University of Virginia Library

The Classes of Records

I.

• The fundamental documents of the company were those by virtue of which
  it had its legal formation, and consisted of the letters patent, charters, and orders
  in council issued by the King and Privy Council.

II.

• The activity of the adventurers was recorded in the court books, which com-
  prised the minutes of the transactions of the company. In those books were kept
  the discussions and decisions with regard to the plantation, the granting of land,
  and all financial policies and plans for developing the enterprise and increasing the
  income.

III.

• In carrying on its business the company gave commissions to the governors
  of the colony, issued regulations for the settlers, and, from time to time, sent
  instructions to the governor and council of the colony. It also granted lands and
  patents, entered into contracts, issued receipts, made pleas in court, and kept
  statements of accounts.

IV.

• From the colony itself came reports, declarations, letters, and complaints.
  They were an essential part of the records of the company and often determined its
  course of action.

V.

• To the public, for the purpose of inspiring confidence, securing adventurers,
  and maintaining the interest and support of its members, as well as of defending
  itself against the accusations of its enemies, the company issued advertisements,
  broadsides of its shipping investments, declarations, pamphlets, and sermons.

VI.

• A large part of the information which came to the company was derived
  from private correspondence between members of the company and individual plant-
  ers. Furthermore, there was a gradual tendency to permit individuals or groups of
  individuals of the company to form stock companies for trade or plantation, and
  records of these transactions formed a valuable supplement to those of the company
  itself.

VII.

• To the student of history another group of supplementary material is of
  great value. It comes from the records of contemporary companies, corporations,
  and towns, as well as from the correspondence of officers of state or of other persons
  who were not directly concerned in the transactions of the Virginia Company.

All of these records of the company for the period previous to 1616, so far as
they were known to him, were collected and reprinted in full or cited, if already
available in America, by Alexander Brown, in the year 1890.[24]

I.—FUNDAMENTAL DOCUMENTS

As far as appears from the evidence of the extant documents, when by the
charters of 1609 and 1612, James I surrendered to the company full rights of trade, as
well as territorial and governmental rights in Virginia he apparently lost all interest
and part in the undertaking, and it was only when the plantation had developed into
the colony, and when at the expiration of the privileges of free importation in 1619,
the business of the corporation had become so good as to offer a prospect of revenue
that the King in his council began to interfere in the affairs of the company.[25] In
1613, under the administration of Sir Thomas Smythe, the adventurers were com-
pelled to appeal to the Crown because of the complications with France which arose
from the expedition of Sir Samuel Argall along the northern coasts of America,[26]
while a similar relation was brought about by the controversy with Spain with regard
to the attack on Spanish vessels by the ship Treasurer in 1619.[27] In both instances
the protection desired was granted. When the financial stringency forced the adven-
turers to great efforts in 1614, and they appealed unsuccessfully to Parliament for
aid, the Privy Council attempted to arouse confidence in the undertaking throughout
the country. It passed orders urging the city companies of London to invest sums
in the Virginia lottery, and in the following year it addressed similar orders to the
"Several Cityes and Townes of the Kingdome,"[28] with special letters to the lieu-
tenants of County Surrey.[29]

But the aid thus secured was not such as to draw upon the resources of the Crown,
and the attempt of members of the company to gain a monopoly of the tobacco trade
in 1616 met with the same opposition as had similar efforts on the part of the
merchant adventurers in previous years. On the other hand the company was com-

pelled against its will to submit to the treatment of its plantation as a penal colony
by James I in his spasmodic efforts to develop a policy which should save England
from an overpopulation of vagabonds.[30]

With the exception of these unimportant relations with the Crown, the company
seems to have conducted its business independently of royal aid or interference dur-
ing the first decade of its existence as a corporate body.

