1.
Governor of Virginia
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The Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia serves as the chief executive of the Commonwealth of Virginia for a four-year term. The current holder of the office is Terry McAuliffe, who was sworn in on January 11,2014 and his term will expire on January 13,2018. McAuliffe is a member of the Democratic Party and was elected to the office on November 5,2013, candidates for governor must be United States citizens who have resided in Virginia and been a registered voter for five years prior to the election in which they are running. The candidates must be at least 30 years of age, Virginia governors are not allowed to serve consecutive terms, therefore, they cannot stand for reelection at the end of their term, as per the 1830 state constitution. However, a governor is permitted to run for a second term in a future election. Only two governors since 1830, William Smith and Mills Godwin, were elected to additional terms, the governor is the head of government in Virginia. At the beginning of regular session, he or she must report the state of the Commonwealth to the Virginia General Assembly. He or she must convene the legislature when two-thirds of each house calls for a special session. The governor must ensure that the laws of the Commonwealth are faithfully executed by either signing, or allowing it to come into law, or vetoing and they are responsible for the safety of the state, as they serve as commander-in-chief of the Virginia Militia. The governor has the power to submit recommendations and to call special sessions when he finds them necessary. All bills must be sent to the governor before becoming law, the governor may sign the bill, let it sit unsigned for seven days, after which it becomes law, or veto the legislation. After a veto, the returns to its house of origin. The governor also has the power to use a line-item veto and he may send legislation back to the legislature with recommendations and amendments. The legislature must either approve the changes by a majority in each house or override the veto with a majority in each house. The governor is commander-in-chief of Virginias militia forces, the governor may also communicate with other states and foreign powers. The governor has the power to fill vacancies in positions unless the position is appointed by the legislature, the governor may commute fines or sentences and issue pardons. The governor may also restore voting rights and overturn other political penalties on individuals, the position of Governor of Virginia dates back to the first permanent English settlement in America, Jamestown. The Virginia Company of London set up a government run by a council, the President of the Council basically served as governor
2.
Wyndham Robertson
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Wyndham Robertson was the Acting Governor of the U. S. state of Virginia from 1836 to 1837. He also served twice in the Virginia House of Delegates, the time during the American Civil War. Robertson was a Whig, and was an advocate for Union during the crisis that precipitated the Civil War. However, after Lincolns call for troops, he advocated secession, after the war, he was a member of the Committee of Nine that helped usher Virginia back into the Union. Robertson, a descendant of Pocahontas, published a book near the end of his life in her defense, Robertson was born near Manchester, in Chesterfield County, Virginia, the son of William Robertson and Elizabeth Bolling, a descendant of Pocahontas and John Rolfe. His father was a member of the Virginia Council of State, Robertson attended private schools in Richmond and graduated from The College of William and Mary in 1821. He then married Mary Trigg Smith, daughter of Captain Francis Smith, Robertson, a Governor of Louisiana, and John Robertson, a U. S. Congressman. Robertson studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1824, in 1827, he made a short trip to Paris and London, and in 1830 he was made Councillor of State. Robertson was re-elected to the Council of State in 1833, and on March 31,1836, he became the member of this body. When Governor Littleton Waller Tazewell resigned that day, Robertson became Governor. Robertson was then elected to the Virginia House of Delegates for the 1838 session and he was re-elected for three successive sessions, ending his service in 1841. He moved to his wifes home south of Abingdon, in southwest Virginia in 1841 and he was made a Justice of Washington County on July 25,1842, and was appointed a trustee of Abingdon Academy in 1843. In 1850, he leased the King Saltworks for five years, in 1858, he returned to Richmond. In 1859, he was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates for the 1859-1861 session, when Virginia was struggling with the idea of seceding from the United States, Robertson was a staunch Unionist and tried to prevent its secession. He later wrote of himself as a friend to peace and the Union and he then proposed the following toast, The Constitutional Union of the States - The Union of the States is the harmony of the spheres. While obedient to the laws of their creation, they sing ever as they go glad tidings of great joy to all the world, rebelling against them, light and joy are swallowed up in darkness, and order falls back into primordial chaos. After South Carolina and several states started seceding in the winter of 1860-61. However, when President Abraham Lincoln made his call for troops on April 15,1861, the call for troops was precisely the scenario detailed in their Anti-Coercion Resolution and Virginia seceded
3.
Thomas Walker Gilmer
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Thomas Walker Gilmer was an American statesman. He served in an number of positions in Virginia, including election as the 28th Governor of Virginia. Gilmers final political office was as the 15th Secretary of the Navy, Gilmer was born to George and Eliza Gilmer at their farm, Gilmerton, in Albemarle County, Virginia. He was taught by tutors in Charlottesville and Staunton, and studied law in Liberty. He was, briefly, editor of the Virginia Advocate, a Charlottesville newspaper, on May 23,1826, Gilmer married Anne Elizabeth Baker of Shepherdstown, now in West Virginia. Her late father, John Baker, had been a member of the United States House of Representatives and they had a son, George Hudson Gilmer, a Presbyterian minister. In 1829, Gilmer purchased Israel Jefferson, a slave of Thomas Jefferson. Gilmer later agreed to let Israel pay his own price for his freedom after Gilmers election to congress, as Israel desired to stay with his wife. Gilmer first served in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1829–36 and he returned in 1839-40 and was named Speaker. On February 14,1840, Gilmer was elected the 28th Governor of Virginia, while in office, he had a disagreement with the Virginia General Assembly over the extradition of slave stealers, which played a part in his running for Congress the following winter. In March 1841, he entered the 27th Congress, and although he had been elected as a Whig, Tyler had very little support in the Party and eventually served just the rest of the term. Gilmer however was re-elected to the 28th Congress as a Democrat in 1842 by a close vote and his competitor, William L. Goggin, contested the result without success. On February 15,1844, he was appointed by Tyler to be the U. S and his death meant the loss of a valuable ally for Tyler and some historians suggest that it may have delayed the Texas Annexation effort. 1842, Gilmer was elected to the U. S. House of Representatives with 50. 21% of the vote, Gilmer is buried at Mount Air Cemetery in Gilbert, Virginia. A year after his death, Gilmer County, Virginia, was named in his honor, the city of Gilmer, Texas, is also named for him. Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, clerk of the House of Delegates, supervising. Speakers and Clerks of the Virginia House of Delegates, 1776-2007, richmond, Virginia, Virginia House of Delegates. A Guide to the Executive Papers of Governor Thomas W. Gilmer, 1840-1841 at The Library of Virginia
4.
Washington County, Virginia
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Washington County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2010 census, the population was 54,876, for thousands of years, indigenous peoples of varying cultures lived in the area. At the time of European encounter, the Chiska had a village near what is now Saltville. The Cherokee annexed the region from the Xualae around 1671, the county was formed by Virginians in 1776 from Fincastle County. It was named for George Washington, who was then commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, Washington County is among the first geographical regions to be named after the president of the United States. Washington County was raided by the Chickamauga Cherokee during the Cherokee–American wars, in July,1776, Chief Dragging Canoe led an attack on Blacks Fort. The area remained prone to attack until after Chickamauga leader Bob Benge was finally slain by settlers in Washington County in 1794, as with many other frontier counties, the boundaries and territory changed over the years. In 1786 the northwestern part of Washington County became Russell County, in 1814 the western part of what remained of Washington County was combined with parts of Lee and Russell counties to form Scott County. In 1832 the northeastern part of Washington was combined with part of Wythe County to form Smyth County, finally, with the incorporation of the town of Goodson as the independent city of Bristol in 1890, Washington County assumed its present size. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has an area of 566 square miles. The county is divided into seven districts, Harrison, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Taylor, Tyler. As of the census of 2000, there were 51,103 people,21,056 households, the population density was 91 people per square mile. There were 22,985 housing units at a density of 41 per square mile. The racial makeup of the county was 97. 56% White,1. 32% Black or African American,0. 11% Native American,0. 27% Asian,0. 03% Pacific Islander,0. 14% from other races, and 0. 58% from two or more races. 0. 63% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race,25. 80% of all households were made up of individuals and 10. 40% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.36 and the family size was 2.84. In the county, the population was out with 20. 80% under the age of 18,8. 70% from 18 to 24,28. 30% from 25 to 44,26. 90% from 45 to 64. The median age was 40 years, for every 100 females there were 94.20 males
5.
Smyth County, Virginia
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Smyth County is a county located in the U. S. state of Virginia. As of the 2010 census, the population was 32,208, Smyth County was formed on February 23,1832, from Washington and Wythe counties. The county is named after Alexander Smyth, a general during the War of 1812 who was elected to the state Senate, House of Delegates, and as a Representative to the United States Congress. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has an area of 452 square miles. The population density was 73 people per square mile, there were 15,111 housing units at an average density of 33 per square mile. The racial makeup of the county was 96. 86% White,1. 87% Black or African American,0. 15% Native American,0. 18% Asian,0. 32% from other races,0. 86% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. 26. 00% of all households were made up of individuals and 12. 50% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.37 and the average family size was 2.83. In the county, the population was out with 21. 60% under the age of 18,8. 00% from 18 to 24,28. 10% from 25 to 44,26. 00% from 45 to 64. The median age was 40 years, for every 100 females there were 93.80 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 90.50 males, the median income for a household in the county was $30,083, and the median income for a family was $36,392. Males had an income of $26,698 versus $19,712 for females. The per capita income for the county was $16,105, about 9. 90% of families and 13. 30% of the population were below the poverty line, including 15. 20% of those under age 18 and 14. 00% of those age 65 or over. The organization markets the area through www. VisitVirginiaMountains
6.
Virginia
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Virginia is a state located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, as well as in the historic Southeast. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are shaped by the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Chesapeake Bay, the capital of the Commonwealth is Richmond, Virginia Beach is the most populous city, and Fairfax County is the most populous political subdivision. The Commonwealths estimated population as of 2014 is over 8.3 million, the areas history begins with several indigenous groups, including the Powhatan. In 1607 the London Company established the Colony of Virginia as the first permanent New World English colony, slave labor and the land acquired from displaced Native American tribes each played a significant role in the colonys early politics and plantation economy. Although the Commonwealth was under one-party rule for nearly a century following Reconstruction, the Virginia General Assembly is the oldest continuous law-making body in the New World. The state government was ranked most effective by the Pew Center on the States in both 2005 and 2008 and it is unique in how it treats cities and counties equally, manages local roads, and prohibits its governors from serving consecutive terms. Virginias economy changed from agricultural to industrial during the 1960s and 1970s. Virginia has an area of 42,774.2 square miles, including 3,180.13 square miles of water. Virginias boundary with Maryland and Washington, D. C. extends to the mark of the south shore of the Potomac River. The southern border is defined as the 36° 30′ parallel north, the border with Tennessee was not settled until 1893, when their dispute was brought to the U. S. Supreme Court. The Chesapeake Bay separates the portion of the Commonwealth from the two-county peninsula of Virginias Eastern Shore. The bay was formed from the river valleys of the Susquehanna River. Many of Virginias rivers flow into the Chesapeake Bay, including the Potomac, Rappahannock, York, and James, the Tidewater is a coastal plain between the Atlantic coast and the fall line. It includes the Eastern Shore and major estuaries of Chesapeake Bay, the Piedmont is a series of sedimentary and igneous rock-based foothills east of the mountains which were formed in the Mesozoic era. The region, known for its clay soil, includes the Southwest Mountains around Charlottesville. The Blue Ridge Mountains are a province of the Appalachian Mountains with the highest points in the state. The Ridge and Valley region is west of the mountains and includes the Great Appalachian Valley, the region is carbonate rock based and includes Massanutten Mountain. The Cumberland Plateau and the Cumberland Mountains are in the southwest corner of Virginia, in this region, rivers flow northwest, with a dendritic drainage system, into the Ohio River basin
7.
