USA > Virginia > Virginia and Virginians; eminent Virginians, executives of the colony of Virginia, Vol. I > Part 2
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their town. He was superseded by Sir Thomas Gates in August, 1611, but continued to take an active part in the affairs of the Colony ; and on Gates' return to England in March, 1613, he resumed the govern- ment. It was under his auspices that the marriage of John Rolfe and Pocahontas was consummated, and this politic example he singularly attempted to follow himself, though he had a wife living in England. He sent Ralph Hamor (who had been Secretary of the Council under Lord De La Warr) to Powhatan, with a request for the younger sister of Pocahontas, a girl scarce twelve years of age, but his overtures were disdainfully rejected.
Dale returned to England in April, 1616. He was in Holland in Feb. ruary, 1617, and in January, 1619, was made Commodore of the East Indian fleet, and had an engagement with the Dutch near Bantam. Hfis health gave way under the climate and he died early in 1620.
SIR GEORGE YEARDLEY.
Captain George Yeardley, as President of the Council, was left by Dale as his Deputy in the government of Virginia, upon the departure of the latter for England in April, 1616. Yeardley was superseded by Captain Samuel Argall, May 15, 1617, and returned to England. Upon the intelligence of the death of Lord De La Warr, Yeardley, who was knighted on the occasion, was appointed to succeed him. He arrived in the Colony April 19, 1619, and assumed the government. On July 30th flowing the first representative legislative assembly ever held in America was convened at Jamestown. Yeardley was superseded Novem- bor 18, 1621, by Sir Francis Wyatt, but resumed the government May 17. 1626. He died in November following. During his administra- tion many important improvements were made, and the power, popula- tion and prosperity of the Colony much enhanced.
He is reported in January, 1622, as having built a windmill, the first erected in America. He left a widow, Lady Temperance, and two sons, Francis and Argall, the first of whom remarkably instanced individual terprise, effecting, in 1654, discoveries in North Carolina, and purchas- in: from the natives at a cost of #300, "three great rivers and all such "thers as they should like Southerly," which country he took possession of in the name of the Commonwealth. Sir George Yeardley has repre- ~ ntative descendants of the name in the United States, butitis not known to the writer that such exist in Virginia.
SIR SAMUEL ARGALL.
Captain Samuel Argall, born at Bristol, England, in 1572, was a rela- tive of Sir Thomas Smith, the Treasurer of the Virginia Company. He
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first arrived in Virginia at Jamestown in July, 1609, with a ship-load of wine and provisions to trade on private account, and to fish for stur- geon contrary to the regulations of the Company. The colonists, suffer- ing for provisions, seized his supplies. Argall remained in the Colony until June 19, 1610, when he sailed in the " Discovery" for the Bermudas for provisions for the Colony, in company with the vessel of Sir George Somers, from whom, however, he was soon separated in a violent storm. Being driven northward, he came to anchor in a great bay, which he named Delaware Bay. He soon made his way back to Jamestown, and about Christmas, sailing up the Potomac to trade with the natives, re- covered from Jopassus, a brother of Powhatan, a captive English boy, Henry Spelman, who afterward wrote a narrative of his captivity, which was printed from the original manuscript by J. F. Hunnewell in 1872.
In February, 1611, Argall attacked the chief of the Warroskoyaks for a breach of contract, and burned two of his towns. Early in 1613 he bribed Jopassus with a brass kettle to deliver Pocahontas into his hands, designing to hold her for a ransom.
In 1614, under orders from Sir Thomas Dale, Argall broke up the French settlement at Mt. Desert, on the coast of Maine, causing a war between the French and English colonists. He also destroyed the French settlements at St. Croix and Port Royal. He now sailed for England, where he arrived in June, 1614. He returned to Virginia as Deputy Governor, May 15, 1617, with a purpose to traffic in violation of the laws he was to administer. He found " the market place, streets, and other spare places in Jamestown planted in tobacco," so alluring to the colonists was the profit yielded by the weed. Ile enacted severe sumptu- ary laws, and by his arbitrary conduct rendered himself odious. He was recalled, and Sir George Ycardley appointed in his place, but, before the arrival of the latter, Argall secretly stole away from the Colony. Called to account for his misconduct, he was shielded from punishment by his trading partner, the Earl of Warwick. In 1620 he was a captain in the ex- pedition against the Algerines ; was knighted by James I. in 1623, and in 1625 was engaged in Cecil's expedition against the Spanish. He died
in 1639. An account of his voyage from Jamestown in 1610, and his letter respecting his voyage to Virginia in 1617, are preserved in Pur- chas. After the death of Lord De La Warr, Argall took charge of his estate ; and letters of Lady De La Warr are in existence accusing him of the most flagrant and barefaced peculation
CAPTAIN NATHANIEL POWELL.
