USA > Virginia > Encyclopedia of Virginia biography, Volume I > Part 13
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to "our trusty and well-beloved Wm. Clai- norne" to trade in the colonies of New Eng- land and New Scotland, and commanded Gov. Harvey and the council to allow him to do so. Claiborne soon afterwards established a trad- ing post on Kent Island near the present city of Annapolis, and this caused him to oppose with great persistence the efforts of the Balti- mores to establish the colony of Maryland. When in 1632 that part of Virginia lying north of the Potomac was granted to Cecilius Cal- vert, Lord Baltimore, the Virginians includ- ing Claiborne protested against it on the ground that it was a territorial spoiliation. They brought the matter before the King and urged that in revoking the charter and assem- bling control over Virginia both his father James and himself had given assurances that the intention was to alter the form of govern- ment, not to dispute property rights. The political existence of the colony remained as much a fact as before, and if the King could giant away Maryland, he could grant away Jamestown itself. The King and his commis- sioners of foreign plantations were neverthe- less adverse to this view, and the legality of Baltimore's charter was upheld.
The Virginians hoped, however, to except Kent Island from its operation on the ground that the Island was actually occupied by Vir- ginia settlers. They argued that the assur- ances given at the revocation meant, at least, that actual occupation was to be respected. It made no difference whether Claiborne had any title to the soil or not, under his license to trade; the colony of Virginia had extended its laws over it, and the occupation was a legal one.
When, therefore, Leonard Calvert, Balti- more's governor, called upon Claiborne to recognize his authority in Kent Island, the
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council of Virginia, to whom Claiborne re- ferred the request considered the claim and declared that the colony had as much right to Kent Island "as any other part of the country given by his Majesty's patent in 1609." This particular phase of the question came before the King like the more general phase and was referred by him as in the former case to the commissioners of foreign plantations. It pended before them for several years, and in the interim feeling grew warm. A miniature war developed and several persons were killed on both sides. Sir John Harvey interferred in behalf of Lord Baltimore, and this so in- censed Claiborne's friends in Virginia that he was seized and sent back to England. At length, however, the commissioners in 1638 decided for Lord Baltimore and Kent Island, having been seized in Claiborne's absence in England by Capt. George Evelyn in behalf of Lord Baltimore, has remained ever since a part of Maryland.
While Claiborne never admitted the justice of the decision, it does not appear that he ever tried again to set up Kent Island as independ- ent of Maryland. During the disturbances of Richard Ingle (1645-1647) he visited Kent Island, but appears to have come over to look after his property rights, which had been con- fiscated. Instead of posing as a friend of parliament, he showed a commission and letter from King Charles I., by whom he appears to have stood till the King's death in 1649.
After that time Claiborne went to England and espoused the parliament side, and Gov. Berkeley in 1650 declared the office of treas- urer vacant on account of Claiborne's "de- linquency."
In Sept., 1651, Claiborne was appointed with Capt. Robert Dennis, Mr. Richard Ben- nett and Mr. Thomas Stegg on a commission
to reduce Virginia to obedience to the parlia- ment of England, an office which they suc- ceeded in performing in Mar., 1652. They then repaired to Maryland and reduced that province also. The ascendency of Claiborne in Maryland was complete, but beyond renew- ing this property claim to Kent Island he did not treat it politically different from the rest of Maryland. In Virginia the two surviving commissioners Bennett and Claiborne shared the chief offices between them. Bennett be- came governor and Claiborne secretary of state. Maryland was only temporarily paci- fied. Lord Baltimore encouraged his adher- ents to resist and a civil war ensued and much blood was shed. The design of the commis- sioners appears to have been to have brought about the union of Virginia and Maryland again, but Baltimore won such favor with Cromwell in England that the contest was given up and his authority finally recognized.
When the restoration of Charles II. took place, Claiborne was deprived of his office as secretary and removed from Elizabeth City, where he had formerly lived, to Romancoke, near West Point, the scene of one of his for- mer victories over the Indians. Romancoke was then situated in the county of New Kent, which had been cut from York in 1654, when Claiborne was at the heighth of his power.
The county was evidently named by him after his beloved Kent Island. Here he lived many years, siding with the government in the disturbances of Bacon's rebellion, and dying about 1677, when he was upwards of ninety years of age. To the last he remained unconquered in spirit, and as late as 1675, he sent to parliament a long recital of his in- juries suffered at the hands of the Baltimores, asking satisfaction and urging the union of Maryland with Virginia.
