USA > Virginia > History of the colony and ancient dominion of Virginia > Part 16
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 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64
IN the year 1632 King Charles issued a commission appointing a Council of Superintendence over Virginia, empowering them to ascertain the state and condition of the colony. The commis- sioners were Edward, Earl of Dorset, Henry, Earl of Derby, Dudley, Viscount. Dorchester, Sir John Coke, Sir John Davers, Sir Robert Killegrew, Sir Thomas Rowe, Sir Robert Heath, Sir Kineage Tench, Sir Dudley Diggs, Sir John Holstenholm, Sir Francis Wyat, Sir John Brooks, Sir Kenelm Digby, Sir John Tench, John Banks, Esq., Thomas Gibbs, Esq., Samuel Rott, Esq., George Sands, Esq., John Wolstenholm, Esq., Nicholas Ferrar, Esq., Gabriel Barber, and John Ferrar, Esquires .*
Elaborate acts passed by the Colonial Legislature at this pe- riod, for improving the staple of tobacco and regulating the trade in it, evince the increasing importance of that crop. Tithes were imposed of tobacco and corn; and the twentieth "calfe, kidd of goates and pigge" granted unto the minister. During the year 1633 every fortieth man in the neck of land between the James River and the York, (then called the Charles,) was directed to repair to the plantation of Dr. John Pott, to be employed in building of houses and securing that tract of land lying between Queen's Creek, emptying into Charles River, and Archer's Hope
* 2 Burk's Hist. of Va., 35.
(187)
188
HISTORY OF THE COLONY AND
Creek, emptying into James River. This was Middle Plantation, (now Williamsburg,) so called as being midway between the James River and the York. Each person settling there was entitled to fifty acres of land and exemption from general taxes. All new- comers were ordered to pay sixty-four pounds of tobacco toward the maintenance of the fort at Point Comfort .* Thus far, under Harvey's administration, the Assembly had met regularly, and several judicious and wholesome acts had been passed.
The Chesapeake Bay is supposed to have been discovered by the Spaniards as early as the year 1566 or before, being called by them the Bay of Santa Maria.f It was discovered by the English in 1585, when Ralph Lane was Governor of the first Colony of Virginia. In 1620 John Pory made a voyage of dis- covery in the Chesapeake Bay, and found one hundred English happily settled on its borders, (in what particular place is not known,) animated with the hope of a very good trade in furs.} During the years 1627, 1628, and 1629 the governors of Virgi- nia gave authority to William Clayborne, "Secretary of State of this Kingdom," as the Ancient Dominion was then styled, to dis- cover the source of the bay, or any part of that government from the thirty-fourth to the forty-first degree of north latitude.§ In May, 1631, Charles the First granted a license to "our trusty and well-beloved William Clayborne," one of the council and Se- cretary of State for the colony, authorizing him to make discove- ries, and to trade. This license was, by the royal instructions, confirmed by Governor Harvey; and Clayborne shortly after- wards established a trading post on Kent Island, in the Chesa-
* 1 Hening, 188, 190, 199, 208, 222. The pay of the officers at Point Com- fort was at this time :-
Lbs. Tobacco.
Bbls. Corn.
To the captain of the fort
2000
10
To the gunner
1000
6
To the drummer and porter.
1000
6
For four other men, each of them 500 pounds of tobacco, 4 bbls. corn.
2000
16
-
Total
6000
38
¡ Early Voyages to America, 483.
į Chalmers' Polit. Annals, 206. ¿ Chalmers' Annals, 227.
189
ANCIENT DOMINION OF VIRGINIA.
peake Bay, not far from the present capital of Maryland, Annapolis; and subsequently another at the mouth of the Sus- quehanna River. In the year 1632 a burgess was returned from the Isle of Kent to the Assembly at Jamestown .* In 1633 a warehouse was established in Southampton River for the inhabit- ants of Mary's Mount, Elizabeth City, Accomac, and the Isle of Kent.
