USA > Virginia > Encyclopedia of Virginia biography, Volume I > Part 10
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culture, and possessed a large and valuable library; and while he has been represented in America as rude in his deportment and treacherous in his conduct, his friends praise him for the noble and admirable traits of character, which they attribute to him. The Tories who had to fly from Virginia during the war, abandoning everything except loyalty to their King, found in him a real haven of refuge in London. His home and money were at their service. He married February 21, 1759, Lady Charlotte Stewart, sixth daughter
of Alexander, sixth earl of Gallway. Late in April, 1774, he was joined at Williamsburg by his wife and her children, George Lord Fin- castle, the Honorables Alexander and John Murray, and Ladies Catherine, Augusta and Susan Murray. To these were added another daughter born in the colony, and named in its honor Virginia. The three young noble- men were put to school at the College. In 1834 Charles Murray, a grandson of Lord Dunmore, visited Virginia, and afterwards published an account of his travels.
COLONIAL COUNCILLORS OF STATE
III-COLONIAL COUNCILLORS OF STATE
Newport, Christopher. There can be no doubt that King James displayed great wis- dom in choosing so experienced and able a seaman as Christopher Newport to command the colonizing expedition of 1607 to Virginia, and in sealing the box which contained his list of councillors during the voyage, in order that there might be no conflict of authority with his. He had sailed the Spanish Main and taken an active part in the privateering exploits against the Spanish in the New World. In 1592 he sailed in command of four ships when he "took and Spoyled Yaguana and Ocoa and Hispaniola and Truxillo, besides other prizes." After the brilliant capture of the "Madre de Dios" by the ships of Sir Walter Raleigh and the Earl of Cumberland, Capt. Newport, who played an important part in the fight, was given command of her and took her to Dartmouth.
When the expedition of 1607 arrived at Jamestown, Newport's name was found on the list of councillors, though he was not ex- pected to become a planter but to serve as admiral in the voyages between England and the colony. In pursuance of his orders to remain two months in the New World explor- ing, he started May 21 on a voyage up the James river, which he followed as far as the "falls," the present site of the city of Rich- mond. Here, finding that he could go no fur- ther without great danger, he set up a cross with the inscription "Jacobus Rex, 1607," and his own name underneath. Upon inquiry by the Indians as to the meaning of this cross and ceremony, the wily captain told them that
the two arms of the cross signified Powhatan and himself, and their juncture the league they had entered into. On June 22 of the same year he returned to England with a cargo of "sasafrax rootes" instead of the gold which the Virginia Company had so ardently. hoped for.
Newport's second arrival in Virginia (Jan. 2, 1608) was a timely one. The death of Gos- 1:old had left Wingfield open to attacks of his opponents-Archer, Smith, Ratcliffe and Mar- tin, who had first deposed him from the presidency and finally imprisoned him, Capt. Smith, too, who had just returned from cap- tivity with the Indians, was in chains under sentence of hanging. Newport at once set these men at liberty and restored some measure of peace in the colony and council. A few days later, however, a fire broke out and destroyed the whole of the little settlement, thus exposing its occupants to the severity of the winter's weather. Newport again came to the rescue and employed his mariners in lielping to rebuild the church, storehouse and other houses. Capt. Newport later made a third voyage to Virginia, and brought on this occasion (Oct., 1608) the first gentlewoman, Mrs. Forrest, and Anne Buras, her maid. As was to have been expected, there occurred, shortly after, the first marriage in the colony which was of this same Anne Buras and John Laydon, a carpenter; and to them was born a year later a girl, Virginia Laydon-the first child of English parentage born in the first permanent English colony.
Newport's fourth voyage was in command
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of the expedition sent out under the second charter, which left Falmouth June 8, 1609. There were nine ships carrying Sir Thomas Gates as governor, and about 500 persons, some of them women. Two of the vessels were wrecked and Newport himself was cast away on the Bermudas with Gov. Gates and 150 other passengers and a large portion of the stores for the colony. He finally got away from the islands, and made his way to Vir- ginia just in time to save the colony from starvation. The casting away of Newport's ship, the "Sea Venture," was the occasion of Shakespeare's great play, "The Tempest," in- terest in the subject having most probably been communicated to him by Southampton. After one more voyage to Virginia, Capt. Newport's connection with the colony ceased. He resigned his position with the Virginia Company and was appointed one of the six masters of the Royal Navy, and performed several voyages for the East India Company. On the third of these his death occurred about August 15, 1617, while his fleet lay at anchor in a Javan port. The stalwart captain died thus as he had lived, in command of his ship, in the midst of new lands and untried seas.
