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GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02390 3914
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ENCYCLOPEDIA
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VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY
UNDER THE EDITORIAL SUPERVISION OF
LYON GARDINER TYLER, LL. D.
President of William and Mary College, Williamsburg ; Author of "Parties and Patronage in the United States," "The Cradle of the Republic," "Williamsburg, the Old Colonial Capital," "England in America," "The Letters and Times of the Tylers," etc .; Vice-President of the Virginia Historical Society, Member of the Maryland Historical Society, and various other societies.
VOLUME I
NEW YORK LEWIS HISTORICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY
1915
COPYRIGHT, 1915 LEWIS HISTORICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY
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VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY
PREFACE
The successful planting of an English Colony at Jamestown in 1607 had the meaning that England had become the world power in the place of Spain.
One hundred years previous, Spain became the head of the dominant religious influence and military power of Europe. She had the monopoly of America, and her treasury was filled with the gold and silver of Mexico and Peru. Her title to the whole of the new continent was based upon the great discovery of Columbus in 1492. The conscious rivalry of England with this colossal power did not begin till Elizabeth ascended the throne in 1558. Then it was the rising of a nation instinct with enthusiasm, daring, and activity. For the negation of the exclusive right of Spain to the American continent, the almost forgotten voyage to North America of John Cabot in 1497, under the auspices of Henry VII., an English King, was revived by Richard Hakluyt. The next fifty years were replete with deeds of splendor and glory. First, Sir John Hawkins threw down the barriers which for so long had with- held English ships from the Western continent by sailing to the West Indies and selling negroes to the Spanish planters. Then Drake and Cavendish hurled themselves upon the Spanish settlements on the west coast of South America and plundered them of their gold and circumnavigated the globe. Next, in their eager desire to outdo even Columbus in search for the East Indies, Frobisher and Davis performed their glorious voyages to the North- west and wrote their names upon the icy waters of Labrador and British America. The grand Armada was overthrown in 1588, and the maritime power of Spain was utterly crushed by another great naval victory won by the English eight years later in the harbor of Cadiz.
Among the schemes to cut into the power of Spain was one contemplating the establish- ment of an English colony in North America. This noble design was conceived by Sir Humphrey Gilbert and promoted by his half brother Sir Walter Raleigh, and they are the glorious twin spirits that stand on the threshold of American history. Newfoundland and Roanoke are dedicated to their memories. Though the times were not yet ripe for suc- cess, their faith soared above all reverses. "We are as near Heaven by sea as by land," said the one as he yielded up his life in the stormy waters. "I shall yet live to see Virginia an English nation," said the other, as he went to confinement in the Tower of London, and eventually also to his death. In 1605, Spain, humbled and shorn of power, made peace with England; and now in the place of private enterprise like Gilbert's and Raleigh's, organized capital, under influences of noble spirits, like Sir Thomas Smythe, Richard Hakluyt, Sir
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Edwin Sandys, Nichols Ferrar and the Earl of Southampton-worthy successors of Gilbert and Raleigh-undertook the solution of the problem. Raleigh, confined in the Tower, could not take an active part at this time, but his friends and relations were the chief actors and workers in the new colonization schemes.
Two large associations were formed-one composed of lords, knights and merchants of the city of London, and the other of residents in the cities of Bristol, Exeter and Plymouth, -and they obtained from King James I., April 10, 1606, a joint charter which defined Vir- ginia as the portion of North America lying between the 34th and 45th parallel of north latitude, practically the present United States. In this vast extent of territory the first Company, called the Virginia Company of London, was permitted to establish a settlement anywhere between 34 and 41 degrees; and the second, called the Plymouth Company, any- where between 38 and 45 degrees. The actual jurisdiction of each Company was represented by a rectangle extending fifty miles north of the settlement and fifty miles south, and east and west 100 miles from the coast seaward, and 100 miles from the coast inland. The Ply- mouth Company was singularly unfortunate in its attempts, but the efforts of the Virginia Company were crowned with success; and by two new charters, 1609 and 1612, its juris- diction was extended over the entire limit of its original sphere of possible settlement, and from sea to sea.
