Harvey's fight against the charges his enemies brought against him in England suffered another blow when Mr. Anthony Panton, a minister who had been twice banished from the colony, returned to England to add his complaints to those of the others. Harvey was not given a chance to defend himself against the new charges, and on January 11, 1639, Sir Francis Wyatt was appointed to succeed him.
On Wyatt's arrival Harvey's estate was seized and the old Governor prevented from returning to England until he could satisfy his creditors. To meet their demands, Harvey, in 1640, was forced to sell all his land and much of his personal property. The fact that he was in debt to many persons in the colony is itself a significant indication that he had not abused the powers of his office. It is a curious fact that both Governor Sir William Berkeley and Governor Harvey were much in debt when the rebellions against their rule began, while their principal enemies were among the wealthiest men in the colony.
Harvey was finally able to return to England, probably in 1641. There he found Anthony Panton continuing his campaign of defamation against him. Panton was not content to accuse the previous government in Virginia of every sort of general crime (although he failed to cite any specific instance of oppression) but charged that the commission the King had granted to Sir William Berkeley in August 1641 to replace Wyatt had been surreptitiously obtained. The House of Lords therefore ordered Berkeley's voyage delayed while they examined the case. The House of Commons, on the basis of an earlier petition from Panton, had similarly prevented the return to Virginia of Richard Kemp, Secretary of the colony, and Christopher Wormeley. Both Berkeley and the two Virginians presented counterpetitions, the one pointing out that he was charged with nothing and hence desired not to be held up on his costly voyage, the others asserting that all Panton's accusations were untrue and similarly requesting permission to leave. The House of Lords thereupon granted these petitions, sending Panton's charges to the Governor and Council of Virginia for a decision.
The Early Administration of Sir William Berkeley, 1642-1644: an Era of Good Feeling
In March 1642 Sir William Berkeley took up his duties in Virginia and began a career which ended both gloriously and ignominiously thirty-five years later. Berkeley came from a distinguished family, was a graduate of Oxford and the Inns of Court, a playwright, and a courtier much admired by the King. Men frequently wondered why he chose to waste his talents in the American wilderness when he might have achieved eminence at Court. The mystery will probably ever remain. In Virginia Berkeley had to work with many of the same Councilors who bedeviled Harvey, but Berkeley was able to get along well with them and with the Assembly and people of Virginia. No Governor of Virginia in the seventeenth century was ever so well or so deservedly loved by the people. Since he ended his long career as Governor amidst a colonial rebellion against his rule in 1676, historians have found it hard to determine whether to bestow praise or blame upon him. Usually he is praised for his early years in the government and condemned for his later years, thus taking on a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde character. The last word has not yet been written on Governor Berkeley, however, and his character may prove to be more consistent than historians have realized.
Berkeley's first action was to join the Burgesses and Council in a violent denunciation of those who were attempting to reinstitute the old Virginia Company's control over the colony. In a "Declaration against the Company" Berkeley and the Assembly asserted that government under the Company had been intolerable and if introduced again would destroy all the democratic rights allowed by the King's instructions, such as legal trial by jury, the right to petition the King, and yearly Assemblies. The readmission of the Company would also, the declaration asserted, impeach the "freedom of our trade (which is the blood and life of a commonwealth)." The declaration went on to order that anyone who promoted the restoration of the Company's power would, upon due conviction, be held an enemy to the colony and forfeit his whole estate.
Berkeley's next action was to recommend the repeal of the tax of four pounds of tobacco per poll which formerly had been levied for the Governor's use. The Assembly acknowledged this as "a benefit descending unto us and our posterity ... contributed to us by our present Governor." Berkeley abolished certain other valuable emoluments due him by virtue of his office "wherein," the Assembly declared, "we may not likewise silence the bounty of our present Governor in preferring the public freedom before his particular profit." Finally Berkeley recommended that taxes be proportioned in some measure "according to mens abilities and estates" rather than by the old poll tax system, and the new scheme was, for a brief period, put into effect.
Governor Berkeley not only showed himself selfless in restraining his own opportunities for profit, but fearless in restraining the colonists' itch for land. A few months before his arrival, the Assembly had authorized settlement both on the north side of the York and in the Rappahannock area, if it could be done in great enough force. Opechancanough was to be offered fifty barrels of corn a year for the area between the York and the Piankatank, although the English proposed to take the area whether Opechancanough accepted the offer or not. Twenty-four years had elapsed before English settlement jumped from the James to the York. Now, ten years after the first settlements on the York, Virginians were settling on the next great river to the north, the Rappahannock. By the time Berkeley arrived, some settlers had established themselves in the area, and many more had claimed grants. Indian hostility was great, however, and soon a number of the settlers returned to more secure areas of the country.
Berkeley, working with the Assembly of March 1643, obtained a law which provided that the Rappahannock River region should remain "unseated," though grants might be tentatively claimed in the area, until the Governor, Council, and Burgesses, that is, the Grand Assembly, should authorize settlement there. The Governor was attempting to regulate the expansion of the colony so that the twin goals of security for the English and justice for the Indians could both be secured. In this he was not entirely successful, since he could only guide, not arbitrarily direct, the representatives of the people. The rich, virgin land of the frontier exerted a continuing attraction to the tobacco planters, and five years later, in 1648, the restrictions on settlement in the Rappahannock region, as well as in the Potomac region, were officially lifted.
Many other important policy decisions were made at the March 1643 meeting of the Grand Assembly. One of these decisions concerned church government. The first act provided for the establishment of church government according to the Anglican form. Virginia was not formed as a protest against the Church of England, as were the Puritan colonies in New England in large measure. Conformity in religious matters was considered a virtue in Virginia. The Assembly, indeed, enacted that nonconformist ministers be compelled to depart the colony, an act which did much to sour Virginia's relations with New England. What was significant about the act, however, was that, with certain exceptions and qualifications, it gave the vestry of every parish power to elect the minister of the parish. Because established landlords and nobles did not exist to build and endow churches as in England, the representatives of the people, in the vestry, had to assume the role of patron, to build the church, and to provide for the support of the minister. In such circumstances it was natural that much of the power that remained in the hierarchy of church, state, and society in England should, in Virginia, pass to the ordinary people and be exercised through their representatives—the vestry and Burgesses. The people, not the King, became the patron of the Church of England in Virginia. Popular responsibility replaced clerical responsibility and added one more phase of life to those controlled directly by the people in the New World. It is significant that Patrick Henry, years before the Revolution, should first have asserted the doctrine of popular responsibility and authority in a case—the celebrated "Parsons' Cause"—involving the people's authority over the church.