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COLONIAL PRESIDENTS AND GOVERNORS
Claiborne, surveyor-general; and George Sandys, uncle of his wife, who acted as treas- urer of the colony. He brought with him also an ordinance of the London Company, con- firming the government and freedom granted under Yardley in 1619. Wyatt had not long arrived before a great calamity befell the col- ony. Powhatan had died in 1618, and the real head of the Indians in Virginia was his brother, the ferocious Opechancanough. He arranged a massacre of the whites, and the blow fell March 22, 1622. One-fourth of the settlers were destroyed, and the number would have been much larger had not Governor Wyatt received news through a Christian In- dian named Chanco of the impending massacre in time to save Jamestown and put the neigh- boring settlements on their guard. After the massacre the colonists concentrated for some time the surviving population in five or six well fortified places, Jamestown Peninsula was one of these, and as the old quarters were over- crowded, Claiborne, the surveyor, laid out in 1623 a new section for habitation on the river side, eastward of the old stockade. The addi- tions were called "New Town," where already stood, it is believed, the governor's house, built by Gates in 1614, enlarged by Argall in 1617, and granted by the London Company in 1618 to the use of Governor Yardley and his successors forever. "New Town" never became a town of much size, for the settlers soon drove the Indians into the forests, and it was not long before the abandoned plantations were rees- tablished.
The Indian massacre was speedily followed by the revocation of the charter of the London Company, which Wyatt and other leaders in Virginia regarded as a dire calamity, though time proved the contrary. In January, 1624.
they signed a protest called the "Tragicall Relation," denouncing the administration of the London Company by Sir Thomas Smythe and extolling that of Sandys and Southamp- ton and asking for the old charter. The father of Governor Wyatt died in September, 1625, and he asked permission of the king to return to England, which was granted, and Sir George Yardley became governor in May, 1626. Wyatt remained in England till 1639, when he returned once more as governor. His appoint- ment seems to have been due to the efforts of the leaders of the old London Company, who had never ceased their work for restoration of the charter. His administration was a reaction against that of Sir John Harvey. He reversed the edit of banishment against Rev. Anthony Panton, and Harvey himself was broken with suits in the courts. George Sandys, his wife's uncle, was sent to England to voice the wishes of the governor and assem- bly for the restoration of the old London Company charter. He could get no direct promise from the king, and so he had recourse to parliament, which did in fact reissue the old charter of 1609, though it never went into effect in Virginia. before that time Wyatt was recalled, and Sir William Berkeley arrived as governor in 1642.
The Wyatt family to which Sir Francis be- longed was one of great antiquity and of much renown. His great-great-grandfather, Sir Henry Wyatt, had taken a leading part in favor of Henry VII. against Richard III., and his grandfather, Sir Thomas, had been exe- cuted for raising a rebellion against Queen Mary. Sir Francis died in 1644, at Boxley. the home of the Wyatts, in county Kent, Eng- land. His brother, Rev. Hawte Wyatt, has many descendants in Virginia.
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VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY
West, Francis, deputy governor of Vir- ginia from November 14, 1627, on the death of Governor Yardley, to March 5, 1629, when Dr. John Pott was elected by the council to take his place, West having been selected to go to England to represent the interest of the colony, which was still in an unsettled condi- tion by the revocation of the charter in 1624. He was born October 28, 1586, and was a brother of Thomas Lord Delaware. When Captain Newport came over with the "Second Supply" in October, 1608, he was accompanied by Francis West, who was elected a member of the council there in August, 1609, after the arrival of the "Third Supply" sent out under the new charter. During the "starving time" which soon followed, West attempted to get provisions from the Indians, but being unsuc- cessful he left the colony to its fate and sailed away to England. After a few months he returned again to Virginia, and after Percy left in 1612 he succeeded him as commandant at Jamestown in which office he continued till 1617, when he was succeeded by Captain Wil- liam Powell. He was a member of the coun- cil again from April, 1619, to February, 1633. In connection with his brothers, Lord Dela- ware, and John and Nathaniel West, he owned lands at Westover and Shirley. In November, 1622, he was appointed admiral of New Eng- land, and went there to suppress illicit fishing, but he found the New Englanders difficult persons to deal with. In 1624 Captain West was living on his estate at Westover in Vir- ginia, and soon after succeeded Sir George Yardley as deputy governor. His administra- tion is distinguished for the assembling at Jamestown on March 26, 1628, after an inter- val of four years, of the regular law making body-an event second only in importance to the original meeting in 1619; for its restor-
ation was proof that despite the revocation of her charter Virginia was to continue in the enjoyment of political liberty. After Pott took charge in 1629, West went to England, but he was in Virginia again prior to December, 1631, when he attended a meeting of the coun- cil, again in February and September, 1632, and in February, 1633. After the last date he drops out of Virginia records, and there is a tradition in Earl Delaware's family that he was drowned.
