USA > Virginia > Virginia counties : those resulting from Virginia legislation > Part 3
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* Arber's "Travels and Works of Captain John Smith", i, pp. xxxiii-xxxv.
George Percy, esq. Captaine Gabriel Archer, Captaine Ihon Smyth, Master Ihon Brookes, Master Thomas Wotton. (Arber's "John Smith", i, xli).
# ffraneys Nellson, John Collson, Robert Tyndall, Mathew ffyteh. (Ibid.)
|| Ionas Poole, Robert Markham, John Crookdeck, Olyver Browne, Beniamyn White, Rychard Genoway, Thomas Turnbrydge, Thomas Godword, Robert Iack- son, Charles Clarke, Stephen, Thomas Skynner, Iremy Deale Danyell. (Ibid.)
[ Charles Campbell's "History of the Colony and Ancient Dominion of Virginia", 1860, p. 42, erroneously says, "On the day of their arrival, the tenth of June, the party visited the falls, *
* " which probably accounts for the fact that this erroneous date of the tenth of June is the more gen- erally accepted one.
This error on the part of Campbell seems to have resulted in a queer custom; for, while we celebrate May the 13th (an old Style date) as the anni- versary of the landing at Jamestown, yet we also celebrate June the 10th (a new Style date) as the anniversary of the first visit of white men to the Falls of James River,-thus putting these anniversaries twenty-eight days apart, though the actual events were only eleven days apart. This discrepancy of seventeen days is accounted for by Campbell's error of seven days and by the difference of ten days between the Old and the New Style.
tt Arber's "John Smith", i, xlvi, Ixix.
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(Manakins, etc.), and arrived on the 27th, after which all energies were set to strengthening the fortifications until June 22, on which date Captain Newport set sail for England, leaving one hundred and four persons and provisions for thirteen or fourteen weeks .* He promised to return within twenty weeks.
In view of their "Instructions", in view of the fact that the general flow of the rivers of the Atlantic seaboard is from northwest to southeast, and in view of the immediate contact of the colonists with the Werowance of Paspihae and those living along the Chickahominy River,; it was no mere accident that Newport's expedition, which planted the cross at the Falls of the Powhatan River, kept straight up the river instead of turn- ing into the present Appomattox and reaching the falls of that river at the site of the present City of Petersburg.
During the summer of 1607, Smith explored down the river to Kiccoughtan, and across to Waroskoyack (now Isle of Wight) on the south side of the river, while there were several journeys to Paspahegh; and in the fall of that year, he started on his discovery of the Chickahominy country and,- after several digressions,-explored the river of that name as far as it was navigable in a canoe.||
On September 17, 1607, and again in November of that year, there were trials by jury at Jamestown, and so this English custom was inau- gurated at once.#
On January 8, 1608, the first ship of the First Supply arrived some ten weeks overdue, while the second (and final) ship arrived on the 20th of April, following,-the two together bringing one hundred and twenty colonists, which gave a total of one hundred and fifty-eight, after allow- ing for sixty-seven deaths.§
In June of that year, Captain Smith explored as far as Cape Charles and discovered Smith's Islands, which were named after Sir Thomas Smith,% then explored up the bay to the Patuxent River, now in Maryland, later discovered the Patomack to its falls and the Rappahannock to its falls, and still later explored the Appomattox River.
On the 6th of October, Captain Newport had arrived with the Second Supply, which brought seventy more colonists, thus making a total of two hundred, after allowing for twenty-eight other deaths.§
These additional colonists gave a firmer and broader working basis, and Newport had brought back with him with the Second Supply express orders to explore the country of the Monacans (the area immediately west of the Falls), with a view to the discovery of the South Sea, which ob- jective was sought with greater or less persistency certainly until 1621,
* Arber's "John Smith", i, pp. 1xx, 8.
§ Ibid., i, cxxix.
t Ibid., i, pp. Ixvi-lxvii. The Chickahominy River flows into the James from the northwest at Dancing Point, some seven and a half miles above James- town Island.
# Ibid., i, pp. 1xxxiii, 12.
|| Stith's "History of Virginia", pp. 50-1.
% Brown's "First Republic", p. 173.
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when 'Powhatan entered into a league of friendship, which it was supposed would greatly further that much-sought-after object .;
But Smith firmly held that Jamestown should be made secure before any effort was made to explore the wilderness west of the Falls, while it was charged that he only wished to delay Newport's efforts in order that he might later do the same thing under more auspicious circumstances and thus gain the credit of having discovered the South Sea. This charge received countenance from Smith's own activities the December before, while exploring the Chickahominy River.
