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 11
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During Nicholson's second term Jamestown's career was terminated by the seat of government being transferred to Wil- liamsburg.
Few of the Royal governors seated at Jamestown ran the gauntlet of office and escaped without meriting censure. Some of the governors under the London Company were probably the most meritorious, not the least of whom was the illustrious La Warr. Although La Warr's stay in Virginia was of too short duration to fully test his ability and character, it must not be forgotten that he not only bestowed his talents, but gave life and fortune as well to the founding of this nation.
THE ENGLISH AND VIRGINIANS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
S the reign of James I. of England began but four years before the first landing of the English at Jamestown, and as that of his great grandaughter, Queen Anne, ter- minated fifteen years after the capital of the colony was transferred to Williamsburg, the life of the town was approxi- mately coincident with the Stuart dynasty. It is more nearly measured by the reigns of the four Stuart kings.
Virginia was ever loyal to the house of Stuart. When the tocsin of civil war sounded, the impetuous and courageous Berkeley prepared for resisting the invasion of Virginia by the " Roundhead " forces. Then, too, at the restoration, Virginia was in the van in welcoming the king to his own again.
Although a knowledge of the physical characteristics of James- town and its environs are necessary to mentally depict its out- lines, it is also essential, to make the picture life-like, to give some account of the conditions existing during its time. Un- fortunately, Jamestown held no Evelyn or Pepys, from whose journals to cull, and for information we, perforce, must turn to the " Mother Country."
As many of the Jamestonians were from London and its vicinage, a presentation of some of the more important social and economic conditions prevailing in England, especially at the metropolis, during the reign of the Stuarts, should in a measure give an idea of conditions that obtained during the same period at Jamestown.
At the opening of the seventeenth century the dawn of en- lightenment was beginning to break on the Christian world, and England was furnishing her quota of scholars, whose efforts contributed towards lifting the dark veil of superstition that enveloped the earth, by unfolding the laws of Nature and
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KING CHARLES THE FIRST
KING JAMES THE I.
KING CHARLES THE SECOND
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Nature's God, and turning them to the advantage of mankind. The seed planted by the writings of Francis Bacon, John Locke, Sir Isaac Newton, and others, however, was slow to bear fruit. The emancipation of the human mind was gradual, and the be- nign light of knowledge did not shine with sufficient strength to fully dispel the encumbering mist until many years after the little town had sunk into its sleep, which knew no awakening. Coincident with the promulgation of a knowledge of the Coper- nican system, Astrology was thrust aside; but the flames hitherto kindled by fanaticism under the guise of religion still claimed their victims at the stake in the persons of heretics, witches and sorcerers. King James I participated in the torturing of thirty unfortunates, who were executed at Edinburgh, to wring from them confession of a witch conspiracy against him and his newly wedded wife, Anne of Denmark. The savage law of executing witches was practiced, to a considerable extent, in the Massachusetts colony, where, at the instigation of the Rev. Cot- ton Mather, nineteen so alleged were executed in 1692. In Virginia, none was executed, but one poor creature was abused by ducking. But then, as Bancroft explains, "New England was a religious plantation."
Inasmuch as when ships were delayed by stress of weather or through fault of their masters or crews it was the fashion to ascribe such bad fortune to the presence of a witch among the passengers, one of whom was singled out and summarily execu- ted, it was rather hazardous in those days for a homely woman of advanced years to take passage for Virginia. There is record of two women bound for Virginia being thus hanged at sea, Mary Lee in 1654 and Elizabeth Richardson in 1658. John Washington, brother of Lawrence, witnessed the execution of the latter, and endeavored to prevent it.
Until near the close of the century the almost sole means of communicating intelligence at a distance was private corres- pondence. News letters were in vogue, and a few poor news- papers were being printed in London, but a newspaper at all resembling one of to-day did not appear till about the time of
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Queen Anne. The first weekly newspaper published in England, " The Newes of the Present Week," made its first appearance May 23, 1622, or the day following the first massacre of the Virginia settlers by the Indians.
