Give Me Liberty

for his plans to found a college and better the condition of the clergy when he was Lieutenant Governor, made the Commissary eager to have him back.

the time Blair seems to have permitted the man's good qualities-his undoubted ability, his energy, and his devotion to the Church-to blind him to his

idence of the late William Sherwood. Nicholson then announced the King's appointments to the Council and administered the oath required by Parliament to those who were present. One wonders whether Matthew Page and Benjamin Harrison, in their ela

determined to uphold the King's prerogative against all assaults by the Council or the Burgesses. He wished to put the colony in a state of readiness to repel any attack by hostile Indians, and to aid other colonies who should become involved in

d in abundance, but in other respects he was entirely unsuited for the task he set himself. To vilify men, to call them rascals, to threaten to lash them with his whip was not the way to handle the liberty-loving Virginians. His attempts to

reat frauds in collections. The fault lay with the naval officers and collectors, they thought. They instructed Nicholson not to appoint the same person to both offices, and not to permit members of the Cou

mpensation for their expense in journeying perhaps seventy miles, perhaps one hundred miles, in some cases crossing great rivers, to attend meetings of the Council and the General Court. And though they could not directly bl

which is a duplicate of the historic Virginia Capitol origina

d Capitol at Williamsburg. Court

n the sheriff came round to collect the rent, and, if the sheriff happened to be a friend or a relative, he would not look into the matter too closely. As for the great tracts held by the wealthy, th

e courts. Making a test case of Colonel Lawrence Smith, who had several large properties, he ordered the Attorney General t

olls of holdings in their counties. But as late as October, 1703, Byrd reported that though he had urged this on the sheriffs he realized that there was "still very great abuse therein."[2] Yet the next year the Governor had in his hands a rent roll, which, however imperfect, must have been of great value in the collection of the rents. Undoubtedly much of the unoccupied lands were not put down on the rolls, yet some of the members of the Cou

clergymen had long complained of the insecurity of their tenure, for the vestries who appointed them claimed the right also of dismissing them when they proved unsatisfactory. "They are to

, and in triumph the Governor sent copies to all the vestries. But he met with one rebuff after another. We "do not think it proper, neither are we willing to make presentation for induction," replied one vestry. Another declared that the word induction

nctions rightly belonging to the Commissary and tried to make himself head of the Church. "He has invaded almost all ... parts of the ecclesiastical jurisdiction," Blair complained, "such as convoking the clergy, ...

nia that a French fleet was preparing to sail for the West Indies. Claiming that there was danger that they might attack Virginia, "being an open and defenseless country," Nicholson organized a new force to resist the

hat he was trying to persuade the English government to keep a standing army in America with himself as Captain General. If he succeeds, men told each other, we may as well bid goodbye to l

possible that it was because this answer interfered with his own ambition that it was so displeasing to Nicholson. His Majesty should signify his resentment and order the Burgesses on their allegiance to comply, he thought, "and I hope in God that they will then"

699, no less than sixteen were Burgesses. Ignoring the advice of the Council, he put men in or turned them out as they voted as he directed. During one session of the Assembly, when seven of the Burgesses were county clerks, he had seven blank

lecting the poll tax. If it happened that one of Nicholson's favorites was legally ineligible for an office he would give him a blank commission and tell him to fi

a way of treating three days in a week all the Assembly time," said Harrison, "where some of the House const

rote his father. Nicholson had been in Charles City County to oppose the election of Benjamin Harrison, promising sheriff's and clerk's places to some and threatening others. "Having rid all through Charles City, from house to house, he went to Surry." Here he commanded the sheriff to draw up a list of those wh

of the body as a whole. His agent in London, John Thrale, saw no reason why the Burgesses should be angered at him for proposing a tax bill. If Mr. Thrale knew how they disliked thos

and vilify both lawyers and their clients. Two cases, especially, he managed with such violence "that there was not one person in court, favorite or foe, but thought

rney said there had been an error in form. To this Harrison replied that the form had been in keeping with Virginia practice. Instantly Nicholson turned on him, thundering out: "Sir, you are the Queen's counsel and pretend to set up a precedent in Virginia contrary to the practice in England. You shall n

in place of others of whom he was doubtful. Beverley was talking with a man whom the sheriff had summoned and then had discharged, when the sheriff happened to pass. So the man stopped him to ask why he had done it. He replied that the Governor had ordered him to do it. When

hard-earned privileges taken from them. Is the Council so mean spirited as to let a Governor do all the ill things he pleases in their names, and all the while using them like slaves, not suffering t

ad been a Burgess at twenty-eight, and had twice been Speaker. A man of great energy, shrewd, and dominating he was dubbed "King Carter." Benjamin Harrison had represented Surry in the House of Bu

en he removed their friends from lucrative jobs to make room for his own favorites. They protested the issuing of warrants on the revenue and the givi

e said, because he would not be guided and governed by them, and turn secretaries, auditors, collectors, naval office

were held in the Wren Building at the college prior to the completing of the new Capitol, passersby could hear Nicholson storming "as lou

before Nicholson began to storm at him, calling him a rogue, a rascal, and a villain. "You have sided with that damned Scotch parson, Blair, and by God, sir, you have shipped yourself in a leaky vessel..

sion against the Commissioners of the Navy, "calling them all the basest names the tongue of man could express." These imprecations were thundered out "with such a noise that the people down in the lower rooms came running up stairs ...

