CHAPTER XLIV.
1698-1702.
Administration of Andros—Controversy with Blair—The Rev. Hugo Jones' Account of Maryland—Andros succeeded by Nicholson—Alteration in his Conduct—Supposed Cause—Williamsburg made the Seat of Government—His tyrannical Proceedings—Prejudice of Beverley, the Historian—Act against Pirates—Offices of Speaker and Treasurer combined—Capture of a piratical Vessel—Death of Edward Hill—Commencement at William and Mary—Demise of William the Third—Succeeded by Anne—Nicholson's Description of the People of Virginia.
Governor Andros took singular pains in arranging and preserving the public records; and when, in 1698, the State-house was burned, he caused the papers that survived to be arranged with more exactness than before. He ordered that all the English statutes should be law in Virginia; this preposterous rule gave great dissatisfaction. He was a patron of manufactures; but the acts for establishing fulling-mills were rejected by the board of trade. He encouraged the culture of cotton, which, however, fell into disuse.
By royal instructions, Andros was invested with the powers of ordinary, or representative of the king and the bishop of London, in the affairs of the church. This brought him into collision with Commissary Blair, and in 1694 the governor arbitrarily suspended him from his place in the council, to which he had been appointed in the preceding year. While in England on the business of the college, in 1695, the doctor preferred charges against Andros as an enemy to religion, to the church, the clergy, and the college. The charges and the proofs covered thirty-two folio pages of manuscript, and were drawn up with ability. But Blair had to contend with formidable opposition, for Governor Andros sent over to London, in his defence, Colonel Byrd, of Westover, Mr. Harrison, of Surry County, Mr. Povey, who was high in office in the colony, and a Mr. Marshall, to arraign the Rev. Commissary himself before the Bishop of London and the Archbishop of Canterbury. Two days were spent at Lambeth Palace, in the examination, the charges and answers filling fifty-seven folio pages of manuscript, and Dr. Blair's accusers were signally discomfited. Much of the prejudice against him was owing to his being a Scotchman—a prejudice at that time running very high in England. The result was that Blair returned after successfully accomplishing the object of his mission, and having been reinstated in the council by the king. He was, nevertheless, again removed upon a pretence equally frivolous.[357:A] Andros was sent back to England to answer in person the charges alleged against him, and eventually, they being substantiated, he was removed from his office of deputy governor of Virginia.[357:B]
William the Third, by the treaty of Ryswick, in 1697, obtained an acknowledgment of his right to the crown, and vindicated the principles of constitutional freedom.
The Rev. Hugo Jones, author of a work entitled "Present State of Virginia," writing from Maryland in this year, says of the people there: "They are, generally speaking, crafty, knavish, litigious, dissemblers, and debauched. A gentleman (I mean one of a generous Cambro-Briton temper) is rara avis in terris. A man must be circumspect and prudent if he will maintain his reputation among them. Of dealing, it is very true what was told me by a man at London, that none is fit to deal with a Virginian but a Virginian; however, I having made it my business both in London and at sea to inquire into the nature of the people, that I might know the better how to behave myself among them, have gained as good a reputation as in modesty I could expect; neither have I been much imposed upon in my bargains. As to the people's disposition in matters of religion, they will follow none out of the path of interest, and they heartily embrace none but such as will fill the barn and the basket. Most sects are here professed, but in general they are practical atheists."[357:C]
The uncharitable judgments of this narrow-minded writer are not entitled to much weight. Among a people requiring so much ministerial care, he found ample time to devote to the study of natural history, and was curious in the examination of "fishes' bones" and "petrified mushrooms."
