USA > Virginia > Virginia and Virginians; eminent Virginians, executives of the colony of Virginia, Vol. I > Part 3
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FRANCIS HOWARD, BARON EFFINGHAM.
Francis Howard, Baron Effingham, son of Sir Charles Howard, suc- ceeded to his title in 1681. He was commissioned Governor of Virginia, September 28, 1683, and arrived in the Colony and entered upon the duties of his office, April 16, 1684. He was instructed to prevent the use of the printing press in Virginia. Owing to the incursions of the Five Nations upon the frontier of Virginia, it was deemed expedient to treat with them through the Governor of New York; and for this purpose, Lord Effingham sailed for Albany the 23d of June, and in July effected a treaty with the chiefs of the warlike tribes. During Effingham's ab- ",nee from Virginia, the Government was administered by Nathaniel Bacon, Senior, President of the Council.
Effingham, no less avaricious and unscrupulous than his predecessor, Culpeper, had been, by his tyranny and rapacity aroused a general spirit of indignation. He prorogued and dissolved the Assembly ; created a new Court of Chancery, making himself a petty lord chan- cellor; multiplied fees, and stooped to share them with the clerks, silenc- ing the victims of his extortions by arbitrary imprisonment. The pravers for relief of the groaning colonists were at length heard, and Effingham was recalled, embarking for England, October 20, 1688, leaving Nathanial Bacon, Senior, President of the Council, in the Gov- ernment. Lord Effingham died in England, March 30, 1694.
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NATHANIEL BACON.
Nathaniel Bacon, Senior, of the lineage of the celebrated Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam, and a cousin of Nathaniel Bacon, Junior, known in history as " the rebel," was born in 1620. He was prominent in the affairs of the Colony, and held various offices of distinction and trust. He was County-Lieutenant, or "Commander-in-Chief" of the County of York ; long the auditor of the Colony, and, as his epitaph recites, a member of the Council " for above forty years." As President of the body, he was the acting Governor of Virginia from the departure of Lord Effingham, October 20, 1688, until the arrival of Francis Nicholson, October 16, 1690. He died March 16, 1693. His wife was Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Kingsmell, a name corruptly perpetuated in Kingsmill Wharf, York County, James River. The tombs of Nathaniel Bacon and his wife, massive marble tablets with armorial insignia, remained a few years since in the ancient burial ground near the mouth of King's Creek, York County.
Nathaniel Bacon, Senior, bequeathed his estate to his niece Abigail (nee Smith), wife of Major Lewis Burwell, as he left no issue. But of his chivalric kinsman, "the rebel," there are claimed representa- tive descendants of the present generation.
SIR FRANCIS NICHOLSON.
Colonel Francis Nicholson was by profession a soldier. Lieutenant- Governor of the Colony of New York under Sir Edmund Andros, he was at the head of the administration there in 1687-1689, but was driven thence by a popular outbreak. He came from England to Virginia as its Lieutenant-Governor in 1690, and relieved President Nathaniel Bacon, October 16. Courting popularity, he instituted athletic games, and offered prizes to those who should excel in riding, running, shoot- ing, wrestling and fencing. He also proposed the establishment of a post-office, and recommended the erection of a college, heading, with the Council, a private subscription by which £2500 were raised, and the result was the charter in February, 1692, of the ancient seat of learning, William and Mary College.
Nicholson was relieved October 15, 1693, by Sir Edmond Andros, Governor-in-Chief. Nicholson was now appointed Governor of Mary- land, serving as such until December 9, 1698, when he relieved Sir Edmond Andros as Governor of Virginia, under a commission, dated July 20th preceding. Nicholson entertained a plan to form the several colonies into a Confederacy, of which he aspired to be made viceroy. Disappointed in his aims, he displayed ultimately such freaks of caprice, and such audacity in misrule, as to call in question his sanity. Becoming passionately attached to a daughter of Lewis Bur- well, Jr., and failing to win her favor, or that of her parents, he exhibi- ted furious manifestations, and persisted Quixotically for years in his
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MACE Of the Borough of Norfolk, Presented by Gov. Dinwiddie, 1754.