Abingdon, Virginia
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Abingdon is a town in Washington County, Virginia, United States,133 miles southwest of Roanoke. The population was 8,191 at the 2010 census and it is the county seat of Washington County and is a designated Virginia Historic Landmark. The town encompasses several historically significant sites and features an arts and crafts scene centered on the galleries. The region was long the territory of varying cultures of peoples, including the Chisca. Between 1748 and 1750, Dr. Thomas Walker surveyed the land where the town of Abingdon is situated and it was on the Great Road that Colonel William Byrd III ordered cut through the wilderness on to Kingsport, Tennessee. In 1760, the famed frontiersman Daniel Boone named the area Wolf Hills, the site of the attack is on Courthouse Hill. In the twenty-first century, the town sponsored an art event, in which artists created 27 wolf sculptures. Most were later sold at an auction to raise money for Advance Abingdon, during Lord Dunmores War, Joseph Black built Blacks Fort in 1774 to protect local settlers in the region from attacks by the Cherokee of the Lower Towns. It consisted of a log stockade, with a few log cabins inside and they retreated to the fort in 1776 when attacked by the war leader Dragging Canoe and his Chickamauga Cherokee forces. Hoping to push out the colonists, the Cherokee had allied with the British in the American Revolutionary War, the settlement was known as Black’s Fort prior to being named Abingdon. Black, Briggs and Walker donated the 120 acres of land upon which the town was laid out. It was at the intersection of two great Indian trails, which had followed ancient animal migration trails through the mountains and it was a prime location as a trade center and access point to the west and south. In 1776 the community of Blacks Fort was made the county seat of the newly formed Washington county, in 1778, Blacks Fort was incorporated as the town of Abingdon, said to be named for the ancestral home of Martha Washington in Oxfordshire, England. Possible namesakes for the town include Jake Dores home in Abington, Pennsylvania, or Lord Abingdon, Martha Washington College, a school for women, operated in Abingdon from 1860 to 1932 in a former private residence. Since 1935 the building has occupied and operated as a hotel. The Barter Theatre, the theatre of Virginia, was opened in Abingdon in 1933 during the Great Depression. Abingdon is the final stop along the Virginia Creeper Trail, which allows pedestrian, cyclist and this trail is 35 miles long, extending from White Top Mountain through Damascus, Virginia, with the trailhead in Abingdon. The Historical Society of Washington County, Virginia, located in Abingdon, serves as a genealogy center
8.
Democratic Party (United States)
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The Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The Democrats dominant worldview was once socially conservative and fiscally classical liberalism, while, especially in the rural South, since Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal coalition in the 1930s, the Democratic Party has also promoted a social-liberal platform, supporting social justice. Today, the House Democratic caucus is composed mostly of progressives and centrists, the partys philosophy of modern liberalism advocates social and economic equality, along with the welfare state. It seeks to provide government intervention and regulation in the economy, the party has united with smaller left-wing regional parties throughout the country, such as the Farmer–Labor Party in Minnesota and the Nonpartisan League in North Dakota. Well into the 20th century, the party had conservative pro-business, the New Deal Coalition of 1932–1964 attracted strong support from voters of recent European extraction—many of whom were Catholics based in the cities. After Franklin D. Roosevelts New Deal of the 1930s, the pro-business wing withered outside the South, after the racial turmoil of the 1960s, most southern whites and many northern Catholics moved into the Republican Party at the presidential level. The once-powerful labor union element became smaller and less supportive after the 1970s, white Evangelicals and Southerners became heavily Republican at the state and local level in the 1990s. However, African Americans became a major Democratic element after 1964, after 2000, Hispanic and Latino Americans, Asian Americans, the LGBT community, single women and professional women moved towards the party as well. The Northeast and the West Coast became Democratic strongholds by 1990 after the Republicans stopped appealing to socially liberal voters there, overall, the Democratic Party has retained a membership lead over its major rival the Republican Party. The most recent was the 44th president Barack Obama, who held the office from 2009 to 2017, in the 115th Congress, following the 2016 elections, Democrats are the opposition party, holding a minority of seats in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The party also holds a minority of governorships, and state legislatures, though they do control the mayoralty of cities such as New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, and Washington, D. C. The Democratic Party traces its origins to the inspiration of the Democratic-Republican Party, founded by Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and that party also inspired the Whigs and modern Republicans. Organizationally, the modern Democratic Party truly arose in the 1830s, since the nomination of William Jennings Bryan in 1896, the party has generally positioned itself to the left of the Republican Party on economic issues. They have been liberal on civil rights issues since 1948. On foreign policy both parties changed position several times and that party, the Democratic-Republican Party, came to power in the election of 1800. After the War of 1812 the Federalists virtually disappeared and the national political party left was the Democratic-Republicans. The Democratic-Republican party still had its own factions, however. As Norton explains the transformation in 1828, Jacksonians believed the peoples will had finally prevailed, through a lavishly financed coalition of state parties, political leaders, and newspaper editors, a popular movement had elected the president
9.
Morristown, Indiana
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Morristown is a town in Hanover Township, Shelby County, in the U. S. state of Indiana. The population was 1,218 at the 2010 census, Morristown was platted in 1828 by Samuel Morrison, and named for him. The Morristown post office has been in operation since 1834, junction Railroad Depot was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. Morristown is located at 39°40′25″N 85°41′49″W, according to the 2010 census, Morristown has a total area of 2.37 square miles, of which 2.35 square miles is land and 0.02 square miles is water. As of the census of 2010, there were 1,218 people,467 households, the population density was 518.3 inhabitants per square mile. There were 519 housing units at a density of 220.9 per square mile. The racial makeup of the town was 98. 6% White,0. 1% African American,0. 7% Native American,0. 1% Asian, hispanic or Latino of any race were 1. 3% of the population. 29. 6% of all households were made up of individuals and 12. 3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.41 and the average family size was 2.95. The median age in the town was 38 years. 24. 7% of residents were under the age of 18, 8% were between the ages of 18 and 24,24. 9% were from 25 to 44,21. 4% were from 45 to 64, and 20. 9% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the town was 45. 4% male and 54. 6% female, as of the census of 2000, there were 1,133 people,426 households, and 296 families residing in the town. The population density was 1,182.2 people per square mile, there were 444 housing units at an average density of 463.3 per square mile. The racial makeup of the town was 98. 94% White,0. 53% Native American,0. 09% Asian, hispanic or Latino of any race were 0. 53% of the population. 27. 9% of all households were made up of individuals and 13. 8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.58 and the average family size was 3.12. In the town, the population was out with 28. 0% under the age of 18,9. 1% from 18 to 24,29. 0% from 25 to 44,18. 2% from 45 to 64. The median age was 35 years, for every 100 females there were 89.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 84.6 males, the median income for a household in the town was $36,417, and the median income for a family was $44,327. Males had an income of $32,625 versus $23,295 for females
10.
Shelby County, Indiana
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Shelby County is a county located in the U. S. state of Indiana. As of 2010, the population was 44,436, Shelby County was organized in 1821. It was named for Gen. Isaac Shelby, who defeated the British at the Battle of Kings Mountain in the Revolutionary War, Shelby then became the first Governor of Kentucky. During the War of 1812, he led the army of Kentucky into Canada, according to the 2010 census, the county has a total area of 412.76 square miles, of which 411.15 square miles is land and 1.61 square miles is water. Average monthly precipitation ranged from 2.38 inches in January to 4.47 inches in May, the county government is a constitutional body, and is granted specific powers by the Constitution of Indiana, and by the Indiana Code. County Council, The county council is the branch of the county government and controls all the spending. Representatives are elected from county districts, the council members serve four-year terms. They are responsible for setting salaries, the budget. The council also has limited authority to local taxes, in the form of an income and property tax that is subject to state level approval, excise taxes. Board of Commissioners, The executive body of the county is made of a board of commissioners, the commissioners are elected county-wide, in staggered terms, and each serves a four-year term. One of the commissioners, typically the most senior, serves as president, the commissioners are charged with executing the acts legislated by the council, collecting revenue, and managing the day-to-day functions of the county government. Court, The county maintains a small court that can handle some civil cases. The judge on the court is elected to a term of four years, the judge is assisted by a constable who is also elected to a four-year term. In some cases, court decisions can be appealed to the state circuit court. County Officials, The county has several other elected offices, including sheriff, coroner, auditor, treasurer, recorder, surveyor, each of these elected officers serves a term of four years and oversee different parts of the county government. Members elected to county government positions are required to declare party affiliations, the population density was 108.1 inhabitants per square mile. There were 19,080 housing units at a density of 46.4 per square mile. The racial makeup of the county was 95. 4% white,1. 0% black or African American,0. 5% Asian,0. 2% American Indian,1. 6% from other races, and 1. 2% from two or more races
11.
United States Army
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The United States Armed Forces are the federal armed forces of the United States. They consist of the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, from the time of its inception, the military played a decisive role in the history of the United States. A sense of unity and identity was forged as a result of victory in the First Barbary War. Even so, the Founders were suspicious of a permanent military force and it played an important role in the American Civil War, where leading generals on both sides were picked from members of the United States military. Not until the outbreak of World War II did a standing army become officially established. The National Security Act of 1947, adopted following World War II and during the Cold Wars onset, the U. S. military is one of the largest militaries in terms of number of personnel. It draws its personnel from a pool of paid volunteers. As of 2016, the United States spends about $580.3 billion annually to fund its military forces, put together, the United States constitutes roughly 40 percent of the worlds military expenditures. For the period 2010–14, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute found that the United States was the worlds largest exporter of major arms, the United States was also the worlds eighth largest importer of major weapons for the same period. The history of the U. S. military dates to 1775 and these forces demobilized in 1784 after the Treaty of Paris ended the War for Independence. All three services trace their origins to the founding of the Continental Army, the Continental Navy, the United States President is the U. S. militarys commander-in-chief. Rising tensions at various times with Britain and France and the ensuing Quasi-War and War of 1812 quickened the development of the U. S. Navy, the reserve branches formed a military strategic reserve during the Cold War, to be called into service in case of war. Time magazines Mark Thompson has suggested that with the War on Terror, Command over the armed forces is established in the United States Constitution. The sole power of command is vested in the President by Article II as Commander-in-Chief, the Constitution also allows for the creation of executive Departments headed principal officers whose opinion the President can require. This allowance in the Constitution formed the basis for creation of the Department of Defense in 1947 by the National Security Act, the Defense Department is headed by the Secretary of Defense, who is a civilian and member of the Cabinet. The Defense Secretary is second in the chain of command, just below the President. Together, the President and the Secretary of Defense comprise the National Command Authority, to coordinate military strategy with political affairs, the President has a National Security Council headed by the National Security Advisor. The collective body has only power to the President
12.