In the mean time, George, the elder Lord Baltimore, dying on the fifteenth of April, 1632, aged fifty, at London, before his pa- tent was issued, it was confirmed June twentieth of this year, to his son Cecilius, Baron of Baltimorc. The new province was named Maryland in honor of Henrietta Maria, Queen Consort of Charles the First of England, and daughter of Henry the Fourth of France. For eighteen months from the signing of the Mary- land charter, the expedition to the new colony was delayed by the strenuous opposition made to the proceeding. The Virgi- nians felt no little aggrieved at this infraction of their chartered territory; and they remonstrated to the king in council in 1633, against the grant to Lord Baltimore, alleging that "it will be a general disheartening to them, if they shall be divided into several governments." Future events were about to strengthen their sense of the justice of their cause. In July of this year the case was decided in the Star Chamber, the privy council, influenced by Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Earl of Strafford, deeming it fit to leave Lord Baltimore to his patent and the com- plainants to the course of law "according to their desire," re- commending, at the same time, a spirit of amity and good cor- respondence between the planters of the two colonies. So futile a decision could not terminate the contest, and Clayborne con- tinued to claim Kent Island, and to abnegate the authority of the proprietary of Maryland.
At length, Lord Baltimore having engaged the services of his brother, Leonard Calvert, for founding the colony, he with two others, one of them probably being another brother, were ap- appointed commissioners. The expedition consisted of some twenty gentlemen of fortune, and two or three hundred of the
.
* 1 Hening, 154.
190
HISTORY OF THE COLONY AND
laboring class, nearly all of them Roman Catholics. Imploring the intercession of the Blessed Virgin, St. Ignatius, and all the guardian angels of Maryland, they set sail from Cowes, in the Isle of Wight, in November, 1633, St. Cecilia's day. The canonized founder of the order of the Jesuits, Ignatius Loyola, was the patron saint of the infant Maryland. February twenty- seventh, 1634, they reached Point Comfort, filled with apprehen- sions of the hostility of the Virginians to their colonial enter- prise. Letters from King Charles and the chancellor of the exchequer conciliated Governor Harvey, who hoped, by his kind- ness to the Maryland colonists, to insure the recovery of a large sum of money due him from the royal treasury. The Virginians were at this time all under arms expecting the approach of a hos- tile Spanish fleet. Calvert, after a hospitable entertainment, embarked on the third of March for Maryland. Clayborne, who had accompanied Harvey to Point Comfort to see the strangers, did not fail to intimidate them by accounts of the hostile spirit which they would have to encounter in the Indians of that part of the country to which they were destined. Calvert, on arriving in Maryland, was accompanied in his explorations of the country by Captain Henry Fleet, an early Virginia pioneer, who was familiar with the settlements and language of the savages, and in much favor with them; and it was under his guidance and direc- tion that the site of St. Mary's, the ancient capital of Maryland, was selected .* White, a Jesuit missionary, says of Fleet: "At the first he was very friendly to us; afterwards, seduced by the evil counsels of a certain Clayborne, who entertained the most hostile disposition, he stirred up the minds of the natives against us."+ White mentions that the Island of Monserrat, in the West Indies, where they touched, was inhabited by Irishmen who had
* White's Relation, 4; Force's Hist. Tracts.
+ White's Relation of the Colony of the Lord Baron of Baltimore in Maryland, near Virginia, and a Narrative of the Voyage to Maryland, was copied from the archives of the Jesuit's College at Rome, by Rev. William McSherry, of George- town College, and translated from the Latin. An abstract of it may be found in chapter first of History of Maryland, by James McSherry. The first part of the Relation is a description of the country, and appears to have been written at Lon- don previous to the departure of Calvert; the remainder details the incidents of the voyage and the first settlement of the colony, especially of the proceedings of the Jesuit missionaries down to the year 1677.
191
ANCIENT DOMINION OF VIRGINIA.
been expelled by the English of Virginia "on account of their profession of the Catholic faith."
In a short time after the landing of Leonard Calvert in Mary- land, Sir John Harvey, Governor of Virginia, visited him at St. Mary's. His arrival attracted to the same place the Indian chief of Patuxent, who said: "When I heard that a great werowance of the English was come to Yoacomoco, I had a great desire to see him; but when I heard the werowance of Pasbie-haye was come thither also to see him, I presently start up, and without further counsel came to see them both."*
In March, 1634, at a meeting of the governor and council, Clayborne inquired of them how he should demean himself toward Lord Baltimore and his deputies in Maryland, who claimed jurisdiction over the colony at Kent Isle. The governor and council replied that the right of his lordship's patent being yet undetermined in England, they were bound in duty and by their oaths to maintain the rights and privileges of the colony of Virginia. Nevertheless, in all humble submission to his majesty's pleasure, they resolved to keep and observe all good correspond- ence with the Maryland new-comers.t
The Maryland patent conferred upon Lord Baltimore, a popish recusant, the entire government of the colony, including the pa- tronage and advowson of all churches, the same to be dedicated and consecrated according to the ecclesiastical law. This charter was illegal, inasmuch as it granted powers which the king him- self did not possess; the grantee being a papist could not conform to the ecclesiastical laws of England; and, therefore, the provi- sions of this extraordinary instrument could not be, and were not designed to be, executed according to the plain and obvious mean- ing. Such was the character of the instrument by which King Charles the First despoiled Virginia of so large a portion of her territory. It is true, indeed, that the Virginia charter had been annulled, but this was done upon the condition explicitly and re-
* Anderson's Hist. of Col. Church, ii. 120, referring to " Relation of the suc- cessful beginnings of the Lord Baltimore's Plantation, in Maryland," signed by Captain Wintour, and others, adventurers in the expedition, and published 'in 1634.
