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Virginia Cavaliers (historical)
Encyclopedia
Virginia Cavaliers were royalist
supporters in the royal colony of Virginia at various times during the colonial
period of the United States
.
, after a severe struggle with the Crown
, was deprived of its charter
. The chief cause of this was that the Puritan
element, which formed the backbone of the opposition in Parliament
, had also gained the ascendency in the Virginia Company. Nor did James I
like the action of the company a few years before in extending representative government to the colonists. The result was the loss of the charter.
Virginia
became a royal colony and so it continued until the Revolutionary War
. But the change had little effect on the colony, for Charles I
, who soon came to the throne, was so occupied with troubles at home that he gave less attention to the government of Virginia than the company had done, and popular government continued to flourish. Of the six thousand people who had come from England
before 1625, only one fifth now remained alive, but this number was rapidly augmented by immigration. Governor Yeardley
died in 1627, and John Harvey
, a man of little ability or character, became governor. Harvey kept the Virginians in turmoil for some years, but the colony was now so firmly established that his evil influence did not greatly affect its prosperity.
.
s and the Roundheads, or Puritans. The latter, led by Oliver Cromwell
, one of the strongest personalities in British history, eventually triumphed over the Cavaliers and, in 1649, Charles I was beheaded by his own subjects.
Berkeley, with most of the Virginians, was loyal to the Crown, and he invited the young son of the executed monarch to come to America and become king of Virginia. But Parliament would suffer no opposition from the colony, and it sent a commission with a fleet to reduce the colony to allegiance. The Virginians were only mildly royalist
and they yielded without a struggle; but they lost nothing by yielding, for the Commonwealth granted them greater freedom in self-government than they had ever before enjoyed.
In two ways the brief period of the commonwealth in England had a marked effect on the history of Virginia. For the first and only time during the colonial period, Virginia enjoyed absolute self-government. Not only the assembly, but the governor and council were elective for the time, and the people never forgot this taste of practical independence.
The other respect in which the triumph of the Roundheads in England affected Virginia was that it caused an exodus of Cavaliers from England to the colony, similar to the great Puritan migration to Massachusetts
, caused by the triumph of the opposite party twenty years before.
in 1649 gives a glowing account of Virginia, describing it as a land where "there is nothing wanting," a land of 15,000 English and 300 negro
slaves, 20,000 cattle, many kinds of wild animals, "above thirty sorts" of fish, farm products, fruits, and vegetables in great quantities, and the like. If this was intended to induce home seekers to migrate to Virginia, it had the desired effect. The Cavaliers went in large numbers; and they were of a far better class than were those who had first settled the colony. Among them were the ancestors of George Washington
, James Madison
, James Monroe
, John Marshall
, and of many others of the "First Families of Virginia." By the year 1670 the population of the colony had increased to 38,000, 6,000 of whom were indentured servant
s, while the African slaves had increased to 2,000 (15).
brought the exiled Stuart
to the British throne as Charles II
, and Berkeley again became governor of Virginia. Oliver Cromwell
, the Lord Protector of England, had died in 1658, and Richard
, his son and successor, too weak to hold the reins of government, laid aside the heavy burden the next year and Charles soon afterward became king. Charles was not a religious enthusiast, as his father had been. He is noted for his pursuit of pleasure, which many subjects applauded after the dry years of the Protectorate.
The new sovereign was utterly without gratitude to the people of Virginia for their former loyalty, and indeed, it may be said that his accession marks the beginning of a long period of turmoil, discontent, and political strife in Virginia. Charles immediately began to appoint to the offices of the colony a swarm of worthless place hunters, and some years later he gave away to his court favorites, the Earl of Arlington and Lord Culpeper, nearly all the soil of Virginia, a large portion of which was well settled and under cultivation. The Navigation Acts
, enacted ten years before, was now, at the beginning of Charles' reign, reenacted with amendments and put in force. By this the colonists were forbidden to export goods in other than English vessels, or elsewhere than to England.
Imports also were to be brought from England only. The prices, therefore, of both exports and imports, were set in London, and the arrangement enabled the English merchants to grow rich at the expense of the colonists. The result was a depreciation in the price of tobacco
, the circulating medium, to such a degree as to impoverish many planters and almost to bring about insurrection. And now to add to the multiplying distresses of Virginia, Governor Berkeley, who had been fairly popular during his former ten-year governship, seems to have changed decidedly for the worse. He Royalist to the core, and appeared to have lost whatever sympathy with the people he ever had. He was accused of conniving with custom-house officials in schemes of extortion and blackmail, and even of profiting by their maladministration. Popular government now suffered a long eclipse in Virginia. In 1661 Berkeley secured the election of a House of Burgesses
to his liking, and he kept them in power for fifteen years, refusing to order another election.