II.—THE COURT BOOK

It is therefore in the court book of the company and in its instructions, corre-
spondence, and other records suggested under the preceding classifications II and III,
that its activity and methods must be found. That court books were kept under
the administration of Sir Thomas Smythe is known from the receipt in the Ferrar
papers, already referred to. The first book extended from January 28, 1606, to
February 14, 1615, and with it were "other perticuler writings belonging to the
company." The second included the period between January 31, 1615, and July 28,
1619. What these books contained can only be surmised from the scope of the two
later volumes, dated April 28, 1619, to May 22, 1622, and May 20, 1622, to April
2, 1623, the contemporary copies of which are now extant and in the Library of
Congress, at Washington.[31] The contents of the "other perticuler writings," none
of which are now known to be extant, are suggested by a memorandum of Sir
Nathaniel Rich in a document among the Manchester papers. In attempting to
prove the good done during Sir Thomas Smythe's administration Rich cites certain
records as authority. The first one mentioned was a "booke of perticulers" con-
taining the "Public workes: done in Sr T. Smithes tyme", and showing "the
plenty of Armes &c left in Sr Th. Smithes tyme"; the second was a "p̱ticular
already deliuered to the Comrs." in which appeared the "Staple Com̃odityes raysed
in Sr T. Smithes tyme"; while the third formed a "collec̃ of the publiq̢ workes
made by Sr Sa. Argall wch he [comenset]" and was entitled "The p̱ticulars of
the Boates". Rich mentions two documents contained in this volume. He states

that pages "11, 12, 13, 14, 15, &c.," contain the "League of the Natiues," and
that on pages 51 to 59 was "Sir T. Dales ɫre." In his notes for discussion Rich also
refers to "The Courte Bookes," and further declares that "Wrott remembers 4
warrants" by which lotteries were erected under the hands of the "Counsell of
Virginia". In connection with the lottery he cites "th' Accompts" of Gabnell and
declares that "He kept Tables".[32] Thus the discovery by the Editor of these two
documents in these two similar collections belonging to the hostile factions has proved
that the company possessed record books; but a knowledge of their contents must be
gained from other sources.

To supply the loss of these documents of the company, both during the control
of the council and after that control had passed into the hands of the company by
virtue of the charter of 1612, there is a considerable mass of material, which affords
a fair outline of the transactions of the company and the life of the colony. But
much of this information is lacking in the completeness and authenticity which
would have been supplied by the court book and the other records. The greatest
loss is perhaps that of definite knowledge concerning the financial status of the
company. The sums adventured by individuals and corporations is preserved in
two alphabetical lists; but, so far as is known, only one of these lists is official, and
that includes the names of the particular adventure about the year 1610.[33] The other
is an unpublished list apparently both incomplete and unofficial, and was probably
made somewhat later than 1618 at the order of the court,[34] although the date 1618
has been assigned to it in the Manchester papers, where it is to be found.[35] From
the records of the various London companies and from records of English towns,
as also from adventures sealed to individuals by the Virginia Company, comes the
most authentic information concerning the large sums invested during this decade.
In a similar way the knowledge, otherwise to be found in the court book and "The
p̱ticulers of the Boates," concerning the ships dispatched and the sums expended for
the equipment of planters, individuals, and companies, is scattering and indefinite.
The broadsides issued are calls for adventurers, planters, and colonists, with the
requirements or statements concerning the lottery schemes; but they do not furnish
the wide information which is found in those of the later period. So far as revenue
is concerned, there was probably little except that which came from new adventurers

and the lotteries, but we have no way of knowing even that resource, while our
knowledge of the income from tobacco and commodities brought from Virginia is
derived from three or four scattering receipts only, found mostly among the papers
of the Earl of De La Warr and of Lord Sackville.[36]

Even our knowledge as to the economic condition of the colony is most
indefinite and comes only from printed pamphlets issued by the company. Judging
from the sources of information in the later period, this uncertainty is due to the
disappearance of the letters themselves, since, after 1619, the published relations of
individual planters, the declarations by the company, and even the records of the
court books are all more general in character than the letters which were sent from
the colony to the company. Furthermore, in the later period the daily acts of the
colonists and their needs, as reported from time to time by returning ships, afforded
the adventurers a body of information concerning the social condition of the colony
which in form and accuracy left little to be desired. After the time of Captain John
Smith not much was accurately known of the colony until the year 1617, when
Captain John Rolfe and Ralph Hamor supplied statistics as to the numbers, condi-
tion, settlements, and resources of the colony as it then was.

