THE VIRGINIA HITLER
It was James Blair who was chiefly responsible for the appointment of
Francis Nicholson as Governor General of Virginia. Nicholson's hearty
support for his plans to found a college and better the condition of the
clergy when he was Lieutenant Governor, made the Commissary eager to
have him back. So when Andros resigned, he used his influence with the
Bishop of London, who was one of the Commissioners of Trade, to have him
made his successor.
It seems strange that one identified with the interests of Virginia
should have foisted on the colony one of the worst Governors in its
history. But at the time Blair seems to have permitted the man's good
qualities--his undoubted ability, his energy, and his devotion to the
Church--to blind him to his many faults. Blair himself admitted this
later after he came into violent conflict with Nicholson, and wrote to
the Bishop of London in a repentant mood.
The new Governor General arrived in Virginia in the winter of 1698. He
found that the personnel of the Council had been greatly changed during
his absence. But there were several familiar faces in the group which
met in the great hall of the residence of the late William Sherwood.
Nicholson then announced the King's appointments to the Council and
administered the oath required by Parliament to those who were present.
One wonders whether Matthew Page and Benjamin Harrison, in their elation
at being elevated to the "Virginia House of Lords," suspected that it
would involve them in bitter controversy with the Governor, or that
they, together with four of their fellow Councillors, would be
responsible for his removal from office.
There was nothing basically despotic in the program Nicholson outlined
for himself. He sought to set the finances of the colony in order by
eliminating frauds and demanding a strict payment of quit rents so as to
increase the royal revenue. He was determined to uphold the King's
prerogative against all assaults by the Council or the Burgesses. He
wished to put the colony in a state of readiness to repel any attack by
hostile Indians, and to aid other colonies who should become involved in
Indian wars. He tried to gain permanent tenure for the clergy so as to
give them a degree of independence of the vestries. He planned a new
city which was to be the seat of government, with broad streets and
charming Capitol and Governor's mansion.
Since certain features of this program ran counter to the interests of
the Council, and others to those of the people, to carry them through
would have required resolution, tact, moderation, and ability to handle
men. Resolution Nicholson had in abundance, but in other respects he was
entirely unsuited for the task he set himself. To vilify men, to call
them rascals, to threaten to lash them with his whip was not the way to
handle the liberty-loving Virginians. His attempts to bribe the
Councillors and the Burgesses with fat jobs and to pack the courts with
favorites, might have been more successful had they not been accompanied
with such violent bursts of temper and such threats of ruin against any
who opposed him.
It so happened that the Committee of Trade, finding that the amount of
tobacco received in England was far greater than that on which the
export duty was paid in Virginia, became convinced that there were great
frauds in collections. The fault lay with the naval officers and
collectors, they thought. They instructed Nicholson not to appoint the
same person to both offices, and not to permit members of the Council to
hold either. When the Governor, not wishing to offend, at first failed
to comply, they gave him a severe rebuke. In June, 1699, he was forced
to turn several Councillors out of their lucrative jobs.
This drew from them a violent protest. They denied that they had any
knowledge of frauds in the collections. To forbid Councillors to hold
these positions was to reverse the custom of many years. The income was
their only compensation for their expense in journeying perhaps seventy
miles, perhaps one hundred miles, in some cases crossing great rivers,
to attend meetings of the Council and the General Court. And though they
could not directly blame Nicholson, they probably suspected that it was
at his suggestion that the instruction had been made. So it was a soured
and discontented group of men who dispersed to return to their homes
after the Council meeting ended.
[Illustration: The Old Capitol at Williamsburg, showing the north
elevation which is a duplicate of the historic Virginia Capitol
originally completed in 1705. Courtesy of Colonial Williamsburg,
Inc.]
[Illustration: The House of Burgesses in the Old Capitol at
Williamsburg. Courtesy of Colonial Williamsburg, Inc.]
Nicholson's efforts to secure more accurate returns of the quit rents
did not put them in better humor. It was well known that it was a common
practice for men to "conceal" part of their holdings when the sheriff
came round to collect the rent, and, if the sheriff happened to be a
friend or a relative, he would not look into the matter too closely. As
for the great tracts held by the wealthy, the sheriffs dared not demand
the rent. To do so would certainly be bitterly resented and might cost
them their jobs. Nicholson was convinced that a strict accounting would
greatly increase the returns.
When he was Lieutenant Governor he had tried to force the large
landholders to pay their rents by taking the matter into the courts.
