1683-1688.
Persecution of Robert Beverley--Plots and Executions in
England--Culpepper returns to England--Spencer, President--
Culpepper is displaced--Succeeded by Effingham--Beverley,
found guilty, asks Pardon, and is released--Miscellaneous
Affairs--Death of Charles the Second--Succeeded by James the
Second--Beverley again Clerk--Duke of Monmouth beheaded--
Adherents of Monmouth sent Prisoners to Virginia--Instructions
respecting them--Death of Robert Beverley--Despotism of James
the Second--Servile Insurrection prevented--Virginia refuses
to contribute to the erection of Forts in New York--Commotions
in Virginia--Effingham's Corruption and Tyranny--He embarks
for England--Ludwell dispatched to lay Virginia's Grievances
before the Government--Abdication of James the Second.
THE vengeance of the government fell heavily upon Major Robert Beverley,
clerk of the house of burgesses, as the chief instigator of these
disturbances. He had incurred the displeasure of the governor and
council by refusing to deliver up to them copies of the legislative
journals, without permission of the house. Beverley had rendered
important services in suppressing Bacon's rebellion, and had won the
special favor of Sir William Berkley; but as circumstances change, men
change with them, and now by a steady adherence to his duty to the
assembly, he drew down upon his head unrelenting persecution. In the
month of May, 1682, he was committed a close prisoner on board the ship
Duke of York, lying in the Rappahannock.[335:A] Ralph Wormley, Matthew
Kemp, and Christopher Wormley, were directed to seize the records in
Beverley's possession, and to break open doors if necessary. He
complained, in a note addressed to the captain, and claimed the rights
of a freeborn Englishman. He was transferred from the Duke of York to
Captain Jeffries, commander of the Concord, and a guard set over him. He
was next sent on board of Colonel Custis's sloop, to be taken to
Northampton. Escaping from the custody of the sheriff of York, the
prisoner was retaken at his own house in Middlesex, and sent to
Northampton, on the Eastern Shore. Some months after, he applied for a
writ of _habeas corpus_, which was refused; and in a short time, being
again found at large, he was remanded to Northampton. In January, 1683,
new charges were brought against him: First, that he had broken open
letters addressed to the secretary's office; Secondly, that he had made
up the journal, and inserted his majesty's letter therein,
notwithstanding it had first been presented at the time of the
prorogation; Thirdly, that in 1682 he had refused copies of the journal
to the governor and council, saying "he might not do it without leave of
his masters."
In the year 1680, England was agitated and alarmed with the "Popish
plot;" and the Earl of Stafford and divers others were executed on the
information of Oates and other witnesses. In July, 1683, Lord Russell
was beheaded on a charge of treason, and others suffered the same fate
as being implicated in what was styled the "Protestant plot."
Culpepper, after staying about a year in Virginia, returned to England,
leaving his kinsman, secretary Nicholas Spencer, president. Thus, again,
quitting the colony in violation of his orders, he was arrested
immediately on his arrival; and having received presents from the
assembly, contrary to his instructions, a jury of Middlesex found that
he had forfeited his commission. This example having shown that he who
acts under independent authority will seldom obey even reasonable
commands, no more governors were appointed for life.[336:A]
Beverley[336:B] gives a different account: "The next year, being 1684,
upon the Lord Culpepper refusing to return, Francis, Lord Howard of
Effingham, was sent over governor." But Chalmers, having access to the
records of the English government, appears to be the better authority.
Lord Culpepper having it in view, as was said, to purchase the propriety
of the Northern Neck, lying between the Rappahannock and the Potomac, in
order to further his design, had fomented a dispute between the house of
burgesses and the council; and the quarrel running nigh, his lordship
procured from the king instructions to abolish appeals from the general
court to the assembly, and transfer them to the crown. However,
Culpepper being a man of strong judgment, introduced some salutary
amendments to the laws. During his time, instead of fixed garrisons,
rangers were employed in guarding the frontier. In October died
Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Clayborne, (son of Colonel William Clayborne,)
mortally wounded in an engagement with the Indians, which took place
near West Point, at the head of York River; he lies buried on the same
spot, in compliance with his dying request. The son appears to have
inherited the spirit of his father.
Lord Culpepper was succeeded by Francis, Lord Howard of Effingham, whose
appointment was the last act of Charles the Second in relation to the
colony of Virginia. Lord Effingham was appointed in August, 1683, the
thirty-fifth year of the king's reign, commissioned in September, and
arriving in Virginia during February, 1684, entered upon the duties of
the office in April. The assembly met on the following day. Acts were
passed to prevent plant cutting, and preserve the peace; to supply the
inhabitants with arms and ammunition; to repeal the act for
encouragement of domestic manufactures; to provide for the better
defence of the colony; laying for the first time an impost on liquors
imported from other English plantations; exempting such as were imported
by Virginians for their own use, and in their own vessels. The
burgesses, in behalf of the inhabitants of the Northern Neck, then
called Potomac Neck, prayed the governor to secure them by patent in
their titles to their lands, which had been invaded by Culpepper's
charter. The governor replied that he was expecting a favorable decision
on the matter from the king.