The individual enterprises of this decade in the life of the company are
altogether unknown, except from a few contracts for shipping found here and
there. Such movements must at least have been noted in the court book. Of the
first "hundred," established in 1618, nothing is recorded except the single report,
heretofore unknown,[37] of a meeting of the committee for Smythes Hundred. But
the greatest loss which we suffer through the disappearance of the court book is
that of material which should throw light on the aims, motives, and unsuccessful
efforts of the company and on the struggles and difficulties through which it passed.
For example, there is a single reference to an attempt to found a college, but no infor-
mation whatever on the subject. The factions which developed and which resulted
finally in the dissolution of the company evidently existed in this period, for a letter
from Chamberlain to Carleton, dated May 8, 1619,[38] in which he speaks of the failure
to reelect Sir Thomas Smythe as treasurer of the Virginia Company as having
been "somewhat bettered at a later meeting of the Summers Island Company by his
choice as treasurer of that company," proves that the change was due to factional
differences, although the extant court books open with the refusal of Sir Thomas
Smythe to continue as treasurer. Similarly, the choice of officers for the company,
the votes received by each candidate, the appointments to positions in the colony,

the petitions to the company and its action thereupon, and numerous other acts,
revealing the relations and attitude of the individual members, are all unknown.[39]

III.—DOCUMENTS ISSUED BY THE COMPANY

Of the official documents issued by the company during the decade from 1609 to
1619 the most important have been unknown up to this time. They include the
first instructions ever given to a governor of a colony by an English administrative
body, and the records of the first suits entered by the company in chancery for the
purpose of enforcing the payments of sums adventured in the company and of
securing a part of the income from the lottery, which the company claimed had been
withheld by the agent, William Leveson.[40]

The knowledge which the administrators of the affairs of the company had
gained from the early settlers, and their grasp of the necessities for exploration, for trade, and for the conduct of affairs in the plantation, has hitherto been a matter of
surmise based on the relations of the planters. From the "Instrucc̃ons, orders,
and constituc̃ons to Sir Thomas Gates,"[41] in May, 1609, and a similar document
given to "Sir Thos. West Knight Lo:Lawarr"[42] in 1609 or 1610 comes a revelation
of the motives of the adventurers, as well as of the policy adopted and of the
methods outlined for the prosecution of their efforts. These instructions to Gates
and De La Warr afforded the authority for the termination of the previous govern-
ment in Virginia, the stated ideas of the company as to locations for settlements,
forts, and magazines, and concerning journeys inland. It also included an interesting
reference to Raleigh's colonists. The general policy in administering the affairs of
the colonists and the detailed orders as to the relations with the Indians, as far as
they concern guards, trade, and treaties, and the daily life of the inhabitants, indicate
a definiteness in the control of the company which formerly was not understood.
In such a revelation of the knowledge of the country and of the natives there is a

basis for belief that the affairs of the company were managed and its records were
kept in a systematic and businesslike way.[43]

The company had become convinced that the policy of John Smith was a wise
one, and hence it ordered that a number of plantations should be settled and that
efforts should be immediately directed to building healthful and sufficient houses and
to planting widely enough for the self-support of the community. Here was the
germ which was to develop into the colony, but the plan was as yet by no means
so far-reaching. A common store, a common magazine, common refectories, labor
by groups with a superintendent for each five or six persons, the prohibition of
trade with the Indians except through the truck merchant were economic methods
which looked to the gain of the adventurer in London rather than to the develop-
ment of a colonial settlement. When the settlers had become self-supporting and
capable of defense, then measures were to be taken to provide returns, so "that our
fleetes come not home empty." Discovery of the seas and of royal mines, exchange
of commodities, the exaction of tribute, and the development of the resources of
the country for the purpose of securing "wines, pitche, Tarre, sope-ashes, Steele,
Iron, Pipestaues, hempe, flaxe," silk grass, fishing for pearls, cod, and sturgeon were
to be the sources of revenue. The instructions placed authority implicitly in the
hands of the governor, who was expected to hear, but not necessarily to heed, the
advice of the council and to judge according to "naturall right and equity then
vppon the nicenes of the lawe."

