USA > Virginia > Encyclopedia of Virginia biography, Volume I > Part 4
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Rich, Sir Nathaniel, eldest son of Richard, illegitimate son of Robert, second Lord Rich; member of parliament at different times ; inter-
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VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY
ested in the Bermudas in 1616; knighted at Hutton House, November 8, 1617. He was a leading member of the Warwick party in the factions of the Virginia Company, 1622, and wrote many of the papers and documents ema- nating from his side. After the dissolution of the company in 1624, he was one of the com- missioners for Virginia appointed by the King. He was also member of the council for New England in 1620, and deputy gov- ernor of the Bahamas Company in 1635. He died in 1636.
Danvers, Sir John, regicide, born about 1588. third and youngest son of Sir John Danvers, of Dauntsey, Wiltshire, by Eliza- beth, fourth daughter and coheiress of John Neville, last Lord Latimer. He was a very handsome man, and it is said people would run to see him on the streets. In 1608 he married Magdalene Herbert, widow of Richard Her- bert and mother of ten children, including George Herbert, the poet, and Edward, Lord Herbert of Cherbury. He was knighted by King James, and under Charles I. became a gentleman of the privy chamber. He was a member of the Virginia council, 1612-20, and was one of the Sandys faction in the Virginia Company, 1620-25. He acquired an intense jealousy of the crown and sided with the par- liament against the King. He was a member of the commission nominated to try the King in January, 1649, and signed the death war- rant. In February of the same year he was given a seat in the council of state, which he retained till the council's dissolution in 1653. He died at his home in Chelsea in April, 1655, and was buried at Dauntsey. His name was in the act of attainder passed at the restoration. He had two brothers-Sir Charles Danvers, who was beheaded for participation in Essex's
Rebellion of 1601; and Sir Henry Danvers. Earl of Danby, and afterwards a friend of Charles I., who died in 1644.
Wroth, Sir Thomas, prominent member of the Virginia Company, was brother-in-law of Sir Nathaniel Rich, and sided with him against Southampton and Sandys. He was a sub- scriber to the Virginia Company in 1609, and after the dissolution of the charter was one of the commissioners appointed to take charge of the colony July 15, 1624. On November 3, 1620, he became a member of the council in New England, and June 25, 1653, he was made a commissioner for the government of the Bermudas. In domestic politics Wroth joined the opposition to the King and was a member of the Long Parliament. He adopted the views of the independents, and on June 3. 1647-48, moved the famous resolution that Charles I. be impeached and the kingdom set- tled without him. He was appointed one of the judges to try the King, but attended only one session. After the restoration he peti- tioned for pardon, which was apparently granted, and Wroth lived in retirement until his death, aged 88, at Petherton Park, July II, 1672.
Wolstenholme, Sir John, merchant, was second son of Sir John Wolstenholme, of Lon- don, of an ancient Derbyshire family. He was a leading man in the East India Company and the Virginia Company. On April 28, 1619, he was one of the candidates for treasurer of the Virginia Company, and in May, 1622, was recommended by the King as a person most suited to the office, but he was not elected. He was a member of the commission appointed July 15, 1624. to take charge of the company's affairs after its dissolution in May, and in 1631 held place on the commission requested
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THE FOUNDERS
to suggest to the King a form of government for Virginia. He aided Capt. William Clay- borne in settling Kent Island, and in 1634 he was one of the tobacco commissioners. He had a strong faith in the Northwest Passage, and contributed liberally to all the different expeditions sent out while he was living- Henry Hudson's, Button's, etc. He died aged 77, November 25, 1639, and was buried in Magna Church, where there is a handsome monument to his memory.
Smith, or Smyth, John, a great antiquary, son of Thomas Smyth, of Hoby, Leicester- shire, and grandson of William Smyth, of Humberton, in Leicestershire; was born in 1567, and educated at Magdalene College, Ox- ford. He is generally known as John Smyth of Nibley. After completing his studies he re- turned to the Berkeley family as household steward, a post which he exchanged in 1597 for the more lucrative and dignified office of steward of the hundred and liberty of Berke- ley. As keeper of the archives at Berkeley Castle, he had rich material for his "Lives" of the first twenty-one Lords Berkeley from the Conquest down, which after remaining in manuscript for a long time has been pub- lished. He left also in MSS. a "History of the Borough and Manor of Tetbury," "Tenure by Knights Service Under the Berkeleys," and several other works. He was an active mem- ber of the Virginia Company and regularly attended its meetings, and in 1618 determined to make a plantation of his own in that coun- try. For this purpose he formed a partnership with Sir William Throckmorton, Sir George Yeardley, Richard Berkeley and George Thorpe, and obtained a special charter from the parent company. They established a set- tlement at James river, which was called
"Berkeley Hundred," and which was after- wards the birthplace of President William Henry Harrison. He was a member of par- liament in 1621, but took little part in the poli- tics of the stormy times in which he lived. He died at Nibley in the autumn of 1640.
