1698-1702.
Administration of Andros--Controversy with Blair--The Rev.
Hugo Jones' Account of Maryland--Andros succeeded by Nicholson
--Alteration in his Conduct--Supposed Cause--Williamsburg made
the Seat of Government--His tyrannical Proceedings--Prejudice
of Beverley, the Historian--Act against Pirates--Offices of
Speaker and Treasurer combined--Capture of a piratical Vessel--
Death of Edward Hill--Commencement at William and Mary--Demise
of William the Third--Succeeded by Anne--Nicholson's Description
of the People of Virginia.
GOVERNOR ANDROS took singular pains in arranging and preserving the
public records; and when, in 1698, the State-house was burned, he caused
the papers that survived to be arranged with more exactness than before.
He ordered that all the English statutes should be law in Virginia; this
preposterous rule gave great dissatisfaction. He was a patron of
manufactures; but the acts for establishing fulling-mills were rejected
by the board of trade. He encouraged the culture of cotton, which,
however, fell into disuse.
By royal instructions, Andros was invested with the powers of ordinary,
or representative of the king and the bishop of London, in the affairs
of the church. This brought him into collision with Commissary Blair,
and in 1694 the governor arbitrarily suspended him from his place in the
council, to which he had been appointed in the preceding year. While in
England on the business of the college, in 1695, the doctor preferred
charges against Andros as an enemy to religion, to the church, the
clergy, and the college. The charges and the proofs covered thirty-two
folio pages of manuscript, and were drawn up with ability. But Blair had
to contend with formidable opposition, for Governor Andros sent over to
London, in his defence, Colonel Byrd, of Westover, Mr. Harrison, of
Surry County, Mr. Povey, who was high in office in the colony, and a Mr.
Marshall, to arraign the Rev. Commissary himself before the Bishop of
London and the Archbishop of Canterbury. Two days were spent at Lambeth
Palace, in the examination, the charges and answers filling fifty-seven
folio pages of manuscript, and Dr. Blair's accusers were signally
discomfited. Much of the prejudice against him was owing to his being a
Scotchman--a prejudice at that time running very high in England. The
result was that Blair returned after successfully accomplishing the
object of his mission, and having been reinstated in the council by the
king. He was, nevertheless, again removed upon a pretence equally
frivolous.[357:A] Andros was sent back to England to answer in person
the charges alleged against him, and eventually, they being
substantiated, he was removed from his office of deputy governor of
Virginia.[357:B]
William the Third, by the treaty of Ryswick, in 1697, obtained an
acknowledgment of his right to the crown, and vindicated the principles
of constitutional freedom.
The Rev. Hugo Jones, author of a work entitled "Present State of
Virginia," writing from Maryland in this year, says of the people there:
"They are, generally speaking, crafty, knavish, litigious, dissemblers,
and debauched. A gentleman (I mean one of a generous Cambro-Briton
temper) is _rara avis in terris_. A man must be circumspect and prudent
if he will maintain his reputation among them. Of dealing, it is very
true what was told me by a man at London, that none is fit to deal with
a Virginian but a Virginian; however, I having made it my business both
in London and at sea to inquire into the nature of the people, that I
might know the better how to behave myself among them, have gained as
good a reputation as in modesty I could expect; neither have I been much
imposed upon in my bargains. As to the people's disposition in matters
of religion, they will follow none out of the path of interest, and they
heartily embrace none but such as will fill the barn and the basket.
Most sects are here professed, but in general they are practical
atheists."[357:C]
The uncharitable judgments of this narrow-minded writer are not
entitled to much weight. Among a people requiring so much ministerial
care, he found ample time to devote to the study of natural history, and
was curious in the examination of "fishes' bones" and "petrified
mushrooms."
In the year 1698 died Thomas Ludwell, Esq., some time secretary of
Virginia. He was born at Bruton, County Somerset, England. Sir Edmund
Andros was succeeded in November, 1698, by Colonel Nicholson,
transferred from the government of Maryland. He entertained a plan of
confederating the colonies together, and aspired to become himself the
viceroy of the contemplated union. Finding himself thwarted in these
projects, his conduct became self-willed and overbearing. In a memorial
sent to England, he stated that tobacco bore so low a price as not to
yield even clothes to the planters; yet, in the same paper, advised
parliament to prohibit the plantations from making their own clothing;
in other words, proposing that they should be left to go naked.[358:A]
Indeed, he appeared to be quite altered from what he had been during his
former administration in Virginia; and the change was thought to be not
a little owing to a disappointment in love. He had become passionately
attached to a daughter of Lewis Burwell, Jr., and failing to win her
favor or that of her parents, in his suit, he became infuriated, and
persisted, Quixotically, for years in his fruitless purpose. The young
lady's father, and her brothers, and Commissary Blair, and the Rev. Mr.
