country today, and they were taken for +the same reason: the fear that the followers of a universal ideology +would turn against their local allegiance if the two ever came in +conflict. + +Eventually Charles's easy attitude towards Catholics helped bring about +his downfall. In a similar way Harvey's compliance with the King's +instructions to aid and respect Baltimore's colonists weakened his +popularity in Virginia. + +As the locus of power in England shifted from the King and his lords +towards the Parliament and the people, a stronger Protestant and +democratic policy became necessary. The eventual result of this shift in +power became evident with the beheading of Charles I in 1649 and, later, +with the Glorious Revolution of 1689 and the crowning of William and +Mary as constitutional symbols of the power of the English nation. + +So great was the popular feeling in Virginia against the "Papists" in +Maryland that many, in casual conversation, exclaimed that they would +rather knock their cattle on the head than sell them to Maryland. To +accommodate the needs of the new settlers in Maryland, Harvey sent them +some cows of his own and did his best to ease their early struggles, in +accordance with the King's commands. He could not do all he wished, +however, because he was frequently outvoted at the Council meetings on +anything that had to do with Maryland. + +The deposition of Governor Harvey had its origin on April 27, 1635, in a +mutinous gathering held in the York River area, Virginia's first +frontier settlement outside the James River. The ring-leader seems to +have been Francis Pott, brother of Doctor Pott, who harangued the +meeting about the alleged injustice of Governor Harvey, and about the +Governor's toleration for Indians, which he said would bring on another +massacre. Francis Pott had formerly been commander of the fort at Point +Comfort but had a short time before been discharged by Harvey for +misbehavior. + +Harvey ordered the principals in the York meeting arrested, and called +the Council together to consider what action should be taken against +them. The Council opposed Harvey's desire to proceed against them by +martial law, and began to excuse the dissidents on the grounds of the +many complaints the people had about the government. Harvey thereupon +demanded opinions in writing on what should be done with the mutineers. +George Menefie, the first Councilor of whom Harvey demanded such a +written statement, said he was but a young lawyer and dared not give a +sudden opinion. A violent debate ensued. The rest of the Council also +refused to put their opinions in writing. At the next meeting of the +Council, Menefie began to recount the grievances of the country, naming +Harvey's detention of the Assembly's letter to the King as the principal +one. The original of this letter, refusing the King's propositions +concerning a tobacco contract, Harvey had retained, as likely to +infuriate the monarch and do the country no good. Instead he had sent a +copy of the letter to the Secretary of State. At Menefie's words, +Harvey, in a rage, brought his hand down sharply on the Councilor's +shoulder and said, "Do you say so? I arrest you on suspicion of treason +to his Majesty." Then Capt. John Utie and Capt. Samuel Mathews seized +Harvey and said, "And we you upon suspicion of treason to his Majesty." +Secretary Richard Kemp immediately stepped between the men and told Utie +and Mathews that Harvey was the King's Lieutenant and that they had done +more than they could answer for. Mathews and Utie released their hold on +the Governor but demanded that he go to England to answer the people's +complaints. To emphasize their demand Dr. John Pott signaled forty +soldiers who had been concealed outside the Governor's house (where the +meeting was held) to march up to the door, apparently as a form of +threat, although the mutineers protested that the guard was for the +Governor's safety. More days of negotiations passed. The rebellious +Council called an Assembly to hear charges against Harvey, and chose +Capt. John West to be Governor until His Majesty's pleasure might be +known. Finally Harvey agreed to return to England. Francis Pott went on +the same ship home. + +In England the Privy Council heard the charges against Harvey and his +defense. None of the accusations stood up, and he was able to show why +the Council had private reasons to desire his removal. The King directed +him to return to his government with increased power, and ordered the +Councilors who had been instrumental in deposing him to be sent to +England for trial. Harvey was able to collect some of his back pay and +to obtain the King's agreement that he should return in a ship of war. +Unfortunately, an old and unseaworthy prize ship was provided him which +had to turn back shortly after its departure, and Harvey was forced to +take passage on an ordinary merchant ship which arrived in Virginia +January 18, 1637. Harvey suffered great losses because of the +unseaworthiness of the prize ship, and petitioned the King for +recompense. He was, however, ordered to pay out of his own pocket all +the losses he had sustained by the affair, although he was authorized to +collect an equivalent amount from the estates of the mutinous Councilors +should they be convicted. + +The sending of the mutinous Councilors--Capt. John West, Samuel Mathews, +John Utie, and William Pierce--as prisoners to England, strangely enough +allowed them to accomplish what they had been unable to do in Virginia. +So many and so powerful were their friends, so wealthy were they +themselves, and so many were the charges that they contrived against +Harvey now that he was back in the colony and unable to answer them, +that the King soon reversed himself and ordered Harvey relieved of his +post. The King's action illustrates one of the little appreciated +factors in American colonial history: the role played by petitions to +the King. Three thousand miles of ocean, and months, even years, in +time, separated the assertion from the proof, encouraged the most +exaggerated charges, and contributed to the unjustified sympathy +extended by the King to many petitioners who did not deserve such +consideration. Some of the "crimes" charged against Harvey were even +discovered to have their origin in the King's own commands or in earlier +acts of Assembly. Yet they contributed to clouding the atmosphere and +blinding the lords of England to the true worth of their representative +in Virginia. + +On the basis of unjustified or unsupported charges concerning Harvey's +alleged misappropriation of the mutinous Councilors' estates, which had +been seized for the King pending their trial, the King, on May 25, 1637, +ordered these estates returned to their owners. Harvey complied +immediately as far as four of the Councilors were concerned, but he had +already allowed legal action to be directed against Mathews' estate by +those who had claims against Mathews, and judgments had been made in +favor of the plaintiffs. When the English government heard he had not +turned back Mathews' property, it promptly ordered that he do so without +delay, which order Harvey then tried to put into effect as best he +could. The damage had been done, however, and the impression created +that he had willfully misappropriated Mathews' property and disobeyed +the King's commands. + +Harvey's fight against the charges his enemies brought against him in +England suffered another blow when Mr. Anthony Panton, a minister who +had been twice banished from the colony, returned to England to add his +complaints to those of the others. Harvey was not given a chance to +defend himself against the new charges, and on January 11, 1639, Sir +Francis Wyatt was appointed to succeed him. + +On Wyatt's arrival Harvey's estate was seized and the old Governor +prevented from returning to England until he could satisfy his +creditors. To meet their demands, Harvey, in 1640, was forced to sell +all his land and much of his personal property. The fact that he was in +debt to many persons in the colony is itself a significant indication +that he had not abused the powers of his office. It is a curious fact +that both Governor Sir William Berkeley and Governor Harvey were much in +debt when the rebellions against their rule began, while their principal +enemies were among the wealthiest men in the colony. + +Harvey was finally able to return to England, probably in 1641. There he +found Anthony Panton continuing his campaign of defamation against him. +Panton was not content to accuse the previous government in Virginia of +every sort of general crime (although he failed to cite any specific +instance of oppression) but charged that the commission the King had +granted to Sir William Berkeley in August 1641 to replace Wyatt had been +surreptitiously obtained. The House of Lords therefore ordered +Berkeley's voyage delayed while they examined the case. The House of +Commons, on the basis of an earlier petition from Panton, had similarly +prevented the return to Virginia of Richard Kemp, Secretary of the +colony, and Christopher Wormeley. Both Berkeley and the two Virginians +presented counterpetitions, the one pointing out that he was charged +with nothing and hence desired not to be held up on his costly voyage, +the others asserting that all Panton's accusations were untrue and +similarly requesting permission to leave. The House of Lords thereupon +granted these petitions, sending Panton's charges to the Governor and +Council of Virginia for a decision. + + +THE EARLY ADMINISTRATION OF SIR WILLIAM BERKELEY, 1642-1644: AN ERA OF +GOOD FEELING + +In March 1642 Sir William Berkeley took up his duties in Virginia and +began a career which ended both gloriously and ignominiously thirty-five +years later. Berkeley came from a distinguished family, was a graduate +of Oxford and the Inns of Court, a playwright, and a courtier much +admired by the King. Men frequently wondered why he chose to waste his +talents in the American wilderness when he might have achieved eminence +at Court. The mystery will probably ever remain. In Virginia Berkeley +had to work with many of the same Councilors who bedeviled Harvey, but +Berkeley was able to get along well with them and with the Assembly and +people of Virginia. No Governor of Virginia in the seventeenth century +was ever so well or so deservedly loved by the people. Since he ended +his long career as Governor amidst a colonial rebellion against his rule +in 1676, historians have found it hard to determine whether to bestow +praise or blame upon him. Usually he is praised for his early years in +the