About this time the name of Zach. Taylor, a surveyor, is mentioned, an
ancestor of General Zachary Taylor, some time President of the United
States.[337:A]
In May, 1684, Robert Beverley was found guilty of high misdemeanors,
but judgment being respited, and the prisoner asking pardon on his
bended knees, was released, upon giving security for his good behavior.
His counsel was William Fitzhugh, of Stafford County, a lawyer of
reputation, and a planter. Beverley was charged with having led the
people to believe that there would be a "cessation" of the tobacco crop
in 1680, and such appears to have been the general impression in the
summer of that year.[338:A] The abject terms in which he now sued for
pardon form a singular contrast to his former constancy; and it is
curious to find the loyal Beverley, the strenuous partizan of Berkley,
now the victim of the tyranny which he had formerly defended with so
much energy and success.
On the twentieth day of May, of this year, Lord Baltimore was at
Jamestown on a visit to the governor, with a view of embarking there for
England.
Owing to the incursions of the Five Nations upon the frontiers of
Virginia, it was deemed expedient to treat with them through the
governor of New York; and for this purpose Lord Effingham, Governor of
Virginia, leaving the administration in the hands of Colonel Bacon, of
the council, and accompanied by two councillors, sailed, June the
twenty-third, in the "Quaker Ketch," to New York, and thence repaired to
Albany, in July. There he met Governor Dongan, of New York, the agent of
Massachusetts, the magistrates of Albany, and the chiefs of the warlike
Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagos, and Cayugas. The tomahawk was buried, the
chain of friendship brightened, and the tree of peace planted. It was
during this year that the charter of Massachusetts was dissolved by a
writ of _quo warranto_. In the same year Talbot, a kinsman of the
Calverts, and a member of the Maryland Council, killed, in a private
rencontre, Rousby, the collector of the customs for that province; he
was tried in Virginia, and convicted, but subsequently pardoned by James
the Second.
Evelyn[338:B] says: "I can never forget the inexpressible luxury, and
profaneness, gaming, and all dissoluteness, and, as it were, total
forgetfulness of God, (it being Sunday evening,) which this day
se'nnight I was witness of, the king sitting and toying with his
concubines, Portsmouth, Cleveland, and Mazarine, etc., a French boy
singing love-songs in that glorious gallery, while about twenty of the
great courtiers, and other dissolute persons, were at basset round a
large table, a bank of at least two thousand pounds in gold before them;
upon which two gentlemen, who were with me, made reflections with
astonishment. Six days after, all was in the dust."
Rochester, in his epigram, described Charles the Second as one
Who never said a foolish thing, and never did a wise one.
But it is much easier to discover the foolish things that he did, than
the wise things that he said. He was good-natured, free from
vindictiveness, and had some appreciation of science.
The succession of James the Second to the throne was proclaimed in the
Ancient Dominion of Virginia "with extraordinary joy." The enthusiasm of
their loyalty was soon lowered, for the assembly meeting on the 1st day
of October, 1685, and warmly resisting the negative power claimed by the
governor, was prorogued on the same day to the second of November
following. Robert Beverley was again clerk. Strong resolutions,
complaining of the governor's veto, were passed. After sitting for some
time this and other bills were presented to him for his signature, which
he refused to give, and appearing suddenly in the house prorogued it
again to the 20th of October, 1686.
The Duke of Monmouth, an illegitimate son of Charles the Second, failing
in a rash insurrection, was beheaded, July the fourteenth of this year.
The first parliament of the new reign laid an impost on tobacco; the
planters, in abject terms, supplicated James to suspend the duty imposed
on their staple; but he refused to comply. They also took measures to
encourage domestic manufactures, which were disapproved of by the lords
of the committee of colonies, as contrary to the acts of navigation.
Nevertheless, on the reception of the news of the defeat of the Duke of
Monmouth, the Virginians sent a congratulatory address to the king.
A number of the prisoners taken with Monmouth, and who had escaped the
cruelty of Jeffreys, were sent to Virginia; and King James instructed
Effingham on this occasion in the following letter:[340:A]
"RIGHT TRUSTY AND WELL-BELOVED,--We greet you well. As it has
pleased God to deliver into our hands such of our rebellious
subjects as have taken up arms against us, for which
traitorous practices some of them have suffered death
according to law; so we have been graciously pleased to extend
our mercy to many others by ordering their transportation to
several parts of our dominions in America, where they are to
be kept as servants to the inhabitants of the same; and to the
end their punishment may in some measure answer their crimes,
we do think fit hereby to signify our pleasure unto you, our
governor and council of Virginia, that you take all necessary
care that such convicted persons as were guilty of the late
rebellion, that shall arrive within that our colony, whose
names are hereunto annexed,[340:B] be kept there, and continue
to serve their masters for the space of ten years at least.