But the people, who had been long imbibing the spirit of liberty in their forest home, at last rose in rebellion against the tyranny of their cynical old governor. The uprising is known as Bacon's Rebellion
. The general causes of this rebellion were political and economic tyranny, the immediate occasion was Berkeley's Indian policy. The Indians became hostile in 1675, and for many months the massacre of men, women, and children in the outlying settlements was of almost daily occurrence. But Berkeley persistently refused to call out the militia, for the reason, it was believed, that he did not wish to disturb the fur trade, from which he was receiving a good income. In March, 1676, the assembly raised a force of five hundred men, but when they were ready to begin a campaign, Berkeley suddenly disbanded them. The people were now exasperated and ready for rebellion.
was a young lawyer of noble English birth, a collateral descendant of the great author and jurist of the same name; he was rich eloquent, and popular. In defiance of the governor he raised a band of men and marched against the Native Americans, inflicting on them a stinging defeat. Berkeley, greatly incensed at the young man's insubordination, started after him with a troop of horse; but scarcely had he left Jamestown when word reached him that the whole lower peninsula had risen against him. Hastening back, he found that must do something to placate the people, and he dissolved the long assembly and ordered a new election.
This was duly held, and Bacon was elected to the burgesses. This assembly passed a series of reform laws known as "Bacon's Laws". The old governor, deeply offended at this, dissolved the assembly and proclaimed Bacon, who had again marched against the Indians, a traitor; whereupon Bacon, at the head of several hundred men, marched upon Jamestown and burned it to the ground. Berkeley fled before the armed invaders and took refuge on the eastern side of the Chesapeake. Bacon had now full control of Virginia's affairs, and he even contemplated resistance to the king's troops, that were said to be on their way to the colony, when a deadlier foe than armed men—the swamp fever—ended his short, brilliant career, and Virginia was destined to spend another hundred years as a royal colony.
Bacon was the life and soul of the insurrection, and after his death his followers scattered like frightened quail and Berkeley was soon again in possession. The vindictive old governor now wreaked his vengeance on the followers of Bacon until he had hanged more than a score, including William Drummond
, a Scottish Presbyterian and one of the leading men in the colony.16 But the king was displeased with Berkeley's rancor. "The old fool has taken more lives in that naked country than I have taken for the murder of my father," said Charles. Berkeley was recalled. He sailed for England in the spring of 1677, leaving his family, evidently expecting to be reinstated. But the king refused to see him, and he died broken hearted a few months later.
in New England
, and exactly a century before that greater rebellion, so vastly different in its results was one of the most important episodes in Virginia's colonial history. Bacon was a true reformer, talented in a high degree, but somewhat wanting in judgment. His intention no doubt, in case the king's forces came, was to hold them at bay until the grievances of the colonists, including the oppression of the Navigation Laws, should have been redressed. But in this he doubtless would have failed and would have paid the penalty of resistance with his life. His death was therefore opportune, and his influence on the future of the colony was probably greater than if his life had been prolonged.
, came out as governor, and a rapacious tyrant he was. In 1684, he was succeeded by Lord Howard of Effingham. Among the later governors were Nicholson, who had a notable career in New York
, and Sir Edmund Andros
, who had a more notable career in New England. In each of these, the colonists found a great improvement over Lords Culpeper and Effingham. But they fell short when compared with Alexander Spotswood
, one of the ablest governors of colonial Virginia. The habit of governing through lieutenants, the governor residing in England, became prevalent early in the eighteenth century. One man, Douglas, was nominal governor for forty years, drawing a large salary, though he never crossed the Atlantic Ocean.(17)
Cavalier
Cavalier was the name used by Parliamentarians for a Royalist supporter of King Charles I and son Charles II during the English Civil War, the Interregnum, and the Restoration...
supporters in the royal colony of Virginia at various times during the colonial
Colonialism
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...
period of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Historical background
In 1624, the Virginia CompanyVirginia Company
The Virginia Company refers collectively to a pair of English joint stock companies chartered by James I on 10 April1606 with the purposes of establishing settlements on the coast of North America...
, after a severe struggle with the Crown
The Crown
The Crown is a corporation sole that in the Commonwealth realms and any provincial or state sub-divisions thereof represents the legal embodiment of governance, whether executive, legislative, or judicial...
, was deprived of its charter
Charter
A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified...