government and condemned for his later years, thus taking on a Dr. +Jekyll and Mr. Hyde character. The last word has not yet been written on +Governor Berkeley, however, and his character may prove to be more +consistent than historians have realized. + +Berkeley's first action was to join the Burgesses and Council in a +violent denunciation of those who were attempting to reinstitute the old +Virginia Company's control over the colony. In a "Declaration against +the Company" Berkeley and the Assembly asserted that government under +the Company had been intolerable and if introduced again would destroy +all the democratic rights allowed by the King's instructions, such as +legal trial by jury, the right to petition the King, and yearly +Assemblies. The readmission of the Company would also, the declaration +asserted, impeach the "freedom of our trade (which is the blood and life +of a commonwealth)." The declaration went on to order that anyone who +promoted the restoration of the Company's power would, upon due +conviction, be held an enemy to the colony and forfeit his whole estate. + +Berkeley's next action was to recommend the repeal of the tax of four +pounds of tobacco per poll which formerly had been levied for the +Governor's use. The Assembly acknowledged this as "a benefit descending +unto us and our posterity ... contributed to us by our present +Governor." Berkeley abolished certain other valuable emoluments due him +by virtue of his office "wherein," the Assembly declared, "we may not +likewise silence the bounty of our present Governor in preferring the +public freedom before his particular profit." Finally Berkeley +recommended that taxes be proportioned in some measure "according to +mens abilities and estates" rather than by the old poll tax system, and +the new scheme was, for a brief period, put into effect. + +Governor Berkeley not only showed himself selfless in restraining his +own opportunities for profit, but fearless in restraining the colonists' +itch for land. A few months before his arrival, the Assembly had +authorized settlement both on the north side of the York and in the +Rappahannock area, if it could be done in great enough force. +Opechancanough was to be offered fifty barrels of corn a year for the +area between the York and the Piankatank, although the English proposed +to take the area whether Opechancanough accepted the offer or not. +Twenty-four years had elapsed before English settlement jumped from the +James to the York. Now, ten years after the first settlements on the +York, Virginians were settling on the next great river to the north, the +Rappahannock. By the time Berkeley arrived, some settlers had +established themselves in the area, and many more had claimed grants. +Indian hostility was great, however, and soon a number of the settlers +returned to more secure areas of the country. + +Berkeley, working with the Assembly of March 1643, obtained a law which +provided that the Rappahannock River region should remain "unseated," +though grants might be tentatively claimed in the area, until the +Governor, Council, and Burgesses, that is, the Grand Assembly, should +authorize settlement there. The Governor was attempting to regulate the +expansion of the colony so that the twin goals of security for the +English and justice for the Indians could both be secured. In this he +was not entirely successful, since he could only guide, not arbitrarily +direct, the representatives of the people. The rich, virgin land of the +frontier exerted a continuing attraction to the tobacco planters, and +five years later, in 1648, the restrictions on settlement in the +Rappahannock region, as well as in the Potomac region, were officially +lifted. + +Many other important policy decisions were made at the March 1643 +meeting of the Grand Assembly. One of these decisions concerned church +government. The first act provided for the establishment of church +government according to the Anglican form. Virginia was not formed as a +protest against the Church of England, as were the Puritan colonies in +New England in large measure. Conformity in religious matters was +considered a virtue in Virginia. The Assembly, indeed, enacted that +nonconformist ministers be compelled to depart the colony, an act which +did much to sour Virginia's relations with New England. What was +significant about the act, however, was that, with certain exceptions +and qualifications, it gave the vestry of every parish power to elect +the minister of the parish. Because established landlords and nobles +did not exist to build and endow churches as in England, the +representatives of the people, in the vestry, had to assume the role of +patron, to build the church, and to provide for the support of the +minister. In such circumstances it was natural that much of the power +that remained in the hierarchy of church, state, and society in England +should, in Virginia, pass to the ordinary people and be exercised +through their representatives--the vestry and Burgesses. The people, not +the King, became the patron of the Church of England in Virginia. +Popular responsibility replaced clerical responsibility and added one +more phase of life to those controlled directly by the people in the New +World. It is significant that Patrick Henry, years before the +Revolution, should first have asserted the doctrine of popular +responsibility and authority in a case--the celebrated "Parsons' +Cause"--involving the people's authority over the church. + +An even more significant indication of the shift in power in the +government was the provision in one of the acts of the Assembly of 1643 +that appeals from the General Court (composed of the Governor and +Council, all appointees of the Crown) should be made to the Grand +Assembly (composed of the representatives of the people plus the +Governor and Council). + +Still another demonstration of the _de facto_ shift in power from the +Crown to the people was the third act of the 1643 Assembly which +declared that the Governor and Council "shall not lay any taxes or +impositions upon this collonie their lands or comodities otherwise then +by the authority of the Grand Assembly to be leavied and imployed as by +the Assembly shall be appointed." The first such law had been passed in +March 1624 and renewed in February 1632. The process of wresting control +of the purse strings from the representatives of the Crown was to be a +long-drawn-out process in America, as indeed it was in England. In +Virginia the battle was won without a fight either because the Governors +were unable to oppose the power of the Burgesses or because they +identified their interests with those of the people. In the case of the +rights won by the people of Virginia during Sir William Berkeley's +governorship, these seem to have been the results as much of the +Governor's benevolence as of the Burgesses' power. + +The colony also took its economic welfare into its own hands in the +early years of Berkeley's administration. Dutch traders were encouraged +by an act which made it free and lawful for any Dutch merchant or +shipowner to bring merchandise into the colony and to take tobacco out +of it. Means were provided to ease the difficulty caused by the +requirement that the Dutch give security for payment of the King's +customs at the port of London. + + +THE GREAT MASSACRE AND INDIAN WAR, 1644-1646 + +On April 18, 1644, occurred the second great Indian massacre in +Virginia's history. Opechancanough, King of the Pamunkey Indian +confederation, planned and executed the massacre, which most historians +attribute to the steadily increasing pressure exerted by the English on +the Indians' lands. The white population had increased from 3,000 in +1630 to 8,000 in 1640, and more were pouring in yearly. Nearly four +hundred English, living in exposed areas of the colony, reportedly lost +their lives in the massacre. The gallant young Berkeley, as proficient a +soldier as he was a playwright and courtier, struck back hard at the +Indians. The entire colony was put on a war footing. Campaigns, usually +by small mobile forces, were conducted against the Indians where they +could be found. The June Assembly passed an act for "perpetuall warre +with the Indians" promising to "pursue and root out those which have any +way had theire hands in the shedding of our blood and massacring of our +people." + +As in the case of so many Indian wars, there was a difference of opinion +as to which Indian nations were guilty of the attack. The Assembly's act +attempted to restrict reprisals to those who had actually perpetrated +the massacre. Some individuals, however, like Col. William Claiborne, +seem to have desired to extend the reprisals to the Indians living +between the Rappahannock and the Potomac, where the land interests of +Claiborne and others were concentrated at this time. + +Little progress was made in defeating the enemy in the early months of +the war. The Assembly, meeting in June 1644, foreseeing ruin and +desolation unless the colony could be furnished with a greater supply of +arms and ammunition, entreated Governor Berkeley to return to England +and implore His Majesty for assistance to the country. The Assembly also +commissioned Mr. Cornelius Lloyd as agent for the colony to obtain what +supplies he could from the Dutch plantation in Hudson's River, from the +Swedish plantation on the Delaware, and from the New England +settlements. + +It does not seem, from the records available, that either mission was +successful. Governor Berkeley found England involved in full-scale war +between the forces of the King and those of Parliament. Instead of +receiving aid from the King, Berkeley lent his own assistance to the +King's cause in his English campaigns. Berkeley returned to Virginia a +year later. + +The mission of Virginia's agent to the northern colonies apparently met +with similar lack of success. Governor John Winthrop of Massachusetts +Bay attributed the massacre to Virginia's expulsion of certain "godly +ministers" sent from New England a short time before, and told the +Virginia agent that Massachusetts could not spare the powder requested. +When Massachusetts' principal powder store shortly thereafter blew up, +Winthrop wondered whether God's wrath might not have been kindled +against the Bay Colony for her refusal to provide powder to fellow +Englishmen in need. + +The war with Opechancanough continued throughout the fall and winter of +1644 and into the spring of 1645. At the Assembly of February 1645 +provision was made for sending out the usual military parties. But in +addition three forts were ordered built: one in the