Economic History of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century

Front matter

ECONOMIC HISTORY OF VIRGINIA IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

AN INQUIRY INTO THE MATERIAL CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE, BASED UPON ORIGINAL AND CONTEMPORANEOUS RECORDS

BY

Preface

TO THE MEMORY OF

My Sister

ANNE BRUCE PAGE

THE BEAUTY OF WHOSE LIFE AND CHARACTER

THE PATHOS OF WHOSE EARLY DEATH

AND THE CALAMITY OF WHOSE IRREPARABLE LOSS

THE PASSAGE OF TIME

HAS ONLY SERVED TO IMPRESS MORE DEEPLY

UPON THE MINDS AND HEARTS OF

THOSE WHO LOVED HER

PREFACE

In studying the history of the Virginian people in the seventeenth century, apart from the course of events, it will be found that the general subject falls under the following heads.

I. Economic Condition. II. Social Life. III. Religious Establishment and Moral Influences. IV. Education. V. Military Regulations. VI. Administration of Justice. VII. Political System.

By following in minute detail the various ramifications of each of these special subjects, some offering a broader field for treatment than others, a perfectly complete account might be written of the state of the people of the Colony in that age. In the present work, I have confined myself very strictly to an investigation of their economic condition alone. Where this has encroached upon the boundary of any of the other divisions which I have named, I have, except in a few instances, refrained from pursuing the subject beyond that point. Thus, no references have been made to printing in Virginia in the seventeenth century and the degree to which books entered into the inventories of the planters’ estates, because such references, it appeared, f the use of this material in houses, because it seemed to be more consistent to include it under the head of the Religious Establishment. For the same reason, also the scope of taxation and the powers of the vestries have only been dwelt upon incidentally to facts relating directly to the economic condition of the people. A full account of both would with more fitness be given under the head of the Political System. Similar limitations, but in no instance of special importance, will be observed in other branches of the subject, as treated in this work.

The overwhelming mass as well as the extraordinary variety of the matter which enters into the economic history of Virginia in the Colonial Age are clearly shown in my own experience in approaching the subject. I began with the intention of writing an account of the economic condition of the Virginian people in the period between the Revolution and the late War. After investigation extending over several months, I perceived that it would be impossible to obtain a thorough understanding of this period, unless a careful examination was made of their economic condition in colonial times. Becoming very much interested in the study of the different economic aspects of that age, I determined to narrow the scope of my work to the interval between the foundation of Jamestown and the Declaration of Independence. As the course of my inquiry proceeded, the details relating to the subject grew into such volume that I was compelled to confine my attention to the seventeenth century; and even with this restriction, the field under examination expanded to such an extent that it was only by condensing the material collected, as far as was possible, that the work has been kept within reasonable limits.

In the preparation of this work, I have had access to a great mass of original manuscripts which have never been used. for the same general purpose before. These manuscripts include the nine large folio volumes of Land Patents for the seventeenth century now in the office of the Register in the Capitol at Richmond, and the seventy-five or more volumes, both folio and quarto, of the records for the same period, of the counties of Henrico, York, Lower Norfolk, Elizabeth City, Surry, Middlesex, Lancaster, Rappahannock, Accomac, and Northampton. These volumes are kept in the clerk’s offices in the counties named. Copies of the records of Henrico, York, Rappahannock, Elizabeth City, and Surry have been made and deposited in the Virginia State Library,—a fact which is due to the success of Mr. Lyon G. Tyler, the President of the venerable William and Mary College, in securing from the Legislature an appropriation for that purpose. The very large collection of original manuscripts in the possession of the Virginia Historical Society relating to the same period—the Ludwell, Randolph, Byrd, and Fitzhugh, and also the General Court MSS. covering the interval between 1670 and 1676, together with transcripts of a varied mass of records belonging to the same century, made by or at the instance of the late Conway Robinson, Esq.—have been of very great use to me. In the Virginia State Library are preserved the Winder, MacDonald, and Sainsbury Papers, twenty-two quarto volumes, containing either exact copies or very full abstracts of all the documents in the British Public Record Office relating to the same century. In the same depository are the Reports of the Royal Historical Manuscripts Commission, and the Calendar of Virginia State Papers, the earlier volumes of which, edited with great care and learning by Dr. William P. Palmer, throw the most important light on the Colonial Age. Mr. Alexander Brown’s noble collection of private and public documents in his Genesis of the United States, a collection which will always be a monument to his patience, industry, and scholarship; the Works of Captain John Smith as edited by Professor Arber; and the Abstracts of Proceedings of the Virginia Company of London, published by the Virginia Historical Society, have furnished me invaluable information in the investigation of the condition of the people in the first decades of the century. Largely owing to the scholarly care of Mr. Charles Poindexter, late State Librarian, the collection of tracts bearing upon the history of Virginia throughout that whole period, now in the State Library at Richmond, is one of the most complete to be found in this country, and upon this collection I have drawn to very great advantage. A complete list of all the authorities used in the preparation of this work, with the special editions consulted, will be found appended.