Captain Nathaniel Powell, of the Council, was Acting Governor of the Colony from the departure of Argall, April 9, 1619, until the 19th inst.,
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when Governor Yeardley arrived. Powell, with his wife and eleven others, was slain at his plantation, " Powle Brooke," by the savages, in the memorable massacre of March 22, 1622.
SIR FRANCIS WYATT.
The father of Sir Francis was George Wyatt, and his mother was a daughter of Sir Thomas Finch. His sister Eleanora married Sir John Finch ; and his wife was a daughter of Samuel Sandys. Sir Francis arrived in Virginia in October, 1621, with an appointment to relieve Governor Yeardley (whose term expired November 18th) at the request of the latter. Sir Francis was accompanied by his brother, Rev. Hunt Wyatt, Dr. John Pott, physician (afterward Acting Governor of the Colony), William Claiborne (subsequently prominent, and designated in history as " the rebel ") as surveyor, and George Sandys, treasurer, who during his stay translated the Metamorphoses of Ovid and the First Book of Virgil's Æneid. This first Anglo-American poetical production was published in London in 1626. Sir Francis brought with him a new con- stitution for the Colony, granted July 24th, by which all former immu- nities and franchises were confirmed. Trial by jury was first secured, and an annual assembly provided. During the administration of Wyatt, which was judicious, occurred the Indian massacre of March 22, 1622, in which three hundred and forty-seven of the colonists fell victims ; and on the 16th of June, 1624, the charter of the Virginia Company was annulled. The death of his father, Sir George Wyatt, in 1626, calling Sir Francis to Ireland to attend to his private affairs, he was succeeded in the government of Virginia by Sir George Yeardley. Sir Francis was re-appointed Governor in November, 1639, but was relieved by Sir William Berkeley in February, 1642. He died at Bexley, Kent, Eng- land in 1644.
CAPTAIN FRANCIS WEST.
Captain Francis West, a younger brother of Lord De La Warr, ar- rived in the Colony in September, 1608. He is said by the historian Neill to have married a widow in the Colony; no issue is mentioned. He was long a member of the Council, and in 1622 held the appointment of Admiral of New England. He owned lands near " Westover," James River, famed as the seat of the Byrds. He was Acting Governor of Virginia from the death of Sir George Yeardley, November 14, 1627, until his departure for England, March 5, 1629, when he was succeeded by Dr. John Pott. He must have returned to Virginia, as his name appears as a member of the Council in 1632-3. By a tradition in the family he is said to have been drowned; when, it is not stated.
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DOCTOR JOHN POTT.
Doctor John Pott, who accompanied Sir Francis Wyatt to Virginia as physician, arriving in October, 1621, as President of the Council suc- ceeded Captain Francis West in the Government of Virginia upon the departure of the latter for England. Pott was superseded by the arrival of Sir John Harvey in March, 1630, and in July following by a strange mutation of fortune, the late Governor was tried for cattle-stealing and convicted. This was the first trial by jury in the Colony.
SIR JOHN HARVEY.
John Harvey was commissioned Governor of the Colony March 26, 1628, and knighted soon after. He had been one of the Commissioners sent in 1623 to procure evidence to be used against the Virginia Com- pany to secure the annulling of the charter, and was a member of the provisional government in 1625. He arrived in Virginia in March, 1630. He was one of the most rapacious, tyrannical and unpopular of the royal governors, and in the contest of Colonel William Claiborne with George Calvert, of Maryland, for the possession of Kent Island, Har- vey-actuated, it was charged, by motives of private interest-sided with Maryland in the disputes, and rendered himself so obnoxious that an assembly was called for the 7th of May, 1635, to hear complaints against him. Before it met, however, he consented to go to England to answer the charges. He was reinstated by Charles I. as Governor, by commission dated April 2, 1634, but in November, 1639, was displaced by Sir Francis Wyatt.
CAPTAIN JOIIN WEST.
Captain John West, a younger brother of Lord De La Warr, and long a member of the Council, succeeded Sir John Harvey when the latter was "thrust out of his Government" April 28, 1635. He was superseded by Sir John Harvey, April 2, 1636. He remained in Vir- ginia, and has many worthy descendants in Virginia in honored family names. In March 1659-60, the House of Burgesses passed an act ac- knowledging " the many important favors and services rendered to the country of Virginia by the noble family of the West, predecessors to Mr. John West, their now only survivor."
