USA > Virginia > City of Williamsburg > City of Williamsburg > Site of old "James Towne," 1607-1698 : a brief historical and topographical sketch of the first American metropolis > Part 10
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Sir William married about his sixtieth year, in 1670, Frances Culpeper, the widow of ex-Governor Stephens, of North Caro- lina, and left no descendants.
Sir William served two terms as governor of Virginia, the first of about ten (February, 1642-April 30, 1652), the second of about seventeen years (March 13, 1660-April 27, 1677). The second Indian massacre, led, as was the first, by Opechan- canough, brother and successor to the Sachem Wahunsunacock, commonly known as Powhatan, occurred (April 17, 1644) on " Holy Thursday," near the end of the second year of Governor Berkeley's first term. In it about three hundred of the settlers were murdered.
About this time Sir William visited England for consultation with the Royal government. The trip was made necessary by the outbreak of the Revolution. Shortly after his return to Virginia in June, 1645, he attacked Opechancanough's force
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and captured the old blind chief, who, while confined at James- town, was treacherously murdered by his jailers.
Richard Kemp, president of the Council, acted as governor during Sir William's absence of about one year. Under Kemp's administration laws were passed by the Assembly intended to diminish the consumption of spiritous liquors by imposing a heavy tax on their sale.
During Sir William's first term the colony prospered, and its population increased. While the Revolution in England was in progress, notwithstanding a division of sentiment in the colony as to the burning issue of the times, Cromwell versus Royalty, matters proceeded harmoniously. Among Cromwell's adherents in Virginia were several prominent persons, including Captain Stegge, Richard Bennett, William Claiborne and Samuel Matthews.
When Sir Wiliam Berkeley was relieved of office under the Commonwealth, Richard Bennett was elected his successor by the Grand Assembly. Bennett served for about three years (April 30, 1652-March 31, 1655). He was a Puritan elder, and on account of his religious views had been obliged to leave Virginia during Berkeley's first term (1648). From Virginia he went to Maryland, thence to England. In September, 1651, he was appointed a member of the commission nominated by Parliament to receive the surrender of the colonies, of which the other members were William Claiborne, Edmund Curtis, Robert Dennis and Thomas Stegge.
Governor Bennett was succeeded by Edward Digges, who served about three years (March 31, 1655-March 13, 1658). An important event of his term was the defeat of the colonial forces and their Indian allies, the Pamunkeys, under their chief Tottopottomoy, under the command of Colonel Edward Hill, at Bloody Run, near Richmond, Va., by the Richicrechian Indians.
Governor Digges' successor was Captain Samuel Matthews (March 13, 1658-January, 1660). Captain Matthews was one of the councillors who, as before mentioned, "thrust out of his government " Sir John Harvey.
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During the session of the Assembly in which Matthews was elected governor, a resolution was adopted to exclude the gover- nor and Council from the sessions of the House of Burgesses. The governor unsuccessfully opposed the measure.
The policy of Cromwell towards Virginia was far more pacific and liberal than that under Royal rule, either before or after the interregnum. In consequence, the country duly pros- pered under the Commonwealth. The three Roundhead gov- ernors, Bennett, Digges and Matthews, were excellent and worthy men.
Under the terms of surrender to the Parliamentary Commis- sioners, Virginia was to enjoy all of her ancient privileges, and be free from all taxes and customs except such as were imposed by its own legislature.
On the death of "worthy Captain Matthews," the last Round- head governor, about six weeks before the Restoration, Sir Wil- liam Berkeley was elected by the Assembly to his second term. Now the ingratitude and selfishness of the Stuarts was made conspicuous by the conduct of Charles the Second towards Vir- ginia, for instead of being at least as considerate as Cromwell, he rewarded his ever faithful subjects by imposing heavier taxes on them than they had ever before experienced.
The oppressive taxes were carried by the Navigation Act, passed by the Rump Parliament in 1653. By this act, as amended under King Charles II, all trade by the colonists was to be carried on exclusively with British subjects in England, in English or colonial built vessels, commanded by English officers, and manned by a crew of which at least 75 per cent. were to be Englishmen.