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Berkeley, John. He was the son of Sir John Berkeley, of the castle and manor of Beverstone, in the county of Gloucester, Eng- land, an eminent branch of the noble family of the Berkeleys of Berkeley castle. He lived but eight months in Virginia, but in that time was well known as the "master and overseer" of America's first effort to manufacture iron. Iron ore was one of the first commodities car- ried back to England by the ships of the Vir- ginia Company, which as early as 1619 con- sidered the establishing of iron works in the colony. The following year 150 men were sent out to Virginia for this express purpose and, in 1621, Sir Edwin Sandis reports that a Mr. John Berkeley had been found to take up the work who was "very sufficient" in such service. The same year, Berkeley sailed to Virginia to take up the new task. The site chosen for the new works was on Falling creek which empties into the James river about sixty-six miles above Jamestown and some seven miles below the present city of Rich- mond. Berkeley sent an encouraging report of the conduct of the work and declared that by the following Whitsuntide the company might count on "good quantities of iron." The terrible Indian massacre of Mar. 22, 1622, intervened, however, and Berkeley was among those slain. John Berkeley had issue by Mary, daughter of John Snell, Esq .- Maurice, John,
Henry, William, Edward, Thomas, Mary, Frances, Elizabeth and Anne. His son, Mau- rice, came to Virginia with his father and hap- pily escaped the massacre. He married Bar- bara, daughter of Sir Walter Long, and had issue, "Edward and others." There is a promi- nent Berkeley family in Virginia which de- scend from Edmund Berkeley, living in 1674, who may have been a son of Edward last named.
Capps, William, came to Virginia before 1619, in which year he was burgess for Kico- tan, as Hampton was then called. During many years Capps took an active part in the affairs of the colony. On Jan. 26, 1621, the company granted him a patent for land in consideration of his undertaking to transport 100 persons to Virginia, and on Feb. 22, upon his humble request, the court (of the Virginia Company) ordered a certificate to be drawn up by the secretary to testify to the good esteem in which he was held, "as well in the Colony of Virginia, and may appear by the rewards of his good service under them, as also of what ability he is reported to be there in respect of the great supplys he had sent there." On May 2, it was ordered that he should receive as a reward "five men's passage free at the Company's charge, in consideration of his many years service of the Company in Virginia, with the hazard of his life among the Indians." "Upon October 7, 1622," "Mr. Wil- liam Capps, an ancient planter in Virginia," made the following requests of the company : (1), that Sir William Newce be required to deliver him the five men for whose transporta- tion he had paid that gentleman thirty pounds here in town (London) ; (2), that Sir George Yeardley restore him a chest of goods he de- tained from him; (3), that he might have sat- isfaction for that land in Virginia taken from him by Yeardley. At a meeting of the com- pany, Apr. 8, 1624, "Mr. William Capps openly declared, on the faith of an honest man, that with three boys only, which he said were not a man and a half, he had made 3,000 weight of tobacco, and sold 50 barrels of corn heaped measure, and kept beside 60 barrels for his own store, and all this he had performed by the labor of three boys only, himself having never done, as he termed it, one stroke of
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work." Two letters written by Capps in 1623, one to John Ferrar, and the other to Dr. Wynston, are preserved among the Duke of Manchester's manuscripts. The first of these letters has been published in full in "Virginia Vetusta." The writer seems to have been zealous for the welfare of the colony, but was evidently of a grumbling and fault-finding disposition. One fact connected with him should not be omitted. After the revocation of the charter in 1624 there was no regular general assembly of representatives of the peo- ple. The Virginia authorities sent over a memorial in 1627 on the subject, and by Wil- liam Capps, who was in England, King Charles sent instructions allowing a general assembly and urging the cultivation of staple commo- dities, as heretofore they had depended too much "upon smoke." To Capps was given the privilege of erecting salt works. He ar- rived in Virginia Feb. 22, 1628 and on the 26th of the next month the colonial assembly met. He was a member of the council in 1627 and was alive in 1630.
Cowlinge, Christopher, is only known by the fact that Gov. Harvey wrote, on May 29, 1630, that since his arrival in Virginia, Apr., 1630, Christopher Cowlinge had been sworn a member of the council. No other mention of him occurs in the records.