Pamunkey territory, +one at the falls of the James, and a third along the Chickahominy. + +Efforts were made to see that the expenses of the war were equitably +shared. The settlers at Northumberland, on the south bank of the +Potomac, were ordered to contribute to the cost of the war on the north +side of the James. Chickacoan, as the area was known at first, had +served for several years as a rallying point for Protestants disaffected +with the government of Lord Baltimore, but this was the first official +notice of the settlement by the Virginia Assembly. Settlement along the +Potomac was significant, of course, because it placed a body of citizens +farther from effective control than any had been in the past. It had +been hard enough for Harvey to control the citizens on the south side of +the York River; now two broad rivers, the York and Rappahannock, lay +between the frontier settlements and Jamestown. + +The Assembly of February 1645 found time to deal with matters other than +the conduct of the war. It passed an act providing "That Free trade be +allowed to all the inhabitants of the collony to buy and sell at their +best advantage." Because some questions had been asked by the merchants +of London concerning a rumored prohibition of trade with them, it was +thought fit to explain that Virginia's free trade extended to them as to +other Englishmen. + +Following Sir William Berkeley's return from England June 7, 1645, +vigorous measures were taken to end the protracted war with +Opechancanough, and a new Assembly was called to reform abuses which had +sprung up. This Assembly met in November and passed reform laws which +demonstrate the concern Berkeley had for satisfying all the legitimate +grievances of the people. Action was taken against innkeepers who +charged unreasonable rates and fraudulently mixed their wines and +liquors with water. Similar action was taken against millers who +overcharged the people. Attorneys at law who charged fees for their +services were expelled from office, the colony having become outraged +at their exactions. The prohibition against professional attorneys +continued for a number of years before it was finally relaxed. Strict +regulations were instituted to curb the abuses of administrators of +deceased persons and orphans. Because of the trouble and charge to +plaintiffs and defendants of coming to Jamestown to attend the General +Court, county courts were allowed power to try all causes at common law +and equity. The tradition that appeals should lie from county courts to +the General Court and from the General Court to the Assembly was +reaffirmed. General poll taxes, which had been reintroduced, were +abolished on the grounds that they were "inconvenient" and had "become +insupportable for the poorer sorte to beare." All levies were ordered to +be raised "by equall proportions out of the visible estates in the +collony." Exemptions from taxation extended to members of the Council +were canceled for the duration of the war. It is not hard to imagine the +praise that would have been heaped on the initiator of such reforms, had +it seemed that they were the result of a democratic uprising. + +In March 1646 the Assembly met again. The policy of building forts had +evidently been considered successful enough to encourage the Assembly to +order another, Fort Henry, constructed at the falls of the Appomattox +for the defense of the inhabitants on the south side of the James River +and to deprive the Indians of their fishing in the area. The war had +been going on for a year and a half and the enemy forces were still not +destroyed. The Assembly, considering the vast expense that the conflict +had caused and considering "the almost impossibility of a further +revenge upon them, they being dispersed and driven from their townes and +habitations, lurking up and downe the woods in small numbers, and that a +peace (if honourably obtained) would conduce to the better being and +comoditie of the country," authorized Capt. Henry Fleet, the colony's +interpreter, and sixty men, to go out and try to make a peace with +Opechancanough. If they could not make such a peace, they were to erect +a fort on the Rappahannock River or between it and the York. + +The "break" in the war came with the daring capture of Opechancanough +himself by Governor Berkeley. Berkeley, who frequently led the troops of +the colony in the field, was apprised of the Indian leader's +whereabouts, and with characteristic boldness led a troop of men in a +raid on his headquarters. The raid was successful: Opechancanough was +captured and brought back to Jamestown. The old chief, said to be over +100 years, acted the part of Emperor of the Indian confederation with +grave dignity. The historian Robert Beverley tells us that one day the +nearly blind warrior heard "a great noise of the treading of people +about him; upon which he caused his eye-lids to be lifted up; and +finding that a crowd of people were let in to see him, he call'd in high +indignation for the Governour; who being come, Opechancanough scornfully +told him, that had it been his fortune to take Sir William Berkeley +prisoner, he should not meanly have exposed him as a show to the +people." Berkeley accepted the rebuke, and ordered him treated with all +the dignity due his position as the leader of many Indian nations. +Unfortunately the life of Opechancanough was shortly after snuffed out +by one of his guards who shot him in the back, despite his defenseless +condition. + +Peace was concluded with Necotowance, Opechancanough's successor, by the +first act of the October 1646 Assembly. The treaty is a document of +historic importance. Under its provisions Necotowance acknowledged that +he held his kingdom from the King of England and that his successors +might be appointed or confirmed by the King's Governors. Twenty beaver +skins were to be paid to the Governor yearly "at the going away of the +geese" in acknowledgment of this subjection. Necotowance and his people +were given freedom to inhabit and hunt on the north side of York River +without interference from the English, provided that if the Governor and +Council thought fit to permit any English to inhabit the lower reaches +of the peninsula, where land grants had been made before the massacre, +Necotowance first should be acquainted therewith. Necotowance in turn +surrendered all claim to the land between the falls of the James and the +York rivers downward to Chesapeake Bay. Indians were not allowed on this +land unless specially designated as messengers to the English. Similarly +it was a felony for an Englishmen to repair to the north side of the +York River except temporarily under special conditions authorized by the +Governor. + +The significance of the treaty lies in the fact that the Indians were to +be treated as equals, with equal rights to live on the land with the +English and to enjoy the rights of human beings. They were no longer +considered as vermin to be exterminated whenever the opportunity +presented itself. For the first time in Virginia's history, the Indian +was considered to have an unquestioned legal right to the land. The +setting aside of a reservation for the Indians into which English +intrusion was forbidden marked the end of the "perpetual enmity" policy +of earlier days. When differences arose, they might still be settled by +peace or by war, but the right of either side to exist would not be +questioned. + +Despite the improvement in the status of the Indian nations occasioned +by the treaty of 1646 it proved impossible to preserve their rights in +the face of the enormous increase in English population. The fate of the +eastern Indians proved identical to the fate of their western brothers +in the nineteenth century, when white population increased around the +areas set aside for Indian occupancy. But in Virginia the attempt was +made to establish a fair settlement, and Governor Berkeley honestly and +courageously labored to keep faith with the Indians, even though he lost +popularity and eventually his position as a result. + +The Assembly of October 1646 also provided for the maintenance of the +forts built during the war. This was done by granting the land on which +they were built, plus adjoining acres, to individuals who would +guarantee to maintain the forts and to keep a certain number of men +constantly on the place. By this method the valuable forts of the +colony were preserved, yet the people were spared the heavy taxes that +would normally have been necessary to maintain them. + +The Assembly made further provision that those who had settled along the +Potomac in Northumberland should not be allowed to avoid taxes as they +had done during the war. The English in this remote area had evidently +ignored the act of the February 1645 Assembly which attempted to tax +them, and followed instead their own interests, free from any effective +control by Virginia's government during the conflict with +Opechancanough. + +Finally the October Assembly enacted the strictest and most democratic +voting law ever made in Virginia. Not only were all freemen (as well as +covenanted servants) allowed to vote, but they were fined 100 pounds of +tobacco for failing to do so. This act seems to have continued in effect +until 1655 when the Assembly prohibited freemen from voting unless they +were also householders. + + +THE ADMINISTRATION OF BERKELEY IN 1647-1648: TRADE AND EXPANSION + +Following the war Virginia returned to its two great peacetime +interests--trade and expansion. In the Assembly of April 1647 Berkeley, +the Council, and the Burgesses joined in a declaration which reveals the +extent to which the colony relied on Dutch traders. It noted that +"absolute necessities" had caused earlier Assemblies to invite the Dutch +to trade with the inhabitants of Virginia, "which now for some few +yeares they have injoyed with such content, comfort and releife that +they esteeme the continuance thereof, of noe lesse consequence then as a +relative to theire being and subsistence." Rumors had been raised, the +declaration went on, that by a recent ordinance of Parliament, all +foreigners were prohibited from trading with any of the English +plantations "which wee conceive to bee the invention of some English +merchants on purpose to affright and expell the Dutch, and make way for +themselves to monopolize not onely our labours and fortunes, but even +our persons." The declaration noted the baneful effects on the colony of +the greed of the English merchants and pointed out that by ancient +charter and right the inhabitants of Virginia were allowed to trade with +any nation in amity with