 | The records of the Virginia Company of London |  |
DOCUMENTS DISCLOSING THE RELATIONS WITH THE COLONY
The study of the relations of the company to the colony and the development
within the colony may be based on a greater variety of documents than any other
phase of the subject, especially with regard to the political conditions. The court
book furnishes an understanding of the attitude and motives of the company and
often serves to connect the data gathered from letters, instructions, commissions,
patents, and grants. Thus the emphasis on the custom of martial law in the colony
and the severity of penalty imposed is revealed both in the court book and in the
extracts from Governor Argall's register.[230]
The additional forms of government
required by the development of the colony are recorded in the court book, by which
the company created the offices of deputies to the governor for the college and for
the public land, secretary, treasurer, chancellor, and surveyor, and provided for the
compensation of officers by grants of land, by transportation of tenants, by the
income of the company's land, and by allowance of fees.[231]
The requests for the
appointment of a council of State and for laws and orders, urgently repeated by
Governor Yeardley, as recorded in the court book in 1619, give evidence that the
source of such development was in the colony. But the fundamental law for the
government of the colony is recorded in three documents, the instructions to Gov-
ernor Yeardley, November 8, 1618, which created the land system, the instructions
to Governor Wyatt, July 24, 1621, which emphasized the industrial development,
and "An Ordinance and Constitution * * * for a Councill of State and Generall
Assembly" in Virginia, which confirmed the political forms.
These documents provided for the creation of two councils. The council of
state, composed of the governor and council, was to form an executive and
each town or borough, was to be purely a legislative body.[232] The approval of a
quarter court of the company, which was necessary for legalizing the acts of the
assembly, is referred to in the court book in three places only.[233] The constitution
and the provisions for division of the country into cities and boroughs, recorded
both in the instructions and in the patents by which the government of the private
plantations was delegated to a private body, form the basis for a study of the
local systems. The records of Smythe's, Martin's, and Berkeley Hundred referred
to above, the correspondence of Samuel Argall with Bermuda Hundred, and the
commissions for government issued by Governor Argall and later by the council
of state complete the sources on this subject.[234] The precedents for patents are
valuable in the information which they afford with regard to the position of the
following classes of colonists: The old adventurer not subject to rent; the
adventurer paying money for his shares and agreeing to transport 100 persons;
the adventurer settling a private plantation; the individual planter.[235] These
documents also throw light on the liberty of the individual, his exemption from
taxation without his consent by the colony or by the private plantation, and his
submission to a government almost military in character.
The strict supervision which the company exercised over the economic, indus-
trial, and social conditions of the colony is to be seen in the measures enacted in
the courts and in the correspondence between the company and the colony, sup-
plemented by a large number of private letters to the officers of the company.
Four letters to the colony are mentioned in the court book, of which two have not
been found, but eight others not mentioned are extant. It is more difficult to
determine what letters came from the colony, due to the usually brief reports of
the letters in the court book, to the omission of the date from the copies of the
letters, and from the uncertainty of the date of the receipt of the letters as noted
in the court book. Seven letters seem to have been received by the company of
which no trace has been found, while only four of the ten extant are mentioned
in the court book. It is apparent therefore that only a part of the official corre-
spondence is in existence. The directions to the colony disclose the care and
earnestness of the company, and emphasize the endeavors to establish the various
commodities, while the descriptions given by the colonists are extremely valuable
in the picture they present of their efforts, ambitions, and attainments. The pri-
phase of the conditions.
About thirty-five letters addressed to Sir Edwin Sandys during the years 1619
to 1621 have been found among the Ferrar papers, which are full of complaint
because of the scarcity of provisions. Apparently Sir Edwin's policy to develop the
plantation, and especially the company's land as a source of revenue, was overdone,
and he was not as wise in carrying out his plan as he had been in forming it, since the
colony was unable to provide for the large numbers sent out. These complaints are
casually mentioned in the court book, but the Sandys-Ferrar correspondence shows
that it was the desire of the administration to conceal the difficulties and distress
of the colony not only from the public but also from the hostile faction. The Man-
chester papers preserve letters, or copies of them, which came to the company or
to individuals in 1622 and 1623 complaining of similar deprivations in the colony.[236]
The company was not only interested in the economic and industrial develop-
ment and the necessary political forms of the colony, but, as Sir Edwin Sandys
declared, it had a higher purpose than the Muscovy or the other commercial corpo-
rations. This high ideal is proved by the attention which is devoted to plans for
the college, by the appointment of ministers, by the collections in the churches, and
by the gifts received,[237]
but the theory that the chief motive of the enterprise was
religious is not supported either by the spirit or by the data of the records.
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