1696-1698.
State and Condition of Virginia--Exhausting Agriculture--
Depression of Mechanic Art--Merchants--Current Coin--Grants of
Land--Powers of Governor--The Council--Court of Claims--County
Courts--General Court--Secretary, Sheriffs, Collectors, and
Vestries--Revenue--The Church.
THE following statistical account of Virginia appears to have been
reported by Lord Culpepper, in 1781, to the Committee of the colonies.
It is to be found in the Historical Collections of Massachusetts,[349:A]
the manuscript having been communicated by Carter B. Harrison, Esq., of
Virginia, by the hands of the Rev. John Jones Spooner, corresponding
member. The picture is harsh, but drawn by a vigorous hand, without
fear, favor, or affection.
In point of natural advantages Virginia was surpassed by few countries
on the globe, but in commerce, manufactures, education, government in
church and state, was one of the poorest and most miserable. The staple
tobacco swallowed up every thing, so that the markets were often glutted
with bad tobacco, which became a mere drug, and would not pay freight
and customs. Perhaps not one hundredth part of the land was yet cleared,
and none of the marsh or swamp drained. As fast as the soil was worn out
by exhausting crops of tobacco and corn, it was left to grow up again in
woods. The plough was not much used, in the first clearing the roots and
stumps being left, and the ground tilled only with hoes, and by the time
the stumps were decayed the ground was worn out. Manure was neglected.
Of grain the planters usually raised only enough for home consumption,
there being no market for it, and scarce any money. But their main labor
in this crop being in the summer, they fell into habits of indolence
for the rest of the year. The circumstances of the country, destitute of
towns, and consisting of dispersed plantations, were unfavorable for
mechanics, then called tradesmen. The depression of this useful and
important class although lessened, continues in the present day, and
appears to be inevitably connected with the system of negro slavery. It
is a tax paid by the whites for the elevation of the black race. The
merchants were the most prosperous class in the colony, but they labored
under great disadvantages, being obliged to sell on credit, and to carry
on "a pitiful retail trade," and to depend on the receivers who went
about among the planters to receive the tobacco due, and this mode of
collecting was subject to great delays and losses. The native-born
Virginians, who for the most part had never been out of the colony, were
averse to town life, and felt dissatisfied, like Daniel Boone in more
modern times, whenever "the settlements became too thick." The scarcity
of money was aggravated by the governor, who found it to his interest to
be paid in tobacco. The current coin of the dominion of Virginia
consisted of pieces of eight, the value of which was fixed by law at
five shillings; and the value being made greater in Pennsylvania money,
they were consequently drained from Virginia, as at the present day gold
and silver are ostracised by a depreciated paper currency.
The method of settling the colonial territory was by the king's grant of
fifty acres to every actual settler, but this rule was evaded and
perverted in various ways, and rights for that quantity of land could
easily be purchased from the clerks in the secretary's office at from
one to five shillings each. The powers of the governor were extensive;
he was a sort of viceroy, being commander-in-chief and vice-admiral,
lord treasurer in issuing warrants for the paying of moneys, lord
chancellor or lord keeper as passing grants under the colony's seal,
president of the council, chief justice of the courts, with some powers
of a bishop or ordinary. The governors managed to evade the king's
instructions, and by official patronage to silence the opposition of the
council, and even to hold the burgesses in check. The governor and
councillors were all colonels and honorable, and their adherents
monopolized the offices. The governor's salary was for many years one
thousand pounds per annum, to which the assembly added perquisites,
amounting to five hundred more, and a further addition of two hundred
pounds was made to Sir William Berkley's salary, making the whole salary
seventeen hundred pounds. The council, in effect the creatures and
clients of the governor, being appointed at his nomination, and
receiving office and place from him, had the powers of council of state,
(in case of vacancy of the governor the oldest of them _ex officio_
acting as president _ad interim_,) of upper house of assembly or house
of lords, in the general court of supreme judges, and as colonels,
answering to the English lord-lieutenants of counties. The councillors
were also naval officers in the customs department, collectors of the
revenue, farmers of the king's quit-rents; out of the council were
chosen the secretary, auditor, and escheators; the councillors were
exempt from arrests, and had a compensation of three hundred and fifty
pounds divided among them, according to their attendance. They met
together after the manner of the king and council. Their clerk received
fifty pounds per annum salary, besides perquisites. The office of
collector, held by members of the council, was indeed incompatible with
their office of judge, and their office of councillor unfitted them for
auditing their own accounts as collectors, and in different capacities
they both bought and sold the royal quit-rents.[351:A]
Upon the election of burgesses there was commonly held a court, called a
court of claims, where all who had any claims against the public might
present them to the burgesses, together with any propositions or
grievances, "all which the burgesses carry to the assembly." There was
at that early day much confusion in the laws, and it was difficult to
know what laws were in force and what were not. All causes were decided
in the county court or in the general court. The county court consisted
of eight or ten gentlemen, receiving their commission from the governor,
who renewed it annually. They met once a month, or once in two months,
and had cognizance of all causes exceeding in value twenty shillings, or
two hundred pounds of tobacco. These country gentlemen, having no
education in law, not unfrequently fell into mistakes in substance and
in form. The insufficiency of these courts was now growing more apparent
than formerly, since the old stock of gentry, who were educated in
England, were better acquainted with law and with the business of the
world than their sons and grandsons, who were brought up in Virginia,
and commonly knew only reading, writing, and arithmetic, and were not
very proficient in them.