. The chief cause of this was that the Puritan
Puritan
The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...
element, which formed the backbone of the opposition in Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
, had also gained the ascendency in the Virginia Company. Nor did James I
James I of England
James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...
like the action of the company a few years before in extending representative government to the colonists. The result was the loss of the charter.
Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
became a royal colony and so it continued until the Revolutionary War
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
. But the change had little effect on the colony, for Charles I
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
, who soon came to the throne, was so occupied with troubles at home that he gave less attention to the government of Virginia than the company had done, and popular government continued to flourish. Of the six thousand people who had come from England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
before 1625, only one fifth now remained alive, but this number was rapidly augmented by immigration. Governor Yeardley
George Yeardley
Sir George Yeardley was a plantation owner and three time colonial Governor of the British Colony of Virginia. A survivor of the Virginia Company of London's ill-fated Third Supply Mission, whose flagship, the Sea Venture, was shipwrecked on Bermuda for 10 months in 1609-10, he is best remembered...
died in 1627, and John Harvey
John Harvey (Virginia)
Sir John Harvey was a Crown Governor of Virginia. He was elected to the position on 26 March 1628. In 1635 he was suspended and impeached by the House of Burgesses , and he returned to England. He was restored to his post by the King in 1636 and returned to Virginia the following year...
, a man of little ability or character, became governor. Harvey kept the Virginians in turmoil for some years, but the colony was now so firmly established that his evil influence did not greatly affect its prosperity.
Sir William Berkeley
The longest rule of one man in its colonial history was that of Sir William Berkeley, who became governor of Virginia in 1642 and continued to hold the office until 1677, with the exception of a few years under the commonwealth. Berkeley was a rough, outspoken man with much common sense, but with a hot temper and a narrow mind (14). He was a Cavalier of the extreme type, and during the first period of his governorship he spent much of his energy in persecuting the Puritans, many of whom found refuge in MarylandMaryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
.
Civil war
About the time Berkeley assumed the office, a fierce religious war broke out in England between the CavalierCavalier
Cavalier was the name used by Parliamentarians for a Royalist supporter of King Charles I and son Charles II during the English Civil War, the Interregnum, and the Restoration...
s and the Roundheads, or Puritans. The latter, led by Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
, one of the strongest personalities in British history, eventually triumphed over the Cavaliers and, in 1649, Charles I was beheaded by his own subjects.
Berkeley, with most of the Virginians, was loyal to the Crown, and he invited the young son of the executed monarch to come to America and become king of Virginia. But Parliament would suffer no opposition from the colony, and it sent a commission with a fleet to reduce the colony to allegiance. The Virginians were only mildly royalist
Cavalier
Cavalier was the name used by Parliamentarians for a Royalist supporter of King Charles I and son Charles II during the English Civil War, the Interregnum, and the Restoration...
and they yielded without a struggle; but they lost nothing by yielding, for the Commonwealth granted them greater freedom in self-government than they had ever before enjoyed.
In two ways the brief period of the commonwealth in England had a marked effect on the history of Virginia. For the first and only time during the colonial period, Virginia enjoyed absolute self-government. Not only the assembly, but the governor and council were elective for the time, and the people never forgot this taste of practical independence.
The other respect in which the triumph of the Roundheads in England affected Virginia was that it caused an exodus of Cavaliers from England to the colony, similar to the great Puritan migration to Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, caused by the triumph of the opposite party twenty years before.
Anonymous pamphlet
An anonymous pamphlet published in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in 1649 gives a glowing account of Virginia, describing it as a land where "there is nothing wanting," a land of 15,000 English and 300 negro
Negro
The word Negro is used in the English-speaking world to refer to a person of black ancestry or appearance, whether of African descent or not...
slaves, 20,000 cattle, many kinds of wild animals, "above thirty sorts" of fish, farm products, fruits, and vegetables in great quantities, and the like. If this was intended to induce home seekers to migrate to Virginia, it had the desired effect. The Cavaliers went in large numbers; and they were of a far better class than were those who had first settled the colony. Among them were the ancestors of George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
, James Madison
James Madison
James Madison, Jr. was an American statesman and political theorist. He was the fourth President of the United States and is hailed as the “Father of the Constitution” for being the primary author of the United States Constitution and at first an opponent of, and then a key author of the United...
, James Monroe
James Monroe
James Monroe was the fifth President of the United States . Monroe was the last president who was a Founding Father of the United States, and the last president from the Virginia dynasty and the Republican Generation...
