USA > Virginia > Virginia colonial decisions : the reports by Sir John Randolph and by Edward Barradall, of decisions of the general court of Virginia, 1728-1741, v. I > Part 8
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31
The King, satisfied apparently with his triumph in the null and void order business, and the quo warranto confirmation by his complaisant judges, and feeling that just that much more of power had been accumu- lated in the royal breast, did not take a mean advantage of his victory, but proceeded to appoint a good governor and moderate men to manage in his name the affairs of Virginia in the place of the defunct Company. So, in spite of the fears of the people, the fall of the Company did the colony no harm. What might have happened later, had James lived, it is hard to predict, but in March, 1625, while the King was engaged in composing, with his own hand, a new code of laws for Virginia, death came to him and ended that chapter.1
Then came Charles, and after Charles came the Commonwealth and Lord High Protector Cromwell, and then another Charles, during which time were some changes of government, or rather of governing, worthy of note.
The first Charles did not long wait to let the Vir- ginians know that he had them in mind. The ship that brought the tidings of the death of James brought also a communication from the new King, dated May
1Cooke's History of Virginia, 133.
-
-
68
VIRGINIA COLONIAL DECISIONS
13, 1625,1 in which he expressed his desire "that their maie be one uniforme course of government in and through our whole monarchie;" that the government for the colony should "ymediately de- pend upon ourselfe and not be committed to anie companie;" that until he should further declare his pleasure he would have commissioners to manage things from England as he should direct, but that, as soon as possible, he would establish a "Counsell con- sistinge of a few persons of understanding and quali- tie," to whom he would give the immediate care of the colony, but answerable immediately to him. He kept this promise to Virginia and sent a good governor - Yeardley - who had served acceptably before, and appointed, also, good men as resident councilors, principally those holding the power when his father died.2 He also confirmed representative government in the colony, which it is likely James would have undone,3 addressing a message straight to "Our trusty and well-beloved Burgesses of the Grand As- sembly of Virginia."
Other governors came, some good and some bad, but none so good as Yeardley. But the colony pros- pered, and save the serious trouble of the Bacon Rebellion while Berkeley was governor, the course of government ran smooth, in the main.
The Virginia people were profoundly loyal to Charles, possibly because they did not suffer directly from the royal encroachments which raised so large a party against him in England, so they were greatly shocked at his death and looked upon Cromwell as a regicide and usurper. But their first determination to resist
1Virginia Carolorum, 10.
*Old Virginia and Her Neighbors. Vol. I, 242. Virginia Carolorum, 38. 'Old Virginia and Her Neighbors. Vol. I, 237.
.... ..
الوا بلحلاد فـ
69
THE GOVERNMENT
the new government gave way to more prudent counsel, theirs surely being a case where the discretion of submission was the better part of valor. So they received Cromwell's commissioners, made a fair bar- gain with them as to taxes, trade, etc., reserving the right, privately, to toast the King1 and curse the Pro- tector, and accepted the new conditions, simply be- cause they could not help themselves. Sir William Berkeley, the governor, resigned, sold his brick house in Jamestown, and went to live at Green Spring, his fine place in the country near the town.
During Cromwell's time the House of Burgesses elected the governors, three of them,2 and also the councilors, which was great compensation to the people for not having a King. But it was rather a strange condition of parliamentary government, that the lower house3 should choose the upper, which included the governor with his veto check. So it was, that the burgesses were the whole government, and thus lacked the balancing so important to a representative system. But it worked all right for the time, and when Oliver died, and Richard Cromwell, proving inadequate, sub- sided, the King came to his own again; and his restora- tion restored also the old conditions in Virginia, which were very willing to be restored. So it came about that Kings went on appointing governors and council- ors and other officials on the recommendation of the governors, until the taxation without representation scheme was put in force, and the stamp act and the duty on glass, paint colors, paper and tea, were imposed, and the tea got thrown into Boston harbor, when the colonists seceded, made states of themselves,
1Old Virginia and Her Neighbors. Vol. I, 314.
*English Colonies in America, 17.
3 Not then yet established as such.
70
VIRGINIA COLONIAL DECISIONS
and took in hand on their own account the governor business.
