USA > Virginia > Augusta County > Augusta County > History of Augusta County, Virginia > Part 3
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HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.
CHAPTER II.
The following outline of colonial history, from the first landing at James- town to the year 1750, and slight reference to French explorations and set- tlements in the West, will enable the reader to understand the condition of affairs in the colony and western country generally at the period Lewis entered, took possession of, and settled Augusta. It exhibits also the position of Virginia in her connection with the various colonies which after- wards united together to resist the tyranny of Great Britain and found the United States, and will enable the reader to understand any points of gen- eral history which may be touched upon in the progress of this work.
The closing years of the fifteenth century saw the theatre of history sud- denly enlarged. The history of the world, as embracing all parts of the globe, commenced with the discoveries of Columbus and Vasco da Gama. To within a century of the end of the Moorish kingdom in Spain, and of that ten centuries of medieval times, the first six of which are known as the "dark ages," the settlement of Virginia carries us back. The earliest incidents in her career belong to that European era which witnessed the massacre of St. Bartholomew, the independence of the United Provinces under William of Orange, the destruction of the Spanish Armada, and the persecution of the Puritans in England. They belong also to that Eliza- bethan era of English history so remarkable for literary taste and for the spirit of commercial adventure which pervaded all classes. It was from the England of Raleigh, Gilbert, Marlowe, Shakespeare, Burleigh, Wal- singham, Essex, Leicester, Sidney and Francis Bacon that came the men who undertook to found colonies on our shores and to build up politi- cal communities in the New World. The most remarkable of these men was the "learned and valiant" Sir Walter Raleigh, whose name is indis- solubly associated with the first efforts at English colonization in America.
Upon the unsuccessful efforts of Raleigh to make a settlement on Roa- noke Island, we cannot dwell. He had undertaken a task beyond the strength of a single individual, and met the common lot of enthusiasts. His failures did not deter others, and a few years later James I granted charters to the London and Plymouth companies for "deducing colonies and making habitation and plantation in that part of America commonly called Virginia." Under these charters all the coast was embraced lying between Florida and Nova Scotia.
These charters are long and tedious documents, which possess no intrin- sic merit-are just such stupid papers as one might expect from the narrow
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HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.
inind of James. By virtue of them a complicated form of government was framed. For cach colony separate councils, appointed by the King, were instituted in England, and these councils were in turn to name resident councillors for the colonies. Thirteen members constituted the resident council. They had power to choose their own president, to fill vacancies in their numbers, and, a jury being required only in capital cases, to act as a court of last resort in all other causes. Religion was established in accordance with the forms and doctrines of the Church of England. The adventurers, as the company were called, had power to coin money and collect a revenue for twenty-one years from all vessels trading to their ports, and they were also freed from taxation for a term of years. One article, and only one, in the most general terms, provided for the liberty of the subject. Another clause provided for community of goods.
A worse system of government could not have been devised. Two arbitrary and irresponsible councils-one in England and the other in America-the legislative power reserved to the King-the governing body commercial monopoly, and the chief principle of society a community of property. Such was the government elaborated in the charter. With such a frame of government the first colonists, composed of men who cared little for forms of. government, set forth for Virginia.
The colony consisted of 105 persons, who sailed from the Downs, Jan. 1, 1507, for Virginia under command of Capt. Newport, who landed them at Jamestown on the 13th May, 1607. The men composing the expedition were wretched material for founding a State. There were seventy men in the party, of whom fifty-four were gentlemen, four carpenters and twelve laborers-or, as Capt. Smith describes them, “poor -gentlemen, trades- men, serving men and libertines." The first President of the Colony, appointed in London, was Wingfield, a man of wealth and social position, but incapable and unfit for governing. He was soon superceded by the strongest man among the colonists-a man to whose name a romantic interest attaches-the celebrated Capt. John Smith. Smith has been described as an adventurer of a high order in an ageof adventurers. He had all the faults of his time and class in full measures, but he had also their virtues, and it was here that he surpassed his companions. He was arbitrary, jealous of power, quarrelsome and despotic, ready to lie auda- ciously to serve his own ends, and rashly overconfident. But he was also brave, energetic, quick-witted, and full of resource. By his energy and wisdom he preserved the colony from impending ruin and improved its condition. What we would call now-a-days a many-sided man, he made himself familiar, by repeated explorations, with the country and its pro- ducts, became well acquainted with the aborigines, with whom he opened a trade, and in various ways displayed his superior qualities, and an earn- est desire to promote the interest of the colony.