Making a test case of Colonel Lawrence Smith, who had several large
properties, he ordered the Attorney General to prosecute him. The case
was ready for trial when Nicholson was removed and it was afterwards
compounded for a small sum.[1]
At the time Nicholson had had some thoughts of drawing up "an exact,
true, and perfect rent roll." But the Council, who had no desire to have
their own "concealed" acres exposed, pointed out that it would be a
difficult and costly undertaking. So for the time being the matter was
dropped. But when Nicholson began his second administration he resumed
his efforts. He instructed William Byrd, the Auditor, to order the
sheriffs to make accurate rolls of holdings in their counties. But as
late as October, 1703, Byrd reported that though he had urged this on
the sheriffs he realized that there was "still very great abuse
therein."[2] Yet the next year the Governor had in his hands a rent
roll, which, however imperfect, must have been of great value in the
collection of the rents. Undoubtedly much of the unoccupied lands were
not put down on the rolls, yet some of the members of the Council were
hard hit. Byrd now had to pay on 20,700 acres, Custis on 12,600,
Harrison on 9,100, and the others on holdings ranging from 2,000 to
7,000 acres. Other members of the aristocracy, many of them related to
one or more Councillors, were put down for thousands of acres. Lewis
Burwell had 7,000 acres in the Isle of Wight County, 4,800 acres in King
William, 3,300 acres in Gloucester, 2,100 acres in York, and 1,300 in
James City County.[3]
Having alienated the Councillors and other influential men by striking
at their pocketbooks, Nicholson proceeded to cross swords with another
influential group--the vestrymen. The Virginia clergymen had long
complained of the insecurity of their tenure, for the vestries who
appointed them claimed the right also of dismissing them when they
proved unsatisfactory. "They are to their vestries in the nature of
hired servants, agreed with from year to year, and dismissed ... without
any crime proved or so much as alleged against them," Commissary Blair
complained.
Claiming that whenever a vestry failed to present their minister to him
for induction, he had the right to fix him on them for life by
collation, Nicholson appealed to Sir Edward Northey, Attorney General of
England. Northey's opinion supported him fully, and in triumph the
Governor sent copies to all the vestries. But he met with one rebuff
after another. We "do not think it proper, neither are we willing to
make presentation for induction," replied one vestry. Another declared
that the word induction sounded very harsh in their ears, and as for
collation they hoped the Governor would not try it. And Nicholson,
realizing that, if he should, the vestry would refuse to pay his
appointee his salary and so starve him out, was forced to let the matter
drop.
Despite his efforts for the clergy, the Governor managed to change the
friendship of the man who was so largely responsible for his appointment
into bitter hatred. Blair turned against him because he took over many
functions rightly belonging to the Commissary and tried to make himself
head of the Church. "He has invaded almost all ... parts of the
ecclesiastical jurisdiction," Blair complained, "such as convoking the
clergy, ... appearing himself in their meetings and proposing the
subject matter of their consultations, ... requiring of some ministers
canonical obedience to himself as their bishop, taking upon himself to
turn out ministers."[4]
This was followed by an attempt to take out of the hands of the
Councillors the control of the military forces of the colony. In the
summer of 1701, when England was on the verge of war with France, word
reached Virginia that a French fleet was preparing to sail for the West
Indies. Claiming that there was danger that they might attack Virginia,
"being an open and defenseless country," Nicholson organized a new force
to resist them. He ordered the captains of militia to pick out every
fifth man in their companies, "being persons young, brisk, fit, and able
to go out to war," and organize them into bands of thirty, mounted and
fully equipped.[5]
Thus the militia, who were largely under the command of members of the
Council, were to be superseded by a new force under Nicholson himself.
The people became alarmed when it was rumored that he was trying to
persuade the English government to keep a standing army in America with
himself as Captain General. If he succeeds, men told each other, we may
as well bid goodbye to liberty, for then he will carry out his threats
of taking and arming all our servants, of bringing the Burgesses with
ropes about the necks, and daring the Assembly to "deny him
anything."[6]
When the war with France began and the attack fell, not on Virginia, but
on New York, King William asked the Assembly to give financial aid. But
the Burgesses refused, pointing out that they needed all their resources
to protect their own exposed frontier. It is possible that it was
because this answer interfered with his own ambition that it was so
displeasing to Nicholson. His Majesty should signify his resentment and
order the Burgesses on their allegiance to comply, he thought, "and I
hope in God that they will then" do so.[7] Losing his temper, as he
always did when opposed, he threatened to draft men, even members of the
House, on his own authority and send them to fight in New York. Much
more to his credit was his action in advancing L900 to New York out of
his own pocket.