Martin, Richard, a noted lawyer, born at Otterton in Devonshire; student at Oxford, and afterwards at the Middle Temple. His learning, politeness and wit were the delight and admiration of all his acquaintances. He was frequently a member of parliament, and in 1601 spoke most eloquently against the monopolists. In 1612 he was a member of the council for the Virginia Company, and in 1614 he made a vigorous speech in behalf of the colony in parliament. In 1617 he was head of a private company which obtained from the Virginia Company a grant of 80,000 acres of land about seven miles below Jamestown. The estate called "Carter's Grove" is situated in this region in James City county. In 1618 he was made recorder of the city of London, but died a month later of the smallpox, and was buried in Temple Church, London. His grant of land in Virginia was known as "Martin's Hundred."
Cranfield, Lionel, Earl of Middlesex, was the younger son of Thomas Cranfield, Mercer of London, by Martha, daughter of Vincent Randolph, was baptized March 13, 1575; was an active and successful man of affairs, and rose rapidly to all the honors of the kingdom ; was knighted July 4, 1613, and a few days later made surveyor-general of the customs; was master of the court of requests; master of the wardrobe; master of the wards; and commissioner of the navy; privy councillor ; lord treasurer ; Baron Cranfield, and Earl of Middlesex. He was a member of the council
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VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY
for the Virginia Company ; and the Sandys- Ferrar faction attributed to him more than any other man the abrogation of the charter-by entangling the company into dissensions over the tobacco contract. Having incurred the enmity of Buckingham, King James' favorite, he was impeached and fined £50,000, but a year later Charles I. released him from the fine, and August 20, 1626, he was granted special pardon. He retired to his splendid seat, Copt Hall in Essex, where he died August 6, 1645. He was buried in Westmin- ster Abbey.
Digges, Sir Dudley, eldest son of Thomas Digges by his wife Anne St. Leger, was born in 1583, and educated at University College, Ox- ford. He studied law, and after being knighted at Whitehall, April 29, 1607, travelled to im- prove himself on the continent. He was sent in 1618 as ambassador to Russia by James I .; two years after, he went to Holland as com- missioner, with Sir Maurice Abbott, to settle differences between the English and Dutch East India Company. He served in parlia- ment during the reigns of James I. and Charles I., and his conduct was very independent and often hostile to the measures of the court. He was one of the commissioners to conduct the impeachment of the King's favorite, the Duke of Buckingham, and the King arrested him and sent him a prisoner to the Tower of London, but he was released in a few days on complaint of parliament. After this, measures were taken to win him over to the King's side, and he was granted the reversion of master of the rolls, November 17, 1630. He died March 18, 1639, and was buried at Chilham Manor near Canterbury.
He was greatly interested in explorations and colonization. In 1610 he aided in sending
Henry Hudson to the northwest, and wrote a little tract on the Northwest Passage. For the same end he aided in 1612 in sending out Capt. Thomas Button and Master Francis Nel- son, and was one of the directors of the North- west Passage Company. He was member of the Bermuda Islands Company, and of the East India Company. In addition he was con- stantly interested in the Virginia Company, of which he was also a member. He was member of the royal council for Virginia in 1609, and in 1619 was one of the committee of the Vir- ginia Company to codify the rules. He was also one of the committee regarding the estab- lishment of the college at Henrico. In 1631 he was appointed one of the commissioners to advise concerning Virginia. He married Mary, youngest daughter and coheir of Sir Thomas Kemp, of Olantigh. Edward, one of his sons, settled in Virginia, and was governor of the colony in 1656.