An exhaustive chronological history of Virginia in the Colonial Age has never been written, and this is also true of the period that has elapsed since the creation of the State. There are several biographies of Virginian statesmen of the era of the Revolution, written by Virginians, which reflect very high honor upon American historical scholarship; notably Kate Mason Rowland’s Life of George Mason, William Wirt Henry’s Life of Patrick Henry, and William C. Rives’s Life of James Madison. No attempt, however, previous to the present has been made to describe the purely economic condition of the Virginian people in detail. To undertake the task, although its scope was to be confined to the survey of a single century, was to assume the part of a pioneer. I shall feel fully rewarded for the labor, thought, and time expended in the present work if the only result accomplished by it shall be to direct the attention of zealous and discriminating scholars to a field marked by the most extraordinary wealth of matter, interesting in itself and of far-reaching importance in its relation to the subsequent history, not only of Virginia, but also of the United States.

In conclusion, it only remains for me to express my appreciation of the kindness of my brother, Professor James Douglas Bruce of Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania, in reading and assisting me to correct my manuscript. I am also indebted to him for warm encouragement in the course of my investigations, and for unvarying interest in the progress of my work.

PHILIP A. BRUCE.

Virginia Historical Society Building,

Richmond, Va. Sept. 1, 1895.

Bibliography

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I. Reasons for the Colonization of Virginia

ECONOMIC HISTORY OF VIRGINIA

CHAPTER I

REASONS FOR THE COLONIZATION OF VIRGINIA

The age of Elizabeth was for some reasons the most memorable in the history of English commerce. The great outburst of literary genius, which reflects so much splendor upon the closing years of the reign of that justly celebrated queen, was hardly more remarkable than the daring commercial spirit which, during the same period, pushed its ventures as far to the south as Guinea, to the north as Archangel, to the east as India and Persia, and to the west as Newfoundland and Roanoke. Hawkins and Drake, Cumberland and Raleigh, in their incursions upon the Spanish dominions in America, were really promoting the growth of a legitimate English foreign trade, not only in checking the power of the Spanish king by the destruction of his cities and fleets, but also in accustoming the English people to distant lands hitherto unknown or unregarded, although eminently fitted by nature to become the scene of an active and lucrative commerce. Some of the expeditions sent out combined purposes of barter and discovery with colonization, but whenever colonization was also designed, it was to enlarge the volume of English trade.

In the letters patent for the erection of the colonies, granted before the first charter of the Virginia Companies was issued, no attempt was made to define the local boundaries of the countries to be occupied by the patentees, unless the authority given to Cabot in 1498 to take possession of Baccalaos, the general region of the modern Newfoundland, can be considered as an exception. The charters of Gilbert and Raleigh conferred merely the right to discover and plant remote and barbarous lands which were not under the dominion of a Christian prince or people. There was no reference to America, notwithstanding the fact that it was clearly understood by the patentees that it was this part of the globe which was expected to be the scene of their explorations and the territory to be occupied by them. Although John Cabot was granted the right to erect a settlement in Baccalaos, yet as he took no steps to found it, so far as the records of his second voyage disclose, he cannot be looked upon as the father of English colonization in the Western Hemisphere; that enduring honor belongs to Sir Humphrey Gilbert, the heroic sailor whose name should be invested with a greater degree of fame than it enjoys. He received his letters patent in 1578, and the powers which they contained are interesting in the light of those conferred many years afterwards on the London Company. Upon him was bestowed an absolute title to the countries which he should occupy. He was authorized to expel from these countries all persons who had not obtained his permission to enter, and to seize upon every ship, the master of which was found trading in that jurisdiction without his special license, and to appropriate its cargo. Gilbert and those who would succeed him were left at liberty to adopt whatever regulations they should consider necessary for the government of their colony, in every branch of its affairs, provided that the enactments were not repugnant to the written or unwritten laws of England. They could give an ownership in the soil in fee simple, subject only to the condition that one-fifth of all the precious metals found in each plantation was to be reserved for the sovereign. Those religious doctrines were to be supported which were professed in the Church of England. The inhabitants were to enjoy the personal and political rights which the English people possessed in their native country.

