University of Virginia Library

ARTICLE VIII.

The Parish of James City.—No. 6.[32]

SOME NOTES ON JAMESTOWN; SUPPLEMENTARY TO BISHOP MEADE'S
ARTICLES.

Your readers must have been deeply interested, Mr. Editor, by
Bishop Meade's articles in your paper upon the "Old Churches,
Ministers, and Families of Virginia." For a very long and important
portion of the history of the Episcopal Church in Virginia,
his own experience and observation have put him in possession
of the best materials; and for the rest, his position and efforts
have enabled him to avail himself of most of what others had to
contribute. For a vast deal of information, therefore, must we
acknowledge ourselves dependent upon and indebted to him.

When he reached the parish of James City, however, he entered
a field which has been long comparatively open to the researches
of other inquirers. Dr. Hawks explored it some years ago with
such industry and success, that we regret that he could not have
had the rare opportunities for obtaining materials which have been
enjoyed by the Rev. Mr. Anderson. No one can properly study,
write, or appreciate Virginia history who does not largely and
heartily enter into those parts relating and devoted to religion and
the Church. So that, if confined to any two works for the history
of Virginia down to the Revolutionary period, one could hardly
do better than take Henning's Statutes at Large and Hawks's
Contributions to the Ecclesiastical History of Virginia.

It is hoped that a few supplementary notes will not be deemed
by Bishop Meade or any one else as an intrusion, but as a co-operation
in the good work in which he is engaged. Should any new
facts be brought out, or any inadvertences corrected, it may be of
some little service when he comes to rewrite his articles for a more
permanent form of publication.

Bishop Meade gives deserved prominence and praise to the missionary

element that entered into the colonization of Virginia.
Those adventurers who looked chiefly to the glory of God and the
conversion of the Infidels were as sincerely convinced as any
others of the bright prospects of gold and other temporal benefits;
but they used these mainly for the purpose of stimulating "the
action," that the religious and spiritual blessings to which they
looked might be realized. The constancy and continuousness with
which these last are held up in all that was said, done, and written
in behalf of this Colony until that awful check in the massacre by
Opechancanough, in 1622, are remarkable. Even the business-entries
in the records of the Company in London make express
reference to the blessing of God and the favouring care of his
providence. Whilst the motto of every patriot and Christian
should be, "A religious nation, and not a national religion," yet a
connection between Church and State is apt to confer upon the
State the benefit of an express recognition, in all enterprises of
public pith and moment, of God's supremacy and superintending
providence. This is a good habit in itself; but, of course, its
chief value consists in the sincerity of those who practise it, whether
rulers or ruled. In the case before us, numbers of Christian
men and women were equally as fervent and sincere as Richard
Hakluyt and Robert Hunt.

Bishop Meade refers to the first charters and to the instructions
issued by King James in 1606. But the passage in those instructions
which enjoins kind treatment of the savages, &c. has this
singular addendum:—"And that all just, kind, and charitable
courses shall be holden with such of them as shall conform themselves
to any good and sociable trafic and dealing with the subjects
of us, our heirs and successors, which shall be planted there,
whereby they may be the sooner drawn to the true knowledge of
God and the obedience of us, our heirs and successors, under such
severe pains and punishments as shall be inflicted by the same
several presidents and councells of the said several Colonies, or
the most part of them, within their several limits and precincts, on
such as shall offend therein or doe the contrary." We must not
lose sight of the spirit of the age, especially when we come to
judge of that after-policy which is said to have been ever the
reproach of Virginia.

In the third charter, 1611-12, March 12, which still recites
that the plantation was undertaken "for the propagation of Christian
religion and reclaiming of people barbarous to civility and
humanity," is a fact worth mentioning,—viz.: The fifth section

expressly admits and confirms among the adventurers, George,
Lord-Archbishop of Canterbury, Henry, Earl of Huntingdon,
Edward, Earl of Bedford, and Richard, of Clanrickard, who were
named in this formal manner at the request of the Company, "for
the good and welfare of the plantation, and that posterity may
hereafter know who have adventured and not been sparing of their
purses in such a noble and generous action for the general good of
their country." These are the only four named in this charter,
and, as they had all become members of the Company already, this
was doubtless done to get the influence of their names. There are
still extant alphabetical lists of the adventurers down to the year
1620.

It was under this charter that that code of "Laws, Divine,
Moral, and Martial," was introduced by Gates and Dale, about the
period when the Company were seriously debating whether they
should not recall Lord De la War home and abandon the action.
They called Gates from Virginia to England to advise them on
that subject. He and Lord De la War induced them to persevere:
but the state of affairs, especially in the Colony, required new and
vigorous remedies. The colonists were heterogeneous, disorderly,
wasteful, and mutinous; they had to obtain something to return
home by the ships; they had to produce a part of their own subsistence,
almost sword in hand; for the Indians, spoiled by Newport
and others, and no longer fooled with articles of mere trifling
value, would not trade freely, and were not only not yet conciliated
by the marriage of Pocahontas, but were really exasperated by the
new intruders. The Colony had to be reduced into somewhat of
a camp both for purposes of labour and of defence. Compulsion
in religious matters was a long-practised thing in the mother-country
and in those countries with whom she had intercourse. Indeed,
are not some compulsory features inseparable from any system that
tolerates a union between Church and State? Can there long be
entire religious freedom and tolerance, save where religion is sustained
and enforced solely on the voluntary principle? as in this
most glorious land of free freedom,—the wonder, thus far, of human
history.