The penalties for infractions of the law were extremely severe. The English merchants thus became monopolists, fixing the prices of both the products received from Virginia and the commodities which they sent there. The colonists, however, still enjoyed free trade with the neighboring colonies. After suffering for nine years under this oppressive measure, their burden was made still more onerous by the subjecting of local
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trade with New Amsterdam and New England to the same taxes as trade with the Mother Country. In consequence of the Navi- gation Act, the colonists were impoverished, and a spirit of dis- satisfaction and unrest was created. Notwithstanding the impoverishment and suffering wrought by the act, the colony would probably have escaped the revolution known as Bacon's Rebellion, had it not been for Berkeley's unjust and impolitic course in perpetuating the same Assembly for sixteen years by successive prorogations, instead of ordering, according to cus- tom, elections for new Assemblies, and by failing to punish the aggressions of the Indians for fear of thereby incurring personal losses in the fur trade.
About four months after Sir William's election, Charles the Second was proclaimed king. In April, 1661, Sir William went to England on official business and left Colonel Francis Moryson to act as governor till his return in the fall of 1662. Making due allowance for the narrow mindedness of the age, Colonel Moryson appears to have been a man with some liberal ideas.
In 1667, and again in 1673, Dutch fleets appeared at the mouth of James River and destroyed the English shipping.
In the summer of 1675, certain Susquehanna Indians who had been driven south by the warlike Senecas, and had lodged with the Piscataquas at the head of Chesapeake Bay, crossed the Potomac into Virginia and stole some swine. The marauders were pursued into Maryland by the Virginians, led by Colonel George Mason and Major George Brent, and, in the pursuit, several friendly Susquehannas and a chief were killed. Re- prisals followed by the Indians, who quickly gathered into one of their towns which they fortified.
A large body of Marylanders and Virginians under the leader- ship of the above officers and Colonel John Washington appear- ing before the town, five Indian chiefs came out for a parley. These, it would appear, were slain, without provocation. The town was then beseiged for about seven weeks, when the entire body of Indians unexpectedly made a night sally and escaped.
The only measure which had thus far been provided by the
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colonial government for protecting the frontiers against the Indians was the establishing at remote points of a few insignifi- cant forts. These posts, on account of being so widely separated, afforded no security to the settlers, while their maintenance was a great drain on the public purse, which caused general dissatis- faction.
In January, 1676, a band of Susquehannas attacked the frontier settlements at the heads of the Virginia rivers, and slew many of the settlers. Governor Berkeley ordered a force to be assembled by Sir Henry Chicheley to punish the Indians. Before the order was carried out, however, the troops were dis- banded without making any demonstration. The governor's reprehensible conduct in this matter, by which an extensive area of sparsely peopled country was exposed to the depredations of the savages greatly incensed the people, and it became common talk among the gossips that "no bullets could pierce bever skins." In response to a petition from the people for an organ- ized force to proceed against the Indians, the governor forbade the presenting of any further such petitions, under severe pen- alties. This caused some to naively remark that " rebbell for- feitures would be royal inheritances."
News of an invasion by the Indians being received, a large gathering of the people of the upper tidewater counties was held, at which Nathaniel Bacon, Jr., of Curle's Neck, was prevailed on to take command of a band of three hundred volunteers, for which position the governor was requested to grant him a com- mission.
Bacon was an educated man, of good family. He came to Virginia when about thirty years of age, with his wife Elizabeth Duke, about 1674, and settled at Curle's Neck, about twenty miles below Richmond. He was of an impulsive and impetous nature, and a born leader of men. He left two daughters, but no sons.ยช
2 Colonel Gordon McCabe, in Times-Dispatch, Richmond, Va., Jan. 12, 1907.
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The commission not being forthcoming, Bacon set out without one, and attacked and killed a number of Ockinagee Indians, to whom he had applied for subsistence for his men, but who gave in return, possibly at the instigation of the governor, only evasive replies. These Indians were regarded as friendly.
The governor at once proclaimed Bacon and his followers as being in a state of rebellion, ordered them to disband, and set out with a small party to intercept them. Failing in this, and probably being aware of the murmurings of dissatisfaction of the people at his shortcomings, he at once, on his return to Jamestown, ordered an election to be held for new burgesses, and directed a number of the useless and expensive forts to be abandoned.
