CH. IV.] 1691. COLLEGE OF WILLIAM AND MARY. 189 certain trustees nominated and elected by the General Assembly of the colony. Nicholson and seventeen others nomi of his lieutenant. At this date, the At this date, the Rev. James Blair, who had some years before been a missionary in Virginia, returned to the colony with a commis-nated and appointed by the Assembly, sion as Commissary of the Bishop of London, whose jurisdiction extended over the entire American colonies. Mr. Blair was a Scotchman by birth, an earnest, able, devoted man, and for the next half century he exercised a large measure of influence in Virginia.* It was mainly in consequence of Blair's zealous activity that the king granted a charter for "The College of William and Mary in Virginia." The preamble states, "that the Church of Virginia may be furnished with a Seminary of ministers of the Gospel, and that the youth may be piously educated in good letters and manners, and that the Christian faith may be propagated among the western Indians, to the glory of Almighty God"-their trusty and well beloved subjects, constituting the General Assembly of their colony of Virginia, have had it in their minds, and have proposed to themselves, to found and establish a certain place of universal study, or perpetual college of divinity, philosophy, languages, and other good arts and sciences, consisting of one president, six masters or professors, and a hundred scholars, more or less, according to the ability of said college, and its statutes, to be made by * "Of the activity and practical usefulness of this excellent man, sufficient evidence will be furnished in the statement, that when, at the advanced age of eighty-eight, he died, he had been sixty-four years a minister of the Gospel; fifty-three years Commissary for Virginia; president of a College for forty-nine years; and a member of the king's council for fifty." -Hawks's "Prot. Epis. Ch. in Virginia," p. 75. "were confirmed as trustees, and were empowered to hold and enjoy lands, possessions, and incomes, to the yearly value of £2,000, and all donations, bestowed for their use. The Rev. James Blair, nominated and elected by the Assembly, was made first president, and the Bishop of London was appointed and confirmed by their majesties to be the first chancellor of the college. To defray the charges of building the college, and supporting the president and masters, the king and queen gave nearly £2,000, and endowed the college with twenty thousand acres of the best land, together with the perpetual revenue arising from the duty of one penny per pound on all tobacco transported from Virginia and Maryland to the other English plantations. By the charter, liberty was given to the president and masters or professors to elect one member of the House of Burgesses of the General Assembly. In grateful acknowledgment of the royal patronage and benefaction, the college was called William and Mary."* This was the second college founded in North America. Sir Edmund Andros, of whose troubles in New England we have already spoken, was appointed Governor of Virginia in 1692. Contrary to what might have been expected 1692. of him from his previous course, Andros rendered himself very popular in * Holmes's "American Annals," vol. i., p. 443, eration acts were extended to the dissenters. Although this last was a step in the right direction, yet but little, if any, aid was to be expected from the royal governors towards attaining enlarged political freedom. "The powers of the governor," says Mr. Bancroft, “were exorbitant; he was at once lieutenant general and admiral, lord treasurer and chancellor, the chief judge in all courts, president of the council, and bishop or ordinary, so that the armed force, the revenue, the interpretation of law, the administration of justice, the church,all were under his control or guardianship."* Checks on this power, it is true, did exist, in the instructions from the mother country, the Council, and the General Assembly; but, as the instructions were kept secret, the members were in a great measure dependent on the governor for their seats, and as the Assembly was under pretty strict surveillance and occupied somewhat of a subordinate position, the governor, if so disposed, was at liberty to exercise tyrannical sway over the people. Nicholson, in 1698, was reappointed to Virginia, and, with his usual activity, undertook various measures for the benefit of the colony. An act was passed in December of this year 1698. for the building of a new city, which was to be hereafter the capital of the province in place of Jamestown. The college had already been erected at Middle Plantation, and the region having proved salubrious, the site of the new city was fixed upon in the vicinity of the college on two pleasant creeks that run out of James and York Rivers. As showing their loyal devotion the streets of the new city, named Williamsburg, were laid out in the form of a cypher made from the letters W and M. In order to defray the expense of building a Capitol or State House, the tax