USA > Virginia > Encyclopedia of Virginia biography, Volume I > Part 5
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48
at Jamestown without their governor or their charter, Percy was persuaded to accept the presidency on the expiration of Smith's term of office. Probably no ability as a leader could have accomplished anything, and Percy was soon incapacitated by illness. The period of his administration is known as the starving time. The new settlers had landed sick and without adequate supplies, and they soon con- sumed the provisions that the old settlers had at Jamestown. The consequence was that they nearly all died, and there were only sixty settlers remaining, when the governor under the new commission, Sir Thomas Gates arrived from Bermuda where he had been wrecked and compelled to remain for forty weeks. When Lord Delaware left Virginia in March, 1611, Percy was appointed deputy governor, which shows the confidence enter- tained in him, despite his unfortunate experi- ences. He was a brave soldier, and in punish- ment for treachery attacked and destroyed the towns of the Paspaheghs and of the Appomat- tox people. He left Virginia, April 22, 1612, and reached England in the following summer. He never returned to Virginia, but about 1625, when war was declared against Spain, he went again to the Netherlands where as captain of a company he distinguished himself, losing a finger in battle. He died unmarried in 1632.
He kept a journal of the original Virginia voyage, an abridgement of which was pub- lished for the first time in 1625 by Samuel Purchas. Mutilated as it was, it presents the fullest account we have of the voyage and of the first events of the settlement to Newport's departure June 12, 1607. After the appear- ance of Smith's "General Historie" with his very prejudiced account of the affairs during the time of Percy's government, Captain Percy wrote "A Trewe Relacyon" of the occurrences
in Virginia from the time of the shipwreck of Sir Thomas Gates in 1609 until his own departure from the country in 1612. In a letter to his brother Henry, Earl of Northum- berland, he declared that his account was in- duced by the many untruths formerly pub- lished. This interesting narrative still remains in manuscript owing to the narrow conceptions of its present possessor, although he has suf- fered some few extracts to be published by Dr. E. D. Neill and Mr. G. C. Eggleston.
Gates, Sir Thomas, appointed the first and absolute governor of Virginia under the second charter to the Virginia Company of London, is said to have been born at Colyford, in Coly- ton parish, Devonshire; was a lieutenant of Captain Christopher Carleill's own company in the celebrated Drake-Sidney voyage to America 1585-86; published the Brigges Crof- tes account of this voyage in 1589, which he dedicated to the Earl of Essex; served gal- lantly at the capture of Cadiz and was knighted by Essex in June, 1596. He also served in the island voyage August-October, 1597; entered Gray's Inn March 14, 1598. About 1603 he enlisted in the service of the Netherlands, but when King James granted the first charter to the Virginia Company of London, he "had the honor to all posterity" of being first named in that celebrated document. He was in the gar- rison at Oudwater in South Holland with Dale in November, 1606; and in 1608 he received leave of absence to go to Virginia. The Vir- ginia Company selected him as first governor under the new charter (1609), and in June he took passage with about 500 settlers. This expedition is known as the "Third Supply," and the emigration was the largest that ever left England up to that time. But the voyage over was very unfortunate, for an epidemic
37
COLONIAL PRESIDENTS AND GOVERNORS
broke out among the passengers and there followed a great storm which scattered the fleet and wrecked upon the Bermuda Islands the Sea Venture which bore the governor and one hundred and fifty passengers; and though the rest of the fleet reached Jamestown in safety, their arrival only added to the trouble already existing there. The new settlers brought with them the yellow fever and the London plague, and, as their provisions were all ruined by sea water, the next nine months were a season of disease and starvation.