Finch, Henry. Gov. Harvey, writing May 29, 1630, says that since his arrival in Virginia, a few weeks before, he has sworn as a mem- ber of the council, Henry Finch, "brother to Sir John Finch." Finch was present in coun- cil upon Dec. 20, 1631, Feb. 21, 1631-32, and Feb. 1, 1632-33, but there is no other notice of him. He probably died or left Virginia soon after the last named date. He was the son of Sir Henry Finch, sergeant-at-law, and brother
of Sir John Finch, lord chief justice, speaker of the house of commons and lord keeper, who was knighted in 1626, and afterwards created Baron Finch of Ferdwick. The pedigrees given by Burke and Berry say that John Finch was the only son of Sir Henry, but this is cer- tainly an error, for the "Dictionary of Na- tional Biography" gives a sketch of Edward Finch, a royalist devine, who was another son, stated, like our councillor, to have been "over- looked by the genealogists." Maj. Joseph Cro- shaw, of York county, Virginia, married a Widow Finch, who had a daughter Betty.
Stephens, Richard, came to Virginia in the year 1623, in the ship "George," and settled at Jamestown. In the same year he was granted sixty rods of land adjoining his dwelling house, in the "corporation of. James Citty," in the hope that others might be "encouraged by his example to enclose some ground for gardens." I1: March of the year following he was a mem- ber of the house of burgesses. In the spring of 1624 Stephens awakened to find himself notori- ous as one of the principals in the first duel ever fought in Virginia. His antagonist, George Harrison, died fourteen days afterwards, and it has been generally stated that his death was caused by his wounds, but George Menifie, writing on April 28, 1624, to John Harrison, told him that post-mortem examination had shown that his brother George was in bad health, and that his death was not supposed to have been the result of being "hurt in the field," in the duel of fourteen days before, for that he had only received a slight wound in the leg between the garter and the knee. Early in 1630 Gov. Harvey added Stephens to the council, but some years later, probably in 1635, a quarrel arose between them and Harvey dashed out some of Stephens' teeth with a
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cudgel. This disgraceful act was one of the charges made against Harvey when he was sent to England for trial, but he sought to excuse himself by saying that it did not occur in the council, and that Stephens had assailed him with "ill language." Stephens does not seem to have lived many years after this. From the land patents it appears that the wife of Councillor Richard Stephens was Elizabeth, daughter of Abraham Piersey, formerly of the council. She took for a second husband, in 01 before 1642, Sir John Harvey, the same who had deprived her first consort of his teeth. In September of that year Captain De Vries, the Dutch trader, brought suit against the estate of Richard Stephens for £4.14, due "for goods sold Lady Harvey," who, it was ex- plained, was at that time the wife of Stephens. Richard and Elizabeth Stephens had at least one child, a son Samuel. On Jan. 20, 1644- 45, Dame Elizabeth Harvey petitioned the court to substitute Richard Kemp and Capt. William Pierce as trustees in place of Capt. Samuel Mathews, George Ludlow and Capt. Thomas Bernard, "former trustees under a feoffment made by the same Dame Elizabeth to Samuel Stephens, Gent., her son by a for- mer marriage." The son, Samuel Stephens, of "Bolthorpe," Warwick county, was gov- ernor of Carolina, and died in 1670, leaving nc children. His will was dated April 21, 1670. Gov. Samuel Stephens married Fran- ces Culpeper, sister of Alexander Culpeper, afterwards surveyor-general of Virginia. In the diary of Mrs. Thornton, published by the Surtees Society, are several notices of the mar- riage in Virginia, about 1650, of the heir of the Danby family in Yorkshire to a Miss Cul- peper. The editor states that she was a niece of Lord Culpeper, lord chancellor of England, and it seems highly probably that she was a
sister of Frances Culpeper. Mrs. Frances Stephens married secondly, in June, 1670, Sir William Berkeley, governor of Virginia, whom she seems to have ruled with as high a hand as he showed the colony, and thirdly, some- time in 1680, Col. Philip Ludwell, of "Rich- neck," James City county, Virginia. She had no children by either marriage.
