10. An Eng man's town in 1619 [29] CHAPTER II THE ENGLISH COLONIES THE OLD DOMINION John Pory, the author of the following letter, was a lish gentle- Cambridge. Master of Arts and an ex-member of Parliaimpressions ment. He accompanied Governor Yeardley to Jamestown of Jamesin 1619 and became secretary of the Colony. He was Speaker of the first legislative assembly that met on American soil, the House of Burgesses of July 30 to August 4, 1619. The proceedings of this memorable session, written in Pory's own hand, were discovered in the State Paper Office of England in 1853. The following letter was written by Pory to his friend, the English Ambassador to Holland, only a few weeks after the adjournment of the Assembly: RIGHT HONORABLE, AND MY SINGULAR GOOD LORDE: ... Here (as your lordship cannot be ignorant) I am, for faulte of a better, Secretary of Estate, the first that was ever chosen and appointed by Commission from the Counsell and Company in England, under their handes and common seale. By my fees I must maintaine my selfe; which the Governour telles me, may this yeere amounte to a matter of 300 l. sterling; wherof fifty doe I owe to himselfe, and I pray God the remainder may amounte to a hundred more. As yet I have gotten nothing, save onely (if I may speak it without boasting) a general reputation of integrity. . . . As touching the quality of this country, three things there bee which in a fewe yeares may bring this Colony to perfection; the English plough, Vineyards, and Cattle. For the first, there may be many grounds here, cleared by the Indians, to our handes, which being much worne out will beare no more of their corn, which requireth an extraordinary deale of sappe and substance to nourish it; but of our graine of all sortes it will beare great abundance. We have had this yeare a plentifull cropp of English wheat, though the last harvest 1618 was onely shed upon the stubble and so self-sowne. In July last, so soone as we had reaped this self-sowen wheate, we sett Indian corne upon the same grounde, which is come up in great abundance. . . . Vines are here in suche abundance that, wheresover a man treads, they are ready to embrace his foote. . . . For cattle they do mightily increase here, both kine, hogges and goates, and are much greater in stature than the race of them first brought out of England. All our riches for the present doe consiste in tobacco, wherein one man by his owne labor hath in one yeare raised to himselfe to the value of 200 1. sterling; and another by the meanes of sixe servants hath cleared at one crop a thousand pound English.1 Nowe that your lordship may knowe that we are not the veriest beggers in the worlde, our cowekeeper here of James citty on Sundays goes accowtered [dressed] all in freshe flaming silke; and a wife of one that in England had professed the black arte, not of a scholler but of a collier of Croyden, weares her rough bever hatt with a faire pearl hatband, and a silken suite thereto correspondent. But to leave the populace and come higher; the Governour here, who at his first coming, besides a great deale of worth in his person, brought onely his sword with him, was at his late being in London, together with his lady, out of his meer gettings here, able to disburse very near 3000 l. to furnishe himselfe for his voyage. And once within seven yeares, I am persuaded (absit invidia verbo)2 that the Governors place here may be as profittable as the lord Deputies of Irland. . . . At my first coming hither the solitary uncouthnes of this place, compared with those partes of Christendome or Turky where I had been; and likewise my being senquestered from all occurrents [events] $5000, equivalent perhaps to $20,000 to-day. . ་ "Envy be absent from my speech." 1 11. Virginia changes masters, 16511662 [33] and passages which are so rife there, did not a little vexe me. And James Citty in Virginia, Sept. 30, 1619 Jo. Pory The colonies in America naturally felt the effect of the stormy years of the mid-seventeenth century in England. Two years after Oliver Cromwell had established the Commonwealth (or Republic) in England, the following proclamation was issued by Parliament : MR. INSTRUCTIONS FOR CAPTAIN ROBERT DENIS, ... Upon your arrival at Virginia, you, or any two or more of you (of whom captain Robert Denis to be one) shall use your best endeavors to reduce all the Plantations within the Bay of Chesopiaik [Chesapeake] to their due obedience to the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England. For which purpose you . . . have hereby power to assure Pardon and Indemnity to all the Inhabitants of the said Plantations, that shall submit unto the present Government and authority. . . And in case they shall not submit by fair ways and means, you are to use all Arts of hostility, that lie in your power to enforce them: and if you shall find that the People so stand out that you can by no other ways or means reduce them to their due obedience, you have power to appoint captains and other officers, and to raise forces within every one of the Plantations aforesaid, for the furtherance and good of the Service.... You shall cause and see the several acts of Parliament against kingship and the House of lords to be received and published; also the Acts for abolishing the Book of common prayers. .. and all other Acts herewith delivered you. You . . . have full Power to administer an oath to the Inhabitants or planters there, to be true and faithful to the Commonwealth of England, as it is now established, without a King or House of lords. . . . You shall cause all writs, warrents, and other processes whatsoever to be issued forth as occasion shall require, in the name of the keepers of the liberty of England, by authority of the Parliament. . . . And lastly we doubt not but you will use your best diligence and care in carrying on of this affair.... So the Council1 will take the same into consideration, that respect may be had of your Pains and travail therein, and of a recompence agreeable to your service. . . . Signed in the name and by the order of the Council of State appointed by authority of Parliament Whitehall, Sept. 26th, 1651 Jo. Bradshawe, President From the resignation of Richard Cromwell, son of the great Oliver, April 22, 1659, until the restoration of Charles II, May 29, 1660, England was without a legal government. The Virginia House of Burgesses in its session of March 13, 1660, passed the following acts: 1 The Council of State was a committee of about forty members of Parliament which performed the executive duties under the Commonwealth. Whereas by reason of the late frequent distractions, which God in his mercy putt a suddaine period [sudden stop] to, there being in England noe resident absolute and gen'll confessed power: Be it enacted and confirmed, That the supreame power of the government of this country shall be resident in the Assembly, and that all writts issued in the name of the Grand Assembly of Virginia, until such a comand and commission come out of England, shall be by the Assembly judged lawfull. Bee it enacted, That the honourable Sir William Berkeley bee Governour and Captain Gen'll of Virginia, and that he govern according to the ancient lawes of England and the established lawes of this country. . The restoration of Charles II in 1660 was followed by loyal acts of acknowledgment on the part of the colonies and expressions of pardon and goodwill from the amiable king. To Governor Berkeley, who had gone over to England shortly after the Restoration, the following instructions were issued : ... You shall within one month after your arrival, or sooner, if you think fit call a General Assembly according to the usage and custom of that our Colony and at the opening thereof you shall declare to them that we are graciously pleased to grant a free and General act of pardon and oblivion to all our subjects of what degree and quality whatsoever. . . excepting such persons who are attainted by act of Parliament for the horrid murder of our dear Father1 of blessed memory provided that you and the Assembly take present care for the repeal of all laws and orders made during the late times of rebellion and usurpation against our crown and dignity. ... You shall let that Assembly know that we do expect from you and them that you establish good and wholesome rules and orders . . . for the punishment of all vice and debauchery and idleness ... and that they likewise establish all necessary 1 The "regicide" members of the Rump Parliament who had voted for Charles I's execution, 1649. |