In the meantime, Gates and his fellow pas- sengers on the Sea Venture were comfortably housed on the Bermuda Islands, and out of the cedar that grew there they constructed two vessels in which they at length got away. On May 23, 1610, they arrived at Jamestown to find all but sixty of the settlers dead. Gates relieved the immediate distress by the prompt distribution of provisions, and then asserted order by the publication of a code of martial law drawn up in England. Deeming the con- ditions desperate, Gates, with the advice of his council, determined to abandon Jamestown, and on June 7, 1610, embarked with all the surviving settlers. On the way down the river he learned of the arrival of Lord Delaware at Point Comfort as governor for life, and in obedience to instructions took his fleet back to Jamestown. Under Delaware's commission Gates became lieutenant-governor and com- manded an expedition against the Indians, whom he drove from Kecoughtan. In July, however, of the same year, he was sent to England for supplies. He returned to James- town August 1, 1611, when finding that Lord Delaware had departed he again assumed direction of affairs. He remained in Virginia nearly three years, and returned to England in April, 1614. Soon after, he resumed his
service in Holland and was paid by the states all past dues. He appears to have retained his interest in Virginia, and in 1620 we find him as one of "the Ancient Adventurers" petitioning to have some man of quality sent over as governor. During his administration new settlements were established at Henrico, Bermuda Hundred, City Point and other places; the French were driven from New England; and Pocahontas, daughter to the Emperor Powhatan, was captured and soon after married to John Rolfe. He left a son of the same name, who distinguished himself in 1626 in the expedition against Cadiz and in 1627 at the Isle of Re and Rochelle, when he was killed by a cannon shot.
Dale, Sir Thomas, high marshal of Vir- ginia, and deputy governor from May 21, to August 1, 1611, and from March, 1614, till May, 1616. He entered the service of the Low Countries with the Earl of Essex in 1588. In 1595 he was sent by the Provinces into Scot- land, where he became one of the retinue of the infant Prince Henry, who had a great affection for him. He remained in Scotland some years, but returned to the Netherlands probably in 1603. In 1604 Lord Cecil wrote to the English ambassador at the Hague to inform him of the king's gracious interest in the military advancement of Dale. On June 19, 1606, while on a visit to England, he was knighted at Richmond by King James as “Sir Thomas Dale of Surrey." He remained in the service of the Low Countries till February 1611, when he came to England and entered into the service of the Virginia Company of London. Dale was selected to head the expedi- tion then preparing, and on March 27, 1611, he left Land's End with three ships carrying 300 people and also horses, cows, goats,
38
VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY
fowl, etc. He reached Point Comfort or The states general of the Low Countries paid Algernourne Fort on May 22, 1611, and him £1,000 for the period when he was in Virginia, though during that time he rendered no service. A voyage was intended for the East Indies, and Dale was selected to head it. His fleet arrived near Java on December 23, 1618, and in conjunction with Captain Martin Pring he made an attack on the Dutch fleet. It was "a cruel bloody fight" and both sides claimed the victory. He arrived with his fleet at Masulipitan July 19 and he died there August 9. 1619, after twenty days of languishing sick- ness. Sir Thomas Dale married, in January, 1611, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Throckmorton and his wife Elizabeth, daugh- ter of Sir Richard Berkeley. succeeded Captain George Percy in command of the colony. He found forts Charles and Henry, at the mouth of Hampton river, deserted, and his first labor was to restore them. Constituting James Davis as captain of all three forts, he sailed up the river and arrived at Jamestown May 29, 1611, where he landed and heard a sermon from Rev. Mr. Poole. After consulting his council, Dale ser about many extensive improvements at James- town and determined to build a new town at Henrico, near the Indian town of Arrohatec. Fears of the intervention of the Spaniards had long disturbed the colonists and there was a great excitement in the colony when some Spaniards from ships sent to find out about the West, Thomas, Lord Delaware, second governor of Virginia, was the son of Sir Thomas West, second Lord Delaware, and Annie his wife, daughter of Sir Francis Knollys and Katherine Cary, his wife. He was one of thirteen children, and was born July 9. 1577; educated at Oxford, and was a Master of Arts at that university. He early saw military service and was a great friend of the Earl of Essex, who knighted him at Dub- lin, July 12, 1599. He was implicated in the Essex rebellion and was imprisoned. Essex, however, asked pardon of his father, the second Lord Delaware, for bringing his son into danger. After the father's death, March 24, 1602, he succeeded as third Lord Dela- ware, and was a member of the privy council of Queen Elizabeth, and on her death became a privy councillor to King James. He took a most active interest in the American enterprise, and in 1609 was a member of the superior council of Virginia in England. The experi- ence with the first charter left the impression with the public, that only a supreme and abso- English settlement, landing at Point Comfort, were captured and sent to Jamestown, where they were detained in captivity for a long time. He began the work of building the settlement at Henrico under the severest code of martial law, introduced by Gates, and which he ruthlessly enforced. Gates, who arrived August I and became Dale's superior officer, endorsed his policy. After Gates' departure for England in 1614, Dale was again chief magistrate in Virginia. While he has received praise for his administration of affairs it appears to have been in large measure unde- served. The men were given food not fit for hogs, and mutinies repeatedly occurred, which were suppressed by the most atrocious cruel- ties. When Dale left Virginia in 1616, there were only 300 settlers living in the colony, and the frail habitations at Henrico, which he had built in blood, were decayed and ready to fall. He took with him to England Pocahontas and several other Indians, who attracted much attention and lent a glamour to his return.