It is probable that Nicholson, when he had cooled off, had no real
intention of carrying out his threats against the Burgesses, but he did
try to control them by a brazen use of the patronage. Of twenty-two
sheriffs whom he appointed in June, 1699, no less than sixteen were
Burgesses. Ignoring the advice of the Council, he put men in or turned
them out as they voted as he directed. During one session of the
Assembly, when seven of the Burgesses were county clerks, he had seven
blank commissions made out and placed in the Secretary's office where
all could see them. Then he spread the report that any or all of the
clerks who proved to be "bad boys" were to be dismissed and the
commissions given to those who behaved better.[8]
"Are not all the places of profit in the hands of the Governor?" it was
asked.[9] The sheriff of King and Queen County was arbitrarily removed
when he was busy collecting the poll tax. If it happened that one of
Nicholson's favorites was legally ineligible for an office he would give
him a blank commission and tell him to fill it in with the name of a
relative or friend, or even to sell it. Colonel John West was stated to
have sold a sheriff's commission for 8,000 pounds of tobacco.[10]
The members of the House who were deaf to his threats and promises, the
Governor tried to wheedle. "We have a way of treating three days in a
week all the Assembly time," said Harrison, "where some of the House
constantly attend to get their bellies full of victuals and too many
times their heads full of strong drink."[11]
Fearing that even such measures would not avail if a hostile House were
returned, the Governor interfered actively in the elections. "We have
had an election of Burgesses ... in which there hath been ... promises,
threats, spreading scandalous reports ... browbeating ... and what not,"
Philip Ludwell, Junior, wrote his father. Nicholson had been in Charles
City County to oppose the election of Benjamin Harrison, promising
sheriff's and clerk's places to some and threatening others. "Having rid
all through Charles City, from house to house, he went to Surry." Here
he commanded the sheriff to draw up a list of those who spoke ill of
Major Allen, the candidate he favored. When Major Thomas Swan was
elected, he forbade the sheriff "at his peril" to return him. And he
told the sheriff of James City County that he could not serve two
masters, and if Benjamin Harrison were chosen, he need never expect any
more favors from him.[12]
In his dealing with the House of Burgesses, the Governor sacrificed any
influence he had built up, by his disregard of their privileges and his
violent abuse of individual members and of the body as a whole. His
agent in London, John Thrale, saw no reason why the Burgesses should be
angered at him for proposing a tax bill. If Mr. Thrale knew how they
disliked those levy bills which arose outside the House, he would change
his mind, Philip Ludwell pointed out.[13] In one of his fits of temper
Nicholson threatened to cut the Speaker's throat.[14]
In the General Court Nicholson made free use of threats and promises to
secure verdicts to his liking. Robert Beverley said it was his constant
practice to browbeat and vilify both lawyers and their clients. Two
cases, especially, he managed with such violence "that there was not one
person in court, favorite or foe, but thought it very hard and unjust
dealing." One case had to be postponed several times because as soon as
it came up he flew into such a rage that the court had to adjourn.[15]
Nicholson threw one suit out of court without even consulting the other
Judges. In another he pleaded "from the bench more like a party than a
judge and flew into great heats and passions." In the case of Swan
_versus_ Wilson, he grossly abused Swan's attorney. When the verdict
went for Swan, Wilson's attorney said there had been an error in form.
To this Harrison replied that the form had been in keeping with Virginia
practice. Instantly Nicholson turned on him, thundering out: "Sir, you
are the Queen's counsel and pretend to set up a precedent in Virginia
contrary to the practice in England. You shall not impose upon me with
your tricks and equivocations."[16] On another occasion he became so
enraged against Mr. Bartholomew Fowler, one of the attorneys, "a very
sickly, weak man," that he seized him by the collar and shook him,
swearing that his commands must be obeyed without hesitation or
reserve.[17]
If we may believe Robert Beverley, the Governor made a habit of packing
the grand jury, in order to get flattering addresses from them. He would
pick out men whom he knew he could influence, send for them to come to
Williamsburg, and order the sheriff to put them on the jury in place of
others of whom he was doubtful. Beverley was talking with a man whom the
sheriff had summoned and then had discharged, when the sheriff happened
to pass. So the man stopped him to ask why he had done it. He replied
that the Governor had ordered him to do it. When the jury he had
selected for the purpose gave him the address he wanted, he showered
them with favors. To the foreman he gave a naval officer's place, others
he "favored by barefaced methods" in cases at law in which they were
concerned, still others had sheriff's places.[18]
Nicholson's greatest blunder was to antagonize the Council. Its members,
representing the Virginia aristocracy, and having influential friends at
Court, were not the men to sit quietly and see their hard-earned
privileges taken from them. Is the Council so mean spirited as to let a
Governor do all the ill things he pleases in their names, and all the
while using them like slaves, not suffering them to have any opinion of
their own? Philip Ludwell asked. "Arbitrary power is grown to a high
pitch among us. Hectoring is the only court language. Our laws and
liberties openly trampled upon."[19]
Nicholson should have known that he was in for a fight to the finish
when he bearded the Councillors. Prominent among them was the pugnacious
Commissary James Blair. Robert Carter, of Corotoman, had been a Burgess
at twenty-eight, and had twice been Speaker. A man of great energy,
shrewd, and dominating he was dubbed "King Carter." Benjamin Harrison
had represented Surry in the House of Burgesses, was a Visitor of the
College of William and Mary, was commander of the Surry militia. Philip
Ludwell, Jr., Page, Custis, Bassett, Duke, and the others were all men
of wealth and influence.