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futile attentions to the lady, venting threats against her father, brothers and others.
He became involved, also, in contentions with the clergy. For a more healthy location, Governor Nicholson removed the seat of Gov- ernment from Jamestown to Middle Plantations (subsequently named Williamsburg) in 1698. Upon the complaint of the clergy and Con- cil, Governor Nicholson was recalled to England in August, 1705, and on the 15th of that month, succeeded by Edward Nott as Lieutenant- Governor. In 1710 Nicholas was appointed General and Commander-in- chief of the forces sent against Port Royal, in Acadia, which was sur- rendered to him October 2. He returned to England to urge another attempt upon Canada, taking with him five Iroquois Indians, who were presented to Queen Anne. He commanded the unsuccessful expedi- tion against Canada in 1711. From October 12, 1712, to August, 1717, he was Governor of Nova Scotia. He was knighted in 1720, and served as Governor of South Carolina from 1721 to June, 1725, when, returning to England, he was made a Lieutenant-General. Ban- croft describes him as "an adept in colonial governments; trained by long experience in New York, Virginia, and Maryland; brave and not penurious, but narrow and irascible; of loose morality, yet a fervent supporter of the church." He was the author of "An Apology or Vin- dication of Francis Nicholson, Governor of South Carolina," London, folio, 1724, and of "Journal of an Expedition for the Reduction of Port Royal," London, 4to, 1711. He died in London, March 5, 1728.
SIR EDMOND ANDROS.
Edmond Andros was born in London, December 6, 1637. Bred a soldier, he distinguished himself in the war with the Dutch, which closed in 1667, and in 1672 was appointed a major in Prince Rupert's Dragoons. In the year 1674, upon the death of his father, he sue- ceeded him as bailiff of Guernsey. He was appointed Governor of the Colony of New York, where he had previously served in a military capacity in 1678, and continued governor until 1681, being principally employed there in passing grants to the subjects, and in presiding in the Court of Sessions. Appointed Governor of New England, he arrived in Boston December 21. There his administration was to the utmost degree arbitrary and tyrannical. He interfered with the liberty of the press, levied enormous taxes withont authority, and required the proprietors of lands to obtain from him new titles at great expense. In October, 1687, he demanded, at the head of his troops, the surrender of the charter of Connecticut, but it was successfully concealed in the famous Charter Oak, at Hartford. His wife died and was buried at Boston, February 10, 1687-8, in King's Chapel burying ground. In 1688 he caused an Indian war by his aggressions on the Penobscot tribe. At
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last, under the weight of his oppressions, the people of Boston deposed and imprisoned him. The abdication of James the Second pre- vented any consequent trouble with the British Government, be- enuse of this summary assertion of popular prerogative, and no judicial decision was rendered regarding Andros. He was commis- sioned Governor of Virginia March 1, 1693, and arrived in the colony October 16th, following, relieving Colonel Francis Nicholson in the government. He was kindly received by the Virginians, whose solicitations to King William for warlike stores he had promoted. He soon gave some offence, however, by ordering ships to cruise against vessels engaged in contraband trade, yet his administration was a salu- tary and prosperous one for Virginia, and by his conduct here he is considered by some to have largely condoned his previous lawless carcer. During his teri of office the ancient seat of learning, William and Mary College, was established, and in 1693 an act was passed for organizing a post- office department for Virginia, with a central office and sub-offices in each vonnty, with fixed rates of postage, and Thomas Neale as Postmaster- General. Andros's love of order carried him into the public departments, and finding the documents and papers in great confusion, torn, soiled and moth-eaten, he ordered their reparation, and pressed reform with vigor. He encouraged manufactures, incited the planters to the cultivation of cotton, and gave his assent to an act establishing the first fulling-mills ever known in the settlement. Invested with the power of Ordinary, or representative of the King and the Bishop of London, his acts brought him in collision with commissary James Blair, President of William and Mary College, who, in 1694, preferred charges to the King against him as an enemy to religion, the church, and the college, and occasioned, thus, his removal from office. He was succeeded, December 9, 1698, by Colonel Francis Nicholson. Andros was Governor of Guernsey from 1704 to 1706. He died at London, February 27, 1713-14, honored and respected. The narrative of his proceedings in New England was published in 1691, and republished in 1773. The "Andros Tracts," edited by William H. Whitmore, were published by the Prince Society, Boston, 1868, 2 vols. 4to.
