Sir William Berkeley, governor of Virginia: A study in colonial policy

297 Pages·014.077 MB·English

by  Carson, Jane Dennison

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Sir William Berkeley, Governor of Virginia:
A Study in Colonial Policy
by
Jane Dennison Carson, 3.A., M.A.
A Dissertation
Presented to the Graduate Faculty
of the University of Virginia
in Candidacy for the Degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
1951
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
UMI Number: DP15031
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TABLE OP CONTENTS
Chapter Page
Introduction « 111
I England, 1605-1842 • • • • • • • . » * . « 1
II Virginia, 1642-1677 . .................... 27
III Loyalty to the Throne . . . * ............62
IV Loyalty to the Church of England . « • • 79
V Defense . • • ........................... 97
VI Indian Trade and. VJeatarn Exploration . . 143
VII A Planned Economy.......................'182
VIII Land Policy ........................232
IX Influence.......................... .. 262
Bibliography ............................ 279
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INTRODUCTION
England’s colonial policy, like her constitution
and her Old Empire, grew almost subconsciously while
her attention was focused in other directions, out of
a series of trlal-and-error experiments and through a
gradually collecting body of experience. When the
seventeenth century opened, American colonization was
a Hlspano-Portugese monopoly; with the insignificant
exception of Newfoundland, England had no New '.'/orld
settlement, and, discouraged by Raleigh’s failures,
showed little interest in establishing one. But when
the century closed, the Atlantic seaboard from Maine
to Georgia was peopled by thriving British colonists,
and England's Caribbean possessions rivaled Spain's
in strategic and economic value. Though tho first
settlements had beon promoted by private enterprise, -
and the Crown at that time had no machinery for colo­
nial government, by 1696, with the creation of the
Board of Trade, the pattern for the British type of
colony had been cut in its final form, and the develop­
ments of the eighteenth century necessitated only minor
alterations in the pattern.
The student, therefore, who wishes to study the
growth of the 3ritlsh colonial policy must look into
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-iv-
the seventeenth century to see its formative years,
Virginia, the oldest and largest colony, invites his
first attention, and there, as in the other colonies,
the key figure was the governor, the personal represent­
ative of the Grown, the agent who received its instruc­
tions, formulated them into a practicable policy, and
applied the policy to local conditions. In the roll
call of Virginia’s seventeenth' century governors the
name of Sir William Berkeley best answers the need for
a case in point, for his term of residence closed the
first Stuart period, spanned the Commonwealth, reopened
with the Restoration and lasted through the first seven­
teen years of the reign of Charles II, It was a critical
period In Virginia as well a3 in England, and the solu­
tions to Virginia's problems furnished guideposts toward
the larger problem of empire policy,
When Sir William arrived in Virginia In 1642, the
colony was just emerging from a long and bitter conflict
with the King's representative and was torn with politi­
cal factions. And though he left it in 1677 In a strik­
ingly similar upheaval, the outcome of the thirty-five
years of his residence was a permanent system of govern­
ment and clearly drawn local political groups whose align­
ment remained practically unchanged by eighteenth century
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growth#
His term of residence coincided with the critical
period in the crystallisation of Virginia society, and
his example of courtly manners and gracious entertain-
I ment at Green Spring was the greatest single personal
(
I Influence in determining the nature of the seventeenth
i
| century Virginia gentleman.
I His defense policies had "been tested in conflicts
]
| with Dutch merchantmen in Chesapeake waters and in the
i
j last serious Indian war in colonial Virginia. His
!
I
I methods, though challenged by Bacon's rebellion and
generally repudiated by hi3 contemporaries, were later
i
! adopted in broad outline to furnish the basis for fron­
tier protection all along the line of western settlement#
His early interest in the country beyond the Alle-
ghenys encouraged exploratory expeditions which laid the
foundation of Virginia's claim to the Ohio Valley on the
basis of priority of discovery. As the agent of the colony
In London, ho entered protests against proprietary or cor­
porate grants within the territory defined by the charter
and defended the integrity of Virginia's boundaries and
land titl©3 #
The economic depression in the later years of his
administration pointed up the'cleavage between Imperial
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