This was going too far. The stout Scotchman had powerful friends in London; the outrage was discussed in Lambeth Palace; and Sir Edmund Andros, for winking at such behaviour, was removed. He was evidently a slow-witted official. His experiences in Boston, with Parson Willard of the Old South, ought to have cured him of his propensity to quarrel with aggressive and resolute clergymen. For two or three years after going home, Sir Edmund governed the little channel island of Jersey, and the rest of his days were spent in retirement, until his death in 1714.
Earl of Orkney.
The system of absentee governors, occasionally exemplified in such cases as those of Lord Delaware and Lord Howard, was now to be permanently adopted. A great favourite with William III. was George Hamilton Douglas, whose distinguished gallantry at the battle of the Boyne and other occasions had been rewarded with the earldom of Orkney. In 1697 he was appointed governor-in-chief of Virginia, and for the next forty years he drew his annual salary of £1,200 without ever crossing the ocean. Henceforth the official who represented him in Virginia was entitled lieutenant-governor, and the first was Francis Nicholson, who was brought back from Maryland in 1698.
Return of Nicholson.
Founding of Williamsburg.
One of Nicholson’s achievements in Maryland, as we shall see in the next chapter, had been the change of the seat of government from St. Mary’s to Annapolis. He now proceeded to make a similar change in Virginia. After perishing in Bacon’s rebellion, Jamestown was rebuilt by Lord Culpeper, but in the last decade of the century it was again destroyed by an accidental fire, and has never since risen from its ashes. Of that sacred spot, the first abiding-place of Englishmen in America, nothing now is left but the ivy-mantled ruins of the church tower and a few cracked and crumbling tombstones. The site of the hamlet is more than half submerged, and unless some kind of sea-wall is built to protect it, the unresting tides will soon wash everything away.[89] Jamestown had always a bad reputation for malaria, and after its second burning people were not eager to restore it. Plans for moving the government elsewhere had been considered on more than one occasion. In 1699 the choice fell upon the site of Middle Plantation, half way between James and York rivers, with its salubrious air and wholesome water. It had already, in 1693, been selected as the site of the new college.[90] Nicholson called the place Williamsburg, and began building a town there with streets so laid out as to make W and M, the initials of the king and queen, a plan soon abandoned as inconvenient. The town thus founded by Nicholson remained the capital of Virginia until 1780, when it was superseded by Richmond.
Nicholson and Blair.
Nicholson was in full sympathy with President Blair as regarded the college, but occasions for disagreement between them were at hand. On the lieutenant-governor’s arrival the wise parson read him a lesson upon the need for moderation in the display of his powers. The career of his predecessor Andros, in more than one colony, furnished abundant examples of the need for such moderation. Blair offered him some good advice tendered by the Bishop of London, whereupon Nicholson exclaimed, with a big round oath, “I know how to govern Virginia and Maryland better than all the bishops in England. If I had not hampered them in Maryland and kept them under, I should never have been able to govern them.” The doctor replied: “Sir, I do not pretend to [speak for] Maryland, but if I know anything of Virginia, they are a good-natured [and] tractable people as any in the world, and you may do anything with them by way of civility, but you will never be able to manage them in that way you speak of, by hampering and keeping them under.”[91] The eccentric governor did not profit by this advice. Of actual tyranny there was not much in his administration, but his blustering tongue would give utterance to extravagant speeches whereat company would sit “amazed and silent.”
scolding swain.
Removal of Nicholson.