EARL OF ORKNEY.
George Hamilton, Earl of Orkney, a member of a distinguished family, was appointed Governor-in-chief of Virginia in 1697, and en- joyed it as a pensionary sinecure for forty years, all the while residing in England. and out of the annual salary of £2,000 receiving £1,200. George Hamilton entered the army in his youth, was made a colonel in 16-9, and, in 1695, was created Earl of Orkney, in consideration of his gallantry. He was present at the battles of the Boyne, Athlone,
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Limerick, Aghrim, Stimkirk, Landen, Namur, and Blenheim, and was a great favorite with King William the Third. In the first year of Queen Anne's reign he was made a major-general, and shortly afterwards a Knight of the Thistle, serving with distinction in all the wars of her reign. As one of the sixteen peers of Scotland, he was a member of the House of Lords for many years. He married, in 1695, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Edward Villiers, Knight, ( Maid of Honor to Queen Mary,) sister of Edward, Earl of Jersey, by whom he had issue three daughters: Lady Anne, who married the Earl of Inchequin; Lady Frances, who married Sir Thomas Sanderson (brother to the Earl of Scarborough), and Lady Harriet, who married the Earl of Orrery. Ho died January 29, 1737, and, on September 6 of that year, was succeeded as Governor-in-chief of Virginia by the Earl of Albemarle. The nephew of the Earl of Orkney, the cele- brated Sir William Hamilton, the husband of the famons beauty, Lady Emma Hamilton, whose name is connected with that of the heroic Lord Nelson, of the Nile, was, in 1772, an unsuccessful appli- cant for the resident governorship of Virginia.
EDWARD NOTT.
Edward Nott, born in 1654, succeeded, August 15, 1705, as the deputy of the Earl of Orkney, Francis Nicholson, in the resident gov- ernment of Virginia.
Governor Nott procured the passage, in October, 1705, by the assem- bly, of an act for the building of a palace for the governor, with an ap- propriation of £3,000, also an act establishing the general court, but the last was disallowed by the British Board of Trade. During Gov- ernor Nott's administration the College of William and Mary was de- stroyed by fire. Governor Nott died, greatly lamented by the Colony, August 23, 1706, and in the epitaph upon the handsome tomb to his memory, still standing in the church yard of Old Bruton Church, in Williamsburg, the regard in which he was held is thus testified: "In his private character he was a good Christian, and in his public a good Governor. He was a lover of mankind and bountiful to his friends. By the prudence and justice of his administration he was universally esteemed a public blessing while he lived, and when he died it was a public calamity. * *
* In grateful remembrance of whose many virtues, the General Assembly of this Colony have erected this monu- ment."
EDMUND JENINGS.
Edmund Jenings, son of Sir Edmund Jenings, of Ripon, Yorkshire, England, Member of Parliament, is first mentioned in Virginia annals, August 1, 1684, as Attorney-General of the Colony. Captain Peter Jenings, of Gloucester county, probably a relative, was an "Adjutant-
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General" and a burgess in 1660, and then, or later, Attorney-General. He died in 1671. John Jenings appears as a grantee of land in James City county in 1649. Edmund Jenings married Frances (died in Lon- don, November 22, 1713), daughter of Henry Corbin, emigrant an- vestor from England of the family of his name in Virginia. Jenings was, in 1696, Deputy Secretary of Virginia, and, a little later, the agent of the proprietary of the Northern Neck. He was long a member of the council, and, as its president, upon the death of Governor Nott, became, August 23, 1705, the executive of Virginia. He was one of the commissioners the same year for laying off the city of Williamsburg. His daughter Ariana became the wife of John Randolph, Attorney- General of Virginia, and their son, Edmund Randolph, became the Gov- ernor of Virginia and Attorney-General of the United States under Washington. Another daughter of Edmund Jenings married William Hill, of the family of the Marquis of Downshire. The blood of Edmund Jenings has intermingled with that of the worthiest families of Virginia, comprising the honored names of Randolph, Carter, Lee, Ludwell, Meade and others. Jenings continued the executive of Virginia until the arrival of Lieutenant-Governor Spotswood, June 23, 1710.