The first open breach between these men and Nicholson came when he began
to make appointments to office without consulting them. They were
outraged when he removed their friends from lucrative jobs to make room
for his own favorites. They protested the issuing of warrants on the
revenue and the giving of patents to land without their consent. It was
almost an insult for him to prorogue the Assembly on his own authority
and without their knowledge.
Later Nicholson put the blame on the Councillors themselves for his
failure to get along with them. They hated him, he said, because he
would not be guided and governed by them, and turn secretaries,
auditors, collectors, naval officers, and others out of their places and
put them and their friends in, and would not let them do what they
pleased.[20]
The Council meetings became stormy, with the Councillors protesting to
the Governor and the Governor flying into a rage. When the sessions
were held in the Wren Building at the college prior to the completing of
the new Capitol, passersby could hear Nicholson storming "as loud as he
could extend his voice." If any member dared to oppose him in any
measure he was sure to bring down on himself a volley of insults.
The Councillors were liable to abuse even when the Council was not in
session. One day when John Lightfoot was in Williamsburg, he called on
the Governor. He had not been in his presence fifteen minutes before
Nicholson began to storm at him, calling him a rogue, a rascal, and a
villain. "You have sided with that damned Scotch parson, Blair, and by
God, sir, you have shipped yourself in a leaky vessel.... You shall be
turned out of the Council." Then he flew out against the rest of the
Council, saying there was not one of them who was not a rogue and a
coward, who did not dare look a man in the face.[21]
The testimony regarding Nicholson's violent temper is so overwhelming as
to indicate that the man was unbalanced. On one occasion while talking
with Captain James Moodie in an "upper apartment" of the college, he
flew into a violent passion against the Commissioners of the Navy,
"calling them all the basest names the tongue of man could express."
These imprecations were thundered out "with such a noise that the people
down in the lower rooms came running up stairs ... believing that the
college had been on fire." Several sea captains, who were lodging in a
room some distance away, "came running out of their beds in their
shirts," one of them "without his wooden leg, holding himself by the
wall."[22]
If Nicholson had contented himself with hurling imprecations at those
who offended him, his victims might have been able to endure it. "I must
confess I have no reason to be satisfied with the insolent, tyrannical
behavior of our Governor, but as long as he is vested with the Queen's
authority, I will quietly endure his barbarous usage," wrote Philip
Ludwell.[23] But when Nicholson carried his malice so far as to
prosecute those to whom he took a disliking, deprive them of their jobs,
and imprison them, their safety lay in fleeing the colony.
Clergymen seem to have been especially unfortunate in incurring
Nicholson's resentment. At a convocation of the clergy in Elizabeth City
church, on October 28, 1702, Commissary Blair asked the Reverend James
Wallace, the minister, to deliver a sermon. The Governor, who claimed
to be the head of the Virginia Church and had summoned the meeting in
order to secure a flattering address, was present. It may have been this
which influenced Mr. Wallace to choose as his text: "Herein do I
exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offence toward God
and toward men," and to use it to illustrate the duty of both government
officials and clergymen.
Shortly after the services were over Nicholson sent for Mr. Wallace.
"How durst you preach such a sermon?" he demanded. "How dare you take
such a text? How dare you presume to tell me my duty? I will not be told
my duty." From that day the Governor pursued him with the greatest
malice. He summoned him before the Council, and threatened him with
ruin, calling him villain, hypocrite, Jesuit. He went all the way to
Elizabeth City to lay charges against him before his vestry. When Mr.