LORD DE LA WARE
39
COLONIAL PRESIDENTS AND GOVERNORS
lute governor could obviate the dissensions and faction that characterized the history of the colony. A help to order lay, it was believed, in the selection of a man whose rank would inspire respect, and when the second charter was obtained the Virginia Company turned to Lord Delaware. As he was, however, unable to go at once, they conferred the office of governor temporarily upon Sir Thomas Gates. On February 28, 1610, Delaware was commis- sioned governor of the Virginia colony for life, and was sent with 150 emigrants, chiefly workmen, to the assistance of Jamestown. He arrived at Point Comfort, June 7, 1610, just in time to save the colony from abandonment by Gates. Delaware sent the pinnace Vir- ginia up the river to meet the departing set- tlers, and under the orders of the new gov- ernor they were all taken back again to James- town. Sunday, June 10, Lord Delaware him- self arrived. He had the town cleaned and rehabilitated the frail houses. The settlement of four acres was defended by new palisades and everything was made safe and comfort- able for the time being. He next proceeded to settle matters with the Indians, and after driv- ing Pochins and his tribe from Kecoughtan he erected two forts at the mouth of Hampton river, called Charles and Henry, about three miles from Point Comfort. In the interim he sent out an expedition to search for mines above the falls, but the Indians were very troublesome and no mines were found. It was the fashion of the times to boost the country at the expense of the poor colonists, who were traduced and villified. Delaware, in a letter to the London Company, pursued the example, but retribution followed fast. The great trou- ble was the unhealthiness of the country and the rotten supplies sent over, which introduced sickness and death. and Delaware was literally
bombarded out of the country by a combined attack of ague, flux, cramp and gout. To save his life he went first to the West Indies, whence he sailed to England, where he arrived rather crestfallen about a year after his depar- ture. He remained in the latter country till 1618, and in his absence the government of Virginia was administered by Deputy Gov- ernors Gates, Dale, Yardley and Argall. In the latter year he was sent again to Vir- ginia to rescue the government from the hands of Samuel Argall, who had incurred the strong resentment of the Virginia Company of London, but on the way over he died June 7. 1618, aged forty-one. He married Cecily, daughter of Sir Thomas Sherley. His son and successor was Henry, fourth Lord Dela- ware, who married Isabella, daughter of Sir Thomas Edmunds. Governor Delaware had three brothers-Francis West, John West and Nathaniel West, who all lived in Virginia, and the first two of whom were deputy governors at different times; William West, a nephew, was killed by Indians at the Falls of James river. Virginia, in 1611. Through Captain John West, the noble family of the Delawares is widely represented in Virginia and the south and west.