ROBERT HUNTER.
Robert Hunter was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia, April 4, 1707, and his commission from George, Prince of Denmark, consort of Queen Anne, and Lord Admiral, is preserved in the cabinet of the Virginia Historical Society. It is a huge vellum document, measuring two feet by two feet six inches, closely covered with Latin script, and is probably the only example in Virginia of the commissions of her gov- ernors in colonial times; and yet Hunter, being captured by the French, then at war with England, on his voyage to Virginia, never acted as her executive, being conveyed as a prisoner to Paris by his captors. It appears that, soon after this, a plan having been proposed to reduce the Spanish West India Islands, Hunter was proposed, by the Duke of Marlborough, to command it. During Hunter's detention in Paris, he corresponded with Dean Swift, who, it appears, had been suspected of being the author of the famous letter concerning enthusiasm, usually printed in Lord Shaftesbury's Characteristics, but which was really writ- ten by Hunter. Returning to England, Hunter was made Governor of New York, and was sent thither in 1710, with 2,700 expatriated Palatines, to settle that colony. He returned to England in 1719. On the accession of George the Second, he was reinstated in the govern- ment of New York and New Jersey. The climate not agreeing with him, he obtained the government of Jamaica instead, arriving there in Feb- ruary, 1727. He died March 31, 1734. He was a friend of Addison,
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as well as of Swift; was a wit and scholar, and, in addition to the letter mentioned, wrote a farce called "Androboros."
ALEXANDER SPOTSWOOD.
Colonel Alexander Spotswood, who arrived, June 23, 1710, in Vir. ginia, as the deputy or lieutenant of George Hamilton, Earl of Orkney, the Governor and Commander-in chief of the Colony, was descended from the ancient Scottish family of Spottiswoode, a local surname as- sumed by the proprietors of the lands and barony of Spottiswoode in the parish of Gordon and county of Berwick, at the earliest period when sur- names became hereditary in Scotland; but his lineage is yet more nobly avouched in the virtue, learning, ability and courage of its representatives through centuries of succession. The traditional account of the family is, that the male line of the ancient barons of Spottiswoode, failing in the reign of Alexander II., a younger son of the illustrious house of Gordon, which was then seated in the same county, married the heir- ess and was obliged to take upon himself the name of Spottiswoode ; but he retained the boar's head of the Gordons, which his successors, the barons of Spottiswoode, carry to this day. The immediate progeni- tor of this family was Robert de Spotswoods, born during the reign of Alexander III., who succeeded to the crown of Scotland in 1249. Seventh in descent from Robert was John Spotiswood; born, 1510; died 1585; superintendent of Lothian, a zealous Protestant divine and one of the compilers of " The First Book of Discipline and of the Confes- sion of Faith." His son, John Spotswood, of Spotiswoode, born in 1595, became archbishop of Glasgow and one of the privy counsel of Scotland in 1635. He suffered from the popular indignation at the attempt, discouraged by him, to impose a liturgy on the Scottish Church, and was deposed and excommunicated by the Assembly which met at Glasgow in November, 1638. He retired to London, where he died November 26th, 1639. He was the author, among other works, of "The History of the Church and State of Scotland." His second son, Sir Robert Spottiswoode, president of the Court of Sessions, author of "The Practicks of the Laws of Scotland," a man of distinguished learning and merit, was born in 1596, and met his death at the hands of Parliament, January 17th, 1646, as an adherant of the royal cause. The son of the last Robert Spotswood, who died in 1688, married a widow, Catharine Elliott, who had by her first marriage a son, General Elliott, whose portrait is in the State Library at Richmond, Virginia. The only child of Robert and Catherine (Elliott) Spotswood, Alex- ander, the subject of this notice, was born in 1676, at Tangier, then an English colony, in Africa, his father being then resident surgeon to the governor of the island, the Earl of Middleton, and to the garrison there. Alexander Spotswood was literally bred in the army from his