And that they be not permitted in any manner to redeem
themselves by money or otherwise until that term be fully
expired. And for the better effecting hereof, you are to frame
and propose a bill to the assembly of that our colony, with
such provisions and clauses as shall be requisite for this
purpose, to which you, our governor, are to give your assent,
and to transmit the same unto us for our royal confirmation.
Wherein expecting a ready compliance, we bid you heartily
farewell. Given at our court at Whitehall, the 4th of October,
1685, in the first year of our reign.
"SUNDERLAND."
Virginia made no law conformable to the requisitions of the king.
James the Second, strongly resenting the too democratical proceedings of
the Virginia assembly, ordered their dissolution, and that Robert
Beverley, as chief promoter of these disputes, should be disfranchised
and prosecuted,[340:C] and directed that in future the appointment of
the clerk of the house of burgesses should be made by the governor.
Several persons were punished about this time for seditious and
treasonable conduct. In May, 1687, the assembly was dissolved. In the
spring of this year Robert Beverley died--the victim of tyranny and
martyr of constitutional liberty: long a distinguished loyalist, he
lived to become still more distinguished as a patriot. It is thus in
human inconsistency that extremes meet.
The English merchants engaged in the tobacco trade, in August, 1687,
complained to the committee of the colonies of the mischiefs consequent
upon the exportation of tobacco in bulk; and the committee advised the
assembly to prohibit this practice. The assembly refused compliance; but
the regulation was subsequently established by parliament. A meditated
insurrection of the blacks was discovered in the Northern Neck just in
time to prevent its explosion. In November a message had been received
from the Governor of New York, communicating the king's instructions to
him to build forts for the defence of that colony, and the king's desire
that Virginia should contribute to that object, as being for the common
defence of the colonies. This project of James, it was suspected, had
its origin in his own proprietary interest in New York. The Virginians
replied, that the Indians might invade Virginia without passing within a
hundred miles of those forts, and the contribution was refused. In
December, William Byrd succeeded Colonel Nathaniel Bacon, Sr., as
auditor of the accounts of his majesty's revenue in Virginia; he
continued to hold that place for seventeen years. His MS. accounts are
still preserved.
James the Second, influenced by the counsels and the gold of France, and
in violation of the most solemn pledges made to the parliament when he
ascended the throne, showed himself incorrigibly bent upon introducing
absolute government and establishing the Roman Catholic religion in
England. In Virginia the council displayed, as usual, servility to
power. Upon the dissolution of the assembly, the colony was agitated
with apprehensions and alarm. Rumors were circulated of terrible plots,
now of the Papists, then of the Indians. The County of Stafford was
inflamed by the bold harangues of John Waugh, a preacher of the
established church, and three councillors were dispatched to allay the
commotions. Part of Rappahannock County was in arms. Colonel John
Scarburgh, of the Eastern Shore, was prosecuted for saying to the
governor that "his majesty King James would wear out the Church of
England, for that when there were any vacant offices he supplied them
with men of a different persuasion." Scarburgh was discharged by the
council. Others were prosecuted and imprisoned; and James Collins was
put in irons for treasonable words uttered against the king.
Effingham, no less avaricious and unscrupulous than his predecessor
Culpepper, by his extortions and usurpations aroused a general spirit of
indignation. He prorogued and dissolved the assembly; he erected a new
court of chancery, making himself a petty lord chancellor; he multiplied
fees, and stooped to share them with the clerks, and silenced the
victims of his extortions by arbitrary imprisonment. The house of
burgesses, preparing to petition the king against the new invention of a
seal, by which his lordship extracted from the country one hundred
thousand pounds of tobacco per annum of extraordinary fees and
perquisites, and the governor getting wind of it, sent for them, and
they, knowing that his object was to dissolve them, completed the
petition, signed it, and ordered their clerk and one of their members to
transmit it to Whitehall for the king. But instead of being delivered to
his majesty, the original petition was sent back from England to the
governor, with an account of the manner in which it had been
transmitted. In consequence whereof, Colonel Thomas Milner, being a
surveyor and clerk of the house, was removed from those offices, and the
burgess being a lawyer, was prohibited from practising at the
bar.[342:A]
At length, the complaints of the Virginians having reached England,
Effingham embarked, in 1688, for that country, and the assembly
dispatched Colonel Ludwell to lay their grievances before the
government; but before they reached the mother country, the revolution
had taken place, and James the Second[342:B] had closed a short and
inglorious reign, spent in preposterous invasions of civil and religious
liberty, by abdicating the crown.
FOOTNOTES:
[335:A] Hening, iii. 540.
[336:A] Chalmers' Annals, 345.
[336:B] Beverley, B. i. 89.
[337:A] One of the James River merchant-vessels mentioned by the first
William Byrd, was called the "Zach. Taylor."
[338:A] Va. Hist. Reg., i. 166.
[338:B] Diary, ii. 211.
[340:A] Chalmers' Annals, 358
[340:B] The list is still preserved in the London state-paper office.
[340:C] Hening, iii. 40.
[342:A] Account of Virginia, in Mass. Hist. Coll., first series.
[342:B] Chalmers' Annals, 347.