Yardley, George, deputy governor of Vir- ginia, from May, 1616. to May, 1617 and governor and captain-general of Virginia frem April, 1619 to November 18, 1621, and from May 17, 1626 to November 13, 1627, was son of Ralph Yardley, citizen and merchant tailor of Bionshaw Lane, London, who married (1) Agnes Abbot and (2) Rhoda --. He was one of four brothers : Ralph ; George, the sub- ject of the present sketch; Jolin and Thomas ; and a sister Anne, who married Edward Irby. He served like many other of the early settlers
40
VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY
as a soldier in the Low Countries, that "uni- brought them to terms. In May, 1617, Cap- versity of war." He sailed to Virginia in 1609, tain Argall came in, with a commission as deputy governor, and with orders to portion out lands, as the joint stock period of the charter had expired. This he did not do, and he is charged not only with continuing the common slavery, but plundering the "common garden" belonging to the company. Then the company tried to send back the Lord Governor Delaware, but he died on the way, and in Jan- uary, 1619, Captain Yardley was commissioned as governor and captain-general under an order abolishing martial law and establishing a free government. Yardley arrived at James- town April 10, and immediately called the first legislative assembly that ever convened in America. Other events render the year mem- orable such as the introduction in August of the first negro slaves, and the arrival from England of a ship with twenty young maidens "pure and undefiled" to furnish wives to the tenants of the public lands. Despite the ter- rible mortality of the climate the colony increased in population and property. Dale in 1616 left 351 persons in the colony, but there were about 1200 at the close of Yardley's administration in 1621, all of them "seasoned" settlers. Sir Francis Wyatt came in as gover- nor in November of that year, and Yardley was then a member of the council until May, 1626. He was very efficient in punishing the Indians after the massacre of 1622. When Wyatt wished to leave Virginia for a time on business, the king commissioned Yardley to be governor of Virginia a second time. He entered into that office in May, 1626, but did not serve much more than a year. He died November 13, 1627, and was interred in the church at Jamestown. He married, about 1618, Temperance West, and had issue two sons, Argall and Francis, the first of whom has with Sir Thomas Gates, as captain of his com- pany; was wrecked with his superior officer on the Bermuda Islands, but finally arrived in Virginia in May, 1610. When Gates em- barked the colonists to return to England, the company, commanded by Captain Yardley, was the last to get aboard, thereby preventing the town from being burned. When Lord Delaware turned the departing settlers back and resumed the work of colonization, Yardley was made commandant of Forts Charles and Henry, at the mouth of Hampton river. Sub- sequently under orders he abandoned these forts in order to lead an expedition to dis- cover a gold mine beyond the Falls of James river. The Queen of Appomattox invited some of his companions to a feast, and while they were eating, treacherously massacred fourteen of them, including "all the chief men skillful in finding out mines." The colonists retorted by burning her town and killing some of her people. The expedition got no farther than the falls of the river, where they built a fort and remained six months. When Sir Thomas Dale began to build at Bermuda City, Yardley was commandant of the town. When Dale left Virginia in 1616, Yardley, who acted as deputy-governor resided at Bermuda City for the most part. He encouraged the planting of tobacco, with the result that emigration, which had almost entirely ceased, set in again with strong force. Private stock companies were formed, which sent colonies on their own account to Virginia. Yardley also taught the Indians a punitive lesson. The Chickahominy tribe declined to pay the corn tax, which they had promised Sir Thomas Dale, and about Christmas, 1616, Yardley with 84 men prompt- ly attacked them and in a very short time
41
COLONIAL PRESIDENTS AND GOVERNORS
numerous descendants in the United States. Yardley made a great deal of money out of tobacco, and was as popular with the Indians as with the whites. The Indian King of Wey- anoke gave him a fertile tract of land in Charles City county between Mapsico creek and Queen's creek, known as Weyanoke. This good man was one of the greasest benefactors of Virginia, and with Sir Edwyn Sandys deserves a monument at the hands of the people of the United States. If Sandys insti- tuted the move which freed the people of Vir- ginia from martial law and gave them repre- sentative government, Yardley executed the orders and proved himself always the sym- pathetic friend of liberty.
Argall, Samuel, deputy governor and admi- ral of Virginia from May, 1617, to April 10, 1619, was born about 1580. Little is known of his early life, but as he was selected to dis- cover a shorter way to Virginia in 1609, he must have been very early regarded as a mar- iner of tact and ability. He brought to Smith and the colony of Jamestown the first news of the second charter and the appointment of Sir Thomas Gates as governor. Finding the colony in great need, he furnished them with some provisions, and after making a successful trial of sturgeon fishing he returned to England. When Lord Delaware sailed on March, 1610, as governor, Captain Argall conducted him by way of the Canary and Azores Islands-the shorter route discovered by him. June 18, 1610, he was made a member of the governor's council and next day sailed with Somers to the Bermuda Islands, but missed them and sailed to Cape Cod, where he engaged in successful fishing. On his voyage homewards he explored the coast and discovered Delaware Bay. Sep- tember I he reached Algernourne Fort on