The agents of the corporation—the governor and his council in Virginia—received
their authorization for the exercise of judicial as well as legislative powers through
a commission. The one issued to Sir Thomas Gates is lost, but doubtless is as similar
to that given to Lord La Warr[44] as are his instructions. With the exception of a set
of "Instructions for such things as are to be sente from Virginia, 1610,"[45] these
orders and commissions are the only documents which show anything of the direct
authority exercised by the company over affairs in the plantation until the issue of
the "Great Charter of privileges, orders, and Lawes" in November, 1618.[46]

Otherwise, the whole course of the activity of the company under Sir Thomas
Smythe was in strong contrast with the work of Sir Edwin Sandys. It was a con-

tinual struggle to arouse such interest in the scheme as would result in investment.
The problem of marketing the products of the colony, which concerned the later
company, did not arise until toward the close of the period, when a single unsuccessful
effort was made to gain a monopoly of the sale of tobacco. In order to increase the
capital stock, the company made personal appeals and issued printed statements and
descriptions which it scattered broadly. The story is told in the lists of adventurers
cited above, in the earnest endeavors to secure new planters and new adventures from
individual town and guild, in the efforts to enforce the payment of sums already
adventured, in a few receipts concerning tobacco, in the lottery schemes, which were
legalized by the charter of 1612, and in printed broadsides and declarations. Thus the
sums adventured by individuals, by the various London companies, and by the towns
of England are given in a series of requests for adventure and in bills of adventure[47]
issued by the company and found in the records of those companies and towns[48] as
also in private collections. The chancery proceedings, in three suits, state that the
company attempted to secure an adventure of £18,000 and the equipment of 600
men during the year 1611, and the failure to accomplish its purpose was set forth by
the defendants as a reason for refusing to pay the sums adventured. Incidentally
there was mentioned an income in the year 1613 of £8,000 from the lottery, of
£2,000 from the sale of the Somers Islands, and of £600 or £800 from the disposal
of the ship De La Warr.[49] However, with the exception of an unpublished letter
from Sandys to the mayor of Sandwich[50] concerning the adventure by that town, in
which he inclosed a list of the subscribers to that particular adventure, with the sums
set down by each,[51] the official records reveal but little as to the sums which must
have been received by the company.

In a similar manner there are unauthentic records of economic value concerning
the lotteries and the importation of tobacco. Of the latter a few receipts and mem-
oranda among the papers of Lord Sackville[52] and the Earl De La Warr[53] are positively

all there is in existence relating to the origin of a trade which was estimated in 1619
to be worth £100,000. Of the former, there is a "Declaration for the Lottery,"
published in 1615 by the company, and an order of the Privy Council, together with
letters urging the towns of the Kingdom to adventure in this the second great lottery
of the company.[54] A letter from the governor of the Virginia Company to the
mayor and aldermen of Ipswich[55] is to the same effect, but none of these documents
tell of the income therefrom. The only record which will give an idea of the value
of the first lottery is in the chancery proceedings, and relates to a suit of the
company with William Leveson to secure moneys from the lottery,[56] in which the
sum received in 1613 is here stated to have been £2,793 and 10 shillings. The
answer of Leveson is of further interest in that it alone tells of the methods by
which the business was conducted and of the house built for the lottery west of St.
Paul's Church.

V.—PUBLICATIONS OF THE COMPANY[57]

The struggle for capital and for settlers before 1616 is most apparent from the
advertisements that were issued. The broadsides of the years 1609, 1610, and 1611
are printed as official declarations of an intention on the part of the company to send
voyages to Virginia, and contain the necessary information as to the classes of
emigrants wanted—artificers only—and the conditions and rewards for emigration.
The broadside of February, 1611, is of most value, in that the classes of emigrants
with the numbers of each desired are specified, while that of 1610 is a defense
against the slander of recently returned colonists, and emphasizes the former need
of artificers as colonists.[58] The broadsides of 1613 and 1615 concern the drawing of
the lotteries, the latter declaring in a general way the prosperous condition of the
country and announcing the prizes and rewards, thus affording some conception
of the sums received from such an enterprise.[59] The publications of the year 1616
disclose, as well as assert, the prosperity of the settlement and the assurance of its
success, though giving no statistical information. That of April arranges for the
first division of lands among old adventurers and promises the same to new adven-

turers, declaring the intention to send a new governor and surveyors to the colony
for the purpose, while that of the winter of the same year announces that any
settlers may return to England who will.[60]