SIR WILLIAM BERKELEY.
Sir William Berkeley, the son of Sir Maurice, and brother of Lord John Berkeley of Stratton, was born near London about 1610. He graduated M. A., at Oxford, in 1629, traveled extensively in Europe in
PEYTON RANDOLPH, First Speaker of the Continental Congress. From the original in the possession of Peyton Johnston, Esq., Richmond.
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1630, and returned an accomplished courtier and cavalier. He was com- missioned Governor of Virginia, August 9, 1641, and arrived in the Colony in February, 1642, and by some salutary measures as well as by his prepossessing manners, rendered himself acceptable to the colonists. On the 18th of April, 1644, a second Indian massacre occurred in the Colony. The number of the victims has been variously stated as three and five hundred. During a visit of Berkeley to England from June, 1644, to June, 1645, his place was filled by Richard Kempe, a member of the Council, and who had been its Secretary. During the civil war in England, Berkeley took the royal side, and Virginia was the last of the English possessions which acknowledged the authority of Cromwell. He manifested shrewdness as well as courage when the fleet of parliament appeared-in James River in 1651, and made terms satisfactory to both parties. He was superseded in the Government, according to Hening, April 30, 1652, by Richard Bennet, but there are grants of land of record in the Virginia Land Registry, signed by Bennet in January, 1652.
He was re-elected Governor by the Assembly March 23, 1660, and commissioned by Charles II., July 31, 1660. He was sent, April 30, 1661, by the Colony to England to protest against the enforcement of the Navigation Act, Colonel Francis Morrison acting as Governor until Berkeley's return in the fall of 1662.
Berkeley lost popularity with the colonists by his extreme severity towards the followers of Nathanial Bacon, whose so-called " rebellion " had been occasioned by Berkeley's own faithlessness and obstinacy. Twenty-three of the participants were executed, and Berkeley was only restrained from the further shedding of blood by the remonstrance of the Assembly.
Charles II. is reported to have said: "The old fool has taken more lives in his naked country than J. have taken for my father's murder." Through the influence of the planters, Berkeley was recalled, and died at Twickenham, July 9, 1677, before he could have an interview with the King. Berkeley in his reply to commissioners, sent to inquire into the condition of the Colony, said, "Thank God ! there are no free schools or printing presses, and I hope there will be none for a hundred years; for learning has brought disobedience and heresy and sects into the world, and printing has divulged these and other ' libels."" He wrote two plays, and is the author of "A Description of Virginia," folio, 1663. His widow, Lady Frances Berkeley, who had before been Dame Stephens, and whose maiden name was Culpeper, married thirdly, Philip Lud. well of " Green Spring," Virginia, long the secretary of the Colony.
RICHARD KEMPE.
Richard Kempe appears as a Member of the Council of Virginia in 1642, and as its President, in June, 1644, upon the departure of Sir
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William Berkeley for England, became the acting Governor of the colony. It is notable that during his incumbency the first fast and thanks- giving days in the Colony of which any record is preserved, were ordered. "Att James Cittye the 17th of February, 1644-5," it was " enacted by the Governour, Counsell and Burgesses of this present Grand Assembly, for God's glory and the publiek benefit of the collony to the end that God might avert his heavie judgments that are now vpon vs, That the last Wednesday in every month be sett apart for a day of ffast and humiliation, And that it be wholly dedicated to pravers and preach- ing ;" also, "That the eighteenth day of April be yearly celebrated by thanksgivings for our deliverance from the hands of the Salvages." [Referring to the recent massacre by the Indians. ] (Hening's Statutes, I., pp. 289, 290.)
Sir William Berkeley, returning in June, 1645, resumed the govern- ment of Virginia, but Richard Kempe continued to serve the colony as a member of the Council until 1648, and perhaps later, latterly as the Secre- tary of the body. He died sometime before 1678. William Kempe, probably a kinsman, was a Burgess from Elizabeth City County in 1630. The name is a highly respected one in Virginia, and the parish records of Middlesex county present frequent representatives among the lists of vestrymen.
RICHARD BENNET.
