USA > Virginia > Virginia and Virginians; eminent Virginians, executives of the colony of Virginia, Vol. I > Part 5
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with the appointment of Commander-in-chief, was sent to Virginia with two regiments from the regular army. This last was a succor which had been persistently solicited by Governor Dinwiddie, but which now, un- fortunately, availed not. However, the disastrous defeat of Braddock inspired the colonists with such alarm that their reviving martial spirit found expression in the organization of companies for defense. Their ardor was stimulated from the pulpit, and several of such stirring ap- peals from the eloquent Samuel Davies, " the father of the Presbyterian Church in Virginia," are incorporated in his published sermons. The Assembly voted £40,000 for the service, and the Virginia regiment was enlarged to sixteen companies, and the command given to Washington. Hle had scarcely completed a tour of inspection of the mountain outposts before he was called to arrest the horrors of a savage invasion of the frontiers of Augusta County. The terror inspired by the atrocities com- mitted, influenced the Assembly, in 1756, to direct the building of a line of forts from the Potomac River through the Alleghany Mountains to the borders of North Carolina. The construction of these, with the con- stantly demanded service of the Virginia troops in the protection of the frontiers from the Indians, debarred them for a time from participation in the campaigns in the North against the French, and the futile expedi- tion under Major Andrew Lewis against the Indian towns on the west of the Ohio, known as the Sandy Creek expedition, was the most pretentious offensive operation of the Colony during the year. Among the officers in this expedition were Captains Peter Hog, William Preston, John Smith, Archibald Alexander, Obadiah Woodson, James Overton, and David Stewart, Commissary. It was accompanied by a party of friendly Cherokees under Captain Richard Pearis.
The Earl of Loudon arrived in America in July, with the appointment of Governor of Virginia, and a commission as Commander-in-chief of the British forces in America, but he was never in the Colony, and Din- widdie continued in the control of its affairs. He appears to have so met the varied and onerous duties of his trust as to have commanded repeatedly the thankful commendation of the colonial clergy and As- sembly, and of the English Ministry.
The year 1757 was as uneventful in Virginia as its predecessor had been, and at its close, Governor Dinwiddie, worn out with fatigue, was at his own request relieved from his arduous station. He sailed for England in January, 1758, after receiving voted testimonials of the regard of the Council and of the municipal authorities of Williamsburg, the seat of government. By the Council, also, he was charged with the delivery to the great Pitt, then at the head of the English Ministry, of an address of thanks for his generous course towards the colonies, and with the negotiation of some important interests of Virginia.
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The administration of Governor Dinwiddie had been a peculiarly trying one. His disputes with the Assembly, and his difficulties with Washington, have, through the prejudicial representations of some writers, left an unpleasant impression on the American mind, which has been allowed to veil virtues which would otherwise have commanded undivided esteen and regard. An attempt has been made to stigmatize his memory with the crime of dishonesty in the charge of misappropria- tion to his own use of funds intrusted to him for the public service-a calumny which rests alone upon the unsupported allegations of his enemies. In all public expenditures he appears to have acted in con- junction with, and by authority of, a committee appointed by the colonial Council, and his reports of the disposition of the funds received from England were systematically regular. It should not be forgotten that the goverment of Virginia was bestowed on him as the meed of singular integrity and vigilance in previous stations; that he was the warm friend of religion, and, withal, entirely tolerant of all mere differ- ences of creed ; that he sought the enforcement of morality, and was the patron of knowledge and of education. The library of the ancient seat of learning, William and Mary College, until its destruction by fire, during our late internecine war, preserved many tokens of his generosity, each marked with his armorial book-plate. Another memorial still exists in Virginia-the silver mace presented by him to the corporation of Nor- folk in 1754, an engraving of which is presented in this work. The faithful services of Governor Dinwiddie appear to have been duly recog- uized in Great Britain ; and Chalmers, the authoritative colonial annalist, warmly and repeatedly commends his " vigilant " and " able " adminis- tration in Virginia. James Abercromby, the agent of the Colony in Virginia, whose letter-books are in the possession of the present writer, in a letter dated London, March 6, 1758, to Richard Corbin, Receiver-General of the Colony, a member of the Council, and the friend and patron of Washington, says, " Your good opinion of your late Governor is fully confirmed by the kind reception he has met with from the Ministry." He makes use of similar expressions also to John Blair, President of the Council, and who was the Acting Governor of the Colony until the ar- rival, on the 7th of June, 1758, of Governor Fauquier.