Wallace could endure this persecution no longer and prepared to sail for
England, he tried to stop him.[24]
If anything else were needed to make Nicholson a ridiculous figure, it
was his love affair with Lucy Burwell. Lucy's father, Major Lewis
Burwell, was perhaps the wealthiest man in Virginia. Owning many
thousands of acres of land, served by scores of slaves and indentured
workers, connected by marriage and birth with some of the most
influential families in the colony, he was the typical Virginia
aristocrat. Carter's Creek, his residence in Gloucester County, remained
standing for over two centuries as witness to his lavish style of
living. The great halls, the marble mantels, the elaborate staircase,
the wainscoting carved to resemble drapery were reminiscent rather of
England than of seventeenth-century Virginia. However, Lucy seems to
have spent most of her childhood, not at Carter's Creek, but at King's
Creek, an historic old estate left to her parents by her mother's uncle,
Nathaniel Bacon, Senior. And here it was that Nicholson pressed his
suit, riding over to see her whenever there was a lull in the business
of the General Court and the Assembly was not in session.
Lucy and her family received him with the courtesy due the
representative of the Crown. But they knew of the Governor's fits of
anger, of his profanity, and the abuse he had heaped on their relatives.
Lucy was not attracted to him and, telling him she did not love him,
refused to marry him.
When he was at last convinced that all hope of winning Lucy was gone,
Nicholson acted like a madman. He swore that if she married another he
would with his own hands cut the throats of the bridegroom, the
minister, and the justice of the peace who issued the license.[25] All
pretence of friendship for her relatives was thrown to the winds. Every
few days he sent Major Burwell such threats of ruin that the poor man
was kept in a constant state of alarm. "For what I know not, unless it
is because I will not force my daughter to marry utterly against her
will, which is a thing no Christian body can do," he wrote Philip
Ludwell, Senior. "If it please God I live until the return of our next
fleet, I propose for England, for I shall not be able to live here."[26]
Nicholson became violently jealous of young Stephen Fouace, minister of
Martin's Hundred parish, in which the Burwells resided. One night, when
he was returning from a pastoral call at King's Creek he happened to
meet the Governor. Falling into one of his rages, Nicholson, in a
thundering voice, commanded him never again to visit the house unless
sent for, and never again to speak to Lucy.[27]
"Why, Sir," stammered the frightened pastor, "what is the matter? Does
your Excellency take me for your rival? I assure you, sir, I have not
that foolish presumption to think to be preferred to your Excellency."
"Hold your prate, sirrah. I have taken good notice of you. You are an
impudent rogue, a villain, a rascal."
As they were riding along together Nicholson reached over and pulled
Fouace's hat from his head.
"How do you have the impudence to ride with me with your hat on?"
"I hope you will not use me like a footman," said Fouace.
After a pause Nicholson asked: "Is it not a shame for one of your
function to suffer me to be ridiculed and railed at in some companies
where I know you have been? Is it not your duty to reprove them?"
Fouace replied that the best way to avoid ridicule was to be sure that
his behavior was such as not to expose him to odium and contempt, that
even the King of France could not hinder many of his subjects from
speaking ill of him.
"But seeing your Excellency is pleased to make me mindful of my duty to
reprove the evil I see done in my presence, I must make bold to reprove
your Excellency for using at this rate in the highway, in the woods, and
in the night, on a Sunday, a clergyman coming from visiting the sick of
his parish."
Nicholson received this in silence. But a few minutes later he ran at
Fouace, trying to seize him, and threatening to lash him with his whip.
This frightened him, for the Governor had his sword and pistols with
him, and they were alone in the night. So he wheeled, set spurs to his
horse, and fled.[28]
But he could not escape Nicholson's malice. He soon found that life in
Virginia was intolerable, and laid his plans to leave for England. But
the Governor had no desire to have him lay charges against him before
the Bishop of London and the Lords of Trade and Plantations. After he
had gone aboard the tobacco fleet, he tried to bring him back, but by
shifting from ship to ship Fouace managed to escape.
Nicholson's folly aroused astonishment even in England, and the gossips
in the London Exchange and the coffee houses tittered at his
unsuccessful suit. An English clergyman wrote him an anonymous letter.
"It is not here as in some barbarous countries where the tender lady is
often dragged into the Sultan's arms just reeking in the blood of her
nearest relations, and yet must strongly dissemble her aversion. But
English women are the freest in the world, and will not be won by
constraint, but hate them who use them and theirs roughly."
