Part 6 (1/2)

When this contrivance was ripe for execution, he extended the royal prerogative, and issued forth a proclamation for raising the value of pieces of eight from five to six s.h.i.+llings; and as soon as they were admitted current at that value, he produced an order for paying and disbanding the soldiers. Then those poor fellows, and such as had maintained them, were forced to take their pay in those light pieces of eight, at six s.h.i.+llings. But his lords.h.i.+p soon after himself found the inconvenience of that proclamation; for people began to pay their duties, and their s.h.i.+p money in coin of that high estimate, which was like to cut short both his lords.h.i.+p's perquisites; and so he was forced to make use of the same prerogative, to reduce the money again to its former standard.

-- 122. In less than a year the Lord Colepepper returned to England, leaving Sir Henry Chicheley deputy governor.

The country being then settled again, made too much tobacco, or too much trash tobacco, for the market; and the merchants would hardly allow the planter any thing for it.

This occasioned much uneasiness again, and the people, from former experience, despairing of succeeding in any agreement with the neighboring governments, resolved a total destruction of the tobacco in that country, especially of the sweet scented; because that was planted no where else. In pursuance of which design, they contrived that all the plants should be destroyed, while they were yet in the beds, and after it was too late to sow more.

Accordingly the ringleaders in this project began with their own first, and then went to cut up the plants of such of their neighbors as were not willing to do it themselves. However, they had not resolution enough to go through with their work.

This was adjudged sedition and felony. Several people were committed upon it, and some condemned to be hanged. And afterwards the a.s.sembly pa.s.sed a law to make such proceedings felony for the future, (whatever it was before,) provided the company kept together after warning by a justice.

-- 123. After this accident of plant cutting, the Lord Colepepper returned, and held his second a.s.sembly, in which he contrived to gain another great advantage over the country. His lords.h.i.+p, in his first voyage thither, perceiving how easily he could twist and manage the people, conceived new hopes of retrieving the propriety of the Northern Neck, as being so small a part of the colony. He conceived that while the remainder escaped free, which was far the greater part, they would not engage in the interest of the lesser number; especially considering the discouragements they had met with before, in their former solicitation: though all this while, and for many years afterwards, his lords.h.i.+p did not pretend to lay public claim to any part of the propriety.

It did not square with this project that appeals should be made to the general a.s.sembly, as till then had been the custom. He feared the burgesses would be too much in the interest of their countrymen, and adjudge the inhabitants of the Northern Neck to have an equal liberty and privilege in their estates with the rest of Virginia, as being settled upon the same foot. In order therefore to make a better pennyworth of those poor people, he studied to overturn this odious method of appealing to the a.s.sembly, and to fix the last resort in another court.

To bring this point about, his lords.h.i.+p contrived to blow up a difference in the a.s.sembly between the council and the burgesses, privately encouraging the burgesses to insist upon the privilege of determining all appeals by themselves, exclusive of the council; because they, having given their opinions before in the general court, were, for that reason, unfit judges in appeals from themselves to the a.s.sembly.

This succeeded according to his wish, and the burgesses bit at the bait, under the notion of privilege, never dreaming of the snake that lay in the gra.s.s, nor considering the danger of altering an old const.i.tution so abruptly. Thus my lord gained his end; for he represented that quarrel with so many aggravations, that he got an instruction from the king to take away all appeals from the general court to the a.s.sembly, and cause them to be made to himself in council, if the thing in demand was of 300 value, otherwise no appeal from the general court.

-- 124. Of this his lords.h.i.+p made sufficient advantage; for in the confusion that happened in the end of king James the Second's reign, viz., in October 1688, he having got an a.s.signment from the other patentees, gained a favorable report from the king's council at law upon his patent for the Northern Neck.

When he had succeeded in this, his lords.h.i.+p's next step was to engage some noted inhabitant of the place to be on his side. Accordingly he made use of his cousin Secretary Spencer, who lived in the said Neck, and was esteemed as wise and great a man as any of the council. This gentleman did but little in his lords.h.i.+p's service, and only gained some few strays, that used to be claimed by the coroner, in behalf of the king.

Upon the death of Mr. Secretary Spencer, he engaged another noted gentleman, an old stander in that country, though not of the Northern Neck, Col. Philip Ludwell, who was then in England. He went over with this grant in the year 1690, and set up an office in the Neck, claiming some escheats; but he likewise could make nothing of it. After him Col.

George Brent and Col. William Fitzhugh, that were noted lawyers and inhabitants of the said Neck, were employed in that affair: but succeeded no better than their predecessors. The people, in the mean while, complained frequently to their a.s.semblies, who at last made another address to the king; but there being no agent in England to prosecute it, that likewise miscarried. At last Colonel Richard Lee, one of the council, a man of note and inhabitant of the Northern Neck, privately made a composition with the proprietors themselves for his own land. This broke the ice, and several were induced to follow so great an example; so that by degrees, they were generally brought to pay their quit-rents into the hands of the proprietors' agents. And now at last it is managed for them by Col. Robert Carter, another of the council, and the greatest freeholder in that proprietary.