In addition to the advertisements for investment and adventure, both of person
and of money, the company put forth a series of publications, consisting of four
sermons preached before the company at stated intervals, intended to arouse both
interest and confidence in their undertaking. These afford but little if any definite
information, but reveal the spirit of the times, as also the lines of criticism and
resistance which the company had continually to meet.[61]

But of far greater importance to a comprehension of the attitude of the com-
pany, and especially of the progress of the plantation, are the declarations concern-
ing the colony, which were published by the company.[62] They are nine in number,
and bear the following titles and dates:

(1)

• Nova Britannia. London, 1609.

(2)

• Virginia richly valued. London, April 15, 1609.

(3)

• A True and sincere declaration of the purpose and ends of the Plantation,
  "by the authority of the Governor and Councellors of the Plantation."
  London, 1610. [December 14, 1609.]

(4)

• Nevves from Virginia—a poem. 1610.

(5)

• A True declaration of the estate of the colony of Virginia, by the order of
  the "Councell of Virginia." London, 1610.

(6)

• De La Warr's Relation. London, July 6, 1611, with Crashaw's Epistle
  Dedicatorie as a preface.

(7)

• The New life of Virginea—second part of Noua Britannia, by "the Coun-
  sell of Virginea." London, May 1, 1612.

(8)

• Good Newes from Virginia, by Whittaker. London, 1613.

(9)

• A booke called an narracon of the present State of Virginia by Ralph
  Hammer. London, 1615.

The documents published in 1609 and also the poem of 1610 were efforts on the
part of the company to defend itself against charges of failure in earlier years and to
reveal the advantages which were promised under the new system of government.
This is distinctly the tone and motive of the Nova Britannia, in which appear argu-

ments in favor of the colony, and the statements of the plans, resources, and needs
of the colony, together with an outline of the government which was now to be
administered.

A True and sincere declaration further explains the unsatisfactory condition
of the colony by reference to the incompetence of previous governors, furnishing
perhaps the best historical narrative which was issued by the company during the
first period of the plantation. It also holds out the promise of improved conditions
under Gates and De La Warr, who are to be shortly sent to Virginia with a complete
outfit of men and provisions. The second document describes the southern part of
the country and cites the advantages of Florida as evidence of the opportunities
in Virginia. After the time of De La Warr the published accounts of the plans,
movements, and successes of the colonists became more complete. While the state-
ments of De La Warr in his Relation are a bare outline of the conditions as he
found them and the improvements in trade and discovery to which Captain Argall
had contributed, together with his lordship's plans for the future, it is of value
as forming, with Hamor's narrative four years later, a surprisingly accurate and
satisfactory treatment of the development in the colony during those years.

Hamor gives a clear statement of the methods and success of Captain Dale in his
relations with the Indians, of his organization and reform of the colony, and of his
establishment of order therein, and reveals clearly the state of affairs on the arrival
of Gates, the cause of the failure heretofore, and the details of the building of the
successive towns, with descriptions and statistics for each. He gives also an his-
torical narrative of the relations with the various Indian tribes and his knowledge
and statements concerning the resources of the country are equally satisfactory.
While Whittaker's Good Newes from Virginia and The New Life of Virginea are
of value as corroborative evidence, they add but little to the knowledge of condi-
tions or resources, and evidently were written more in the spirit of the poem of
1610, being intended to inspire confidence in the management of the colony, in the
new system, and in the officers installed, as well as to arouse enthusiasm in the
project.