6
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HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.
A small fort was erected, and a few log huts, and in these the colonists were kept together by Smith for two years, in the presence of a subtle and ferocious enemy, who, within a fortnight of the first landing, made an attack upon them, evidently with a view to their extermination. This attack of the Indians was repelled by the colonists under Wingfield, who was an old soldier, having served many years in the European wars. Notwithstanding Smith's efforts, the colony languished, and matters grew so much worse that the settlement was abandoned, and the colony would have been broken up but for the arrival of Lord Delaware, as Governor, with five hundred fresh men and supplies, in 1609-1610.
Lord Delaware, who received the appointment of Governor for life, surrounded himself with stately officers and liveried servants, and as- sumed the demeanor of the ruler of an opulent empire. He was an able man, and might have rendered valuable service, but unfortunately was forced, by disease brought on by the climate, to return to England. He committed the government to Mr. Percy, who was supplanted by Sir Thomas Dale in 1611, to whom the government granted authority to rule by martial law. Dale exercised his arbitrary powers with prudence and moderation, and to him Virginia is more indebted than to any of her early Governors. He established and maintained order, and extended the settle- ments into the interior, forming a colony of 350 men at a point up the James river, called Henrico. But the chief good of his administration consisted in breaking up the system of community of property and intro- ducing individual proprietorship. On his departure, in 1616, he left the colony firmly established and under the protection of Sir Thos. Yeardley, whose administration was not unlike that of his predecessors, but he was soon superceded by Capt. Samuel Argall, a rough sea captain, accustomed to command respect, of a cruel, covetous and tyrannical disposition, with a decided taste for piracy. He made an energetic and active Governor, carrying out the military code in the spirit of a buccaneer. He oppressed and robbed the colonists, his greed lighting especially on the friends of Lord Delaware. Complaints went to England, and the Virginians awak- ened to the fact that they were shockingly misgoverned ; that they were left at the mercy of one man's rule, and that man a tyrant ; that their rights were unknown. The period of political development had, however. now began.
The indignation in London at Argall's misconduct led to a new and representative government in Virginia, granted under the influence of the Earl of Southampton, Sandys, Digges, Selden and others. Argall was recalled, and a new form of political organization was granted to the colonists. The Governor's power was in future to be limited by a council, and the assemblage of a representative body was authorized. Under this new order of things the first General Assembly was held at James City in
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HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.
June. 1619, and in May, 1620, a second Assembly convened. In order to give the reader, better than an elaborate disquisition would do, an idea of the spirit and character of the early settlers and of their sufferings and difficulties, more particularly with the Indians, we append the commission to Sir Francis Wyatt, Governor; and the Council, of date July 24, 1621. The object of the assembly was "to assist the Governor in the administra- tion of justice, to advance Christianity among the Indians, to erect the colony in obedience to his Majesty, and in maintaining the people in justice and christian conversation, and strengthening them against enemies. The said Governor, Council, and two burgesses out of every town, hundred or plantation, to be chosen by the inhabitants to make up a General Assem- bly, who are to decide all matters by the greatest number of voices ; but the Governor is to have a negative voice, to have power to make orders and acts necessary, wherein they are to imitate the policy of the form of government, laws, customs, manner of trial, and other administration of justice used in England, as the company are required by their letters pa- tent. No law to continue or be of force until ratified by a quarter court to be held in England, and returned under seal. After the colony is well framed and settled, no order of quarter court in England shall bind till ratified by the General Assembly."
From the first, the Burgesses sought to obtain equal rights for all men before the law, by praying the company not to violate that clause in the charter by which they were guaranteed. After passing various sumptuary and police laws, laws for the government of ministers and raising taxes on tobacco. &c., they adjourned. But this year marks an era in Virginian annals-the dawn of representative government and constitutional free- dom. It is memorable also for the introduction of the first slaves in Amer- ica, and of a forced class of immigrants-boys and girls seized by the press gang in the streets of London, and shipped, as if they were felons. to Virginia.
