Give Me Liberty

s for the latest news from England. Was King Charles still raising funds with which to run the government by means of forced loans? Was he still billeting his soldiers on

the table in each crude little tavern. Now it was the jailing of nine members of the House of Commons; now the granting of monopolies; now the collecting of

r gains might be lost. Might he not overthrow their Assembly? If he could imprison men arbitrarily in England, he would not hesitate to do so in Virginia. If he could tax the people of England under the th

remembered that it was he who had brought over the Virginia Magna Carta, and had called the first Assembly. W

report on conditions there to be used in overthrowing the charter of the Company. Just why it was thought that he was the right man to act as Governor is not apparent, for he was a mariner by vocation and had served as captain of a ship which went to

ain Francis West, brother of Lord De la Warr.[2] West was a seasoned Virginian, for he had come to the colony in 1608 with Captain Newport. He had been commander of Jamestown many years, and a member of the Council

as "Physician to the Company" and member of the Council. He was described as "a Master of Arts ... well practiced in chirurgery and physic, and expert in distilling of waters, besides many other ingenious devices."[3] He seems to have

rfidious savages knew nothing about the rules of war, so it was fair play to resort to anything that tended to their ruin. But this did not save Pott from criticism in England. The Earl of Warwick wa

d a colony of English Catholics there. But when four years later he visited the place, he found "the air so intolerable cold as it is hardly to b

of Catholics who were trying to lop off one of the most fertile parts of their territory. So to get rid of them the Governor and Council tendered my Lord the oath of supremacy, knowing that as a Catholic he could not take it, for to do so was to acknowledge the King as th

office would yield a good return. Only after the King had promised him the fines imposed by any of the courts did he set sail. His voyage was far from being pl

sm of Sir Edmund Andros in New England and of Lord Howard of Effingham in Virginia in the years just preceding the Glorious Revolution stemmed, not so much from the character of these men,

. If the King were in Virginia, would not his orders be obeyed? Then why not the orders of his Governor? He never tired of reminding the members of the Council and others that he was the King's substitute. When

y taxes without the consent of the Assembly. Otherwise one wonders why the Assembly should have thought it necessary to order "that the

was not difficult for him to secure any verdict he wished. So he had at hand an instrument to satisfy his lust for power by crushing those who resisted him, and his lust for money by imposing heavy fines. It

r and marking other men's cattle for his own, he suspended him from the Council, and confined him to his plantation pending the day of his trial. Whe

against him, Pott declared that he was as great a liar and hypocrite as Gusman of Alfrach. He was referring to the book by Mateo Alemán, of Seville, in which Gusman is shown first as a scullio

him. "It will be a means to bring people to ... hold a better respect to the Governor than hitherto they have done," he wrote.[9] But having shown his power to ruin, he now sought to show that he could also resto

d. Charles referred the case to the Virginia Commissioners, who listened sympathetically as she poured out the story of injustice and persecution.[11] They concluded that there had been "some hard u

justice was done but so far as suited his will to the great loss of many men's estates and a general fear in all." If other members of the court opposed him, he would revile them and tell

s said that there were an "infinite number of particular men's grievances."[14] William Claiborne thought it strange that Harvey "should so demean himself," for "all men were wronged, and even good and bad had forsaken him

right to determine all things. The Councillors were merely his assistants, whose duty it was to advise him, but not to oppose him. But the Councillors dissented vigorously. Look at your commission, they told him, and you will see that it direc

an do nothing but what they shall advise me, and that my power extendeth no further than a bare casting voice."[17] He had shown them a letter from the King strengthening his commission, but

ew up and signed a formal reconciliation. They promised "to swallow up and bury" all complaints, and to turn their "alienated and distempered" minds to though

Hinton, in an outburst of anger gave Harvey some "ill words," he ousted him from his seat. Love and peace were far indeed from the Governor's mind wh

ny. Needing two shallops, and hearing that one of the planters had an indentured worker who was a skilled shipwright, he seized him and put him to work. In this v

the King's service," he said. Speaking for the others, Samuel Mathews retorted angrily that if things were done in that fashion it would breed ill blood in Virginia. Turning his back he whirled a truncheon he carried in his hand, and lashed off the heads of

with Leonard and George Calvert, twenty "gentlemen adventurers," and three-hundred laborers, arrived at Point Comfort. They bore a letter to the Governor from t

r than sell them to the Marylanders. Some of the members of the Council had been informed by letters from England of Lord Baltimore's plans. When Samuel Mathews opened one of them, he threw his hat on the ground in a fury, stamped, and cried: "A pox upon Maryland!"[22] He, with Will

torn from Virginia and handed over to another government. The result was open warfare. It was prophetic of the battle between the Merrimac and the M

intensified the people's hatred of him. So he not only aids in the dismemberment of Virginia, it was said, but upholds

ll tobacco," at a lower price and a reduced quantity. The members of the Council, especially Samuel Mathews, John Utie, and William Pierce, opposed the contract "very saucily."[23] As for the Burgesses,

ands thereto, as thinking thereby to give it countenance."[24] The people were outraged. So our Governor takes it on himself to decide what or what not we shall say to our King. Is it not the right of all Englishmen to address their sover

hn Pott, took about the country. Everywhere he found the people tired of Harvey's arbitrary conduct, tired of his injustice to

or Warren's house was on or near the site of the Moore House, at Yorktown, where the British army under Lord Cornwallis surrendered a century and a half later. The speakers were denouncing Harvey's despotic government when some friends of the Gove