However, Newport,-who had brought with him a boat built in five parts, so that it might be carried around the falls and rapids in the rivers and would be more convenient in case of portage*,-did actually explore the Monacan country to the extent of some forty miles above the Falls (approximately the western boundary of the present County of Goochland) }; and so acquired a knowledge of this area as early as 1608, though he secured no information as to the South Sea.
In December, 1608, Smith again explored to Warrosqueake and sent Sicklemore to the country of the Chowanocks to the south, "chiefly to look for Silkgrass, and to enquire after Sir Walter Raleigh's lost Colony" ** and then made an exploration up the present York River, in search of corn, information and the friendship of the Indians.
Under date of May 23, 1609, His Majesty issued the Second Charter, "which finally afforded Sir Edwin Sandys and other progressive thinkers the opportunity for developing their liberal ideas of government in a new nation in the new world",| and gave enlarged powers to the Company, but expressly abrogated the powers of the President and Council in Vir- ginia ; and in that same year Lieutenant Percy was sent with twenty men to establish an outpost at Point Comfort, in order to help ward off star- vation at Jamestown,s and to guard against any surprise attack by the Spaniards.
Then came a few months of relief and prosperity, during which the population of the colony reached as many as four hundred and ninety, ff followed by the horrors of "Starvation Time" in 1610, during which year "of near five hundred Persons left by Captain Smith at his Departure, within
# Bruce's "Economic History of Virginia", i, p. 38.
"In May, 1669", says the said authority (p. 39), "sixty years after the memorable expedition of Newport into the Monacan country, Berkeley, at that time Governor of the Colony, wrote to the authorities in England that two hundred gentlemen had agreed to accompany him in an expedition to the west, which he had arranged for the discovery of the East India Sca, but that unusually heavy and prolonged rains had for that season disconcerted his plans. He petitioned that a commission should be sent to him, which would empower him to undertake the expedition the following spring".
* Stith's "History of Virginia", p. 77.
t Ibid .; p. 79.
** Ibid., p. 85.
| Brown's "First Republic", p. 650.
§ Stith's "History of Virginia", pp. 97-8.
tt Yonge's "Site of Old James Towne", p. 43.
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six Months, there remained not above sixty, Men, Women, and Children"t; but on the 10th of June, Lord Delawarr, with a fleet which brought the population of Virginia up to some three hundred and fifty souls, arrived as Captain-General of Virginia, took charge with a firm hand, began to set things in order, and later built two forts (Fort Charles and Fort Henry) at Kiccoughtan (Hampton), where was to be developed a plantation for acclimating the colonists as they arrived,-where "those, who came from England,# should be quartered at their first Landing, that the Weari- someness and Nausea of the Sea might be refreshed, in this pleasant Situa- tion, and wholesome Air".|
Sir Thomas Dale arrived on the 10th of May, 1611, with colonists and provisions and at once began a personal exploration of the country by "view- ing" the Nansemond River and later the James River, with the result that "as early as 1611 a town named Henricopolis [at the present Dutch
+ Stith's "History of Virginia", p. 117.
It was at this time that the life of the Colony hung on a gossamer- like thread of Good Fortune, of which trying time, Tyler's "Cradle of the Republic", p. 36, has the following to say:
"And it now appears, indeed, as if another sickening failure would be added to the long list of fruitless endeavours to plant an English colony in America. Sending ahead the pinnace VIRGINIA, built on the coast of Maine in 1607, to Point Comfort to take on Captain Davis and the guard there, the company at Jamestown made ready for their own departure. June 7, 1610, Gates ordered all the small arms to be carried aboard, buried the cannon at the fort gate, and commanded every man to repair to the PATIENCE and DELIVERANCE at the beat- ing of the drum; and while the men were going aboard, lest some one might set fire to the buildings in the town which they were abandon- ing, he caused his own company, under Captain George Yeardley, to embark after the rest, and was himself the last to leave the shore.
It was in the evening that they left Jamestown, and they halted that night at Hog Island about six miles below the fort. The next morning, they resumed their voyage, and had reached Mulberry Island, about eight miles further down, when they saw the white sails of a little vessel coming to meet them. It was the pinnace VIRGINIA, and never did vessel bring more important message. Edward Brewster, its commander, informed Gates that Lord Delaware had arrived at Point Comfort with 150 settlers; and, thereupon, the colonists were un- willingly put back to Jamestown, and that evening took possession again of their forlorn habitations. Sunday, June 10, Lord Delaware arrived and went ashore in the afternoon with Sir Ferdinando Wainman. This was a great occasion and one duly appreciated at the time. Sir Thomas Gates caused his company to stand in arms, and William Strachey, the secretary of state, acted as color bearer.