At this Assembly cleven boroughs were r-presented by twenty-two Bur- gesses, and this constituted the great State of Virginia in 1619. But the prospects of the future were bright. Immigration increased, and was now composed, not of adventurers, but of "prudent men with families," and in 1623, under the governorship of Sir Francis Wyatt, the population con- sisted of 4,000 persons, and the massacre of 350 by the Indians did not destroy the colony. Under the system which prevailed in Virginia, free- dom of debate and love of independence were fostered.
To the form of government established by the colony July, 1621, was added the proviso, as mentioned above, that no order of the Council in En- gland should bind the colony, unless ratified by the General Assembly of Virginia. Thus early in our country's history was introduced those prin-
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HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.
c'ples of republicanism which eventually secured to us our present gov- ernment.
James became jealous at what he considered an invasion of prerogative, and denounced the Company which gave a democratic constitution to Vir- ginia " as a seminary for a seditious Parliament," and also said he would rather they "chose the devil as treasurer than Sir Edwyn Sandys." The Company was firm, and refused his claim to nominate their officers, and from the struggle and the feelings it excited, the colony derived solid ad- vantages.
But the Company was doomed. James pursued them unrelentingly. A royal commission was sent to Virginia to gather material for its destruc- tion. The commissioners, reaching Virginia, demanded the records of the Assembly, which were refused. The clerk was bribed to give them up by the commissioners. The Assembly stood their clerk in the pillory and cut off his ears. The patriotic resistance of the colonists was fruitless. A quo varranto was tried in the King's Bench, and the charter was annulled. The dissolution of the London Company was a distinct benefit to the colo- nists, by relieving the settlers from the cumbrous, complicated and uncer- tain government of a mercantile corporation, and placing them in the same relation to the King as his other subjects.
The five years which now followed of Sir Francis Wyatt's continuance in office were characterized for their legislative activity, for the formation of political habits, and for the first opposition to the home government, which strengthened and confirmed the independent spirit of the colonists. During the session of 1623-24, Royal Commissioners came to Virginia to assist in ruining the Company. This period is marked in the statute book by the definition and declaration of certain guiding political principles which were never afterwards shaken. The Governor's power was limited. He was not "to lay any taxes or impositions upon the colony, their lands, or other way than by the authority of the General Assembly, to be levied and employed as the said Assembly shall appoint." The Governor was not to withdraw the inhabitants from their labors for his own service, and the Burgesses attending the Assembly were to be free from arrest. These were the great and fundamental principles for which patriotic men were then contending in England. Jantes I died March 25, 1625, and Charles I succeeded him and took the government in his own hands. He granted large plantations in Virginia to his favorites, Lords Baltimore and Fairfax. Shortly afterwards Wyatt departed, and George Yeardley was appointed his successor. He lived but a short time, when the Council chose Francis West as Governor. Subsequently, John Pott was appointed, who was soon superceded by Sir John Harvey. The latter quarreled with the colo- nists, was thrust out of the government, was reinstated by the King, and in 1639 the King reappointed Sir Francis Wyatt.
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HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.
Two important events occurred during Harvey's administration-the settlement of Maryland by Lord Baltimore, an I the rise of the Puritan party in Virginia. The Virginia colonists considered Maryland as a part of Virginia, and resented the course of Lord Baltimore. Quarrels about jurisdiction soon broke out. and all parties suffered. Attached to the Church of England, Virginia was not a promising field for Puritans, but a community of them had settled in Virginia years before.
Wyatt was replaced in 1642 by Sir William Berkeley, who governed well at first, but his accession brought no increase of political freedom to Virginia. The first step toward federation was taken about this time, in the passage of an act ratifying and regulating commerce with Maryland. The prosperity of the colony increased rapidly, interrupted only by a sec- ond outbreak of Indians, which was quickly quelled.