In the testamentary assignment which Gilbert made of the powers he acquired under these letters patent, in anticipation of a fatal ending to the new adventure he had then projected, he gave instructions as to how these powers were to be put into practice, which recall the various provisions that at a later period were enforced by the quarter courts of the London Company in carrying into effect the general rights conferred by its charter. The disastrous

result of the voyage upon which he set out in 1583 is one of the most memorable events of the sixteenth century. Shaping his course towards Newfoundland, he, in the name of his sovereign, took possession of that country with imposing ceremonies; afterwards sailing southward, his fleet was overtaken by heavy storms, and these causing much damage and destruction, he decided to return to England, and while on his way the ship which he occupied foundered with all on board.

The mantle dropped by Sir Humphrey Gilbert at his death fell upon the shoulders of his half-brother, Sir Walter Raleigh, one of the most brilliant and versatile men who have performed a leading part in the annals of the world. In 1584 Raleigh obtained a charter which was the exact counterpart of the letters patent to Gilbert. It granted the same powers, privileges, and jurisdictions. In a spirit of prudence, he sent out a preliminary expedition to the coast of America, for the purpose of acquiring by actual observation the information necessary for the guidance of the greater expedition which was to follow. Unfortunately, Amadas and Barlow made a landing on the Hatteras coast, and were thus led to recommend that the territory at this point should be the site of the proposed settlement. If these two captains had first dropped anchor in the Chesapeake instead of in the modern Albemarle Sound, the successful colonization of Virginia would probably have been anticipated by a quarter of a century. The occupation by Raleigh proceeded somewhat further than the ceremony performed by Gilbert in taking possession of Newfoundland in 1583, but it was equally fruitless of a permanent settlement. In this unsuccessful attempt to secure an enduring foothold there, disasters appealing with peculiar force to the imagination occurred, but they were not sufficient to weaken the determination of the English people to turn to their advantage the natural products of the empire which they claimed beyond the Atlantic. The letters patent of Raleigh expired with his attainder. Not long before that event, however, several voyages were made to America, which quickened the popular interest in England in its colonization. Gosnold in 1602, Pring in 1603, and Weymouth in 1605, were important forerunners of the emigrants of 1606.

All the ventures preceding the formation of the London Company went to show that the task of colonization was beyond the resources of a single individual or small associations of merchants looking to their private advantage. A short while before the charter of the two Virginia Companies was granted, there was issued a paper entitled “Reasons for raising a Fund for the Support of a Colony at Virginia,” which sought to prove the indispensableness in all enterprises for the foundation of settlements abroad, of that prince’s purse which Hakluyt had declared was necessary “to an action if it was to be fulfilled without lingering.” A brief statement of the substance of this paper throws much light upon the practical motives in which the memorable undertaking of 1606 had its origin. It was asserted by the author that all the previous attempts to colonize Virginia had failed because the persons who had participated in them had been worn out by the long delays, or had been disconcerted by jealousies, or had been unwilling to sustain any project not crowned with immediate success. It was more to the honor of a State, the author of the “Reasons” went on to say, to have a great enterprise which had first taken shape among its people carried through by public concert than by private monopoly. An undertaking having the public support was more likely to attract to it men of the highest qualities than one relying upon a small body of adventurers, inasmuch as it offered more opportunities of winning personal reputation, and was less subject to the distractions of fraud and envy. The safety of the commonwealth demanded that a discovery once begun should be advanced to completeness in order that the impression might not be spread abroad that the persons who started it were idle or lacking in resources to make their project fully successful. To stop half-way in a discovery was to give up the title acquired by what had been accomplished, and thus to leave to the next explorer the right to establish colonies in the country abandoned. The fact that a settlement was made by means of a public fund rendered it improbable that foreign states, however hostile, would venture to attack it, the consequences of such aggression being far more serious than if the interests of a few private individuals were trampled upon. The commonwealth was not only more able to hold and defend a colony which it had erected, but it was also in a more favorable position to promote the interests of such a community. The room for employment in a settlement established and sustained by the State was far greater for persons of high rank than if it owed its existence and advancement to a few persons. A public fund, in prescribing the limit of individual investment, diminished the chance of heavy individual losses in carrying through all enterprise which had colonization in view. Such losses, if incurred at all, fell upon a large instead of a small number of persons, and being generally distributed, were borne without serious inconvenience.