Chalmers' Annals. Chalmers is the more full and satisfactory in his account of Maryland, because he had resided there for many years.
192
ANCIENT DOMINION OF VIRGINIA.
peatedly declared by the royal government, that vested rights should receive no prejudice thereby .*
Clayborne, rejecting the authority of the new plantation, Lord Baltimore gave orders to seize him if he should not submit him- self to the proprietary government of Maryland. The Indians beginning to exhibit some indications of hostility toward the set- tlers, they attributed it to the machinations of Clayborne, alleg- ing that it was he who stirred up the jealousy of the savages, persuading them that the new-comers were Spaniards and ene- mies to the Virginians, and that he had also infused his own spirit of insubordination into the inhabitants of Kent Island. A trading vessel called the Longtail, employed by Clayborne in the Indian trade in the Chesapeake Bay, was captured by the Mary- landers. He thereupon fitted out an armed pinnace with a crew of fourteen men under one of his adherents, Lieutenant Warren, to rescue the vessel. Two armed pinnaces were sent out by Cal- vert under Captain Cornwallis; and in an engagement that en- sued in the Potomac, or, as some accounts have it, the Pocomoke River, one of the Marylanders fell, and three of the Virginians, including Lieutenant Warren. The rest were carried prisoners to St. Mary's. Clayborne was indicted although not arrested, and convicted of murder and piracy, constructive crimes inferred from his opposition. The chief of Patuxent was interrogated as to Clayborne's intrigues among the Indians. t
Harvey, either from fear of the popular indignation, or from some better motive, refused to surrender the fugitive Clayborne to the Maryland commissioners, and according to one authority sent him to England, accompanied by the witnesses. Chalmers, good authority on the subject, makes no allusion to the circum- . stance, and it appears more probable that Clayborne having ap- pealed to the king, went voluntarily to England.§ It is certain that he was not brought to trial there.
* Force's Hist. Tracts, ii. ; Virginia and Maryland, 7 et seq .; and Anderson's Hist. of Col. Church, ii. 113.
+ McSherry's Maryland, 40; Chalmers' Annals, 211, 232; Force's Historical Tracts, ii. 13.
į Burk's Hist. of Va., ii. 41, referring to "Ancient Records" of the London Company.
¿ Force's Hist. Tracts, ii. ; Maryland and Virginia, 22.
CHAPTER XXI.
1635-1639.
Eight Shires-Harvey's Grants of Territory-His Corrupt and Tyrannical Ad- ministration-The Crown guarantees to the Virginians the Rights which they enjoyed before the Dissolution of the Charter-Burk's Opinion of Clayborne --- Governor Harvey deposed-Returns to England-Charles the First reinstates him-Disturbances in Kent Island-Charles reprimands Lord Baltimore for his Maltreatment of Clayborne-The Lords Commissioners decide in favor of Balti- more-Threatening State of Affairs in England-Harvey recalled-Succeeded by Sir Francis Wyat.
IN the year 1634 Virginia was divided into eight shires : James City, Henrico, Charles City, Elizabeth City, Warrasqueake, Charles River, and Accomac. The original name of Pamaunkee, or Pamunkey, had then been superseded by Charles River, which afterwards gave way to the present name of York. Pamunkey, at first the name of the whole river, is now restricted to one of its branches. The word Pamaunkee is said to signify "where we took a sweat."
The grant of Maryland to Lord Baltimore opened the way for similar grants to other court-favorites, of lands lying to the north and to the south of the settled portion of the Ancient Colony and Dominion of Virginia. While Charles the First was lavishing vast tracts of her territory upon his favorites, Sir John Harvey, a worthy pacha of such a sultan, in collusion with the royal com- missioners, imitated the royal munificence by giving away large bodies not only of the public, or crown lands, but even of such as belonged to private planters .* In the contests between Clayborne and the proprietary of Maryland, while the people of Virginia warmly espoused their countryman's cause, Harvey sided with . Baltimore, and proved himself altogether a fit instrument of the administration then tyrannizing in England. He was extor-
* Beverley, B. i. 50.