The education of females was, as a rule, neglected. Some women of high social standing could not write their own names. Books were scarce and expensive. The profit and enjoyment of the writings of Shakespeare, Locke, Dryden, Bacon, Milton, and others, were restricted to a few, possessed of considerable means.
The seventeenth century passed without giving England a single painter or sculptor of renown. A landmark of the times, however, St. Pauls, or "Paules " as it was familiarly called, survives at London, a perfect creation of its style, by one of England's greatest architects, whose tomb carries as part of the significant epitaph, " Si monumentum requiris, circumspice." Wren's constructive genius and talent as an architect shone out in the rebuilding of London after the great fire of 1667, when, among other works, he constructed fifty of the fifty-three churches that were rebuilt out of the ninety-eight that were then consumed. It is said that he designed some of the early Vir- ginia buildings, but there appears to be no evidence to support this statement.
Medical science was in an almost negative state. True, the circulation of the blood had been discovered by Harvey, but the skill of the general practitioner of the healing art appeared to have been of the highest who surrounded the compounding of his prescriptions with the greatest mystery, and could produce the most startling and nauseous concoctions. Medical works there were, some home written, others translations, but with the exception of some still familiar simples, such as senna, gentian, wormwood, rhubarb, and a few other dainty herbal remedies, they contain few prescriptions that would not arouse our com- miseration for the unhappy patients to whom they were admin- istered, or that would reflect credit even on an Indian Medicine Man, or an African conjurer. Poultices made of toads and snails were highly regarded, and when King Charles II was on
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his death bed, suffering apparently from a stroke of paralysis, besides the placing of hot irons to his head and subjecting him to the almost invariable bleeding, he was forced to swallow a brew made from human skulls. No wonder he complained of a consuming fire within.
A feature of the treatment of fever consisted of covering the patient with bed clothes, almost to suffocation, in a closed hot room, and John Evelyn notes in his journal his belief that one of his children was killed by this treatment.
Among the great army of medical quacks and empirics there were a few bright lights. All, however, resorted to bleeding, except for loss of appetite and a few other ailments. Shortly before the middle of the century the learned Sydenham proposed using for fevers Peruvian bark, but recently introduced into Spain (1642). In this, however, he was opposed by his con- fréres. Touching by the sovereign for the cure of King's Evil, dating back to the time of Edward the Confessor, was practiced till the reign of Queen Anne.
Although religious fanaticism was not as violent in the seven- teenth century as in the sixteenth, the penalty of death at the stake was still inflicted on those adjudged heretics by ecclesias- tical courts. This penalty was meted out to two Arians in the reign of King James I, four years after the settlement of James- town. The conflict between religious sects still obtained, it being the fashion for the dominant sect to persecute and torture those whose theology or creed was at variance with its own, and to use harsh and cruel measures in pointing out the road to salvation.
Sympathy for those in misfortune was not generally mani- fested, as it is to-day, and the few charities lacked organization. The rabble made sport of the felon on his way to the gallows, and followed him with gibes and execrations. The culprit in the stocks was derided and pelted, and could account himself fortunate if he survived the ordeal with no worse punishment at the hands of his fellows than the bodily bruises made by their missiles, and the laceration of his feelings by their taunts. This
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lack of feeling was not confined to the lower classes, for we are told that gentlemen of fashion showed a like moral depravity by attending by way of pastime the whipping of women prisoners in the jails.‘ Men's minds had not been directed into humane channels, and the standard of benevolence was at such a low ebb that some who were accounted philanthropists thought it not amiss to employ children of the tender age of six in factories. Discipline in the school room, the family, and in military organizations, was harsh and cruel.
Tennis, golf and card games then, as now, were pastimes, also morris dances and May pole games, both now all but obso- lete. About a quarter of a century after Jamestown was founded the Puritans in some districts of England prohibited the people from engaging in games and sports on Sundays, in consequence of which King Charles I issued his "Declaration of Sports," forbidding any interference on Sunday afternoons with those indulging in such sports, as dancing, archery, and other similar pastimes, provided they had attended divine service in the morn- ing. Bull baiting and playing at bowles, however, were pro- hibited. The play of skittles was abolished by law.
