Preface
The documents contained in Volumes III and IV of the Records of the Virginia
Company of London are original papers, official and other, of the company or relating
to it. While the Court Book of the Virginia Company, published as Volumes I and II
of this series, presents minutes of the meetings of the corporation, the succeeding
volumes contain materials that vivify its decisions and decrees, explain the difficulties
met and overcome by that redoubtable group of adventurers, reveal the petty jeal-
ousies of the administrators, and especially record the controversy between the
company and the Crown that resulted in the dissolution of the corporation and the
creation of the first crown colony of Great Britain.
Four official sets of records are herein printed or cited. Two are published in full.
One set is the original papers contained in the volume, now preserved in the Library
of Congress, which has long been referred to as "Manuscript Records of the Virginia
Company, Volume III." One set embodies records of action in law courts by the
company or against the company. They are taken from the records of the various
British courts and were found in the Public Record Office. Two sets are not here
included as originally planned. They have been published in full since this series
was begun. One is the "Courte Booke" of the colony, February 4, 1622/23, through
February 9, 1632/33. It is now printed under the title "Minutes of the Council and
General Court of Colonial Virginia," edited by Dr. H. L. McIlwaine (Richmond, Va.,
1924). The other set of documents has been published in the "Acts of the Privy
Council, Colonial", volume I (London, 1908). Some actions of the council that
concerned the Virginia Company of London are not to be found in that publication.
They are therefore here printed. The collection called the Sackville Papers, dis-
cussed in the Introduction to the Records of the Virginia Company, Volume I, page
114, was, by the courtesy of the third Lord Sackville, examined by Prof. A. Percival
Newton, of the University of London, and the documents relating to Virginia were
printed in 1922 in the American Historical Review, Volume XXVII, pages 493 to
538 and 738 to 765. Those bearing dates earlier than 1623 are not here reprinted.
Included in this volume are manuscripts from two collections that are unique.
The "Smyth of Nibley" papers give the history of a single settlement, called Smyth's
(or Smith's) Hundred, that is typical of the various hundreds of the colony. They
extend from February 3, 1618/19, to August 1, 1622, inclusive. These papers are all in
the New York Public Library. The "Ferrar Papers," on the other hand, now belong-
ing to Magdalene College, Cambridge University, are a veritable gold mine; their
unique value is discussed in the Introduction to the Records of the Virginia Company,
Volume I. They supply a vast amount of information through the correspondence
between the colony and individual planters of the colony and Sir Edwin Sandys,
Nicholas Ferrar, and John Ferrar, and also between Sir Edwin Sandys and the other
officials of the company. Only a few documents are official, including two reports
from the council in Virginia, a record of a Somers Islands court, and some less impor-
tant items of this type. The first paper bears the date June 8, 1617, and the last
November 1, 1624. But only a few go beyond midsummer of 1622.
On the other hand, the "Manuscript Records of the Virginia Company, Volume
III," do not begin until August 12, 1621, but continue throughout the life of the com-
pany. They differ in character from the Smyth of Nibley Papers and the Ferrar
Papers. As stated above, they record official acts of the council in Virginia and include
commissions, proclamations, orders, laws, letters to and from the council in London,
and petitions to the Governor and council in Virginia.
Communications between the company and the King or the privy council, and some
letters to and from the governor and council of the colony, were spread on the minutes
of the company, and therefore appear in Volumes I and II, of this series. They are
not reproduced in Volumes III and IV, even though the original documents are found
in the other collections.
All documents here published are discussed at length in the Introduction to Vol-
umes I and II of this series. Practically every paper indicated as to be included in
the series by the star affixed in the "List of Records" that appears in the Introduction
to Volume I is here printed. Two documents (List of Records No. 70 and No. 153)
could not be found, and it has proved impossible to secure a copy of No. 12.
Fifty-seven documents dating earlier than April 28, 1619, when the records in
Volume I begin, are printed in this volume. They include all records that had not
heretofore been known or published by Alexander Brown, the Virginia Magazine
of History, or other reliable works on the early history of Virginia. Perhaps the
most important documents found by the editor that are here included are the
"Instrucc̃ons Orders and Constituc̃ons to Sr Thomas Gates knight Governor of
Virginia" of May, 1609, and the "Instructions orders and constituc̃ons ... to ...
Sr Thomas West knight Lo: La Warr," 1609/10, by the Virginia Council. These
are the first instructions given by the competent authority to a British colony.
Source material for the history of the company through the year 1622 is presented
in this volume. March 22, 1622, saw the frightful massacre of colonists by the
Indians. The story of that tragedy, the efforts for recovery, and the beginning of the
reestablished colony conclude this volume.
The editor wishes to make acknowledgment to Prof. J. Franklin Jameson, chief
of the division of manuscripts in the Library of Congress, for his painstaking care in
reading the proof to the original documents of the "Manuscript Records of the
Virginia Company, Volume III," and to some of the photostats of material in England,
and also for his constant watchfulness in seeing the documents through the press.
To Marian Carter Anderson the editor is indebted for her valuable and expert
assistance in preparing much of the manuscript, and especially in the difficult reading
of practically all of the proof.
Helen Kingsbury Zirkle has prepared the index of Volume III, and to her the
editor wishes to express gratitude for the complete and accurate contribution she has
made to the usefulness of the documents in historical research.
A part of the expense for reading the proof and the cost of preparing the index
were met by a grant from the Social Science Research Council.
Susan M. Kingsbury.
June 30, 1932.