Basse, Nathaniel, with Sir Richard Worse- ley, John Hobson, gentleman, and others, asso- ciates of Capt. Christopher Lawne, deceased, presented a petition on June, 28, 1620, to the Virginia Company, and received a confirma- tion of an old patent and plantation, and that said plantation should be henceforth called the Isle of Wight's plantation. The tract was situated in the present Isle of Wight county, which took its name from the plantation, as did Lawne's creek from the first settler there. Sir Richard Worseley, and probably the other men interested in the enterprise also, lived in the Isle of Wight, England. On Jan. 30, 1621- 22, Capt. Nathaniel Basse and his associates received a patent on condition that they would transport 100 persons to Virginia. Basse was a member of the house of burgesses for Wor- 1 esqueiacke from 1623-24 to 1629, and was a councillor in Feb., 1631-32, at which time he was authorized to go to New England and offer the inhabitants a place of settlement on Delaware Bay. The name of his plantation was "Basse's Choice."
Purefoy, Thomas, Purfry, Purfee or Pur- fury, as the name is variously spelt, was born about 1582 and came to Virginia in the ship "George" in 1621. In 1625, when he is styled Lieut. Thomas Purefoy, he was living in Eliz- abeth City, and in 1628, was chief commander and one of the commissioners of that place. On July 4, 1627, the governor and council
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ordered him to make an attack upon the In- dians. As "Captain Thomas Purefoy," he was a member of the house of burgesses for "the lower parts of Elizabeth City," at the ses- sion of March, 1629-30, and on Dec. 20, 1621, appears as a councillor. He was probably appointed by Harvey, whom he always faith- fully supported during the long dispute be- tween the governor and the council and bur- gesses. When this contest reached a climax and an address from the house of burgesses to the English government was being circu- lated for signatures, the people of the lower country went in such numbers to sign it that "Captain Purfry took an affright that caused him to write to the Governor of many inci- dent dangers, insomuch that he durst not keep a court until he heard from him or had a letter from the King." Samuel Mathews says that in this letter Capt. Purefoy accused the people of being "in a near sense to rebellion, which since he denied, it being very usual with him to affirm and deny often the same things." This, of course, is the opinion of a member of the hostile party. The opinion of another contemporary is very different. "He is a sol- dier and a man of open heart, hating for aught I can see all kinds of dissimulation and base- ness." In spite of his adherence to Harvey, Purefoy continued a member of the council after the governor's deposition, and was one of those whom the King thought fit to allow to retain their seats. He named, according to a land patent, one of his estates, a 1,000 acre track, "Drayton," doubtless after a place of that name mentioned by Burke as a seat of the Purefoys in England. He left a son Thomas who had an only daughter Frances who had many descendants in Virginia- Tabbs, Bookers, Lowrys, etc. Capt. Purefoy was alive in 1640.
Peirce, William, came from England in the "Sea Venture" in 1609 and was, for many years one of the foremost men of the colony. In May, 1623, Gov. Wyatt appointed him cap- tain of the guard and commander of James City. In the same year, the governor ordered "Captain Wm. Peirce, Captain of his guard and lieutenant governor of James City," to lead an expedition against the Chickahominies. This Peirce did, falling upon them on July 23, "with no small slaughter." He had already made a very favorable impression upon George Sandys, the treasurer of Virginia, who wrote to England in 1623 that William Peirce, the governor of Jamestown, was inferior to none in experience, ability and capacity and recom- mended him for appointment to the council. In 1627, he was again commissioned to attack the Chickahominies with Thomas Harwood as his second in command. In 1629, he was in England and while there, prepared "A Rela- tion of the Present State of the Colony of Vir- ginia, by Capt. William Perse, an ancient planter of twenty years standing there." He states that there were in Virginia between four and five thousand English, generally well housed, besides much other valuable informa- tion in regard to those times. In 1631, Peirce was appointed a member of the council and, on December 20, signed the accord between that body and Governor Harvey. He was a strong opponent of Harvey's misgovernment and was one of the councillors who, on April 28, 1635, arrested and deposed him, himself leading thirty, or according to some accounts, fifty musketeers to beset Harvey's house. Early in the next month, when Claiborne com- plained to the new governor, West, and the council of his treatment in Maryland, Capts. Utie and Peirce were sent to that colony to protest, to the authorities there, against their
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violence towards him. Peirce was one of those who was ordered by the King to be sent to England to answer Harvey's charges but who were never actually prosecuted. He was also one of those to whom the privy council directed the reinstated governor to restore the property he had taken from them. Peirce returned to Virginia on a sort of parole and though once more summoned to England, never went there, as the civil war intervened. He was present in council in 1639 and it seems probable that some other influence had been brought to bear upon the King as he was included in the last royal commission of councillors before the war, dated Aug. 9, 1641. The last mention we have of the councillor is of his being pres- ent in council, Feb., 1644-45. His daughter ter Jane became the third wife of John Rolfe.