Abercromby also makes frequent later acknowledgments of essential aid received by him from Governor Dinwiddie, in his solicitations of the English Ministry in behalf of the Colony. These services, and many others for his personal friends in Virginia, were continuously rendered by the amiable and benevolent old man when his infirmities had become such that all physical exertions were painful. He died at Clifton, Bristol, whither he had gone for the benefit of the baths, July 27, 1770, and was interred in the parish church there with much " pomp and circum-
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stance." The curious bill of his funeral expenses is given in the Dinwid- die Papers, Vol. I., published by the Virginia Historical Society. The honorable and stainless record of Governor Dinwiddie was publicly attested.
John Dinwiddie, a brother of the Governor, a merchant on the Rap- pahannock River, married a granddaughter of George Mason, and a sister, Mary, the Rev. Andrew Stuart, of Pennsylvania. Their descend- ants in the honored names of Fowke, Phillips, Johnston, Ficklen, Mason, Peyton, Stuart and others, are quite numerous in the United States. To the campaign of 1758, under Forbes, Virginia contributed 2,000 men, in two regiments, with Washington in chief command as Colonel of the first, and Wm. Byrd (the third of the name in lineal succession in Virginia) of the second. These troops nobly sustained the reputation which they had valorously earned in the ill-fated expedition of Braddock, and it was largely due to their bravery, admits Chalmers, that the French were driven from Fort Duquesne, which was taken pos- session of November 25th, repaired, and re-named Fort Pitt, in compli- ment to the Prime Minister.
In a preliminary engagement with the French of a reconnoitering party under Major Grant, a detachment of one hundred and sixty-two Vir- ginians, in command of Major Andrew Lewis, gallantly participated. Of their number, sixty-two were killed and two wounded ; and of the eight officers present, five were slain, a sixth wounded and the seventh captured. Captain Thomas Bullitt, the remaining officer (Major Grant, the commanding officer, having fallen into the hands of the enemy), with fifty Virginians, defended the baggage with great valor, and was instrumental in saving the remnant of the force. The war was prose- cuted at the North with vigor, and in the succeeding summer of 1759, Niagara and Crown Point fell into the possession of the British crown, and on the 18th of September, Quebec surrendered to the gallant Wolfe. The treaty of Fontainebleau, in November, 1762, put an end to the war (which it is estimated had cost the British empire the loss of the lives of more than twenty thousand adults), and the English were supreme in North America.
THE EARL OF LOUDON.
John Campbell, son of Hugh, Earl of Loudon, was born in 1705, and succeeded his father in the title in November, 1731. In July, 1756. he arrived in New York with the appointment of Governor-in-chief of Virginia, and also with the connnission of Commander-in-chief of the British forces in America, but, proving inefficient, returned to Eng- land in 1757. He was made Lieutenant-General in 1758, and General in 1770. He died April 27, 1782. He was succeeded by Norborne Berkeley, Baron de Botetourt, as Governor of Virginia, in 1768.
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JOHN BLAIR.