The execution of Charles I, 1649, filled Virginians with horror and in- dignation, and the well-known sympathy of Virginia with the unhappy King drew many exiled cavaliers to America. The Governor invited Charles II to come to and be King of Virginia, but on the eve of his em- barking from Holland for Virginia, in 1660, he was recalled to the throne of England. After he ascended the throne, Charles II, desirous of giving a substantial proof of the profound respect he entertained for the loyalty of Virginia, caused her arms to be quartered with those of England, Ireland, and Scotland, as an independent member of the Empire. This fact, and because Virginia was the first of the English settlements in the limits of the British colonies, led to her being styled " The Old Dominion."
During the administration of Cromwell, Virginia enjoyed a free and in- dependent government under three Governors-Bennet, Digges, and Mathews-all Puritans, who were chosen by the Assembly. An old histo- rian tells us that Mathews was "a most deserving Commonwealth's man, who kept a good horse, lived bravely, and was a true lover of Virginia." Under these three men the political rights of the people were firmly estab- lished and their commercial interests protected and extended by the com - mencement of treaties with New England, New York, and the cultivation of closer relations with Maryland. General prosperity consequently pre. vailed.
After the Restoration, the Virginia Assembly elected Berkeley Gov- ernor, an address was voted to the King, and Berkeley was sent to En- gland to protest against the enforcement of the Navigation Act; the Church of England was re-established, and severe laws passed against Dis- senters .* The Navigation Act was enforced ; tobacco fell in price, and im-
*As the word Dissenter occurs frequently in these pages, we may as well state at this point that it is a vague word, which, in its full latitude, is applied to all who differ from the Church of England, which was the Established Church of Virginia down to 1776. Originally it meant in England only the Presbyterians, who rather differed from the discipline and polity, than the opinions of the Episcopal Church.
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HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.
ports rose. The return of the Royalist party to power soon led to trouble, and as early as 1663 an outbreak, led by some of Cromwell's soldiers, oc- curred, which, however, miserably failed, and four of the conspirators were executed.
Under the profligate government of Charles II, the trade of Virginia was almost extinguished ; the titles of the colonists were endangered, if not de- stroyed by royal grants to Lords Arlington and Culpepper; the justices levied taxes for their own emolument; the Indians were treated with severity ; the Church fell into contempt. the rectors and curates were licen- tious and incompetent ; and corruption and extortion prevailed.
A second outbreak threatened in 1674, but partial reforms and the want of a leader quieted the people, though everything was in a combustible condition.
The unwise policy of severity towards the Indians led to a war, and Berkeley, for some unknown reason, disbanded the force which ought to have been used to repel the enemy.
At this moment, the leader, whom the people had before wanted, ap- peared in Nathaniel Bacon, a young, popular, wealthy, brave and patriotic man. Bacon was aided, if not instigated, by two planters, Drummond and Lawrence, who evidently wished to effect a general reform of all abuses, as well as put down the Indians. Bacon, having vainly sought a commis- sion, marched against the Indians at the head of a few brave volunteers, which gave Berkeley the opportunity to proclaim them rebels. The Gov- ernor started in pursuit of Bacon-not the Indians-with troops, but the revolt becoming general in his rear, he retre ited. Aware now of the rising storm, the Governor issued writs for a new Assembly, to which Bacon was elected. On his way to James City, Berkeley caused his arrest, but re- leased him on parole, and Bacon read at the bar of the house a written confession and apology, and was thereupon pardoned and readmitted to the Council, of which he had previously been a member. Shortly after, Bacon fled on a suspicion that his life was threatened, and ret rned to Jamestown with a large force. He appealed to the Assembly, who made him their General, vindicated his course, and sent a letter to England ap- proving him. While the Assembly was engaged in the correction of abuses, Berkeley dissolved them. Bacon, now too strong to be resisted, extorted the necessary commissions from the Governor, and again marched against the Indians. Availing himself of his absence, Berkeley pro- claimed him a rebel. On hearing this news, Bacon retraced his steps, when Berkeley fled to Accomac, thus leaving Bacon supreme. Bacon immediately summoned a convention of all the principal men to replace the House of Burgesses, pledged them to his support, and even to resist- ance to England, if their wrongs were not redressed. Bacon now again
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HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.
moved against the Indians, but in his absence, the fleet, which he had sent to capture Berkeley. was betrayed, and the Governor returned to James- town at the head of his would-be captors. Bacon's friends in Jamestown made terms with the Governor, and Bacon returned a second time. Berke- ley fled again to Accomac, and Bacon captured and burnt Jamestown. About this time he became ill of fever, and died shortly afterwards in Gloucester county. The hero dead, his followers scattered. The leaders were caught in detail and executed. Thus ended the so-called Rebellion.