The general court, so called because it had jurisdiction of causes from
all parts of the colony, was held twice a year, in April and October, by
the governor and council as judges, at Jamestown. This court was never
commissioned, but grew up by custom or usurpation; from it there was no
appeal, except in cases of over three hundred pounds sterling value, to
the king, which was for most persons impracticable, on account of the
distance and the expensiveness. Virginia appears to have been the only
colony where the executive constituted the supreme court. The general
court tried all causes of above sixteen pounds sterling, or sixteen
hundred pounds of tobacco in value, and all appeals from the county
courts, and it had cognizance of all causes in chancery, in king's
bench, the common pleas, the exchequer, the admiralty, and spirituality.
The forms of proceeding in the general court were quite irregular. The
duties of the secretary were as multifarious as those of the governor;
it was, however, for the most part a sinecure, the business being
performed by a clerk, styled the clerk of the general court, who also
employed one or two clerks under him. The secretary, who was properly
the clerk of the court, yet sate as judge of that court.
The governor signed all patents or deeds of land, and there was a
recital in them that he granted the land "by and with the consent of the
council," yet the patents were never read by the governor, nor did the
council take any notice of them. He likewise countersigned the patents
after the words "compared, and agrees with the original," yet the
secretary never read or compared them, and indeed the patent which he
signed was itself the original. "Men make laws, but we live by custom."
The sheriffs collected all money duties. The auditor audited the
accounts of the collectors, and was receiver-general of all public
moneys. The parish levy, for the support of the church and of the poor,
was assessed by the vestry, about the month of October, when tobacco was
ready; the whole amount assessed was divided by the number of tithables
of the parish, and collected from the heads of families. The county levy
for county expenses was assessed by the justices of the peace, and the
sum divided by the number of tithables in the county. The public levy
was assessed by the assembly for the general expenses of the colony, and
the sum was divided by the number of tithables in the colony, amounting
in the year 1690 to about twenty thousand. The three levies were all
collected by the sheriffs; they averaged about one hundred pounds of
tobacco for each tithable, the aggregate amounting to two millions of
pounds per annum.
The revenues and customs that came into the auditor's hands were of four
kinds: First, the quit-rents, being one shilling per annum on every
fifty acres of land, payable in tobacco, at one penny per pound, or
twenty-four pounds of tobacco for every hundred acres. In the Northern
Neck, lying between the Potomac and Rappahannock, the quit-rents were
paid by the heirs of Lord Culpepper. The tobacco due for quit-rents was
sold by the auditor to the several members of the council, who paid for
it in money, or bills of exchange, according to the quantity. The
quit-rent revenue amounted to about eight hundred pounds sterling per
annum. The second source of revenue consisted of two shillings per
hogshead, export duty, on tobacco, and fort duties, being fifteen pence
per ton on all vessels arriving. These amounted to three thousand pounds
sterling per annum. Ten per cent. of this amount was paid to masters of
vessels, to induce them to give a true account. The collectors received
ten per cent. for collecting, and the auditor seven per cent. The third
source of revenue was one penny per pound upon tobacco exported from
Virginia to any other English plantation in America. This, as has been
mentioned, was, in 1692, granted to the college of William and Mary. The
college paid for collecting it no less than twenty per cent., and to the
auditor five per cent. The nett proceeds were worth one hundred pounds
annually. The fourth source of revenue was any money duty that might be
raised by the assembly.
The governor was lieutenant-general, the councillors lieutenants of
counties, with the title of colonel, and in counties where no councillor
resided, some other person was appointed, with the rank of major. The
people in general professed to be of the Church of England. The only
dissenters were three or four meetings of Quakers and one of
Presbyterians. There were fifty parishes, and in each two, and sometimes
three, churches and chapels. The division of the parishes was unequal
and inconvenient. The governor had always held the government of the
church, as of everything else, in his hands. Ministers were obliged to
produce their orders to him, and show that they had been episcopally
ordained. The power of presentation was, by a colonial law, in the
vestry, but by a custom of hiring preachers by the year, it came to pass
that presentation rarely took place. The consequence was that a good
minister either would not come to Virginia, or if he did, was soon
driven away by the high-handed proceedings of the vestry. The minister
was obliged to be careful how he preached against the vices that any
great man of the vestry was guilty of, else he would be in danger of
losing his living at the end of the year. They held them by a precarious
tenure, like that of chaplains; they were mere tenants at sufferance.
There were not half as many ministers in Virginia as parishes. The
governor connived at this state of things. The minister's salary was
sixteen thousand pounds of tobacco per annum. King Charles the Second
gave the Bishop of London jurisdiction over the church in the
plantations, in all matters except three, viz.: marriage licenses,
probates of wills, and induction of ministers, which were reserved to
the governor. The bishop's commissary made visitation of the churches
and inspection of the clergy. He received no salary, but was allowed, by
the king, one hundred pounds per annum out of the quit-rents.[355:A]
FOOTNOTES:
[349:A] First Series, v. 124.
[351:A] The council, in the time of Governor Andros, consisted of Ralph
Wormley, collector and naval officer of Rappahannock River; Colonel
Richard Lee, collector and naval officer of upper district of Potomac
River--these two having been appointed while Sir William Berkley was
governor; Colonel William Byrd, who was appointed auditor during Lord
Culpepper's administration; Colonel Christopher Wormley, collector and
naval officer of the lower district of the Potomac River, appointed
while Lord Effingham was governor; Colonel Edward Hill, collector and
naval officer of upper district of James River; Colonel Edmund Jennings,
collector and naval officer of York River--these two being appointed in
Lord Effingham's time; Colonel Daniel Parke, collector and naval officer
of the lower district of James River, and escheator between York and
Rappahannock Rivers; Colonel Charles Scarburgh, collector and naval
officer on the Eastern Shore, and Mr. John Lightfoot, who had lately
arrived in the country--these last four appointed while Sir Edmund
Andros was governor.
[355:A] Account of Va., in Mass. Hist. Coll., first series.