It took four months for the news of the restoration to reach Virginia. In September, Sir William issued a command that the news be proclaimed in every county in Virginia.
This was what the Virginians had been waiting for and they celebrated in their typical way—by drinking healths and by making every kind of noise that they could contrive to make.
Hundreds of pounds of tobacco were exchanged for barrels of gunpowder and kegs of cider. In some places "ye trumpeters" were paid as much as eight hundred pounds of tobacco for their music, and at least one minister was paid five hundred pounds of tobacco for a service of thanksgiving.
In recognition of Virginia's loyalty to him, Charles II caused her to be proclaimed an independent member of his Empire. He had it engraved on coins that the English Kingdom should henceforth consist of "England, Scotland, Ireland and Virginia." Virginia's coat-of-arms was added to those of the other three countries comprised in his dominions. Traditions say that Charles wore a robe of Virginia silk at his coronation.
It was in this way that Virginia acquired the title of "The Old Dominion."
THE PROPRIETARY
The settlers of the Northern Neck had hardly ended their celebrations in honor of England's new king when they received a great shock.
One of the first things that Charles II did, at the insistence of those courtiers who had shared his exile, was to have the Northern Neck patent, which he had issued while he was in France, recorded and put on the market to be leased for the benefit of those courtiers to whom he had given it. Thus in 1661, the Northern Neck became a proprietary—that is, it was owned now by the seven courtiers.
In 1662, several English merchants took a lease of the proprietary from the original courtiers who owned it. The merchants hoped to settle new "adventures" in the land between the Potomac and the Rappahannock. King Charles then wrote a letter to Governor Berkeley instructing him to assist these men who had leased the patent.
Even Sir William who had always been fanatical in his loyalty to the Crown was shocked. The royal order aroused the opposition of both the governor and the council to the proprietorship and to the lease of it. It was a threat to the colonial government and they were afraid that they would lose their power to defend themselves. They felt that the rights of the colonists should be protected.