The subsequent history of Virginia affairs under the Company for nearly twenty years is one of stupendous selfsacrifice both in England and America. The men in England who had the supreme control gave freely of their money and time, and received no return except the satisfaction of having founded in America a fifth kingdom under the Crown. The men in Virginia incurred hardships without parallel in the world's history, and most of them went to the martyrdom of cruel death by climatic disease, starvation and Indian attack. It was but natural that, in those unprecedented conditions, those in England should try to shield themselves from the blame and throw upon the settlers the responsibility. But discrim- inating history has seen the light at last, and while the motives of the directors of the enterprise were always high and honorable, it is now recognized that in the government of the colony they made many and serious blunders. For fear of making the enterprise unpop- ular they refused to tell the English public the real truth as to the dangerous climate and the other natural conditions making for evil. Virginia, as a country, had to be "boomed," at all events. Thus the poor settlers, who, for the most part, consisted of the best materials in England-old sailors under Hawkins and Drake, or old soldiers of the Netherlands-were abused and shamelessly villified. The appalling mortality which overwhelmed them for a great number of years is itself a pathetic and passionate vindication. Never did any martyr suffer so patiently, so patriotically, as these devoted settlers did-a prey to Indian attack,
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PREFACE
martial law, and climatic diseases-influences which, as the records show, left but one set- tler alive at the end of a single year of residence, out of every five that came over.
Indeed, how can the body of the settlers be made responsible for the calamities that ensued when they lived under a form of government made for them by others, productive from the first of discord and faction; when they were not permitted to work for them- selves, but for a present return of profit to the Company, had to give their time and labor to loading ships with sassafras, cedar, and other salable commodities; when they had no choice of the place of settlement, and which was selected in accordance with orders of the council in England; when they had no chance to till the fields, but were required to hunt for gold and silver mines and make tedious discoveries by land and water? Deprived of the opportunity to make their own living, they had to depend upon food sent from England, which, when it reached America, was often unfit for hogs to eat, and introduced all manner of disease. Above all, they had to deal with a climate which was singularly fatal to new- comers, and to fight off numerous bands of fierce and ferocious Indians who surrounded them on all sides.
Thus, the conditions were in every respect the reverse of those of the Plymouth settle- ment in 1620 on Cape Cod Bay ; for there the Pilgrim Fathers had the control of their own government, the advantage of a dry and healthful situation, a sparkling stream of fresh water at their doors, open fields deserted by the Indians, whose nearest town was forty miles distant, a bay teeming with fish and a country abounding in animals whose skins brought a large profit in England. And yet, favored as they were, had they not been succored by Vir- ginia ships, the settlers there might have all perished of famine.
Nevertheless, the settlers in Virginia held grimly to their duty, and, the dying being con- stantly succeeded by fresh bands doomed also to early death, but as determined as them- selves, prosperity at last succeeded to misfortune, and plenty and happiness to poverty and despair. When the civil wars in England broke out in 1642, the tone of society in Virginia was raised by the great influx of cavaliers and other persons of means who sought safety in Virginia. The clearing away of the woods improved the health conditions, and men came no longer over to make tobacco, but to make homes for themselves and their families. Vir- ginia continued to grow and improve until, at the beginning of the American Revolution, she was the leading and most powerful of all the colonies.
The priorities of Virginia may be briefly stated. As the first permanent British Colony, she may claim as her product not only the present Virginia and Southland, but all the other English colonies in America, and indeed all the colonies of the present widespreading British Empire. She was the eldest of all, and the inspiration of all. Because her governors kept the New England coast clear of the French, and two ships sailing from Jamestown succored
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the settlers at New Plymouth, when, in 1622, they were at the point of starvation, she can claim especially to be the mother of New England. She had the first English institutions- trial by jury, law courts, representative lawmaking body, and free school. She was the first to announce the principle of the indissolubility of taxation and representation. She led in all the events resulting in the American Revolution-that is to say-struck the first blow in the French and Indian war, out of which war sprung the idea of taxing America; rallied the other colonies against the Stamp Act; and under the Revenue Act solved the four different crises which arose-proposing as a remedy for the first the policy of non-importation; for the second a system of intercolonial committees; for the third a general congress; and for the fourth Independence !
The life of a State is seen best in the lives of the citizens. The aim of this book will be to give the biographies of all those who had any important connection with the founding of the colony down to the American Revolution. Thus the book will be divided into four parts, under the following headings :
I. The Founders; II. The Presidents and Governors; III. The Council of State; IV. The Burgesses and Other Prominent Citizens.
THE AUTHOR.