Wingfield, Edward Maria, first president of the council (q. v.).
Largely instrumental in bringing about the successful expedition of 1607, was
Gosnold, Bartholomew, a seasoned mariner who had been associated with Raleigh in his attempts to colonize Virginia, and not less was he the leaven of peace among the discordant elements in the first Jamestown council, of which he was a member. Respected by all the diverse factions as no one else was, he was able to effect something like a concert of pur- pose and action among his fellows, and stave
off, in a measure, the dissensions which broke out so violently after his death. Upon the failure of Raleigh's expeditions, Gosnold had returned to England still hopeful, and in 1602 he took command of a vessel fitted out by the Earl of Southampton, the friend and patron of Shakespeare. Gosnold's intended destination was Virginia, but, the ship being driven from hier course by adverse winds, they touched upon the New England coast, where they were the first Englishmen to land and where they named Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard. Those who had proposed remaining as colo- nists lost heart, however, and returned to England, but Gosnold, undisheartened, con- tinued his efforts and finally beheld his hopes' fruition in Jamestown. His voice, indeed, was raised against the site chosen, on the ground of its obvious unhealthfulness, but, being overruled, he turned to with heart and soul to give success to the enterprise. He was spared the pain of beholding the pains and horrors the colony was doomed to undergo, his death occurring before the close of the first summer, Aug. 22, 1607, when fate seemed still auspicious. All record unite in praising his singleness of purpose and hardihood, and Pres. Wingfield made him his sole confidant in matters of importance such as that of the diminishing supplies. It is possible, there- fore, that, while it may have been a personal good fortune to have escaped the misfortunes of his fellows he might, had he lived, have done much to alleviate their sorrows by uniting them in a more harmonious effort.
Smith, John, councillor and president of the council (q. v.).
Ratcliffe, John, councillor and president of the council (q. v.).
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Kendall, George, one of the original coun- cil. The record which has come down to us in regard to this man is not at all flattering, but it must be remembered that he stands con- victed on the evidence of bitter enemies. In the days in which he lived there was no such thing as moderation of expression. He was a cousin of the Earl of Southampton, and the fact that he was appointed in England a mem- ber of the council in Virginia shows that he must have been well known in London as a man of experience and courage. Doubtless in Virginia under the terrible stress of circum- stances during the first summer there was much to criticise, and the evidence, at least, shows that he was not a man afraid to speak out his mind. George Percy and Wingfield denounced him as a stirrer up of dissensions, and Capt. Smith also speaks of his being driven from the council, which he says was for "divers reasons" and occurred about June 22, 1607. He was afterwards released, though without the privilege of carrying arms, but was again arrested on the statement of one James Read, a smith, who had been con- demned to death, and who accused Kendall of conspiring to cause a mutiny. Read was forth- with pardoned and Kendall condemned to be shot. The president at the time was John Ratcliffe, and Kendall, it is said, sought to prevent the execution by claiming that Sickle- more, and not Ratcliffe, was his true name, and that consequently he had no right to pro- nounce judgment. The practical gentlemen of the time refused, however, to delay justice on any such quibble, and, without attempting any controversy on the subject, merely caused John Martin, another councillor, to perform the president's office, which he promptly did, and Kendall quickly paid the penalty of his sins.
Martin, John, one of the councillors, was the son of Sir Richard Martin who "thrice filled the office of lord mayor, and was Master of the Mint in the reigns of Elizabeth and James I." The profession of the law had been chosen for him, but when he was about twenty- one years old he went to sea in obedience to a longing for the then most romantic life of the mariner. He commanded the "Benjamin" in Sir Francis Drake's fleet in that com- mander's marauding expedition among the West Indies in 1585. On Drake's homeward voyage Martin touched at Virginia, whither the fleet had repaired in aid of Raleigh's colo- nists on Roanoke Island.