As soon as the Lord Delaware arrived near the south gate of the fort opening towards the river, he fell upon his knees and made a long and silent prayer to God. Then arising, he walked to the entrance to the town, Strachey bowing before him with his colors, and letting them fall in the gateway at his Lordship's feet, who passed on to the church, where Rev. Richard Buck ( "Sir Thomas Gates his preacher"), delivered an impressive sermon."
# "Thus far [the Fall of 1610]", says Yonge's "Site", p. 43, "about 900 persons had been sent from England to Virginia, of whom about 700 had perished."
|| Stith's "History of Virginia", p. 120. It is of Interest to note that In 1610 Ford Delaware thus established what was In substance more or less of a quarantine station at a point only some thirty miles from the present U. S. Quarantine Station on Fisherman's Island, at Cape Charles.
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Gap] was built by Sir Thomas Dale 'with a good church'",[ of which town Coxendale on the south side of the river was in substance a part.
In 1612, Captain Newport arrived with supplies and was sent to the Potomack River for corn and to explore; the next year Dale entered into an alliance with the Chickahominies by which they became "Tassautessus", or Englishmen, and accepted as their governor, Dale, whom they recognized as the deputy of the king ;* and in this same year Bermuda Hundred, Charles City Hundred, Curls, Rocksdale Hundred and Shirley Hundred were located. Pocahontas, who was also called Matoa'x by the Indians, married John Rolfe in 1614 and was a short time thereafter baptized as Rebecca ; and in this year a salt-works was located on Smith's Island .**
The Colony, however, did not prosper under the military rules estab- lished by Gates and Dale; and in England, for lack of subscriptions, the desperate expedient of a lottery was resorted to, but emigrants could not be had on any terms. The Colony was saved by the excitement created over the culture of tobacco introduced by John Rolfe. Gates and Dale tried to suppress it, but when Yeardley became deputy-governor a more liberal spirit prevailed and colonists flocked to the Colony in large num- bers to plant tobacco. However, it should be stated that the Chickahominies refused to keep with Yeardley their agreement with Dale, and called him "only Sir Thomas Dale's Man",f after which there was bloodshed in which twelve Indians were killed and as many more captured, and eleven colo- nists drowned, at the very time that "Lady Rebecca," as Pocahontas was now called, was being much féted in England; but in March, 1617, while on board ship at Gravesend waiting to sail for Virginia, she fell ill of small-pox and "it pleased God, at Gravesend, to take Pocahontas to his Merey, in about the two and twentieth year of her Age".# At that time, there were, it is stated, four hundred persons|| at James Towne, and in the same year there were located four more outlying plantations, §-Argall's Gift, (Martin's) Brandon and Smith's (afterwards Southampton) Hundred and Weyanoke.ft
|| Barton's "Virginia Colonial Decisions", i, p. 78.
* Stith's "History of Virginia", p. 130.
** Tyler's "Cradle of the Republic" (1906), opp. p. 201.
¡ Stith's "History of Virginia", p. 140.
# Ibid., p. 146.
|| Yonge's "Site of Old 'James Towne'", p. 43. Powhatan, ever solicitous of the fighting strength of England, sent his son-in-law, Tomocomo, so Stith says (p. 144), "to take the Number of the People in England, and to bring him a full and exact Account of their Strength and Condition. And, accord- ingly, being arrived at Plimouth, he got a long Stick, intending to cut a Notch, for every one, he saw. But he was soon tired with such an endless Work, and threw away his Stick; and being asked by the King, after his Return, how many People there were? it is said, that he replied: 'Count the Stars of the Sky, the Leaves of the Trees, and the Sand upon the Sea Shore: for such is the Number of the People in England' ".
§ "He [Sir Edwin Sandys] therefore observed, that the Commodities of Virginia had three several sorts of Owners: First, the Company; secondly, particular Hundreds and Plantations, belonging to private adventurers in Eng- land, as Southampton Hundred, Martin's Hundred, and the like; and thirdly, Planters inhabiting and residing in Virginia, whose Part he conceived to be far the largest and most considerable."
tt Tyler's "Cradle of the Republic", pp. 232, 209, 217, respectively.