the King. It would be inconceivable that +Parliament would abridge this right "especially without hearing of the +parties principally interested, which infringeth noe lesse the libertye +of the Collony and a right of deare esteeme to free borne persons: +_viz._, that no lawe should bee established within the kingdome of +England concerninge us without the consent of a grand Assembly here." +But since they had heard nothing officially concerning the rumored act, +"wee can interprett noe other thing from the report, then a forgerye of +avaritious persons, whose sickle hath bin ever long in our harvest +allreadye." To provide for Virginia's subsistence the Governor, Council, +and Burgesses ordered that the right of the Dutch nation to trade with +Virginia be reiterated and preserved, and her traders given every +protection. + +Virginia's other great problem, that of unregulated expansion, was dealt +with by the Grand Assembly of November 1647 in an extraordinary way. The +Governor, Council, and Burgesses ordered that persons inhabiting +Northumberland and "other remote and straying plantations on the south +side of Patomeck River, Wicokomoko, Rappahannock and Fleets Bay" be +displanted and removed. They justified this act on the basis of frequent +instructions from the King to Berkeley and the Council directing that +the planters not be allowed to scatter themselves too widely, and also +because they considered such settlement "pernicious" and "destructive" +to the peace and safety of the colony, animating the Indians to attack, +and thus imbroiling the country in troublesome and expensive wars. Since +winter was approaching, the inhabitants were allowed one year to remove +themselves to the south side of York River. + +The same session of the Assembly authorized Capt. Edward Hill and others +to establish, at the head of Rappahannock River, a military and trading +outpost which was deemed valuable to the peace and safety of the colony. +Hill and his associates were to provide forty men to man the fort which +was not to exceed five acres at most, on pain of having the grant +revoked. + +It was a brave and sensible policy which Berkeley and the Assembly +pursued, but one that was destined to be overridden by the power, +self-interest, and numbers of the thousands of new members of the +colony, both those being born in Virginia in ever-increasing numbers, +and those who had left behind them the civil strife of England. In less +than a year the Assembly enacted that the tract of land between the +Rappahannock and Potomac rivers should be called Northumberland and that +it should have power to elect Burgesses. The reasons of "state" that had +convinced the Assembly of November 1647 to order the utter dissolution +of the Northumberland settlements were thus thrown to the winds by the +next Assembly. No doubt the pressure of the inhabitants, would-be +inhabitants, and speculators, in addition to the difficulty of enforcing +the decision, caused the repeal of the act. The restraining hand of the +Governor was never again to be felt as it had been in the period +following the 1646 peace. The explosive growth of settlement in Virginia +had proved impossible to control. + +The justification of the settlement south of the Potomac River was not +the only victory of the people in the Assembly of October 1648. Upon the +representation of the Burgesses to the Governor and Council complaining +of the worn-out lands and insufficient cattle ranges of the earlier +settlements, the Governor and Council, after long debate, joined the +Burgesses in authorizing settlement on the north side of the York and +Rappahannock rivers. The act declared, however, that "for reasons of +state to ... [the Governor and Council] appearing, importing the safety +of the people in their seating," no one was to go there before the first +of September of the following year. Surveys of the area were allowed at +once, however, and land patents were authorized to be taken out. The act +making it a felony to go to the north side of York River was repealed. +The settlers' and speculators' victory was complete. Reasons of "policy" +and "state" proved only of sufficient power to delay the inevitable. + + +EXECUTION OF CHARLES I AND CAPTURE OF COLONY BY PARLIAMENTARY FORCES, +1649-1652 + +On January 30, 1649, King Charles I was beheaded by the Parliamentary +forces. It was a logical climax to the turmoil into which English +institutions and values had been cast by the long years of civil war +that preceded the deed. The execution of the King shocked Englishmen as +well as foreigners. The reaction of the Virginians came in the form of +Act I of the Assembly of October 1649 which hailed "the late most +excellent and now undoubtedly sainted king," denounced the perpetrators +of the deed, and declared that if any person in the colony should defend +"the late traiterous proceedings ... under any notion of law and +justice" by words or speeches, such person should be adjudged an +accessory _post factum_ to the death of the King. Anyone who expressed +doubt, by words and speeches, as to the inherent right of Charles II to +succeed his father as King of England and Virginia, was likewise to be +adjudged guilty of high treason. + +The death of Charles I left the Parliamentary forces supreme in England. +Some royalists retired to the continent of Europe, and some came to +Virginia. England became a Commonwealth without a King; Oliver Cromwell +was later named Protector. The new government, after consolidating its +power in England, attempted to extend its control over the colonies, +some of which, like Virginia, continued to demonstrate their loyalty to +royal authority. On October 3, 1650, Parliament, as a punitive measure, +prohibited the trade of the colonies with foreign nations except as the +Parliamentary government should allow. "This succession to the exercise +of the kingly authority," wrote Jefferson later, "gave the first colour +for parliamentary interference with the colonies, and produced that +fatal precedent which they continued to follow after they had retired, +in other respects, within their proper functions." + +The reaction of the Virginia Burgesses to this act was as violent as +their reaction to the beheading of Charles I. Their temper on both +occasions owed much to the eloquence of their Governor, and to the +admiration in which he was held by the people. In March 1651 they met to +consider the Parliamentary threat to their beliefs and to their +livelihood. Sir William Berkeley spoke to them on the subject of +Parliament's claim to speak for the English nation. Said the Governor: + + If the whole current of their reasoning were not as ridiculous, as + their actions have been tyrannicall and bloudy, we might wonder with + what browes they could sustaine such impertinent assertions: For if + you looke into it, the strength of their argument runs onely thus: + we have laid violent hands on your land-lord, possessed his manner + house where you used to pay your rents, therfore now tender your + respects to the same house you once reverenced.... They talke indeed + of money laid out on this country in its infancy: I will not say how + little, nor how centuply repaid, but will onely aske, was it + theirs?... Surely Gentlemen we are more slaves by nature, then their + power can make us if we suffer our selves to be shaken with these + paper bulletts, and those on my life are the heaviest they either + can or will send us. + +Berkeley was confident that if Virginia put up a determined resistance, +the new English rulers would beg the colony to trade with them. He +compared the state of England with the state of Virginia, to the +disadvantage of the former. The Parliamentary government of England, he +asserted, did not represent the will of the people who would not endure +their "slavery, if the sword at their throats did not compell them to +languish under the misery they howrely suffer." As for Virginia, "there +is not here an arbitrary hand that dares to touch the substance of +either poore or rich." Berkeley called on the Burgesses to support his +stand against the act, asking: + + What is it can be hoped for in a change, which we have not allready? + Is it liberty? The sun looks not on a people more free then we are + from all oppression. Is it wealth? Hundreds of examples shew us that + industry and thrift in a short time may bring us to as high a degree + of it, as the country and our conditions are yet capable of: Is it + securely to enjoy this wealth when gotten? With out blushing I will + speake it, I am confident theare lives not that person can accuse me + of attempting the least act against any mans property. Is it peace? + The Indians, God be blessed round about us are subdued; we can onely + feare the Londoners, who would faine bring us to the same poverty, + wherein the Dutch found and relieved us; would take away the liberty + of our consciences, and tongues, and our right of giving and selling + our goods to whom we please. But Gentlemen by the Grace of God we + will not so tamely part with our King, and all these blessings we + enjoy under him; and if they oppose us, do but follow me, I will + either lead you to victory, or loose a life which I cannot more + gloriously sacrifice then for my loyalty, and your security. + +The speech being ended the House of Burgesses, unanimously with the +Governor and Council, agreed to reject the Parliamentary act of October +3, 1650, as illegal, and to continue in allegiance to King Charles II, +always praying for his restoration to the throne and for the repentance +of those who, "to the hazard of their soules" opposed him. The Assembly +proclaimed that they would continue to trade freely with all persons of +whatever nation who came to trade with them, not excluding the +Londoners. + +This assertion of Virginia's traditional freedom and rights was, of +course, a direct challenge to the Parliamentary government. In the fall +of 1651 that government determined to chastise the rebellious colony and +subject it by force. A fleet was dispatched in October to conquer +Virginia and Barbados, another rebellious colony. Robert Dennis, Richard +Bennett, Thomas Stegge, and William Claiborne were chosen commissioners +to take over the government of Virginia once it had been conquered. +Bennett and Claiborne were living in Virginia at the time. + +Part of the fleet arrived in Virginia waters in January 1652. Berkeley +called upon the people to prepare for resistance. One thousand troops, +it is said, gathered in James City for the purpose. Five hundred Indian +allies of the colony promised their aid. Berkeley denounced the leaders +of