Nathaniel Bacon, Jr., who had heretofore been a member of the Council, was nominated as a burgess from Henrico County, and being duly elected, proceeded in June, 1676, to the capital, to take his seat in the Assembly. Being apprised, on his arrival near the town, of the governor's intention to arrest him, he attempted to return up the James. His sloop, however, was overtaken, and he and a number of his adherents were arrested and taken before the governor.
The crafty Berkeley, mindful that Bacon's influence could be more effectually curtailed by keeping him out of the Assembly, restored him to the Council. This, however, was not done until, at the instance, and under the persuasion of his kinsman, Colo- nel Nathaniel Bacon, Sr., Bacon had acknowledged his trans- gression and besought the governor's pardon in a "parasiticall " paper formally presented on bended knee.
Immediately following Bacon's pardon and restoration to the Council, the Assembly declared war against the Indians, and nominated Bacon as commander of the forces to be employed against them. The governor acquiesced in Bacon's appoint- ment, and promised to issue a commission to him within a few days. After vainly waiting several days for the commission, Bacon returned to his home at Curle's Neck, on James River.
It is stated by some that Bacon obtained the governor's per-
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mission to leave Jamestown under the plea of his wife's illness, also that he had been warned to seek safety in flight from the governor's hostility. It is probable, however, that Bacon, being a man of great perspicuity and determination, was aware of the governor's insincerity, and would not brook temporizing.
On June 21, at "2 of the clock," within a week of Bacon's departure, he returned to Jamestown, crossed the isthmus and invaded the island at the head of four to five hundred armed men. Bacon's entrance was entirely unopposed. His troops formed on a green " not a flight shot distant," or less than one hundred yards, from the state house on the third ridge.
In a half hour the burgesses were assembled by drum beat, and in an hour Bacon proceeded to the state house with a guard of fusileers. Near the corner at the eastern end of the building he was met by the governor and Council. Both of the principals to the meeting were greatly excited, the governor baring his breast and challenging Bacon to shoot him, while the latter reassuringly replied that the procuring of a commission to fight the Indians, and not the infliction of personal injury on the governor, was his only purpose. In the meanwhile, the fusi- leers of Bacon's guard intimidated the burgesses gazing at this exciting scene from the upper story of the state house, by leveling their pieces with matches lighted at the windows, and vocifer- ously demanding their leader's commission. It is also reported that Bacon muttered "Dam my blood, I'll kill governor and Council, Assembly and all, and then I'll sheathe my sword in my own heart's blood," and that all that was necessary to carry this blood-curdling vow into execution was the drawing of his eword, which was prevented by the "waiving of a pacifick hankercher " by one of the aforesaid burgesses, accompanied by assurances that the commission would be given him.
The following day a commission was presented to Bacon, who promptly rejected it, probably on the score of its insufficiency, and another was soon drawn which met his approval. After passing an act carrying full pardon to Bacon and his followers
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for their previous unauthorized and illegal acts during the uprising, the Assembly adjourned.
General Bacon at once started for the appointed rendezvous of his forces at the Falls of James River, and the governor skulked to Gloucester.
Reassured by the recent action of the governor and Assembly, the people rallied to Bacon's standard.
On the very eve of Bacon's departure to attack the Indians, news was brought to his army that Governor Berkeley had again proclaimed him a rebel, and had called out the Gloucester militia to march against him. The people, however, were lukewarm, five-sixths of them, it is said, being in sympathy with Bacon. The militia, therefore, did not respond to the governor's call. Learning of Bacon's being on his way to Gloucester, the gov- ernor left for Accomac across Chesapeake Bay.
Bacon then made Middle Plantation (midway between James- town and Yorktown; later Williamsburg) his headquarters, and issued a proclamation declaring the governor and Council trait- ors, and requiring their apprehension and surrender. He also summoned the leading men of the colony to his camp to advise on the colony's affairs. After calling a meeting of the Assembly for September 4, and sending an armed vessel under Giles Bland and Richard Carver to capture Berkeley at Accomac, Bacon again sallied forth against the Indians. In the marshes of York River he was joined by Colonel Brent with four hun- dred men, who ostensibly had gone out to oppose him. The united forces scoured the country, and drove the Pamunkey Indians from their fastnesses.