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Yeardley, upon becoming acting-governor in 1616, had encouraged the raising of tobacco; with the result that, when Argall arrived as governor, he found some of the necessary works neglected, and every available space in Jamestown,-the margin of the streets and the market-place,-occupied by the plant. Argall appears to have restrained the people and to have required a due proportion of corn to be planted, but he was himself accused of money-lust, and he engaged surreptitiously in the tobacco trade to a very considerable extent. Many charges of what are nowadays called "graft" were brought against him, but he was saved from final prosecutions by the Earl of Warwick .*
Brown's "First Republic", p. 254 (see also p. 313) says, under date prior to June 17, 1617,-"It seems certain, however, that he (Argall) located the then bounds of the four great 'Incorporations and Parishes of James Citty, Charles Citty, the citty of Henricus and Kiccowtan'" "(which here- after [in reply to the 6th petition of their General Assembly of August, 1619] shall be called Elizabeth City, by the name of his Majesties most vertuous and renowned Daughter)",; while the four outlying plantations already mentioned were located.
In many respects the year 1618 was an unfortunate one for the Colony, in that Lord Delawarr, Powhatan and Sir Walter Raleigh died, and there was much quarreling amongst the members of the London Company. We find, however, that there were at that time "about six hundred Persons, Men, Women, and Children in Virginia",¿ and that to the plantations pre- viously established, several new ones were added,-Flower de Hundred, Mar- tin's Hundred and Maycock's Hundred.1
A new era began with the resignation, on April 28, 1619, of Sir Thomas Smith, who had held the post of treasurer of the Colony for twelve years. The results of his long administration were stated to be that, after "four- score thousand Pounds Expense and twelve Years Labour, the Colony con- sisted of about six hundred Persons, Men, Women and Children. And they had about three hundred Head of Cattle, and an infinite Number of Hogs, wild and tame".§
Sir Edwin Sandys and the Earl of Southampton now assumed con- trol of affairs. In the spring of 1619 Sir George Yeardley arrived as governor, bringing various grants and Orders of Government, amongst which were instructions to issue writs for a General Assembly, "with two Bur- gesses from each Plantation [of the then eleven] freely to be elected by the inhabitants thereof", **- "a Privilege", says Stith (p. 182), "granted immediately upon the Disgust taken, by the worthier Part of the Company,
* Stith's "History of Virginia", pp. 149-157.
| Brown's "First Republic", p. 377.
# Stith's "History of Virginia", p. 281.
" Tyler's "Cradle of the Republic", pp. 211, 236, 212, respectively.
§ "But all the Company's Lands and Plantations were utterly ruined and depopulated by Captain Argall, there being only three Tenants left thereon, and six Men of what he called his Guard. And notwithstanding Sir Thomas Smith's boast that he had left six thousand Pounds, for the new Treasurer to proceed upon, it was found, upon Examination, that the Company was above that Sum in Debt" (Stith, pp. 159-160).
** Brown's "First Republic", p. 312.
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at Sir Thomas Smith's ill Government, and the insufferable Tyranny and Iniquity of Captain Argall",-whereupon the new governor soon afterwards published his intention to assemble such a body ;; and this prospect of a representative legislature evidently stimulated the proprietors of land, for we find that there were located in that year at least the eight following plantations,-Archer's Hope, Berkeley, Chaplin's Choice, Jordan's Journey, Lawne's Plantation, Savage's Neck, Warde's Plantation, and Westover.}
This, the first popular representative legislative assembly of Amer- ica, met in the little wooden church at Jamestown on July 30, 1619, with twenty-two representatives present,* who, in imitation of the House of Commons and conscious of their importance, "sat in the choir with their hats on, but after prayer had been said and the oath of supremacy taken, took their seats in the body of the church fronting the governor and council [in the same house, after the manner of the Scotch Parlia-
1 Stith says (p. 160),-"And about the latter End of June, he called the first General Assembly, that was ever held in Virginia. Counties were not yet laid off, but they elected their Representatives by Townships. So that the Burroughs of James Town, Henrico, Bermuda Hundred, and the rest, each sent their Members to the Assembly. And hence it is that our Lower House of Assembly is called the House of Burgesses, a Name proper to the Repre- sentatives of Burroughs or Towns; and it hath, by Custom, ever since re- tained that Appellation altho' the Burgesses, or Members for Towns and Corporations, are very few and inconsiderable at present [1747] in Comparison of the Representatives for Counties".