, John Marshall
John Marshall
John Marshall was the Chief Justice of the United States whose court opinions helped lay the basis for American constitutional law and made the Supreme Court of the United States a coequal branch of government along with the legislative and executive branches...
, and of many others of the "First Families of Virginia." By the year 1670 the population of the colony had increased to 38,000, 6,000 of whom were indentured servant
Indentured servant
Indentured servitude refers to the historical practice of contracting to work for a fixed period of time, typically three to seven years, in exchange for transportation, food, clothing, lodging and other necessities during the term of indenture. Usually the father made the arrangements and signed...
s, while the African slaves had increased to 2,000 (15).
Restoration of 1660
The Restoration of 1660English Restoration
The Restoration of the English monarchy began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Interregnum that followed the Wars of the Three Kingdoms...
brought the exiled Stuart
House of Stuart
The House of Stuart is a European royal house. Founded by Robert II of Scotland, the Stewarts first became monarchs of the Kingdom of Scotland during the late 14th century, and subsequently held the position of the Kings of Great Britain and Ireland...
to the British throne as Charles II
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
, and Berkeley again became governor of Virginia. Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
, the Lord Protector of England, had died in 1658, and Richard
Richard Cromwell
At the same time, the officers of the New Model Army became increasingly wary about the government's commitment to the military cause. The fact that Richard Cromwell lacked military credentials grated with men who had fought on the battlefields of the English Civil War to secure their nation's...
, his son and successor, too weak to hold the reins of government, laid aside the heavy burden the next year and Charles soon afterward became king. Charles was not a religious enthusiast, as his father had been. He is noted for his pursuit of pleasure, which many subjects applauded after the dry years of the Protectorate.
The new sovereign was utterly without gratitude to the people of Virginia for their former loyalty, and indeed, it may be said that his accession marks the beginning of a long period of turmoil, discontent, and political strife in Virginia. Charles immediately began to appoint to the offices of the colony a swarm of worthless place hunters, and some years later he gave away to his court favorites, the Earl of Arlington and Lord Culpeper, nearly all the soil of Virginia, a large portion of which was well settled and under cultivation. The Navigation Acts
Navigation Acts
The English Navigation Acts were a series of laws that restricted the use of foreign shipping for trade between England and its colonies, a process which had started in 1651. Their goal was to force colonial development into lines favorable to England, and stop direct colonial trade with the...
, enacted ten years before, was now, at the beginning of Charles' reign, reenacted with amendments and put in force. By this the colonists were forbidden to export goods in other than English vessels, or elsewhere than to England.
Imports also were to be brought from England only. The prices, therefore, of both exports and imports, were set in London, and the arrangement enabled the English merchants to grow rich at the expense of the colonists. The result was a depreciation in the price of tobacco
Tobacco
Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...
, the circulating medium, to such a degree as to impoverish many planters and almost to bring about insurrection. And now to add to the multiplying distresses of Virginia, Governor Berkeley, who had been fairly popular during his former ten-year governship, seems to have changed decidedly for the worse. He Royalist to the core, and appeared to have lost whatever sympathy with the people he ever had. He was accused of conniving with custom-house officials in schemes of extortion and blackmail, and even of profiting by their maladministration. Popular government now suffered a long eclipse in Virginia. In 1661 Berkeley secured the election of a House of Burgesses
House of Burgesses
The House of Burgesses was the first assembly of elected representatives of English colonists in North America. The House was established by the Virginia Company, who created the body as part of an effort to encourage English craftsmen to settle in North America...
to his liking, and he kept them in power for fifteen years, refusing to order another election.
But the people, who had been long imbibing the spirit of liberty in their forest home, at last rose in rebellion against the tyranny of their cynical old governor. The uprising is known as Bacon's Rebellion
Bacon's Rebellion
Bacon's Rebellion was an uprising in 1676 in the Virginia Colony in North America, led by a 29-year-old planter, Nathaniel Bacon.About a thousand Virginians rose because they resented Virginia Governor William Berkeley's friendly policies towards the Native Americans...
. The general causes of this rebellion were political and economic tyranny, the immediate occasion was Berkeley's Indian policy. The Indians became hostile in 1675, and for many months the massacre of men, women, and children in the outlying settlements was of almost daily occurrence. But Berkeley persistently refused to call out the militia, for the reason, it was believed, that he did not wish to disturb the fur trade, from which he was receiving a good income. In March, 1676, the assembly raised a force of five hundred men, but when they were ready to begin a campaign, Berkeley suddenly disbanded them. The people were now exasperated and ready for rebellion.
