colony for their exclusive trade, in much the same language as one trades-
man would use to another, and desired that the General Assembly might
be convened for the purpose ot considering his proposition. The answer
M h 9fi tfV^ft ^ the Genpral Assembly to this proposition is preserved.
It sets forth m strong but respectful language the injury
which had been done the planters by the mere report of an intention to
subject their trade to a monopoly ; they state the reasons for not engaging
in the production of the other staples mentioned by the king; and dissent
from his proposition as to the purchase of their tobacco, demanding a higher
price and better terms of admission, in exchange for the exclusive monopo-
ly which he wished. ;£
In the mean time the death of his father rendered it necesary for Sir
tftac. Francis Wyatt to return to Europe to attend to his private affairs,
and the king appointed Sir George Yeardley his successor. This
* Burk, 1. 291, and Bancroft 1, 206— quoting BtM, Cobbett's Parliament. Hist and
Hazard.
+ B"rk's Ancient records— Burk, V 2. 19
t Hcning, vol. 1. 134.
73
57S HISTORY OF VIRGINIA
tvas itself a sufficient guarantee of the political privileges of the colony, as
he had had the honor of calling the first colonial assembly: but in addition
to this his powers were like those of his predecessor, limited to the execu-
tive authority exercised b}f the governor within five years last past. These
circumstances taken in connection with the express sanction given by
Charles to the power of a Legislative Assembly with regard to his prof-
fered contract for tobacco sufficiently prove that he had no design of inter-
fering with the highly-prized privilege of self-government enjoyed by the
colonists: and fully justifies the General Assembly in putting the most favor-
able construction upon the king's ambiguous words announcing his deter-
mination to preserve inviolate ail the "former interests" of Virginia, which
occur in his letter of 1627.*
Thus were those free principles established in Virginia, for which the
mother country had to struggle for sometime longer; the colony rose in
the estimation of the public, and a thousand new emigrants arrived in one
year; which of course much enhanced the price of provision.
Death now closed the career of Yeardley. ^rhe character of his ad-
N \A 1697 ni i n i strat i° n 1S exhibited in the history of the colony ; and
ov * ' ' the estimate placed upon his character by those who were
best acquainted with his conduct, and who were little disposed to flatter
undeservedly either the living or the dead, is to be found in a eulogy writ-
ten by the government oi Virginia to the privy council, announcing his
death. In obedience to the king's commission to the council, they elected
Francis West governor, the day after the burial of Yeardley. He held
the commission until the 5th of March 1628, when designing to sail for
England, John Pott w r as chosen to succeed him. f Port did not continue
long in office, for the king, when the death of Yeardley w r as known, issued
his commission to Sir John Harvey, who arrived sometime between Octo-
ber 1628 and March 1629.
In the interval between the death of Yeardley and the arrival of Har-
vey, occurred the first act of religious intolerance, which defile the annals
of Virginia.
Lord Baltimore, a catholic nobleman, allured by the rising reputation of
the colony, abandoned his settlement in Newfoundland and came to Vir-
ginia; where instead of being received with the cheerful welcome of a
friend and a brother, he was greeted with the oath of allegiance and su-
premacy, the latter of which it was well known his conscience would not
allow him to take.
Much allowance is to be made for this trespass upon religious freedom,
before we attribute it to a wilful violation of natural liberty. The times and
circumstances ought to be considered. The colony had grown into life
while the violent struggles between the Romish and Protestant churches
were yet rife. The ancient tyranny and oppression of the Holy See were
yet fresh in the memory of all, its cruelties and harsh intolerance in Eng-
land were recent, and yet continuing in the countries in which its votaries
had the control of the civil government. The light of Protestantism itself
was the first dawn of religious freedom, and the thraldom in which man-
kind had been held by Catholic fetters for so many ages was too terrible,
—
*Burk,v. 2. pa. 18.
pntS"?*!' 2 > p - 23 -, *J enin 2- v - 1; P- 4 and 13 BLirk v - H. p. 23. is at a loss toae-
eount for the fate of West, . .. . .
HISTORY OF VIRGINIA. 579
to risque the possibility of their acquiring any authority in government.