War of 1812
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Historians in the United States and Canada see it as a war in its own right, but the British often see it as a minor theatre of the Napoleonic Wars. By the wars end in early 1815, the key issues had been resolved, the view was shared in much of New England and for that reason the war was widely referred to there as Mr. Madison’s War. As a result, the primary British war goal was to defend their North American colonies, the war was fought in three theatres. Second, land and naval battles were fought on the U. S. –Canadian frontier, Third, large-scale battles were fought in the Southern United States and Gulf Coast. With the majority of its land and naval forces tied down in Europe fighting the Napoleonic Wars, early victories over poorly-led U. S. armies demonstrated that the conquest of the Canadas would prove more difficult than anticipated. Despite this, the U. S. was able to inflict serious defeats on Britains Native American allies, both governments were eager for a return to normality and peace negotiations began in Ghent in August 1814. This brought an Era of Good Feelings in which partisan animosity nearly vanished in the face of strengthened American nationalism, the war was also a major turning point in the development of the U. S. military, with militia being increasingly replaced by a more professional force. The U. S. also acquired permanent ownership of Spains Mobile District, the government of Canada declared a three-year commemoration of the War of 1812 in 2012, intended to offer historical lessons and celebrate 200 years of peace across the border. At the conclusion of the commemorations in 2014, a new national War of 1812 Monument was unveiled in Ottawa. The war is remembered in Britain primarily as a footnote in the much larger Napoleonic Wars occurring in Europe, historians have long debated the relative weight of the multiple reasons underlying the origins of the War of 1812. This section summarizes several contributing factors which resulted in the declaration of war by the United States, as Risjord notes, a powerful motivation for the Americans was the desire to uphold national honour in the face of what they considered to be British insults such as the Chesapeake–Leopard Affair. The approaching conflict was about violations of American rights, but it was also vindication of American identity. Americans at the time and historians since often called it the United States Second War of Independence, in 1807, Britain introduced a series of trade restrictions via a series of Orders in Council to impede neutral trade with France, with which Britain was at war. The United States contested these restrictions as illegal under international law, the American merchant marine had come close to doubling between 1802 and 1810, making it by far the largest neutral fleet. Britain was the largest trading partner, receiving 80% of U. S. cotton, the British public and press were resentful of the growing mercantile and commercial competition. The United States view was that Britains restrictions violated its right to trade with others, during the Napoleonic Wars, the Royal Navy expanded to 176 ships of the line and 600 ships overall, requiring 140,000 sailors to man. The United States believed that British deserters had a right to become U. S. citizens and this meant that in addition to recovering naval deserters, it considered any United States citizens who were born British liable for impressment. Aggravating the situation was the reluctance of the United States to issue formal naturalization papers and it was estimated by the Admiralty that there were 11,000 naturalized sailors on United States ships in 1805
13.
James Barbour
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James Barbour was an American lawyer, politician and planter. He served as delegate from Orange County, Virginia in the Virginia General Assembly and he was the 18th Governor of Virginia and the first Governor to reside in the current Virginia Governors Mansion. After the War of 1812, Barbour became a U. S, Senator and the United States Secretary of War. James Barbour was born in what became Barboursville in Orange County on June 10,1775, Barbour was the son of Thomas Barbour and his wife the former Mary Pendleton Thomas. His grandfather had patented lands in Spotsylvania County in 1731 and 1733, both sides of his family were among the First Families of Virginia, as well as early settlers in Orange County and westward. By the time James was born, the Barbour family owned over 2,000 acres, However, the family suffered financial reverses during the American Revolutionary War and its aftermath. Nonetheless, James finished his education with private tutors and an academy run by James Waddel at Gordonsville. His brother Philip Pendleton Barbour, would later become Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, on October 29,1792, Barbour married Lucy Johnson, the daughter of Benjamin Johnson who had represented Orange County in the General Assembly in 1790. They had three daughters and four sons, including James Barbour and Benjamin Johnson Barbour, Barbour served as deputy sheriff of Orange County, beginning in 1792. In 1794, he was admitted to the Virginia Bar, with wedding gifts from his father, as well as by building his own legal practice and running his plantation, Barbour was able to build up personal wealth. His friend and somewhat neighbor at Monticello plantation, former President Thomas Jefferson, helped design the mansion in which Barbour lived most of his adult life, called Barboursville. By 1798, Barbour owned several slaves and would expand that plantation over the years, as would his somewhat neighbor on the other side, Orange County voters elected Barbour to the Virginia House of Delegates in 1796, and he became that bodys youngest member. Re-elected several times to that position, he served until 1804. Barbour became known for eloquence, and served on committees, rising to chairman of several, including the Committee of Privileges and Elections. Peers elected him as Speaker of the House of Delegates for many terms, Barbour held strong Republican beliefs, similar to his neighbors Jefferson and Madison. He vigorously opposed the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 and used his eloquence to support the Virginia Resolutions. ”Barbour refused to support legislation increasing Executive powers. In the House of Delegates, Barbour took pride in the establishing the Literary Fund of Virginia and this provided some funding for public education in each county in the Commonwealth. Barbour later requested that the inscription on his tombstone be a reference to this Act
14.
Panic of 1837
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The Panic of 1837 was a financial crisis in the United States that touched off a major recession that lasted until the mid-1840s. Profits, prices, and wages went down while unemployment went up, the panic had both domestic and foreign origins. On May 10,1837, banks in New York City suspended specie payments, despite a brief recovery in 1838, the recession persisted for approximately seven years. Banks collapsed, businesses failed, prices declined, and thousands of workers lost their jobs, unemployment may have been as high as 25% in some locales. The years 1837 to 1844 were, generally speaking, years of deflation in wages and prices, the crisis followed a period of economic expansion from mid-1834 to mid-1836. The prices of land, cotton, and slaves rose sharply in these years, the origins of this boom had many sources, both domestic and international. Because of the factors of international trade at the time, abundant amounts of silver were coming into the United States from Mexico. Land sales and tariffs on imports were also generating substantial federal revenues, through lucrative cotton exports and the marketing of state-backed bonds in British money markets, the United States acquired significant capital investment from Great Britain. These bonds financed transportation projects in the United States, to compensate, the directors indicated that they would gradually raise interest rates from 3 to 5 percent. Conventional financial theory held that banks should raise interest rates and curb lending when faced with low monetary reserves, raising interest rates, according to the laws of supply and demand, was supposed to attract specie since money generally flows where it will generate the greatest return. S. The result was that as the Bank of England raised interest rates, when New York banks raised interest rates and scaled back on lending, the effects were damaging. Since the price of a bond bears a relationship to the yield. The price of cotton fell by 25% in February and March 1837, the United States economy, especially in the southern states, was heavily dependent on stable cotton prices. Within the United States, there were contributing factors. In July 1832, President Andrew Jackson vetoed the bill to recharter the Second Bank of the United States, as the BUS wound up its operations in the next four years, state-chartered banks in the West and South relaxed their lending standards, maintaining unsafe reserve ratios. Two domestic policies, in particular, exacerbated an already volatile situation, the Specie Circular of 1836 mandated that western lands could be purchased only with gold and silver coin. The circular was an order issued by Andrew Jackson, and favored by Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri. Secondly, the Deposit and Distribution Act of 1836 placed federal revenues in various local banks across the country, Many of these banks were located in western regions
15.
Library of Virginia
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The Library of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia, is the library agency of the Commonwealth of Virginia, its archival agency, and the reference library at the seat of government. The Library moved into a new building in 1997 and is located at 800 East Broad Street,2 blocks from the Virginia State Capitol building and it was formerly known as the Virginia State Library and as the Virginia State Library and Archives. The first permanent home of the Library was a room on the top floor of the State Capitol. The state’s books and records eventually outgrew this space, and overflow books, in an 1851 survey by the Smithsonian, the library was listed as having 14,000 volumes. In 1892, the General Assembly provided for a new Virginia State Library on Capitol Square in what is known as the Oliver Hill Building. Over the ensuing forty years, the Library again outgrew that building and it shared this space with the State Law Library, the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, the Virginia Department of Law, and the Office of the Attorney General. The Library moved to its current location at 800 East Broad Street in 1997, the old library buildings were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008 and 2005, respectively. The state library houses one of the most comprehensive collection on Virginia, the collection covers Virginia government, history, and culture. The collection focuses on the varied past of the commonwealth, documenting the lives of important and ordinary Virginians, the collections include printed material, manuscripts and photographic collections. Library of Virginia hosts the Virginia Literary Festival and this event attracts authors, publishers, and residents of Virginia. Attendees get the chance to meet new authors as well as well known authors, the library awards seven different literary awards at their annual event. Archives Month focuses on institutions and individuals that have significant impact on the preservation. In conjunction with the Archive Month the Library of Virginia produces posters commemorating archival and special collections repositories throughout the state, many archives contribute to the celebration by hosting events. Library of Virginia hosts a series of Book Talk Series. These book talks feature authors from Virginia and books on the state of Virginia, the audience is given the opportunity to listen and interact with a variety of scholars and literary authors. Library of Virginia offers a variety of each year for anyone who works in library services. In 2007 and 2008 work began on the Virginia Memory project, the Transcribe program is a collaborative workspace for people to help the Library transcribe documents. In August 2015 the project expanded to include the Document Bank of Virginia, during the nineteenth century, Secretaries of the Commonwealth usually oversaw the state library as part of their official duties
16.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
17.
Colony of Virginia
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The Colony of Virginia was the first permanently settled English colony in North America. Newfoundland, with settlements, had been established as a colony by Royal Charter in 1583. American archaeologist William Kelso says Virginia is where the British Empire began and this was the first colony in the British Empire. The colony existed briefly during the 16th century, and then continuously from 1607 until the American Revolution, the name Virginia was first applied by Sir Walter Raleigh and Queen Elizabeth I in 1584. In 1607, members of a joint venture called the Virginia Company founded Jamestown, tobacco became Virginias first profitable export, the production of which had a significant impact on the society and settlement patterns. In 1624, the Virginia Companys charter was revoked by King James I, from 1619 to 1776, the legislature of the Virginia was the House of Burgesses, which governed in conjunction with a colonial governor. Jamestown remained the capital of the Virginia colony until 1699, from 1699 until its dissolution the capital was in Williamsburg and it experienced its first major political turmoil with Bacons Rebellion of 1676. The name Virginia is the oldest designation for English claims in North America, the latter word may have inspired the Queen to name the colony Virginia, noting her status as the Virgin Queen. in Carolina Algonquian, and was not the name of the country as previously misunderstood. Virginia was originally a term used to refer to North Americas entire eastern coast from the 34th parallel north to 48th parallel and this area included a large section of Canada and the shores of Acadia. In gratitude for Virginians loyalty to the crown during the English Civil War, Charles II gave it the title of Old Dominion, Virginia maintains Old Dominion as its state nickname. Accordingly, the University of Virginias athletic teams use Cavaliers as one of their nicknames, earlier attempts had been made by the Spanish in what is now Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia, and by the French in South Carolina. Farther south, the Spanish colony of Spanish Florida, centered on St. Augustine, was established in 1565, while to the north, in 1584, Sir Walter Raleigh sent his first colonization mission to the island of Roanoke. This was the first English settlement, although it did not survive and it was a military research expedition with a very narrow focus. In 1587, Raleigh sent another group to attempt to establish a permanent settlement. The first English child born in the New World was named Virginia Dare, the expedition leader, John White returned to England for supplies that same year, but was unable to return to the colony due to war between England and Spain. When he finally did return in 1590, he found the colony abandoned, the houses were intact, but the colonists had completely disappeared. Although there are a number of theories about the fate of the colony, Dare County was named in honor of the baby Virginia Dare, who was among those whose fate is unknown. The word Croatoan was found carved into a tree, the name of a tribe on a nearby island, following the death of Queen Elizabeth I in 1603, King James I ascended to the throne
18.
