CHAPTER XLIII.
1696-1698.
State and Condition of Virginia—Exhausting Agriculture—Depression of Mechanic Art—Merchants—Current Coin—Grants of Land—Powers of Governor—The Council—Court of Claims—County Courts—General Court—Secretary, Sheriffs, Collectors, and Vestries—Revenue—The Church.
The following statistical account of Virginia appears to have been reported by Lord Culpepper, in 1781, to the Committee of the colonies. It is to be found in the Historical Collections of Massachusetts,[349:A] the manuscript having been communicated by Carter B. Harrison, Esq., of Virginia, by the hands of the Rev. John Jones Spooner, corresponding member. The picture is harsh, but drawn by a vigorous hand, without fear, favor, or affection.
In point of natural advantages Virginia was surpassed by few countries on the globe, but in commerce, manufactures, education, government in church and state, was one of the poorest and most miserable. The staple tobacco swallowed up every thing, so that the markets were often glutted with bad tobacco, which became a mere drug, and would not pay freight and customs. Perhaps not one hundredth part of the land was yet cleared, and none of the marsh or swamp drained. As fast as the soil was worn out by exhausting crops of tobacco and corn, it was left to grow up again in woods. The plough was not much used, in the first clearing the roots and stumps being left, and the ground tilled only with hoes, and by the time the stumps were decayed the ground was worn out. Manure was neglected. Of grain the planters usually raised only enough for home consumption, there being no market for it, and scarce any money. But their main labor in this crop being in the summer, they fell into habits of indolence for the rest of the year. The circumstances of the country, destitute of towns, and consisting of dispersed plantations, were unfavorable for mechanics, then called tradesmen. The depression of this useful and important class although lessened, continues in the present day, and appears to be inevitably connected with the system of negro slavery. It is a tax paid by the whites for the elevation of the black race. The merchants were the most prosperous class in the colony, but they labored under great disadvantages, being obliged to sell on credit, and to carry on "a pitiful retail trade," and to depend on the receivers who went about among the planters to receive the tobacco due, and this mode of collecting was subject to great delays and losses. The native-born Virginians, who for the most part had never been out of the colony, were averse to town life, and felt dissatisfied, like Daniel Boone in more modern times, whenever "the settlements became too thick." The scarcity of money was aggravated by the governor, who found it to his interest to be paid in tobacco. The current coin of the dominion of Virginia consisted of pieces of eight, the value of which was fixed by law at five shillings; and the value being made greater in Pennsylvania money, they were consequently drained from Virginia, as at the present day gold and silver are ostracised by a depreciated paper currency.
The method of settling the colonial territory was by the king's grant of fifty acres to every actual settler, but this rule was evaded and perverted in various ways, and rights for that quantity of land could easily be purchased from the clerks in the secretary's office at from one to five shillings each. The powers of the governor were extensive; he was a sort of viceroy, being commander-in-chief and vice-admiral, lord treasurer in issuing warrants for the paying of moneys, lord chancellor or lord keeper as passing grants under the colony's seal, president of the council, chief justice of the courts, with some powers of a bishop or ordinary. The governors managed to evade the king's instructions, and by official patronage to silence the opposition of the council, and even to hold the burgesses in check. The governor and councillors were all colonels and honorable, and their adherents monopolized the offices. The governor's salary was for many years one thousand pounds per annum, to which the assembly added perquisites, amounting to five hundred more, and a further addition of two hundred pounds was made to Sir William Berkley's salary, making the whole salary seventeen hundred pounds. The council, in effect the creatures and clients of the governor, being appointed at his nomination, and receiving office and place from him, had the powers of council of state, (in case of vacancy of the governor the oldest of them ex officio acting as president ad interim,) of upper house of assembly or house of lords, in the general court of supreme judges, and as colonels, answering to the English lord-lieutenants of counties. The councillors were also naval officers in the customs department, collectors of the revenue, farmers of the king's quit-rents; out of the council were chosen the secretary, auditor, and escheators; the councillors were exempt from arrests, and had a compensation of three hundred and fifty pounds divided among them, according to their attendance. They met together after the manner of the king and council. Their clerk received fifty pounds per annum salary, besides perquisites. The office of collector, held by members of the council, was indeed incompatible with their office of judge, and their office of councillor unfitted them for auditing their own accounts as collectors, and in different capacities they both bought and sold the royal quit-rents.[351:A]
Upon the election of burgesses there was commonly held a court, called a court of claims, where all who had any claims against the public might present them to the burgesses, together with any propositions or grievances, "all which the burgesses carry to the assembly." There was at that early day much confusion in the laws, and it was difficult to know what laws were in force and what were not. All causes were decided in the county court or in the general court. The county court consisted of eight or ten gentlemen, receiving their commission from the governor, who renewed it annually. They met once a month, or once in two months, and had cognizance of all causes exceeding in value twenty shillings, or two hundred pounds of tobacco. These country gentlemen, having no education in law, not unfrequently fell into mistakes in substance and in form. The insufficiency of these courts was now growing more apparent than formerly, since the old stock of gentry, who were educated in England, were better acquainted with law and with the business of the world than their sons and grandsons, who were brought up in Virginia, and commonly knew only reading, writing, and arithmetic, and were not very proficient in them.
