1747-1752.
Statistics of Virginia--Whitefield--Davies--Conduct of the
Government toward Dissenters--Resignation of Governor Gooch--
His Character--The People of the Valley and of Eastern
Virginia--John Robinson, Sr., President--Richard Lee,
President--Earl of Albemarle, Governor-in-Chief--Lewis
Burwell, President--Population of the Colonies.
FROM Bowen's Geography, published at London in 1747, the following
particulars are gathered: in 1710 the total population of Virginia was
estimated to be 70,000, and in 1747 at between 100,000 and 140,000. The
number of burgesses was 52. Of the fifty-four parishes, thirty or forty
were supplied. The twelve vestrymen having the presentation of ministers
were styled "the patrons of the church." The governor's salary, together
with perquisites, amounted to three thousand pounds per annum. The
president of the council acting as governor received a salary of five
hundred pounds, and also a small amount paid him as a councillor. The
professors of William and Mary College, when they began with experiments
on plants and minerals, were assisted by the French refugees at
Manakintown. Dr. Bray procured contributions of books for the
library.[444:A]
Sweet-scented tobacco, the most valuable in the world, was found in the
strip of country between the York and the James. The number of hogsheads
of tobacco shipped from Virginia and Maryland together annually was
70,000, of which half was consumed in England, and half exported to
other countries.
This trade employed two hundred ships, and yielded his majesty's
treasury a revenue of upwards of L300,000, in time of peace. Jamestown
at this time contained several brick houses, with sundry taverns and
eating-houses,--sixty or seventy houses in all. Williamsburg or
Williamstadt contained twenty or thirty houses. There was a fort or
battery erected there mounting ten or twelve guns. Governor Nicholson
caused several streets to be laid out in the form of a W, in honor of
King William the Third, but a V or one angle of it was not as yet
completed, and the plan appears to have been given up. The main street
was three-quarters of a mile long, and very wide; at one end of it was
the college, and at the other the capitol. The college was thought to be
something like Chelsea Hospital. The capitol, in the shape of an H, is
described as "a noble pile." The church was "adorned and convenient as
the best churches in London." Besides these there were an octagon
magazine for arms and ammunition, a bowling-green, and a play-house.
There were several private houses of brick, with many rooms on a floor,
but not high. It was observed that wherever the water was brackish, it
was sickly; but Williamsburg was on a healthy site.[445:A] Gloucester
was at this time the most populous county; Essex or Rappahannock
"overrun with briars, thorns, and wild beasts." The Atlantic Ocean is
denominated the "Virginian Sea."[445:B]
Whitefield, while at Charleston, in South Carolina, during the spring of
1747, being presented with a sum of money, expended it in the purchase
of a plantation and negroes for the support of the orphan-house.[445:C]
Having come on to Virginia, in a letter written from Williamsburg in
April of that year, he says to a friend in Philadelphia: "Men in power
here seem to be alarmed; but truth is great and will prevail. I am to
preach this morning." By a remarkable coincidence, Samuel Davies, so
pre-eminently instrumental in organizing and extending Presbyterianism
in Middle Virginia, happened to come to Virginia about the same time. He
was born in the County of New Castle, Pennsylvania, now Delaware,
November 3d, 1723, of Welsh extraction, on both paternal and maternal
side. He was educated principally in Pennsylvania, under the care of the
Rev. Samuel Blair, at Fagg's Manor, where he was thoroughly instructed
in the classics, sciences, and theology. By close study his slender
frame was enfeebled. He married Sarah Kirkpatrick in October, 1746.
Deputed to perform a mission in so perplexing a field, without
experience, and in delicate health, he started with hesitation and
reluctance. Passing down the Eastern Shore associated with the labors of
Makemie, Davies came to Williamsburg. Here he applied to the general
court for license to preach at three meeting-houses in Hanover, and one
in Henrico. The council hesitated to comply; but, by the governor's
influence, the license was obtained on the fourteenth of April. The
members of the court present on this occasion were William Gooch,
Governor; John Robinson, John Grymes, John Custis, Philip Lightfoot,
Thomas Lee, Lewis Burwell, William Fairfax, John Blair, William Nelson,
Esqs.; William Dawson, Clerk. This was only two days after Whitefield
had preached in Williamsburg, and he and Davies were probably there at
the same time. Davies, proceeding at once to Hanover, was received with
joy, since, on the preceding Sunday, a proclamation had been attached to
the door of Morris's Reading-house, requiring magistrates to suppress
itinerant preachers, and warning the people against gathering to hear
them. After a brief sojourn, returning home, he languished under ill
health, aggravated by the sudden death of his wife, and threatening to
cut him off prematurely. He, however, recovered sufficient strength to
return to Hanover in May, 1748, and settled at a place about twelve
miles from the falls of the James River. In this second visit he was
accompanied by the Rev. John Rodgers, who, finding it impossible to
obtain permission to settle in Virginia, returned to the North. Governor
Gooch favored the application, but a majority of the council stood out
against it, saying: "We have Mr. Rodgers out, and we are determined to
keep him out." Some of the clergy of the established church were
vehement in their opposition to Davies and Rodgers. A majority of the
council lent their countenance to this opposition, but Gooch took
occasion to rebuke it in severe terms. John Blair, nephew of the
commissary, Commissary Dawson, and another member of the council, whose
name is forgotten, united with the governor on this occasion in treating
the strangers kindly, and endeavored to procure a reconsideration of the
case, but in vain. According to Burk,[447:A] most of the intelligent men
of that day, including Edmund Pendleton, appear in the character of
persecutors. It must be remembered, however, that the council and its
friends had no right to proclaim religious freedom, and that the
controversy depended on the true interpretation of the act of parliament
and the Virginia statutes. These made the law, and the council was but
the executive of the law, without authority to repeal or amend it.