S. WALTER RALEGH
VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY
I-THE FOUNDERS
Henry VII., King of England, was the son of Edward Tudor, Earl of Richmond, by his marriage with Margaret Beaufort, only daugh- ter of John Duke of Beaufort. The deaths of Henry VI. and of his son Prince Edward made Henry the head of the House of Lan- caster. He remained in Brittainy during the whole of the reign of Edward IV. But Ed- ward's death in 1483, and the murder of his two sons by the usurper Richard, removed almost every rival belonging to the house of York that could dispute his pretensions. He made war against Richard and defeated him at Bosworth in Leicestershire, and became King in his place. In his administration of the government he was politic and prudent. He encouraged men of letters and was a great patron of commerce. He came very nearly anticipating Ferdinand and Isabella in sending out Columbus; and under his encouragement the Cabots discovered North America in 1497. Henry VII. was the father of Henry VIII., and grandfather of Queen Elizabeth. He died at Richmond, April 2, 1509.
Cabot, John, a Venetian navigator, and first discoverer of North America. He visited Arabia, and in 1491 was employed by some merchants in Bristol, England, in hunting for the mythical island of the seven cities and Brazil. In 1495, in one of these private voy- ages, he saw land. Encouraged accordingly, he petitioned Henry VII., King of England, to grant unto him and his three sons Lewis, Sebastian and Sanctius, a charter to discover
and possess new lands. The letters patent passed the seals on March 5, 1496, and on May 2, 1497, John Cabot sailed from Bristol with a small ship and 18 persons. Having reached the continent of North America, some- where about Cape Breton Island, he coasted down 300 miles. He was three months on the voyage, and on his return received much honor, and the people, we are told, "ran after him like mad," for enlistment in his voyages. To show where he landed he made a chart and globe with the place designated. The King gave him presents and a pension out of the customs of the port of Bristol. Aided by Henry, Cabot sailed on a second voyage in the beginning of summer, 1498, with five ships, but it is probable that he died on the voyage, as the expedition seems to have re- turned under the charge of his son, Sebastian Cabot. Columbus never saw any part of the territory of the United States, and as a nation we trace back to the discoveries of John Cabot.
Cabot, Sebastian, second son of John Cabot, was probably born in Bristol, about 1577, and probably sailed with his father in many of his voyages. His name appears in the peti- tion to Henry VII. and in the charter granted by the King, March 5, 1496. He probably went with his father in his voyage to Amer- ica, May 2, 1497, and the voyage of 1498 which sailed under the father was probably, on account of the latter's death, under the son's charge on its return. Later under the anspices of Thomas Pert, vice-admiral of Eng-
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land, he paid a visit to South America and the West India Islands. Not finding much encouragement in England, which was not yet a maritime nation, he entered the service of the King of Spain and was appointed "pilot major." In 1526 he sailed to Brazil and spent four years in exploring the country, but was imprisoned a year on his return, on the charge of mismanagement. He was, however, soon reinstated in his former position, and remained for many years examiner of pilots at Seville, during which time he made his famous "mappe monde," which was first engraved in 1544. He returned to England on the death of Henry VIII., and Edward VI. gave him a pension and made him grand pilot of England. Under his leadership a Company of Discoverers, of which he was made governor for life, was formed. They sent out in 1553 an expedi- tion under Sir Hugh Willoughby and Richard Chancellor, which reached the White Sea and discovered Russia. This ancient company, which still exists, has a direct connection with the settlement of Virginia. Sir Thomas Smythe, treasurer of the Virginia Company of London, was a successor of Cabot as gov- ernor of this company in 1607, and its ships were employed in taking emigrants to Vir- ginia. Sebastian Cabot died about 1557.
Hawkins, William, son of John Hawkins, Esq., of Tavistock, Devonshire, and Joan, daughter of William Amidas, Esq., of Lancas- ter, Cornwall. He made several voyages to the coast of Africa and carried slaves from thence to Brazil in 1530, and after. He mar- ried Joan, daughter of William Trelawney, Esq., of Cornwall. He was the father of Sir John Hawkins.
Elizabeth, Queen of England, daughter of Henry VIII. by Anne Boleyn, was born at
Greenwich, September 7, 1533. She was edu- cated by Grindall and Ascham, who made her a great scholar and an expert linguist. She succeeded to the throne on the death of her sister Mary, November 17, 1558. Her reign lasted 45 years, and it is sufficient to say that she held with honor and glory the central figure of a period that has hardly a parallel in history for the outburst of activity along ali lines-literary, political, maritime and mili- tary. She encouraged especially Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Sir Walter Raleigh in their plans of colonizing Virginia, and when Sir Richard Grenville returned with his accounts of the new found land she gave it the name of "Vir- ginia" in memory of herself as the Virgin Queen. She died March 24, 1603.