During the first half of the eighteenth century, with which we are principally concerned, Francis Nicholson, Edward Nott, Alexander Spotswood - he of the Golden Horseshoe - Hugh Drysdale, William Gooch, and Robert Dinwiddie, were the governors. Of these all but two were lieutenant or deputy gov- ernors, the governor being a sinecure appointee, who drew the salary and called himself governor. This was a grievance to the colonists all the time, but as many of the deputies were good men - better perhaps than their sinecure principals - no particular point was made of it until the tea and stamp tax business made all grievances grow. Indeed, so popular were these deputy governors that counties were named after many of them, after Spotswood, Gooch and Dinwiddie of those I have named, and after Fauquier, Loudoun, Botetourt and others, and the names still remain. Even Dunmore, who came at an unlucky time and carried away the powder from Williamsburg, and soon after had to have himself likewise carried away in a ship from the wrath of the rebels, whom we now call revolutionists, had a county named after him. But that was more than the burgesses could agree to let stand, so in October, 1777, one of the delegates from Dunmore county stated1 "that his constituents no longer wished to live in, or he to repre- sent, a county bearing the name of such a tory; he therefore moved to call it Shenandoah, after the beauti- ful stream which passes through it," and it was done on the spot, being also an improvement in an esthetic sense, or sound.
But before all this came to pass, and when the British 'Howe's History of Virginia and its Antiquities, 467.
71
THE GOVERNMENT .
government was disposed to make up with the colonists and satisfy any grievance, provided only it retained the right to tax tea or some other little thing, it was in order to do away with the deputy governor habit and send out to Virginia the real thing: So King George III sent a man of rank, a very gracious and attractive gentleman, the Baron de Botetourt, who took his first occasion to announce1 that it was his majesty's gracious intention " that, for the future, his chief governors of Virginia shall reside within the government."
But acceptable as this was, it did not help the other trouble, and some few millions of subjects of the King, the greater number of whom probably did not drink tea, renounced their allegiance to King George and fought England for seven years, because the tempest which that teapot made was the tax on the tea put in the pot without consulting the drinker, and there- fore a giving of tribute, which surely was against the liberties of England assured to all the King's subjects in Virginia by the charter of 1606, and also by the inherent nature of those born or bred from English stock.
And besides the burgesses and the Governor and council sitting as an upper house, there was also the council of which the Governor was a part, and which also sat separately, with both judicial and legislative, and, indeed, executive functions; but as it came to be called first the Quarter Court and then the General Court, a full discussion of it belongs to the part of this introduction devoted to the courts. But a few words must be said here about the Monthly Court, afterwards called the County Court.
As early as 1623, Monthly Courts were established
1 Williamsburg. Tyler, 46.
72.
VIRGINIA COLONIAL DECISIONS
for Charles City and Elizabeth City, although as early as 1619, in the British State Papers, Colonial, Vol. III, No. 21, 1, it is said that " Monthly Courts were held in every precinct to doe justice in redressing of all small and petty matters, others of more consequence beinge referred to the Governor Counsell and Generall Assemblie."1 But before this there had been a court held at Jamestown to which all cases had been brought for trial.2 These courts were called by the act establish- ing them, "Monthly Courts for decyding of suits and con- troversies, not exceeding the value one hundred pounds of tobacco and for punishing of petty offences." They were held by the commanders of plantations and such others as the Governor and his Privy Council might appoint and commission, with the right of appeal from their decisions to the Governor and council, with this discouraging provision against appeals, that " whoever shall appeal shall be required to pay double costs if he fail in his suit."3 Up to 1633 the political divisions of the colony were called hundreds and plantations. In 1634 these, then eight in number, were enacted into eight shires, "to be governed as the shires in England." In 1643 these shires and five others were formed into counties, and thenceforth they, and others subsequently formed, were called counties. 4
In 1629, commissioners of Monthly Courts were substituted for commanders of plantations as judges, the Governor and Privy Council being authorized to act as commissioners of the Monthly Court at James- town, in connection with the regular commissioners. In 1642, the name of these tribunals was changed
1Economic History of Virginia. Bruce. Vol. I, 571.
"Works of Capt. John Smith.