Richard Bennet, who is mentioned as being "one of Lord Arlington's family," was a merchant, and appears as a Burgess from " Warros- quoyeake" in October, 1629. He was a Member of the Council in 1642. A Puritan in religious belief, he fled into the province of Maryland in 1643 to escape persecution. From thence he went to London, and in September, 1651, returned to Virginia with the appointment from the Parliamentary Government as one of the Commissioners to effect the reduction of the royal colony of Virginia, the remaining Commis- sioners being Captain Robert Dennis, Thomas Stegge (an uncle of the first William Byrd, of " Westover"), and Colonel William Claiborne, " the rebel." Bennet was elected Governor of the Colony by the Assembly, April 30, 1652, and was continued in office until March 30, 1655, when he was sent to England as the Agent of Virginia to rep- resent its interests before Parliament. In 1666 he commanded the militia of three of the four military districts into which Virginia was divided, with the rank of Major-General. The remaining district was commanded by the Governor, Sir William Berkeley. In 1667 Major- General Bennet served as a Commissioner to Maryland to regulate the cultivation of tobacco. He was a member of the Council as late as 1674, and is presumed to have died soon after this period. He owned the plantations " Weyanoak " and " Kicotan," on James River. His daughter Anne (died November, 1687) married Theodrick Bland, of
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"Westover," (born January 16, 1629; died August, 1669) and their descendants, in the honored names of Randolph, Lee, Harrison, Bev- erley and others, have been and are among the most worthy people of Virginia.
EDWARD DIGGES.
Edward Digges, a younger son of Sir Dudley. Digges, of Chilham, County Kent, England, Knight and Baronet, and Master of the Rolls in the reign of Charles the First, was born in 1620. He was appointed a member of the Council November 22, 1654, and was elected by the Assembly Governor of Virginia March 30, 1655, to succeed Governor Bennet, and served until March 13, 1658, when he was sent to Eng- land as one of the agents of the colony. He married Elizabeth Bray, and died March 15, 1675. In the epitaph upon his tomb at the family seat, " Bellefield," distant eight miles from Williamsburg, he is described as " a gentleman of most considerable parts and ingenuity, and the only promoter of the silk manufacture in this colonie, and in everything else a pattern worthy of all pious imitation." He left six sons and seven daughters, whose blood now intermingles in the best esteemed families of the State. Several of his sons were prominent in the affairs of the colony, one of them, Dudley, being long a member of the Council, as was also his grandson, Cole Digges.
COLONEL SAMUEL MATTHEWS.
Samuel Matthews, who is termed "an ancient planter," was a mem- ber of the Council as early as 1629. In March, 1630, he built the fort at Point Comfort, James River. He served continuously in the Council, or Assembly, and latterly as County-Lieutenant of Warwick County, deriving thence his title of Lieutenant-Colonel. In 1656 he was sent as one of the agents of the colony to England, and on March 13, 1658, was elected by the Assembly Governor to succeed Edward Digges. He was an honest, energetic and capable servant of the colony, and his death, which occurred in January, 1660, was universally lamented. The colony was now without a Governor until the 23d of March, when Sir William Berkeley was elected by the Assembly. There are highly esteemed descendants of Governor Matthews in Virginia, one of them being James M. Matthews, Esq., of Richmond, late the able Reporter of the Court of Appeals of the State.
COLONEL FRANCIS MORRYSON, OR MORRISON.
Major Francis Morryson, or Morrison, embarked from London with his brother loyalists, Colonel Henry Norwood and Major Richard Fox,
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for Virginia, September 23, 1649, and arrived in the colony in Novem- her following. They were kindly received by Sir William Berkeley, the Governor, whe gave Morrison the command of the fort at Point Comfort. He became a member of the Council, and it is presumed County-Lieutenant of James City County, since his later designation was Colonel. He was Speaker of the House of Burgesses in 1656, and from April 30, 1661, to sometime in the fall of the following year (during the absence of Sir William Berkeley in England), Governor of Virginia. March 26, 1663, he was sent to England as the agent of the colony, with an annual salary of £200. The records do not evidence that he ever returned to Virginia. He married Cecilia, the sister of Giles Rawlins, who died during her residence in Virginia, and she petitioned afterward for a share in the distribution of his estate.
HERBERT JEFFREYS.
Colonel Herbert Jeffreys was commissioned Governor of the Colony of Virginia, October 9, 1676, and Captain Robert Walter appointed his Deputy the following day, but the latter died without entering upon office, and Jeffreys was recommissioned Lieutenant-Governor, November 11, 1676. He entered upon his office, April 27, 1677. He effected a treaty of peace with the Indians (who had long held the Colony in terror) by which each town agreed to pay three arrows for their land, and twenty beaver skins annually for protection. Jeffreys died Decem- ber 30, 1678, and was succeeded by Sir Henry Chicheley.