West, John, deputy governor of Virginia (q. v.).
Harvey, Sir John, governor of Virginia. (q. v.).
Bullock, Hugh, first appears as a councillor in Dec., 1631. He went to England in the fol- lowing spring, but was back in Virginia and present in the council, in Feb., 1632-33, and in February and March of the next year. In 1637 he was one of the members of the coun- cil whom the King directed should be retained, but it is likely that he soon after removed finally to England, and never lived in Vir- ginia again. On March 12, 1634. "Captain Hugh Bullocke" received a grant of 2,550 acres on the Pocosin river, in what is now York county. By deed dated July 8, 1637, and recorded in York, "Hugh Bullock of Lon- don, gentleman," conveyed to his son, "Wil- liam Bullock of London, gentleman," his corn- mill, saw-mill and plantation in Virginia. His
wife Mary joined in the deed. There can be no doubt that this William Bullock, son of the councillor, was the author of the rare pam- phlet on Virginia. In it he states that his father owned land in the colony. In the gen- eral court records, under date of April, 1672, is to be found an entry list of a suit by Robert Bollock, son and heir of William Bullock, ver- sus Col. Peter Jennings, guardian of John Mathews, orphan of Col. Mathews, deceased, in regard to a parcel of land in Warwick county, containing 5,500 acres.
Brewer, John, "citizen and grocer of Lon- Gon" was a son of Thomas Brewer, probably of the same city, and came to Virginia prior to the 1629. He was a member of the house of burgesses from Warwick county in 1629- 30, and as "John Brewer, gent.," was appointed one of the commissioners (justices ) for holding monthly courts in that county in Feb., 1631-32. He was a member of the coun- cil of state from 1632 until his death in 1635. All that is known of Brewer's wife is that her name was Mary, and that in 1636 she consoled herself for his death by becoming the wife of the Rev. Thomas Butler, "Pastor of Denby." The children of John and Mary Brewer were : John, Roger and Margaret. Councillor Brewer
owned a plantation called "Stawley (or Stan- ley) Hundred, otherwise Bruer's Borough," in Warwick county, and not long before his death had obtained rights of 1,000 acres, which his wife and her second husband located and ob- tained a grant for, at what is still called "Brewer's Neck," between Brewer's and Chuckatuck Creeks, in Isle of Wight county. His will, dated Sept. 4, 1631, and proved in London, May 13, 1636, was published in "Waters' Gleanings."
Perry, William, came to Virginia in 1611.
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In a list dated 1626, he is mentioned as owning 100 acres of land on the south side of the river below the falls, which it is probable were granted to him in the year of his coming over and at the time of Sir Thomas Dale's attempt to settle the upper region of the James. After the massacre of 1622, the settlements there were abandoned, and we find Perry living either at or near "Pace's Paines" on the south side of the river not far from Jamestown. He was in England in April, 1624, but was back in Virginia and, as "Lieutenant William Perry," was representing "Pace's Paines" in the house of burgesses in Oct., 1629, and in March of the year following. At this last session he was appointed one of a committee to manage the building of a fort at Point Comfort. In Feb .. 1631-32, he was a burgess for the territory "From Capt. Perryes downwards to Hog Island." It was in the summer of 1632 that he was appointed to the council, and in Septem- ber of the same year, that he appeared for the first time as a member. He was also present 'in Feb., 1632-33, and in March of the next year. Some years before his death he went yo live in Charles City county, where he died in 1637, andI was buried at the old "Westover" church. His tomb, which is doubtless the old- est in Virginia, may still be seen near "West- over" house, but the epitaph is entirely illeg- ible. It was once examined by Charles Camp- bell, the historian, who says that there was engraved upon it a shield with armorial bear- ings which could not even then be made out, and also the following epitaph :
"Here lyeth the body of Captaine Wm. Perry who lived neere Westover in this Collony
Who departed this life the 6th day of August, Anno Domini 1637."
Capt. Perry married prior to 1628, Isa- bella, widow of Richard Pace of "Pace's Paines." They had, as far as is known, only one child, Capt. Henry Perry, of whom a sketch will appear hereafter. In the general court records, under date of 1674, there is mention of a patent "long before" granted to Capt. Perry Sr., for 2,000 acres, and a later one to George Menifie of 1,500 acres, in be- half of Capt. Henry Perry the orphan. Both of these grants were situated in Charles City county.
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