-- 125. To return to my Lord Colepepper's government, I cannot omit a useful thing which his lords.h.i.+p was pleased to do, with relation to their courts of justice. It seems, nicety of pleading, with all the juggle of Westminster Hall, was creeping into their courts. The clerks began in some cases to enter the reasons with the judgments, pretending to set precedents of inviolable form to be observed in all future proceedings. This my lord found fault with, and retrenched all dilatory pleas, as prejudicial to justice, keeping the courts close to the merits of the cause, in order to bring it to a speedy determination, according to the innocence of former times, and caused the judgments to be entered up short, without the reason, alledging that their courts were not of so great experience as to be able to make precedents to posterity; who ought to be left at liberty to determine, according to the equity of the controversy before them.

-- 126. In his time also were dismantled the forts built by Sir Henry Chicheley at the heads of the rivers, and the forces there were disbanded, as being too great a charge. The a.s.sembly appointed small parties of light horse in their stead, to range by turns upon the frontiers. These being chosen out of the neighboring inhabitants, might afford to serve at easier rates, and yet do the business more effectually; they were raised under the t.i.tle or name of rangers.

-- 127. After this the Lord Colepepper returned again for England, his second stay not being much longer than the first; and Sir Henry Chicheley being dead, he proclaimed his kinsman, Mr. Secretary Spencer, president, though he was not the eldest member of the council.

-- 128. The next year, being 1684, upon the Lord Colepepper's refusing to return, Francis, Lord Howard of Effingham, was sent over governor. In order to increase his perquisites, he imposed the charge of an annual under seal of twenty s.h.i.+llings each for school masters; five pounds for lawyers at the general court, and fifty s.h.i.+llings each lawyer at the county courts. He also extorted an excessive fee for putting the seal to all probates of wills, and letters of administration, even where the estates of the deceased were of the meanest value. Neither could any be favored with such administration, or probate, without paying that extortion. If any body presumed to remonstrate against it, his lords.h.i.+p's behavior towards that man was very severe. He kept several persons in prison and under confinement, from court to court, without bringing them to trial. Which proceedings, and many others, were so oppressive, that complaints were made thereof to the king, and Colonel Philip Ludwell was appointed agent to appear against him in England.

Whereupon the seal-money was taken off.

-- 129. During the first session of a.s.sembly in this n.o.ble lord's time, the duty on liquors imported from the other English plantations, was first imposed. It was then laid, on pretence of lessening the levy by the poll, for payment of public taxes; but more especially for rebuilding the State house, which had not been rebuilt since Laurence burnt it in Bacon's time.

This duty was at first laid on wine and rum only, at the rate of three pence per gallon, with an exemption of all such as should be imported in the s.h.i.+ps of Virginia owners. But the like duty has since been laid on other liquors also, and is raised to four pence per gallon on wine and rum, and one penny per gallon on beer, cider, lime-juice, &c.; and the privilege of Virginia owners taken away, to the great discouragement of their s.h.i.+pping and home trade.

-- 130. This lord, though he pretended to no great skill in legal proceedings, yet he made great innovations in their courts, pretending to follow the English forms. Thus he created a new court of chancery distinct from the general court, who had ever before claimed that jurisdiction. He erected himself into a lord chancellor, taking the gentlemen of the council to sit with him as mere a.s.sociates and advisers, not having any vote in the causes before them. And that it might have more the air of a new court, he would not so much as sit in the State house, where all the other public business was dispatched, but took the dining-room of a large house for that use. He likewise made arbitrary tables of fees, peculiar to this high court. However, his lords.h.i.+p not beginning this project very long before he left the country, all these innovations came to an end upon his removal, and the jurisdiction returned to the general court again, in the time of Colonel Nathaniel Bacon, whom he left president.

-- 131. During that gentleman's presidency, which began Anno 1689, the project of a college was first agreed upon. The contrivers drew up their scheme, and presented it to the president and council. This was by them approved, and referred to the next a.s.sembly. But Colonel Bacon's administration being very short, and no a.s.sembly called all the while, this pious design could proceed no farther.

-- 132. Anno 1690, Francis Nicholson, esq., being appointed lieutenant governor under the Lord Effingham, arrived there. This gentleman discoursed freely of country improvements, inst.i.tuted public exercises, and gave prizes to all those that should excel in the exercises of riding, running, shooting, wrestling, and cudgeling. When the design of a college was communicated to him, he promised it all imaginable encouragement. The first thing desired of him in its behalf, was the calling of an a.s.sembly, but this he could by no means agree to, being under obligations to the Lord Effingham to stave off a.s.semblies as long he could, for fear there might be farther representations sent over against his lords.h.i.+p, who was conscious to himself how uneasy the country had been under his despotic administration.

-- 133. When that could not be obtained, then they proposed that a subscription might pa.s.s through the colony, to try the humor of the people in general, and see what voluntary contributions they could get towards it. This he granted, and he himself, together with the council, set a generous example to the other gentlemen of the country, so that the subscriptions at last amounted to about two thousand five hundred pounds, in which sum is included the generous benevolences of several merchants of London.

-- 134. Anno 1691, an a.s.sembly being called, this design was moved to them, and they espoused it heartily; and soon after made an address to king William and queen Mary in its behalf, and sent the Rev. Mr. James Blair their agent to England to solicit their majesties charter for it.

It was proposed that three things should be taught in this college, viz., languages, divinity, and natural philosophy.

The a.s.sembly was so fond of Governor Nicholson at that time, that they presented him with the sum of three hundred pounds, as a testimony of their good disposition towards him. But he having an instruction to receive no present from the country, they drew up an address to their majesties, praying that he might have leave to accept it, which was granted, and he gave one half thereof to the college.