Eye-witnesses of the severities of Mary were yet alive in England, and
doubtless many of the colonists had heard fearful relations of the religious
sufferings during her reign, probably some had suffered in their own fami-
lies; most of them had emigrated whilst the excitement against the Papists
was still raging in England with its greatest fury, and continually kept in
action by the discovery or pretended discovery of Popish plots to obtain
possession of the government. Was it wonderful then that a colony which
with a remarkable uniformity of sentiment professed a different religion,
should be jealous of a faith which sought by every means in its power to
obtain supreme control, and used that control for the extermination, by the
harshest means, of all other creeds 1
The colony in Virginia was planted when the incestuous and monstrous
connection of church and state had not been severed in any civilized coun-
try on the globe; — -at a period when it would have been heresy to attempt
such a divorce, because it required all the aid of the civil power to give
men sufficient freedom to "profess and by argument to maintain" any other
creed than one, — and that one the creed of Rome. The anxiety of the
Rritish government upon this subject, so far from being unnatural was
highly laudable, since all its efforts were necessary to sustain its new-born
power of professing its own creed. The awful effect of Catholic supre-
macy, displayed in a neighboring kingdom, afforded a warning too terrible*
to be easily forgotten, and it w r ould have been as unwise to allow the
Catholics equal civil privileges at that day, as it would be impolitic and
unjust now to exclude them. \V T e find this regard for religious freedom,
(for emancipation from the Pope's authority was a great step in religious
freedom.) carefully fostered in the colonies. Every charter requires the
establishment of the church of England, and authorises the infliction of
punishment for drawing off the people from their religion, as a matter of
equal importance with their allegiance. For at that period before any im-
portant differences between the Protestants had arisen, when hut two reli-
gions were struggling for existence, not to be of the church of England
was to be a Papist, and not to acknowledge the secular supremacy of the
King, was to bow to the authority of the Pope. The catholics as the only
subject of terror, were the only subjects of intolerance; no sufficient num-
ber of dissenters had availed themselves of the great example of Protes-
tantism in rejecting any creed which did not precisely satisfy their con-
sciences, to become formidable to mother church ; nor had she grown so
strong and haughty in her new-fledged power as to level her blows at any
but her first great antagonist. f
The colony in Virginia consisted of church of England men, and many
of the first acts of their Legislature relate to provision for the church.
Glebe lands were early laid off, and livings provided. The ministers were
considered not as pious and charitable individuals, but as officers of the
* The massacre of the Protestants by the Catholics on St. Bartholomew's day, in
France, in 1572.
t The persecution of the Puritans was an exception to this. They were persecu-
ted with considerable rigor, but their numbers were small, consisting only of t\v<>
churches, and most of those who then existed went to Holland with their leaders
John Robinson and William Brewster, in 1607 and 8, and settled in Amsterdam,
whence they removed to Leyden in 1609, whence they sailed to America in 1620,
and landed in Cape Cod Harbor on the 7th of November, and settled Plymouth on
the 31st of December following-. — Holmes 1 Am. An. 156 — 203.