During the reigns of James I and Charles I music was re- garded as a necessary accomplishment for both sexes, and was cultivated by all classes. Chappell tells us that "Tinkers sung catches, milkmaids sung ballads, each trade and even beggars had their special songs. The bass viol hung in the drawing- room for the amusement of waiting visitors, and the lute, cithern and virginals were necessary furniture of the barber shop. They had music at dinner, * * at supper, * * at wed- dings, * * at funerals, * * at night, * * at dawn, * * at work, and at play." Under the Commonwealth, music was con- demned by the Puritans as frivolous, and as one of Satan's snares, and they excluded it from the church and family. With the Restoration, music was revived. Madrigals, resembling glee songs; dramatic plays, interspersed with music, called
Macaulay's Hist. of England, Vol. I.
KING JAMES THE SECOND
QUEEN MARY
KING WILLIAM THE THIRD
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masques, the precursor of the opera, were the common forms of presenting it. The harpsichord, as successor of the virginals, appeared during the century, but the musical instruments in more common use included violins, viols, and several forms of harps and wind instruments.
The purchasing power of the English laborer's wages, com- pared with the prices of necessaries, was apparently about half as great as to-day. The wage rate was fixed by law, and em- ployers paying a higher one were subject to penalties.
Wheaten bread was too expensive for general use, and pease pudding, oatmeal porridge, rye bread, cheese and small beer, were common articles of diet. Meats, as compared with wages, were high. Vegetables in common use, both in England and in Virginia, comprised peas, cabbage, cauliflower, onions, turnips and carrots. Tea was introduced into England towards the end of the Commonwealth, and coffee in the sixth year of King Charles the Second's reign.
It was not until seventy-two years after the landing of the English at Jamestown that the act of Habeas Corpus, which in a restricted sense had become a statute in the reign of Charles I, received, in a more extended form, royal approval at the hands of Charles II. James II endeavored, although unsuccessfully, to have Parliament repeal the act. The act was not operative in Virginia during the Jamestown period."
When the colonizing of Virginia was begun it is authentically stated that there were nearly 300 offences against the law for which the death penalty, with or without the benefit of clergy, was prescribed. Among them was the refusal of the accused to plead in court. A notable instance of the infliction of the penalty for this offence in the Colonies was that of Giles Cory, pressed to death " between boards " at Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692. Witches and sorcerers were to pay their reckoning with- out benefit of clergy, also those who should " relieve comfort or maintain any Roman Catholic ecclesiastic," or who were seen
5 Campbell's History of Virginia.
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consorting with Gypsies for one month. Conviction of theft from a church, dwelling, or the person, of the value of twelve pence, constituting compound larceny, of breaking a dam en- tailing the loss of fish, of cutting down a cherry tree in an orchard, of transporting wool, lead or silver out of the realm, of counterfeiting and of breaking jail, were also to be atoned for by death, although the culprit in these instances was accorded the privilege of receiving from his priest the solace of religion. Even beyond the middle of the 18th century 160 of these relics of the jurisprudence of a still lightless age remained unrepealed, among them being the burning at the stake of women who had murdered their husbands. This penalty, derived from an ancient Druidical law, was not repealed until the reign of George IV.
An example of the excessive penalties then inflicted is illus- trated by the case of Wm. Prynne, a Presbyterian lawyer, whose offence consisted of having written a book against the stage. His work was entitled " Histriomastix, or a Scourge for Stage Players." It was published in 1633. The penalties were a fine of ten thousand pounds sterling, Prynne also to have his ears cropped and his nose slit, to be disbarred, branded in the fore- head, to stand in the pillory in Westminster and Cheapside, and be perpetually imprisoned, " like monsters that are not fit to live among men nor to see the light." Judging from the inven- tive genius displayed in devising punishments, the bent of men's minds appeared to have been fiendish, rather than human.