Cecil, William, Lord Burleigh, the great minister of State to Queen Elizabeth. He was born at Bourne, Lincolnshire, September 13, 1520. His biography would be almost a history of the times in which he lived. He patronized Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Sir Walter Raleigh, and all the other English voyagers for discovery. He was a man of immense capacity for business, and held the full confidence of the Queen. He died May 4, 1598.
Walsingham, Sir Francis, third and young- est son of William Walsingham, of Scadbury, parish of Chislehurst; principal Secretary of State of Queen Elizabeth in 1573, and "one of the pillars of her throne." He was a pro- moter of all the great expeditions during his time, and staunch friend of Gilbert's and Raleigh's plans to colonize America. He was born in 1536, died April 6, 1590, and was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral, London.
Hawkins, Sir John, a great navigator, son of William Hawkins, was born at Plymouth,
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THE FOUNDERS
England, about 1532, entered the naval service in1 1551, and went on various voyages into Spain, Portugal and the Canaries ; he invented the chain pump for ships, 1558-59, following in the track of his father he visited Guinea il: 1562, and sailed to the West Indies with a cargo of 300 negroes, whom he sold to the Spaniards residing there. He returned to Eng- land with a rich cargo of ginger, hides and pearls. In 1564 Hawkins repeated the experi- ment with greater success, and on his way home stopped in Florida and relieved the struggling colony of Huguenots planted there by Admiral Coligny and barbarously destroyed by the Spaniards soon after Hawkins' de- parture. The Queen rewarded him with a ciest, consisting of "a demi moor in his proper colors, his hands behind him bound with a cord." In 1567 Hawkins went on a third ex- pedition from Africa to the West Indies, but was attacked by the Spanish fleet in the harbor of San Juan de Ulloa, and most of his ships and men were destroyed; two ships escaped, commanded respectively by Hawkins and Drake. Pretending to be a traitor, he was made a grandee of Spain and he received large sums of money from Philip II., and in 1572 .equipped a fleet and sailed to the Azores to lie in wait for Philip's Mexican fleet ; appointed treasurer of the navy in 1573; as rear-admiral he had a great part in preparing England to resist the Spaniards, and commanded the left wing of the English fleet in the great battle with the Armada in 1588. For his gallantry and efficiency at this time he was knighted by the Queen. In 1590 he had the command of a squadron, which, in conjunction with another under Sir Martin Frobisher, was sent to infest the coast of Spain. In 1595 he joined with Drake in an expedition against the Spanish West Indies, but the two commanders disagreed and he was unsuccessful in an attack on the
Canaries ; and at Porto Rico he fell sick and died and was buried in the sea. He sat twice in Parliament for Plymouth, and founded and endowed St. John's Hospital there for decayed mariners and shipwrights of the royal navy. He married Katherine, daughter of Benjamin Golson, and his son, Sir Richard Hawkins, ar able and distinguished seaman, was mem- ber of the council for Virginia in 1607.
Frobisher, Sir Martin, son of Bernard Fro- bisher by his wife Margaret, daughter of Sir Richard Yorke, a great seaman and discoverer, was born at Altofts, Normanton, Yorkshire, about 1535; made a voyage to Guinea and other places; served with Gilbert in Ireland; stimulated by reading Gilbert's "Discourse to Prove a Passage by the Northwest to Cathaia and the East Indies," he began his glorious voyages to the northwest coast of North America. Before Frobisher's departure on his first voyage Queen Elizabeth sent for him, commended him for his enterprise, and when he sailed July 1, 1576, she waved her hand to him from her palace window. He explored Frobisher's strait and took posses- sion of the land called Meta Incognita in the Queen's name. The vain hope of a gold mine inspired two other voyages to the same region (1577-78). On his third voyage he discov- ered Hudson strait ; vice-admiral in the Drake- Sidney voyage, 1585-86; served against the Armada and was knighted in 1588; com- manded vessels against the Spanish commerce 1589-92 ; in 1594 he commanded the squadron sent to aid Henry IV. of France ; wounded at the attack on Brest, November 7 ; died at Ply- mouth, and was interred in St. Giles Church, Cripple Gate. February. 1595.