580 HISTORY OF VIRGINIA.
state, bound to promote the true faith and sound morality by authority of
the community, by which they were paid and to which they were held
responsible for the performance of their duty. The very first act of As-
sembly, which was passed, required that in every settlement in which the
people met to worship God, a house should be appropriated exclusively to
that purpose ; and a place paled in to be used solely as a burying ground;
the second act imposed the penalty of a pound of tobacco for absence from
divine service on Sunday without sufficient excuse, and fifty pounds for a
month's absence ; the third required uniformity, as near as might be, with
the canons in England ; the fourth enjoined the observance of the holy
days, (adding the 22d March, the day of the Massacre to the number) dis-
pensing with some 'by reason of our necessities ;' the fifth punished any
minister absenting himself from his church above two months in the year
with forfeiture of half of his estate, — and four months, his whole estate
and curacy ; the sixth punished disparagement of a minister; the seventh
prohibited any man from disposing of his tobacco or corn until the minis-
ter's portion was first paid.* This sacred duty discharged, the Assembly
next enact salutary regulations for the state. We find at the session of
1629 the act requiring attendance at church on the Sabbath specially en-
forced, and a clause added forbidding profanation of that day by travelling
pr work; also an act declaring that all those who work in the ground shall
pay tithes to the minister. We find requisition of uniformity with the
canons of the English church not only repeated in every new commission
from England, but re-enacted by the Legislature of 1629-30, and in 1631-2,
as well as in the several revisals of the laws. In the acts of 1631-2, we
find many acts conveying the idea advanced of ministers being considered
public officers; and churchwardens required to take an oath to present
offences against decency or morality, which made them in effect censors of
the public morals. In these acts it is made the duty of ministers to teach
children the Lord's prayer, commandments, and the articles of faith; also
to attend all persons dangerously sick, to instruct and comfort them in their
distress; to keep registers of christening, marriages and deaths; and to
preserve in themselves strict moral conduct, as an advancement to religion
and an example to others. We find also frequent acts passed providing for
the payment of the ministers, until the session of 1657-8, when church
and state seem to have been effectually divorced; for though no act of re-
ligious freedom was passed, but all were still expected, rather than com-
pelled, to conform to the church of England, yet the compulsory payment
of ministers was abandoned, and all matters relating to the church were
left entirely to the control of the people. f .
From the review which we have given of the religious condition of
England and the colony, it must be manifest that the tender of the oath of
supremacy to Lord Baltimore was not only a religious but a civil duty in
the council, which they could by no means have omitted without a viola-
tion of their own oaths, laws and charters. But if any further proof were
necessary, to show that it flowed from this source and not from a disposi-
tion to religious intolerance, — it is afforded by the liberal invitation given
in the instructions to Captain Bass to the Puritans who had settled at New
Plymouth, to desert their cold and barren soil and come and settle upon
Delaware Bay, which was in the limits of Virginia.!
* g enin g> v. 1. p. 121-4. 1 1st Henhig, 433.
* Burk, v. II. p. 32, on authority of ancient records.
HISTORY OF VIRGINIA. 581
Harvey met his first General Assembly in March, and its acts as those
i fioq of several succeding sessions, only consist of the usual business acts of
the colony. We have now approached a period in our history, upon
which the few scattered and glimmering lights which exist, have rather served
to mislead than to guide historians. It is a period replete with charges made
by historians, of the most heinous character against the governor, with no
evidence upon record to support them. The truth is that Sir John Harvey
was deposed and sent home by the colony for some improper conduct, but
what that was, does not fully appear, and historians seem to have thought
it their duty to sqpply the defect in the record, by abusing his administra-
tion as arbitrary and tyrannical from the first- the charge is without evi-
dence, and every probability is against its truth. During the whole of his
administration the General Assembly met and transacted their business as
usual. The fundamental laws which they had passed to which we have
before referred, restraining the powers of the governor, and asserting the
powers of the Assembly, were passed again as of course. There could
manifestly be no oppression from this source. The General Assembly or-
dered the building of forts, made the contracts, provided the payments, pro-
vided garrisons and soldiers for the field when necessary, and disbanded
them when the occasion for their services had ceased.* The Assembly and
the soldiers were planters and they could be little disposed to oppress them-
selves, their families and friends. The only evidence which exists against
Harvey is the fact of his being deposed, and sent home with commissioners
to complain of his conduct to the king, but this did not occur until 1635,
after the extensive grants had been made to Lord Baltimore and others,
which dismembered the colony, and were so. displeasing to the planters; and
we shall see that aid or connivance m these grants were the probable
causes of Harvey's unpopularity. Burke supports his charge of attempted
speculation and tyranny, upon the fact that the assembly of 1031, provide^
against the raising or expending of money, or levying men without the
consent of the assembly; but this was a mere re-enactment of the laws of
1 623-4, which we have seen, and which were passed undei the popular admin-
istration of Wyatt, and seem to have been very justly looked upon by the legis-
lature as fundamental laws.f The same remark applies to the provision of
security for the Burgesses from arrest, — that was provided in the first set of
laws of which we have anv record. Since 'Burke has committed such an
error, whilst he finds great fault with those who went before him, it will be
unnecessary here to notice the wild and unfounded speculations in which
his predecessors indulged. J
*1 Hening 140, 1, 2, 3. 150, 130. 171. 2, 5, 7, 9, 180. 202.