Pott, John, governor of Virginia from March 5, 1629, to March 24, 1630, came to Virginia with Governor Wyatt in 1621 to fill the position of physician general, vacant by the death of Lawrence Bohun, slain in a naval battle between the Spanish and the English in the West Indies. He was a Master of Arts, and was recommended to the London Com- pany by Theodore Gulstone, founder of the Gulstonian lectureship in the London College of Physicians. He was made a member of the council in 1621, and on the departure of Fran- cis West to England in 1629, Dr. John Pott was chosen by the council temporary governor. He figured as such little more than a year, and the leading event of this time was the arrival at Jamestown of the first Lord Baltimore-the proprietor of Avalon in Newfoundland. Pott tendered to him the oath of allegiance and supremacy, which Baltimore as a Catholic refused to take. Sir John Harvey, who was a friend of Baltimore, on his arrival arrested Dr. Pott, and a jury convicted him of felony, for stealing cattle, but politics was doubtless at the bottom, and the king pardoned him. Some- time later, however, Pott had his revenge by taking part with the other councillors in Har- vey's arrest and deposition from the govern- ment. Dr. Pott was the first to locate land at
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COLONIAL PRESIDENTS AND GOVERNORS
the present site of Williamsburg, and he called his place Harrop, after the place of his family in Cheshire. He had a brother, Francis Pott, who was a prominent member of the assembly. His nephew, John Pott, moved to Patuxent in Maryland, where he was one of the justices in 1657.
Harvey, Sir John, governor from March 24, 1630, to April 28, 1635, was a native of Lyme Regis, Dorsetshire ; had been a captain of a ship.in the East Indies. In 1624 he was one of the commissioners appointed to report to the king upon the conditions of the colony. He was appointed a member of the council in August, 1624, and in the commission to Sir George Yardley, March 4, 1625-26, Harvey was named his successor. He left Virginia, and commanded a ship in the expedition against Cadiz in 1625. He did not return till March 24, 1630. During his administration the first settlements were made on the York river and on Kent Island. In the dispute with Lord Baltimore he took sides against Claiborne, deposed him in 1634 from his posi- tion as secretary of state, and on April 28, 1635, was himself deposed from the govern- ment by the council, which action was con- firmed by the assembly. Sent prisoner to Eng- land in the custody of two of the assembly, Francis Pott and Thomas Harwood, he had his guards arrested on their arrival, and brought the matter of his deposition up before the privy council. The king declared the transaction "an act of regal authority," and fearing the example, kept the two daring burgesses in prison, and sent orders for the arrest of the councillors who took part in Harvey's deposi- tion. Meanwhile, to rebuke the dangerous pre- cedent set in Virginia, he restored Harvey to his government. This second administration
began with Harvey's arrival in the colony Jan- uary 18, 1637, and was marked by measures taken by Harvey to build up Jamestown. Some twelve brick houses were erected, and steps taken to build a brick church and brick state house. But Harvey resumed his arbitrary behavior, and raised so many quarrels that the king in August, 1639, commissioned Sir Francis Wyatt, who had already figured once before as governor, to be his successor. On Wyatt's arrival, Harvey's property at York and Jamestown was seized to repay his numer- ous creditors, and the ex-governor died a bank- rupt not long after.
West, Captain John, deputy governor from April 28, 1635, to January 18, 1637, was the brother of Lord Delaware, and was born De- cember 14, 1590. He came to Virginia about 1620, and after the massacre in 1622 com- manded a company of men against the Indians. He was a member of the council, and when in 1630 the council resolved to plant a settlement on the York, Captain West was one of the two first settlers to patent lands on King's creek. There at his residence afterwards known as Bellfield was born, in 1632, the first child of English parents born on York river. When Sir John Harvey was deposed April 28, 1635, Captain West was prevailed upon by the coun- cil to accept the office of governor, which he held for eighteen months; and though he and the other leading men were arrested for their presumption, nothing was done to him. So far from that, Wyatt was sent over governor in 1639, John West's name appeared in the new commission as "Marshall and Muster Master General," in King Charles' own handwriting. He remained a member of the council for many years later. In 1650 he sold his plan- tation on York river to Edward Digges, Esq.,
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VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY
and removed to West Point, which was named for him. In March, 1660, a resolution of good will was passed by the general assembly, when in recognition of the many important favors and services rendered Virginia by "the noble family of the Wests," Captain West, now in his old age, and his family, were exempted from taxation during his life. Captain West left an only son Lieutenant Col. John West, who resided at West Point and took an im- portant part in the affairs of the colony dur- ing his lifetime.