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childhood and, uniting genius with courage, served with distinction under the Duke of Marlborough. He was dangerously wounded in the breast by the first fire of the French on the Confederates at the battle of Blenheim, during the heat of which sanguinary encounter he served as deputy quartermaster-general, with the rank of colonel. Though Vir- ginia enjoyed tranquillity and the voice of faction was hushed at the time of the arrival of Spotswood, yet the condition of the colony was not prosperous. Her defenseless coasts were invaded by privateers and pirates, and through the decline of her staple commerce, because of the quantities of tobacco procured from Germany by the Dutch, the sur- reptitious shipment of it from the colony, and the greed of the English factors, there was a just complaint of the scantiness of essential supplies of English manufactures. Spotswood was hailed with acclamation by the colonists, because he brought with him the invaluable benefit of the habeas corpus act, which had been denied by the late ministers when their representatives endeavored to extend it by their own authority. But while the assembly regarded the recent favors granted, they could not, October, 1710, be persuaded to see the defenseless condition of the colony, since the certain expense of protection appeared more imme- diate than distant danger; nor did the fear of a threatened French in- vasion the following summer, appeal any more effectually. They refused to pay the expense of collecting the militia or to discharge the debt due, be- cause, as Spotswood informed the Ministry, " they hoped by their frugality to recommend themselves to the populace." 1917117
They would only consent to levy £20,000 by duties laid chiefly on British manufactures, and insisted on discriminating privileges to Vir- ginia owners of vessels, in preference to British subjects, upon the plea that the exemption had always existed. The governor declined the proffered levy, dissolved the assembly, and in anticipation of an Indian war, was obliged to secure arms and supplies from England. By prompt and energetic measures he quelled in the neighboring province of North Carolina, an insurrection which threatened to subvert all regular government there; and later, in the war with the Tuscarora Indians (commenced by a massacre on the frontier of North Carolina, in Sep- tember, 1711), by a conciliatory course, prevented the tributary In- dians from joining the enemy, with whom, in January, 1714, he con- cluded a peace, and blending humanity with vigor, he taught them that while he could use violence, he commiserated their fate. When a new Assembly was called by Spotswood, in 1712, they did more than he expected, and discharged most of the debts of the Colony, when he demonstrated that the standing revenue had been so defective during the previous twenty-two years as to have required :£7,000 from the monarch's private estate to make up the deficiencies in governmental ex- penses. The frontier of the Colony being no longer subjected to Indian
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incursions, the expenditure of government was reduced to one-third of what had been previously required, and under the able administration of Spotswood, Virginia advanced in commerce, population and wealth more rapidly than any of her sister colonies. A settlement of German Protestants was also effected under the auspices of the Governor, on the Rapid Anne river, which was called after the name of his residence, Germanna. A profitable trade was established with the West Indies, in the exchange of corn, lumber and salted provisions, for sugar, rum and wine. In 1715 the population of Virginia was 72,500 whites and 23,000 negroes, it being of the American colonies second in number only to Massachusetts, which was only one thousand greater. The slave population of Virginia was, during the reign of George I., in- creased by 10,000. The colony now comprised twenty-five counties, represented by fifty-two burgesses. The government was administered by a governor (appointed by the king), who nominated inferior magistrates and officers; and also by twelve councilors, also created by the royal mandate. The energy and discipline of Spotswood soon ran counter to the economical spirit of the Assembly, whom he further of- fended by his haughtiness. Anonymous letters were constantly trans- mitted against him to the board of trade, who gave him an opportunity of vindicating, in the vigor of his replies, the wisdom and beneficence of his administration. As zealous a churchman as he is proven to have been, he yet, in the exercise of the right of induction of ministers, in- curred the animosity of the Bishop of London's commissary, James Blair, who laid formal complaint against him before the king. Colonel William Byrd was also sent over by the colony in 1719, to represent its grievances, but being unsuccessful in his embassy, he begged the board of trade " to recommend forgiveness and moderation to both par- ties." A more harmonious season ensued, and the Governor, Council and the Assembly concurred in measures for the publie welfare and pros- perity.