3Judge Waller R. Staples. Vol. VII. Rep of Va. State Bar Ass'n. "Cooke's History of Virginia, 202
73
THE GOVERNMENT
1 from Monthly Courts to County Courts, which latter name 'they retained until the court was abolished.
Up to 1661-2, Justices of the Peace were not known as such in Virginia, but in that year an act was passed requiring commissioners of County Courts to take the oaths of Justices of the Peace, and to be so designated in all judicial proceedings.
Commanders, however, had many of the duties of Justices of the Peace and to some extent those of Grand Juries. They were members of the vestry of the parish and at different times were chosen in different ways, sometimes elected by the people, sometimes by the commissioners of the Monthly Court, and sometimes were self-perpetuating bodies like the County Courts.1
While the duties of the County Courts were mainly judicial, the courts were also the fiscal managers of the counties and legislated locally to a considerable extent. It is because they were, for the greater part of the existence of the system, perhaps the most important part of the government of the colony and of the state that they are mentioned here. Up to the Constitution of 1850, when the self-perpetuating feature of this organization was taken away, the County Courts were both the most effective and popular of governmental agencies. Even after that, their usefulness, although impaired, remained in great degree, and their popu- larity was undiminished. In 1869, by a convention, nominally but not really chosen by Virginians, under military order and universal negro and other kinds of suffrage, judges to the number of a hundred or more, " learned in the law," were substituted for the justices who were not required to be so learned. This ended the popular and representative character of the court, and, being so ended, it was finally abolished, without
'Justice in Colonial Virginia, 83.
74
VIRGINIA COLONIAL DECISIONS
a sigh, by the convention of 1901-02. But of this tribunal, as a court, we will have more to say in another chapter.
The regulations and provisions as to the number of burgesses to represent any particular constituency, and the qualifications and disqualifications of persons for holding the office, and of those who were to vote for them, changed very much from time to time. To record these in this writing would be beyond its scope and purpose. They are set out in the various histories of the colony times, but I know no history in which they are as well declared, and where the au- thorities to support the statements of them are better collected, than in a paper-bound book of 176 pages to be found in the library of the Virginia Historical Society at Richmond, written by Elmer J. Miller, Ph.D., Chico, Cal., and published by the Columbia University Press, 1907.
The same book discusses very fully the relations of the appointed councilors to the elected burgesses; the right of William and Mary College to representation in the General Assembly; the changing times for the sessions of the Assembly; the grievances against the Governor for failing to call the Assembly together; the times and manner of holding the elections; the privi- leges and pay of members; the duties and pay of councilors; the rules governing the procedure of the General Assembly; the Governor's privileges and powers; the appointment and dismissal of councilors; the public officers of the colony and the manner of choosing them; the relations, and relative rank in importance, of the councilors and the burgesses after they sat separately, and before; and the general prerogatives of the Governor. While all these are mat- ters of deep interest and importance, and are essential
4 ×4
٢٠١٠
75
THE GOVERNMENT
to a complete understanding of the government of the colony, as already stated, they are beyond the scope of this writing, and are therefore simply referred to so as to make the sources of information readily accessible to the reader who desires to seek further.
:
CHAPTER V THE CHURCH
The story of the religion, churches and church buildings of any people tells, necessarily, very much of their habits, manners, and customs, and this is especially true of a new settlement which had grown up in the woods. Just enough of this to serve that purpose will be told here of the colony on the James.
The Charter of 1606 " professed, as a leading pre- amble or motive, 'the furtherance of so noble a work ' as the planting of Christianity amongst heathens,"1 and " the last advice given the colonists by the King's Council for Virginia was, - 'Lastly and chiefly the way to achieve good success is to make yourselves all of one mind for the good of your country and your own, and to serve and fear God, the giver of all good- ness; for every plantation which our Heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted out.' "2
But the religion that was to be preached to the Indians and observed in the colony, was to be only in accordance with the forms and doctrines of the Church of England. Not a few of those who came over in the three little ships, or who came in the supplies that followed after from time to time, were hardly up to the standard one would set for a missionary, though Parson Hunt, who was of the first adventurers, proved himself "an honest, religious and courageous divine,"3 and Mr. Bucke and Mr. Wickham, and the "Apostle of Virginia," Mr. Whitaker, who also came in the early years, were unselfish, pious men of irreproachable life.