Bacon's naval expedition ended disastrously, both command- ers and vessel being captured by a ruse. A writer of the time states that the capture was "caused by their indiscretion and the juice of the grape." Bland was taken by an old enemy, Philip Ludwell, whose brother Thomas, secretary of state, he had challenged by nailing his glove against the secretary's door.
The governor having raised a force of six hundred men, left Accomac for Jamestown with fifteen sail and, appearing before
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the town September 7, demanded its surrender. The seven hundred raw recruits under Colonel Hansford at once withdrew, and Sir William entered the town, the old hypocrite falling on his knees to offer thanks for his return. On learning of the governor's movements, Bacon hurried, by a forced march, to Jamestown, arriving at the isthmus with about three hundred footsore and tired men.
Over night, a work of earth and fascines was thrown up by Bacon's men on which, the following day, the guns of Sir Wil- liam's vessels opened an ineffective fire. While the firing was in progress Bacon extended his work and shortly after received and repulsed a half-hearted assault of Berkeley's men.
Bacon having brought up " two great guns," "The one he sets to worke ('playing some calls it that takes delight to see stately structures beated down and men blown up in the air like shuttle cocks')," the other to breach Berkeley's work on Block House Hill, at the southern end of the isthmus (see map). It appears that while moving these guns over the rough ground and em- placing them, Bacon exposed the wives of the members of Sir William's Council, whom he had taken into custody for the purpose, as a shield for his working party. This act would make Bacon appear rather more resourceful than gallant.
It was now Berkeley's turn to evacuate the town. Disheart- ened by the failure of his attack on Bacon, and yielding to the importunities of his men, he embarked his forces, under cover of night, and dropped down the James. The next morning Bacon entered the town and "that the wolves might harbour there no more " burned it the same night.
From near Mulberry Island, made memorable as the point where, over sixty years before, Captain Brewster met Gates with La Warr's instructions to return with his party to Jamestown, which they had just deserted, Sir William's party viewed the glare of the flames consuming the product of years of toil and suffering.
Bacon's next move was to Green Spring, from which he issued a manifesto against the governor. He then marched to Glouces-
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ter, where the seeds of disease planted by exposure developed into dysentery, from which he died. His burial place was kept secret to prevent his body being disinterred and hung in chains, and has never been revealed.
Thus died the people's champion, but not in vain. His ex- ample in resisting tyranny and oppression survives, and his cause, which seemingly was lost really conquered in its defeat.
After Bacon's death his party quickly fell to pieces for want of a leader, and by January 16, 1677, about seven months after its inception, the revolution was at an end.
The execution of twenty-three of his prisoners by Sir William Berkeley brought obloquy upon his name from both king and people. The hapless victims of the governor's wrath, after passing through the mockery of drum-head courts-martial, were strung up usually wherever they were tried or where it would best suit the governor's whim. These executions were made under a proclamation issued by Berkeley, who suppressed the king's proclamation, which excepted from pardon only Nathaniel Bacon, Jr.
The wave of revolt had scarcely passed before a wholesale confiscation was begun by the governor, who placed " the broad arrow " on property of all kinds, including the belongings of those whom he had widowed and orphaned by his bloody execu- tions. Some of this property was appropriated to his own uses, and formed the bases of suits against Lady Berkeley for several years after Sir William's death.
Sir William was as loath to leave Virginia as his successor, Thomas, Lord Culpeper, was to go there. He disregarded the king's recall made in November, 1676, and did not leave Vir- ginia until May, 1677, after the king's summons had been re- peated.
Lady Berkeley wielded great influence over her husband and his supporters, and after Sir William's departure from Vir- ginia, was the head of a cabal which intrigued against Colonel Jeffreys, the lieutenant-governor. The other members of this cabal were Colonel Philip Ludwell, Colonel Thomas Ballard,
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Colonel Edward Hill and Major Robert Beverley." Lady Berkeley was apparently very proud of the title of courtesy acquired by her marriage with Sir William, for, contrary to custom, she used it after her marriage to Colonel Ludwell, and it is to be seen on the only remaining fragment of her tombstone in the Jamestown churchyard.