Turning from the special advantages to accrue from the assumption by the public wealth of the work of colonization, the author of the “Reasons” dwelt upon those aspects of an undertaking to throw open a virgin country to population and the arts, which were common to a private and public enterprise. It would enlarge the trade of the kingdom; it would increase the number of ships and mariners; it would create a field in the control of England where naval stores could be acquired; it would furnish a new market for the disposal of English clothing; it would disperse among kindred, instead of among enemies and lukewarm friends, the English gold used in purchasing the commodities which the English soil was incapable of producing.

Thirty years previous to the composition of this remarkable paper, a number of the citizens of the Western counties had entered a petition with the Lord High Admiral for permission to adventure themselves and their merchandise in a scheme looking to the discovery of new trades, which, in addition to enlarging the bounds of the Christian religion, would promote the beneficial utterance of the commodities of England, increase and maintain seamen, and give a vent to the overflowing population at home. The same general statement as to the advantages to result from colonization was set forth in the appeal which Captain Carlile made in 1583, when he was seeking the assistance of the English merchants in advancing his project for establishing settlements in America. Colonies in that quarter, said he, would raise up communities which would consume vast quantities of English woollen goods; they would supply an abundance of naval stores; they would draw off the idle people of the kingdom; they would offer a promising field for the discovery of mines of the precious metals; and would open up the most direct passage to the Indian Sea. Sir George Peckham, who was associated with Sir Humphrey Gilbert in the costs of the voyage of 1583, in his argument in favor of planting an English colony in the Western world, set forth substantially the same forcible reasons.

It is interesting to find that these anticipated benefits were brought forward in a number of discourses that were either spoken or written after the first settlement in Virginia had been established. In enumerating the advantages which would flow to England from its American colony, the author of the Nova Britannia in 1609 dwelt at length on the supply of timber to be procured there, the wine and fruit, the silk, flax and hemp, the tar and soap ashes. Mines of gold and silver were to be found there. Virginia would become the home of myriads of English emigrants. It would furnish a market for English cloth. In enlarging the volume of English trade, it would increase the amount of English shipping.

Crashaw, in the sermon which he delivered in 1610 before Lord Delaware and the Council for the Colony in London, declared that the purposes the plantation was designed to accomplish were to enrich the nation by the discovery and development of mines and other natural sources of wealth; to enlarge the navy by increasing the demand for vessels and mariners, which would also strengthen the defences of the kingdom; to lessen the dependence of the English people upon foreign countries for certain commodities by their production in Virginia; to draw off the surplus population, this being now so great as to lead to many disorders; and finally to wipe away the stain inflicted upon the reputation of England by the refusal of Henry VII to accept the proposals of Columbus.

William Strachey, in a like manner, summed up the reasons that should lead the English people to give their active support to the colonization of Virginia, declaring that it was a fertile and spacious country which would afford the amplest room and the most abundant sustenance for the growing multitude of those inhabitants of England who passed their lives in idleness and destitution; that it would offer a secure harbor for English ships in case England and Spain went to war and those seas became the scene of battle; that it would furnish the English ship-yards with a vast quantity of the finest timber, which could now be purchased only of foreign countries and at exorbitant rates; that it would pour into the lap of England a constant stream of the precious metals; and that it would assure the discovery of the nearest route to the South Sea. It will be seen from this testimony that the anticipa of Englishmen as to the advantages to result from the colonization of Virginia were substantially the same, however widely separated the periods in which the witnesses quoted lived. It will be interesting to examine in detail the most important of the reasons offered. The foremost in their influence upon the minds of the greater number of shareholders of the London Company when the enterprise was inaugurated were the probable presence of gold there and the supposed nearness of the country to the South Sea. So powerful in that age was the working of these two expectations in the breasts of Englishmen, that Ralph Lane, after describing in the most glowing language the fertility of the soil, the rareness, variety, and profusion of the products, and the wholesomeness of the climate, of the modern Carolina coast, admitted with evident reluctance, “that the discovery of a good mine by the goodness of God, or a passage to the South Sea, or some way to it, and nothing else, can bring this country in request to be inhabited by our nation.” Clearly foreseeing the consequences of such a far-reaching discovery, Lane listened with credulous eagerness to the Indian reports of a mine near the upper waters of the Moratoc, and of a salt sea at its fountain-head.