The pirates who infested the coast were subdued, and the frontiers were extended to the foot of the Blue Ridge mountains, a passage across which had been discovered by an expedition made under the leadership of Spotswood in 1716, and composed of some of the first gentlemen in the Colony. Upon its return, the governor presented each of his companions with a golden horseshoe (some of which are said to have been covered with valuable stones, resembling heads of nails), bearing the inscription : "Sic juvat transcendere montes." In the year 1720, two new counties, Spotsylvania and Brunswick, were established. Spotswood urged upon the British Government the policy of establishing a chain of posts beyond the Alleghanies, from the lakes to the Missis- sippi, to restrain the encroachments of the French. His wise recom- mendation was at first unheeded, and it was not until after the treaty of Aix-la-chapelle that it was adopted. He was the author of an act for
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THOMAS WEST, EARL DE LA WARR. From the original in the possession of the present Earl Delaware, England.
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improving the staple of tobacco, and making tobacco notes the medium of circulation. Being a master of the military art, he kept the militia under admirable discipline. He was a proficient in mathematics; built the octagon magazine at Williamsburg (still standing), rebuilt William and Mary College (which had been burnt) and made improvements in the governor's house (then called palace) and gardens. He was an ex- cellent judge on the bench. At his instance a grant of £1,000 was made by the governors and visitors of the college, in 1718, and a fund established for instructing Indian children in Christianity, and he erected a school for that purpose on the southern frontier, at Fort Christiana, established on the south side of the Meherrin river, in what is now Southampton county. The Rev. Charles Griffin had charge of the school in 1715, at which time there were seventy-seven Indian children under instruction. Spotswood was styled the " Tubal Cain of Virginia," and he was, indeed, the first to establish a regular iron fur- nace in North America. But, despite his momentous services to the Col- ony, intrigue, as his friends urge, at length effected his removal as governor. in September, 1722. His character and administration are thus warmly eulogized by Chalmers: "There was a utility in his designs, a vigour in his conduct, and an attachment to the true interest of the kingdom and the colony, which merit the greatest praise. Had he attended more to the courtly maxim of Charles the Second, 'to quarrel with no man, however great might be the provocation, since he knew not how soon he should be obliged to act with him,' that able officer might be recom- mended as the model of a provincial governor. The fabled heroes who had discovered the uses of the anvil and the axe, who introduced the labors of the plow, with the arts of the fisher, have been immortalized as the greatest benefactors of mankind. Had Spotswood even invaded the privileges, while he only mortified the pride of the Virginians, they ought to have erected a statue to the memory of the ruler who gave them the manufacture of iron and showed them by his active ex- ample that it is diligence and attention which can alone make a people great." In the county of Spotsylvania, Spotswood had, about the year 1716, founded on a horse-shoe peninsula of four hundred acres, on the Rapid Anne, the little town of Germanna, so called after the Germans sent over by Queen Anne, and settled in that quarter, and at this place he resided after his retirement. A church was built there, mainly at his expense. Possessing an extensive tract of forty-five thousand acres of land, which abounded in iron ore, - he engaged largely, in connection with Robert Cary of England, and others in Virginia, in the iron manufacture. In the year 1730, he was made deputy postmaster-general for the American Colonies, and held the office until 1739; and it was he who promoted Benjamin Franklin to the office of postmaster for the province of Pennsylvania. He mar-
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