Few of the twenty-four Lord Chief Justices of the King's Bench serving under the four Stuart kings, possibly six, can be classed as eminent for ability, learning and high character, and still fewer exhibit the characteristics usually ascribed to the personality of an ideal judge. Of the six worthy judges, five were dismissed, among them the illustrious Coke, for being dis- inclined to carry out the nefarious and arbitrary whims of their sovereign masters. The other eighteen were sycophants of various degrees of unfitness. Persons of known bad character were sometimes appointed to this exalted position, a case in point
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being John Popham, chief justice in the reigns of Elizabeth and James I. While Popham attended the Middle Temple, and after he was admitted to the bar, he was a member of a gang of highwaymen, who replenished their purses by night on Shooter's Hill, near London, at the expense of belated travelers. It appeared to be essential for the holding of this high office that the incumbent should render a servile compliance to the king's will. Persons having the additional characteristics of being arbitrary and remorseless were sometimes sought and found. A Stuart never retained on the bench a justice of " doubtful principles," and the giving of a judgment or opinion against the Crown was tantamount to inviting dismissal.
In the reigns of Charles II and his brother James II, the principal purposes of the courts appear to have been oppression and revenge. The juries were packed by the minions of the court, and the defendants were almost invariably found guilty. In conducting a court it was not uncommon for the chief jus- tice to browbeat and intimidate the witnesses, insult and defame the accused and coerce the jury into rendering a verdict in accordance with his wishes, regardless of the testimony.
At the beginning of the seventeenth century the resources of England were not sufficiently developed to maintain its popula- tion, although it was probably only about one-fifth of that of to-day, and many there were to whom, on account of the pre- vailing small daily stipend of sixpence to a shilling, Virginia offered great inducements as a haven from interminable poverty. To such the prospect of becoming landed proprietors seemed sufficient recompense for a few years' service to the London Company, or to those of ample means who advanced their pas- sage money, to be repaid in land grants and the service of the person thus indentured.
The majority of the Virginia settlers naturally were from the more humble walks of life, including many of the sturdy yeo- manry. Virginia also received a large number of the gentry, and many bearing titles. The last named generally held official positions. There were also large accessions to the colony in the
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persons of political exiles, many of whom as officers and soldiers, had participated in the several revolutions of the seventeenth century. Thus, after the fall of Drogheda, in Ireland, many of those not put to death by Cromwell's soldiers were exiled to Virginia. Again, after the battle of Worcester, 1600 soldiers of Charles I's army followed. After the Restoration, many non- conformists and Cromwellian soldiers were exiled to the colony, and some of these took an active part in the semi-religious uprising of 1663, and in Bacon's Rebellion. A number of Scotch prisoners of war were deported after the uprising in 1678, as well as some of the participants in Monmouth's Rebellion in 1685. Some malefactors were sent to Virginia, but then, as has been shown, offences which in those days were felonies involving the death penalty are to-day rated but as mis- demeanors. Sir Thomas Dale, while lieutenant-governor, advo- cated sending felons to Virginia, but his methods of governing were those of a harsh centurion and taskmaster, and were well adapted to incorrigibles. Children were kidnapped, sold into slavery and sent to Virginia, until this crime was made a capital offence, without benefit of clergy.
Charles II ordered the Virginia officials to suspend the opera- tion of the law which had been enacted in 1671, prohibiting the introduction of "jail birds," but the Virginia colonists pro- tested, and probably to some purpose, against their country being made a " Botany Bay."
The lives led by the Virginians of the seventeenth century, according to to-day's standard were comfortless and monoto- nous. There was nothing to amuse, divert or entertain the mind, except the arrival of an occasional vessel from across seas or from neighboring plantations and the gossip furnished by the meeting of the Assembly or the holding of court.
The volume of money in circulation in the colony until the latter part of the seventeenth century was very small, and en- tirely inadequate for business purposes. The standard of value was tobacco, as gold is to-day. As the value of tobacco in Eng- lish money varied with its demand and supply, it was a most
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unsatisfactory medium of exchange. Bills of exchange, based on the holdings of Colonial merchants in England, appear to have circulated somewhat in the same manner as our bank-notes of to-day.