Copeland, Rev. Patrick, was a Puritan min- ister, who was first employed in the service of the East India Company. In 1614 he was chaplain on one of the company's ships. In 1616 he returned to England accompanied by a native whom he had taught chiefly by signs to speak, read and write the English language correctly in less than a year. At his suggestion this lad was publicly baptized on December 22, in St. Dennis Church, London, "as the first fruits of India." Not long after, in 1617, Copeland, with his pupil, sailed for the Indian ocean in the Royal James, one of the fleet which Sir Thomas Dale, late governor of Vir- ginia, assumed the command of on September 19, 1618. In the presence of Dale, in view of an impending naval conflict with the Dutch on December 2, Copeland preached on the Royal James. On August 9, 1619, Dale died, and his
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THE FOUNDERS
old associate, Sir Thomas Gates, died in the ginia. He afterwards went to the Bermuda same service the next year. Copeland on the Islands, where he was living in 1638 and later. About 1645 he left the Bermudas and went to a small island in the Bahama group, to form a Puritan church which should have no connec- tion with the state. The isle, which was called "Eluthera," proved a dreary place, and friends of the religion in Boston were obliged to send the settlers supplies, and in 1651 many of them returned to Bermuda, where Copeland, then more than four score years of age, must soon have died. Royal James went to Java. Leaving Java in February, 1621, the ship slowly returned to England, and Copeland having become inter- ested in Virginia by conversing with Dale and Gates, collected on the homeward voyage from his fellow passengers the sum of £7o, to be employed for the use of a church or school in Virginia. This sum, when he arrived in Lon- don, he delivered to the authorities of the Vir- ginia Company, who made him a free member. They decided that there was more need of a school than a church, and designed the money, increased to froo by a gift of £30 from another source, for the establishment of a free school at Charles City, now City Point, which should hold a due dependence on the proposed univer- sity at Henrico and be called the "East India School," after its East India benefactors. In recognition of his zeal for the colony and his experience as a missionary, the company on July 3, 1622, appointed Mr. Copeland rector of the intended college for the Indians, a part of the university, as well as a member of the council for Virginia.
Sackvill, Sir Edward, Earl of Dorset, born in 1590, educated at Christ Church, Oxford, 1605-09; made a knight of the Bath, Novem- ber 3, 1618; commanded troops sent to the Elector Palatine, and fought at Prague in 1620 ; member of parliament ; sent on an em- bassy to France; member of the privy coun- cil. He was an active member of the Virginia Company, and took sides with Southampton and Sandys in the factions from 1620 to 1625. After his brother Richard's death in March, 1624, he succeeded him as fourth Earl of Dor- set. He was on the commission of 1631 for the management of Virginia affairs, and con- stantly tried to influence Charles to reestablish the Virginia Company of London. He was a distinguished cavalier in the civil war, and died at Withiam, Sussex, July 27, 1625.
On Wednesday, April 17, 1622, Copeland, at the invitation of the London Company, preached a thanksgiving sermon in London for the happy success of affairs in Virginia the previous year. But about the middle of July it was learned from Capt. Daniel Gookin, who came from Newport News, that on Good Purchas, Rev. Samuel, a divine known as an early collector of voyages and travels, born in 1574, at Thaxted in Essex, and educated at St. John's College, Cambridge ; he was curate of Purleigh, in Essex, the parish of which Rev. Lawrence Washington was rector, 1633- 43. He was afterwards vicar of Eastwood in Essex, 1604-13. In 1614 he was collated to the Friday, March 22, the Indians, whose children were so largely in the proposed scheme of instruction, had risen and barbarously de- stroyed George Thorpe, the noble superintend- ent in charge of the college lands, and 346 more of the unsuspecting settlers. The uni- versity, college and free school were all three abandoned, and Copeland did not go to Vir- rectory of St. Martin's Ludgate, London,
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(where he continued till his death) and ap- pointed chaplain to George Abbott, archbishop of Canterbury. His "Pilgrimage" was pub- lished soon after November 5, 1612. The second edition appeared in 1614. After Hak- luyt's death he had access to his papers, and published a third edition of his work much enlarged in 1617. "Purchas his Pilgrim-
Microcosmos, or the Historie of Man," was published in 1619. In December, 1621, "Pur- chas his Pilgrims" was entered at Stationers Hall for publication. May 22, 1622, he was admitted into the Virginia Company of Lon- don. His last work appears to have been "The King's Tower and Triumphant Arch of London." He died in 1626, aged 51 years.