John Blair, the son of Dr. Archibald Blair, and a nephew of Rev. James Blair, D.D., President of William and Mary College, was born at Williamsburg, Va., in 1689. He was a member of the House of Burgesses from James City County as early as 1736, and a little later became a member of the Council, of which as President he was Acting Governor of Virginia from the departure of Lieutenant-Governor Robert Dinwiddie for England, in January, 1758, until the arrival on June 7th following of Lieutenant-Governor Francis Fauquier, and again from the death of the latter, March 3, 1768, until October following, when he was relieved by Lord Botetourt. During the trying period of the incumbency of President Blair, his ability, vigilance and discretion were signally displayed in protecting the frontier of the colony from Indian invasion. He served for some years from 1752 as Deputy Auditor of the Colony, and from 1758 to 1761, was a visitor of William and Mary College. From a MS. diary kept by him and now in the collections of the Virginia Historical Society, it is manifest that his life was one of manifold usefulness. An extract regarding the rebuilding of the Capitol at Williamsburg, which was built in 1699, and destroyed by fire in 1746, is of interest. President Blair records, December 12, 1752: "This afternoon I laid the last top brick on the capitol wall, and so it is now ready to receive the roof; and some of the wall plates were raised and laid on this day. I had laid a foundation brick at the first building of the capitol about fifty years ago, and another foundation brick in April last." President Blair died November 5, 1771. His sister Harrison was the third wife of Dr. George Gilmer of Williamsburg, a skilled physician and the ancestor of the distinguished Gilmer family of Vir- ginia. One son of President Blair, Archibald Blair, was the Secretary of the Patriot Convention of 1776, and another, John Blair, was nation- ally distinguished. The last, born in 1732, after graduating from William and Mary College, studied law at the Temple, London, being here a protege of Governor Dinwiddie. Returning to Williamsburg, he rose to the first rank as a lawyer and enjoyed a lucrative practice, and was prominent in public affairs. He was a member of the House of Bar- gesses as early as 1765, and on the dissolution of that body in 1769, he, with Washington and other patriots, met at the Raleigh tavern, Wil- liamsburg, and drafted the non-importation agreement. He was one of the committee which in June, 1776, drew up the plan for the government of the State; was a member of the Council in 1779, was made chief justice of the general court, and upon the death of Robert Carter Nicholas in 1780, he was appointed a judge of the high Court of Chancery ; and by virtue of both stations, was a judge of the first Court of Appeals of the State.
Two Views of Drinking Cup made from the bowl of the Silver Mace of the Speaker of the House of Burgesses of Virginia, before the Revolution. (Original in the Cabinet of the Virginia Historical Society.)
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Upon the formation of the Grand Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of Virginia, Judge Blair was elected, October 13, 1778, the first Grand Master of the State. In 1787, he was a member of the conven- tion which framed the Federal Constitution, and in 1788, was a member of that which ratified it. In 1789, he was appointed by Washington a Judge of the Supreme Court of the United States, but resigned the office in 1796. He died at Williamsburg, August 31, 1800.
FRANCIS FAUQUIER.
Francis Fauquier, born in 1703, was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia to succeed Dinwiddie, February 10, 1758, and arrived in the Colony on June 7th following. He was generous and elegant in his manners and an accomplished scholar, but brought with him the frivol- ous tastes and dissipated habits of a man of fashion ; he was addicted to gaming and by his example diffused in the Colony a passion for gaming. Notwithstanding these charged frailties, he was, in the opinion of Mr. Jefferson, the ablest of the Governors of Virginia. It is noteworthy that the odious and portentous stamp act was attempted to be enforced during his administration, a measure which had the happy effect of en- couraging domestic manufactures in Virginia and of inducing an ab- stinence from luxuries. Governor Fauquier died March 3, 1768, and until the arrival of Botetourt in October following, the government devolved on John Blair, President of the Council. Fauquier was the author of a pamphlet : "Raising Money for the Support of the War," 8vo, published at London in 1757. Fauquier County, Va., was named in his honor.
SIR JEFFREY AMIIERST.
Sir Jeffrey Amherst was born in Kent, England, January 29, 1717. He was page to the Duke of Dorset while Lord Lieutenant of Ireland; became an ensign in the army in 1731; was aide to Lord Ligonier at Dottingen, Fontenoy, and Roncoux, and afterwards to the Duke of Cumberland at Laffaldt. He was made Major General in 1756, and in 1758 was given the command of an expedition against Louisburg. Land- ing there June 8th, a lodgment was effected July 26, and the place sur- rendered, as did also St. Johns and other French strongholds. He was appointed Commander-in-chief of the British army in America, Septem- ber 30, 1758, and the surrender of Quebec to Wolfe's forces, and that of Fort Niagara to Townsend and Johnson, was followed by that of Crown Point, July 26th, and that of Ticonderoga, August 4, 1759, to Amherst in person. Obtaining the naval supremacy on Lake Cham- plain, Fort Nevis and Isle Aux Noix fell into his hands; and Septem-
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ber 8, 1760, Montreal and the whole of Canada became a British pos- session. Amherst was rewarded with the thanks of Parliament, with the insignia of the Order of a Knight of Bath, and was made Governor-in- chief of Virginia in 1763. When in 1768 it was desired by the Ministry that he should reside in the Colony, he resigned, and was succeeded in July by Lord Botetourt. General Amherst was appointed Governor of Guernsey in 1771; created a baron in 1776; was commander of the British army from 1778 to 1795, and was made a Field Marshal in July. 1796. He died August 3, 1797. His brother, William Amherst, wa .: Lieutenant-General and Colonel of the 32d Foot and Governor of St. Johns, New Foundland. He was aide-de-camp to Sir Jeffrey Amherst in America, and was at the capture of Louisburg. He died May 13, 1781. Amherst County, Va., was named in honor of Sir Jeffrey Amherst.