'The First Republic in America. Brown, 6.
'Id., 31.
'Cooke's History of Virginia, 333.
77
THE CHURCH
Captain John Smith's account of the first place for worship, indicates that quite as much zeal in religious matters was shown as had been expected of these adventurers; the awning1 made of an old sail hung to three or four trees;2 the seats from unhewed trees; the bar of wood between two of them for a pulpit; later the old rotten tent; and then later still " a homely thing like a barn, set upon crotchetts, covered with rafts, sedge and earth," and "yet we had daily common prayer, morning and evening, every Sunday two ser- · mons, and every three months the holy communion, till our minister (the Rev. Mr. Hunt) died; but our prayers daily, with an homily on Sundays, we con- tinued two or three years after, till more preachers came," all make a graphic picture of the first religious exercises in the wilderness.
The poor little "homely thing like a barn " was burned within two years. Then there were rebuildings and repairs, and we are told of a chapel, sixty feet by twenty-four, "with a chancel of cedar and a communion table of black walnut; all the pews and the pulpit were of cedar with fair broad windows, also of cedar, to shut and open as the weather shall occasion."3
This was a timber building, the beautifying of which was the work of Lord Delaware, who came on that fateful Sunday, June 10, 1610. And besides all these things, he provided a font " hewen hollow like a canoa," and there were two bells in the steeple at the west end, and a sexton to ring the bells about ten o'clock every morning and at four in the afternoon before supper, and it was "kept passing sweet and trimmed up with divers flowers."
1The Cradle of the Republic, 73.
'So well represented on the same ground, and to trees probably just like those
of 1607, at the great meeting held there just three hundred years later. 'First Republic in America. Brown, 129
1
78
VIRGINIA COLONIAL DECISIONS
It was probably in the wooden church (known as the Argall Church, and which succeeded this little building) that the first legislature sat in 1619,1 and it is supposed that it continued to be used until the brick church, commenced in 1639, was completed, and which was burned down by Bacon in 1676. Then the brick church was repaired again, and used even after Jamestown was practically abandoned and until about 1758,2 and then allowed to fall into decay until nothing remained of it but the tower, still standing, and now piously preserved from further destruction.
Although this tower was built sometime between 1639 and 1647, it is claimed that it is not the oldest church building in Virginia still standing. That near Smithfield in Isle of Wight County, it is supposed was erected in 1632, and is still there in good condition,3 having been restored in recent years.
In Henrico, one of the eight original shires estab- lished in 1634, as early as 1611 a town named Henri- copolis was built by Sir Thomas Dale, "with a good church."4 Not far away, in the angle between the James River and the Appomattox, another town, called Bermuda Hundred, was built also, and there too was a church. It was of these two churches that the Rev. Alexander Whitaker had charge until 1617, when he was drowned.
And so it was through all the colonial time, as the settlements advanced along the rivers and then back into the country, and at last over the mountains, wherever they built a little town, and in many places where no town was, they built a church. And the church was the centre of the social as well as of the
'Cradle of the Republic, 76. Bruton Parish Church Restored. Goodwin, 38. *Id.
3Address of R. S. Thomas, 1891. Virginia Historical Collections, Vol. XI, 129. "Howe's History and Antiquities of Virginia, 302.
1
-
-
79
THE CHURCH
religious life, and in many respects was the dispenser of education, or at least of civilization. The Sunday gatherings of the people at the little churches from all the country side, nearly all of whom were related by blood or marriage, the cordial greetings and inquiries about each other's affairs and kindly interest manifested in the well doing of those absent or present, were, in that simple life, almost the coming together of family groups. Over the bad roads they came, often on horseback1 with pillions behind the saddles, on which the ladies rode; or the young women, mounted on their own fine and well managed steeds, were a quickly accepted challenge to the equally well mounted young men of the neighborhood, and no blue law, of which there were many, prevented an occasional dash along the sandy roads by the woods, as a concession to the eagerness of their mettlesome horses. Or, when the season and the road permitted, as in some sections they did even in the winter, the older people came in their carriages slung wide between the axles, with a pair, at least, of horses, and a negro driver mounted upon his high seat in front; often a footman too, much more for use in the very possible emergency of a breakdown, than he ever could be for ornament.