COLONIAL PRESIDENTS AND GOVERNORS
II-COLONIAL PRESIDENTS AND GOVERNORS
Wingfield, Edward Maria, first president of the council of Virginia, of "Stoneley Priorye" in Huntingdonshire, was born about 1560, of a very distinguished family and was a soldier in Ireland and the Netherlands. He was active in procuring the charter of 1606, and his name is one of the first of the incorpo- rators, which appear in that paper. He was appointed by the Council in England one of the local Council in Virginia and on May 14, 1607, he was elected at Jamestown by this body their first president. His experience was unfortunate. The colony was at once assailed by the Indians, and the president was among the foremost in repelling the attacks, "having an arrow shot clean through his beard." Then followed a pestilential sickness which pros- trated everybody in the fort. Added to this the constitution of the Council under the char- ter offered a premium to wranglings and dis- sensions, for a mere majority controlled every- thing and could remove the president or any of the members. Wingfield was blamed by the others for what could not be prevented, by any president, and the most trivial objec- tions were made against him to justify his deposition from the presidency. It was charged that he was a Catholic, because he did not bring a Bible with him, that he monopolized the liquors and other provisions, etc., all of which Wingfield vigorously denies in his statement, and shows that he made many sacrifices out of his own private stores for the good of the colony. He was, nevertheless, removed both from the Council and his office as president, September 10, 1607.
He was kept a prisoner on shipboard till New- port's arrival in January, 1608, and April I0, 1608, he returned with Newport to England. He afterwards wrote an account of his stay in Virginia, which was discovered and published not many years ago, and it gives us a very different idea of the man from that so long current on the authority of John Smith, who was his bitter personal enemy. He never re- turned to Virginia.
Ratcliffe, John, alias Sicklemore, second president of the local council at Jamestown, had seen service as a seaman before coming to Virginia. He was also, it is believed, a soldier in the Low Countries, and is supposed to have been the Captain Ratcliffe who was taken prisoner with Sir Henry Cary and Cap- tain Pigott at Mulheim in October, 1605. He commanded the Discovery, the smallest of the three ships that brought the emigrants to Jamestown. When the names of the coun- cillors were read, April 26, 1607, Ratcliffe's name was one of them. On the deposition of Wingfield, Ratcliffe became president, but the summer of 1608 proving as unhealthy as that of 1607, Ratcliffe suffered an experience similar to Wingfield's, was removed from the government in July, 1608, and succeeded by Mathew Scrivener. One subject of complaint against him was that he enlisted the men in building a governor's house. When Captain Newport sailed from Virginia, December, 1608, Captain Ratcliffe accompanied him. Owing to his complaints and Wingfield's, a new charter was obtained by the London Company, and Ratcliffe commanded the
VIR-3
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VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY
Diamond, one of the ships in the great fleet of Sir Thomas Gates, who bore the commis- sion of governor. During the temporary administration of George Percy, he was sent in October, 1609, to build a fort at Old Point Comfort, which was named "Algernourne Fort" in honor of President Percy's ancestor. The following December, going to trade with the Indians, he was led into an ambush and killed with fourteen others under his com- mand, at Werowocomoco on York river. Smith calls him "a poor counterfeit imposter," be- cause he used an alias, but there was no impo- sition. Ratcliffe made no secret of his double name, signing himself "John Ratcliffe com- monly called." Very frequently in his time men wrote their names with an alias on account of a second marriage of their mother. Ratcliffe's mother probably first married Sicklemore and afterwards Ratcliffe, and Ratcliffe's real name was probably John Sicklemore.
Scrivener, Mathew, third president of the Virginia council under the first charter. He subscribed largely to the stock of the company. He arrived in Virginia with Newport in the "First Supply," which came in January, 1608, a member of the council in Virginia ; partici- pated in the expedition up York river in Feb- ruary, 1608; on the authority of Smith acting president of the council from July to Septem- ber 10, 1608, and in January, 16c9, at which time he was drowned in James river. Rev. Richard Hakluyt mentions in his will "Rev. John Scrivener, late of Barbican in the suburbs of the Cittie of London ;" and as Scrivener is not a very common name, the aforesaid Mat- thew and John were probably members of the same family and doubtless relatives of Richard Hakluyt.