It is evident that these publications are of more direct value in the study of
the progress of the colony and tell at first hand but little more than the methods
employed by the company to gain its end, but, together with the other reports
from the colony which are preserved in manuscript form, they to an extent supply
what has been lost by the disappearance of the court book. They prove that there
was a gradual change in the motive and means of the company, due entirely to
the exigencies of the case. The failure to discover precious metals forced the

company to concern itself with the development of the resources of the country and
with the production of staple articles which were needed in England. Then, too,
the first written laws promulgated by Gates, De La Warr, and Dale in 1610–1612,
martial in form and harsh in character, reveal the type of the plantation which the
company now proposed;[63] the freedom of the individual was to be reduced to a
minimum, all labor was to be regulated as if it were a military discipline and
the produce was to belong to the common store. Thus the evils of the early
settlement were to be avoided. But of necessity this plan was temporary. Argall,
like Smith, was a good colonizer. The explorations of Smith and his trade with the
Indians, together with the order and prosperity which were brought by Dale, resulted
in the founding of various settlements, such as Henrico and others farther south,
which became self-supporting and independent of the "supplies" from England.
This meant that the company was to be forced to assume a different attitude toward
the colony; that the common labor, common store, and common trade must be
abandoned. By 1614 private lands had been given to a few inhabitants, every family
had been assured of a house of four rooms, rent free, for one year, and women had
been sent to the colony to aid in keeping the settlers contented and permanent.

Whether the company made any resistance to this development within the set-
tlement, by which the adventurer in London must share the profit with the planter,
will only be known when the court book shall have been discovered, but it is certain
that by 1616 the point of view of the leaders of the company had changed. They
had then come to realize that they were to be the middlemen for the marketing of
the produce of the planters. This is proved by the movement in 1616 for the
monopoly of the importation of the only lucrative staple, tobacco. Again, in 1619,
when the time for free importation from the plantation had expired, they most
eagerly sought an adjustment with the Crown, although, in 1614, Sir Edwin Sandys,
by this time the leading spirit in the company, had been the chairman in the House
committee which reported against monopolies.

To such an extent had the colony now grown that the instructions given to Sir
George Yeardley in November, 1618, called "The Great Charter of privileges, orders,
and Lawes," recognized the necessity for local government. They provided for two
houses, the "Council of State," to be chosen by the company in its quarter court,
and the general assembly, to consist "of the Council of State and two Burgesses

chosen out of each Town Hundred or other particular Plantation."[64] The great dif-
ference between this act of the company and that of nine years before, when the
instructions to Gates were issued and the laws of Dale were approved, is apparent.
Whether it was due entirely to the necessities arising from the changed conditions
in the colony heretofore noted or to the abuse of power by Samuel Argall, from 1616
to 1619, is uncertain.[65] Whether it was but a reflection of the growing popular senti-
ment within the company by which the generality exercised the powers of adminis-
tration or whether it was due to the influence of the "opposition" in parliament can
not be settled without fuller records than are at present extant.

IV.—LETTERS FROM THE PLANTERS AND RECORDS OF THE COLONY

The printed reports from the colonists and the printed declarations of the company
were of course based on the letters from the planters and on those from the governor
and council of Virginia to the Virginia Company. There were also letters from indi-
viduals in the colony to officers of the company or to other adventurers in England.
They may perhaps reveal more clearly the condition of affairs in the colony and the
influences which moved the company in its change of policy, since they do not attempt
to conceal, excuse, or palliate any of the circumstances. Six of these narrate the
story of the voyage of Gates and Somers, the misery in the plantation on the arrival
of Gates and of De La Warr in 1610, and the steps that were taken to improve con-
ditions.[66] Through other letters from the colony the company gained its knowledge
respecting voyages to Virginia, progress and order in the colony, and the building of
Jamestown,[67] especially under Sir Thomas Dale, and as to the prosperity of the settlers.
Dale in 1611, outlined his plans and his achievements, urged the sending of 2,000 men,
and suggested that the difficulty of securing planters might be overcome by making
the settlement a penal colony. In 1615, 1616, and 1617 the company received
reassurances from Dale, Hamor, and Rolfe of the prosperity of the colony; but the
publications of the company and the letters from the colony from 1615 to 1618 were

either very few in number, or have not been preserved. These were the years of the
excessive abuses in the colony under Sir Samuel Argall.[68]

