The Royalists were now in full power, the friends of Bacon discreetly held their peace, and the governors were allowed to browbeat and rob the province at their will. The successor to Berkeley was Colonel Sir Herbert Jeffries (1677); after him came Sir Henry Chicheley (1678), Thomas Lord Culpeper, one of the proprietors under the king's patent (1679), Lord Howard of Effingham (1684), Sir Francis Nicholson (1690), Sir Edmund Andros (1692) and Nicholson again (1698). During the administration of Culpeper, who was a greedy extortionist, the tobacco-planters rose in rebellion because of the disaster to their industry brought on by the attempt of government to regulate prices and establish ports of shipment. The governor hanged a number of the offenders, and still further added to his unpopularity as a ruler and his notoriety as a rascal by arbitrarily and for his own gain raising and lowering the standard of coinage.
These closing years of the seventeenth century were sorry times for Virginia. Riots and consequent imprisonments and hangings were ordinary events. Nicholson told the gentlemen of the province that he would "beat them into better manners," or "bring them to reason with halters about their necks." The people were discontented, the province grew poorer as each new governor introduced some fresh extortion, immigration practically ceased, and the spirit of political independence was torpid.
Virginia in the Albany Council.
There were two or three gleams of sunshine during this period of almost total darkness. Delegates were sent to Albany in 1684 to represent the province at the famous council to consider a plan of union for repressing Indian outbreaks. It was one of the earliest attempts at the confederation of the colonies,—a scheme which Governor Nicholson persistently fostered, in the vain hope, it is said, of being placed at the head of the united provinces as governor-general. |Establishment of William and Mary College.| Again, under Nicholson's rule (1691), the house of burgesses sent Commissary Blair to England to solicit a patent for a college. This was obtained, and in 1693 the agent returned with the charter of "William and Mary," the second university in America,—Harvard, in Massachusetts, being the first and Yale, founded in 1701, the third. The new college was set up at Williamsburg, whither Governor Nicholson had removed the capital of the province. |Arrival of Huguenots.| Another event, quite as significant, signalized the close of the century. De Richebourg's colony of Huguenots settled (1699) on the upper waters of the James and "infused a stream of pure and rich blood into Virginia society."
Thus, in the ninety years from 1607 to 1697, the population of Virginia had increased from a few score to nearly a hundred thousand; the dreams of speedy wealth entertained by the patentees had been idle, but the hard labor of Englishmen, supplemented by the forced service of negroes, had built up a prosperous agricultural community. More important still was it that, through all the vicissitudes of control, of government in England, and of party in America, the germ of popular government had grown into an established system, jealously watched by the colonies.
33. Settlement of Maryland (1632-1635).
George Calvert, Lord Baltimore.
George Calvert, Lord Baltimore, had been one of the members of the London Company as well as a councillor in the Plymouth Company. From the beginning of the century he had taken a strong interest in English colonization schemes. A staunch Roman Catholic, he was (1618-1625) principal Secretary of State to James I. Baltimore's observation of the turbulent career of Virginia had convinced him that a commercial colony could not be successful, because of divided administration and the mercenary aims of non-resident stockholders. He went out with a colony to Newfoundland (1621) under a proprietary patent, but the inhospitable climate was against the project. In 1629 he landed at Jamestown with forty Catholic colonists; but the Protestant Virginians made it uncomfortable for the Romanists, and they returned to England.
Secures a charter for Maryland.
Baltimore thereupon secured a charter from King Charles I. for a tract of country north of Potomac river, the limits being imperfectly defined,—on the north, the fortieth degree of latitude (the southern boundary of the Plymouth Company's patent); on the west, a line drawn due north from the head of the Potomac. The lands embraced in this grant were within the bounds of Virginia, as specified in 1609, but had thus far not been occupied. |His son Cecil succeeds him.| At the king's request the country was named Maryland, in honor of his queen, Henrietta Maria. Lord Baltimore died before the charter had passed the seal, and was succeeded in his rights and titles by his son Cecil. The province of Maryland being made a palatinate, Lord Baltimore was given almost royal powers, the Crown reserving feudal supremacy and exacting a nominal yearly tribute. |Provisions of the charter.| The proprietor could declare war, make peace, appoint all officers, including judges, rule by martial law, pardon criminals, and confer titles. He was to summon the freemen to assist him in making laws, which were to be similar to those of England, but did not require the king's confirmation, and need not be sent to England. It was therefore impossible for the Privy Council to check or inaugurate legislation in Maryland. The relations between the Crown and his lordship being thus established, it was left for the colonists and the proprietor to settle their relation under the charter; but no tax could be levied without consent of the freemen.