on liquors was continued, and a new tax on servants not born in England or Wales, and on slaves imported into the colony. During the same session, provision was made for thoroughly revising the colonial statutes, and also, in obedience to orders received from England, the benefits of the English tol- | iii., p. 26. The Virginians, however, nursed the spirit of independence in various ways. They knew well the importance of the colony to England; they were jealous of their rights; they would not vote money unless they could have some oversight of its distribution; and by their aristocratic tendencies they both acquired and retained extensive power in the management of public affairs. When Nicholson favored the project of * Bancroft's "History of the United States," vol. CH. IV.] DEPUTY GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. providing for the general defence of the colonies against the French by quotas of money, Virginia not only refused to vote its money but with entire unanimity justified its course, despite the special orders from England. Nicholson, having manifested his dissatisfaction in pretty plain terms, with this result, he became unpopular, and as he had been guilty of some acts that would not bear too close scrutiny he was removed in 1705. 1705. The ministers of Queen Anne now adopted a line of policy by no means wise or just. The office of governor was made a sinecure, and so remained for about fifty years, the nominal governor receiving three-fifths of the salary, or £1200 sterling annually, and the deputy governor receiving the balance, or £800 for doing all the work. The Earl of Orkney was the first governor under this arrangement. Edward Nott, the deputy, lived only a year; there was, however, effected during his brief administration a fifth revision of the Virginia code, which had been in progress for some years. Most of the provisions relate to the cases of indented servants, slaves, the Indians still remaining, etc., and in general the enactments are marked by a desire to promote humanity and justice. Each county was allowed two burgesses, and Jamestown one, to be elected by the freeholders. The twelve counsellors were allowed about $1600 annually, for their services in attending the General Assembly and Courts, in proportion to the time spent in actual duty. On Mr. Nott's death, the place of lieutenant was bestowed upon Hunter, 191 1706. 1710. afterwards governor of New York, but he having been captured by the French on his passage out, Edmund Jennings, president of the Council for several years, discharged the duties of the post. Alexander Spotswood, a military officer of age, judgment, and conciliating manners, was appointed deputy governor in 1710; and he brought with him the formal extension of the habeas corpus act to the province of Virginia. Soon after his arrival, Spotswood, who seems to have been in advance of his compeers in divining the purposes of the French in the west and south west, undertook an expedition across the Blue Ridge, and thereby opened the way to a knowledge of the country on the Ohio and Western lakes. Although no immediate results followed this expedition, yet it was a good beginning; Spotswood was knighted, and in due time the beautiful valley beyond the Ridge was settled by colonists. In 1711, the province was re- 1711. presented by Spotswood as in a state of entire peace and happiness, and though occasional trials of his equanimity occurred, when Councils were stubborn and Assemblies obstinate, yet, on the whole, the gallant deputy governor passed the thirteen years of his official life in Virginia in quiet and satisfaction; probably Mr. Bancroft is correct in terming him "the best in the line of Virginia governors.” He In 1723, Hugh Drysdale was sent out as Spotswood's successor. proved himself quite acceptable to the Virginians, and reported to the authorities at home that there 1723. 1735. was in the province "general harmony and contentment." Drysdale's death occurred in 1727, and the government was committed to William Gouch, a military officer of amiable manners and temper. Virginia enjoyed peace and prosperity for many years under his government.* Settlers also began to penetrate the Blue Ridge, and established themselves in the valley beyond. There were, however, no towns, as yet, in the ordinary sense of the word, and but few villages. The capitol at Williamsburg having been destroyed by fire, the burgesses endeavored to remove the seat of government; but the Council defeated the project. Near the close of Gouch's administration, the sixth and last colonial revisal of the Virginia code was made. 1748. As we have before stated, (p. 150,) the government of Maryland was for some three years in the hands 1692. of the insurgents. In 1692, the king sent out Lionel Copley as royal governor, under whom the Assembly not only repealed all existing laws, but enacted an entirely new code. The Church of England was established by law; the province was divided into thirty parishes, and tithes were imposed upon every inhabitant without regard