The colonists, too, suffered during the administrations of West and Pott. One man expressed the hope for "an Easterly wind to blow to send in Noble Capt. Harvey, And then I shall have wright for all my wrong." Capt. John Harvey was known in the colony for the investigation he had conducted in Virginia in 1624-1625, and the King had appointed him Governor on March 26, 1628. Harvey did not actually take up his government in Virginia until two years later. In the meantime West and Pott administered the colony.
Virginia Under John Harvey, 1630-1632: Expansion and Development
When Harvey arrived in 1630 he found that inadequate restrictions placed on tobacco production in the previous years had created an enormous surplus which had forced the price down to a penny a pound. Harvey found also that because of their "greedie desires to make store of Tobackoe," the settlers had neglected to plant sufficient corn, let alone to develop different commodities as instructed by the King. Calling an Assembly, he convinced the representatives to agree to reduce the amount of tobacco planted, and to increase the amount of corn. He also sent ships into the Chesapeake and southward to Cape Fear to trade for corn with the Indians to make up the deficit left by the negligent planters. But most important of all, Harvey put into effect the long-dreamed-of plan to secure the entire area between the James and the York by building a palisade between Archer's Hope Creek (now College Creek), emptying into the James River, and Queen's Creek, emptying into the York River. Harvey's plan called also for a settlement on the south side of the York. This outpost would serve as an advance base and point of defense for operations against Opechancanough, King of the Pamunkeys, and his many warriors. Six hundred acres apiece were granted there in 1630 to Capt. John West, brother of Lord Delaware, and to Capt. John Utie, who were made commanders of the settlement. Fifty acres were offered to any person who would settle there during the first year of its existence and twenty-five during the next year. Exactly when the first settlers moved to the York is uncertain, but it was probably in 1631. West and Utie settled on either side of a bay formed by the joining of King's Creek and Felgate's Creek about four miles above modern Yorktown. The tourist who speeds along the Colonial Parkway from Jamestown to Yorktown crosses the bay within sight of the tracts granted West and Utie. Today he may drive from Jamestown to the York with comfort and safety in a few minutes. It took the early settlers twenty-four years to cover the same distance.
About the same time, probably in 1630, another distant settlement was established. William Claiborne, Secretary of the Council of State of Virginia, with one hundred men, settled Kent Island 150 miles up Chesapeake Bay. In the Assembly of February 1632 both "Kiskyacke and the Isle of Kent" were represented by Capt. Nicholas Martiau, ancestor of George Washington.
The great expansion had now begun. Settlers crossed from the James to the York, and provision was made by an act of the Assembly of February 1633 for building houses at Middle Plantation, situated strategically between College Creek and Queen's Creek, and for "securing" the tract of land lying between the two creeks.
Besides being concerned with questions of defense, Harvey pursued a policy of encouraging trade with other colonies in the New World. Numerous commissions were issued by the Governor in March and April of 1632 authorizing individuals to trade with New England, Nova Scotia, and the Dutch plantation in Hudson's River, as well as with the West Indies. Harvey even gave instructions to Nathaniel Basse, one of the traders and a member of the Council, to encourage people from the other colonies to come to Virginia. "If those of Newe England shall dislike the coldnes of there clymate or the barrenness of the soyle," wrote Harvey, "you may propose unto them the plantinge of Delaware bay, where they shall have what furtherance wee cann afford them, and noe impediment objected against theire owne orders and lawes."
But all was not well in the government of the colony. Harvey found the Council members constantly opposing him, disputing his authority, resisting his attempts to administer equal justice to all men. The royal Governor was not supreme as we now sometimes mistakenly assume. He was first among equals only. Decisions at this time were made by majority vote, and the Governor was frequently outvoted. Moreover the Councilors, who could devote more of their time to their private affairs, tended to be better off financially than the Governor himself, who found it next to impossible to get his salary from the King, and who was forced to entertain at his own expense all who came to James City. Harvey complained that he should be called the "host" rather than the "Governor" of Virginia. In contrast, Samuel Mathews, one of Harvey's enemies on the Council, owned the finest estate in Virginia. William Claiborne, another of Harvey's enemies on the Council, besides a large estate, had a royal commission and English backers for his powerful trading company.
Harvey made every effort to reconcile the differences which arose between him and the Council members, and on December 20, 1631, all signed an agreement promising to work in harmony and to mend their discontent.
Fortified by this agreement, Harvey went forward with his efforts to put Virginia's agricultural economy on a sound basis. The principal problem was to force the planters to diversify. Many tears are shed for the poverty of the planters of Virginia, and their customary indebtedness to English creditors is usually cited as proof of their poverty. But this "poverty" was not based on the inability of the planter to raise enough food to support himself and his family, but on the fluctuations of the market price of the crop—tobacco—to which he had devoted most of his energies as a speculative venture. Strange as it may seem, the planter had to be forced to raise enough food for his own support, so avid was his desire for quick tobacco profits.