Edward Maria Wingfield
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Edward Maria Wingfield, sometimes hyphenated as Edward-Maria Wingfield was a soldier, Member of Parliament, and English colonist in America. He was the son of Thomas Maria Wingfield, and the grandson of Richard Wingfield and he recruited about forty of the 104 would-be colonists, and was the only shareholder to sail. On the return of the Supply Boat on April 10,1608, Wingfield was sent back to London to answer the charge of being an atheist, Smiths prime biographer, Philip L. Barbour, however, wrote of the superlative pettiness of the charges. None of the accusations amounting to anything, Wingfield cleared his reputation, was named in the Second Virginia Charter,1609, and was active in the Virginia Company until 1620, when he was 70 years old. He died in 1631, ten weeks before fellow Jamestown settler John Smith, Wingfield was born in 1550 at Stonely Priory, near Kimbolton, Huntingdonshire, the eldest son of Thomas Maria Wingfield, the Elder, and Margaret. And was raised as a Protestant His middle name, Maria, derived from Mary Tudor, Queen of France, sister of King Henry VIII, not Henry VIIIs same named devoutly Catholic daughter, Mary Tudor. Edwards father, Thomas Maria Wingfield, MP, died when Edward was seven years old, jacques Wingfield was from 1559–60 until his death in 1587, Master of the Ordnance in Ireland, Constable of Dublin Castle and an Irish Privy Councillor. In 1575–76, Wingfield returned to England, where in 1576 he was admitted to Lincolns Inn, before completing his legal training, the lure of the drum called him to the Low Countries. He, his brother and Sir William Drury, were noted in the Army Roll of 1589 as captains of success. Nine weeks later his brother captured two Spanish officers at Bergen, but was not permitted by the Allied Commander-in-Chief, Peregrine Bertie, 13th Baron Willoughby de Eresby and he and Gorges were, however, no earlier than June 1589, released as part of a prisoner exchange. Lane was Wingfields fathers old neighbour in Orlingbury, near Kimbolton and he may have sat on a committee considering cloth in March, but this he decided was not for him, and he returned shortly afterward to the soldiers life at the Dundalk Garrison in Ireland. Despite his pleas, Queen Elizabeth I never permitted Sir Edward to return home, Gosnold may have been Captain Gosnell who, in 1604 at a dinner in the Isle of Wight made some intemperate comment about the King, so perhaps causing important people to shun him. There is no record of Smith doing anything special, but Gabriel Archer, Wingfield was involved in fundraising and was one of the biggest backers of the venture, with family friends, Sir Thomas Gates, Sir William Waad, Sir Thomas Smythe, John Martin, Sr. Sir Oliver Cromwell and Captain John Ratcliffe, Barbour wrote, John Smith was unaware, always, of the importance of the lever – the legal and financial backing that got the voyage going. In 1606, without Wingfields input through his influential contacts. In 1605–06 Wingfield and his cousin Bartholomew Gosnold, recruited about 40% of the 105 settlers, most of the would-be gentlemen settlers were impecunious younger sons without prospects, but more than a dozen gentleman, and Captain John Martin. Clearly were gentlemen with other motives, perhaps just the adventure in its own right, Wingfield obtained the approval of Richard Bancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury, his old London vicar at St. Andrews, Holborn, for the Reverend Robert Hunt of Old Heathfield. This recruitment may have been with the help of Richard Hakluyt, the Archbishops approval was dated as late as November 24,1606 – yet, sadly, at the very last moment Hakluyt, the senior of the two priests, backed out
19.
John Ratcliffe (governor)
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John Ratcliffe was captain of the Discovery, one of three ships that sailed from England on 19 December 1606 to Virginia to found a colony, arriving 26 April 1607. He later became the president of the colony which later became Jamestown. He was killed by the Pamunkey Native Americans when he was going to trade them in 1609. Many people say he used the alias John Sicklemore, but this was never confirmed and he served as a seaman before going to Virginia, and he may be the Captain Ratcliffe taken prisoner with Sir Henry Cray and Captain Pigott at Mulheim in 1605. Ratcliffe commanded the Discovery and became a councillor of the Jamestown Colony, the Discovery was the smallest of all three ships, it only had a crew of 21 men. He became president of the colony upon the deposition of Edward Maria Wingfield on 10 September 1607, Ratcliffe was a wise and insightful president, but he fell out of favour with many colonists after enlisting men to build a governors house. Many colonists also disagreed with how he handled trade with the natives, Ratcliffe was removed in July 1608 and succeeded by Matthew Scrivener. During the administration of George Percy, Ratcliffe was sent in October 1609 to build a fort at Old Point Comfort, Ratcliffe worked with explorer John Smith to remove Edward Wingfield from the presidency because he was hiding food for himself that the colony needed. Ratcliffe was elected president and asked Smith to organise work details, by January 1608, only 40 colonists were alive, and Ratcliffe and the Council planned to return to England on the Discovery. Ratcliffes overgenerous trading provoked Smith to complain that they would run out of items to trade. Ratcliffe left office in July 1608, two months before the end of his term, at that point, Ratcliffe had lost the faith of the colonists, who accused him of hoarding rations. The colonists were also enraged that as they were sick and dying, the colonists dubbed the project Ratcliffes Palace. Ratcliffe accompanied Christopher Newport when he sailed from Virginia in 1608, in May 1609, he commanded the Diamond, one of the ships in the Third Supply fleet of Sir Thomas Gates. In December 1609, Ratcliffe and 14 fellow colonists were invited to a gathering with the tribe of Powhatan Indians, the Powhatans promised the starving colonists would be given corn, but it was a trap. Ratcliffe suffered a gruesome fate, he was tied to a stake in front of a fire. Women removed the skin from his body with mussel shells. They skinned his face last and finally burned him at stake and this story was documented in an eyewitness account that is included in The Jamestown Adventure, Accounts of the Virginia Colony, 1605–1614, edited by Ed Southern. There is documented evidence in Beaufort County, North Carolina of a John Ratcliffe owning hundreds of acres of land which are documented to be out only to the colonists
20.
Matthew Scrivener
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Matthew Scrivener was an English colonist in Virginia. He served briefly as acting governor of Jamestown, when he was succeeded by Captain John Smith, Scrivener was the son of barrister and city bailiff Ralph Scrivener of Ipswich and of Belstead, in Suffolk, England. His mother was Mary Dowsing Smith, Matthew Scriveners sister was married to the cousin of the first President of Jamestown, Edward Maria Wingfield. Scrivener, listed as Matthew Scrivener, gentleman in early Virginia records, was a supporter, Scrivener arrived on the first supply ship after the colony had been established. Apparently he was supplanted as governor by his friend Smith, due to his young age, at the time of his death at the age of 28, Matthew Scrivener was the first secretary for the Colony of Jamestown
21.
John Smith (explorer)
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Captain John Smith, Admiral of New England, was an English soldier, explorer, and author. He was knighted for his services to Sigismund Báthory, Prince of Transylvania and he was considered to have played an important part in the establishment of Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in North America. He was a leader of the Virginia Colony between September 1608 and August 1609, and led an exploration along the rivers of Virginia and he was the first English explorer to map the Chesapeake Bay area and New England. His books and maps were important in encouraging and supporting English colonization of the New World and he gave the name New England to the region and noted, Here every man may be master and owner of his owne labour and land. If he have nothing but his hands, he may. by industries quickly grow rich, when Jamestown was Englands first permanent settlement in the New World, Smith trained the settlers to farm and work, thus saving the colony from early devastation. He publicly stated He that will not work, shall not eat, quoting from the Bible, harsh weather, lack of water, living in a swampy wilderness and attacks from the Powhatan Indians almost destroyed the colony. The Jamestown settlement survived and so did Smith, but he had to return to England after being injured by an explosion of gunpowder in a boat. John Smith was baptized on 6 January 1580 at Willoughby near Alford, Lincolnshire and he claimed descent from the ancient Smith family of Cuerdley, Lancashire, and was educated at King Edward VI Grammar School, Louth from 1592–1595. After his father died, Smith left home at the age of sixteen and he served as a mercenary in the army of Henry IV of France against the Spaniards, fighting for Dutch independence from Spanish King Phillip II. He then set off for the Mediterranean, there he engaged in both trade and piracy, and later fought against the Ottoman Turks in the Long Turkish War. Smith was promoted to a captain while fighting for the Austrian Habsburgs in Hungary in the campaign of Michael the Brave in 1600 and 1601. After the death of Michael the Brave, he fought for Radu Șerban in Wallachia against Ottoman vassal Ieremia Movilă, however, in 1602, he was wounded in a skirmish with the Tartars, captured, and sold as a slave. As Smith describes it, we all sold for slaves, like beasts in a market, Smith claimed that his master, a Turkish nobleman, sent him as a gift to his Greek mistress in Constantinople, who fell in love with Smith. In 1606, Smith became involved with the Virginia Company of Londons plan to colonize Virginia for profit, it had granted a charter by King James. The expedition set sail in three ships, the Discovery, the Susan Constant, and the Godspeed, on 20 December 1606. His page was a 12-year-old boy named Samuel Collier, during the voyage, Smith was charged with mutiny, and Captain Christopher Newport had planned to execute him. The English arrived at Jamestown in April 1607 and, by the summer of that year, the search for a suitable site ended on 14 May 1607 when Captain Edward Maria Wingfield, president of the council, chose the Jamestown site as the location for the colony. After the four-month ocean trip, their stores were sufficient only for each to have a cup or two of grain-meal per day
22.
George Percy
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George Percy was an English explorer, author, and early Colonial Governor of Virginia. George Percy was born in England, the youngest son of Henry Percy, 8th Earl of Northumberland and he was sickly for much of his life, possibly suffering from epilepsy or severe asthma. He graduated from Oxford University in 1597, while at university, he gained admission to Gloucester Hall and the Middle Temple. His first service came in the Dutch struggle for independence from Spain in the early 1600s, Percy was part of the first group of 105 English colonists to settle the Jamestown Colony. He departed England in December 1606 and kept a journal of his voyage and he arrived in Virginia in April 1607 and recorded the struggles of the colonists to cope with the American environment, disease, and the Powhatan Native Americans. Thus we lived for the space of five months in this distress, he wrote in his journal. Although Percy had a social rank than all of the other first colonists. Nevertheless, he took the lead in the life of the colony, taking part in the expedition to the James River falls in May. In autumn 1607, he sided with the President of the colony, Edward Maria Wingfield, who was deposed by John Ratcliffe, Gabriel Archer. From late 1607 until autumn 1609, Percy had little power in Jamestown, when Smith left the colony in September 1609, Percy assumed the presidency of the colony. However, his persistent illness kept him from executing his office, leaving the duties of the presidency to Ratcliffe, Archer and it was during Percys tenure that the colony suffered through the Starving Time in the winter of 1609-10. Now all of us at James Town beginning to feel that sharp prick of hunger, Percy accomplished little while President, other than to order to construction of Fort Algernon at Old Point Comfort. When Sir Thomas Gates arrived in May 1610, Percy happily surrendered control of the colony to him, in June 1610, Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr arrived in Jamestown and with a commission to serve as the colonys governor. De la Warr appointed Percy to the council and named him captain of the Jamestown fort, in August 1610, De la Warre sent Percy and seventy men to attack the Paspahegh and Chickahominy Indians. The force ravaged the Indians settlements, burning their buildings, decimating their crops, and indiscriminately killing men, women, Percy also led the successful defence of the Jamestown fort against an Indian attack and earned the praise of De La Warr. When the Governor returned to England in March 1611, he appointed Percy to lead the colony in his absence, Percys term as Governor lasted until April 22,1612, when he departed for England. After his service as Virginia colony governor, Percy returned to England, in 1615, he proposed an expedition to Guiana but found no supporters. In 1620, he sold his four shares in the Virginia Company, Percy returned to the Netherlands in 1621 when war between Spain and the Dutch resumed
23.