Martin was bitterly opposed to Pres. Wing- field, and after the death of Gosnold, the re- turn to England of Capt. Newport and the deposing of Kendall from the council, he was one of the three remaining councillors who forced Wingfield from the presidency. Mar- tin's health was poor, and besides his other afflictions he was badly smitten with the "gold fever," which gave his enemies afterwards a chance to ridicule him, amongst whom was Capt. John Smith, who gave him the name of "refining Captain Martin," and helped to make him unpopular. He returned to England in June, 1608, but the following year he came again to Virginia, where he was very coldly welcomed but admitted to the council. Upon Capt. Smith's absence from Jamestown in the summer of 1609, he appointed Martin in his place, but for this office, according to Smith, the latter gentleman had no relish and he re- signed after three hours. But that Martin was no weakling is proved by the fact that he was the only person who protested against the abandonment of Jamestown in 1610, and un- like Smith he stuck to Virginia to the end. He made a second trip to England in 1616,
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and again returned to Virginia the year fol- lowing. This trip was the cause of further friction between Martin and the colonists, as the Virginia Company in London had granted him a patent for ten shares of land in Virginia with unusual rights to its enjoyment, which the others did not approve. Despite the repre- sentations of the Virginia Company that Mar- tin had been a "long and faithful servant to the Colony of Virginia," the colonial council remained firm and his privileges were curtailed. The breach between Martin and the council was finally healed, and he located his patent at Brandon on James river.
The date of Martin's death is unknown, though it must have taken place subsequently to March 8, 1626, as there is a letter of this date from him to his brother-in-law, Sir Julius Caesar. He is supposed to have died and been buried at Brandon. His daughter Dorcas married Capt. George Bargrave, son of Rob- ert Bargrave, of Bridge in Kent. George Bargrave came to Virginia, and was largely interested with his brother, John Bargrave, in the trade of the colony. His son, Robert Bargrave, sold Brandon to Richard Quiney and John Sadler, from whom it came by de- scent to Robert Richardson, who sold it in 1720 to Nathaniel Harrison, in whose family Brandon still remains. The original patent for Brandon, granted to Capt. John Martin from the Virginia Company of London, is still preserved at the place. It bears date 1617, and is by long odds the most ancient official record relating to the American soil to be found in the United States.
Archer, Gabriel, was a man of talent and courage. He is described as of Mountnessing, Essex county, England. He entered Gray's Inn as a student of law Mar. 15, 1593. In
1602 he went with Bartholomew Gosnold to New England and wrote an interesting ac- count of the discovery and naming of Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard. On his return he was active in arousing interest in an at- tempt to locate a colony in Virginia, and came with the first settlers. He was among the first to put foot to land at Cape Henry, Apr. 26, 1606, and was one of the two first settlers to Virginia to be wounded by the savages. He was appointed recorder of the colony, and on May 21, he went with Newport from Jamestown on a voyage of discovery up James river, and afterwards "wrote a Relatyon of the Voyage." The charter permitted a major- ity of the council to elect the president or turn him out, to turn out any member of the coun- cil and elect a substitute. It was, therefore, a veritable hothouse of faction. Archer seems to have furnished his full share to the quar- rels of Jamestown, though probably no more than his share. He joined with Smith, Mar- tin and Ratcliffe in displacing Wingfield as president, and afterwards when Ratcliffe ad- mitted him to the council in Dec., 1607, caused Smith to be indicted "upon a chapter in Leviti- cus" for the death of two of his men on his trip up Chickahominy, and Ratcliffe, the presi- dent, approved the sentence of execution. And Smith would have been hanged the next day, had not Capt. Newport arrived the even- ing before (Jan. 2, 1608) and interferred to save his life.
When Newport set out April 10, 1608, to return to England, he carried with him both Wingfield and Archer, whose complaints on their arrival were directed with such good effect against the charter that a petition for a new one creating a more suitable form of government was soon presented to the King, and granted. Under this second charter
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dated (May 23, 1609) Sir Thomas Gates was made governor, and had the selection of his council, and. Archer, flattering himself that he was rid of the dominance of John Smith, returned to the colony. Of the voyage he wrote an interesting account. But the un- expected happened, and Gates was wrecked on the Bermuda Islands. Then to the dis- appointment of all the gentlemen of the rest of the expedition which got to Jamestown, Smith would not give up his commission, in which he was only technically right. Freslı brawls ensued, and after a few months Smith returned to England, while Archer remained and died at Jamestown during the Starving Time of 1609-1610.