Berkeley, Sir William, governor and cap- tain general of Virginia from 1642 to 1652 and from 1660 to 1677, was son of Sir Maurice Berkeley, and brother of Lord John Berkeley of Stratton. He was born at Bruton, in Som- ersetshire, England, about 1610; graduated Master of Arts at Oxford in 1629, and trav- elled extensively in Europe. He was com- missioned by King Charles governor of Vir- ginia, August 9, 1641, and arrived in the colony in February, 1642, bearing with him the assurance of the king that the charter would not be restored. On April 18, 1644, a second Indian massacre occurred, but this did not prevent his visiting England in June, 1644, where he remained at the king's camp till June, 1645. In his absence his place was filled by Richard Kemp, a member of the council, who had been its secretary. Another event of Berk- eley's first administration was the expulsion of the Puritans from Norfolk and Nanse- mond counties. During the civil war in Eng- land many cavalier officers and other friends of the king emigrated to Virginia. The result was to give a strong royalist sympathy to the colony, so that the death of Charles I. was denounced by the assembly as murder, and to question the right of Charles II. was declared
treason. At last, in 1651, parliament sent a fleet to subdue the country, but force was not used, and an accommodation was agreed to by both sides. April 30, 1652, Berkeley was super- ceded in the government by Richard Ben- nett ; whereupon he retired to his country resi- dence, "Greenspring," distant about five miles from Jamestown.
In January, 1660, Governor Samuel Mat- thews died and the general assembly, who had became disgusted with the chaotic state of affairs in England, recalled Governor Berkeley to the government in the March following. He was commissioned by Charles II. July 31, 1660, and Charles II. himself was proclaimed in Virginia, September 20, 1660. In April, 1661, Berkeley was sent by the colony to Eng- land to protest against the navigation act, Col. Francis Morryson acting as governor till Berk- eley's return in the fall of 1662. The reaction of the restoration occasioning much extrava- gance among the government officials finally brought about a great feeling of unrest in Vir- ginia. This discontent, increased by the lavish grants of land by King Charles to certain court favorites, was brought to a head, in 1676, by an Indian attack. The measures taken by Berkeley were deemed ineffective, and the authority of defending the people was assumed by Nathaniel Bacon, Jr., a recent arrival. Sir William Berkeley declared him a rebel, and the colony was torn with opposing factions of armed men for nearly a year. Bacon perished of camp fever, and Berkeley showed much severity in punishing the sur- viving leaders. He was finally recalled by the king and died at Twickenham, July 9, 1677. He wrote two plays, and is the author of a "Description of Virginia," folio, 1663. He was survived by his wife, Lady Frances Berkeley, who was a Culpeper, and married
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COLONIAL PRESIDENTS AND GOVERNORS
three times : 1. Samuel Stephens; 2. Sir Wil- liam Berkeley ; 3. Colonel Philip Ludwell. Her brother, Alexander Culpeper, was surveyor- general of the colony from 1672 to 1692.
Kemp, Richard, deputy governor from 1644 to 1645, was a son, it is believed, of Sir Robert Kemp, of Gissing, in Suffolk county, Eng- land. He succeeded William Claiborne as secretary of state in 1634. When in 1639 Harvey was supplanted as governor by Sir Francis Wyatt, Kemp, by the influence of Lord Baltimore and Secretary of State Winde- bank, retained his place as secretary. Incur- ring the enmity of Rev. Anthony Panton, whom Harvey and himself had treated with great severity, he returned to England in 1640 to defend his conduct, leaving his friend George Reade as deputy secretary. Richard Kemp staid in England about two years, and returned in 1642 to his old post, with Sir Wil- liam Berkeley. He was deputy governor dur- ing the absence of the latter in England from June, 1644 to June, 1645. He made his will in 1649, and his widow Elizabeth (whose maiden name is not known) married (sec- ondly) Sir Thomas Lunsford, and after his death (thirdly) Major-General Robert Smith. He left no children, but there is a numerous Virginia family of his name descended from his nephew, Edmund Kemp.