Davis, John, a great navigator, born at Sandridge, England, near Dartmouth, not far
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from the Gilberts and the Raleighs, about 1555. He was early inured to a seafaring life and distinguished himself by three voy- ages which he undertook for the discovery of a northwest passage between 1585-87. He discovered the great strait which bears his name, and sailed along the coast of Green- land. In 1571 he went as second in command with Cavendish in his unfortunate journey to the South Sea. He afterwards made five voy- ages to the East Indies, and was killed in the last by some Japanese pirates in the straits of Malacca, December 27, 1605. He pub- lished various books on maritime subjects, and invented a quadrant which was invariably used for taking the sun's altitude at sea until it was superceded by Hadley's sextant.
Drake, Sir Francis, circumnavigator of the globe, and the most famous seaman of his age. His parentage is not certain, but he was probably a son of Robert Drake of Otterton, by his wife Agnes Kelloway. The date and place of his birth are equally uncertain, but he was probably born at Crowndale, near Tavistock, Devonshire, in 1539, and was named for his godfather, Francis Russell, afterwards second earl of Bedford. His father suffered persecution and was forced to fly from his home at Tavistock, and inhabit in the hull of a ship, where most of his younger sons were born ; he had twelve in all. Francis was at an early age apprenticed to the master of a small coasting vessel, who dying without heirs, left the bark to him. He seems to have followed this petty trade for a short time, but in 1565 he was engaged in one or two voyages to Guinea, the Spanish Main, and South Amer- ica. Influenced by the accounts he heard of the exploits of Hawkins, who was his kins- man, he commanded the Judith in the fleet fit-
ted out by that great commander, which sailed from Plymouth, October 2, 1667, and which, with the exception of the Minion and the Judith conveying Hawkins and Drake, were destroyed in the harbor of San Juan d'Ulloa by a treacherous attack of the Spaniards. In 1570 he went on his own account to the West Indies and in 1571 went again, the chief fruit of which voyages was the intelligence he gained of men and places which were useful for his future movements. In 1572 he sailed with two small ships, having on board the parts of three "dainty pinnaces," and being reinforced on the way by another English ship arrived at the Isle of Pines in Cuba, where they cap- tured two Spanish vessels. This adventure was followed by numberless others which in- volved the surrender of Nombre de Dios, the burning of Porto Bello, the sacking of Vera Cruz, the destruction of many Spanish ships, and the capture of a caravan of mules loaded with thirty tons of silver. On this voyage, in one of his journeys into the country of Panama, Drake, from a tree on the ridge, had a view of both oceans, and, transported at the sight, prayed fervently that he might live to sail the one he now first saw but had never visited. At length returning homeward, he arrived in Plymouth, Sunday, August 9, 1587. when, at the news, leaving the preacher in the midst of his sermon, everybody ran out of church to see the famous seaman.
This was the most famous voyage ever made by an Englishman, but Drake contemplated greater things. After some service in Ireland, Drake got together a squadron of five vessels and sailed again to America. He determined to visit that great wide spreading sea of the west, which he had seen from the ridge of Panama. He left Falmouth, December 13.
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1577, and sailed to Brazil, and thence coasting southward passed through the straits of Ma- gellan. All of his ships but the Pelican, in which he sailed, were either abandoned, de- stroyed in the storm or returned to England. But Drake was undismayed. Changing the name of his vessel to Golden Hind, he swept up the western coast of South America, plun- dering towns and shipping as he went. He then coasted California and North America, as far as 48° north latitude. Returning again southward, he anchored in a little harbor near the Bay of San Francisco and took possession of the country in the name of Queen Eliza- beth, calling it New Albion. Having over- hauled and reprovisioned his ship, he struck boldly across the Pacific and after an absence of nearly three years at last reached Plymouth, England, on Sunday, September 26, 1580- being the first Englishman and the next person after Magellan to circumnavigate the globe. He arrived very richly freighted with gold, silver, silk, pearls and precious stones, amount- ing in value to one million and a half sterling, represented perhaps in modern values about $40,000,000. Queen Elizabeth visited Drake's ship at Deptford, and knighted him and be- stowed upon him a coat of arms and a crest. And the King of Spain issued a proclamation offering 20,000 ducats for Drake's head. Soon after these events he served as mayor of Ply- mouth and as member of Parliament.
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