Scrivener, Matthew, councillor and presi- dent of the council (q. v.).
Wynne, Peter, was one of the gentlemen who came to Virginia with Capt. Newport on that officer's second voyage of relief to the colony. He arrived there in Sept., 1608, and was immediately admitted to the council. The advent of such men as Wynne and Scrivener, with their sincere wishes for the welfare of the enterprise and their sense of responsibility, must have acted like ballast in a storm-driven ship upon the faction-rent council, but it must have been a thankless task which devolved upon them for the next few months during the starving time. Wynne, himself, was one of those who succumbed to the conditions and he died in the spring of 1609, while Sir Thomas Gates, the representative of Lord De la Warr, or Delaware, and Christopher New- port were in the Bermudas, seeking some means of escape therefrom. He thus did not live to see the relief which these and Lord Delaware were soon to bring. He enjoys the unique distinction of having been appointed
deputy governor of Virginia after his death, for Gates, who reposed especial confidence in him, and had not heard of the event, selected him to act as governor while he was absent in the Bermudas, and sent him a particular commission.
Another gentleman who came to Virginia with Capt. Newport on the second expedition of 1608, arriving in September, was
Waldo, Richard, who, with Capt. Wynne, was at once admitted to the council. During his brief career in America, he seems to have been chiefly occupied in the trips of explora- tion undertaken by Newport and Smith. He was one of the commanders of the expedition which the former officer made into the Mona- can country and very probably witnessed the ceremony of Powhatan's coronation in the European style, which must altogether have been a most delightful comedy, the great In- dian "Emperor" understanding the significance of neither crown nor the act of kneeling to receive it. He also formed one of Smith's party which set out from Jamestown to visit that same dignitary. On this occasion, how- ever, he seems not to have gone the whole way, but to have returned to Jamestown be- fore Smith, for on Jan. 7, 1609, while cross- ing from that place to Hog Island in a boat with Councillor Scrivener and others, he was drowned.
Percy, George, councillor and president (q. v.).
West, Francis, councillor and governor (q. v.).
Somers, Sir George, was born at Lyme Regis, Dorsetshire, in 1554, and is supposed to have been related to the Somers family of White Ladies, Worcestershire. Although his
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name was second in the royal patent of Apr. 10, His death occurred on the 9th of Nov., 1610, 1606, he took no active part in colonial affairs shortly after his arrival in Bermuda, and it is stated that it was occasioned by a too hearty repast on one of the Bermuda "devils," with which he had intended lading his ships for the colony. Feeling the approach of death, he ex- horted his followers to perform the task they had undertaken without him. This, however, they did not do. They buried his heart in the island and his cedar ship with his dead body at last arrived at Whitechurch, in Dorsetshire, about Feb. 26, 1611, where it was buried with military honors. until 1609, when he sailed with Sir Thomas Gates and Capt. Newport in the expedition of that year. He was fifty-odd years of age at the time of his sailing and had already dis- tinguished himself in the military and naval service, having commanded several expeditions and, in 1595, accompanied Capt. Amias Pres- ton to the West Indies. He was knighted at Whitehall, July 23, 1603, in reward for his services, and represented Lyme Regis in parlia- ment for a number of years. He was ap- pointed admiral for the colony, and was on the "Sea Adventure" on the way to take com- Gates, Sir Thomas, governor, 1609 (q. v.). mand, when she was cast away. Sir George Weyman, Sir Ferdinando, had every reason to regard the Virginia colony as the appropriate scene for his endeavors. It might almost be called a family matter, related, as he was, on all sides to the prominent figures in the enter- prise. He was a cousin of Thomas Lord Dela- ware, governor of Virginia, and of Francis and John West who played distinguished parts there, the latter being also governor. His wife was a sister-in-law of Sir Francis Wyatt, gov- ernor of Virginia, and a niece of Sir George Sandys, the poet, and treasurer of the colony. Another cousin, Penelope West, married Her- bert Pelham and of their sixteen children, one was the first treasurer of Harvard College, and another the wife of Gov. Bellingham of Massachusetts. Weyman was born in Cas- well, Oxfordshire, the son of Thomas Wey- man, Esq., of that place, and came to the colony in 1610. On June 12, of that year, he was appointed admiral and master of the horse. But Weyman was not destined to en- joy his honors long, for, as was the case with so many of his fellows, he died shortly after his arrival in the colony, leaving a young daughter. Of this young lady's life in that Somers was the first on the shipwrecked ves- sel to sight land, but strange to say, his dis- covery was not hailed with the joy that men in such straits are prone to feel. The reason for this is explained by the fact that the shores he had seen were those of a Bermudan island, supposed by mariners to be inhabited by fairies and devils. However, in a choice be- tween them and the deep sea, the party, with more prudence than religion, chose the former and were soon comfortably landed, where, to their further comfort, they found the fairies to be flocks of birds upon the shore and the devils, herds of wild swine running in the wood. After sojourning there until they had completed the construction of two vessels to be their transport, they set sail therein for Virginia. But Somers was not destined to more than reach the promised land, for, find- ing the colonists in the sorriest of plights, and well nigh starving to death, he volunteered to return at once to the fruitful Bermudas for supplies. He started at once, but adverse winds drove him as far North as New Eng- land before he finally reached his destination.