t These frequent repetitions so far from being a special blow at Harvey, was a
mere matter of course, " it was customary too to repeal all former laws at each ses-
sion, and either re-enact them in the very same words of the act repealed, or with
such amendments as experience might suggest." Hening, preface, p. VI.
t Robertson evidently does not perceive the distinction between taxing the produce
of the colony upon its arrival in England, which they could not prevent, and laying
taxes on them at home to which their legislature never would lend its sanction, or the
people peaceably submit. He also includes in his censure the popular Yeardley, as
suppressing those very assemblies which he was the first to establish, and which eulo-
gised him after his death,— rHe says, " from the tenor of the king's commission, as
well as from the known spiiit of his policy, it is apparent, that he intended to vest
every power of government, both legislative and executive in the governor and coun-
cil, without recourse to the representatives of the people, as possessing a right to enact
laws for the community, or to impose taxes upon it." How can this be said of, the
commission referring to the executive authority of the "five years last past" during
which the Assembly had ruled every thing'?
582 HISTORY OF VIRGINIA/
The first act of tyranny towards the colony which we find recorded
against Charles, was his grant in 1630 to Sir Robert Heath of a large por-
tion of the lands of the colony ; commencing at the 36th degree of latitude^
" Yeardly and his council, who seem'to have been fit instruments for carrying this.
system of arbitrary rule into execution, did not fail to put such a construction on the
words of their commission as was most favorable to their own jurisdiction. During
a greater part of Charles's reign, Virginia knew no other law than the will of the so-
vereign. Statutes were published, and taxes imposed, without once calling the rep-
resentatives of the people to authorize them by their sanction. At the same time that
the people were bereaved of political rights which they deemed essential to freemen
and citizens, their private property was violently invaded. A proclamation was is-
sued, by which under pretexts equally absurd and frivolous, they were prohibited from
selling" tobacco to any person but certain commissioners appointed by the king to buy
it on his aceount." Robertson's Virginia, p, 107, 8. Again, p. 109, he says "the
murmurs and complaints which such a system of administration excited, were aug-
mented by the vigour with which Sir John Harvey, who succeeded Yeardly in the
government of the colony, enforced every act of power. Rapacious, unfeeling and
haughty, he added insolence to oppression, and neither regarded the sentiments, nor
listened to the remonstrances of the people under his command. The colonists, far
from the seat of government and overawed by authority derived from a royal com-
mission, submitted long to his tyranny and exactions. Their patience was at last ex-
hausted, and in a transport of popular rage they seized their governor and sent him a
prisoner to England, accompanied by two of their number,"' &c. To say nothing
where there is no authority for saying anything; is not only excusable, but praise-
worthy, to give in such cases ingenious conjectures as such may be useful, but to pre-
sents tissue of conjectures as facts cannot be excused in any one, and the less in Dr;
Robertson, as his high character would stamp them with an authority which few oth-
ers could give. Judge Marshall unfortunately copies Robertson verbatim, thus show-
ing at once that one great mind has been mislead by his standing as a writer, to take
that as truth which is not only unfounded, but contradicted by well established facts.
As long as Robertson had Smith and Stith to guide him, he is very good authority,
but when he is left by them he is at sea. We will conclude this note by a quotation
pf an opposite character from a judicious and laborious modern writer. Bancroft, p.
315, after asserting that the colony enjoyed during this season, represented as so op-
pressive, an " independant colonial legislation," he appends the following note : "as
an.opposite statement has received the sanction, not of Oldmixon, Chalmers and Ro-
bertson only, but of Marshall and of Story.: (See Story's Commentaries, v. I. p, 28,
i~* without the slighest effort to convene a colonial assembly,") I deem it necessary to
state that many of the statutes of Virginia, under Harvey still exist, and that though
many others are lost, the first volume of Hening's Statutes at Large proves, beyond a
question, that assemblies were convened at least as often as follows:
1630, March, H. v. I. p. 147, 153,
" April, ibid, 257,
1632, February, ibid, 153, 177.
