V.
EDWARD MARIA WINGFIELD.
President of the Council in Virginia.
V. May 13, 1607, to September 10, 1607.
On the reception of the patent from King James, April 10,
1606, several persons of consequence in the English nation
undertook the arduous task of planting the Southern Colony.
Having chosen a Treasurer, and appointed other officers,
they provided a fleet of three ships to transport the
emigrants, 100 in number, to Virginia. The charge of this
embarkation was committed to Christopher Newport, already
famous for his skill in western navigation, who sailed
from the Thames on the 20th of December, carrying with
him the royal instructions and the names of the intended
Colonial Council, carefully concealed in a box. It was the
intention of Captain Newport to land at Roanoke, but being
driven by a violent storm to the northward of that place, he
stood directly into the spacious Bay of Chesapeake, which
seemed to invite his entrance. The promontory on the south
of the bay he named Cape Henry, in honor of the Prince of
Wales, and that on the north Cape Charles, in honor of the
Duke of York, afterward King Charles I. of England.
Thirty men going on shore at Cape Henry for recreation
were suddenly assaulted by five Indians, who wounded two
of them very dangerously. At night the box was opened
and the orders were read, in which Bartholomew Gosnold,
John Smith, Edward Wingfield, Christopher Newport,
John Ratcliffe, John Martin, and George Kendall were
named to be of the Council, and to choose from their number
a President for a year, who, with the Council, should govern
the Colony. The adventurers were employed in seeking a
place for settlement until the 13th of May, when they took
possession of a peninsula on the north side of the river Powhatan
(called by the English, James River), about forty miles
from its mouth. To make room for their projected town,
they here began to cut down the trees of the forest, which
had for centuries afforded shelter and food to the natives.
The code of laws, hitherto cautiously concealed, was at
length promulgated. Affairs of moment were to be examined
by a jury, but determined by the major part of the
Council, in which the President was to have two voices. The
Council was sworn, Wingfield was chosen President, and "now
commenced the rule of the most ancient administration of
Virginia, consisting of seven persons, and forming a pure
aristocracy." In honor of King James, they called the town
they now built, Jamestown.
"Captain Edward Maria Wingfield, of Stoneley Priorye"
in Huntingdonshire, was born 1560. He commenced life as
a soldier and was a prisoner of war at Lisle with Ferdinando
Gorges, where probably their friendship began, which resulted
in a closer association in the colonizing of Virginia. Wingfield
was elected, May 4, 1607, the first President of the first Council
of the first permanent English Colony in America, but becoming
obnoxious to the Company he was deposed from the presidency,
September 10, 1607, and Captain Ratcliffe elected in his
place. Wingfield was of a Catholic family. Cardinal Pole
and Queen Mary were sponsors for his father. He left Virginia,
April 10, 1608, and arrived in England, May 21, 1608.
He wrote "A Discourse of Virginia," which was first printed
in 1860 by the American Antiquarian Society.