Smith, John, fourth president of the Vir- ginia council, was the eldest son of George and Alice Smith, tenants of Peregrine Bertie, Lord Willoughby : was baptized at Willough- by, January 9, 1580; travelled extensively abroad, where he encountered many perils by sea and land ; distinguished himself by killing three Turks one after another, for which astonishing prowess he received from Prince Sigismund of Transylvania, a coat-of-arms charged with three Turks heads. That he was a man of distinction in England is proved by the fact of his selection by the king as a mem- ber of the first Virginia council. He sailed to America with the first colonists, but was charged by Wingfield and others as an instiga- tor of Galthorpe's mutiny in the West Indies, and was kept under arrest till June 10, 1607, some three weeks after the landing at James- town. After the deposition of Wingfield from the presidency and the election of Ratcliffe. Smithi acted as cape merchant, and was quite successful in procuring corn from the Indians. In one of these expeditions up the Chickahon- iny river he was taken prisoner by the Indians. He remained a prisoner about three weeks, during which time he was taken from town to town and finally conducted to Werowocomoco on York river to be put to death. From this peril lie was rescued by Pocahontas, one of the daughters of Powhatan, head chief of the Powhatan confederacy, and soon after was suffered to return unharmed to Jamestown. Here he ran into a new danger, when the council. under lead of Gabriel Archer, con- demned him to be hanged as responsible for the death of Emry and Robinson, who accom- panied him to the Chickahominy; but Captain Newport arriving the same night (January 2, 1608) with the "First Supply." and inter-
JOHN SMITH
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1254222 COLONIAL PRESIDENTS AND GOVERNORS
fering in his behalf, Smith was released. Smith continued his explorations and in the summer of 1608 made a full discovery of Chesapeake Bay, and its tributary rivers. On September 10, 1608, he assumed the presi- dency, and among the first things he did was to enlarge the area of the fort by the addition of about three acres, changing the plan from a triangle to a pentagon. After the "Second Supply" of men and provisions arrived, in October, 1608, there occurred two months later the first marriage of English people in America, that of John Laydon and Ann Bur- ras. Smith started an extensive system of improvements at Jamestown, in which he kept the men engaged for several months, but a remarkable disclosure of carelessness on his part rendered the work of little value. It was suddenly discovered that the corn in the store- house on which the colonists depended was nearly all consumed by rats and the remainder was unfit to eat. To save the colonists from starvation he had to break them up in small parties, and station them at different points, sending some to live with the Indians and others to the oyster banks down the river. While the colony was in this desperate con- dition, the "Third Supply" arrived, bringing news of a new charter and the appointment of Sir Thomas Gates as governor. As Sir Thomas' ship, the Sea Venture, had been wrecked and given up for lost, the crowd of settlers who landed had no recognized leader and Smith declined to surrender his authority: Violent quarrels took place, Smith was arrested, and in October, 1609, he returned to England. Smith, in contrasting the results of his administration with the "starving time," which followed, claims credit rather unjustly for what the new arrivals accomplished. In reviewing his connection with Virginia, the
evidence is reached that while he was a strong and masterful spirit, he was contentious, boast- ful and illiberal in his treatment of others. So long as he stayed, the colony was rent by factions of which he was certainly an active promoter.
Smith was in England from 1609 to 1614, when he was taken into the employment of the North Virginia Company, created admiral of New England, and sent on several voyages thither. He remained in this service two years, after which till his death, June 21, 1631, he lived in England devoting himself to writing. During his stay in Virginia he had sent home in 1608 a report which was soon after pub- lished as "A Trewe Relation." In 1612 he published his "Map of Virginia," in 1616 his "Description of New England," in 1620 "New England's Trials," and in 1624 the "General Historie of Virginia, New England and the Summer Islands," and in 1630 "The True Travels." These works have all the same general style, suggestive of the character of Smith, being involved, hasty, inaccurate and illiberal, but sincere, open and fearless. While his narratives must not be taken without quali- fications, and not much weight is to be attached to his opinions of others, there is no real reason to reject his authority on the main issues.
Percy, George, fifth president of the coun- cil, was the eighth son of Henry, eighth Earl of Northumberland, by his wife Catherine, eldest daughter and co-heir of John Neville, Lord Latimer, was born September 4, 1580, served for a time in the Low countries, and sailed for Virginia in the first expedition, December, 1606. Here he was very useful in obtaining, corn from the Indians and assisting in the explorations. When the settlers, who came over under the second charter, appeared
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VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY
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