LORD BOTETOURT.
Norborne Berkeley, Baron de Botetourt, son of John Symes Berke- ley, was born in 1718. He was Colonel of the North Gloucestershire Militia in 1761; represented that shire in Parliament; and in 1764 was raised to the peerage, He was the second of Lord Talbott in a duel with John Wilkes in 1762, and was Constable of the Tower of London in 1767. The accession of Lord Botetourt to the vice- royal government of Virginia, occurred at a period rife with discontent among the American Colonies, and pregnant with swiftly approaching and momentous events. The brilliant Horace Walpole, writing to Sir Horace Mann, August 14, 1768, after alluding to the disquiet in Amer- ica, says: " Virginia, though not the most mutinous, contains the best heads and the principal boutes-feux. It was thought necessary that the Governor should reside there. It was known that Sir Jeffrey Amherst would not like that ; he must besides have superseded Gage. At the same time, Lord Botetourt, a court favorite, yet ruined in fortune, was thought of by Lord Hillsborough."
To this bit of cabinet history, the relentless J nius personally adds of Botetourt, " Having ruined himself by gambling, he became a cring- ing, bowing, fawning, sword-bearing courtier." It would appear from the subsequent career of this best beloved of our colonial viceroys thai the character so pitilessly drawn by the stern censor was hardly merited. He received the appointment of Governor (succeeding Sir Jeffrey Am- herst) in July, 1768, though he did not arrive in the Colony until some- time in October following. A contemporary presents a foil to the venomously drawn picture of Junius. Edmund Randolph, in a MS. history of Virginia, in the collections of the Virginia Historical Society, says of Lord Botetourt : "If from birth and education he had not been
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a courtier, his dependence on the Crown for the revival of an extin- guished title, must have generated habits to conciliate and please. He came hither, not only with the grace of polished life, but also with the predilections of the people, who were proud in being no longer governed by a deputy. His predecessors, Fauquier, Dinwiddie, Gooch, Spots- wood, Nicholson and Drysdale, had been the vehicles of sinecures to some principals who never cast an eye or thought on Virginia. Through Botetourt, the Colony was assured by the King, that as a mark of honor to it, the residence of the chief Governor there should never be dis- pensed with in the future. Always accessible on business, adhering without a single deviation to the resolution of sleeping every night in the metropolis, affable to the humblest visitor in social circles, easy himself, and contributing to the ease of others, he was sincerely and uni- versally beloved. In his public functions, his purity and punctuality confirmed the attachment which his qualities as a gentleman had begun. By his patronage, he inspired the youth of William and Mary with ardour and emulation, and by his daily example in the observance of religion, he acquired a kind of sacred ascendancy over the public mind."