In the country churches, and they were all country churches, the benediction pronounced - the aisle buzzed with the interchange of neighborly greetings, the men gathered on the grass outside, and generally there were invitations, frequently accepted, to go by and take a Sunday dinner. It was a simple, sweet and happy life into which the word "strenuous " had
"" They stay also after the service is over, usually as long, sometimes longer, than the Parson was preaching. ... Almost every Lady wears a red Cloak: and when they ride out they tye a red handkerchief over their Head and face, so that when I first came into Virginia, I was distressed whenever I saw a Lady, for I thought she had the Tooth-ach." Fithian, 58.
80
VIRGINIA COLONIAL DECISIONS
never entered, and indeed for which there was no place.
Philip Vickers Fithian of Greenwich, New Jersey, was a student at Princeton College, 1770-72, and taught in 1773-74 in the family of Councilor Robert Carter of Normini Hall, in Westmoreland County, Virginia. He kept a diary, and for it he deserves to be ranked among the makers of history for the many delightful and evidently truthful pictures given of a time and a people about which there will only be an increase of interest as the years divide us from them. Fithian was a Presbyterian and a divinity student, to whom the customs of the light-hearted Virginians did not at first readily adjust themselves. Naturally his Sunday sketches are rather commonplace, but being cotemporaneous are valuable. In one he says, " After having paid my morning secret Devotion to the King of Kings, I sat myself to the correcting and transcribing my sermon. - I had the pleasure to wait on Mrs. Carter to Church. She rode in the chariot & Miss Prissy and Nancy; Mr. Carter chose to stay at Home. The sacrament was to have been administered, but there was so few people that he thought it improper, and put of til Sunday fortnight. He preached from Isaiah 9.6, 'For unto us a child is Born etc.,' his sermon was fifteen Minutes long. Very fashionable - He invited me very civilly to Dine and Spend the evening but I could not leave the Ladies. He made me almost promise, however, to call some Day this weak."
On another Sunday " I rose at eight - The morning cold and stormy. Ben1 is distressed that he can not go to Church: I can not say but I enjoy myself with great satisfaction tho I stay most of my time in my
'Ben Carter, one of his pupils.
٠١٢
81
THE CHURCH
Chamber & often have to withstand the solicitations of Gentlemen to visit them.
"Breakfasted at half after nine. Mr. Lane the other Day informed me that the Anabaptists in Loudon County are growing very numerous & seem to be increasing in afluence; and as he thinks quite destroy- ing pleasure in the Country; for they encourage ardent Pray'r; strong & constant faith & an intire Banish- ment of Gaming, Dancing & Sabbath Day Diversions."
A part only of one more Sunday diary must suffice: " The Day pleasant. I rode to Church. After the service proper for the Day, Mr. Smith entertained us with a sermon from Pauls discourse before King Agrippa ' How is it thought a thing impossible with you that God should raise the dead.' He in this gave us a very plain & Just Discourse on the doctrine of the resurrec- tion. This being Easter Sunday, all the Parish seem'd to meet together, High, Low, black, White all come out - After Sermon the Sacrament was administered, but none are admitted except communicants to see how the matter is conducted. After Sermon I rode to Mr. Turberville's (for I found today the true spell- ing of his name). Then dined with him; Ladies Mrs. Carter & Mrs. George Turberville; Gentlemen, Colonel Carter, Squire Lee, Mr. Cunningham & Mr. Jennings; Merchants, Mr. George Lee & Ben Carter & Myself. We had an elegant dinner Beef & Greens; roast Pig; fine boil'd Rock-Fish, Pudding, Chees etc .- Drink; good Porter, Beer, Cyder, Rum & Brandy Toddy. The Virginians are so kind one can scarce know how to dispense with, or indeed accept their kindness shown in such a variety of instances." But after a while he pays a visit home and makes this entry of his first Sunday there. " I went to meeting, How unlike Virginia, no ring of Beaux chatting before
4.
82
VIRGINIA COLONIAL DECISIONS
& after Sermons on Gallantry; no assembling in crowds after service to dine and bargain; no cool, spiritless harangue from the Pulpit; Minister & People here seem in some small measure to reverence the Day, there neither do the one or the other."
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.