Point Comfort. During the autumn and win- ter he explored the waters of Chesapeake Bay, and sailed from Virginia with Lord Delaware March 28, reaching England in June, 1611. On July 23, 1612, he made another trip to Virginia, and for a year remained in the ser- vice of the colony, voyaging about the bay and the rivers exploring and securing corn from the Indians, in which business he was remark- ably successful. In one of these voyages he captured Pocahontas, daughter of King Pow- hatan, and brought her to Jamestown. Soon after June 28, 1613, he sailed from Virginia under orders from Sir Thomas Gates, and drove away the French from New England, thus keeping that country open to the Pilgrim Fathers, who came seven years later. He is said to have visited on this voyage the Dutch settlement on the Hudson, and compelled the governor, Hendrick Christiansen, to submit to the king of England. After that he was var- iously employed in Virginia from December, 1613, to June 18, 1614, when he sailed for England. In February, 1615, he again sailed to Virginia and returned to England with Dale in May, 1616. Early in 1617 he was appointed deputy governor and admiral of Virginia. He continued in this office two years, and he is generally represented as an unscrupulous chief magistrate, but party feeling was very high at this time, and the evidence cannot be relied on. He appears to have been a partner with the Earl of Warwick in bringing the first negroes to Jamestown in 1619. After Lord Delaware's death he quarrelled with Captain Edward Brewster, who had care of Delaware's estate, and wanted to put him to death for mutiny. The company became incensed with him and sent orders by Captain Yardley, appointed to succeed him, to arrest him and to examine into his acts. But the Earl of Warwick took means
42
VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY
to rescue his friend and dispatched a small Francis West, master of the ordinance during vessel to fetch him and his goods away before life. When Governor Argall suddenly left Virginia about April 10, 1619, he turned over the government to Captain Powell, which was held by him for a week, until Sir George Yard- ley arrived with a full commission as governor. The only matter of public interest that nap- pened during Powell's brief administration was the coming of Captain John Ward, with fifty emigrants, including Rev. Thomas Bar- grave, nephew of Dr. Bargrave, dean of Can- terbury. They made a settlement above Mar- tin's Brandon, on what is still known as Ward's creek. Captain Powell's plantation of 600 acres was known as "Powell Brook," after- wards "Merchant's Hope." There March 12. 1622, he and his wife, who was a daughter of William Tracy, one of the partners in the settlement of Berkeley Hundred, were mur- dered by the Indians. He left no descendants. and his plantation was sold by his brother and heir, Thomas Powell, of Howellton, county Suffolk, England. Near Powell's plantation in Virginia is still standing a very old brick church known as Merchant's Hope Church. The creek bounding his place still bears Cap- tain Powell's name. Yardley could arrive. This vessel arrived in Virginia, April 6, and Argall sailed away on her about the 10th, leaving Captain Nathaniel Powell as deputy-governor. On his arrival from Virginia he answered the different charges brought again him, satisfactorily to some, but not to others. His activity as a seaman still continued. In 1620-21 he com- manded a ship in the fleet of Sir Robert Man- sell in the Mediterranean Sea. About 1621 he urged that an English settlement be made in New Netherlands, afterwards New York. In 1624 his friends wished to make him gov- ernor again of Virginia, but Sir Francis Wyatt was preferred. He was admiral in Septem- ber, 1625, of 28 ships, and during his cruise captured from the Spaniards seven vessels valued at £100,000. In the attack on Cadiz in 1625 he commanded the flagship. He was still alive in 1633, but was dead before 1641, as in that year his daughter Ann, widow of Alex- ander Bolling, and her second husband. Samuel Percivall, complained to the House of Com- mons that they had been deprived by John Woodhall of property in Virginia left to the petitioner Anne by her late father, Sir Samuel Argall, sometime governor of Virginia. From this account it is seen that Argall was one of the most active and remarkable men of his age.
Powell, Nathaniel, deputy governor of Vir- ginia, in 1619, was one of the first planters; left England in December. 1606, and arrived in Virginia in April. 1607. He went with Cap- tain Newport in the winter of 1608 to explore the York river, and in the summer of 1608 he went with John Smith to explore Chesa- peake Bay. In 1617 Governor Argall gave him a commission to be sergeant-major general to
Wyatt, Sir Francis, governor and captain general of Virginia from 1621 to 1626 and from 1639 to 1642, was the son of George Wyatt, Esq., and Jane his wife, a daughter of Sir Thomas Finch. Francis married, in 1618. Margaret. daughter of Sir Samuel Sandys, of Outersbury, Worcester, brother of Sir Edwin Sandys. He arrived in Virginia in October, 1621, with an appointment to relieve Governor Yardley (whose term expired November 18). Sir Francis was accompanied by his brother, Rev. Hawte Wyatt ; Dr. John Pott, physician general, afterwards deputy governor : William
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.