The general court, so called because it had jurisdiction of causes from all parts of the colony, was held twice a year, in April and October, by the governor and council as judges, at Jamestown. This court was never commissioned, but grew up by custom or usurpation; from it there was no appeal, except in cases of over three hundred pounds sterling value, to the king, which was for most persons impracticable, on account of the distance and the expensiveness. Virginia appears to have been the only colony where the executive constituted the supreme court. The general court tried all causes of above sixteen pounds sterling, or sixteen hundred pounds of tobacco in value, and all appeals from the county courts, and it had cognizance of all causes in chancery, in king's bench, the common pleas, the exchequer, the admiralty, and spirituality. The forms of proceeding in the general court were quite irregular. The duties of the secretary were as multifarious as those of the governor; it was, however, for the most part a sinecure, the business being performed by a clerk, styled the clerk of the general court, who also employed one or two clerks under him. The secretary, who was properly the clerk of the court, yet sate as judge of that court.
The governor signed all patents or deeds of land, and there was a recital in them that he granted the land "by and with the consent of the council," yet the patents were never read by the governor, nor did the council take any notice of them. He likewise countersigned the patents after the words "compared, and agrees with the original," yet the secretary never read or compared them, and indeed the patent which he signed was itself the original. "Men make laws, but we live by custom." The sheriffs collected all money duties. The auditor audited the accounts of the collectors, and was receiver-general of all public moneys. The parish levy, for the support of the church and of the poor, was assessed by the vestry, about the month of October, when tobacco was ready; the whole amount assessed was divided by the number of tithables of the parish, and collected from the heads of families. The county levy for county expenses was assessed by the justices of the peace, and the sum divided by the number of tithables in the county. The public levy was assessed by the assembly for the general expenses of the colony, and the sum was divided by the number of tithables in the colony, amounting in the year 1690 to about twenty thousand. The three levies were all collected by the sheriffs; they averaged about one hundred pounds of tobacco for each tithable, the aggregate amounting to two millions of pounds per annum.
The revenues and customs that came into the auditor's hands were of four kinds: First, the quit-rents, being one shilling per annum on every fifty acres of land, payable in tobacco, at one penny per pound, or twenty-four pounds of tobacco for every hundred acres. In the Northern Neck, lying between the Potomac and Rappahannock, the quit-rents were paid by the heirs of Lord Culpepper. The tobacco due for quit-rents was sold by the auditor to the several members of the council, who paid for it in money, or bills of exchange, according to the quantity. The quit-rent revenue amounted to about eight hundred pounds sterling per annum. The second source of revenue consisted of two shillings per hogshead, export duty, on tobacco, and fort duties, being fifteen pence per ton on all vessels arriving. These amounted to three thousand pounds sterling per annum. Ten per cent. of this amount was paid to masters of vessels, to induce them to give a true account. The collectors received ten per cent. for collecting, and the auditor seven per cent. The third source of revenue was one penny per pound upon tobacco exported from Virginia to any other English plantation in America. This, as has been mentioned, was, in 1692, granted to the college of William and Mary. The college paid for collecting it no less than twenty per cent., and to the auditor five per cent. The nett proceeds were worth one hundred pounds annually. The fourth source of revenue was any money duty that might be raised by the assembly.
The governor was lieutenant-general, the councillors lieutenants of counties, with the title of colonel, and in counties where no councillor resided, some other person was appointed, with the rank of major. The people in general professed to be of the Church of England. The only dissenters were three or four meetings of Quakers and one of Presbyterians. There were fifty parishes, and in each two, and sometimes three, churches and chapels. The division of the parishes was unequal and inconvenient. The governor had always held the government of the church, as of everything else, in his hands. Ministers were obliged to produce their orders to him, and show that they had been episcopally ordained. The power of presentation was, by a colonial law, in the vestry, but by a custom of hiring preachers by the year, it came to pass that presentation rarely took place. The consequence was that a good minister either would not come to Virginia, or if he did, was soon driven away by the high-handed proceedings of the vestry. The minister was obliged to be careful how he preached against the vices that any great man of the vestry was guilty of, else he would be in danger of losing his living at the end of the year. They held them by a precarious tenure, like that of chaplains; they were mere tenants at sufferance. There were not half as many ministers in Virginia as parishes. The governor connived at this state of things. The minister's salary was sixteen thousand pounds of tobacco per annum. King Charles the Second gave the Bishop of London jurisdiction over the church in the plantations, in all matters except three, viz.: marriage licenses, probates of wills, and induction of ministers, which were reserved to the governor. The bishop's commissary made visitation of the churches and inspection of the clergy. He received no salary, but was allowed, by the king, one hundred pounds per annum out of the quit-rents.[355:A]
FOOTNOTES:
[349:A] First Series, v. 124.
[351:A] The council, in the time of Governor Andros, consisted of Ralph Wormley, collector and naval officer of Rappahannock River; Colonel Richard Lee, collector and naval officer of upper district of Potomac River—these two having been appointed while Sir William Berkley was governor; Colonel William Byrd, who was appointed auditor during Lord Culpepper's administration; Colonel Christopher Wormley, collector and naval officer of the lower district of the Potomac River, appointed while Lord Effingham was governor; Colonel Edward Hill, collector and naval officer of upper district of James River; Colonel Edmund Jennings, collector and naval officer of York River—these two being appointed in Lord Effingham's time; Colonel Daniel Parke, collector and naval officer of the lower district of James River, and escheator between York and Rappahannock Rivers; Colonel Charles Scarburgh, collector and naval officer on the Eastern Shore, and Mr. John Lightfoot, who had lately arrived in the country—these last four appointed while Sir Edmund Andros was governor.
[355:A] Account of Va., in Mass. Hist. Coll., first series.