Nothing was gained by Bacon's course, and for a hundred years the people sunk into apathy. Berkeley was recalled, and died soon after his return to England. He was a covetous, dishonest, bloodthirsty, cow- ardly impotent, whose fife was stained with crime. He was succeeded by Col. Herbert Jeffreys who died a year later, in 1677, and was followed by Sir Henry Chicheley, and he by Lord Culpepper, upon whom the Gover- norship was conferred for life in 1675. Culpepper arrived in Virginia in 1680. His administration was, on the whole, one of simple greed and violent exactions. He came to Virginia to make his fortune, and stopped at no act to accomplish his purpose. He was one of the most cunning and covetous men in England. He was succeeded by Lord Howard, of Ef- fingham. He also came to make his fortune, and as he became richer, Virginia became poorer. During his time immigration almost ceased. Howard returned to England to find James driven from the throne, which ended the Stuart domination. The reign of Charles was contemptible for its meanness and corruption, and that of James the basest and most barren in English history. Charles debauched and debased England, and Cul- pepper and Effingham degraded their governments and almost ruined Virginia.
The only political events of these times of any significance were the sending of delegates, in 1684, from Virginia to Albany to meet the Gov- ernor of New York and certain agents sent from Massachusetts to discuss Indian affairs. This was a move in the direction of confederation.
Virginia derived little benefit from the revolution of 1689, which placed William and Mary upon the throne, and shortly after that event, a war breaking out between the allied powers and Louis XIV of France, the colony was ordered to place itself in the best posture for defence.
The continued complaints of the Virginia Legislature led to the recall of Howard, and Sir Francis Nicholson succeeded him. Nicholson was an arbitrary man. and practiced the arts of a demagogue, but was not a cor- rupt man. His administration is marked for the establishment of William and Mary College, under Dr. James Blair, an active and energetic Scotch- man, who became one of the most serviceable men in Virginia.
Sir Edward Andros came after Nicholson, and was actuated in his gov- ernment by a sound judgment and a liberal policy. In 1698, Andros re-
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HISTORY OF AUGUSTA COUNTY.
tired and Nicholson was reappointed and served seven years without ac- complishing any good except what grew out of his own negligence. From his indifference, the Burgesses made the treasurer of the colony an officer of their own, and thus obtained control of the public purse.
In 1704, Edward Nott beca ne deputy governor under the Earl of Ork- ney, but the history of Virginia, more particularly Eastern Virginia, fro.n this time, is little more than a list of Governors.
The period from 1704 to 1776, barren as it is in political events, was socially a period of great importance. The social ele nents, which had gathered in Virginia from its foundation, crystalized, and the fabric of society, as seen in 1776, was built up.
In 1710, Alexander Spotswood became Governor. He was an accom- plished and enterprising man,-the best of the eighteenth century Gov- ernors. He thus describes in his day the state of affairs in Virginia : "This government is," says he, "in perfect peace and tranquility, under a due obedience to the Royal authority, and a gentlemanly conformity to the Church of England."
The Virginians at this day were living in the forests, but were men who had inherited the culture and intelligence of the seventeenth century. They cherished personal freedom, secure possession, and legislative power. They soon manifested at the polls some uneasiness at royalist principles and the prospects of an aristocracy. "The inclinations of the country," says Governor Spotswood, "are rendered mysterious by a new and unac- countable humor, which hath obtained in several counties, of excluding gentlemen from being Burgesses, and choosing only persons of mean figure and character." From this it appears that in 1710-23, no less than in 1882, the post of honor was the private station ; that instead of political positions being conferred upon the good and wise, they were, in Spots- wood's day, as now, more frequently the rewards of greed and incom- petency.
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