Thomas Gates (governor)
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Sir Thomas Gates, was the governor of Jamestown, in the English colony of Virginia. His predecessor, George Percy, through leadership, was responsible for the lives lost during the period called the Starving Time. The English-born Gates arrived to find a few surviving starving colonists commanded by Percy, Gates ruled with deputy governor Sir Thomas Dale. Their controlled, strict methods helped the early colonies survive, however, they did not assist in making them thrive. Gates was appointed by the Virginia Company of London, which had established the Jamestown settlement under a Royal Charter for the colonisation of Virginia and he had sailed for Jamestown in 1609, aboard the Sea Venture, the new flagship of the Virginia Company. The Sea Venture was part of the Third Supply, a fleet of seven ships, at sea, the ships of the Third Supply were separated by a three-day storm now thought to have been a large hurricane. The Admiral of the Virginia Company, Sir George Somers, had taken the helm to fight the storm, the rocks proved to be the reef line to the east of the uninhabited archipelago now known as Bermuda. The other ships went on to Jamestown, not knowing the fate of the Sea Venture, the 150 survivors spent the next ten months in Bermuda building two new ships on which to complete the journey to Jamestown. Two factions developed, however, due to a dispute between Gates and Somers over who was now the superior, as an appointed officer for Jamestown, Gates felt he was in authority, now that they were ashore. Somers felt that he retained authority until the settlers, including Gates, were landed at Jamestown, the two new ships, the Deliverance and the Patience were completed and sailed for Virginia in 1610. They left two men to maintain their claim of Bermuda for England, the Charter of the Virginia Company would officially be extended to include Bermuda in 1612. Ever since, Bermuda has also known officially as The Somers Isles. Sir Thomas Gates left his own name on a part of the colony, Gates Bay, the oldest surviving fort in Bermuda, built between 1612 and 1615, is known as Gates Fort. Many scholars believe Gates accounts inspired William Shakespeares comedy The Tempest and it is the Spoyle of an English Shippe of 300 tonnes called SEA VENTURE bound with seven others to Virginia or NOVA BRITANIA in America. In it were two Knights, Sir Thomas Gates, Knight Governor of the English Forces and Colonie there, passengers and mariners she had beside one hundred and fiftie. Wee were forced to runne her ashore under a point that bore South East from the Northerne Point of the Island which wee discovered first on the eighth and twentieth of July 1609. On reaching Jamestown, only 60 of the 500 settlers previously landed there were found alive through the winter of 1609–1610 which became known as the Starving Time, the condition of the settlement was so poor that it was decided to abandon it and return everyone to England. However, the arrival of another relief fleet under Lord De La Warr gave the colony a reprieve
24.
Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr
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De La Warr is pronounced Delaware. There have been two creations of Baron De La Warr, and West came from the second. He was the son of Thomas West, 2nd Baron De La Warr, of Wherwell Abbey in Hampshire and Anne Knollys, daughter of Catherine Carey and he was born at Wherwell, Hampshire, England, and died at sea while travelling from England to the Colony of Virginia. Thomas West received his education at Queens College, Oxford and he served in the army under Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, and, in 1601, was charged with supporting Essexs ill-fated insurrection against Queen Elizabeth, but he was acquitted of those charges. He succeeded his father as Baron De La Warr in 1602, Lord De La Warr was appointed governor-for-life and captain-general of the Colony of Virginia, to replace the governing council of the colony under the presidency of Captain John Smith. As part of Englands response, De La Warr recruited and equipped a contingent of 150 men, the supply fleet arrived in Jamestown in June, just in time to persuade the original settlers not to give up and go home to England. These tactics, identical to those practiced by the Powhatan themselves, Lord De La Warr returned to England due to illness in the spring of 1611, leaving his deputy, Sir Samuel Argall, in charge of the colony. Later that year, De La Warr wrote and published a book titled The Relation of the Right Honourable the Lord De-La-Warre, Lord Governour and Captaine Generall of the Colonie and he died at sea en route to Virginia. It was thought for years that Lord De La Warr had been buried in the Azores or at sea. By 2006, researchers had concluded that his body was brought to Jamestown for burial, a grave site thought to contain the remains of Captain Bartholomew Gosnold may instead contain those of Lord De La Warr. Lord De La Warrs brother, John West, later governor of Virginia. On 25 November 1596, De La Warr married Cecily, the daughter of Sir Thomas Shirley of Wiston, Sussex and Anne and they had children, Cecily or Cecilia, who married firstly Sir Francis Bindlosse and secondly after 1629 John Byron, 1st Baron Byron. She was buried at Hucknall-Torkard in Nottinghamshire, lucy, who married Sir Robert Byron, Governor of Liverpool and a Colonel in the service of the Royalist Infantry Forces who fought in the English Civil War. Henry, who succeeded his father as the 4th Baron De La Warr, married Isabella, daughter of Sir Thomas Edmunds and he died at the age of 24 and was succeed by his son Charles West, 5th Baron De La Warr. Lundy, Darryl Roger, ed. Thomas West, 3rd Baron Delaware, pp.14230 at §142296,13955 at §139543,14230 at §142295–§142296,20756 at §207553, §207556, §207558,24497 at §244965. Cokayne, George Edward, et al. eds, the Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant. Mosley, Charles, ed. Burkes Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, the Complete Peerage or a History of the House of Lords and All its Members From the Earliest Times, Volume XIV, Addenda & Corrigenda. Biography at Encyclopedia Virginia De la Warr, Thomas West, Lord
25.
Thomas Dale
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Sir Thomas Dale was an English naval commander and deputy-governor of the Virginia Colony in 1611 and from 1614 to 1616. He is also credited with the establishment of Bermuda Hundred, Bermuda Cittie, and he married Elizabeth Throckmorton prior to his departure for Virginia in 1611. It is unknown if the pair had any children together, from about 1588 to 1609, Thomas Dale was in the service of the Low Countries with the English army originally under Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. Because of his ability and ambition, he became friends with people in positions of authority. In 1599 Thomas Dale was recruited by the Earl of Essex for Englands army, after many years of training he was knighted by King James to become Sir Thomas Dale of Surry on 16 June 1606. He has a school in Chester, Va named after him. Sent with three ships, on 19 May 1611, he arrived at Jamestown with men, cattle and he found the conditions unhealthy and greatly in need of improvement. Dale immediately called for a meeting of the Jamestown Council, and he served as acting Governor for 3½ months in 1611, and again for a two-year period between 1614 and 1616. In the interim, he served as the Marshall of the colony, effectively, for five years, he was the highest ranking law enforcement officer in Virginia. He exhibited a certain stern efficiency which was perhaps the best support and it was during his administration that the first code of laws of Virginia, nominally in force from 1611 to 1619, was effectively tested. This code, entitled Articles, Lawes, and Orders Divine, Politique, and Martiall, was notable for its pitiless severity, perhaps Dales most lasting reform was economic. Measurable economic progress was made, and the settlers began expanding their planting to land belonging to native tribes. Not only did food production increase markedly, but the following year John Rolfe succeeded on his plot in raising the first hybrid tobacco, seeking a better site than Jamestown, Thomas Dale sailed up the James River to the area now known as Chesterfield County. A short distance further up the James, in 1611, he began the construction of a development at Henricus on. Henricus was envisioned as possible replacement capital for Jamestown, and was to have the first college in Virginia, in addition to creating the new settlement at Henricus, Dale also established the port town of Bermuda Hundred and Bermuda Cittie. He began the work at Dutch Gap, using methods he had learned while serving in Holland. They intended to make salt by boiling down the sea water, Governor Dale sailed back to England in the spring of 1616 aboard the Treasurer. Accompanying him on what was considered an investor-relations journey were John Rolfe, his wife Rebecca and their one-year-old son, queen Anne and others were reportedly charmed by Rebecca, and investment in the Virginia Company was enhanced
26.
George Yeardley
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Sir George Yeardley was a planter and three time colonial Governor of the British Colony of Virginia. With representatives from throughout the portion of the colony, the group became known as the House of Burgesses. It has met continuously since, and is known in times as the Virginia General Assembly. Yeardley was baptized on July 28,1588, in St. Saviours Parish, Southwark and he was the son of Ralph Yeardley, a London merchant-tailor, and Rhoda Marston. He chose not to follow his father into trade, but instead became a soldier, as captain of a personal bodyguard, he was selected to serve Sir Thomas Gates during his term as Governor of Virginia. Yeardley set sail from England on June 1,1609, with the newly appointed Gates aboard the Sea Venture, after eight weeks at sea, and seven days from expected landfall, the convoy ran into a tropical storm and the Sea Venture was shipwrecked in the Bermudas. Despite numerous problems, including civil unrest among the former resulting in Gates to declare martial law. The two ships, the 70-80 ton Deliverance and the 30 ton pinnace Patience, arrived at Jamestown on May 23,1610, the shipwreck survivors found the colonists of Jamestown in desperate condition. Most of the settlers had died from sickness or starvation, or had killed by Indians. Sir Thomas Gates agreed with the Jamestown settlers to abandon the colony and he ordered Captain Yeardley to command his soldiers to guard the town preventing settlers from setting fire to the structures that were evacuated. Lord de la Warr soon arrived bringing supplies to save the struggling colony, Captain Yeardley was co-commander of the early Forts Henry and Charles at Kecoughtan. In October 1610, Lord De La Warr ordered Captain Yeardley and Captain Edward Brewster to lead 150 men into the mountains in search of silver, in 1616 Yeardley was designated Deputy-Governor of Virginia. One of his first accomplishments was to come to an agreement with the Chickahominy Indians that secured food and he served from 1616 to 1617. Yeardley was appointed Deputy-Governor again in 1625, on 18 October 1618, Yeardley married Temperance Flowerdew, daughter of Anthony Flowerdew of Hethersett, County Norfolk, and his wife Martha Stanley of Scottow, County Norfolk. Exactly a month later he was appointed to three years as governor of Virginia, and was knighted by James I during an audience at Newmarket on 24 November. Temperance Flowerdew had also sailed for Virginia in the 1609 expedition, aboard the Faulcon and she was one of the few survivors of the Starving Time. In 1619, he patented 1,000 acres of land on Mulberry Island and he owned another private plantation upriver on the south side of the James River opposite Tanks Weyanoke, named Flowerdew Hundred. It is often assumed that Yeardley named this plantation Flowerdew Hundred after his wife, note that Yeardley named his Mulberry Island plantation Stanley Hundred, undoubtedly after his Stanley in-laws
27.