d with the insolent, tyrannical behavior of our Governor, but as long as he is vested with the Queen's authority, I will quietly endure his barbarous usage," wrote Philip Ludwell.[23

he minister, to deliver a sermon. The Governor, who claimed to be the head of the Virginia Church and had summoned the meeting in order to secure a flattering address, was present. It may have been this which influence

ll not be told my duty." From that day the Governor pursued him with the greatest malice. He summoned him before the Council, and threatened him with ruin, calling him villain, hypocrite, Jesuit. H

colony, he was the typical Virginia aristocrat. Carter's Creek, his residence in Gloucester County, remained standing for over two centuries as witness to his lavish style of living. The great halls, the marble mantels, the elaborate staircase, the wainscoting carved to resemble drapery were reminiscent rather of England than of seventeenth-century Virginia.

knew of the Governor's fits of anger, of his profanity, and the abuse he had heaped on their rela

the license.[25] All pretence of friendship for her relatives was thrown to the winds. Every few days he sent Major Burwell such threats of ruin that the poor man was kept in a constant state of alarm. "For what I know not, unless it is because I will not

night, when he was returning from a pastoral call at King's Creek he happened to meet the Governor. Falling into one of his rages, N

your Excellency take me for your rival? I assure you, sir, I have not

ken good notice of you. You are an

er Nicholson reached over and pu

impudence to ride wit

t use me like a foo

unction to suffer me to be ridiculed and railed at in some companie

ehavior was such as not to expose him to odium and contempt, that even the K

in my presence, I must make bold to reprove your Excellency for using at this rate in the highway, i

nd threatening to lash him with his whip. This frightened him, for the Governor had his sword and pi

nd. But the Governor had no desire to have him lay charges against him before the Bishop of London and the Lords of Trade and Plantati

im an anonymous letter. "It is not here as in some barbarous countries where the tender lady is often dragged into the Sultan's arms just reeking in the blood of her nearest relati

unobserved by Lucy, and handing it to her mounted his horse and rode away. She sent them back to him, but he returned them. And for a while she kept them. Later he co

ell, Junior, went to Williamsburg with them. But Nicholson, hearing of their mission, "slipt out in the morning." The little group retired to the nearby Wren building,

gifts, and the other a summons in the Queen's name for him to come to Nicholson immediately. Ludwell told the man th

ernor's house, taking the gifts with hi

house yesterday when I was abroad

llency an affront in my life th

like the base villain

him his duty. Finally he told him to get out of his house and not return until he was sent for. This Ludwell did with alacrity. But he took good care to leave the gifts. At first this

ame to dismount. When he had done so, he shook the whip over his head, and swore that he had a mind to slash him soundly. Ludwell told him that as he was Governor of Virginia he had to take all his ill usage, but if he were in another place he

, 1698, that a fire broke out in the statehouse at Jamestown which in a few hours laid the building in ashes. So the old question of moving the capital away from the mosquito-infested town on the banks of the James was again debated. Nicholson favored Middle Plantation. The

the Capitol, to be named Duke of Gloucester Street, paralleled by two side streets, one of which was to be called Nicholson and the other Francis. To aid him in designing the Capitol, he called in the ablest architect and builder in the colony, Henry Cary, and d

erced with dormers and surmounted by a high cupola. The floors of the first story were to be laid in flagstones, while the roof was to be c

rits under all the heavy customs on their commodities, and restraints in point of trade, is that they have the happiness to enjoy the British laws and constitution, which they reckon the best of Governments," said Philip Ludwell, Senior. "But if once their Governors be suffered to break in upon them in this tender point, and to treat them with the arbitrariness of France, or the insolence

matter secret the Governor suspected that something was up. In July, 1703, he wrote the Lords of Trade: "It hath been industriously reported here that ... I wa

pated the strategem which the shrewd Scot was to adopt. Though he arrived in November, 1703, he did not present the charges of the six Councillors to the Queen in the Council

overnment, as well as wicked and scandalous examples of life, which have been now for divers years past put in practice by Nicholson, which we have hitherto in vain endeavored by more soft and gentle applications to himself to remedy and prevent. But to our unspeakable grief we have reaped no other fruit ... but that thereby we have so highly exaspera

e Lords of Trade, the Commissary was armed with affidavits from Fouace, Captain James Moodie, and others, and letters from Philip Ludwell, Junior, and Benjamin Harrison to

r, and he had not witnesses to refute the charges. When he demanded particular instances of misgovernment and injustice, Blair and Beverley overwhel

petitioners with eternal vengeance." At a meeting of the Council he glared at the members. "Whoever they were that signed that petition I hope they will be obliged to stand

ardly the power of a Doge of Genoa. And I think the question may be put to them as the wise King Solomon did to his mother, why don't they ask the kingdom or the government also?" As for Commissary Blair, he "and his little faction now set up to have the power and inter

atures to examine all persons on oath if ever they heard such a man reflect upon the Governor ... which practice is very terrible to all, there being few in Virginia who have not sometimes in private spoke of him as he deserves ... If witnesses are backward they

profit and honor, and have him "suppress all that were not of their faction." But when they found that he would not be governed by them, they turned upon him with the greatest malice. "They aspersed and blackened him both in the cou

closed them with a memorial against Blair, and an address from the Virginia clergy. These papers were received on May 2, and read May 31. Whether they would have influenced the Lords in Nicholson's favor we do not know, for on April 2,

must have looked around at the men who had been his bitter enemies with an air of triumph as he read a letter from Secretary Hedges, stating that he was being recalled, not because of the charges made against him, but merely for her Majesty's service. Then he handed over the

he did not drive the people into open rebellion as did Berkeley, is explained by the difference in the character of the times. Harvey acted in the spirit of the First Stuart Despotism,

f the eighteenth century. It made succeeding Governors wary of trampling upon the people's rights, it gave the people confi

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