One day when Nicholson was calling on Lucy, before the final breach had
occurred, she happened to drop her handkerchief. He picked it up,
slipped several rings in it unobserved by Lucy, and handing it to her
mounted his horse and rode away. She sent them back to him, but he
returned them. And for a while she kept them. Later he complained of the
costliness of his suit. "Though she would not accept him," he told
several persons, "she and her friends had taken presents to the value of
L500."[29]
When this came to Lucy's ears, she thought it necessary to return
everything he had given her. So she, with her mother and brother,
together with her uncle, Philip Ludwell, Junior, went to Williamsburg
with them. But Nicholson, hearing of their mission, "slipt out in the
morning." The little group retired to the nearby Wren building, and
waited there until six o'clock in the evening. Then they went back to
Nicholson's house, where Ludwell went in to the "public room" and left
the gifts on the table.
Late that night, after he had retired, Ludwell was aroused by two
messengers sent by the Governor, one bringing the gifts, and the other a
summons in the Queen's name for him to come to Nicholson immediately.
Ludwell told the man that he "could not apprehend the Queen had any
occasion for his services" just at that moment, and so went back to bed.
But the next morning he went to the Governor's house, taking the gifts
with him. He found Nicholson in a towering rage.
"I wonder how you dare come into my house yesterday when I was abroad to
offer me such an insult?" he said.
"Sir, I never offered your Excellency an affront in my life that I know
of," Ludwell replied.
"Yes you have, several, like the base villain and rascal that you are."
Ludwell bowed and thanked him for this "civil usage." But Nicholson
began again to storm, calling him "rogue, lying villain, base rascal,
and coward," and declaring that he would teach him his duty. Finally he
told him to get out of his house and not return until he was sent for.
This Ludwell did with alacrity. But he took good care to leave the
gifts. At first this escaped Nicholson's notice, but while Ludwell was
putting on his boots he rushed up to him, "calling him all the names the
Devil could invent" and commanding him to take the things.[30]
When Ludwell had mounted his horse and started to ride away, the
Governor ran out "stark mad," and catching hold of his coat tried to
pull him from his horse. Failing in this, he snatched his whip from his
hand, and ordered him in the Queen's name to dismount. When he had done
so, he shook the whip over his head, and swore that he had a mind to
slash him soundly. Ludwell told him that as he was Governor of Virginia
he had to take all his ill usage, but if he were in another place he
would not dare treat him so. A few days later Nicholson challenged
Ludwell to a duel. But Ludwell declined. He had not so much love for the
gallows, he said. "But I always wear a sword with which to defend
myself, and I am always easily found."
When one reads the long recital of Nicholson's misdeeds, one is apt to
forget that he conferred one lasting benefit on the colony, a benefit
which today is shared by millions of Americans from all parts of the
country. He was the founder of Williamsburg. It was on October 21, 1698,
that a fire broke out in the statehouse at Jamestown which in a few
hours laid the building in ashes. So the old question of moving the
capital away from the mosquito-infested town on the banks of the James
was again debated. Nicholson favored Middle Plantation. The college was
located there, there was ample room for a town, there were several
springs of pure water, and the place was healthful. The Assembly voted
that a city be laid out there, which, in honor of the "most gracious and
glorious King William," was to be named Williamsburg.
Nicholson busied himself with planning the streets, which at first he
hoped to lay out in the form of the letters W and M in honor of King
William and Queen Mary. When this proved too complicated, he decided to
run a central avenue from the college to the site of the Capitol, to be
named Duke of Gloucester Street, paralleled by two side streets, one of
which was to be called Nicholson and the other Francis. To aid him in
designing the Capitol, he called in the ablest architect and builder in
the colony, Henry Cary, and day after day the pair pored over the
drawings. What book of designs they had before them from which to
draw their inspiration we do not know, but it must have been of
recent publication, for the building was typical of the late
seventeenth-century English houses.
The plan called for a brick structure of two wings, connected by a
gallery, the whole to be two stories high, with a sharply rising roof
pierced with dormers and surmounted by a high cupola. The floors of the
first story were to be laid in flagstones, while the roof was to be
covered with cyprus shingles. Inside were to be rooms for the Council,
the General Court, the House of Burgesses, and several committee rooms.
The gratitude of the Virginians to Nicholson for founding their new
capital and adorning it with beautiful buildings did not blind them to
his violence, his injustice, and his persecution of innocent men. Does
he think he is governing the Moors or some other slavish people? they
asked. He seems to think it a crime in us to demand the liberties of
Englishmen. "That which bears up their spirits under all the heavy
customs on their commodities, and restraints in point of trade, is that
they have the happiness to enjoy the British laws and constitution,
which they reckon the best of Governments," said Philip Ludwell, Senior.