1632, Sept., ibid, 178, 202.
1633, February, ibid, 202,209.
" August, ibid, 209, 222,
1634, ibid, 223.
1635, ibid, 223.
1636, ibid, 229;
1637, ibid, 227.
1639, ibid, 229,230.
1640, ibid. 268.
1641, June, ibid, 259, 262,
. 1642, January, ibid, 267.
" April, ibid, 230.
" June, ibid, 269.
Considering how imperfect are the early records, it is surprising thatso considerable
a list can be established. The instructions to Sir William Berkeley do not first order
assemblies; but speak of them as if a thing established- At an adjourned session of
Berkeley's first legislature, the assembly declares " its "meeting exceeding customary
limits in this place used." Hening, v. I. p. 233. This is a plain declaration, that as"-
sembhes were the custom and use of Virginia at thellme of Berkeley's arrival. If
any doubts remain, it would be'easy to multiply arguments and references."
MlSTORY OF VIRGINIA 583
and including the whole southern portion of the United States, under the
name of Carolina. But as this country was not settled until long after-
wards, and the charter became void by non-compliance with its terms, it
could not be regarded as injurious by the colony, except as an evidence of
the facility with which their chartered rights could be divested. Another
1fi°2 i nstance of a more objectionable character soon occurred. Cecilius
Calvert, Lord Baltimore, obtained a grant of that portion of Vir-
ginia which is now included in the state of Maryland, and immediately
commenced a settlement upon it, notwithstanding the value which the Vir-
ginians set upon it, and their having actually made settlements within its
limits.* William Claiborne who had been a member of the council and
secretary of state for Virginia had obtained a license from the king to "traffic
in those parts of America, where there was no license," which had been
confirmed by Harvey. In pursuance of this authority he had settled him-
self at Kent Island near the city of Annapolis, and seemed by no means in-
clined tamely to relinquish his possessions. He resisted the encroachments
of Maryland by force. This was the first controversy between the whites
which ever took place on the waters of the Chesapeake. Claiborne was in-
dicted and found guilty of murder, piracy and sedition, and to escape pun-
ishment he fled to Virginia. When the Maryland commissioners demand-
ed him, Harvey refused to give him up, but sent him to England to be tried.
It is highly probable that the conduct of Harvey in giving up instead of
protecting Claiborne, incensed the colony against him, for they clearly
thought the Maryland charter an infringement of their rights, and they were
little inclined to submit to imposition from any quarter. Burke himself
who thinks the colony wished Claiborne to be given up to Maryland, says
that in the year 1633 there was a developement of a land speculation' on the
part of the governor, highly injurious to the colony. "It appears that by a
collision with the king's commissioners, large tracts of land were disposed
of to absentees, not unfrequently interferring with the rights of actual set-
tlers, and involving subjects of future litigation. By This proceeding, the:
colony was threatened with dismemberment, and the mischiefs were ag-
gravated by the conditions of those grants, which exempted the proprietors
from the payment of quit rents. Property conveyed with such absolute and
unqualified formalities, seemed to give the proprietors the rights of sovereign
authority, instead of the guarded restraints of a fecial tenure ; and an
abundant source of litigation was laid up for posterity by establishing an
imperium inimperio] within the bosom of the colony." Surely this specu-
lation was ot itself sufficient cause for dissatisfaction, and renders k unne-
cessary to look further to account for the conduct of the colony. To have
the lands for which they had fought and struggled with so much persever-
ance, and through so many difficulties suddenly wrested from them by an
act of arbitrary authority ; and their governor not only conniving, but
making a speculation on the alienation of their blood bought territory, was
enough to have excited a people to take even more summary vengeance
than that afforded by a trial and ejection from the gubernatorial chair. Nor
was it any palliation to the evil that few of their actual settlements were
within the ceded territory, for they had not struggled so strenuously only
for such small portion of ground as they might actually live upon, but upon
♦Holme's Am. An. v. I. p. 261, 265.
t Lord Fairfax held a Court Baron,— Burke t. VI. p. 38.
584 HISTORY OF VIRGINIA
a grant of a vast territory, with all its broad waters, magnificent forests,