the Parliamentary expedition as bloody tyrants, pirates, and robbers. +He warned the Virginians that, if they did not repel the attack, their +land titles would be thrown into doubt and they would be brought under a +company of merchants who would order them at their pleasure and keep +them from trade with all others. To counteract the Governor's influence, +the Parliamentary commissioners circulated letters and declarations +throughout the country denying any such evil intentions. Finally, on +January 19, they sent a summons to the Governor and Council to +surrender, and set sail from the lower reaches of the James to +Jamestown. A milder answer than expected was returned, setting forth +various demands and privileges desired by the Virginians. + +The commissioners' reply to these proposals was favorable enough to +cause Berkeley to call an Assembly, and negotiations were entered into +between the Governor, Council, and Burgesses on the one hand, and the +Parliamentary commissioners on the other. Articles of submission were +agreed upon which were honorable to both sides, Virginia receiving +guarantees of the privileges of freeborn people of England, authority +for the Grand Assembly to continue to function, guarantees of immunity +for acts or words done or spoken in opposition to Parliament, guarantees +of the bounds of Virginia, of the fifty-acre headright privilege, and of +the right to "free trade as the people of England do enjoy to all places +and with all nations according to the lawes of that commonwealth." +Special provisions were made which allowed the Governor and Council to +refrain from taking any oath to the Commonwealth for one year and +guaranteed them for one year from censure for speaking well of the King +in their private houses. Berkeley and the Council were given leave to +sell their estates and quit Virginia, either for England or Holland. No +penalties were to be imposed on those who had served the King. + +The commissioners of Parliament considered that they had been lucky to +reduce the colony without bloodshed, even though forced to agree to such +mild terms. At the same time the event suggests that the bitterness +which existed in England between Roundheads and Cavaliers was not quite +so extreme in the colonies, where little blood had been shed for the +cause of either. The colonies had interests of their own which ran +counter to those of the mother country, whether in the hands of King or +Parliament. Governor, Council, and Burgesses in Virginia were closer to +each other economically and politically than they were to their +respective counterparts in England. What held the colonies to the mother +country was not self-interest but ties of historical tradition and +racial patriotism. The execution of Charles I and seizure of the colony +by the Parliamentary fleet loosened these ties. The Crown, symbol of +continuity with past ages of English subjects and of unity among all the +King's realms, was now not only removed but denounced by those who had +done the deed. + +Virginia never showed sympathy for those who had killed the King, and +the Assembly took to heart Governor Berkeley's warning of 1651 that the +blood of Charles I "will yet staine your garments if you willingly +submit to those murtherers hands that shed it." It is true that +following the surrender the Parliamentary commissioners agreed with the +representatives of the people on a provisional government for Virginia, +but the bonds that held Virginia to England had lost much of the cement +of love and tradition. Local and self-interest were now to dominate to a +great extent Virginia's actions. Such motives had always been latent, +and indeed active. But under royal government, the Governor could often +exert a countervailing force to prevent such interests from overriding +the interests of nation and morality. + +Under the terms of the settlement the Grand Assembly was to continue to +function, and the Assembly and commissioners agreed that Richard +Bennett, one of the commissioners, should act as Governor for a year. It +was expected that orders would shortly arrive from England establishing +new patterns of government. Such instructions were especially necessary +to determine the role and authority of the Governor and Council, +formerly appointed by the King. The new rulers in England were made +aware of the need for a new policy for the colonies, but they never +found time to make the necessary decisions. At intervals the colonists +were informed that Cromwell had not forgotten them and that His Highness +would soon let them know his pleasure. But instructions never came +except spasmodically and inadequately. The merchants who stood to gain +from the Navigation Act of 1651, which generally excluded foreign ships +from the colonies and attempted to restrain colonial trade with foreign +countries, complained at the failure of the colonists to obey the act +and demanded that orders be sent to enforce it, but no adequate +provisions were ever made. + +Thus the colony was left to its own devices during the period. Virginia +traders paid little attention to Parliamentary restrictions on their +commerce. They insisted that the provision of the Articles of Surrender +allowing them free trade with all nations according to the laws of the +Commonwealth did not prevent them from trading with foreigners. They +argued that since the first article of the surrender agreement +guaranteed them the rights of freeborn Englishmen, an act discriminating +against them in matters of trade because they happened to live in the +colonies was illegal. Dutch ships called often, though perhaps not so +frequently as some have believed, and individual Virginians traded as +they pleased with the Dutch and English colonies in America. + + +EXPANSION IN VIRGINIA, 1650-1656 + +The existence of a weak executive, dependent on the people for his +authority, inevitably brought about a dispersal of power and authority +from the center to the outer edges of settlement. The explosive force +of expansion was no longer limited by the strong hand of a royal +Governor, and each increment of population in the colony and power in +the hands of the local authorities added fuel to the combustion. + +One of Virginia's frontiers at this time was the Eastern Shore. It was a +frontier community because the law of the colonial government in +Jamestown rarely extended to it. The local commissioners of the county +court, later called "justices," provided what justice existed on the +Eastern Shore. But since these commissioners were sometimes the worst +offenders against the policies of the Governor, Council, and Burgesses, +justice was often sacrificed to interest, especially when Indians were +involved. The leaders on the Eastern Shore, like Edmund Scarborough, +were among the richest men and greatest landowners of the colony. They +conducted the county's business as if it were their own, which indeed it +was to a great extent. Their oppression of the Eastern Shore Indians +makes a sorry history, despite the efforts of Governor Berkeley to +restrain them. In April 1650, for example, Berkeley was forced to write +to the commissioners of Northampton asking them not to allow any land to +be taken from the Laughing King Indians. Berkeley pointed out that +during the massacre of 1644 these Indians had remained faithful to the +English. How could Virginia expect them to do the same again, asked +Berkeley, "unless we correspond with them in acts of charity and amity, +especially unless we abstain from acts of rapine and violence, which +they say we begin to do, by taking away their land from them, by +pretence of the sale of a patent." + +Honest attempts were made both before and after the retirement of Sir +William Berkeley in 1652 to restrain the frontier barons in their savage +attacks on unsuspecting Indian towns. But often the law was too weak and +the guilty too strong. Neither the Indians in front of them nor the +government behind them had the power to curb their desires except in a +limited fashion. This was one of the benefits--to the frontiersmen--of +living under English law. The government could not effectively restrain +the Englishman nor protect the Indian. As a result the reckless +expansion went on into the lands of other tribes. As each new Indian +tribe was reached the same dismal pattern of subjugation or extirpation +was repeated, despite the efforts of the Governor and Council to see +that the rights of the Indians were preserved. + +Every extension of settlement strengthened local rule. In May 1652 the +people of Northampton County, which comprised the whole of the Eastern +Shore of Virginia, protested to the Assembly against a tax levied on +them, asserting that since they had not sent representatives to the +Assembly since 1647, except for one Burgess in 1651, they did not think +the Assembly could tax them. They asked that they be allowed to have a +separate government and the right to try all causes in their own courts. +Although Northampton was not allowed to dissociate itself entirely from +the rest of Virginia, acts of 1654 and 1656 allowed the county to +constitute laws and customs for itself on matters dealing with Indians +and manufactures. + +Virginia's most important frontier region in the 1650's was the area +along the Potomac River, although settlement went on simultaneously +westward up the James, York, and Rappahannock, southward into Carolina, +and northward up the Eastern Shore to Maryland. Sometimes individuals +obtained grants to explore, settle, and monopolize the trade of these +regions. But usually the expansion was catch as catch can. Since land +travel was still more difficult than water travel, expansion up the +Potomac, the last great unsettled tidewater river, was fastest. +Individuals who already had plantations in the older areas of settlement +around Jamestown sailed their barques up the Potomac and, without +bothering to go ashore, took the bounds of likely pieces of land. The +best spots were often the corn fields of the Indians and sometimes the +very towns where they lived. The fact that the Indians occupied the land +counted for little in the thoughts of the settlers and speculators who +flocked to the area. Following their surveys, the explorers rushed back +to James City and put in claims for the waterfront acreages, presenting +one "headright"--proof that someone had been imported into the colony by +their agency--for every fifty acres. The Patent Books of the colony +frequently show signs of fraud in the presentation of headrights. +Occasionally more land was granted than the claimant was entitled to on +the basis of the headrights