"But if once their Governors be suffered to break in upon them in this
tender point, and to treat them with the arbitrariness of France, or the
insolence of Morocco, as this gentleman has done, it is not to be
imagined how ill this will go down with Englishmen that have not forgot
the liberty of their mother country. The least that can be expected from
it is that men of substance, if they find no redress, will remove
themselves and their effects out of the colony to any other part of the
world where they may enjoy peace and quietness."[31]
At last six members of the Council--Lightfoot, Page, Harrison, Carter,
Blair, and Ludwell--drew up charges against Nicholson. Though they were
careful to keep the matter secret the Governor suspected that something
was up. In July, 1703, he wrote the Lords of Trade: "It hath been
industriously reported here that ... I was turned out of the government
for maladministration.... I hope in God, I shall not only be able to
clear myself, but to make my accusers appear ill people."[32]
Nicholson might have surmised that it was Blair who would present
charges against him when, several weeks later, the Commissary left for
England. But he could not have anticipated the strategem which the
shrewd Scot was to adopt. Though he arrived in November, 1703, he did
not present the charges of the six Councillors to the Queen in the
Council until late in the following March, after the tobacco fleet had
sailed for Virginia. Thus months would elapse before Nicholson could
have word of them and prepare his answers.
The Privy Council referred the charges to the Lords of Trade and
Plantations. It must have been with surprise that they listened as the
petition was read. We appeal to "your Majesty for relief of ourselves
and other subjects of Virginia from many great grievances and pressures
we lie under by reason of the unusual, insolent, and arbitrary methods
of government, as well as wicked and scandalous examples of life, which
have been now for divers years past put in practice by Nicholson, which
we have hitherto in vain endeavored by more soft and gentle applications
to himself to remedy and prevent. But to our unspeakable grief we have
reaped no other fruit ... but that thereby we have so highly exasperated
the revengeful mind of Nicholson to the height of implacable malice and
enmity against ourselves and the better part of the people ... that
without your Majesty's seasonable interposition we fear the dangerous
consequences, not only in fomenting lasting feuds and acrimonies among
the people here, but in endangering the public peace of Virginia."[33]
During the summer Blair had not been idle. It is probable that the
little colony of Virginians in London got together to plan their
strategy. When the matter came before the Lords of Trade, the Commissary
was armed with affidavits from Fouace, Captain James Moodie, and others,
and letters from Philip Ludwell, Junior, and Benjamin Harrison to the
elder Ludwell, accusing Nicholson of tyranny. At the hearing Wallace,
George Luke, and Robert Beverley were called on to tell their stories of
persecution and injustice.
Hearing that John Thrale was agent for Nicholson, the Lords called him
in. He made the best defense he could, but he was ignorant of the whole
matter, and he had not witnesses to refute the charges. When he demanded
particular instances of misgovernment and injustice, Blair and Beverley
overwhelmed him with them.[34] To make the Governor's case hopeless,
Thrale died in the midst of the hearings, leaving him without anyone to
defend him.[35]
Late in October, 1704, when the first word of the petition reached
Nicholson he was heard "to make a terrible imprecation, vowing to the
living God that he would pursue the petitioners with eternal vengeance."
At a meeting of the Council he glared at the members. "Whoever they were
that signed that petition I hope they will be obliged to stand by it in
England and that such of them as are there will be obliged to stay and
those here to go thither, where it is my desire to come to a fair
hearing," he told them.[36]
He defended himself in several long letters to the Board. He had done no
more than defend the Queen's prerogative against the assaults of the
Council, he said. If everything they asked were granted them, "her
Majesty would have but a skeleton of a government left, and hardly the
power of a Doge of Genoa. And I think the question may be put to them
as the wise King Solomon did to his mother, why don't they ask the
kingdom or the government also?" As for Commissary Blair, he "and his
little faction now set up to have the power and interest of turning out
and putting in Governors, and affect the title that the great Earl of
Warwick had." If he were ousted, he would present himself to the Board,
"when I hope I shall not be found to have a cloven foot, to be a fury,
or to have snakes instead of hair."[37]
If we may credit the reports from Virginia which reached Blair, Ludwell,
and Fouace in England in January, 1705, Nicholson began proceedings to
"terrify all people" from discussing his conduct. "He sets up
inquisition courts, giving commissions to some of his creatures to
examine all persons on oath if ever they heard such a man reflect upon
the Governor ... which practice is very terrible to all, there being few
in Virginia who have not sometimes in private spoke of him as he
deserves ... If witnesses are backward they are threatened by the
Governor himself and terrified into depositions." When anyone was
accused of complaining of him, even in private, he ordered the Attorney
General to prosecute him under the law against defaming the Governor
passed after Bacon's Rebellion.[38]
The Governor had one warm defender in Colonel Robert Quary. In a letter
to the Board of Trade he testified that, when Nicholson was appointed,
the Councillors expected to "govern and direct all matters," to
monopolize all places of profit and honor, and have him "suppress all
that were not of their faction." But when they found that he would not
be governed by them, they turned upon him with the greatest malice.