Davies was now left to labor alone in Virginia. In April the court
decided the long-pending suits against Isaac Winston, Sr., and Samuel
Morris, by fining them each twenty shillings and the costs of
prosecution. Severe laws had been passed in Virginia in accordance with
the English act of uniformity, and enforcing attendance at the parish
church. The toleration act was little understood in Virginia; Davies
examined it carefully, and satisfied himself that it was in force in the
colony, not, indeed, by virtue of its original enactment in England, but
because it had been expressly recognized and adopted by an act of the
Virginia assembly.
In October, 1748, licenses were with difficulty obtained upon the
petitions of the dissenters for three other meeting-houses lying in
Caroline, Louisa, and Goochland. Davies was only about twenty-three
years of age; yet his fervid eloquence attracted large congregations,
including many churchmen. On several occasions he found it necessary to
defend the cause of the dissenters at the bar of the general court. When
on one occasion, by permission, he rose to reply to the argument of
Peyton Randolph, the king's attorney-general, a titter at first ran
through the court; but it ceased at the utterance of the very first
sentence, and his masterly argument extorted admiration; and during his
stay in Williamsburg he received many civilities, especially from the
Honorable John Blair, of the council, and Sir William Gooch. Samuel
Davies happening to be in London at the same time with Peyton Randolph,
some years afterwards, mentions him in his Diary as "my old adversary,"
and adds, "he will, no doubt, oppose whatever is done in favor of the
dissenters in Hanover." Davies, who was a man of exquisite sensibility,
repeatedly alludes to the torture to which his feelings had been
subjected by the mortifications that he suffered when appearing before
the general court.
There was eventually obtained from Sir Dudley Rider, the king's
attorney-general in England, a decision confirming the view which Davies
had taken of the toleration act. He expressed himself in regard to the
governor and council as follows: "The Honorable Sir William Gooch, our
late governor, discovered a ready disposition to allow us all claimable
privileges, and the greatest aversion to persecuting measures; but
considering the shocking reports spread abroad concerning us by
officious malignants, it was no great wonder the council discovered a
considerable reluctance to tolerate us. Had it not been for this, I
persuade myself they would have shown themselves the guardians of our
legal privileges, as well as generous patriots to their country, which
is the character generally given them."
In his "State of Religion among the Dissenters," Davies remarks: "There
are and have been in this colony a great number of Scotch merchants, who
were educated Presbyterians, but (I speak what their conduct more loudly
proclaims) they generally, upon their arrival here, prove scandals to
their religion and country by their loose principles and immoral
practices, and either fall into indifferency about religion in general,
or affect to be polite by turning deists, or fashionable by conforming
to the church." Of the dissenters in Virginia he says, that at the first
they were not properly dissenters from the original constitution of the
Church of England, but rather dissented from those who had forsaken it.
Sir William Gooch, who had now been governor of Virginia for twenty-two
years, left the colony, with his family, in August, 1749, amid the
regrets of the people. Notwithstanding some flexibility of principle, he
appears to have been estimable in public and private character. His
capacity and intelligence were of a high order, and were adorned by
uniform courtesy and dignity, and singular amenity of manners. If he
exhibited something of intolerance toward the close of his
administration, he seems, nevertheless, to have commanded the esteem and
respect of the dissenters. After his departure from Virginia he
continued to be the steady friend of the colony. A county was named
after him.[449:A] During Sir William Gooch's administration, from 1728
to 1749, the population of Virginia had nearly doubled, and there had
been added one-third to the extent of her settlements.[449:B] The taxes
were light, industry revived, foreign commerce increased, and Virginia
enjoyed a prosperity hitherto unknown. The frugal and industrious
Germans were filling up one portion of the valley and the Piedmont
country; the hardy, well-disciplined, and energetic Scotch-Irish were
peopling the other portion of the valley, and planting colonies eastward
of the Blue Ridge. Like the strawberry, the population continually sent
out "runners" to possess the land. The contact and commingling of the
English, the French, the German, the Scotch, the Irish, while it brought
about some collision, yet produced an excitement which was salutary and
beneficial to all. So the meeting of the opposite currents of
electricity, although accompanied by a shock, results in the renovation
of the atmosphere. The people of Eastern Virginia and the inhabitants of
the valley have each been benefited by the other; each section has its
virtues and its faults, its advantages and its disadvantages, and
Virginia does not derive its character from either one, but the elements
of both are mixed up in her. This is not the result of chance, or the
mere work of man, but the order of a superintending Providence that
presides in human affairs.