he presented. But the headright system, even +imperfectly administered, remained during the Parliamentary period as +one of the elements of restraint on the unbounded desires of the +planters. Land acquisition was thus tied in a fixed ratio to population +increase. There was, as a result, some assurance that land acquired +would be populated and farmed. It was not until late in the seventeenth +century that anyone could buy land for money alone, a practice which +enabled some individuals in the eighteenth century to obtain holdings +exceeding 100,000 acres. In the middle of the seventeenth century 10,000 +acres was a practical "top" limit. + +At the beginning of the Commonwealth period in Virginia a number of new +counties were set up. The Assembly of April 1652 listed two new ones: +Gloucester, north of the York, and Lancaster, north of the Rappahannock. +The Assembly of November 1652 listed Surry, south of the James, for the +first time. Settlers had moved into these areas earlier when they were +parts of other counties, and in two cases the county organization may +have been set up prior to April 1652. The Assembly of July 1653, in +addition to authorizing exploration and settlement on the Roanoke and +Chowan rivers in present-day North Carolina, and exploration into the +Appalachian Mountains, ordered that a county to be called Westmoreland +should be set up west of Northumberland County on the Potomac, with +boundaries from Machodoc River to the falls of the Potomac above the +town of the Anacostan Indians. It was thus intended not only to include +in the new county all the lands of the Doeg Indians, but also those of +the Anacostans. The Assembly of November 1654 authorized the +establishment of New Kent County along both sides of the upper York +River and far up the Pamunkey and Mattaponi rivers. + +The Assembly of November 1654 also authorized the three new northern +counties of Lancaster, Northumberland, and Westmoreland to march against +the Rappahannock Indians to punish various "injuries and insolencies +offered" by them. One hundred men were to be raised in Lancaster, forty +in Northumberland, and thirty in Westmoreland. The commissioners of +these counties were authorized to raise the troops, and one of their +number was appointed commander-in-chief of the expedition. He was to +march to the Rappahannock Indian town and demand and receive "such +satisfaction as he shall thinke fitt for the severall injuries done unto +the said inhabitants not using any acts of hostility but defensive in +case of assault." The charge of the war was to be borne by the three +counties concerned. This expedition was like many others that both +preceded and followed it. In each case, enormous authority and +responsibility were given to local officials who were themselves +frequently the leading oppressors of the Indians. Such expeditions not +infrequently took on the character of private wars between the big +landowners of the frontier and the Indian towns in the vicinity. The +Governor, Council, and Burgesses frequently heard the complaints of the +local settlers, but rarely the complaints of the Indians. The +authorization to the local community to administer justice to the +Indians often proved a cover for their expulsion or extirpation. + +The usual grievances of the settlers against the Indians were not the +violent murders and massacres so often associated in the public mind +with Indian-white relations, but minor irritations concerning property +and animals. The settlers let their hogs run wild. The hogs would get +into the Indians' corn. The Indians would kill the hogs. The settlers +would demand satisfaction. Many acts of the Assembly testify to the fact +that shooting of wild hogs was one of the most frequent points of +dispute not only between the English and the Indians but among the +English themselves. It was one reason why early Assemblies provided +strict rules for erecting adequate fences around cultivated fields and +establishing lines of responsibility for damage caused by straying +cattle or hogs. On the frontier, however, such refinements of +civilization as fences were long in coming. What was more natural than +that the same conflicts which arose among the English in the early years +of settlement should arise between the English and the Indians on the +frontier. The tragedy was that English-Indian conflicts were not +normally settled in the courts as were conflicts between Englishmen. The +courts did deal with Indian-white conflicts to a certain extent, but, as +noted before, the local justices were often the very persons the Indians +accused of oppressing them. Sometimes the Indians were able to bring +their complaints before the General Court in Jamestown. But often the +dispute was settled in the wilderness in the traditional frontier way: +by violence. Since the settlers had weapons of violence superior to +those possessed by the Indians, it was not very frequently that the +Indians won their "case." + +In the Assemblies of these years there is occasional mention of the +splitting of counties in two parts, or of the formation of new parishes. +Usually these divisions were made along rivers or streams. Such +legislation suggests that settlement was spreading back from the water +routes into the land area between streams. The early counties were +normally set up to embrace the area on both sides of watercourses, even +broad rivers like the James and York. The rivers were, in the early +period of settlement, bonds that linked the settlers on either side to +each other. It was natural that rivers should be the principal +thoroughfares of the country. But as settlement spread into the +interior, up the tributary streams that issued into the larger rivers, +the natural social unit that developed was that of communities on the +same side of the river. Hence the gradual conversion of rivers into +political boundaries. + +The Assembly of March 1655, for the first time in Virginia's history, +restricted the voting privilege to "housekeepers whether freeholders, +leaseholders, or otherwise tenants." Freemen who could not qualify as +householders, even though they may have been grown sons living in their +father's house, could not vote. It is significant that this first +restriction on the right to vote in Virginia came not under a royal +governor, but under so-called "Parliamentary" rule. So unpopular was +this enactment that it was amended by an act of the Assembly of March +1656 on the grounds that "we conceive it something hard and unagreeable +to reason that any persons shall pay equall taxes and yet have no votes +in elections." Freemen were again allowed to vote provided that they did +not do so "in a tumultuous way." + +The Assembly of March 1656 passed an act which attempted to solve the +Indian problem in a way that had never been tried before but has been +frequently tried since. The plan was to encourage the growth of an +acquisitive spirit among the Indians to serve as a counterweight to the +acquisitive spirit of the English. The preamble to the act asserted that +the danger of war from the Indians stemmed from two causes: "our +extreame pressures on them and theire wanting of something to hazard and +loose beside their lives." Therefore the Assembly enacted that for every +eight wolves' heads brought in by the Indians, the King or great man of +the Indians should have a cow delivered to him at the public charge. +"This will be a step to civilizing them and to making them Christians," +the act went on; "besides it will certainly make the comanding Indians +watch over their own men that they do us no injuries, knowing that by +theire default they may be in danger of losing their estates." The +Assembly also attempted to make the lands possessed by the Indians under +the seal of the colony inalienable to the English. Otherwise, constant +pressure on the Indians by the settlers would force them over and over +again to dispose of their lands. + +Many people fail to realize that the Indians of Virginia lived in +well-defined towns or settlements. It was, indeed, the Indians who lived +an "urban" life in the seventeenth century while the English settlers +were usually scattered about the countryside. The conventional picture +of the Indian roaming the forests, living solely by hunting and fishing, +is mistaken. The Indian did hunt and fish, as many of us do today. But +his support came in large measure from the corn and vegetables growing +in the fields which adjoined every Indian town. The Indians had a +close-knit and harmonious community life. They were only indirectly +touched by the white man's money economy and were usually content to +raise only what food they needed for their own consumption. They were +not infected with the restless, individualistic spirit of the white +settler who constantly worked to accumulate a monetary surplus from the +returns on his single cash crop, tobacco. + +Like later attempts to destroy the group-centered society of the Indians +in favor of a self-centered society, this attempt of 1656 was not +completely successful. + + +INDIAN TROUBLES, 1656-1658 + +Early in 1656 word was received that six or seven hundred strange +Indians from the mountains had come down and seated themselves near the +falls of the James. The March Assembly, considering how much blood it +had cost to "expell and extirpate those perfidious and treacherous +Indians which were there formerly," and considering how the area lay +within the limits "which in a just warr were formerly conquered by us," +ordered the two upper counties under Col. Edward Hill to send 100 men to +remove the intruders peacefully, making war only in self-defense. +Messages were sent to obtain the aid of the Pamunkeys, Chickahominies, +and other neighboring Indians. Tottopottomoy, the King of the Pamunkeys, +joined Hill with 100 of his warriors, although only the summer before +his brother had been murdered by an Englishman. + +The western Indians had apparently come down to treat with the English +about trade, bringing with them many beaver skins to begin the +commerce. Col. Hill, however, despite the Assembly's command to avoid +the use of force, perfidiously had five of the kings who came to parley +with him put to death. "This unparalleled hellish treachery and +anti-christian perfidy more to be detested than any heathenish +inhumanity," a contemporary wrote, "cannot but stink most abominably in +the nosetrils of as many Indians, as shall be infested with the least +scent of it, even to their perpetual abhorring and abandoning of the +very sight and name of an English man, till some new generation of a +better extract shall be