Bennett, Richard, governor of Virginia from April 30, 1652, until March 2, 1655, was of the same family as Henry Bennett Lord Arlington. His uncle Edward Bennett, an eminent London merchant, was a member of the London Company, and with other persons of means planted in 1621 a settlement in War- iscoyack, or Isle of Wight county. Virginia, which was known as Edward Bennett's plan- tation. At the time of the Indian uprising in
March, 1622, more than fifty persons were killed at this settlement. In 1624 Robert Ben- nett, merchant, and Rev. William Bennett, minister, were living at Edward Bennett's plantation. They were probably his kinsmen. In 1629 Richard Bennett was a burgess from the Wariscoyack district, and in 1632 was one of the county court. In 1639 he was a coun- cillor. He was a Puritan in sympathy, and joined in a petition, which was taken by his brother Philip to Boston, asking for three able ministers to occupy parishes in his neighbor- hood. When Sir William Berkeley in 1649 drove the Puritans out of Nansemond and Elizabeth City counties, Bennett went with them to Maryland. but only stayed a short time. In 1651 he was living on Bennett's creek in Nansemond county, and that year he was named by parliament as one of the commis- sioners for the reduction of Virginia. When Virginia submitted, he was elected by the gen- eral assembly governor of the colony. He held office from April 30, 1652, to March 30, 1655. when he was sent to England as agent. On November 30, 1657, he signed the agreement with Lord Baltimore by which the latter's claim to Maryland was finally recognized. After the restoration of Charles II., Bennett held the offices of councillor and major-gen- eral of the militia. In 1667 he went as a com- missioner to Maryland to negotiate for a ces- sation in the cultivation of tobacco, the price having fallen very low. He was a member of the council as late as 1675, and his will was proved April 12, 1675. His daughter Anne married Theodorick Bland, of Virginia, and his son and grandson of the same name were members of the council of Maryland.
Digges, Edward, governor of Virginia from March 30. 1655, to March 13, 1658, son of
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VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY
Sir Dudley Digges, of Chilham, county Kent, England, who was knight and baronet, and master of the rolls in the reign of Charles I., was born about 1620 and came to Virginia before 1650, when he purchased an estate on York river from Captain John West, subse- quently known as Bellfield. On November 22, 1654, he was made a member of the coun- cil, and was elected March 30, 1655, to succeed Governor Bennett. He was therefore the second governor under the "Commonwealth of England." He served as governor till March 13, 1658, when he was sent to Eng- land to cooperate with Bennett and Mathews against the rival claims of Lord Baltimore. The articles of surrender in 1652 guaranteed to Virginia her ancient boundaries, and the effort of the assembly was to get the Mary- land charter annulled, in which, however, they were not successful. After the restoration of Charles II., Digges served as a member of the council, and was greatly interested in the culture of silk and tobacco at his plantation on York river. In the silk culture he employed three Armenians, and the tobacco which he grew on his plantation became known as the E. D. Tobacco. More than a century after his death the tobacco grown at Bellfield had such a reputation that it brought one shilling per pound in the London market, when other tobaccos brought only three pence. Digges was auditor general from 1670 to 1675, and receiver general from 1672 to 1675. He died March 15, 1675, and his tombstone is still standing at Bellfield, his old home place on York river. His eldest son, Col. William Digges, settled in Maryland and was founder of a well known family in that state. His younger son, Colonel Dudley Digges, was a member of the council of Virginia. Cole Digges, a grandson, was also a councillor ; and
Dudley Digges, a great-grandson, was a mem- ber of the Virginia committee of safety, which in 1776 had really the executive power in its hands.
Mathews, Samuel, governor of Virginia from March 13, 1658, to his death in January, 1660, was born in England about 1600, and came to Virginia in 1622. In 1623 he led a force against the Tanx Powhatan Indians. In 1624 he was one of the commissioners ap- pointed by the King to enquire into the condi- tion of the colony. In 1630 he built a fort at Point Comfort. In 1635 he took a leading part in the deposition of Sir John Harvey. He was appointed to the council in 1623, and in 1652 was sent as one of the agents to England to obtain a confirmation of the agreement with the parliamentary commissioners, securing to Virginia her anicent bounds, and he remained there till 1657. He was unsuccessful in his mission to recover Maryland to Virginia, and at length signed articles of accommodation with Lord Baltimore. He became governor of the colony March 13, 1658, and soon became involved in a controversy with the house of burgesses regarding the power of the council to dissolve the assembly. The house would not admit the contention, and claimed that the supreme power lay in the house as the repre- sentatives of the people. Mathews and his council were by the burgesses deposed from authority, but on their submitting to the will of the house were reelected and took the oath recognizing its authority. He died before the expiration of his term, in January, 1660. He was a very active citizen during his lifetime. His residence was at "Denbigh," on Deep creek, Warwick county, where he had a fine house and employed many servants. He mar- ried, about 1629, Frances, daughter of Sir
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COLONIAL PRESIDENTS AND GOVERNORS
Thomas Hinton, and widow successively of Captain Nathaniel West and of Abraham Piersey, the last of whom "left the best estate that ever was known in Virginia." He had issue, Samuel Mathews, who was a member of the council in 1655, and Francis, who was a justice of York county and captain of the militia, and died February 16, 1675.