The government of Virginia now devolved upon John Robinson, Sr.,
president of the council, but he dying in a few days, Thomas Lee
succeeded as president. Had Lee lived longer, it was believed his
influence and connexions in England would have secured for him the
appointment of deputy governor. He was father of Philip Ludwell, Richard
Henry, Thomas L., Arthur, Francis Lightfoot, and William. As
Westmoreland, their native county, is distinguished above all others in
Virginia as the birth-place of great men, so perhaps no other Virginian
was the father of so many distinguished sons as President Lee.
The Earl of Albemarle, after whom the county of that name was called,
was still titular governor-in-chief. Of this nobleman, when ambassador
at Paris, Horace Walpole says: "It was convenient to him to be anywhere
but in England. His debts were excessive, though ambassador, groom of
the stole, governor of Virginia, and colonel of a regiment of guards.
His figure was genteel, his manner noble and agreeable. The rest of his
merit was the interest Lady Albemarle had with the king through Lady
Yarmouth. He had all his life imitated the French manners till he came
to Paris, where he never conversed with a Frenchman. If good breeding is
not different from good sense, Lord Albemarle, at least, knew how to
distinguish it from good nature. He would bow to his postillion while he
was ruining his tailor."
Lee was succeeded by Lewis Burwell, of Gloucester County, also president
of the council. During his brief administration, some Cherokee chiefs,
with a party of warriors, visited Williamsburg for the purpose, as they
professed, of opening a direct trade with Virginia. A party of the
Nottoways, animated by inveterate hostility, approached to attack them;
and the Cherokees raised the war song; but President Burwell effected a
reconciliation, and they sat down and smoked together the pipe of peace.
A New York company of players were permitted to erect a theatre in
Williamsburg. President Burwell, who was educated in England, was
distinguished for his scholarship; he is said to have embraced almost
every branch of human knowledge within the circle of his studies. The
Burwells are descended from an ancient family of that name of the
Counties of Bedford and Northampton, England. The first of the family,
Major Lewis Burwell, came over to Virginia at an early date, and settled
in Gloucester. He died in 1658, two hundred years ago. He appears to
have married Lucy, daughter of Captain Robert Higginson, one of the
first commanders that "subdued the country of Virginia from the power of
the heathen." She survived till the year 1675.
Matthew Burwell married Abigail Smith, descended from the celebrated
family of Bacon, and heiress of the Honorable Nathaniel Bacon, President
of Virginia. Nathaniel Burwell, who died in 1721, married Elizabeth,
eldest daughter of Robert Carter, Esq. Carter's Creek, the old seat of
the Burwells, is situated in Gloucester, on a creek of that name, and
not far back from the York River. The stacks of antique diamond-shaped
chimneys, and the old-fashioned panelling of the interior, remind the
visitor that Virginia is truly the "Ancient Dominion." There is the
family graveyard shaded with locusts, and overrun with parasites and
grape-vines. The family arms are carved on some of the tomb-stones; and
hogs show that the Bacon arms are quartered upon those of the
Burwells.[451:A]
FOOTNOTES:
[444:A] The value of coins in Virginia was:--
L s. d.
Spanish double doubloons 3 10 00
Doubloons 1 15 00
Pistole 0 17 06
Arabian Chequin 0 10 00
Pieces of eight 0 5 00
French crowns 0 5 00
Dutch dollars 0 5 00
All English coins at the same value as in England.
[445:A] Williamsburg is said to be now a very healthy place, except
during the months of vacation.
[445:B] Bowen's Geography, ii. 649, 652.
[445:C] Port Folio for 1812, p. 152.
[447:A] Hist. of Va., iii. 121.
[449:A] His son married a Miss Bowles, of Maryland, who, after his
death, married Colonel William Lewis.
[449:B] Chalmers' Introduction, ii. 202.
[451:A] The population of the colonies at this time was as follows:--
Increase per cent.
COLONIES. per annum.
Connecticut 100,000 4.65
Georgia 6,000 ...
Maryland 85,000 5.00
Massachusetts 220,000 4.46
New Hampshire 30,000 4.17
New Jersey 60,000 6.25
New York 100,000 4.86
North Carolina 45,000 16.67
Pennsylvania[451:B] 250,000 23.96
Rhode Island 35,000 5.21
South Carolina 30,000 6.84
Virginia 85,000 2.34
--------- ----
All classes 1,046,000 6.23
By this table it appears that the greatest advance in population took
place in Pennsylvania and North Carolina; the least in Virginia. The
average increase of all the colonies was a little more than six per
cent. in forty-eight years, from 1701 to 1749.
[451:B] Delaware included in Pennsylvania.