Samuel Argall
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Sir Samuel Argall was an English adventurer and naval officer. He captained one of Lord De La Warrs ships in the rescue mission to Virginia in 1610 which saved the colony from starvation. As a sea warrior, he is best known for his diplomacy with the Powhatan Confederacy. He kidnapped the Chiefs daughter, Pocahontas, and held her as a captive at Henricus as security against the return of English captives and property held by Powhatan on 13 April 1613. Pocahontas had long been a friend of the English and was treated with respect according to her rank, in the eyes of the English. Argall was also successful in his actions against French efforts at colonisation in Acadia and his voyage took only nine weeks and six days, including two weeks becalmed. This new route enabled the English to avoid enemy Spanish ships, upon his arrival at Jamestown, Captain Argall found the colonists in dire straits. Argall resupplied them with all the food he could spare and returned to England at the end of the summer. The help came to the colony at one of the most critical moments in its history, as it began the Starving Time, however, without the provisions Argall had left, the colony may have been totally destroyed. Argalls voyage also prevented the Spanish from gaining knowledge of the weakness of the Jamestown colony, Argalls larger ship, Mary and John, stationed at Cape Henry, chased the Spanish ship and ultimately denied it entrance into the Chesapeake Bay. De La Warr, became so ill that in the spring of 1611 he sailed home to England, serving under Dale, in March 1613, Argall, who was looking for food for the settlement, sailed up the Potomac River. There, he traded with the Patawomecks, a Native American tribe and they lived at the village of Passapatanzy. When two English colonists began trading with the Patawomecks, they discovered the presence of Pocahontas, the daughter of Wahunsonacock, according to a book by Captain John Smith, she had been there for around three months. As soon as he heard this, Argall resolved to capture Pocahontas, sending for the local chief, Japazaws, Argall told him he must bring her on board his ship, and suggested luring her with the present of a copper kettle. With the help of Japazaws, they tricked Pocahontas into captivity and their purpose, as they explained in a letter, was to ransom her for some English prisoners held by Chief Powhatan, along with various weapons and farming tools that the Powhatans had stolen. Powhatan returned the prisoners but failed to satisfy the colonists with the amount of weapons and tools he returned, after the capture of Pocahontas, later in 1613, under orders from London, Argall began to raid Acadia. First he eradicated the French Jesuit colony of Saint-Sauveur on Mount Desert Island, after the first of two trips to accomplish this, he carried fourteen prisoners back to Jamestown. He then went on to burn the settlement and the restant structures of a one on Sainte-Croix
28.
Francis Wyatt
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Sir Francis Wyatt was the first English royal governor of Virginia. He sailed for America on August 1,1621 on board the George and he became governor shortly after his arrival in October, taking with him the first written constitution for an English colony. Also sailing with him on this voyage was his second cousin Henry Fleete Sr. who helped found colonies in both Virginia and Maryland, Francis was the son of George Wyatt, was from Boxley Manor in Kent, and attended St Mary Hall, Oxford, and Greys Inn. He was knighted July 7,1618 at Windsor, Wyatt was governor of Virginia from November 1621. In 1624, Wyatt resided in Jamestown with his wife, his brother Haute, in 1625, he received a black servant girl after a court settlement from her previous employer. After leaving office, he left Virginia for Ireland and England to settle his fathers estate and he was appointed governor again in 1639, sailing from England to take up his post. He served from November 1639 until February 1641 and was succeeded by Sir William Berkeley. He arranged the purchase of the home of the governor to use as the first designated state house of the colony. Wyatt returned to England after his term as governor and died in Boxley. He was buried there on August 24,1644, Sir Francis Wyatt organized the General Assembly which had been called in 1619. This was the first legislative body in America, Sir Francis caused its privileges to be embodied in a written constitution, the first of its kind in the New World. Francis Wyatts grandfather was Sir Thomas Wyatt the younger, who had led the Kent faction of Wyatts rebellion to the Spanish marriage of Queen Mary in support of Lady Elizabeth. His great-grandfather Thomas Wyatt the elder, the poet, was imprisoned in the Tower of London for an alleged relationship with Anne Boleyn. Sir Franciss wife Margaret was the daughter of Sir Samuel Sandys and the niece of George Sandys, Boxley remained with the barons and earls of Romney for more than two hundred years. Sir Francis left no descendants in what would later become the United States of America. Sir Francis had a daughter Elizabeth Wyatt who married Christopher Garlington who immigrated to America between 1637 and 1638 and he was born between 1614-1620, in England. He returned to England briefly to marry Elizabeth Wyatt abt,1644, sister of Sir Dudley Wyatt, Cavalier who came to Virginia. Germains in France, September 18,1650, Virginia was the only place that these faithful soldiers of King Charles I had to go to seek new fortunes
29.
Francis West
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Francis West was a Deputy Governor of the Colony and Dominion of Virginia. West was the son of Thomas West, 2nd Baron De La Warr of Wherwell Abbey in Hampshire and his wife, Anne Knollys. West was one of four brothers and his elder brother, Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, served as a governor of the Virginia Company of London from 1610-1611. His younger brother, Governor John West, served as Crown Governor of Virginia from 1635-1637, a fourth brother, Nathaniel West, died in Virginia in August 1623, aged 30. As Captain, he arrived at Jamestown, Virginia, in July 1608, He was elected to the Governors Council in 1608, from 1612 to 1617 he was the Commandant of Jamestown. From July 30 through August 4,1619, he served as a representative in Jamestowns first Legislative Assembly. This was the first House of Burgesses appointed by Governor Sir George Yeardley, West subsequently served as Deputy Governor of Virginia from 17 November 1627 to 5 March 1629. He also served as Captain General of Virginia and he first married Margaret Whitney around 1625, a three-time widow lastly married to Edward Blayney. In March 1627 he married second the widow of Governor George Yeardley and she died in December of the same year, and West fought the orphans for possession of her estate. He married thirdly Jane Davye with whom he had one son, in 1632, his estate was in Elizabeth City, south of the land of James Knott. According to some records, he died in February 1633/1634, although this is not certain, nugent, Nell Marion, Cavaliers and Pioneers, Abstracts of Virginia Land Patents and Grants. Virginia State Library and Archives, Richmond, Virginia 1936 Powhatans Mantle, Indians in the Colonial Southeast by Peter H. Wood
30.
John Pott
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John Potts was a physician and Colonial Governor of Virginia at the Jamestown settlement in the Virginia Colony in the early 17th century. John Potts is said to have taken his degree of M. A. at Oxford University in 1605 and he was recommended as physician to the Virginia Company of London by the eminent Dr. Theodore Gulston, the founder of the Gulstonian Lectureship of the London College of Physicians. Dr. Potts and his wife Elizabeth sailed from London aboard the George in March 1619, the George was a 150-ton sailing vessel with William Ewen as the master. After a two-month passage the vessel arrived in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1625, he was commissioned a member of the Governors Council, in which office he continued a number of years. In 1628 he was chosen Governor, and held the position from 1629 until the part of 1630. Pott was convicted for cattle theft by the Council on July 9,1630, Dr. Potts had a plantation which he called Harrop, and which he may have so named in honor of his ancestral home. Harrop in Cheshire, England was the place of residence of some of the Potts at that period. This plantation, patented in 1631, may be related to the Harrop Parish of the Church of England established in James City County in 1644, on July 12,1632, Dr. Potts obtained a patent for 1,200 acres at the head of Archers Hope Creek. Part of this land was to become a fortified palisade across the peninsula, John Potts plantation, newlie built, to erect houses and secure the land in that quarter. With this labor, palisades, six miles in length, were run from creek to creek, the doctor would have certainly recognized the sanitary advantages of the country around Middle Plantation. As the ridge between the creeks was remarkably well drained, there were few mosquitoes, the deep ravines penetrating from the north and south made the place of much strategic value. Also, the only road down the Peninsula was over this ridge. At Middle Plantation, some later, this road was later to be called Duke of Gloucester Street. The town of Middle Plantation was renamed Williamsburg in 1699, Dr. Potts is believed to have had no children, and apparently died prior to 1645
31.
John Harvey (Virginia)
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Sir John Harvey was a Crown Governor of Virginia. He was elected to the position on 26 March 1628, in 1635 he was suspended and impeached by the House of Burgesses, and he returned to England. He was restored to his post by the King in 1636 and his government has been described as tyrannical and Harvey himself has been called an obnoxious ruler and was generally held to be unpopular. In 1639 Harvey was replaced as governor by Sir Francis Wyatt, colony of Virginia Governors Palace History of Virginia John Harveys Residence Biography at Encyclopedia Virginia
32.
John West (governor)
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John West was acting colonial Governor of Virginia from 1635 to 1637, the third West brother to serve as governor. He was the son and twelfth child of Thomas West, 2nd Baron De La Warr. He came to Virginia in 1618 and he was a member of the House of Burgesses. John West received one of the first grants issued for this purpose,600 acres on the east side of Felgates, Felgates refers to Robert Felgates 1632 grant of 350 acres lying at Kiskeyacke upon Pamunkey. West sold the 600 acres, along with adjoining land, to Edward Digges in 1650 and it became known as the E. D. plantation, renamed by later owners as Belfield. West subsequently patented 3300 acres at the fork of York River, after his death the land passed to his son John West and then to his grandson John West III and to his great-grandson Charles West. His will left the West Point estate to his mother, and after her death to his first cousin Thomas West, the entail was broken in November 1761, when a trust was established to enable 1000 acres of the land to be sold in order to purchase slaves. West patented a further 1550 acres in 1651, and 1000 acres in Gloucester County in 1654, in 1635, after the thrusting out of Governor Sir John Harvey, John West was chosen as temporary replacement. And served until 1637 when Harvey was restored to his position, in 1640 West was ordered to England, along with three other thrusters, to answer charges in the Star Chamber. All four were eventually cleared, and returned to Virginia, John West married Anne Percy, daughter of George Percy and Anne Floyd. The couple had one son, John, who married Unity Croshaw, wests 3000-acre land grant on the York River became the location of the present town of West Point, Virginia. Tudor Place, John West, Governor of Virginia
33.
William Berkeley (governor)
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As proprietor of Green Spring Plantation in James City County, he experimented with activities such as growing silkworms as part of his efforts to expand the tobacco-based economy. Berkeley enacted friendly policies toward the Native Americans that led to the revolt by some of the planters in 1676 which became known as Bacons Rebellion, in the aftermath, King Charles II was angered by the retribution exacted against the rebels by Berkeley, and recalled him to England. Berkeley was born in 1605 in Bruton, Somersetshire to Sir Maurice and Elizabeth Berkeley, of the Bruton branch of the Berkeley family, referred to as “Will” by his family and friends, he was born in the winter of 1605 into landed gentry. His father died when he was twelve and, though indebted and his elder brother was John Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley of Stratton. Young Berkeley showed signs of a wit and broad learning. His informal education consisted of observing his elders, from them he learned “the moves that governed the larger English society and his place in it. ”Also, as part of the English country gentry, he was aware of agricultural practices. Though his father died in debt, Berkeley secured a proper education and he entered grammar school at about six or seven years old where he became literate in Latin and English. At eighteen, like the other Berkeley men, he entered Oxford and he began his studies at Queen’s College in the footsteps of his forebears, but quickly transferred to St. Edmund Hall, a “throwback to medieval times”. He received, though not necessarily completed, a B. A. in fifteen months of his arrival at the Hall, all undergraduates at St. Edmund Hall received a personal tutor. While the identity of Berkeley’s tutor is unsure, his effect upon the boy showed through William’s “disciplined intellect, in 1632, he gained a place in the household of Charles I. That position gave him entré into a literary circle known as The Wits. Berkeley wrote several plays, one of which—The Lost Lady, A Tragy Comedy—was performed for Charles I and it is also included in the first and fourth editions of Dodsleys Old Plays, and A Description of Virginia. Soldiering in the First and Second Bishops Wars gained Berkeley a knighthood, Berkeley replaced Sir Francis Wyatt as governor of Virginia in 1641. He was governor of the colony of Virginia from 1641–1652 and 1660–1677, Berkeley’s main initiative when he first became governor was to encourage diversification of Virginia’s agricultural products. He accomplished this through passing laws and by setting himself up as an example for planters, arriving at Jamestown in 1642, Berkeley erected Green Spring House on a tract of land west of the capital, where he experimented with alternatives to tobacco. It was at Green Spring that he planted such diverse crops as “corn, wheat, barley, rye, rape, tobacco, oranges, lemons, grapes, sugar and silk. Berkeley devoted much of his time as a planter to experimenting with alternatives to tobacco, although he produced the crop. As a planter, with Virginia in mind, Berkeley constantly attempted to determine the best crops for the state through trial, at the Restoration, Berkeley was reappointed governor
34.