SIR HENRY CHICHELEY.
Sir Henry Chicheley is first mentioned in Virginia in November, 1649, as the guest of Captain Ralph Wormeley, of "Rosegill," Middlesex County (afterwards Clerk of Lancaster County), whose widow, Agatha, he married sometime before 1667. In 1656 he was a Burgess from Lancaster County, and in 1674, a member of the Council. In March, 1676, he was appointed commander of the forces to be sent against the Indians, but the forces were disbanded before marching by Sir William Berkeley. He became Deputy Governor of Virginia, December 30, 1678, upon the death of Governor Herbert Jeffreys, under a commission dated February 28, 1674, and served until the arrival of Lord Culpeper, March 10, 1680, but he continued to act as Deputy Governor during the absence of Lord Culpeper until 1683. Sir Henry Chicheley died some- time after 1692, and was buried at Christ Church in Middlesex County. His descendants intermarried with the Corbin, Thacker, and «ther families, and there are representatives of his own name, as well, in Virginia at the present day.
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LORD CULPEPER.
Thomas, Lord Culpeper, Baron of Thorsway, who had been one of the Commissioners for Plantations, was on July 8, 1675, appointed by Charles II., Governor of Virginia for life. He is described as "an able, but artful and covetous man." Regarding his office doubtless a sinecure, he lingered in England until a reproof from the King impelled his departure. He came over to Virginia in 1680, and was sworn into office May 10th. He brought with him several bills ready prepared for the consideration of the Assembly, and procured the passage by that body of several popular acts, including one of " free and general par- don, indemnitie, and oblivion " for all participants in the recent movement known as " Bacon's Rebellion."
He had the address, withal, to have the import of two shillings per hogshead made perpetual, and instead of being accounted for to the Assembly, as formerly, to be disposed of as his Majesty might deem fit.
He also, notwithstanding the impoverished condition of the Colony, contrived the enlargement of his salary from one thousand pounds to upwards of two thousand, besides perquisites amounting to eight hundred more. He went over to England in August, 1680, leaving Sir Henry Chicheley as Deputy Governor of the Colony. An act of the Assembly requiring tobacco for shipment to be laden at established towns, having created much popular commotion and riotous destruction of tobacco plant beds, to quell the disaffection Culpeper was commanded to return to Virginia. He arrived in November, 1682, and as a result of his measures taken, several of the ring-leaders in the riots were hanged. One of them, Major Robert Beverley, clerk of the House of Burgesses, and the father of the Virginia historian of the same name, endured a lengthy and rigorous imprisonment, and was disfranchised. Culpeper returned to England September 17, 1683, leaving his kinsman, Nicholas Spencer, as the executive of the Colony.
Thus, again, quitting his government in violation of his orders, he was arrested immediately upon his arrival in England, and being found guilty, also, of receiving presents from the Assembly, a jury of Middlesex found that he had forfeited his commission. He died in 1719. He was in 1669 a co-grantee with Henry, Earl of Arlington, of the extensive territory between the Rappahannock and Potomac Rivers, Virginia, known as the " Northern Neck." By purchase, he became sole proprietor ; his daughter, Catherine, sole heiress, married Thomas, fifth Lord Fairfax and Baron Cameron, and the proprietary descended to their son Thomas, sixth Lord Fairfax, who established his seat, in Virginia, at "Green- way Court," Frederick County, where he lived in much state, dispensing a liberal hospitality. He was the friend and patron of Washington, whom, at the age of sixteen, in 1748, he employed to survey his lands
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west of the Blue Ridge. Lord Fairfax died December 12, 1787, aged 90 years ; his barony and immense domain of 5,282,000 acres descend- ing to his only brother Robert, seventh Lord Fairfax, but as the latter was in the possession of Lord Thomas during the Revolution, it was confiscated. The portrait of Lord Culpeper in this work is from a photograph of a copy in the collections of the Virginia Historical Society, at Richmond, Va., of the original at Leeds Castle, England, painted by Andr. Hennemorn in 1664.
NICHOLAS SPENCER.
Colonel Nicholas Spencer, a kinsman of Lord Culpeper, who had been a member of the Council and its Secretary from 1679, as President be- rame the acting Governor of Virginia upon the departure of Lord Cul- peper for England, September 17, 1683. He was superseded April 16, 1684, by Lord Effingham. Spencer was still Secretary of the Colony in 1689, and perhaps served later.
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