13 (193)
1
194
HISTORY OF THE COLONY AND
tionate, proud, unjust, and arbitrary; he issued proclamations in derogation of the legislative powers of the assembly; assessed, levied, held, and disbursed the colonial revenue, without check or responsibility; transplanted into Virginia exotic English sta- tutes; multiplied penalties and exactions, and appropriated fines to his own use; he added the decrees of the court of high com- mission of England to the ecclesiastical constitutions of Virginia. The assembly, nevertheless, met regularly; and the legislation of the colony expanded itself in accordance with the exigencies of an increasing population. Tobacco was subjected, by royal ordi- nances, to an oppressive monopoly; and in those days of pre- rogative, a remonstrance to the Commons for redress proved fruitless.
At length, in July, 1634, the council's committee for the colo- nies, either from policy or from compassion, transmitted instruc- tions to the governor and council, saying: "That it is not intended that interests which men have settled when you were a corpora- tion, should be impeached; that for the present they may enjoy their estates with the same freedom and privilege as they did be- fore the recalling of their patents," and authorizing the appropria- tion of lands to the planters, as had been the former custom .*
Whether these concessions were inadequate in themselves, or were not carried into effect by Harvey, upon the petition of many of the inhabitants, an assembly was called to meet on the 7th of May, 1635, to hear complaints against that obnoxious functionary. There is hardly any point on which a people are more sensitive than in regard to their territory, and it may therefore be con- cluded, that one of Harvey's chief offences was his having sided with Lord Baltimore in his infraction of the Virginia territory.
Burk, in his History of Virginia, has stigmatized Clayborne as "an unprincipled incendiary" and "execrable villain ;" other writers have applied similar epithets to him. It appears to have been only his resolute defence of his own rights and those of Vir-
* By the words "for the present," was probably intended "at present," " now," otherwise their interests might be impeached at a future day, although not immediately. Chalmers, Hist. of Revolt of Amer. Colonies, 36, so inter- prets the expression.
195
ANCIENT DOMINION OF VIRGINIA.
ginia that subjected him to this severe denunciation. He was long a member of the council; long filled the office of secretary; was held in great esteem by the people, and was for many years a leading spirit of the colony. Burk* denounces Sir John Har- vey for refusing to surrender the fugitive Clayborne to the de- mand of the Maryland Commissioners, and adds: "But the time was at hand when this rapacious and tyrannical prefect (Harvey) would experience how vain and ineffectual are the projects of tyranny when opposed to the indignation of freemen." Thus the governor, who excited the indignation of the Virginians by his collusion with the Marylanders, was afterwards reprobated by historians for sympathizing with Clayborne in his defence of the rights of Virginia, and opposition to the Marylanders. If Har- vey, in violation of the royal license granted to Clayborne in 1631, had surrendered him to the Maryland Commissioners, he would have exposed himself to the royal resentment; and nothing could have more inflamed the indignation of freemen than such treatment of the intrepid vindicator of their territorial rights.
Before the assembly (called to hear complaints against the governor) met, Harvey, having consented to go to England to answer them, was "thrust out of the government" by the council on the 28th of April, 1635, and Captain John West was authorized to act as governor until the king's pleasure should be known. The assembly having collected the evidence, deputed two members of the council to go out with Harvey to prefer the charges against him. It was also ordered that during the vacancy in the office of governor, the secretary (Clayborne) should sign commissions and passes, and manage the affairs of the Indians.t
King Charles the First, offended at the presumption of the council and assembly, reinstated Sir John, and he resumed his place, in or before the month of January, 1636. Chalmerst says that he returned in April, 1637. Thus the first open resistance to tyranny, and vindication of constitutional right, took place in the colony of Virginia; and the deposition of Harvey fore- shadowed the downfall of Charles the First. The laws that had
* Hist. of Va., ii. 40.
į Hist. of Revolt of Amer. Colonies, i. 36.
¡ Hen., i. 223.
196
HISTORY OF THE COLONY AND
been enacted by the first assembly of Maryland, having been sent over to England for his approval, he rejected them, on the ground that the right of framing them was vested in himself; and he directed an assembly to be summoned to meet in January, 1638, to have his dissent announced to them.