Solicitous to serve the Virginians, Botetourt pledged his life and fortune to extend the boundary of the Colony on the west to the Ten- nessee River, on the parallel of 363 degrees. On the 11th of May, 1769, when the Assembly was convened, the Governor, attended by a numer- ous retinue of guards, rode from the palace to the capitol in a luxurious state-coach drawn by six milk-white horses-a present from George III .- and the insignia of royalty was displayed with unusual pomp. On that day and the one following, he entertained fifty-two guests at dinner. The Assembly, however, on the 16th instant following, venturing upon the assertion of certain colonial prerogatives by the passage of resolutions against parliamentary taxation, and the sending of accused persons to England for trial, was dissolved by him. But this exercise of arbitrary power was speedily condoned by an action of cordial conciliation. Botetourt, having received from the Earl of Hillsborough, Secretary of State for the Colonies, assurance that it was not the intention of the Ministry to propose any further taxes, and that they intended to advo- cate a repeal of those already complained of, called the Assembly to- gether, and communicated these assurances, pledging himself to every exertion in his power towards the redressing of the grievances of the colonists, and the promotion of every measure tending to their advance- ment and prosperity, which led to an interchange of cordial greeting be- tween the colonial legislative bodies and the Governor, and the inaugura- tion of that warm sentiment of esteem and affection already so graphically portrayed. But the generous-minded Botetourt, soon finding that the prom- ises held out to him by the Ministry were utterly faithless, and indignant at the deception practiced upon him, demanded his recall. Shortly after
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this, on October 15, 1770, he fell a victim to an attack of bilious fever. He appears to have met death with the calm fortitude of the philosopher and the confiding trust of the Christian. The pure-minded and deeply pious Robert Carter Nicholas, the Treasurer of the Colony, with whom he was on terms of the strictest friendship, having during one of his visits to the Governor observed that he thought that the latter would be very unwilling to die, " because," as he said, " you are so social in your nature, and so much beloved, and you have so many good things about you, that you must be loth to leave them," his lordship made at the time no reply; but a short time after, being on his death-bed, he sent in haste for Colonel Nicholas, who lived near the palace, and who instantly repaired thither to receive the last sight of his dying friend. On entering his chamber he asked his commands. "Nothing," replied his lordship, " but to let you see that I resign these good things which you formerly spoke of with as much composure as I enjoyed them ;" after which he grasped his hand with warmth, and instantly expired. His death was deeply lamented by the colony, and the funeral ceremonies incident upon his burial were conducted with great state, the ostentation exhibited being unprecedented in the country. A verification of the display, being copies of bills presented against his estate (inclusive of those for the funeral expenditures) lies before the writer.
The originals, lately in his possession, have been returned to their owner, Miss Sarah Nicholas Randolph, of "Edgehill," Abermarle County, Va., the great grand-daughter of Thomas Jefferson. The ex- penses aggregate about £700 sterling, and the items are stated with great minuteness. The remains appear to have been enclosed in three several coffins-one of lead, furnished by one Joseph Kidd ; an " inside coffin," and one of black walnut, by one Joshua Kendall. The " inside coffin" was laid with " Persian fully ornamented," and the " outside coffin," cov- ered with " crimson velvet," ornamented in the best manner. There were " eight silver handles and sixteen escutcheons for his lordship's coffin," and " one large silver plate engraved, a lute-string shroud, mat- tress, pillow and cap." The church was hung with black cloth, and it and the hearse were ornamented with "escutcheons." "Sixteen books of silver leaf," and " one dozen books of Dutch metal," also appear as charges. Staffs were borne by, and cloaks furnished the mourners. There were "streamers for the horses," and an extensive list of articles for the costuming of the numerous attendants upon the obsequies.
The interment did not take place until the 20th of October, if it was not later, as numerous items of the incidental expense were entered on that date. The body was deposited in one of the vaults beneath the chapel of William and Mary College, and a beautiful marble statue of Botetourt was erected at the expense of the Colony in 1774 in front of the old capitol. It now stands, much mutilated, in front of William und Mary College, whither it was removed in 1797.
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The pedestal is inscribed with a glowing tribute to the merits and virtue of the beloved viceroy. In the parish church of Stoke Gifford, Gloucestershire, England, a long monumental inscription also commemo- rates his worth. Lord Botetourt gave to the College of William and Mary a sum of money, the interest of which was sufficient to purchase annually two gold medals-one to be given to the best classical scholar, and the other to the best scholar in philosophy. This medal was an- nually awarded until the Revolution. In Howe's Historical Collections of Virginia, an account is given of the joyous and impressive reception of Lord Botetourt by the colonists, together with an ode, recited and sung with an accompaniment of music on the occasion.
On the evening of the 22d of February, 1876, there was held at the theater in the city of Richmond, Va., a ball, in commemoration of the the vice-regal court of Williamsburg, as it appeared during the govern- ment of Lord Botetourt. The participants, in most instances the lincal descendants of distinguished men and courtly dames who formed the society of the colonial capital, Williamsburg, reproduced the attire of that day in all of its original resplendance and impressive concomitants. Many were the treasured memorials, transmitted heirlooms, jewels, swords, fans, rich brocades and satins, and costly laces -- which were drawn forth from careful and jealous keeping for the occasion. The stage of the theater was fitted up for the brilliant tableaux, the body of the building being filled to overflowing with spectators. This memor- able occasion was the accomplishment of a number of patriotic ladies who desired to celebrate appropriately the birthday of Washington, and at the same time earn money with which to improve the condition of the Virginia room at Mount Vernon.
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