"They aspersed and blackened him both in the country and by letters to
England, as if he had been the greatest monster in nature." He had been
guilty of no maladministration in his government "further than some
escapes of his passion, which their injustice often forced him to."[39]
During the first week of March, 1705, Nicholson was busy preparing his
defence so that it could get off on the first vessel sailing for
England. He penned long letters to the Lords of Trade on the first, the
third, and the sixth, and enclosed them with a memorial against Blair,
and an address from the Virginia clergy. These papers were received on
May 2, and read May 31. Whether they would have influenced the Lords in
Nicholson's favor we do not know, for on April 2, just a month before
their arrival, the Board received a communication from Secretary Hedges,
advising them that the Queen wished them to prepare a commission and
instructions for Colonel Edward Nott to be Governor General of
Virginia.[40]
It was on August 15, 1705, that the Council met in their beautiful room
in the new Capitol, for Nott's inauguration. When all had been seated
Nicholson entered and read a letter from the Queen directing him to
deliver up the government and "repair to her royal presence." He must
have looked around at the men who had been his bitter enemies with an
air of triumph as he read a letter from Secretary Hedges, stating that
he was being recalled, not because of the charges made against him, but
merely for her Majesty's service. Then he handed over the seal of the
colony and the charter of 1676. One wonders whether, as he bowed himself
out, he took one last look at the room for which he had been so largely
responsible--the portrait of Queen Anne, the large oval table, the
stiff-backed chairs, the Queen's arms, the panelling.
Nicholson's administration proved once more that the Virginians could
not be governed by illegal and arbitrary means. That he was not ousted
by violence as was Sir John Harvey, or that he did not drive the people
into open rebellion as did Berkeley, is explained by the difference in
the character of the times. Harvey acted in the spirit of the First
Stuart Despotism, Berkeley of the Second Stuart Despotism; Nicholson was
out of step with his time. To remove him it was not necessary to resort
to violence; an appeal to the Queen was all that was needed.
Perhaps it was fortunate for the cause of self-government that an
experiment in despotism had failed in the opening years of the
eighteenth century. It made succeeding Governors wary of trampling upon
the people's rights, it gave the people confidence. Having won this
victory, they went on to others until their Governors became their
servants rather than their masters.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] CO5-1309, Doc. 9.
[2] CO5-1339, Doc. 33 V.
[3] T. J. Wertenbaker, _Planters of colonial Virginia_, 183, 247.
[4] T. J. Wertenbaker, Attempt to reform the church of colonial
Virginia, _Sewanee Review_ 25: 273-275.
[5] CO5-1409, p. 135A.
[6] CO5-1314, Doc. 35, IIb.
[7] CO5-1360, p. 117.
[8] CO5-1314, Doc. D10.
[9] _Ibid._, Doc. 15G.
[10] CO5-1314, Doc. 36.
[11] _Ibid._, Doc. 15G.
[12] _Ibid._, Doc. 15.
[13] CO5-1314, Doc. 17.
[14] _Ibid._, Doc. 35 II 6.
[15] _Ibid._, Doc. 10.
[16] _Ibid._, Doc. 23.
[17] _Ibid._, Doc. 24.
[18] _Ibid._, Doc. 10.
[19] _Ibid._
[20] CO5-1314, Doc. 40.
[21] _Ibid._, Doc. 14c.
[22] _Ibid._, Doc. 9.
[23] _Ibid._, Doc. 15.
[24] _Ibid._, Doc. 12.
[25] _Ibid._, Doc. 7.
[26] _Ibid._, p. 23.
[27] _Ibid._, Doc. 7.
[28] _Ibid._
[29] CO5-1314, Doc. 15f.
[30] _Ibid._
[31] _Ibid._, Doc. 17.
[32] CO5-1360, p. 424.
[33] CO5-1660, pp. 463-465.
[34] _Ibid._, Docs. 23, 24.
[35] CO5-1360, p. 480.
[36] CO5-1314, Doc. 36.
[37] _Ibid._, Docs. 43, 44.
[38] CO5-1314, Doc. 36.
[39] _Ibid._, Doc. 67.
[40] _Ibid._, Doc. 46.