Early in 1637 a court was established by the Maryland authori- ties, in Kent Island, and toward the close of that year Captain George Evelin was appointed commander of the island. Many of Clayborne's adherents there refused to submit to the jurisdic- tion of Lord Baltimore's colony, and the governor, Leonard Cal- vert, found it necessary to repair there in March, 1638, in person, with a military force, to reduce to submission these Virginia malecontents. The Maryland legislature, convened in compliance with Lord Baltimore's orders, refused to acquiesce in his claim of the legislative power, and in the event they gained their point, his lordship being satisfied with a controlling influence in the choice of the delegates, and his veto.
The Virginians captured by Cornwallis in his engagement with Warren, had been detained prisoners without being brought to trial, there being no competent tribunal in the colony. At length Thomas Smith, second in command to Warren, was brought to trial for the murder of William Ashmore, (who had been killed in the skirmish,) and was found guilty, and sentenced to death; but it is not certain that he was executed. Clayborne was attainted, and his property confiscated; and these proceedings probably produced those disturbances in Kent Island which required the governor's presence.
Harvey, after his restoration, continued to be governor of Vir- ginia for about three years, during which period there appears to have been no meeting of the assembly, and of this part of his ad- ministration no record is left.
In July, 1638, Charles the First addressed a letter to Lord Baltimore, referring to his former letters to "Our Governor and Council of Virginia, and to others, our officers and subjects in these parts, (in which) we signified our pleasure that William Clayborne, David Morehead, and other planters in the island near Virginia, which they have nominated Kentish Island, should in no sort be interrupted by you or any other in your right, but
197
ANCIENT DOMINION OF VIRGINIA.
rather be encouraged to proceed in so good a work." The king complains to Baltimore that his agents, in spite of the royal in- structions, had "slain three of our subjects there, and by force possessed themselves by night of that island, and seized and car- ried away both the persons and estates of the said planters." His majesty concludes by enjoining a strict compliance with his former orders .*
In 1639 Father John Gravener, a Jesuit missionary, resided at Kent Island. In April of this year the Lords Commissioners of Plantations, with Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, at their head, held a meeting at Whitehall, and determined the contro- versy between Clayborne and Lord Baltimore. This decision was made in consequence of a petition presented in 1637 by Clay- borne to the king, claiming, by virtue of discovery and settlement, Kent Island and another plantation at the mouth of the Susque- hanna River, and complaining of the attempts of Lord Baltimore's agents there to dispossess him and his associates, and of outrages committed upon them. The decision was now absolute in favor of Baltimore; and Clayborne, despairing of any peaceable re- dress, returned to Virginia, and having in vain prayed for the restoration of his property, awaited some future opportunity to vindicate his rights, and to recover property amounting in value to six thousand pounds, of which he had been despoiled. }
The Governor of Maryland, engaged in hostilities with the In- dians, obtained a supply of arms, ammunition, and provision from the Governor of Virginia.
Charles the First, bred in all the arts of corrupt and arbitrary government, had now for many years governed England by pre- rogative, without a parliament, until at length his necessities con- strained him to convene one; and his apprehensions of that body, and the revolt of the Scotch, and other alarming ebullitions of discontent, admonished him and his advisers to mitigate the high- handed measures of administration. The severity of colonial rule was also relaxed, and in November, 1639, the unpopular Sir
* Chalmers' Annals, 232.
+ Clayborne is the same name with Claiborne; it is found sometimes spelt Claiborn, and sometimes Cleyborne.
1
198
ANCIENT DOMINION OF VIRGINIA.
John Harvey was displaced, and succeeded by Sir Francis Wyat .* But Harvey remained in Virginia, and continued to be a member of the council. About this time mention is made of the exporta- tion of cattle from Virginia to New England.
* 1 Hening's Stat. at Large, 4. Burk, Hist. of Va., ii. 46, erroneously makes Sir William Berkley succeed Harvey.
CHAPTER XXII.
1640-1644.
Alarming State of Affairs in England-The Long Parliament summoned-In Vir- ginia Stephen Reekes pilloried-Sir William Berkley made Governor-Assem- bly declare against Restoration of Virginia Company-The King's Letter- Puritans in Virginia-Act against Non-conformists-Massacre of 1644-Ope- chancanough captured-His Death-Civil War in England-Sir William Berk- ley visits England-Clayborne expels Calvert from Maryland, and seizes the Government-Treaty with Necotowance-Statistics of the Colony.
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.