Fouace, minister of the parish, were especial objects of his vengeance.
To the young lady he threatened the death of her father and her
brothers, if she did not yield to his suit. He committed other outrages
no less extraordinary.
For the sake of a healthier situation, Governor Nicholson removed the
seat of government from Jamestown, now containing only three or four
good inhabited houses, to Middle Plantation, so called from its lying
midway between James and York Rivers. Here he projected a large town,
laying out the streets in the form of a W and M, in honor of King
William and Queen Mary. This plan, however, appears to have been
abandoned, or only partially carried out.[359:A] According to the
contemporary historian Beverley, Nicholson declared openly to the lower
order of people "that the gentlemen imposed upon them; that the servants
had all been kidnapped, and had a lawful action against their masters."
In the year 1700 Mr. Fowler, the king's attorney-general for the colony,
declaring some piece of service against law, the governor seized him by
the collar, and swore "that he knew no laws they had, and that his
commands should be obeyed without hesitation or reserve." He committed
gentlemen who offended him to prison without any complaint, and refused
to allow bail; and some of them having intimated to him that such
proceedings were illegal, he replied, "that they had no right at all to
the liberties of English subjects, and that he would hang up those that
should presume to oppose him, with magna charta about their necks." He
often extolled the governments of Fez and Morocco, and at a meeting of
the governors of the college, told them "that he knew how to govern the
Moors, and would beat them into better manners." At another time he
avowed that he knew how to govern the country without assemblies, and if
they should deny him anything after he had obtained a standing army, "he
would bring them to reason with halters about their necks." His outrages
made him jealous, and to prevent complaints being sent to England
against him, he is said to have intercepted letters, employed spies, and
even played the eavesdropper himself. He sometimes held inquisitorial
courts to find grounds of accusation against such as incurred his
displeasure.[359:B]
Robert Beverley, author of a "History of Virginia," published the first
edition of it in 1705. He was a son of Robert Beverley, the persecuted
clerk, who died in 1687. This may account somewhat for his extreme
acrimony against Culpepper and Effingham, who had persecuted his father,
and against Nicholson, who was Effingham's deputy. In his second
edition, when time had, perhaps, mitigated his animosities, Beverley
omitted many of his accusations against these governors. In favor of
Nicholson, it is also to be observed, that his administration in
Maryland and in South Carolina was more satisfactory. But it is certain
that he was an erratic, Quixotic, irascible man, who could not bear
opposition, and an extreme high churchman.
In the eleventh year of William the Third an act was passed for the
restraining and punishing of pirates and privateers, the preamble
reciting that "nothing can more conduce to the honor of his most sacred
majesty than that such articles of peace as are concluded in all
treaties should be kept and preserved inviolable by his majesty's
subjects in and over all his majesty's territories and dominions, and
that great mischief and depredations are daily done upon the high seas
by pirates, privateers, and sea-robbers, in not only taking and
pillaging several ships and vessels belonging to his majesty's subjects,
but also in taking, destroying, and robbing several ships belonging to
the subjects of foreign princes, in league and amity with his majesty;"
and they prayed that crimes committed on the high seas should be
punished as if committed on land, in Virginia.[360:A] A committee was
appointed during the same session "to revise the laws of this his
majesty's ancient and great colony and dominion of Virginia."[360:B]
Among the subjects upon which a tax was laid for the building of a
capitol, were servants imported, not being natives of England or Wales,
fifteen shillings per poll, and twenty shillings on every negro or other
slave. Colonel Robert Carter, speaker of the house, was elected to fill
the office of treasurer; and it came to be the custom for the two
offices of speaker and treasurer to be held by the same person. The
establishment of the office of a treasurer appointed by the assembly,
giving that body control of the colonial purse, added much to the
independence of its legislative power.
In the second year of Nicholson's administration a piratical vessel was
captured within the capes of Virginia. She had taken some
merchant-vessels in Lynhaven Bay, and a small vessel happening to
witness an engagement between her and a merchantman, conveyed
intelligence of it to the Shoram, a fifth-rate man-of-war, commanded by
Captain Passenger, and newly arrived. Nicholson chanced to be at
Kiquotan sealing up his letters, and, going on board the Shoram, was
present in the engagement that followed. The Shoram, by daybreak, having
got in between the capes and the pirate, intercepted her, and an action
took place on the 29th of April, 1700, when the pirate surrendered upon
condition of being referred to the king's mercy. In this affair fell
Peter Heyman, grandson of Sir Peter Heyman, of Summerfield, in the
County of Kent, England. Being collector of the customs in the lower
district of James River, he volunteered to go on board the Shoram, and
after behaving with undaunted courage, standing on the quarter-deck near
the governor, was killed by a small shot.