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inauspicious environment but little is known, but it can scarcely have been a very happy one under the circumstances. However, she must have had powerful friends who would allevi- ate, in so far as it lay in their power, the dis- comforts of her position. In 1620 it was re- ported to the Virginia Company that Sir Ferdi- nando Weyman, who "adventured one hun- dred pounds with Lord La Warr, besides the adventure of his person to Virginia," had died there, leaving an only child, a daughter, who had received a letter from Lady La Warr ex- pressing a willingness to have the above amount deducted from his Lordship's account and given to her. This the company "well allowed" and agreed besides to give the little orphan four shares of land in Virginia for the adventure of her father's person, he "being a man of worth."
Strachey, William; there appears to be some confusion as to his identity, the ques- tion being whether the person prominent in the Virginia colonization was the elder or younger of the two men of that name, father and son, who flourished at the time. Brown, in his "Genesis of the United States," inclines to the opinion that it was the former, but Sir Edward Strachey, of Sutton Court, the pres- ent representative of the family, believes it to have been the younger man whose death did not occur until 1634. However this may be, the Strachey with whom history is concerned was something of an author and scholar, and in the dedication to Lord Bacon of his "His- torie of Travaile into Virginia Brittania," he claims membership in Gray's Inn, though his name does not appear in the index to Foster's "Gray's Inn Admissions." Before his adven- ture to Virginia, he seems to have done some travelling in the Mediterranean, as he men- tions visits to the "Coast of Barbary and Al-
giers, in the Levant." He was a member of the notable expedition of 1609, of Sir Thomas Gates, and was one of those cast away in the Bermudas with the chiefs of the party. He has written an account of the experience en- titled "A True Repertory of the Wracke and Redemption of Sir Thomas Gates upon and from the Islands of Bermudas." This work was published in the fourth volume of Pur- chas' "Pilgrims." He also compiled for the colony of Virginia "Laws Devine, Morall, and Marshall" (London, 1612). His most impor- tant work, the "Historie of Travaile into Vir- ginia Brittania," has already been mentioned. It was written about 1618 and published by the Hakluyt Society in 1849. Strachey ar- rived in Virginia in May, 1610, with the rest of the castaways, and was shortly after ap- pointed to the council, and on June 12, of the same year, recorder general of Virginia. He went to England after about a year's stay in the colony. He was either father or grand- father of William Strachey, who came to Vir- ginia and died in 1686, leaving a daughter Ara- bella, who married Henry Cox, of Essex county. Another son or grandson, John Strachey, had a grandson, Dı. John Strachey, who came to Virginia and has now descend- ants of the name of Mastin living in Alabama.
Dale, Sir Thomas, councillor and deputy governor (q. v.).
Argall, Sir Samuel, councillor and deputy governor.
Hamor, Ralph, was a son of "Ralph Hamor the elder, of London, merchant tailor." Both father and son were members of the Virginia Company in 1609, the father paying £133.6.8. The elder Hamor was also an in- corporator, and for a time, a director, of the East India Company. He died in 1615, leav-
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