Bacon
Nathaniel BaconNathaniel Bacon
Nathaniel Bacon was a colonist of the Virginia Colony, famous as the instigator of Bacon's Rebellion of 1676, which collapsed when Bacon himself died from dysentery.-Early life:...
was a young lawyer of noble English birth, a collateral descendant of the great author and jurist of the same name; he was rich eloquent, and popular. In defiance of the governor he raised a band of men and marched against the Native Americans, inflicting on them a stinging defeat. Berkeley, greatly incensed at the young man's insubordination, started after him with a troop of horse; but scarcely had he left Jamestown when word reached him that the whole lower peninsula had risen against him. Hastening back, he found that must do something to placate the people, and he dissolved the long assembly and ordered a new election.
This was duly held, and Bacon was elected to the burgesses. This assembly passed a series of reform laws known as "Bacon's Laws". The old governor, deeply offended at this, dissolved the assembly and proclaimed Bacon, who had again marched against the Indians, a traitor; whereupon Bacon, at the head of several hundred men, marched upon Jamestown and burned it to the ground. Berkeley fled before the armed invaders and took refuge on the eastern side of the Chesapeake. Bacon had now full control of Virginia's affairs, and he even contemplated resistance to the king's troops, that were said to be on their way to the colony, when a deadlier foe than armed men—the swamp fever—ended his short, brilliant career, and Virginia was destined to spend another hundred years as a royal colony.
Bacon was the life and soul of the insurrection, and after his death his followers scattered like frightened quail and Berkeley was soon again in possession. The vindictive old governor now wreaked his vengeance on the followers of Bacon until he had hanged more than a score, including William Drummond
William Drummond (colonial governor)
William Drummond was the first colonial governor of Albemarle Sound settlement in the Province of Carolina and a participant in Bacon's Rebellion....
, a Scottish Presbyterian and one of the leading men in the colony.16 But the king was displeased with Berkeley's rancor. "The old fool has taken more lives in that naked country than I have taken for the murder of my father," said Charles. Berkeley was recalled. He sailed for England in the spring of 1677, leaving his family, evidently expecting to be reinstated. But the king refused to see him, and he died broken hearted a few months later.
The Bacon Rebellion
The Bacon Rebellion, occurring at the same time with King Philip's WarKing Philip's War
King Philip's War, sometimes called Metacom's War, Metacomet's War, or Metacom's Rebellion, was an armed conflict between Native American inhabitants of present-day southern New England and English colonists and their Native American allies in 1675–76. The war is named after the main leader of the...
in New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
, and exactly a century before that greater rebellion, so vastly different in its results was one of the most important episodes in Virginia's colonial history. Bacon was a true reformer, talented in a high degree, but somewhat wanting in judgment. His intention no doubt, in case the king's forces came, was to hold them at bay until the grievances of the colonists, including the oppression of the Navigation Laws, should have been redressed. But in this he doubtless would have failed and would have paid the penalty of resistance with his life. His death was therefore opportune, and his influence on the future of the colony was probably greater than if his life had been prolonged.
Downfall of Berkeley
The speedy downfall of Berkeley, however, had little effect in rescuing Virginia from the grasp of the Royalists. One of the court favorites to whom the soil of Virginia had been granted, Lord CulpeperThomas Colepeper, 2nd Baron Colepeper
Thomas Colpeper, 2nd Baron Culpeper of Thoresway was the colonial governor of Virginia from 1677 to 1683.-Biography:...
, came out as governor, and a rapacious tyrant he was. In 1684, he was succeeded by Lord Howard of Effingham. Among the later governors were Nicholson, who had a notable career in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, and Sir Edmund Andros
Edmund Andros
Sir Edmund Andros was an English colonial administrator in North America. Andros was known most notably for his governorship of the Dominion of New England during most of its three-year existence. He also governed at various times the provinces of New York, East and West Jersey, Virginia, and...
, who had a more notable career in New England. In each of these, the colonists found a great improvement over Lords Culpeper and Effingham. But they fell short when compared with Alexander Spotswood
Alexander Spotswood
Alexander Spotswood was a Lieutenant-Colonel in the British Army and a noted Lieutenant Governor of Virginia. He is noted in Virginia and American history for a number of his projects as Governor, including his exploring beyond the Blue Ridge Mountains, his establishing what was perhaps the first...
, one of the ablest governors of colonial Virginia. The habit of governing through lieutenants, the governor residing in England, became prevalent early in the eighteenth century. One man, Douglas, was nominal governor for forty years, drawing a large salary, though he never crossed the Atlantic Ocean.(17)