The only evidence of records kept by the colonists is an abstract of "A Register
book during the Goũmt of Saml Argall Esqr admiral, and for ye time present, prin-
cipal Gour of Virga" in the year 1618. This abstract was probably made in 1730
under the direction of R. Hickman, deputy clerk of the general court of Virginia
at that time, and has heretofore been unnoticed. From it comes a knowledge of
correspondence between the governor and Bermuda Hundred and Kicoughtan, and
between the governor and the company in London. A complaint of the largeness of
privilege given to Captain Martin in his grant is significant because of the long con-
test during later years, between the company and Captain Martin over this patent.
There are, too, a number of commissions to officers for trade and for command, and
several warrants, edicts, and proclamations. These are very similar in character to
those issued by the governor and council in 1623, and reveal the fact that methods
of government had not altered materially, though the source of authority had been
changed by the great charter of 1618. The severity of penalty and the threats of
reduction to slavery for offense are perhaps the features most characteristic of the
period.[69]

VI.—PRIVATE PAPERS OF ADVENTURERS

While the company probably did not officially use the private correspondence
received from the colony by individual adventurers, it doubtless profited by the
information which it contained. Thus, the relation of John Rolfe,[70] addressed to
Lord Rich and the King in 1616, ranked in value with the descriptions of Ralph
Hamor, for it discussed the water supply of the colony, its food, clothing, houses, and
government and gave statistical information as to the various towns, their location,
the number of their inhabitants, and their officers. There are at least six other
letters extant, similar in character, though of less value.[71]

But another series of private papers partakes most strongly of the nature of
documents of the company. These are the contracts and correspondence relating

to individual adventures to Virginia or to groups of adventurers. They indicate
a tendency in the company to grant private monopolies and to encourage private
settlements—measures which indicate the growing importance of the undertaking
and the development of individual trade. Only one series of documents relating to
individual adventures is extant, those by which Lord Zouch's investment in Virginia
was secured to him. His contracts were made in May, 1618, with John Bargrave
and James Brett. There is also his warrant to John Fenner to pass to Virginia and
trade with the colony and the savages in his pinnace Silver Falcon, in February,
1618/19.[72]

The other series of documents, which illustrate the legal forms and methods of
the company, as also the way in which the first plantations were undertaken by
private means, concern Smythe's Hundred and Berkeley Hundred. Among the
Ferrar papers are the minutes of the meeting of the committee for Smythe's
Hundred on May 8, 1618,[73] the first record concerning the hundred, which provides
for the sending out and equipment of thirty-five men at an expense of £657 9s. 4d.

VII.—SUPPLEMENTARY CONTEMPORARY CORRESPONDENCE AND RECORDS

In addition to the documents which are either official records or similar to such
records in character, there is a large amount of correspondence between officers
of state in England and other individuals which by its reference throws light
on the affairs of the company or gives additional or corroborative data. All of
this which is earlier in date than 1616 has been published by Alexander Brown.

There are seven letters, the dates of which fall between 1616 and 1619, that
are of the same character; but they add nothing in fact to the other documents,
although two of them reveal the measures taken even at this early date to impress
youths and maidens for Virginia and to send reprieved prisoners to the colony.[74] Of
the documents of this character, which are given by Brown, perhaps the correspond-
ence between the Spanish ambassador in London and the King of Spain is the most
valuable, not in the trustworthiness of the data—though much of it confirms other
sources—but in the revelation it contains of the part that Spanish relations played
in the development of the company and especially in its decline during the follow-
ing decade, while its reference to prevalent rumors, reports, and sentiment are
extremely illuminating. There are thirty-seven of these documents in all, including
the correspondence concerning the Spanish ship Chaloner. The Chamberlain-Carleton,
Digby-Salisbury, Cottington-Salisbury, and Lee-Wilson correspondence add occa-

sional data and serve to fix dates and facts which are known from other sources.[75]
Of similar value are the chronicles of Howes, Abbot's Geography, Smith's Map of
England and his General History, the Commons Journal, the writings of Sir Fer-
dinando Gorges, and other material which emanated from the Plymouth adventurers.[75]