transplanted among them!" In the fight that +ensued Tottopottomoy lost his life fighting bravely for the English. +Despite his fidelity, neither he nor his tribe was honorably treated by +the English, the very land he owned being extorted from him and his +successors. + +Hill himself was found guilty by the unanimous vote of the Burgesses and +Council of "crimes and weaknesses" in his conduct of the campaign. He +was ordered suspended from all offices, military and civil, and made +liable for the charge of procuring a peace with the Indians with whom he +had so treacherously dealt. + +The disgraceful episode of Hill's campaign may have caused some +soul-searching in the Assembly that met following the event, for, in +addition to censuring Hill, it repealed an act which had made it lawful +to kill an Indian committing a trespass. It pointed out that since the +oath of the person killing the Indian was considered sufficient evidence +to prove the alleged trespass, killing Indians, "though never so +innocent," had come to be of "small account" with the settlers. Since +the colony would probably be involved in endless wars and might "expect +a success answerable to the injustice of our beginning if no act be made +for the future to prevent this wanton and unnecessary shedding of +blood," the Assembly attempted to provide some protection for the +Indians. + +That expansion into the Indians' territory continued is shown by the +authorization given by this same Assembly of December 1656 to form the +county of Rappahannock on both sides of the Rappahannock River above +Lancaster County. Confirmation of the movement towards the frontier is +shown in the report to the same Assembly by the sheriffs of Isle of +Wight County and Elizabeth City County, both at the mouth of the James +River, that their counties were overrated in the tax lists of "tithable" +persons by thirty-eight and thirty-two persons respectively. The +Assembly ordered that their tax allotments should be reduced accordingly +and laid upon Lancaster County "where they are increased since the last +year's list 152 persons." An act of the Assembly of March 1658 similarly +took note of the numbers of inhabitants who had "deserted their +plantations and receded into the bay of Chisapeake" without having +satisfied their creditors. It prescribed penalties for removing without +notice. + +Bills guaranteeing the Indians their lands, justice, and personal +freedom continued to pass. The acts freely admitted that previous +guarantees to this effect had been ineffective and that "manie English +doe still intrench upon the said Indians' land," which the Assembly +conceived to be "contrary to justice, and the true intent of the English +plantation in this country." Nevertheless attempts to legislate justice +for the Indians continued. It could not be done. The power of the +Assembly's acts was not equal to the power of the frontiersmen's +muskets. However, the acts of the Assembly were not without effect, and +in many cases served their purpose. One of the most notable acts of this +Assembly provided that no grants of land should be made to any +Englishman in the future until the Indians had first been guaranteed +fifty acres for each bowman. The good intent of this act seems to have +been a direct consequence of the practice that had arisen in the +preceding years of granting patents to Englishmen for land occupied by +the Indians. It was an attempt to make sure that the Indians would not +be wholly dispossessed to satisfy the land hunger of the English. + +[Illustration: National Portrait Gallery, London + +OLIVER CROMWELL + +Painting by Robert Walker] + + +PARLIAMENTARY GOVERNORS, 1652-1659 + +Early writers on Virginia history tended to overemphasize how completely +affairs in Virginia during the Commonwealth and Protectorate periods +were in the hands of the House of Burgesses. Still, the House did assume +to itself many of the powers of government in the period and asserted +its ultimate authority in all other matters. It took this position out +of necessity, and always with the proviso that, should instructions come +from the supreme power in England, it would obey them. + +The first Governor under the Commonwealth, Richard Bennett, was +appointed by an act of Assembly on April 30, 1652, his term to last for +one year or until the following meeting of the Assembly, with the +further proviso that the appointment should be in effect "untill the +further pleasures of the states be knowne." Bennett, a planter of +Nansemond County, was a Puritan in his religious outlook and was one of +those who had invited New England to send ministers to Virginia in the +early 1640's. When Parliament decided to conquer the colony in 1651 it +appointed him one of the commissioners for the enterprise. It is +probable that the secret instructions issued to Bennett by the +Parliamentary authorities required him to come to some agreement with +the Burgesses on who should be Governor until a more formal commission +for the office should issue from the supreme power in England. However, +as the years passed, and as instructions from England failed to deal +with Virginia's problems, the House of Burgesses asserted its +prerogative more and more. + +On March 31, 1655, Edward Digges was elected Governor by the Assembly to +replace Bennett. Digges was the son of Sir Dudley Digges, Master of the +Rolls under Charles I. He came to Virginia sometime before 1650 and +bought a plantation on the York River, subsequently known as +"Bellfield." The plantation become famous for the quality of the tobacco +grown there, and was also the scene of Digges's efforts at silk +production, in the culture of which he employed three Armenians. When +Digges decided to return to England in 1656, Samuel Mathews was elected +to succeed him. There is some confusion as to whether Governor Mathews +was the man who so bedeviled Sir John Harvey in the 1630's, or his son +of the same name. + +When Mathews and the Council attempted to dissolve the Assembly on April +1, 1658, the Burgesses answered that the Governor's action was illegal, +and that they would remain and complete their work. Mathews refused to +concede their point formally, though he declared his willingness to +allow them to continue in fact while the dispute was submitted to the +Lord Protector in England. The Burgesses declared his answer +unsatisfactory. They demanded a specific acknowledgment that the House +remained undissolved. Mathews and the Council finally agreed to revoke +the declaration of dissolution, but still insisted on referring the +dispute to the Lord Protector. The House rejected this answer as well, +asserting that the present power of Virginia resided in the Burgesses, +who were not dissolvable by any power extant in Virginia but themselves. +They directed the High Sheriff of James City County not to execute any +warrant but from the Speaker of the House. In addition, they ordered +Col. William Claiborne, the Secretary of the Council, to surrender the +records of the country into the hands of John Smith, the Speaker of the +Assembly, on the basis of the Burgesses' declaration to hold "supreame +power of this country." + +That the House of Burgesses did not mean its actions to be in defiance +of the power that existed in England, however, is shown by its agreement +to proclaim Richard, son of Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector when the +Governor sent down, at the March 1659 session, an official letter from +His Highness' Council requiring that it be done. Immediately after +agreeing to proclaim Richard, the Burgesses decided to address the new +Lord Protector for confirmation of the privilege granted to the +Assembly, perhaps under the terms of Bennett's secret instructions, to +elect its own officers. Although the Speaker of the House assured the +Burgesses that the Governor was willing to join them in such a request, +some of the Burgesses expressed a desire to hear the assurance from the +Governor's own lips. Accordingly, he was sent for and, to the +satisfaction of the Burgesses, "acknowledged the supream power of +electing officers to be by the present lawes resident in the Grand +Assembly." He promised to join them in requesting confirmation of these +privileges from His Highness. + +The Assembly, at this same session, passed an act electing Mathews +Governor again for two years "and then the Grand Assembly to elect a +Governour as they shall think fitt." The act was to be in force "until +his Highness pleasure be further signified." William Claiborne was +appointed Secretary of State on his acknowledgment that he received the +place from the Assembly, and with the proviso that he should continue +Secretary until the next Assembly or until the Lord Protector's pleasure +should be further signified to the colony. + +The Assembly of 1659 marks the high water point of local government in +Virginia. Not only were the Burgesses supreme in matters of general +legislation, compelling the Governor and Secretary to bow to their +sovereign power, but in their home counties affairs were conducted much +as the local justices saw fit. The Assembly of 1659 even authorized free +trade with the Indians by anyone in any goods--even guns and ammunition. +Never before had regulation on a point of such vital interest to the +security of the colony been so utterly abandoned. + + +RECALL OF SIR WILLIAM BERKELEY BY THE ASSEMBLY, 1659-1660 + +Soon after the Assembly of March 1659 ended, Richard Cromwell resigned +the reins of government in England. The English nation was again plunged +into turmoil. Letters arriving in Virginia spoke of the people divided +"some for one Government some for another." The prospect of London +"burned into Ashes and the streets running with blood" was held a +likely outcome of the divisions. + +In the midst of this troublous situation, Governor Mathews died. The +next Assembly met in March 1660. In a move that has astonished +historians since that time it asked Sir William Berkeley, the royal +Governor whom its former leaders had deposed, to govern Virginia again. +No royal banners were unfurled; Charles II was not proclaimed King. The +House of Burgesses, holding the supreme power in the colony, merely +offered the governorship to the man who had been universally admired for +his justice, humanity, and willingness to sacrifice his own interest to +that of the colony. + +Berkeley had been unwilling to disavow his loyalty to the Crown in 1652 +and he was not prepared to do so now. He replied to the Burgesses' +invitation by saying that he would not dare to offend the King by +accepting a commission to govern from any power in