Neither Gates nor Dale was a despot or tyrant. They had no
Brewster cases and appeals during their administration. Argall
was a tyrant, and a government of greater mildness theoretically
would have been arbitrarily administered by him.

In judging, then, of the code of laws referred to above, whilst
we, with the road-to-Damascus light about us, cannot but condemn

them, yet they should be viewed through the media of those days
in which they were adopted.

Bishop Meade says that Strachy probably had a hand in concocting
them. This is doubtful; but he certainly edited and vindicated
them in 1612.

Promising a narrative of what he had seen and suffered in Bermuda
and Virginia, he says, "I do, in the mean time, present a
transcript of the Toparchia, or state of those duties by which
their Colonie stands regulated and commanded, that such may
receive due checke, who malitiously and desperately heretofore
have censured it; and by examining of which they may be right
sorrie so to have defaulked from us as if we lived there lawlesse,
without obedience to our countrey or observance of religion to
God." He declares, moreover, that the laws are not new, but
"the same constant asterismes and starres which must guide all
that travel in these perplexed ways and paths of public affairs,"
&c. By this code, which deals so lavishly in capital punishment,
many and the chief offences were cognizable both by martial law
and by the civil magistrate; but there was a goodly catalogue appertaining
only to martial discipline, which were to be diligently
observed and severely executed. Along with the laws, Strachy
publishes instructions from the marshal to each officer, and even to
the private soldier, for the better enabling each in executing his
duty. These are in the nature of a long and wholesome lecture,
or charge, and wind up with the lengthy but excellent prayer
quoted from by Bishop Meade, and which was to be said twice
daily, upon the court of guard, by the captain or one of his principal
officers.

The religious services enjoined were as follows: — On weekdays,
early in the morning, the captain sent for tools, for which a
receipt was given; the companies assembled, with the tools, in the
place of arms, where "the serjeant-major, or captain of the watch,
upon their knees, made public and faithful prayers to Almighty
God for his blessing and protection to attend them in this their
business the whole day after-succeeding." The men were divided
into gangs, who worked on alternate days. The gang for the day
was then delivered to the maisters and overseers of the work appointed,
who kept them at labour until nine or ten o'clock, according
to the season of the year; then, at the beat of the drum, they
were marched to the church to hear divine service. After dinner,
and rest till two or three o'clock, at beat of drum, the captain
drew them forth to the place of arms, to be thence taken to their

work till five or six o'clock, when, at beat of drum, they were
again marched to church to evening prayer: they were then dismissed,—those
that were to set the watch with charge to prepare
their arms, the others unto their rest and lodgings. After order
given out for the watch, the captain had to assemble his company,
except his sentinels, upon his court of guard, and there "humbly
present themselves on their knees, and, by faithful and zealous
prayer to Almighty God, commend themselves and their endeavours
to his merciful protection." Again, in the morning, an
hour after the discharge of the watch, were they to repair to the
court of guard, and there, "with public prayer, to give unto Almighty
God humble thanks and praises for his merciful and safe
protection through the night, and commend themselves to his no
less merciful protection and safeguard for the day following."

It was also the special duty of the captain to have religious and
manly care over the poor sick soldiers or labourers under his command;
to keep their lodgings sweet and their beds standing three
feet from the ground, as provided in the public injunctions.

A singular duty was laid upon him who was for the time the
captain of the watch. Half an hour before divine service, morning
and evening, he had to shut the ports and place sentinels, and,
the bell having tolled the last time, to search all the houses of the
town, to command every one of what quality soever (the sick and
hurt excepted) to repair to church; after which he was to follow
all the guards with their arms into the church and lay the keys
before the governor. On Sunday, he was to see that the Sabbath
was noways profaned by any disorders, gaming, drunkenness, intemperate
meeting, or such like, in public or private, in the streets
or within the houses. On the Sabbath, all were required, under
severe penalties, to attend divine service, sermons, and catechizing,
morning and evening. Any disrespect to a minister or preacher
was also punished, and every person then in or who might arrive
in the Colony was required to give an account of his or her religious
faith to the minister and to seek instruction from him.

In the midst of all this blended system—martial, civil, and
religious—that same missionary spirit was maintained. Even in
the charge from the marshal to his colonel in this passage:—

Bishop Meade has alluded to the fact that for several years
after the death of Mr. Hunt the Colony was without a minister.
This is referred to in "A True Declaration of the Estate of the
Colony in Virginia," &c., published by the council in England, in
1610, as one of the causes which had provoked God to visit the
plantation with those dire calamities which beset it at the time that
Lord De la War was first sent out as Governor for life.

Bishop Meade quotes from Crashaw how providential and opportune
was the arrival of Lord De la War. Indeed, there did
seem then to be a most remarkable divine interposition in behalf
of the Colony, the striking circumstances of which are exultingly
set forth in the "True Declaration" already mentioned:—

The following letter, from an unknown person, relates to the
proposition at a later period to establish a College at Henrico:—