Sir William's immediate successor was Colonel Herbert Jeffreys. one of the three commissioners sent to Virginia in the autumn of 1676 to report on Bacon's Rebellion. He commanded the regiment then sent to Virginia from England, " His Majes- tie's own regiment of Foot," the First Grenadier Guards. He was directed to conduct affairs till Lord Culpeper should arrive.
Culpeper, with other noblemen, favorites of King Charles the Second, had been granted the Northern Neck, or Potomac Neck, in 1669, and in 1673 received a grant of the entire colony for a term of thirty-one years. He was appointed governor for life July 8, 1675, his appointment to go into effect on the death or resignation of Berkeley.
Colonel Jeffreys performed the duties of the office for about eighteen months, when he died. Sir Henry Chicheley, Knight, described by some as " an old and crazy gentleman," but in fact, as shown by his private and official life, an estimable man, then acted as deputy governor until the tardy Culpeper arrived in May, 1680.
Culpeper did not relish a sojourn in Virginia, and the king had to threaten to supersede him if he should longer delay his departure from England. He was subsequently dismissed for absenting himself from his government without permission, after being warned for committing a first like offence. It was during his last absence from Virginia, in May, 1682, while Chicheley was deputy governor, that the tobacco plant cutting occurred. There being a surfeit of tobacco, and its culture con- sequently being unremunerative, the people asked that an Act of Assembly should be passed forbidding its planting for a year.
* Calendar of State Papers, 1677-1680, p. 776. 9-J. T.
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This request not being granted, the people set about destroying the crop. " The frenzy " spread from plantation to plantation throughout Gloucester and New Kent Counties, the owners of the destroyed crops joining the mob and assisting in destroying those of their neighbors. Both sexes participated in the move- ment, and when the authorities put a stop to the proceedings in the day time, it was resumed at night. Major Robert Beverley was accused of being the instigator of the trouble, and upon his arrest it practically ceased. When Culpeper returned to Vir- ginia he tried several of the culprits and, under a musty old law of the time of Elizabeth, hanged two of the poor creatures.
Governor Culpeper resided, during his incumbency, at Berke- ley's old home, Green Spring. Of the mansion scarcely a trace remains, while the spring flows unceasing, probably as profuse and cold as it was over two hundred years ago.
One of Culpeper's acts, while governor, was to defraud the English soldiers sent to Virginia during Bacon's Rebellion, out of part of their pay by paying them off in pieces of eight, the coin current, at a higher value than that fixed by law, and appro- priating the difference to his own uses.
Culpeper was superseded by Francis, Lord Howard of Effing- ham, in August, 1683. Effingham did not arrive till February, 1684, and meanwhile Nicholas Spencer, secretary of the Council, acted for him. During Effingham's administration the state house, burned in 1676, was rebuilt, and a treaty made with the Five Nations in New York (August 5, 1684), who, for many years, had been a constant menace to the settlements in Mary- land and Virginia.
Lord Howard established the reputation of being about as avaricious and unscrupulous as Lord Culpeper. He endeavored to have an act passed empowering him and the Council to raise money for the expenses of the government without the approval of the Assembly, but was unsuccessful. He was perpetually engaged in controversies with the Assembly, and was extremely unpopular.
During about two years of Effingham's term while he was
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absent, between 1688 and 1690, Colonel Nathaniel Bacon, Sr., president of the Council, acted as governor. No events of par- ticular moment occurred in the colony during this period.
In June, 1690, Sir Francis Nicholson, Knight, as lieutenant- governor, assumed the reins of government for Effingham. He was tactful and conciliatory, and made an excellent governor during his two years of office. Governor Nicholson was one of the subscribers to, and founders of, William and Mary College.
In 1692, Sir Edmund Andros, Knight, succeeded Effingham as governor. He was also appointed representative of the Bishop of London, of whose diocese Virginia formed a part. The Rev. James Blair, first president of William and Mary College, had been appointed the bishop's commissary, or representative, several years before. A clash over ecclesiastical matters occurred between the governor and the commissary, in which although the governor, on account of his official position, had a tempo- rary advantage, he was finally worsted. In November, 1698, Nicholson returned to Virginia as governor and successor to Andros. His second administration was the antithesis of his first, and in it he distinguished himself for committing numer- ous petty illegal acts instigated by spite or caprice.
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