England opposed to +him. He urged them to choose instead a more vigorous man from amongst +their own number. But he did offer to accept the governorship directly +from the House of Burgesses if the Council would concur with the +Burgesses in offering it to him. He promised that if thereafter any +supreme power in England succeeded in re-establishing its authority in +Virginia he would immediately lay down his commission and "will live +most submissively obedient to any power God shall set over me, as the +experience of eight yeares have shewed I have done." He would not refuse +their call, he wrote, if they accepted his conditions, for "I should be +worthily thought hospitall mad, if I would not change povertie for +wealth,--contempt for honor." + +The Council on March 21, 1660, unanimously concurred in the Burgesses' +choice of Berkeley as Governor, and the King's loyal servant was +thereupon installed in the office. + +Some historians have seen the election of Berkeley as the signal for a +royalist purge of the Parliamentary influences that were thought to +have existed in the colony since 1652. A study of the membership of the +House of Burgesses, Council, and county courts, however, shows a +continuity of membership which extends from before the Parliamentary +seizure of the colony until after the restoration of King Charles II. +The evidence suggests that there was no violent division between +royalists and Parliamentarians in Virginia. The people were Virginians +first and royalists or Parliamentarians second. The solidarity of their +political interests was a harbinger of the American independence that +was slowly to mature in the next century. + +On May 29, 1660, the birthday of Charles II, that monarch returned to +London and was restored to the throne of England. Word of the +restoration was received in Virginia in the fall, and Berkeley ordered +the sheriffs and chief officers of all counties to proclaim Charles II +King of England, and to cause all writs and warrants from that time on +to issue in His Majesty's name. The Assembly of March 1661, taking into +consideration the fact that the colony, by submitting to the "execrable +power" of the Parliamentary forces, had thereby become guilty of the +crimes of that power, enacted that January 30, the day Charles I was +beheaded, should "be annually solemnized with fasting and prayers that +our sorrowes may expiate our crime and our teares wash away our guilt." +Another act declared May 29, the day of Charles II's birth and +restoration, a holy day to be annually celebrated "in testimony of our +thankfulnesse and joy." + +Thus ended the brief period in which Virginia's government was turned +upside down and permanent alteration caused in her relations with +England. Although the King once more became the symbol of the unity of +the colony and the mother country, the royal prerogative would never +again be blindly accepted by the people of either place. Larger +developments in the economic, social, and intellectual spheres were +bringing to an end the era of all-powerful Kings. Power had descended to +the lower ranks of society, and that power was beginning to be brought +into play. + +This larger shift of power has been chronicled in the story of Virginia +from 1625 to 1660. It is the story of a small community of Englishmen +transplanted to American shores, living for a time subject to +traditional English restraints, then, in a period of rapid expansion, +losing their cohesiveness and their values under the impact of the +American experience and their own natures. Their political expression +soon passed from a passive to an active mode. The law became something +they made, not something someone else applied to them. Land was +similarly not something bestowed on them by generous parents, but +something one took from Nature, or Nature's surrogate, the Indian. Labor +was no longer a privilege allowed the individual by the community, but a +precious gift contributed by the individual to the community. In sum, +the ordinary people who had removed themselves to the New World soon +discovered that they were no longer humble servants of great lords, but +were themselves lords of the American earth. If they had the power why +not exercise it? The process by which the rulers of the people were +forced to become the "servants" of their "subjects" thereupon began. The +culmination of this rearrangement of the political atoms of society was +the War for Independence of 1776. Whether the swing from authority to +liberty was for good or for evil is not for the historian to say. + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY + + +Another booklet in this series contains a selected bibliography of works +on seventeenth-century Virginia. The interested student should consult +that booklet for a more detailed listing of works used in preparing this +account of Virginia in the period 1625-1660. + +The best secondary account of Virginia in the period covered by this +booklet is Wesley Frank Craven, _The Southern Colonies in the +Seventeenth Century, 1607-1689_ (Baton Rouge, 1949). Craven skilfully +combines research in Virginia local history with a broad understanding +of developments in England and in other colonies. He points out the +social and political significance of many hitherto ignored aspects of +Virginia history. Other important works include Charles McLean Andrews, +_The Colonial Period of American History_, I (New Haven, 1934), Thomas +Jefferson Wertenbaker, _Virginia under the Stuarts_ (Princeton, 1914), +Herbert L. Osgood, _The American Colonies in the Seventeenth Century_, 3 +vols. (New York, 1904-1907), and Edward D. Neill, _Virginia Carolorum: +The Colony under the Rule of Charles the First and Second, A.D. +1625-A.D. 1685_ (Albany, 1886). + +Any study of colonial Virginia must begin with a perusal of Philip +Alexander Bruce, _Economic History of Virginia in the Seventeenth +Century_, 2 vols. (New York, 1895), and his _Institutional History of +Virginia in the Seventeenth Century_, 2 vols. (New York, 1910). Bruce's +work is the indispensable platform upon which political and social +accounts of the period must rest. Morgan Poitiaux Robinson, _Virginia +Counties: Those Resulting from Virginia Legislation_ [Virginia State +Library, Bulletin, IX, Nos. 1-3] (Richmond, 1916), is a carefully +documented study of the growth of Virginia as evidenced by the formation +of its counties. Maps showing the area of settlement at frequent +intervals give a graphic account of the nature and extent of Virginia's +expansion. + +There are a number of local histories chronicling the growth of +particular regions in Virginia. An outstanding local history is Fairfax +Harrison, _Landmarks of Old Prince William_ (Richmond, 1924), which +analyzes the growth of settlement in the Potomac River valley. Histories +of the Eastern Shore are numerous: Susie M. Ames, _Studies of the +Virginia Eastern Shore in the Seventeenth Century_ (Richmond, 1940), +Jennings Cropper Wise, _Ye Kingdome of Accawmacke, or the Eastern Shore +of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century_ (Richmond, 1911), and Ralph T. +Whitelaw, _Virginia's Eastern Shore_, 2 vols. (Richmond, 1951). + +A reading of but a few works in Virginia history will be enough to show +that the interpretations and conclusions of the authors must be accepted +with extreme caution. There are two conflicting interpretations for +nearly every important event in Virginia's history. History may be +defined as the attempt to state what happened in the past on the basis +of inadequate evidence existing in the present. The reader should keep +always in mind that historical writing is largely a series of guesses +more or less intelligently elaborated. + +Much of the original manuscript material upon which an account of the +period must be based has been published in the following sources: +William Waller Hening, _The Statutes at Large; being a Collection of all +the Laws of Virginia_, Vol. I (Richmond, 1809), H. R. McIlwaine, +_Minutes of the Council and General Court of Colonial Virginia, +1622-1632, 1670-1676_ (Richmond, 1924), H. R. McIlwaine, _Journals of +the House of Burgesses of Virginia, 1619-1658/59_ (Richmond, 1914), Nell +Marion Nugent, _Cavaliers and Pioneers: Abstracts of Virginia Land +Patents and Grants, 1623-1666_ (Richmond, 1934), _Virginia Magazine of +History and Biography_ (Richmond, 1893 to present), _William and Mary +Quarterly_ (Williamsburg, 1892 to present), _The Southern Literary +Messenger_, January 1845 (documents on the recall of Governor Berkeley +by the Burgesses and Council of Virginia in 1660), and W. Noel +Sainsbury, _Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, 1574-1660, +Preserved in the State Paper Department of Her Majesty's Public Record +Office_ (London, 1860). The essential guide to most of this material is +Earl G. Swern, _Virginia Historical Index_, 2 vols. (Roanoke, 1934). + +The most important unpublished manuscript materials of the period are +the county records, some of which are complete from the earliest period +of settlement. Originals or transcripts of the county records are +available in the Virginia State Library, Richmond. Another important +source of unpublished manuscript material for the period is the +"Virginia, Book No. 43" manuscript in the Library of Congress, +Washington, D. C., which contains numerous commissions and proclamations +for the period 1626-1634. Among the Virginia papers of the Barons of +Sackville, Knole Park, are a few documents relating to the period which +have not been printed either in the documentary articles in the +_American Historical Review_, XXVII (1922), Nos. 3-4, or elsewhere. They +are now available on microfilm in the Library of Congress, having been +photographed by the British Manuscripts Project of the American Council +of Learned Societies. + +Important unpublished dissertations include James Kimbrough Owen, "The +Virginia Vestry: A Study in the Decline of a Ruling Class" (Ph. D. +dissertation, Princeton University, 1947), and Edna Jensen, "Sir John +Harvey: Governor of Virginia" (M. A. thesis, University of Virginia, +1950). + +[Illustration: Virginia Farrer Map of Virginia, 1651, showing common +geographical misconceptions of the period.] + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Virginia Under Charles I And Cromwell, +1625-1660, by Wilcomb E. Washburn + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VIRGINIA--1625-1660 *** + +***** This file should be named 29348.txt or 29348.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/3/4/29348/ + +Produced by Mark C. 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