to his religious opinions. Great complaints were made by the Roman Catholics and Quakers of the oppressiveness of this tax, and they spared no * During the ten years from 1720 to 1730, according to Mr. Hildreth, the value of goods exported from England to the North American colonies,-i. e. New England, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and Carolina,-was £4,712,992-$20,906,140; being an annual average of about $2,000,000. efforts to oppose the establishment in any and every way they could. The Rev. Dr. Bray, whose zeal and self-denial deserve to be held in honor, was appointed commissary by the Bishop of London, in 1696; it was 1696. through his efforts, that “The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts" was originated in 1698, and obtained a charter in 1701. Dr. Bray visited Maryland in 1699, returned to England the next year, and during the remainder of his life did all in his power to promote the spiritual interests of the Colonies. 1702, by the act of toleration, every sect was allowed liberty except the Roman Catholic. Two years later, after Colonel Seymour had arrived as governor, legalized persecution was set on foot against the papists; mass was forbidden to be said publicly; and children were tempted to hypoc In 1702. risy by offers of shares in their 1709. parents' property, etc. Seymour died in 1709, and John Hart was appointed governor in 1714. The first Lord Baltimore had become a Roman Catholic from conviction; the present successor to his title and estates, perceiving that ruin was impending unless he or his family could obtain a restoration of the proprietary rights, prevailed upon his son Benedict Leonard, to embrace the doctrines of the Established Church. This having been done, the administration of the colony was restored to the 1715. * Dr. Bray died in 1730, at an advanced age.-See Dr. Hawks's" Protestant Episcopal Church in Maryland," p. 82, etc., for a more full account of this excellent man and his labors. CH. IV.] PROGRESS OF CAROLINA. Calvert family, in full. His infant son, Charles, his father having died within a year-succeeded as the fifth Lord Baltimore. Hart was continued in office, and though no special effect was produced in Maryland by this change of religious views on the part of the proprietary, it was judged expedient, by the legislature, to impose a test oath by which Roman Catholics were excluded from all share in the government. Charles Calvert, a kinsman of the proprietary, succeeded Hart as governor, in 1720. Some years later the free school system was carried out, with advantage to the colony and its progress. 1720. 1727. com 193 1690. In Carolina, Philip Ludwell was appointed by the proprietaries, in 1690, to the governorship of that province. Sothel was pelled to retire from the place he had usurped, (see page 128) and Ludwell began his administration, over both South and North Carolina, in a way that promised to give peace and satisfaction to the colony. It was, however, of but short duration. The old enmities between Churchmen and Dissenters, and between these same and the Huguenots, now considerable in number and political importance, were revived, and Ludwell, in 1693, retired in disgust. He was suc- 1693. A younger brother of the proprie- ceeded in Albemarle by Thomas Hartary was governor of Maryland from vey, and in the southern province by 1727 onward: during his administra- Thomas Smith, a man of high charaction, acts were passed offering ter and a member of the Council. The bounties on flax, hemp, and iron."Grand Model," which had never satisCalvert went to England in 1732, and fied any one, was this same year-1693 soon after the proprietary in person ar--formally abrogated, it being voted rived in the colony. His main object by the proprietaries, "That as the peowas to endeavor to agree upon the line ple have declared they would rather be between Maryland, and Pennsylvania governed by the powers granted by the and Delaware. The controversy was charter, without regard to the funda not settled until after some twenty mental constitutions, it will be for their years of litigation. Lord Baltimore quiet, and the protection of the wellreturned to England in 1736, disposed, to grant their request." and Benjamin Ogle took charge of the administration of public affairs. During the remainder of the period between this and the peace of Aix-laChapelle, Maryland continued to advance in prosperity, and was ready to take her share in the measures rendered necessary by the jealousy of the French, and the near approach of that contest for the mastery soon to be fought between the hostile nations and colonies. VOL. I.-27 1736. In order to restore tranquility, Smith advised the proprietaries to send over one of their own number. This advice was adopted; the place was offered to the Earl of Shaftesbury; on his declining, John Archdale, a worthy Quaker, was appointed. His measures were, on the whole, judicious and productive of good results, and having succeeded in allaying some of the 1695. ferments and disputes between contend |