Moryson, Francis, governor of Virginia from April 30, 1661, to the fall of 1662, was a son of Sir Richard Moryson, who was sec- retary of state to King James I. He served in King Charles' army with the rank of major and he embarked from London with his fellow loyalists, Colonel Henry Norwood, Major Richard Fox and Major Francis Cary, for Virginia, September 23, 1649, and arrived in Virginia the November following. Driven by a storm, their ship found itself on June 12, 1650, among the islands of Assateague Bay, on the Atlantic coast of Virginia. Upon one of these Colonel Moryson landed with several of his companions, and after various exper- iences in Accomac crossed over to the main shore and was kindly received by Sir William Berkeley, who gave him the command of the fort at Point Comfort. In 1655 he was speaker of the house of burgesses, and when Governor Berkeley visited England in 1662, Moryson acted as governor till sometime in the fall of the following year. The memory of his ser- vice as chief executive is marked by his gift of a splendid service of church plate to the church at Jamestown, which is preserved by the church in Williamsburg. After the return of Berkeley, Moryson was sent as agent to England at an annual salary of £200 to pro- test against a grant of the Northern Neck to several court favorites. He remained as agent in England till 1677, when he returned to Vir-
ginia as one of a commission to enquire into the disturbances known as Bacon's rebellion. The commissioners held court at Swann's Point, over against Jamestown, which had been destroyed. Their report was a very full account of this interesting episode in Virginia history, and the finding was very much against Governor Berkeley. Moryson soon after re- turned to England, and died there not long after. He left a widow Cecilia, sister of Giles Rawlins, and a son Henry, who in 1699 was colonel of the Colstream Foot Guards. Col- onel Moryson was preceded to Virginia by his two brothers-Richard and Robert Mory- son, who also commanded at Point Comfort, and after Major Moryson his nephew Charles, son of Richard Moryson, held commission about 1664. His sister, Letitia Moryson, was wife of the noble cavalier, Lucius Cary, Lord Falkland.
Jeffreys, Herbert, commissioned lieutenant- governor November 11, 1675, was an officer in the English army and commanded the regi- ment sent over to Virginia in 1676 to put down the rebellion of Bacon. He was also head of the commission to enquire into the causes of the troubles in Virginia, Major Francis Moryson, and Sir John Berry, admiral of the fleet, being the other members. He arrived in Virginia, February 2, 1677, and encamped his troops among the ruins of the brick build- ings at Jamestown, which had been burned by Nathaniel Bacon. The commissioners made the residence of Colonel Thomas Swann, at Swann's Point, on the other side of the river, their headquarters, whence they issued a call to the different counties for a statement of their grievances. From the first their relations with Berkeley were far from sympathetic. Upon the departure of Berkeley from the
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VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY
colony, Jeffreys by virtue of his commission assumed the government, and marching his troops to Middle Plantation (now Williams- burg) concluded a treaty of friendship with the neighboring Indian tribes. His sym- pathies being with the popular side, by his influence the assembly in October, 1677, passed an act of amnesty, and threatened a heavy fine against anybody who would call another "a rebel or traitor." Those, therefore, who had been friends of Sir William Berkeley, received very little favor. at his hands, and were denounced by him as the "Greenspring fac- tion," whose tyranny had been one of the chief causes of the civil war. He incurred the special enmity of Philip Ludwell, who married Berkeley's widow, because he would not let him sue Walklett for damages done during that time. In this Jeffreys seemed to be right, as Berkeley had promised Walklett, a leader of the rebels after Bacon's death, indemnity on his surrendering West Point. In another matter in which Robert Beverley, the other leader of the Greenspring faction, was involved, Jeffreys' position was not as defensible. In order to make a full report he and the other commis- sioners demanded of Beverley, who was clerk of the assembly, the journals and papers of the house of burgesses, and when the latter declined to give them up they seized them out of his possession. As this appeared to the house an attack upon their privileges, they passed strong resolutions when they met pro- testing against the action of the commissioners. The growing importance of Middle Planta- tion was shown by a petition from some in- habitants of York county that the place he recommended to the king for the seat of gov- ernment. But the commissioners, including Jeffreys, were not willing to abandon James-
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