During this year died the Honorable Colonel Edward Hill, of Shirley, on
the James River, in the sixty-third year of his age; he was of the
council, colonel and commander-in-chief of the Counties of Charles City
and Surry, judge of his majesty's high court of admiralty, and some time
treasurer of Virginia. He lies buried at Shirley, and a portrait of him
and his wife is preserved there.
In the year preceding this, Protestant dissenters, qualified according
to the toleration act of the first year of William and Mary, were
exempted from penalties for not repairing to the parish church, if they
attended some legal place of worship once in two months.[361:A] The
press was not yet free in Virginia, and the writ of _habeas corpus_ was
still withheld.
There was a commencement at William and Mary College in the year 1700,
at which there was a great concourse of people; several planters came
thither in coaches, and others in sloops from New York, Pennsylvania,
and Maryland, it being a new thing in that part of America to hear
graduates perform their exercises. The Indians themselves had the
curiosity, some of them, to visit Williamsburg upon that occasion; and
the whole country rejoiced as if they had some relish of learning.
Fifty-eight years before this there had been celebrated a commencement
at Harvard College, in Massachusetts.[362:A]
In the year 1701 Colonel Quarry, surveyor-general of the customs, wrote
to the board of trade: "This malignant humor is not confined to
Virginia, formerly the most remarkable for loyalty, but is universally
diffused."
During the month of March of this year died William the Third. His
manner was taciturn, reserved, haughty; his genius military; his
decision inflexible. In his fondness of prerogative he showed himself a
grandson of the first Charles; as the defender of the Protestant
religion, and Prince of Orange, he displayed toleration toward all
except Papists. The government of Virginia under him was not materially
improved. He was succeeded by Anne, daughter of James the Second. Louis
the Fourteenth having recognized the Pretender as lawful heir to the
British crown, Anne, shortly after she succeeded to the throne, in 1702,
declared war against France, and its ally Spain; but Virginia was not
directly affected by the long conflict that ensued. In compliance with
the requests of the assembly, the queen granted the colony warlike
stores, to the value of three thousand and three hundred pounds, which
the governor was directed to pay from the revenue of quit-rents. Her
majesty, at the same time, renewed the requisition formerly made by the
crown for an appropriation in aid of the defences of New York; but the
burgesses still steadily refused.
During the reign of William the Third the commerce of Virginia had been
seriously interrupted, and her customary supplies withheld; she,
therefore, encouraged the domestic manufacture of linen and wool; but an
act for the establishment of fulling-mills was rejected by the board of
trade, as also was one for "the better securing the liberty of the
subject." Governor Nicholson, in a memorial to the council of trade,
described the people of Virginia as numerous, rich, and of republican
principles, such as ought to be lowered in time; that then or never was
the time to maintain the queen's prerogative, and put a stop to those
pernicious notions, which were increasing daily, not only in Virginia,
but in all her majesty's other governments, and that a frown from her
majesty now would do more than an army thereafter; and he insisted on
the necessity of a standing army.[363:A]
FOOTNOTES:
[357:A] Account of Va. in Mass. Hist. Coll., first series, v. 144.
[357:B] Old Churches, Ministers, and Families of Virginia, i. 157.
[357:C] European Magazine, 1796.
[358:A] Beverley, B. i. 98.
[359:A] Hugh Jones' Present State of Virginia; Beverley, B. i. 99; Va.
Hist. Reg., vi. 15.
[359:B] Beverley, B. i. 97.
[360:A] Hening, iii. 177.
[360:B] The members of it were Edward Hill, Matthew Page, and Benjamin
Harrison, Esquires, members of the council; and Miles Cary, John Taylor,
Robert Beverley, Anthony Armistead, Henry Duke, and William Buckner,
gentlemen of the house of burgesses.
[361:A] Hening, iii. 171.
[362:A] In 1701 the population of the colonies was as follows:--
Connecticut 30,000
Maryland 25,000
Massachusetts 70,000
New Hampshire 10,000
New Jersey 15,000
New York 30,000
North Carolina 5,000
Pennsylvania 20,000
Rhode Island 10,000
South Carolina 7,000
Virginia 40,000
-------
Total 202,000
(_Compendium of United States Census_.)
[363:A] Beverley, B. i. 104.