# Tyler's "Cradle of the Republic" (1906), pp. 234, 225, 213, 214, 205, 254, 210, 227, respectively.
* "Of the twenty-two members thus elected [whose names and planta- tions are given below] two of them were denied their seats because the patents of the land they represented exempted their owners from obedience to the law and authority of the colony, except in matters of defense" (Barton's "Virginia Colonial Decisions", i, p. 34, n); and so we see that the "Credentials Committee" of the first Assembly was active and alert.
(From "Journals of the House of Burgesses", 1619-1658 /9, vii). ARGALL'S GIFT:
Thomas Pawlett
Edward Gourgaing
LAWNE'S PLANTATION: Christopher Lawne Ensign Washer
CHARLES CITY :
Samuel Sharpe
Samuel Jordan
MARTIN'S BRANDON:
Thomas Davis
Robert Stacy
FLOWERDIEU HUNDRED:
Edmund Rossingham
John Jefferson
MARTIN'S HUNDRED:
John Boys
John Jackson
HENRICUS:
CAPTAIN WARD'S PLANTATION:
John Warde
John Gibbes
Thomas Dowse John Polentine [probably Pollong- ton ] SMYTHES HUNDRED: Thomas Graves Walter Shelley
JAMES CITY :
William Powell
William Spense (Spence)
KICCOWTAN: William Tucker William Capp
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ment]" ;; and proceeded to the consideration of the business which was "divided into fower severall objects" (as set forth in Brown's "First Re- public", pp. 317-8).
This election of representatives naturally required definite bounds and limitations for each of the plantations represented, which bounds were, of .course, the forerunners of the metes and bounds of the shires and counties which were at a later date to include the areas of these early plantations .*
Barton's "Virginia Colonial Decisions", i, p. 61.
* The location and bounds of these plantations were as follows:
* ARGALL'S GIFT: located in 1619, was just above Jamestown Island on the north side of the river, situated between the Chickahominy River and Powhatan Creek, and was a portion of the three thousand acres appointed by the Company for the Governor's Land.
** CHARLES CITY: located in 1613, "extended from the said pale [run by Dale between the James River and the Appomattox River], included the neck of land now known as Jones Neck, eastward, down James River, on both sides, to the mouth of the Chickahominy River."
* FLOWER DEW HUNDRED: located in 1618, situated on the south side of the river and just opposite Weyanoke, was a grant of one thousand acres.
** HENRICUS: located in 1611, "included Henrico (Farrar's Island), extend- ing thence on both sides of James River to the westward, the pale run by Dale between the said River and the Appomattox River being the line on the south side."
** JAMES CITY: located in 1617, "extended down on both sides of the river, with the same bounds near the river as the present [1898] James City and Warwick counties on the north side, and as the present Surry and Isle of Wight counties, or it may have extended to the Elizabeth River on the south side, as the southern bounds are not definitely stated."
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** KICCOWTAN: located in 1610, "extended from James City corporation to the bay."
. LAWNE'S PLANTATION: located in 1619, was situated on the south side of the river, on the east side of Lawne's Creek.
* MARTIN'S BRANDON: located in 1617 (the present Lower Brandon), was on the south side of the river, on the west side of Upper Chippokes Creek.
* MARTIN'S HUNDRED: located in 1618, consisted of some eighty thou- sand acres and was situated "in the east end of James City county on the west side of Skiffes (Keith's) Creek.
* SMITH'S (SOUTHAMPTON) HUNDRED: located in 1617, contained eighty thousand acres and was situated on the north side of the river, and "ran from 'Tanks Weyanoke' to the Chickahominy River".
* CAPTAIN WARDE'S PLANTATION: located in 1619, contained twelve hun- dred acres, situated on the south side of the river, on the east side of Warde's Creek.
The items marked thus: (*) are from Tyler's "Cradle of the Republic", 1906, chap. xiv.
The items marked thus: ( ** ) are from Brown's "First Republic", pp. 313-14.
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Owing to the great mortality which prevailed in the Colony by reason of the climate, the population suffered serious fluctuations,* but in 1620, it was estimated that there were two thousand, four hundred persons in Virginia **; for "by Captain Smith's Account, there were twenty-one Sail of Ships sent this Year, with thirteen hundred, Men, Women, and Chil- dren".t
The next year the "Fourth Charter", of June 24, confirmed former grants and privileges and "provided that the Governor should call together the General Assembly once a year, and not oftener, unless on very extraordinary and important occasionst and should "imitate the policy of the form of government, laws, customs, manner of tryal, and other administration of justice used in England, *
* *"; while the Instruc- tions to Governor Wyatt at the same time ordered him to provide for "dividing the colony into cities, boroughs, &c, * * *, and to appoint proper times for administration * *, and law suits".| *
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