Richard Bennett (Governor)
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Richard Bennett was an English Governor of the Colony of Virginia. Born in Wiveliscombe, Somerset, Bennett served as governor from 30 April 1652 and he was a member of the Governor Francis Wyatts Council in 1639–42. In 1648, he fled to Anne Arundel, Maryland, though little is known about his time as governor, it is believed that he was popular with the colonists. He helped ensure Puritan control over the colony of Maryland, then on 30 March 1655, voluntarily abandoned his office and left for England to see Cromwell. On 30 November 1657, Bennett, having returned to the colonies, signed the treaty with Cecilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore, which recognised the latters claim to Maryland. He returned to the governors Council, and also became a major-general, in 1672, George Fox, founder of the Quaker movement, visited the Virginia Puritans in Nansemond and succeeded in converting most of them to his faith, including Bennett. Richard Bennett is thought to be a son of Thomas Bennett, in 1666, Secretary Thomas Ludwell wrote to Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington that Richard Bennett seemed to be of the same family, sharing the same coat of arms. By 1642, Richard Bennett married Mary Ann Longworth, their children were and her second marriage was to Col. St. Leger Codd, and they had one son, also named St. Leger Codd
35.
Edward Digges
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Edward Digges was an English barrister and colonist who served as Colonial Governor of Virginia from March 1655 to December 1656. He invested heavily in planting trees and promoting the silk industry in the colony. Born at Chilham Castle, Kent, England, and christened in Chilham parish on 29 March 1620, Edward Digges was the son of Sir Dudley Digges. Sir Dudley was the Master of the Rolls for King Charles I, Edward Digges entered Grays Inn in 1637 to become a barrister. He emigrated to the Virginia Colony about 1650 and purchased from Captain John West a plantation of 1250 acres in present-day York County, Virginia, about 1653, he laid out Fort Mattapony near Walkerton, King and Queen County, Virginia. Digges developed a strong interest in reviving the production of silk in Virginia, the cultivation of the silkworm had been attempted previously in the colony, in response to King Jamess interest in the subject. However, these efforts had been unsuccessful, perhaps due to lack of enthusiasm among the colonists. Digges, in contrast, became absorbed in his project. Digges sent a parcel of his silk to the Royal Society, by way of his cousin Dudley Palmer, diggess efforts to create a silk industry in Virginia proved futile. To this day there are numerous mulberry trees, which were used to raise the silk worms, still standing on the land of the old plantation. In recognition of his efforts, Edward Digges was given a seat in the council in November 1654, having given a signal testimony of his fidelity to this colony, Edward Digges was more successful with tobacco than with silk. He became known for growing E. D. tobacco, a variety which brought an unusually high price in London. In December 1656, The House of Burgesses selected Samuel Mathews as governor to replace Edward Digges, in this position, Digges was to go to England and meet with English merchants about the price of tobacco and to secure the rights of the colony. Edward Digges married Elizabeth Page, daughter of Francis Page of Bedfont, Middlesex, a large tombstone was placed over his grave near his home at Bellfield, with the following inscription, To the memory of Edward Digges Esq. Sonne of Dudley Digges of Chilham in Kent Kn t & Bar t Master of the Rolls in the rain of K. Charles the First. He departed this life 15th of March 1674 in the LIII d year of his age, a gentlemen of most commendable parts and ingenuity, the only introducer and promoter of the silk manufacture in this colony. And in everything else a pattern worthy of all Pious Imitation and he had issue 6 sons and 7 daughters by the body of Elizabeth his wife who of her conjugal affection hath dedicated to him this Memorial. Accordingly on the 10th December,1691, Joseph Ring, Thomas Barber and Martin Gardiner reported the division, and it amounted to L1102,18,10
36.
Samuel Matthews
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Captain Samuel Mathews was a Virginia planter, and the father of Governor Samuel Mathews. Born in England, Mathews was the first of the family to emigrate from England to Virginia and he eventually had several other land holdings, including one near Henricus and another at Old Point Comfort. Known as Colonel Mathews, the elder Samuel became one of the most prominent men in the colony, by 1621 he was a member of the Governors Council and was actively involved in conflicts with the Native Americans. In 1635, he was one of the leaders of the mutiny that ousted Royal Governor Sir John Harvey. Upon returning to England, the elder Mathews was eventually cleared of any charges, upon returning to Virginia, frances Grevill was one of four women who arrived at Jamestown from Bristol, England in September 1620 aboard the ship, Supply. She was first married to Captain Nathaniel West, brother of Thomas West, the third Lord Delaware, after Wests death several years later, Grevill married Abraham Peirsey, a wealthy man who had purchased Sir George Yeardleys Flowerdew Hundred Plantation after his death. Twice widowed, but with considerable legacies, she next married Samuel Mathews and they had two sons Samuel, and Francis. Francis, a tobacco planter had an estate of some two thousand acres in Northumberland County. Mathews served in London as the Colonys representative in handling disputes, much of his influence has been attributed to his second marriage to the daughter of Sir Thomas Hinton whose son was a gentleman of the kings Privy Chamber. Mathews died in London, England on November 30,1657, as a member of the House of Burgesses, Matthews was viewed as an honest, energetic and faithful servant of the Colony whose death was universally lamented. Captain Mathews built the Manor around 1626, Colony of Virginia Governors Palace List of colonial governors of Virginia History of Virginia
37.
Thomas Colepeper, 2nd Baron Colepeper
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Thomas Colepeper, 2nd Baron Culpeper of Thoresway, was the colonial governor of Virginia from 1677 to 1683. Born in 1635, Colepeper was the son of Judith and John Colepeper, as a royalist, his father left England at the end of the English civil war following the execution of Charles I. Thomas Culpeper lived with his father in the Netherlands and there on 3 August 1659 married the Dutch heiress Margaret van Hesse and he returned to England after Charles IIs restoration. Culpeper was made administrator of the Isle of Wight which involved little administration and he became governor of Virginia in July 1677 but did not leave England until 1679, when he was ordered to by Charles II. While there, he seemed interested in maintaining his land in the Northern Neck than governing. Rioting in the colony forced him to return in 1682, by time the riots were already quelled. During this tumultuous time, Culpepers erratic behaviour meant that he had to rely increasingly on his cousin and Virginia agent, Culpeper lived the rest of his life in London with his mistress, Susannah Willis, and their two daughters. He left a will in favour of Willis and her daughters that was suppressed, catherine Culpeper, his only child with his wife Margaret van Hesse, inherited much of his wealth and married Thomas Fairfax, 5th Lord Fairfax of Cameron in 1690. In Virginia, Culpeper County and its county seat, the town of Culpeper are named for him, oxford Dictionary of National Biography John T. Kneebone et al. eds. ISBN 0-88490-206-4 Brown, Stuart E. Jr. Virginia Baron, cS1 maint, Multiple names, authors list Thomas Colepeper at Encyclopedia Virginia
38.
Francis Howard, 5th Baron Howard of Effingham
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Francis Howard, 5th Baron Howard of Effingham was a member of the Howard family, descended from noted naval commander Lord High Admiral Howard, and a Crown Governor of Virginia. He was the son of Sir Charles Howard and Frances Courthope, Francis Howards paternal grandfather was the first cousin of both Charles Howard, 2nd Earl of Nottingham and Charles Howard, 3rd Earl of Nottingham. His maternal grandfather was Sir George Courthope of Whiligh, Sussex, Francis was baptised on 17 September 1643 in Great Bookham near Effingham in Surrey. On 8 July 1673, he married Philadelphia Pelham, daughter of Thomas Pelham, 2nd Baronet Pelham of Laughton and half-aunt of Thomas Pelham, eventual 1st Baron Pelham of Laughton. Francis and Philadelphia were the parents of Thomas Howard, 6th Baron Howard of Effingham and Francis Howard, 1st Earl of Effingham as well as another son and three daughters. In 1681, Howards cousin, the 3rd Earl of Nottingham, died and did not leave a male heir, the earldom was declared extinct, but the title of Baron Howard of Effingham was passed on to Francis Howard. Lord Howard was appointed Governor of Virginia in 1683 and his family relocated there in February 1684, and Howard lived primarily at Rosegill plantation in Middlesex County. Howard commenced his duties as Governor on 16 April 1684, the treaty succeeded in ending a series of raids by the westernmost Seneca nation, whose warriors had traveled south to the frontier of Virginia. While in New York, Howard and his daughter stayed at Dongans house, Howard was impressed by the lifestyle of New York, as compared to Virginia, and urged his wife to bring good silver from England. Lady Howard arrived in Virginia, but died the year on 13 August 1685 at age 31. Their daughter, Margaret Frances, died while accompanying Lady Howards body, in 1687, Howard again travelled to New York to negotiate with the Iroquois, with a stop in Philadelphia on the way. Despite his negotiation efforts, Howard was unpopular among Virginians and he ordered that no one in the colony could use a printing press for any reason and tried to gain the power to overturn laws and levy taxes. Land grants could only be passed if Lord Howard was paid a fee and he created a court of equity and named himself a petty lord chancellor. In 1687, he expelled Colonel Philip Ludwell from the Virginia Council, the expulsion backfired, however, when Ludwells resultant popularity led to a meeting with King William. A successful meeting with the led to Ludwells council seat being restored on 7 May 1691. Howard left Virginia for England on 20 October 1688 and he lived mostly in Little Chelsea in Kensington, then Middlesex. He was allowed to remain governor of Virginia from afar at half the salary. Nathaniel Bacon, Sr. who had administered the colony during Howards time in New York in 1684, did so again while Howard was in England until Howards deputy, Francis Nicholson, arrived on 16 May 1690
39.