Communication between distant points was carried on almost entirely by boats. Horses were scarce for about the first half of the century, and coaches were very rare, even at the close of the century. Lady Berkeley is known to have had one, for it is recorded that she induced her husband, Sir Wm. Berkeley, to employ the common hangman, a negro, to act as driver of the chariot which was offered to the commissioners to take them to the boat landing after their call at Green Spring to bid Sir William farewell, shortly before his departure for England in May, 1677.
An enterprise which furnished occupation and great expecta- tions to both poor and well-to-do people in Virginia was the raising of silk. Much time and care were expended to make it a success, but despite persistent and repeated efforts, it failed to give compensating returns. The settlers failed to understand that the climate of Virginia is too damp and changeable for silk culture, which conditions were the real bar to the industry. Edward Digges, one of the Cromwellian governors, according to the inscription on his tombstone, was the sole proprietor of silk raising in Virginia. Sir William Berkeley, as stated in another chapter, also took an active part in the enterprise.
The attempts to manufacture glass were unsuccessful. Beads were made for trading with the Indians, and were the exclusive property of the London Company. The sand at Jamestown, however, proved to be unsuitable, the glass workers became dis- satisfied, and the manufacture was abandoned.
As the dwellings were small and families large, the sleeping chambers were overcrowded in early colonial days. Governor Berkeley's house at Green Spring had but six rooms and a hall. The James River mansions and others that survive were erected in the eighteenth century, many years after Jamestown had passed away.
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Table ware was generally of pewter. Table forks were by no means in general use. Towards the end of the seventeenth century table silver and plate were used in the households of the wealthy. Mrs. Elizabeth Digges, widow of the governor, left at her death what to-day would be regarded as a fair supply of silver plate for a person of moderate means. That cooking utensils and house furnishings were scarce is evidenced by the bequests in wills of iron pots and feather beds.
Brass utensils were largely used in the kitchens of the wealthier. Paintings of merit were apparently rare.
Although a lady of wealth usually possessed a fine silk and flowered gown for state occasions, also a lace trimmed bonnet, a gold or gilt stomacher, and ornamented fan and other finery,“ wardrobes were rather scant, and the articles composing them were for utility rather than display.
The distinctions of class, which were so well defined among the early settlers obtained although in a gradually diminishing scale, till long after the American Revolution. Preferment for official position depended largely on social prestige, rather than on aptitude or merit. The lower social order was humble, at first, almost to servility.
The conditions attending Southern plantation life fostered the Cavalier spirit among the proprietors. From this order, after losing a large measure of the hauteur common to its autocratic forbears, was evolved a type famed for its dignity and lavish hospitality, " The Old Virginia Gentleman."
Frontier life, in which, for a bare existence, a strong arm and a brave heart were required, taught the settlers, even of the most humble class, self-reliance and fearlessness, and developed that latent love for complete freedom which is planted by the Divine hand in the bosoms of the English people. From this class principally, at a later day, came the rank and file of Bacon's followers, in his trying marches through marsh and forest in
6 Economic History of Virginia in the 17th Century, by Philip Alexander Bruce.
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quest of the hostile savage, and to defy a tyrannical governor. From this class also, still later, sprung the hardy pioneer, who made it his mission to penetrate the unexplored regions beyond the Virginia mountains and build up an empire of vast propor- tions reaching to the furthest western limits defined in the second charter to "the first colony."
APPENDIX.
AN ABRIDGED DESCRIPTION OF THE METHOD EMPLOYED IN LOCATING "THE NEW TOWNE," FROM THE VIRGINIA LAND PATENT RECORDS.
The following patents were used for locating "the New Towne :"
(1) John Pott, " Doctr, of Physicke," for three acres " in the new Towne," dated August 11, 1624.
(2) Same grantee, for 12 acres, including the above three acres, dated September 20, 1628.
(3) John Phips, for 120 acres, " part thereof in James Citye's liberties," dated February 23, 1656. This patent includes 12 acres " formerly granted by patent unto Dr. John Pott."
(4) John Knowles, for 133 acres, 35 9-10 chains, " part with- in and part without the liberties of the said city," dated May 6, 1665.
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