e brought up in irons. Pott handed over the petition and declared that if he had offended he appealed to the King. "He was sure of no justice from Sir John H

rial. In the dispute which followed Harvey became violently angry. Finally, he sat down and ordered the others to sit. Looking around with a frown, he said: "I

eupon Samuel Mathews spoke up to enter his protest. But instantly, in the King's name, he was told to be silent. Mathews insisted there was no precedent for this attempt to make men incriminate themselves unless it was that by a tyrant. Here he was alluding to the passage in Shakespeare's King Richard III in which Richard aske

a stern look what they thought was the reason for the petition against him. "The chief cause was the detaining of the letters to his Majesty," replied Mr. Menefie. This infuriated Harvey. Rising from his chair, he struck Menef

no harm intended against you only to acquaint you with the grievances of the inhabitants," he told him. So he poured out the recital of the wrongs done the colony and demanded that they be redressed. But the Governor, who was in no mood for making concessions, denied that any wrong had b

hreatening attitude of the people. At first the Governor said he would defy them to do their worst. Would it not be better to remain, though he be cut in a thousand pieces, than to desert his charge? he aske

ecretary Kemp, set an armed guard around him ostensibly to protect him from violence, posted armed men in "all ways and passages," called a General Assembly, and sent o

. And from here he wrote a threatening letter to the members of the Assembly, commanding them in the King's name to disperse. He also wrote Secretary Kemp demanding the return of his commission and instructions. The Councillors seized the first letter, r

d. As their agent to deliver these papers to the King they appointed one of the Burgesses, Thomas Harwood. With him went Francis Pott to plead his case before the King. Since it would

uth. Hardly had the ship touched dock when he hastened to see the mayor of the city to tell him of the "late mutiny and rebellion" in Virginia. So the mayor put Pott under arrest "as a prin

as carrying the mail. At Exeter he stopped at the Sign of the Valiant Soldier, and drank a pint of wine with the proprietor. This seems to have loosened his tongue, for he

l. It is possible that his accusation that Harwood "was one of the chief of the mutineer Burgesses that opposed his Majesty's service in the tobacco contract

clear himself of the charges against him, he would keep him there longer than he had intended. As a further vindication of his authority, he gave orders that West, Mathews, Utie, and Pierce, th

for Samuel Mathews, whose estate consisted largely of cattle, he vowed he would leave him not worth a cow's tail.[37] Yet he thought it prudent to ask for one of the King's ships, explaining that this would "much abate the boldness of the offenders." So on October 2, 1636, he set forth proudly

lished a temporary capital at Elizabeth City. Here he began immediately to turn sheriffs and justices out of office and replace them with men more to his liking.[38] Messengers wer

tige of the King's backing, he went to great extremes. The Reverend Anthony Panton accused him of "many arbitrary and illegal proceedings in judgment, tyranny, extortion." The "unjust whippings, cutting of ears, fining and confiscation of honest men's goods," must have brough

n the Star Chamber. But here the matter hung fire. George Donne, Muster General of Virginia and a member of the Council, who had come to England to prosecute the

confiscated. So they complained to the Privy Council. Mathews assured them that Harvey was bent on ruining him, and that he had been heard to say that if one "stood, tother shoul

excuse he found in a letter from the Privy Council expressing satisfaction with his administration. It was his excuse, also, for further severities against Mathews. Kemp and

alt with." "We cannot but clearly discern somewhat of passion in the said proceedings," they reported. So the Privy Council wrote again to Harvey, commandi

"his hair-lock was tied up with ribbon as old as St. Paul's." So he was now brought to trial, charged with mutinous speeches and disobedience to the Governor, and with disrespect to the Archbishop of Canterbury. The farcical character of justice as administered by Harvey is shown by the fact that in the t

der bail, devoted their time to undermining Sir John at Court. The Governor charged that they planted spies in all parts of the city to invite persons who had just arrived from Virginia into taverns, trea

colonial affairs were usually referred. Sir John wrote at length to refute what he called "the malicious untruths of s

, for Wyatt had shown himself a staunch defender of liberty during his previous administration. The people could be sure that he would redress their wrongs and see to it that

ir John Harvey, whose estate is wholly sequestered at present, and at the next court now approaching will assuredly be swept away."[47] Harvey wrote that he groaned under the oppression of his enemies, and that he was so closely watched that he hardly had privacy enough to write a letter. His enemies had now been advanc

us behavior throughout six or seven years, in view of the fact that ten months previously Harvey had presented him to a benefice. So they suspended the harsh sentence, and referred the matter to Governor Wyatt. The Virginia court promptly reversed the previous action, declared Panton guiltl

Council fined him ￡50 and imprisoned him. In London, Harvey and Kemp sought influential friends, poured out their complaints to them, and tried to undermine Wyatt at Court. Kemp later returned to Virginia, where he

. It was a daring thing for the Virginians to defy the King by deposing the man he had sent as their Governor, and notifying him in effect that they wanted him to make a better selection. That Charles sent Harvey b

inians contended that his power was limited by law. Even had his rule been marked by justice and moderation, they would have denied his pretensions. But when he made

TNO

O1-4,

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Virginia Compan

Ibid

a Magazine

Virginia statute

ll, Virginia

O1-5,

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ll, Virginia C

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Ibid.

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O1-8,

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id., 42

O1-8,

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O1-10,

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lorum, 150; Report of Commissio

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