Edmund Andros
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Sir Edmund Andros was an English colonial administrator in North America. He was the governor of the Dominion of New England during most of its three-year existence, at other times, Andros served as governor of the provinces of New York, East and West Jersey, Virginia, and Maryland. Before his service in North America, he served as Bailiff of Guernsey and his tenure in New England was authoritarian and turbulent, as his views were decidedly pro-Anglican, a negative quality in a region home to many Puritans. His actions in New England resulted in his overthrow during the 1689 Boston revolt and his actions and governance generally followed the instructions he was given upon appointment to office, and he received approbation from the monarchs and governments that appointed him. Andros was recalled to England from Virginia in 1698, and resumed the title of Bailiff of Guernsey, although he no longer resided entirely on Guernsey, he was appointed lieutenant governor of the island, and served in this position for four years. Andros was born in London on 6 December 1637, amice Andros, his father, was Bailiff of Guernsey and a staunch supporter of Charles I. His mother was Elizabeth Stone, whose sister was a courtier to the kings sister and it is possible that he fled Guernsey with his mother in 1645. In 1656, he was apprenticed to his uncle, Sir Robert Stone, Andros then served in two winter campaigns in Denmark, including the relief of Copenhagen in 1659. As a result of experiences he gained fluency in French, Swedish. He remained a supporter of the Stuarts while they were in exile. Charles II, after his restoration to the throne, specifically commended the Andros family for its support, Andros served as a courtier to Elizabeth of Bohemia from 1660 until her death in 1662. During the 1660s he served in the English army against the Dutch and he was next commissioned a major in the regiment of Sir Tobias Bridge, which was sent to Barbados in 1666. He returned to England two years later, carrying despatches and letters, after his father died in 1674, Andros acquired Sausmarez Manor and was named to succeed him as Bailiff of Guernsey. He was also appointed by the Duke of York to be the first proprietary governor of the Province of New York, Andros agreed to confirm the existing property holdings and to allow the Dutch inhabitants of the territory to maintain their Protestant religion. Andros was also involved in disputes with the neighboring Connecticut Colony. Yorks territorial claim did not acknowledge these, and Andros announced to Connecticut authorities his intentions to reclaim that territory in early 1675, Connecticut leaders pointed out the later revisions to Connecticuts boundaries, but Andros pressed his claim, arguing that those revisions had been superseded by Yorks grant. Andros used the outbreak of King Philips War in July 1675 as an excuse to go by ship to Connecticut with a military force to establish the dukes claim. When he arrived at Saybrook at the mouth of the river on 8 July he found the fort occupied by Connecticut militia
40.
Francis Nicholson
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Francis Nicholson was a British military officer and colonial administrator. His military service included time in Africa and Europe, after which he was sent as leader of the troops supporting Sir Edmund Andros in the Dominion of New England, there he distinguished himself, and was appointed lieutenant governor of the dominion in 1688. After news of the Glorious Revolution reached the colonies in 1689, Nicholson himself was soon caught up in unrest in New York, and fled to England. He next served as lieutenant governor or governor of Virginia and Maryland and he supported the founding of the College of William and Mary, and quarreled with Andros after Andros was selected over him as governor of Virginia. In 1709 he became involved in military actions during Queen Annes War. He then led the expedition that successfully captured Port Royal, Acadia on 2 October 1710, afterward he served as governor of Nova Scotia and Placentia, and was the first royal governor of South Carolina following a rebellion against its proprietors. He rose to the rank of Lieutenant-General, and died a bachelor in London in 1728 and he supported public education in the colonies, and was a member of both the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts and the Royal Society. He also influenced American architecture, being responsible for the layout and design of Annapolis, Maryland and Williamsburg and he was one of the earliest advocates of colonial union, principally for reasons of defense against common enemies. Nicholson was born in the village of Downholme, Yorkshire, England, little is known of his ancestry or early life, although he apparently received some education. He served as a page in the household of Charles Paulet and he waited on Paulets daughter Jane, who married John Egerton, Earl of Bridgewater, another patron who promoted his career. His military career began in January 1678 when Paulet purchased for him a commission in the Holland Regiment. The regiment saw no combat, and was disbanded at the end of the year, in July 1680 he purchased a staff lieutenants commission in the newly formed 2nd Tangier Regiment, which was sent to English Tangier to reinforce the garrison holding the city. Tangiers council was headed by the Duke of York. Nicholson distinguished himself in the service, carrying dispatches between the enemy Moroccan camp, Tangier, and London, in addition to favorable notice from Kirke, this brought Nicholson to the attention of the powerful colonial secretary, William Blathwayt. Tangier was abandoned in 1683, and his regiment returned to England, during the service in Tangier he met a number of people who would figure prominently North American colonial history, including Thomas Dongan and Alexander Spotswood. Nicholson was probably with the regiment when it put down Monmouths Rebellion in 1685, the dominions governorship instead went to Sir Edmund Andros, and Nicholson, now a captain, accompanied Andros as commander of a company of infantry to Boston in October 1686. Andros sent Nicholson on what was essentially a reconnaissance mission to French Acadia, under the cover of delivering a letter protesting a variety of issues to the Acadian governor, Nicholson made careful observations of Port Royals defenses. Nicholson impressed Andros in this service, and was appointed to the dominions council
41.
Edward Nott
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Colonel Edward Nott, Esq. was a British Colonial Governor of Virginia. He was appointed by Queen Anne on either April 25,1705 or August 15,1705 and his administration lasted only one year, as he died in 1706 at the age of 49. He is interred at Bruton Parish Church in Williamsburg, Virginia and he is noted as having been a mild, benevolent man. Colony of Virginia Governors Palace List of colonial governors of Virginia History of Virginia
42.
Edmund Jenings
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Edmund Jenings was a Virginian politician. He was President of the Council of Virginia and later became the governor from August 23,1706. His father Sir Edmund Jenings was a Member of Parliament and his daughter, Elizabeth Jenings, married Robert Porteus, and was the mother of Beilby Porteus, Bishop of Chester and London. Ariana, his granddaughter, married John Randolph and they were parents of Edmund Randolph, who was Governor of Virginia and the first Attorney General of the United States under George Washington
43.
Robert Hunter (governor)
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Robert Hunter was a British military officer, colonial governor of New York and New Jersey from 1710 to 1720, and governor of Jamaica from 1727 to 1734. Robert Hunter was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1666, grandson of the twentieth Laird of Hunterston in Ayrshire, being the son of lawyer James Hunter, Hunter had been apprenticed to an apothecary before running away to join the British Army. He became an officer in 1689 who rose to become a general and he was a man of business whose first address to the New York Assembly was barely 300 words long. In it, he stated, If honesty is the best policy and he was appointed Lieutenant Governor of Virginia in 1707, but was captured by a corsair on his way to Virginia, taken to France, and in 1709 exchanged for the French Bishop of Quebec. He was then appointed Governor of New York and sailed to America with 3,000 Palatine refugees as settlers in 1710, in 1715 he advocated the local minting of copper coins, but the king refused. Governor Hunters philosophy was that the true Interests of the People and Government are the same, no other deserves the Name, and are never Separated or Separable but in Imagination by Men of Craft. Hunter was succeeded as Governor by Pieter Schuyler as acting governor from 1719 to 1720 and finally by William Burnet, Hunter was then Governor of Jamaica from 1727 until his death on 31 March 1734. He was a member of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel and he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in May,1709. His play, Androboros, written in 1714, was the first known play to be written, List of colonial governors of New Jersey List of colonial governors of New York Androboros Lustig, Mary Lou. Robert Hunter, 1666–1734, New Yorks Augustan Statesman, biography of Robert Hunter, New Jersey State Library Colonial Governors of New York Robert Hunter Papers, 1699-1744 New-York Historical Society
44.
George Hamilton, 1st Earl of Orkney
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After commanding a regiment for the cause of William of Orange during the Williamite War in Ireland, he commanded a regiment in the Low Countries during the Nine Years War. He also led the charge of fifteen infantry battalions in a bloody assault on the French entrenchments at the Battle of Malplaquet. In later life he became a Lord of the Bedchamber to George I and was installed as Governor of Edinburgh Castle, on 3 January 1696 Hamilton was created Earl of Orkney, Viscount Kirkwall and Baron Dechmont in the Scottish peerage. Shortly thereafter he acquired the estates of Taplow Court and Cliveden and he became Governor of Virginia in 1698 but appears never to have visited the colony. Promoted to major general on 9 March 1702, Hamilton fought under John Churchill, promoted to lieutenant general on 1 January 1704, he was appointed a Knight of the Order of the Thistle later that year. He led the assault at the Battle of Blenheim attacking the village churchyard with eight battalions of men and then receiving the surrender of its French defenders in August 1704. After marching his column from the Moselle, he relieved the city of Liège in June 1705. He also took part in the Siege of Menin in July 1706, promoted to general of foot in 1710, Hamilton was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Lanarkshire in 1711. He returned to the continent in 1712 and continued to serve in the Army commanded by the Duke of Ormonde besieging Douai, Hamilton became a Lord of the Bedchamber to George I and was installed as Governor of Edinburgh Castle in 1714. He also sat in the House of Lords as a Scottish representative peer, promoted to field marshal on 31 January 1735, he commissioned the building of a temple at his Buckinghamshire home, Cliveden, by the architect Giacomo Leoni later that year. Hamilton died at his home at Albemarle Street in London on 29 January 1737 and was buried at Taplow Court, in 1733 Michael Rysbrack, a sculptor from Antwerp, carved a marble bust of Hamilton in the form of a Roman centurion. As a boy, Rysbrack would have witnessed Hamiltons unopposed entry into Antwerp shortly after his victory at Ramillies, the bust is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Burkes Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition,3 Volumes, the British Augustan oligarchy in portraiture, Michael Rysbrack and his bust of the Earl of Orkney. The British Art Journal, Volume XI, No.2 and this article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Orkney, George Hamilton, Earl of
45.
Alexander Spotswood
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Alexander Spotswood was a Lieutenant-Colonel in the British Army and a noted Lieutenant Governor of Virginia. Alexander Spotswood was born in the Colony of Tangier, Morocco, about 1676 to Catharine and her husband, Dr. Robert Spottiswoode. Alexanders older half-brother was Roger Elliott, who one of the first Governors of Gibraltar. Following the death of Robert Spotswood, his mother married thirdly, Reverend Dr. George Mercer, on 20 May 1693, Alexander became an Ensign in the Earl of Baths Regiment of Foot. He was commissioned in 1698, and promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel in 1703 and he was appointed Quartermaster-General of the Duke of Marlboroughs army the same year, and was wounded at the Battle of Blenheim the following year. In 1710, Alexander was appointed Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, under the governorship of George Hamilton. He was the first to occupy the new Governors Mansion, which many citizens thought overly extravagant, in 1711, he intervened in Carys Rebellion in North Carolina, sending a contingent of Royal Marines from the Chesapeake to put down the rebellion. A Tobacco Act requiring the inspection of all intended for export or for use as legal tender was passed in 1713. The next year, he founded the First Germanna Colony, and regulated trade with Native Americans at another of his pet projects, in 1715, he bought 3229 acres at Germanna. In 1716 he led the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe Expedition up the Rappahannock River valley, the following year saw the foundation of the Second Germanna Colony and the Repeal of regulation of trade with Native Americans. A Third Germanna Colony followed in 1719, and Germanna was made the seat of Spotsylvania County the following year, between 1716 and 1720, Spotswood built the Tubal Works. It had a cold blast-charcoal blast furnace which produced pig iron and it operated for about 40 years. Pig iron from Tubal is in the collections of the Fredericksburg Area Museum, Tubal Works iron was exported to England by 1723. Around 1732 at Massaponax, Spotswood built what may have been the first purpose-built foundry in the British North American Colonies and this was a double-air furnace and was used to recast pig iron produced at Tubal into final shapes. Neither of Spotswoods iron operations were at Germanna, Spotswood was not, as is commonly believed, involved in the Fredericksville Furnace. In the fall of 1718, Spotswood engaged in an expedition by privately hiring two sloops, Jane and Ranger, and a number of Royal Navy men to seek out the pirate Blackbeard. On 18 November 1718, Lt. Robert Maynard sailed from Hampton, Virginia to Ocracoke Inlet, on 22 November 1718, Maynard and his men defeated Blackbeard and the pirates. On 24 November 1718, two days after Blackbeards death, Spotswood issued a proclamation at the Assembly in Williamsburg offering reward for any who brought Teach, Spotswood worked to make a Treaty with the Iroquois through their meeting in Albany, New York during 1721
